EnviroPolitics Blog

Bills on the NJ Assembly Environment Committee’s Agenda Monday

The Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste will meet at 1 p.m. Monday, March 10, in State House Annex, Room 9

The bills below are scheduled for consideration:

Bill	Synopsis	Sponsor
A2308	Requires environmental sustainability plan for State House Complex.	Swain, Lisa /Danielsen, Joe +3
A3534	Establishes timeframe for adoption of, and requires public comment on, proposed host community benefit agreements for certain solid waste facilities; authorizes residents to petition State to establish or adjust host community benefit.	Donlon, Margie M.
A3645	Establishes low-carbon transportation fuel standard program in DEP.	Calabrese, Clinton /McCoy, Tennille R.
A3951	Appropriates $28,670,924 in 2003 and 1992 bond act monies for loans for dam restoration and repair projects and inland waters projects.	Fantasia, Dawn +6
A4679	Requires certain high-traffic facilities to obtain permit from DEP and annually implement measures to reduce air pollution caused by facility.	Katz, Andrea /Collazos-Gill, Alixon +1
A4696	“Climate Superfund Act”; imposes liability on certain fossil fuel companies for certain damages caused by climate change and establishes program in DEP to collect and distribute compensatory payments.	Allen, John /Hall, Garnet R. +11
A5195	Requires manufacturer of certain firefighting equipment containing perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances to provide written notice to purchaser; prohibits sale, manufacture, and distribution of certain firefighting equipment containing intentionally added perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances.	Schaer, Gary S./Peterpaul, Luanne M.
AR180	Urges DEP, Pinelands Commission, and Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council to engage in alternative forest management practices during periods of drought when prescribed burning is unsafe.	Katz, Andrea /Calabrese, Clinton
S199	Requires environmental sustainability plan for State House Complex.	Smith, Bob +3
S2594	Appropriates $28,670,924 in 2003 and 1992 bond act monies for loans for dam restoration and repair projects and inland waters projects.	Bucco, Anthony M./Smith, Bob +1

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‘Stand Up for Science’ rally draws thousands to D.C.

The Stand Up for Science rallies are a response to the Trump administration’s actions, which critics see as a threat to scientific progress.

By Richard Sima, Ellie Silverman, Scott Dance and Carolyn Y. Johnson, Washington Post

On any other Friday, Meghan Bullard would probably be immersed in data on a novel treatment for multiple sclerosis, the subject of her dissertation as a graduate student at Georgetown University.

But on this Friday afternoon, she was standing on the steps of the Lincoln Memorial holding up a sign that read “LITERALLY TRYING TO CURE MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS BUT OKAY …” She was one of hundreds who gathered there to push back against a series of executive orders, funding freezes and other administrative edicts that they say threaten the foundations of scientific research and could carry deadly and costly long-term consequences.

The demonstration, which also included dozens of satellite rallies and walkouts across the country, marked the first major protest focused on actions by President Donald Trump’s second administration that have cast many scientific and biomedical research efforts into turmoil. Scientists organized the rallies under the banner “Stand Up for Science” with specific demands: an expansion in funding for scientific research and the reinstatement of initiatives on both diversity, equity, and inclusion and accessibility within government-funded science.

And they’re calling for an end to political interference in science.

Without science, “I wouldn’t be here today,” Emily Whitehead, who was facing a terminal cancer diagnosis until enrolling in an immunotherapy clinical trial at age 6, told the crowd. “I stand up for science so kids can grow up to be the next generation of scientists,” the University of Pennsylvania sophomore said. “I stand up for science because science saved my life.”

Read the full story here

‘Stand Up for Science’ rally draws thousands to D.C. Read More »

The White House’s new media strategy to promote Trump as ‘KING’

The Trump administration has transformed its traditional press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation, and “they’re all offense, all the time.”

(Illustration by María Alconada Brooks/The Washington Post; Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post; iStock)

By Drew Harwell and Sarah Ellison, Washington Post

When actress Selena Gomez posted an Instagram video in January in which she cried about the Trump administration’s deportations of children, the viral clip threatened to stoke nationwide unease over the policy’s human impact.

But the White House digital strategy team had a plan. They dispatched videographers to interview the mothers of children killed by undocumented immigrants. They put President Donald Trump’s face on a Valentine’s Day card reading: “Roses are red, violets are blue, come here illegally and we’ll deport you.”

And they mimicked a style of video popular for its meditative soundscapes, known as ASMR, with a presentation that featured the rattling handcuff chains of a deportation flight. Gomez deleted her video shortly after posting, without specifying why. The Trump team’s video has been viewed more than 100 million times.

The effort was part of a new administration strategy to transform the traditional White House press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation, disseminating messages directly to Americans through the memes, TikToks and podcasts where millions now get their news.

After years of working to undermine mainstream outlets and neutralize critical reporting, Trump’s allies are now pushing a parallel information universe of social media feeds and right-wing firebrands to sell the country on his expansionist approach to presidential power.

For the Trump team, that has involved aggressively confronting critics like Gomez, not just to “reframe the narrative” but to drown them out, said Kaelan Dorr, a deputy assistant to the president who runs the digital team.

“We thought it was necessary to provide pushback in the harshest, most forceful way possible,” he said. “And through that, we had a viral hit on our hands.”

Stephen K. Bannon, a senior White House aide during Trump’s first term and the host of the “War Room” podcast, said the White House has reimagined itself as a “major information content provider.” What Trump does “is the action, and we just happen to be one of the distributors,” he said.

“Rapid-response communications are normally defensive,” he said. “They’re all offense, all the time.”

Read the full story here

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US withdrawing from plan to help major polluters move from coal

*Workers walk near a tugboat carrying coal barges at a port in Palembang, South Sumatra province, Indonesia, January 4, 2022* *Antara Foto. Antara Foto/Nova Wahyud*

By Tim Cocks, Francesco Guarascio and Fransiska Nangoy, Reuters

March 5 (Reuters) – The United States is withdrawing from the Just Energy Transition Partnership, a collaboration between richer nations to help developing countries transition from coal to cleaner energy, several sources in key participating countries said.

JETP, which consists of 10 donor nations, was first unveiled at the U.N. climate talks in Glasgow, Scotland in 2021.

South Africa, Indonesia, Vietnam and Senegal were subsequently announced as the first beneficiaries of loans, financial guarantees and grants to move away from coal.

Joanne Yawitch, head of the Just Energy Transition Project Management Unit in South Africa, said on Wednesday that the United States had communicated its withdrawal from the plan there.

In Vietnam, two foreign officials with direct knowledge of the matter said Washington was withdrawing from JETP in the country, and one of them said the U.S. was also exiting from all JETP programs, including in Indonesia.

Another source familiar with the matter said the U.S. had withdrawn from the JETP in Indonesia and South Africa.

Read the full story here

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NJ GOP Congressman Tom Kean one of many who Musk’s millions helped win election

By Benjamin J. Hulac, NJ Spotlight News Washington Correspondent

WASHINGTON — In 2024, Elon Musk, a multibillionaire advising President Donald Trump and hollowing out federal agencies of staff and funding, spent hundreds of millions of dollars to elect Republicans and trounce Democrats.

One of those Republicans is Rep. Tom Kean (R-7th), who won a second House term in November, and is now part of the slim GOP majority where every vote is needed to pass substantial legislation.

A super PAC — a political organization allowed under U.S. law to spend unlimited sums — Musk founded last year spent more than $1 million to elect Kean, whose district was the lone New Jersey House seat, out of 12, expected to generate a close election.

Kean ultimately defeated Sue Altman, the Democratic candidate, by a fairly comfortable margin, 51.8% to 46.4%, a difference of about 23,000 votes.

Since Trump became president, Musk seized a dominant perch within the administration and directed sweeping federal job layoffs and closure of federal agencies and departments, such as the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Department of Veterans Affairs and the U.S. Agency for International Development.

‘Ponzi scheme’ and ‘parasites’

Musk, who has taken a scorched-earth approach to cutting federal programs, last week attended and spoke at Trump’s first Cabinet meeting of this administration even though he is not a member of the Cabinet — agency and department leaders the Senate has confirmed, unlike Musk.

In an online post last month, Musk called people enrolled in federal programs part of a “Parasite Class.”

Then on Friday, Musk, in an interview with podcast host Joe Rogan raised eyebrows when he said Social Security is “the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.”

Read the full story here

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Canada may be the world’s maple syrup capital, but South Jersey’s Stockton University is becoming the little maple engine that could.

Staffer Tom Fisher (left) adds wood to the fire in the evaporator as assistant director Ryan Hagerty (right) pours a syrup sample to test at Stockton University’s on-campus sugar shack Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025, where sap collected in red maple groves on the grounds is boiled/evaporated to created syrup. Read more Tom Gralish / Staff Photographer

By Rita Giordano, Philadelphia Inquirer, Published March 4, 2025

As a girl growing up in New Jersey, Judith Vogel learned early that there never was a waffle that couldn’t be improved by a scoop of ice cream and a glorious drizzle of pure maple syrup.

Now a professor with Stockton University, Vogel is on a mission for Jersey kids of all ages to know that same real maple joy — thanks to none other than their own Garden State trees.

Welcome to the Stockton Maple Project, a plucky effort to prove that along with the state’s legendary tomatoes, world-class sweet corn, and up-and-coming oysters, maple syrup can indeed become the latest — although unlikely — example of South Jersey’s bounty.

“We’re going to really be looking at the idea of marketing maple syrup to the South Jersey consumer,” said Vogel, a math professor, who has partnered with like-minded professors in other disciplines. “It’s not a part of our culture.”

The Stockton Maple Project has been working toward changing that. Begun about five years ago, the project has received three U.S. Department of Agriculture grants totaling close to $1.5 million. Its earlier efforts were focused on production, research, and education. To be sure, real maple syrup is more thought of as the nectar of the northlands — Canada, the world’s largest producer, Vermont, and other New England states. Can the good stuff come from trees growing in the sandy soil of South Jersey? The Stockton folks say, you bet!

Still, South Jersey isn’t at first blush prime maple syrup country for a number of reasons. Unlike the large number of sugar maple trees in those northern states like Vermont, the nation’s largest maple syrup producer, South Jersey, including Stockton’s 1,600-acre main campus, primarily has red maples which have a lower sugar content. (The exception is a small satellite of the project at Batsto Village, a historic site in Wharton State Forest, which taps the sap of its resident sugar maples.)

A sap tap on a red maple tree in the on-campus grove at Stockton University Wednesday, Feb. 26, 2025.

By working in small batches and producing a more concentrated syrup, Vogel said they can create a product that has an even slightly higher sugar content than the Vermont standard. The project’s production is quite small compared to other states, but it has continued to grow. This year, they tapped 600 trees, up from 400. Last year, they made about 60 gallons of syrup. This year, she said it could reach 80 or more.

Some of that growth has been helped along by a growing partnership with a Vermont maple producer, Sunnymede Farms. Rather than view the fledgling South Jersey maple syrup maker as competition, Stockton’s Vermont partner sees this as a mutually beneficial opportunity to spread the love of maple to new consumers.

Promoting any domestically produced maple syrup is one of the goals of Stockton maple’s most recent federal grant. The South Jersey project can only produce so much syrup. If folks in our area get to prefer real maple over the fake stuff, Vermont producers will have an expanded market.

Read the full story here

Canada may be the world’s maple syrup capital, but South Jersey’s Stockton University is becoming the little maple engine that could. Read More »

Bills on the NJ Assembly Environment Committee’s Agenda Monday

‘Stand Up for Science’ rally draws thousands to D.C.

The Stand Up for Science rallies are a response to the Trump administration’s actions, which critics see as a threat to scientific progress.

The White House’s new media strategy to promote Trump as ‘KING’

The Trump administration has transformed its traditional press shop into a rapid-response influencer operation, and “they’re all offense, all the time.”

US withdrawing from plan to help major polluters move from coal

NJ GOP Congressman Tom Kean one of many who Musk’s millions helped win election

Canada may be the world’s maple syrup capital, but South Jersey’s Stockton University is becoming the little maple engine that could.

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