Shipping companies fined $4.5M for illegal oil discharges, cover-up

By Mike Schuler, gCaptain

Two Greek shipping companies have been slapped with $4.5 million in fines and penalties after their vessel, the MT Kriti Ruby, was caught illegally dumping oily waste at sea and attempting to cover up the environmental crimes.

Avin International Ltd. and Kriti Ruby Special Maritime Enterprises pleaded guilty to violating the Act to Prevent Pollution from Ships (APPS) during port calls in Jacksonville, Florida, and Newark, New Jersey in 2022. The companies were ordered to pay a $3.375 million criminal fine plus $1.125 million in community service payments to the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation.

In addition to the monetary penalties, both companies will serve five-year probation terms under strict environmental compliance monitoring.

Court documents revealed a sophisticated scheme where crew members repeatedly bypassed required pollution prevention equipment by discharging oily waste through the vessel’s sewage system. To evade detection by U.S. Coast Guard inspectors, the crew concealed pumps and hoses used in the illegal operations within a sealed void space known as a “cofferdam”.

The vessel’s former chief engineer, Konstantinos Atsalis, received time served and a $5,000 fine for his role in the pollution scheme and subsequent cover-up. Second engineer Sonny Bosito also received time served for falsifying records.

Read the full story here

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NJ legislator, feeding mice to a rattlesnake, is bitten, hospitalized

An eastern massasauga rattlesnake, similar to the snake pictured, bit state Sen. Parker Space at his family’s zoo, the lawmaker said.Shaughn Galloway | U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service


By Rob Jennings | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

A New Jersey lawmaker who runs his family’s zoo in Sussex County is recovering after being bitten on his finger while feeding mice to rattlesnakes.

State Sen. Parker Space said he was bitten by the venomous snake around noon on Monday and received 14 vials of antivenom over the next two days at Newton Medical Center before he was flown on New Year’s Eve to a New York City hospital specializing in snake bites.

“It didn’t hurt at all to begin with. Then my finger started to swell up. Then it was double the size,” Space, a Republican, told NJ Advance Media on Thursday.

Space, 56, said that by Wednesday, the swelling of the middle finger on his left hand was subsiding and he was discharged from the hospital. He said he expects to make a full recovery.

On Thursday, he was back at Space Farms Zoo and Museum in Wantage and had resumed feeding the snakes, including one that bit him — an eastern massasauga rattlesnake, he said.

New Jersey State Senator Parker Space holds groundhog at family zoo

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Why is Trump eyeing Greenland and the Panama Canal

By Lisa Freidman, The New York Times

To imagine the kind of future a hotter, dryer climate may bring, and the geopolitical challenges it will create, look no further than two parts of the world that Donald Trump wants America to control: Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The president-elect in recent days has insisted that both places are critical to United States national security. He’s called to reclaim control the Panama Canal from Panama and acquire Greenland from Demark, both sovereign territories with their own governments.

They have something else in common as well: Both are significantly affected by climate change in ways that present looming challenges to global shipping and trade.

Because of warming temperatures, an estimated 11,000 square miles of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers have melted over the past three decades, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Massachusetts. That has huge implications for the entire world. If the ice melts completely, Greenland could cause sea levels to rise as much as 23 feet, according to NASA.

Greenland’s retreating ice could open up areas to drill for oil and gas and places to mine critical minerals, a fact that has already attracted international interest and raised concerns about environmental harms. And, ship traffic in the Arctic has surged 37 percent over the past decade, according to a recent Arctic Council report, as sea ice has declined. More melting could open up even more trade routes.

Read the full story here

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EPA may order certain incinerators to report chemical releases 

To make the change to its Toxics Release Inventory, the EPA would need to launch a rulemaking process. The move would expand the public’s understanding of toxic chemicals released by such facilities.


By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

The U.S. EPA said it will initiate a rulemaking process to require certain incineration, combustion and gasification facilities to report toxic chemical releases through the agency’s Toxics Release Inventory, as is required with other industrial pollution sources. 

The decision comes in response to a petition from the Energy Justice Network and the Public Employees for
Environmental Responsibility sent on April 3, 2023. It would expand covered waste incineration entities beyond hazardous waste combustors, which were previously covered by the EPA’s program.

The move is expected to affect 60 facilities around the country, per the EPA. The agency denied part of the petition asking for all kinds of incinerators to be covered, saying it lacks the resources to monitor all such facilities.

Read the full story here

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Why is Trump eyeing Greenland and the Panama Canal


Visitors to the melting Ilulissat Icefjord in Greenland in July / Getty Images

By Lisa Freidman, The New York Times

To imagine the kind of future a hotter, dryer climate may bring, and the geopolitical challenges it will create, look no further than two parts of the world that Donald Trump wants America to control: Greenland and the Panama Canal.

The president-elect in recent days has insisted that both places are critical to United States national security. He’s called to reclaim control the Panama Canal from Panama and acquire Greenland from Demark, both sovereign territories with their own governments.

They have something else in common as well: Both are significantly affected by climate change in ways that present looming challenges to global shipping and trade.

Because of warming temperatures, an estimated 11,000 square miles of Greenland’s ice sheets and glaciers have melted over the past three decades, an area roughly equivalent to the size of Massachusetts. That has huge implications for the entire world. If the ice melts completely, Greenland could cause sea levels to rise as much as 23 feet, according to NASA.

Greenland’s retreating ice could open up areas to drill for oil and gas and places to mine critical minerals, a fact that has already attracted international interest and raised concerns about environmental harms. And, ship traffic in the Arctic has surged 37 percent over the past decade, according to a recent Arctic Council report, as sea ice has declined. More melting could open up even more trade routes.

Read the full story here

If you like this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for a full month.

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Judge denies request to stall New Jersey’s affordable housing law

By Jessica Perry, NJBIZ

New Jersey’s updated affordable housing law will proceed, following a Superior Court ruling issued at the start the new year.

Mercer County Judge Robert Lougy rejected a motion to stay implementation of the update “on numerous grounds” in an opinion released Jan. 2. Fair Share Housing Center, a defendant in the case, announced the ruling Thursday.

Led by Montvale, several municipalities filed suit in the fall to challenge the legislative overhaul of New Jersey’s affordable housing obligations. Under the state’s landmark Mount Laurel Doctrine, municipalities’ constitutional obligations for providing a fair share of affordable homes are updated every 10 years. The fourth round of obligations, starting in 2025, mark the first under the updated law.

The court will hear oral arguments Jan. 31 on whether to dismiss the complaint entirely.

Read the full story here

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