How’s NYC doing on its goal to reach ‘zero waste’?

NY City has the largest curbside organics collection in the country and plans to expand it.  

The industry publication Waste Dive provides this summary:


The city has been busy in the two years since Mayor Bill de Blasio announced his “zero waste” goals at a 2015 Earth Day event in the South Bronx. Through a series of new and existing initiatives, the Department of Sanitation (DSNY) has facilitated more diversion of recyclables, organics, electronics, textiles and other items. New York now has the largest curbside organics collection program in the country and aims to expand access to 3 million residents by the end of year. Recycling programs now exist in 122 public schools and access is available to all of the city’s more than 400,000 public housing residents for the first time.

On the commercial side, diversion requirements covering large businesses that generate about half of the city’s commercial organic waste are also now in full effect. Diversion requirements for all commercial recyclables have also been updated to match residential rules. In another sign of how much the commercial conversation has changed since 2015 the city is now fully backing plans for a franchise zone system. While DSNY has pledged to work with local haulers, the report’s language makes it clear what they expect of the industry. “Our air will be cleaner, our streets will have less traffic, carters won’t inefficiently crisscross the City, and customers will receive more reliable service. Allowing the industry to adjust, these changes will be incorporated over several years,” reads the report.
Yet even as all of this framework for the city’s plan falls into place, it’s too early to tell whether that plan is aggressive enough to get a grip on the more than 6 million tons of residential and commercial waste generated in New York every year. Switching to single-stream will likely increase capture rates, and expanding organics diversion access will help, though a lack of available space makes siting some of the necessary processing infrastructure to handle more material locally a challenge. In the meantime, population growth continues and the city plans to keep utilizing long-distance landfills for decades as part of an export plan that could soon peak at $420 million per year. 
DSNY is still considering the option of a “save-as-you-throw” financial incentive system, which could be one of the most effective ways to drive reduction if it can overcome political hurdles, and remains open to lessons learned in other cities with similar goals. Though because of its scale and density New York remains unique among other “zero waste” cities. All of those cities, as well as many companies in the industry, will surely be watching with great interest as the nation’s largest urban waste experiment continues.


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Florida eye doc’s conviction could hurt Menendez

Dr. Salomon Melgen – Photo by Lannis Watters, AP

Herb Jackson reports for The Record:

A Florida jury convicted eye doctor Salomon Melgen of Medicare fraud on Friday, increasing the pressure he may face to testify against Sen. Bob Menendez in September when the two go on trial in New Jersey on corruption charges.

“By having two separate trials, it raises the stakes for Dr. Melgen and gives the government enormous additional leverage,” said Robert Mintz, a former federal and state prosecutor who chairs the white collar criminal defense section at McCarter & English in Newark.

“Rather than being able to roll the dice on the question of whether to go to trial or cooperate – assuming he has information the government would be interested in – he knows with certainty he’s going to jail and the only way to reduce his sentence would be to cooperate,” Mintz said.

An April 2015 indictment handed up by a Newark grand jury accused Melgen of providing contributions to political committees and luxury travel, including flights on his private jet and vacations at his home in a Dominican Republic resort, as bribes to get Menendez to take official actions to benefit Melgen financially. One charge accuses Menendez of pressuring Medicare officials about a regulation at the heart of a $9 million billing dispute Melgen had with the government.


Both Menendez and Melgen have pleaded not guilty to the charges in Newark.


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Will less burdensome BPU reviews spur grid upgrades?



Consumer advocates question need for program, since many power and gas utilities are already committed to making infrastructure more resilient

Tom Johnson writes for NJ Spotlight:

The state is looking to spur new investment by utilities into additional upgrades to their power grids by allowing the companies to move ahead with projects with minimal regulatory review.

The proposal, the subject of new discussions among utilities, regulatory staff, and consumer advocates, is somewhat similar to a mechanism that allows water utilities to invest in projects without the time and expense of traditional rate cases.


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The shad are back (sort of) amidst a fervid fishing debate

Saturday and Sunday at 1 p.m., fishermen will haul nets from the Delaware River at Lambertville, NJ and across the river in New Hope, Pa. in hopes of pulling in some migrating shad. It’s all part of the 36th annual Shad Festival, a big tourist attraction to the two river towns. 


Kyle Bagenstoes of the Bucks County Courier-Times reports on how the once plentiful fish dwindled to almost nothing in the 1950s but began to experience a revival after passage of national environmental laws in the 1970s. 



A more recent drop-off in the number of shad swimming up the Delaware has various explanations, including a debate over ocean fishing that resulted in a law suit. 


Check out the story here and a sidebar story on the weekend’s shad-related events

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Will Pa lawmakers boost nuclear power with a subsidy?

Three Mile Island

JOANNE CASARRO / WITF
Exelon’s Three Mile Island plant outside Harrisburg.

Marie Cusick reports for StateImpact:

State lawmakers have begun discussing ways to shore up Pennsylvania’s struggling nuclear power industry, while maintaining a reliable electric grid and low prices for consumers.
That was the focus of a meeting Wednesday of the new, bipartisn Nuclear Energy Caucus. As the drilling boom continues to flood the market with cheap gas and electricity demand has slowed, the nuclear industry is having trouble keeping up. Last year the Three Mile Island plant near Harrisburg didn’t clear an auction for the future sale of its electricity raising concerns it could shut down prematurely
The caucus is widely expected to push for some kind of legislation later this year to secure the future of Pennsylvania’s nuclear fleet. The state’s five plants produce about a third of its electricity.

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During the caucus’ second meeting Wednesday, legislators heard from the PJM Interconnection– the regional transmission organization that coordinates the movement of wholesale electricity for 13 states and Washington D.C.

Recent legislation in Illinois and New York has helped prop up the nuclear industry through zero emission credits. However those programs have been challenged in court by competing power producers, who argue they interfere with competitive electricity markets.

A Pennsylvania coalition recently formed to oppose a similar move by Harrisburg. Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts has 17 members so far, including the natural gas trade group, the Marcellus Shale Coalition, Pennsylvania Manufacturers’ Association, Pennsylvania Chemical Industry Council and the AARP.

Editor’s Note: What’s shaping up here is a battle among heavyweights. The state’s nuclear lobbyist got out of the blocks first with their Nuclear Energy Caucus but that initiative was quickly countered by the natural gas industry and its Citizens Against Nuclear Bailouts. The turf battle will put legislators in the uncomfortable position of siding with one side against the other. On the plus side for lawmakers, the tug-of-war likely will generate a heavy infusion of new campaign contributions by both sides.  Care to wager an opinion on how this all works out?  Use the comment box below or weigh in on our EnviroPolitics Facebook Page.    

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PennEast pipeline hits NJDEP hurdle and more delay


Opponents of project hope setback will delay pipeline into 2018, when NJ will have a new governor

pipeline

Credit: stateimpact.npr.org
Tom Johnson reports for
NJ Spotlight:
The bad news keeps piling up for the PennEast pipeline project.
The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection notified the developer its application for a wetlands permit was deficient in a number of ways, once again delaying a project that has encountered numerous setbacks in regulatory reviews on both the state and the federal levels.
The letter from the DEP requesting additional information from the PennEast Pipeline Co., LLC is potentially very significant, since it could push review of key permits from the state agency into 2018 — a goal foes have been seeking as the term of Gov. Chris Christie winds down.
“This letter could slow down the project for at least a year until there is a new administration and a new governor,’’ said Jeff Tittel, director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, one of many conservation groups opposing the 120-mile pipeline from Luzerne County, PA, to Mercer County.
Earlier this week, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers advised the company its application for a permit was incomplete for virtually the same reason cited by the DEP. The company has failed to secure permission from property owners to conduct surveys on portions of the proposed route.
In the DEP letter, the state said it is clear the applicant does not yet have legal authority to do the necessary surveys — either through landowner permission or eminent domain. PennEast cannot obtain the latter authority unless the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issues a certificate of approval for the project, which it has not done.
The lack of either authority poses a problem for the DEP, according to Bob Considine, a spokesman.
“Without owner consent or the authority to condemn, DEP has no independent authority to access properties to validate the applicant information,’’ he said. “Additionally, without site-specific information, DEP is unable to determine what, if any, detrimental environmental impacts there are to the project.’’
Patricia Kornick, a spokesperson for PennEast, characterized the DEP letter as another step in the permitting process. “As evidenced by the few outstanding items, which PennEast is working to address, PennEast believes it is a strong application that is substantially complete,’’ she said. The company hopes to begin construction on the project sometime in 2018.

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