NJ ban on styrofoam food containers in schools advances


By Frank Brill
EnviroPolitics Editor


The New Jersey Senate today passed (37-1) legislation that would prohibit the sale of food and beverages in Styrofoam food containers by public schools and public institutions of higher education.


The prohibition would not apply to any food or beverage that was filled and sealed in a styrofoam food container before a school or public institution of higher education received it.


Co-sponsors Troy Singleton (D-Mount Laurel) and Senator Christopher Bateman (R-Somerville) claim that the containers have led to environmental issues, including waste pollution, because they are not bio-degradable and have few facililties that can recycle them.


 A long list of environmental organizations support the legislation, S1486, that now moves to the Assembly.


Related: NJ bill would ban Styrofoam school lunch containers

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Trump plan to help coal, nukes could cost us all billions

Families to ‘overpay’ hundreds of dollars a year for electricity if plan goes through. NJ supporters say it would help South Jersey economy

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

With the Trump administration mulling a plan to prop up nuclear and coal plants, critics say it will cost consumers billions of dollars on their energy bills and undermine the transition to renewable energy.
The administration’s proposal is designed to avert the closing of new nuclear and coal units, which have faced economic challenges in competing against cheap natural plants in a rapidly evolving energy marketplace.
It is essentially the same argument that was advanced in New Jersey to win passage of a new law this spring that could have ratepayers pay up to $300 million a year to subsidize three nuclear units in South Jersey operated by a subsidiary of the Public Service Enterprise Group.
Now, if President Donald Trump gets his way, the operators of the regional power grids could be ordered to buy electricity from the nation’s fiscally strapped nuclear and coal plants for two years as a way to prevent their closure.
Peter Bradford, a former member of the Nuclear Regulatory Commission and chairman of New York and Maine utility commissions, called the administration’s plan to tax consumers to support failing power plants energy policy-making gone haywire.

‘Impoverishing customers’

In a teleconference call with reporters, Bradford noted there are no state or federal energy regulators petitioning the federal government for these measures, which became public last week in a story by Bloomberg.
“By overpaying hundreds of dollars per family per year for electricity that can be obtained far less expensively from other sources, the administration is impoverishing customers, cutting off construction and industrial jobs, and suppressing energy innovation,’’ he said.

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After the eruption of Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire, rescuers find villages covered in ash, 75 dead and 200 missing

Here are the latest videos, photos and news stories from the BBC, LA Times and CNN on the volcano which took villagers by surprise in Guatemala, killing 75 and leaving many more missing.


Sunday’s blast generated pyroclastic flows – fast-moving mixtures of very hot gas and volcanic matter – which descended down the slopes, engulfing communities including El Rodeo and San Miguel Los Lotes.



Volcanologist Dr Janine Krippner told the BBC that people should not underestimate the risk from pyroclastic flows and volcanic mudflows, known as lahars.



“Fuego is a very active volcano. It has deposited quite a bit of loose volcanic material and it is also in a rain-heavy area, so when heavy rains hit the volcano that is going to be washing the deposits away into these mudflows which carry a lot of debris and rock.



“They are extremely dangerous and deadly as well.”

(María Del Rocío Lazo / AFP / Getty Images)


Guatemala’s Volcano of Fire during an eruption as seen from Alotenango, Guatemala
It all happened in an instant. Not minutes, but seconds. The lava came down and swept everything away.
Eufemia Garcia, El Rodeo resident who was not home at the time of the eruption

Guatemala hotel that proudly touted its volcano views is now covered in ash 


The Hotel La Reunion is about 4 miles from Guatemala’s Fuego volcano.


Hotel personnel said they managed to evacuate all guests and staff, saving their lives.



“We thank everyone who since the first moment has provided words of encouragement and has offered their help so that we all move forward,” the resort said in an online statement, which was translated from Spanish. “We are united and pray to overcome this emergency, actively assisting the victims.”
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Greens urge NJ to clamp down on power-plant CO2

Environmentalists say state’s re-entry into RGGI offers opportunity to set ambitious cap on greenhouse-gas emissions

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

The Murphy administration is being urged to ratchet down on greenhouse-gas emissions from power plants when it rejoins a regional initiative to limit climate-harming pollution.
In a letter to two Cabinet officials, several environmental organizations recommended an ambitious cap on carbon pollution in 2020, when New Jersey re-enters the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, a multistate program aimed at combating climate change.
New Jersey had been part of RGGI until 2011, when former Gov. Chris Christie pulled the state out of the initiative, citing cost to utility customers. Lawmakers sought to rejoin the program but were blocked by repeated vetoes by Christie. Gov. Phil Murphy already has signed a law authorizing the state to rejoin RGGI and negotiations are ongoing.
The size of the cap is considered crucial to clean-energy advocates who argue that if it’s too modest it could undermine some of Murphy’s most significant environmental policies and the overall effectiveness of RGGI.
The Natural Resources Defense Council has analyzed the situation; it and other groups have recommended the state adopt a cap between 12 million and 13 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2020. In 2017, New Jersey’s in-state power emissions were 18.6 million tons of CO2, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.
Adopting a cap of 12 million to 13 million tons is consistent with the state’s current trajectory, achievable and economically reasonable, according to the letter sent to Department of Environmental Protection Commissioner Catherine McCabe and Board of Public Utilities president Joseph Fiordaliso.


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NJ Senate Environment & Energy panel meets June 11

 
Here is the agenda for the Senate Environment and Energy Committee which is scheduled to meet at 10 a.m. on Monday in Room 10 of the State House Annex in Trenton, NJ:


A1033 Palisades Interst. Park-open space elig.
ACR144 Clean Air Act-concerns
S542 Park-desig. Vet. St. Park
S1683 Solid & haz. waste-concerns regulation
S1760 Palisades Interst. Park-open space elig.
S2253 Natural gas veh.-bus., income tax cred.
S2255 Veh. charging stations-prov bus tax cred
S2645 Infra. Bank enabling act-makes changes
S2646 Env. infra. proj., FY2019-approp. fds.
S2647 Env. infra. proj.-expend cert. sums
SCR121 Clean Air Act-concerns
SCR122 Infra. Bank-approves FY 2019



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Keep your ugly butts off our beaches, out of our parks




Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight:

New Jersey is now moving to ban most smoking not only on its beaches, but also at public parks.
The new legislation goes further than a bill moving through the Senate, which would impose a ban only on smoking at public beaches, with the exception of certain areas making up less than 15 percent of the beach.
Anti-smoking groups and environmentalists long have pushed for a comprehensive ban, but were thwarted by former Gov. Chris Christie, who had conditionally vetoed bills to prohibit smoking on public beaches and parks.
Christie eventually backed a ban on state beaches, but argued it should be left up to local officials to police their own public spaces.
“It is certainly long overdue,’’ said Assemblyman Vincent Mazzeo, whose bill (A-4021), which would have banned smoking at beaches, was combined into an Assembly Tourism committee substitute with two other measures (A-3798/A-1703) that would have prohibited smoking at beaches and public parks throughout the state.
Cigarette filters are among the most common types of litter collected at beaches, according to environmental advocates, who collected an estimated 25,000 cigarette filters from “beach sweeps’’ last year alone.
In New Jersey, more than 18 communities have already banned smoking on beaches, according to the American Nonsmokers’ Rights Foundation.

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