How Congress is cementing Trump’s anti-climate orders

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.), daughter of former Vice President Dick Cheney, is pushing legislation that would require Congressional approval for federal coal lease moratoriums. It’s one example of how lawmakers are trying to write President Trump’s executive orders into law. Credit: Jim Watson/AFP/Getty




Marianne Lavelle reports for Inside Climate News:
President Donald Trump marvels at his own velocity when he boasts about dismantling the Obama climate legacy. “I have been moving at record pace to cancel these regulations and to eliminate the barriers to domestic energy production, like never before,” he said at a recent White House event.

But while Trump focuses on speed, his allies in Congress appear increasingly concerned about the durability of the president’s fossil fuel directives.
In recent weeks, they have advanced a handful of legislative measures that echo and extend various presidential orders meant to boost coal, oil and gas production and set aside consideration of climate change.
These moves may seem redundant, but they could provide bulletproof armor during future challenges to Trump’s agenda.
“They are … covering their bases by trying to legislate the rolling back of these safeguards because the process to repeal, undo or rewrite a regulation is as lengthy as the public process that helped establish the standard in the first place,” explained Melinda Pierce, chief lobbyist for the Sierra Club. “And, of course, any attempt to roll back environmental or public health standards can and will be challenged in court.”
“The Trump administration is attacking every environmental and health protection we have,” said Sara Jordan, legislative representative for the League of Conservation Voters. “If these legislative proposals get passed, it will make it that much harder for the next administration to restore environmental protections.”
That’s why Congressional Republicans are racing to write his instructions into law.
“We need to put the legislative stamp of approval on what the Trump administration is doing,” said Rep. Evan Jenkins (R-W.Va.) during a recent debate on the House floor.
The House already has voted to fast-track Trump’s withdrawal of a clean water rule and to streamline future environmental reviews over cross-border pipelines like Keystone XL. Now, GOP members are pushing forward legislation to bolster Trump’s revival of federal coal leasing, and to bar government regulatory agencies from considering the future damages caused by greenhouse gas pollution.
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NJDEP explains latest changes to state’s E-Waste law




TRENTON, NJ — For the past 10 years, residents and small businesses in New Jersey have been required by state law to recycle worn out computers and television sets.

Earlier this year, the electronics waste management law was expanded to add fax machines and desktop printers. It also now will apply to schools and local governments, both previously exempt. 

The changes are expected to significantly boost the amount of electronic waste (e-waste) recycling in New Jersey. The environmental benefit is that more potentially harmful material will be diverted from landfills and waste incinerators and be processed for new uses.

The amendments also will have an impact on electronic-product manufacturers who are required by law to pay the bulk of the cost of e-waste recycling in the state.

The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) held a public meeting on July 10 to provide recyclers and manufacturers with information about how the agency plans to oversee the revised program.

EnviroPolitics Editor Frank Brill attended the meeting and reports what he learned in the video above.   

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PSE&G wants to spend big to replace old gas infrastructure


Five-year program would cost $540M annually, install 1,250 miles of new gas mains all told

pseg workers gas mains

Credit: PSE&G
Tom Johnson reports
for NJ Spotlight:


Public Service Electric & Gas is seeking approval to expand its gas modernization program, asking the state to allow it to spend up to $2.7 billion over five years, or about $540 million annually.
In a filing with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, the state’s largest utility is hoping to accelerate the replacement of aging, cast-iron and unprotected steel pipes by installing 1,250 miles of new gas mains.
The proposal is part of an industry-wide effort to modernize gas pipelines, in some cases digging up mains installed more than a half-century ago. The investments come at a time when the cost does not sock ratepayers as much in their wallets because of historically low gas prices.
“We can get this done without a big pinch in customers’ pockets,’’ said Ralph LaRossa, president and chief operating officer of PSE&G.
State regulators also have backed the projects in the past, approving a series of investments by the gas utilities in recent years, including a $900 million, three-year program by PSE&G.
“A lot of utilities are doing this. It’s consistent with what is happening across the nation,’’ said Paul Patterson, an energy analyst with Glenrock Associates.
This past spring, PSE&G indicated it would seek approval for an expanded gas modernization program at an investors conference, saying it hoped to expedite the replacement of the aging pipelines.

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U.S. House approves funding for military PFC cleanups


Kyle Bagenstose reports for the Bucks County Courier:
It’s not every day that a 3-year-old gets to help allocate tens of millions of dollars in military funding.
But that happened Thursday for Abby Boyle, daughter of Congressman Brendan Boyle, D-13, of Northeast Philadelphia, when her father let her press the “yes” button on his amendment to set aside $60 million for the nationwide cleanup of perfluorinated compounds around military bases.
The amendment was approved in the House by a vote of 256 to 169 and became one of three PFC amendments successfully attached to the annual military appropriations bill, which passed the full House on Thursday evening.
The efforts are part of an ongoing strategy by representatives and senators from around the country to force the military to do more in response to growing concern about the chemicals. Perfluorinated compounds were ingredients in firefighting foam that was used for decades at military bases across the country. They’re now being found in drinking water, including supplies in Bucks and Montgomery counties.
The amendments that were passed Thursday are just one part of a complex military funding process that promises to be more controversial this year than most. For most amendments to become law — including many of those targeting perfluorinated compounds — they must clear these hurdles: funding in the House and Senate versions of the military appropriations bill; legal authorization in the House and Senate National Defense Authorization Acts; and signatures from the president on all of the bills.
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Cluster of power plants divides a Maryland community

  • Parija Kavilanz reports for The Philadelphia Tribune: 

“Five are enough, says Earl Mitchell, the president of a local civic association in Brandywine, Md. “We shouldn’t have any more here.” 

PSEG power plant under construction
Within the next three years, five large power plants will be operating within a 15-mile radius of this Washington, D.C.-area bedroom community. There are already three plants up and running — one burns coal and two use natural gas — and two more are under way.
Mitchell, 76, is retired and has lived in Brandywine’s North Keys neighborhood for 22 years. His house is just one-eighth of a mile from where the fourth — the PSEG Keys Energy Center power plant — is being built.
He and other area residents worry about the lasting consequences this growing cluster of power plants could have on the environment, their quality of life and their health.
And they are concerned about Brandywine’s youngest inhabitants, too.
Three years from now, when the fifth plant — Panda Mattawoman — opens, Brandywine Elementary school will be within just a handful of miles of two new natural gas-fueled facilities, which will emit a mix of nitrogen oxide, carbon monoxide and particulate matter that can trigger respiratory and other health problems.
“The power plants here are a Catch-22 for us,” said Mitchell, who retired from a 30-year career with the federal government in 1996. “Everyone wants the jobs and tax revenue they bring to a rural area, but we also have concerns.”
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Critics of latest Pinelands pipeline: We can’t drink gas

Protesters let Pinelands Commission know how strongly they feel about contentious natural gas project in South Jersey

                                                                                                                    Photo credit: Emma Lee/WHYY

Joe Hernandez reports for newsworks:

Critics of a proposed natural gas pipeline through the Pinelands in South Jersey were out in force at a public meeting held yesterday by the Pinelands Commission.
The meeting, at the Pine Belt Arena in Toms River, came after a state appellate court ruled it could not approve the project without public participation. Commission staff previously had signed off on the Southern Reliability Link pipeline.
The chief argument that protesters articulated against the pipeline was its potential danger to the environment. James Conroy, a Bricktown teacher, said he is worried about the possibility of contamination of the water supply. Notwithstanding the need for energy, Conroy said, the project’s environmental risks are too high.
“We can’t drink gas. We can’t harvest blueberries from poisoned bogs. And we can’t raise animals when surrounding water becomes contaminated,” Conroy said.
A supporter of the project, Christopher Bohlke — who is a member of the International Union of Operating Engineers Local 825 — said he has helped to build pipelines. Of a recent job running pipes underneath the Delaware River, Bohlke who is from Chatsworth, said, “Not one leak. Not one frack-out. The pipe went exactly where it was supposed to be … I would welcome natural gas to Chatsworth, and so would many of my neighbors.”
Just under half of the 30-mile pipeline would pass through the Pinelands.


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