Cuomo re-proposes food waste recycling for New York

 


Cole Rosengren reports for WasteDive


New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo reintroduced legislation for a commercial organics diversion mandate in his proposed executive budget for FY19.

Any commercial establishment that generates an average two tons or more per week of excess food and food scraps would be required to arrange for recovery and recycling by Jan. 2021.

As written, this would cover supermarkets, restaurants, higher education institutions, hotels, food processors, correctional facilities, sports and entertainment venues, hospitals and other healthcare facilities.

Generators in New York City would be excluded because of pre-existing local policy. Othergenerators may receive short-term exemptions for food scrap recycling if no processing options are available within a 40-mile radius or if they can prove costs would be higher than disposal.


If the legislation is passed, the state’s Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) would be required to assess regional capacity and notify generators of expected compliance by June 2020. All covered generators would be required to submit annual reports to DEC detailing their progress beginning March 2022.

The proposed language is nearly identical to the Food Recovery and Recycling Act in Cuomo’s FY18 budget,


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Final enviro and energy bills signed, vetoed by Gov Christie


In the final hours of his expiring term as governor, Chris Christie signed these environment and energy bills into law:

S848 /A5339 (Stack, Oroho / Mukherji, Chaparro) – Requires certain State oversight of budgets of regional sewerage authorities


S2076 /A3398 (Bateman, Smith / Caride, Space, Taliaferro, Dancer, Houghtaling) – Requires pesticide applicator to notify beekeeper when applying pesticide within three miles of registered honey or native beehive or beeyard

S2078 / A3400 (Bateman, Smith / Caride, Dancer, Taliaferro, Space, McKeon, Houghtaling) – Requires training for pesticide applicators and operators concerning pollinating bees

S2180 (Oroho) – “New Jersey Rural Electric Cooperative Act”


S2389 /A4097 (A.R. Bucco, Oroho, Pennacchio / A.M. Bucco, Space, Phoebus, DeCroce, Webber, McKeon) – Establishes Lake Hopatcong Fund and dedicates $500,000 annually from certain power vessel operator license fees to the fund

S2400 / ACS for A1616 (Cruz-Perez, Allen / Burzichelli, Dancer, Taliaferro, A.M. Bucco) – Authorizes use of tracking dog to search for and recover wild deer during prescribed hunting season


S3026 /A4634 (Smith, Thompson / Lampitt, Eustace, Zwicker) – Clarifies and expands liability protections for food donations and gleaning activities


S3521 / A5194 (Gordon, Oroho / Eustace, Rooney, Holley, Wisniewski) – Allows expanded use of recycled asphalt pavement


S3568 / 5320 (Codey, Turner / Andrzejczak, Zwicker, Houghtaling) – Appropriates $19,266,145 to State Agriculture Development Committee for farmland preservation purposes


S3570 / A5318 (Van Drew, Oroho / Houghtaling, Downey, Taliaferro, Andrzejczak) – Appropriates $1,737,902 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for grants to certain nonprofit organizations for farmland preservation purposes

S3573 / A5317 (Bell, Bateman / Mazzeo, Singleton, Andrzejczak, Zwicker, Houghtaling) – Appropriates $7.5 million from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for county planning incentive grants for farmland preservation purposes

S3575 / A5321 (Ruiz, Allen / Muoio, Land, McKeon, Jones, Zwicker) – Appropriates $4,990,934 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to NJ Historic Trust for grants for certain historic preservation projects

S3595 / A5319 (Sweeney / Taliaferro, Burzichelli, Houghtaling) – Appropriates $500,000 from constitutionally dedicated CBT revenues to State Agriculture Development Committee for municipal planning incentive grant for farmland preservation purposes

S3616 / A3931 (Sarlo / Singleton, Holley) – Provides exception to weight limits for natural gas vehicles consistent with federal law


A1954 / S1237 (Coughlin, Benson, Mukherji, Pintor Marin / Vitale) – Makes changes to funding provisions for financial assistance and grants from Hazardous Discharge Site Remediation Fund


A2204 / S3355 (Eustace, Benson, Zwicker, Wimberly / Gordon, Cruz-Perez) – Authorizes virtual net metering for certain electric public utility customers connected to certain hydropower facilities and resource recovery facilities


A3055 / S2444 (Space, Houghtaling, Dancer, Phoebus / Addiego, Oroho) – Authorizes counties to issue promotional labeling for county agricultural products


A4787 / S3285 (Andrzejczak, Houghtaling, Taliaferro, Mazzeo, Space / Van Drew, Cruz-Perez) – Authorizes alternate members for farmers on State Agriculture Development Committee

A4868 / S3259 (Moriarty, Eustace, Kennedy / Greenstein, Thompson) – Extends warranty for partial zero emission vehicles




POCKET VETOES


The governor took no action on other bills. At the end of a
two-year session, this constitutes a ‘pocket veto.’ The bills included:


A-3732 — Directs Dept. of Agriculture to authorize and
advise food hubs.  Related Bill: S-2822


A-4439 — Prohibits sale and distribution of mercury relays
and switches under certain circumstances.


S-3317 — Requires NJ to join U.S. Climate Alliance to uphold
Paris Climate Accord.  Related Bill: A-5040


S-3012 — Allows NJ gross income tax deduction for charitable contributions of food made from business inventory.  Related Bill: A-2753  


S-2872 — Provides certain incentives to qualified businesses in Garden State Growth Zones; creates Garden State Growth
Zone at Atlantic City International Airport and surrounding
area. Related Bill: A-4510


S-2276 — Modifies State’s solar renewable energy portfolio
standards. Related Bill: A-3918


A-3295 — Concerns low emission and zero emission
vehicles; establishes Clean Vehicle Task Force.
Related Bill: S-985

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Oil and gas companies are super-sizing their well pads

22-well pad site under development in Amwell Township in December, 2017.  Photo: Haley Nelson/Post-Gazette






Anya Litvak reports for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette:


Dave Elkin remembers in the earlier days of the Marcellus when EQT drilled three wells from a single well pad and it was considered a technological marvel.


“The greatest thing since sliced bread,” Mr. Elkin, a senior vice president of asset optimization at EQT Corp., thought at the time.


It was a quaint memory that contrasts sharply with the company’s and industry’s new normal: superpads — concrete platforms that can house 30 wells, maybe even 40, with long horizontal tentacles stretching underground for up to 4 miles in each direction.


A superpad means a quarter of a billion dollars pumped into a single hillside in a place like rural Washington County. It means fewer well pads in total but much more activity on those that exist. It means that from a 10-acre spot, a company like EQT can theoretically slurp natural gas from underneath an area nearly the size of the City of Pittsburgh.


“I call them mini-industrial complexes,” said David Schlosser, president of exploration and production at EQT.


Downtown-based EQT — now the largest producer of natural gas in the U.S. — is leading the Marcellus pack in supersizing its well pads, with about a dozen sites permitted to hold 20 or more wells.


There’s the Big Sky pad in Nottingham, Washington County, with 26 permitted wells. The Strope pad in Franklin Township, Greene County, with 28. The Prentice pad in Forward Township has 37 wells permitted on it.


They may not all materialize, Mr. Schlosser cautioned; the company often gets permits for more wells than it will eventually drill to keep its options open.


The Cogar pad in Amwell Township is a case in point. It was permitted to hold 30 wells, but to date only 22 have been drilled, and EQT says it is stopping there. The pad itself is on a hill and it’s difficult to see all the machinery on the concrete slab from the winding country roads that encircle it.


Yet everything around it hints at the operation. Pipeline ditches, trucks, lights, road signs intended to guide the trucks away from vulnerable roads — all are preludes to the industry on the hill.


Read the full story

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Gov. Christie signs two bee-protection bills into law


As one of his final acts as governor of New Jersey, Chris Christie today signed 109 bills into law. Two of those are designed to
protect bees from pesticides.


The first bill (A-3398/S-2076), sponsored by Assemblymen Ron Dancer and Parker Space and Senators Kip Bateman and Bob Smith, requires anyone applying pesticides to notify beekeepers when applying pesticides within three miles of a registered honey
or native beehive. It requires beekeepers to register with the DEP by March 1 of each year if they want to be notified.


The second bill (A-3400/S2078-same sponsors as above) requires anyone applying pesticides to complete a training or continuing education course on the effect pesticides have on pollinating bees.


Bee experts say that insect pollination services and pollination by bees in particular are extremely important to New Jersey’s agricultural industry. Pollination by animals is required in the production of many crop varieties, and pollination by bees can actually lead to the improved quality of a crop. The pollinating bee population has been declining over the last few years, and according to the United States Environmental Protection Agency, the use of certain pesticides might be responsible.

“Pesticides play an important role in our mosquito control operations,
but we can’t risk losing pollinating bees in the process,” Bateman
said. “This new law will help ensure the Garden State has a healthy
population of bees for years to come.”

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Fiordaliso new president of the NJ Board of Public Utilities

Emily Bader reports for NJBIZ:    

 Commissioner Joseph L. Fiordaliso




Gov.-elect Phil Murphy announced Monday the appointment of Joe Fiordaliso to president of the Board of Public Utilities.


Fiordaliso has served as a commissioner on the board since 2005, when he was first nominated by former Gov. Richard Codey.


“A stronger and fairer New Jersey will look to new and innovative sources of energy to power our economy and our future, and ensure the critical infrastructure vital to our communities,” Murphy said. “In order to build a path to a 100 percent clean energy economy by 2050, we need a strong and committed Board of Public Utilities. Our utilities must also serve our residents, not the other way around. Our Board of Public Utilities must fulfill this vision, and I am confident Commissioner Fiordaliso will put his experience and leadership to work for the state’s ratepayers.” 


Fiordaliso was renominated to the board of public utilities by Gov. Chris Christie in both 2011 and 2014. He also serves on the National Association of Regulatory Utility Commissioners’ Committee on Critical Infrastructure and Committee on Energy Resources and the Environment, and is a member of the Mid-Atlantic Conference of Regulatory Utilities Commissioners and also the Eastern Interconnection States’ Planning Council.


Fiordaliso was elected to the Livingston Township Council in 1988 and went on to serve for three terms, including serving as mayor three times. In 1990, he was appointed by the Essex County Executive to serve as the director of planning and economic development. He served as Senator Codey’s district director and, in 2004, was named by Codey as deputy chief of staff.


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