Diesel buses stink. Are electric buses the solution for NJ ?

A soot-covered NJ Transit diesel bus travels north on the New Jersey Turnpike. Environmentalists want diesels replaced with electric buses to reduce pollution. (Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
A soot-covered NJ Transit diesel bus travels north on the New Jersey Turnpike. Environmentalists want diesels replaced with electric buses to reduce pollution.
(Larry Higgs | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com)
Larry Higgs reports for NJ.com:
Diesel buses stink.
Drivers instinctively roll up the windows when they’re driving behind one and pedestrians hold their breath when a diesel bus passes by.
So why hasn’t NJ Transit made the switch to electric buses?
Environmentalists, who seek to clean the air to reduce respiratory diseases like asthma, want electric buses seriously considered as NJ Transit drafts a new plan to replace aging urban buses, starting in 2022.
Currently, NJ Transit has doesn’t have any electric buses in its fleet. New York’s MTA is testing 10 electric buses in Manhattan and Brooklyn and Queens.
“People who depend on transit to get around are exposed to diesel exhaust that’s causing respiratory problems,” said Amy Goldsmith, Clean Water Action state director. “New Jersey needs to institute a financial plan to replace dirty diesels.”
Environmentalists want electric buses used in cities such as Newark, Camden and Jersey City which they said have high rates of respiratory diseases caused by exhaust and particulate from diesel vehicles.
Northeastern states such as New Jersey can reduce pollution by cutting emissions from transportation, said a Natural Resources Defense Council report issued last month. Part of that strategy calls on transit agencies to replace diesel buses with electrics, especially in cities. Other ideas call for more transit use and replacing gas-powered cars with electrics.
Would electric buses really make a difference?
A 2016 Columbia University study of electric bus use by New York City’s MTA said air pollution generated by buses would be significantly reduced.
Electrics could prevent the generation of 486,068 metric tons of carbon dioxide that now spew out of MTA diesel bus tailpipes. Even when factoring in the 91,222 metric tons of CO2 produced by power plants that generate electricity to charge the buses, that’s still a big drop, the study said.
The nagging question is how to pay for them.
Electric buses cost about $300,000 more than the $450,000 to $750,000 price for a diesel, according to the Columbia study. Some of the cost can be recouped from money saved in fuel and reduced maintenance costs for electrics.
NJ Transit received a $500,000 federal grant for electric buses, said Nancy Snyder, an NJ Transit spokeswoman. But it’s not enough to buy one bus.
“NJ Transit has been investigating electric bus opportunities for a couple of years,” she said. “The agency has applied for funding grants to support an electric bus program, but was not awarded grants which would be sufficiently sized to begin a program.”

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PADEP says we’ll do better to cut Chesapeake pollution

Storm mess in Annapolis

Scott Dance reports for the Baltimore Sun: 

Pennsylvania officials on Tuesday conceded to Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan and other state leaders in the Chesapeake Bay watershed that the Commonwealth has not done its part to reduce pollution washing into waterways.

Patrick McDonnell, Pennsylvania’s secretary of environmental protection, said that will change as a target to restore Chesapeake ecosystems by 2025 approaches.
“We are committed and developing a plan that gets us to 2025,” he told the Chesapeake Executive Council, a group that oversees the federal Chesapeake Bay Program, at a meeting in Fells Point.
“We are clearly behind,” he said. “But we’ve taken that as an opportunity to double down.”
The promise came a week after Hogan publicly criticized Pennsylvania and New York for sending a deluge of debris and pollution down the Susquehanna River during recent flooding.
Hogan and McDonnell avoided trading barbs at the council’s annual meeting, which brings together the governors of the six bay watershed states, the mayor of Washington and Environmental Protection Agency officials. Both men said Tuesday’s meeting was productive, and that they hoped it would guide continued improvements in Chesapeake ecology.
“The fact that we have an open dialogue with our upstream neighbors is a positive first step,” Hogan said.
The Chesapeake has posted improving scores in recent years on report cards rating indicators such as underwater grass growth, dissolved oxygen levels and populations of rockfish and blue crabs. That progress has led environmentalists and scientists to declare that efforts of the state-federal bay program partnership are working.
But recently released data through the midpoint of a cleanup effort launched in 2010 show Pennsylvania is far from reaching goals for reducing nitrogen and sediment, and is also falling short of a goal for phosphorus reduction.
The data show Maryland and Virginia have missed goals in some areas, too — including targets to reduce the amount of nitrogen runoff coming from farms.

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News about a valued herb that no one’s smoking in NJ

The Department of Environmental Protection has high hopes for steps taken this year to improve the survival chances for New Jersey’s last remaining wild population of American chaffseed, a flowering perennial herb with highly specialized habitat needs. The species’ last stronghold is in a state forest in the Pinelands of Burlington County.

American chaffseed plant at Burlington County restoration site“Working with the help of volunteers, the DEP has implemented habitat management techniques that are showing signs of promise, giving this extremely rare and uniquely beautiful plant a chance at survival,” said Commissioner Catherine R. McCabe. “This effort demonstrates just how important it is to manage our wild lands to ensure continued ecological diversity.”

To restore the habitat at the Burlington County location, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service in late winter conducted a prescribed burn, then the New Jersey Forest Service thinned the surrounding trees to increase sunlight. Volunteers from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation and Pinelands Preservation Alliance also manually cut back competing shrubs. 

Duke Farms in Hillsborough also contributed by propagating at its site plants from seed collected at the wild population. The New Jersey State Forest Nursery in Jackson has been working to propagate plants to aid in re-establishing this rare species.

The project is being overseen by the DEP’s Office of Natural Lands Management. The Burlington County site has more than 80 American chaffseed plants.


“The results of our efforts have been very encouraging,” said New Jersey Division of Parks and Forestry Director Olivia Glenn. “This year, the total number of American chaffseed flowers at the Burlington County site is double that of recent years, with the number of stems up 65 percent from last year. All of this points to an increase in the overall number of plants next year.”

Resembling a snapdragon, American chaffseed (Schwalbea americana) needs open meadows with sandy and acidic soil as well as nearby wetlands. Seeds of American chaffseed also require contact with the roots of a host plant to germinate. Known host plants in New Jersey include Maryland golden aster, inkberry and dwarf huckleberry.

The American chaffseed is listed as endangered by the state as well as the federal government. The biggest threats to American chaffseed across its range include development, mowing and suppression of wildfires that are needed to remove competing understory vegetation.

At one time, the species was found in 16 states from Massachusetts to Louisiana, and as far west as Kentucky and Tennessee. Today its range has diminished to spotty populations in eight states along the Atlantic and Gulf of Mexico coasts.

“The species was once found at 18 locations in New Jersey, all in or near the Pinelands,” said Office of Natural Lands Management Administrator Bob Cartica. “The population of American chaffseed at its last refuge in Burlington County had been experiencing declines for more than a decade, its open-field habitat succumbing to other trees and shrubs that were outcompeting the American chaffseed.”

For more information on American chaffseed, visit

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Re-sending: Some good news for all you lighthouse fans














[Editor’s Note: Some of you were unable to access this post when it was sent originally, so we’re resending it. Sorry for any confusion.]


 Chris Franklin reports for NJ.com

The second oldest lighthouse in the state — dangerously exposed to elements along the Delaware Bay —  received some help by way of a nonprofit organization. And it was just in time for National Lighthouse Day.

The New Jersey Conservation Foundation recently sold 8.8 acres of land to the state’s Department of Environmental Protection to provide additional access and protection for the lighthouse, which is more than 150 years old.

The land will become part of the Heislerville Wildlife Management Area, which is where the lighthouse is located, adjacent to the Delaware Bay in Maurice River. The sale price was a “bargain” price of $8,668, according to the foundation.

“East Point Lighthouse is a valuable cultural resource, and we are grateful to the New Jersey Conservation Foundation for partnering with the NJDEP as we explore long-term solutions that will protect the structure,” NJDEP Assistant Commissioner for Natural and Historic Resources Ray Bukowski said in a statement.

The lighthouse, built in 1849, has survived a fire, but weather-related issues from a number of storms in recent years have caused a significant amount of erosion. State, county, township and lighthouse officials are looking at ways to protect the lighthouse from damage and to keep the lighthouse open for years to come.

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NYC approves Inwood rezoning, despite resident protests

Councilman Ydanis Rodriguez tried to allay community concerns about the new zoning changes for Inwood, saying, “This rezoning is not about pushing tenants out,” but about “millions of dollars in investment.” Credit Chang W. Lee/The New York Times

Jeffery C. Mays reports for the New York Times:

After three years of planning, meetings and protests, the City Council overwhelmingly approved a plan on Wednesday to rezone a large swath of Inwood, often referred to as the last affordable neighborhood in Manhattan.The proposal is part of Mayor Bill de Blasio’s plan to rezone up to 15 neighborhoods across the city and create and preserve 300,000 units of affordable housing by 2026. Inwood became the fifth neighborhood, all low-income and largely minority, to be rezoned under the plan.

The rezoning will create and preserve 4,100 units of affordable housing, including 925 units on city-owned land and 675 units that will be established in market-rate buildings under housing rules that require developers to build affordable housing in projects made possible by rezoning.

“The approval of the Inwood neighborhood rezoning means a fairer, stronger future for a community that has experienced decades of disinvestment,” Mr. de Blasio said in a statement. “It means affordability, security and opportunity for residents and new immigrants alike.”

But a coalition of Inwood residents has opposed the plan because they fear that even with new affordable units, an influx of market-rate apartments will increase rents and displace longtime residents.

[Residents of Inwood talk of a way of life there, a sense of place, order and community that they fear will be threatened if the new zoning changes the character of the neighborhood. Read more here about the fight for Inwood’s future.]



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New Jersey no longer begging for new gas-energy plants

CPV seeks approvals to build a second plant adjacent to its current unit in Woodbridge. It’s the fourth plant seeking state and local approvals.

Competitive Power Ventre natural gas plant in Woodbridge, NJ

Competitive Power Venture’s Woodbridge Energy Center




Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

At one time, the state was practically begging the energy sector to build new natural-gas plants. Not anymore.
Competitive Power Ventures, the owner of a 725-megawatt power plant in Woodbridge Township, is seeking approval to build another natural-gas plant adjacent to its existing unit in the Keasbey section of the community.
The project is the latest seeking to cash in on the cheap natural gas provided by plentiful supplies that have been exploited in the Marcellus Shale formation of Pennsylvania, a trend that has driven down both electricity and heating costs for consumers and businesses.

Four plants seeking approvals

The proposal is the fourth natural-gas plant seeking necessary approvals from local and state permitting authorities. But it also raises questions about whether the sector has absorbed the message from the Murphy administration that it wants to have 100 percent clean energy by 2050.
Besides the new plant in Woodbridge, there are proposals to build gas-fired units in Cape May, in the Meadowlands in North Bergen, and along the Musconetcong River in Holland Township.
During the Christie administration, the state was so anxious to get power plants built and thus bring down high energy prices that it proposed subsidizing three new facilities to the tune of more than $1 billion. The plan was scrapped once it was ruled illegal by the U.S. Supreme Court.



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