EnviroPolitics Blog

Trump’s new MPG edict: Guzzle Baby, Guzzle

By ALEXA ST. JOHN, Associated Press

DETROIT (AP) — Hours after being sworn in as the new U.S. Secretary of Transportation, Sean Duffy took aim at the main way the federal government regulates miles per gallon for cars and pickup trucks — also a principal way that it regulates air pollution and addresses climate change.

Duffy ordered the federal agency in charge of fuel economy standards to reverse them as soon as possible. The standards have been in place since the 1970s energy crisis and were intended to conserve fuel and save consumers money at the gas pump.

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‘Gold Bar Bob’ sentenced to 11 years in prison

*Prosecutors asked a judge to give the Democrat 15 years in prison for crimes that include acting as an agent of the Egyptian government. (AP Photo/Stefan Jeremiah, File)*

NEW JERSEY — Former New Jersey Senator Bob Menendez was sentenced to 11 years in prison Wednesday after being convicted of 16 felony counts in a high-profile bribery scheme.

Last July, the Hudson County Democrat was convicted of accepting bribes, using the power of his office to protect allies from prosecution, and acting as a foreign agent for Egypt. He resigned from the Senate in August, after months of maintaining his innocence and resisting calls from other top Democrats to step down.

Menendez, 71, fought through tears as he asked U.S. District Judge Sidney H. Stein for leniency in a Manhattan courtroom on Wednesday.

“You really don’t know the man you are about to sentence,” Menendez said, before going in to a list of accomplishments from his decades in public service.

Prosecutors had asked the judge for a 15-year sentence. Lawyers for the longtime senator asked for no more than an eight-year sentence on Wednesday.

Attorney Adam Fee told Stein to give Menendez credit for a “lifetime of extraordinary public service and personal sacrifices.”

“Despite his decades of service, he is now known more widely as ‘gold bar Bob,'” Fee said.

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NYC Local Law 97 Alert: Hire An Engineer By The End Of The Week!

By Jullee Kim and Haley G. Brescia

NYC Local Law 97 Deadline Alert: Hire An Engineer By The End Of The Week!

01-29-2025

Deadlines under New York City’s Local Law 97, the city-wide regulatory program aimed at cutting greenhouse gas emissions from buildings, are fast approaching. Most importantly, May 1, 2025, will be the very first time owners of most buildings over 25,000 square feet will have to submit an annual report to the City that either demonstrates compliance with their building-specific emissions cap or details how much the building exceeds its cap.

The post NYC Local Law 97 Deadline Alert: Hire An Engineer By The End Of The Week! appeared first on Cole Schotz.

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White House gives un-dramatic explanation for NJ drone mystery

Many of the drones were authorized by the FAA for “research and various other reasons,” the White House said.

By Michelle Rotuno-Johnson, Patch Staff

NEW JERSEY — Many of the drones that people have spotted buzzing around New Jersey in recent months were actually approved by the Federal Aviation Administration, the White House said on Tuesday.

Theories abounded about the mysterious flights, as communities across the state reported seeing several drones hovering at a time, or operating near critical infrastructure. President Donald Trump had pledged to get to the bottom of the issue, and White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said a number of the drones were authorized “for research.”

“This was not the enemy,” Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday.

The president’s own Bedminster golf club is one of the areas of New Jersey where drone flight restrictions were issued, and Trump said previously that he thought the Biden administration knew more than they were letting on about the mysterious flights.

Leavitt said Trump had just shared an update with her in the Oval Office before her press conference.

“After research and study, the drones that were flying over New Jersey in large numbers were authorized to be flown by the FAA for research and various other reasons,” she said.

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Trump memo takes wind out of most of NJ’s offshore wind plans

By Nikita Biryukov, NJ Monitor

A memorandum issued on President Donald Trump’s first day in office will pause nearly all offshore wind projects in New Jersey, with the prospect of a longer-lasting standstill if his administration moves to rescind approvals issued under President Joe Biden.

Trump’s memorandum orders federal agencies to stop issuing permits and leases pending a review of U.S. approval processes for wind energy projects. But while it calls on authorities to review options to end existing leases, it stops short of seeking to withdraw existing permits.

“We’re not going to do the wind thing,” he said at a rally following his inauguration last week.

Only one of the four active New Jersey wind projects appears unaffected by Trump’s memorandum. Atlantic Shores South, which encompasses projects set to deliver 2,800 megawatts of power beginning as early as 2028, won its final federal permits on Dec. 16, just over a month before Trump was inaugurated into a second term.

Because it had advanced to that late regulatory stage, Atlantic Shores South is not likely to be waylaid, said Jeremy McDiarmid, a managing director with Advanced Energy United, a trade group that backs non-fossil electricity sources.

“It is unlikely they will be harmed by this order,” he said. “However, the order does open the door to a review of already issued permits, and that, while unlikely, is not risk-free.”

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Trump quietly withdraws proposed limits on PFAS

By Shannon Kelleher, The New Lede

Amid a flurry of actions curtailing Biden’s environmental policies, the administration of newly inaugurated President Donald Trump this week withdrew a plan to set limits on toxic PFAS chemicals in industrial wastewater.

The draft rule, which the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) sent to the White House for review in June, was seen as a precedent-setting move by reducing allowable discharges of per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS), a class of chemicals that have been linked to an array of health problems.

“It is abundantly clear that this action was taken to benefit the chemical industry – and every American will suffer for it,” said Kyla Bennett, director of science policy at the watchdog group Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility. “PFAS contamination is already a national health crisis, and this will force states to try and fill the regulatory void left by EPA’s failure. “

The decision to withdraw the draft rule came as Trump issued an executive order to freeze any new federal regulations pending review.

Though the initial rule would have applied to only about 13 facilities, almost 30,000 industrial sites have been identified as potential sources of PFAS in the environment, including drinking water sources, according to a 2021 analysis of EPA data by the nonprofit Environmental Working Group (EWG). And the EPA itself has identified more than 120,000 facility sites around the US where the agency says people may be exposed to PFAS.

The proposal’s withdrawal is a “devastating setback” that “not only delays establishing critical federal standards but also sends a dangerous message giving polluters a green light to continue poisoning our water and communities without fear of consequence,” Melanie Benesh, EWG vice president for government affairs, said in a statement. “It’s an unconscionable betrayal of the public’s health in favor of corporate interests.”

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Trump quietly withdraws proposed limits on PFAS Read More »

Trump’s new MPG edict: Guzzle Baby, Guzzle

‘Gold Bar Bob’ sentenced to 11 years in prison

NYC Local Law 97 Alert: Hire An Engineer By The End Of The Week!

White House gives un-dramatic explanation for NJ drone mystery

Many of the drones were authorized by the FAA for “research and various other reasons,” the White House said.

Trump memo takes wind out of most of NJ’s offshore wind plans

Trump quietly withdraws proposed limits on PFAS

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