EnviroPolitics Blog

Justice Department says it will prosecute local officials over immigration enforcement

The directives to Justice Department employees could face fierce blowback from legal advocacy groups and officials in cities and states led by Democrats.

By Maria Sacchetti and Jeremy Roebuck, Washington Post

The Trump administration late Tuesday directed federal prosecutors nationwide to investigate and potentially prosecute state and local officials who don’t cooperate with the president’s plans to carry out the largest mass deportation campaign in U.S. history, according to a document obtained by The Washington Post.

In a memo to Justice Department employees, acting deputy Attorney General Emil Bove wrote that the Supremacy Clause of the Constitution,and other legal authorities, “require state and local actors to comply with the Executive Branch’s immigration enforcement initiatives.”

“Federal law prohibits state and local actors from resisting, obstructing, and otherwise failing to comply with lawful immigration-related commands,” wrote Bove, a former federal prosecutor who spent recent years in private practice and was one of President Donald Trump’s defense lawyers in his criminal cases.

Bove ordered U.S. attorneys’ offices nationwide to “investigate incidents involving any such misconduct for potential prosecution,” including for harboring an immigrant in the United States illegally, failing to share information about a person’s immigration status with the federal government, and conspiracy — crimes that carry potential prison terms upon conviction.

Any refusals to prosecute someone for “resistance, obstruction or other noncompliance” with commands or requests from U.S. immigration officers will be sent to the Justice Department as an “urgent” report, the memo says.

Read the full story here

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The limits to Trump’s offshore energy plans

By SHELBY WEBB, Politico, 1/21/2025 06:00 PM EST

Donald Trump has been president for little more than a day, but his vision for the federal coastline is already clear: less wind, more oil.

One of Trump’s first actions after his inauguration Monday was to halt all new leases and permits for offshore wind projects and to direct the incoming Interior secretary to review existing permits to determine if they warrant “terminating or amending.”

He also issued an executive order that aims to revoke an eleventh-hour bid by the Biden administration to block offshore oil and gas drilling within 625 million acres of federal waters, including in the eastern Gulf of Mexico, the Atlantic, the Pacific and most of the Bering Sea in Alaska.

But what Trump can and can’t do offshore could be limited by legal challenges — and political realities.

Read the full story here

The limits to Trump’s offshore energy plans Read More »

NYDEC to Hold Jan 23 Virtual Public Information Session About Air Quality at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Niagara Falls

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) announced it is holding a virtual public information session at 6 p.m. on Thursday, Jan. 23, regarding the ongoing oversight of Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., in the city of Niagara Falls and recent DEC enforcement action. DEC will be joined by officials from the State Department of Health (DOH) and U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA).

“DEC’s goal is to keep the community informed about the actions we are taking, oversight we are providing, and how we are working to ensure public health is, and will continue to be, protected in the area around the Goodyear Tire & Rubber facility in Niagara Falls,” Interim Commissioner Sean Mahar said. “The January 23 information session will provide an opportunity for community residents and other stakeholders to ask questions and hear directly from DEC’s air quality experts who will update the community about ongoing efforts to hold Goodyear accountable and protect public health.”

DEC entered into an Order on Consent with Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co. on Jan. 14, 2025, that requires short- and long-term state-of-the-art pollution control technology to further protect Niagara Falls residents. The order includes a civil penalty and requires Goodyear to undertake operational modifications that will further reduce off-site concentrations of ortho-toluidine and result in short- and long-term reductions in emissions. Based on available data, including results from a 2022 stack test, emissions from the Goodyear facility have not been shown to pose a significant or immediate risk to public health.

New York State DEC and DOH are committed to ongoing oversight of the Goodyear facility to ensure the protection of the environment and public health.

DEC is holding the public information session to present information about the consent order and the status of Goodyear’s permit renewal, as well as to provide an opportunity for the public to ask questions.

To join the virtual session on Thursday, Jan. 23, 2025, from 6 p.m. – 8 p.m.:

Visit this link to register
Once registered, participants will immediately receive a link to join, as well as a phone number to dial in for an audio option.

For additional information on how to participate in a virtual meeting, please visit DEC’s public participation webpage.

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NYDEC to Hold Jan 23 Virtual Public Information Session About Air Quality at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Niagara Falls Read More »

NJ to lead challenge to Trump’s national birthright elimination

So called “birth tourism” will face further scrutiny by the Trump White House as it looks to eliminate the practice.

By MIKE CATALINI Associated Press

New Jersey and more than a dozen states said Tuesday they are challenging President Donald Trump’s executive order ending the constitutional guarantee of birthright citizenship.

New Jersey Democratic Attorney General Matt Platkin said Tuesday he’s leading a group of 18 states, the District of Columbia and the city of San Francisco in filing a lawsuit blocking Trump’s order.

“Presidents have broad power, but they are not kings,” Platkin said.

Trump’s order would end the policy of automatically granting citizenship to people born in the U.S., a move he said on the campaign trail he would do once in office.

Platkin and immigrants rights advocates point to the 14th Amendment to the Constitution that says people born in the U.S. and subject to its jurisdiction are citizens, saying it’s clear that it applies to people whose parents were not legally citizens at the time of their birth.

But whether Trump succeeds is far from certain as immigration advocates file lawsuits to block the president.

Here’s a closer look at birthright citizenship, Trump’s executive order and reaction to it:

Birthright citizenship means anyone born in the U.S. is a citizen, regardless of their parents’ immigration status. People, for instance, in the United States on a tourist or other visa or in the country illegally can become the parents of a citizen if their child is born here.

It’s been in place for decades and enshrined in the 14th Amendment to the Constitution, supporters say. But Trump and allies dispute the reading of the amendment and say there need to be tougher standards on becoming a citizen.

Read the full story here

NJ to lead challenge to Trump’s national birthright elimination Read More »

Is New Jersey Going Red? What the 2024 Election Means

Assessing the new electoral landscape after a surprising surge in Trump support.

Photo: Shutterstock/Chip Somodevilla

By Jeff Pillets, New Jersey Monthly, January 17, 2025

It was anything but a typical Wednesday morning for Ed Durr as he hit the road to deliver furniture and mattresses. It was a MAGA day, the greatest of them all, and Durr was beaming into a video camera mounted on his dashboard.

He sang out at something like full volume to an audience of Facebook followers.

“Gooooooooooood morning America!…Congratulations to President Trump on an outstanding victory, proving once again: You can’t bankrupt him. You can’t imprison him. You can’t assassinate him. You can’t defeat him.”

Durr, a commercial truck driver from Gloucester County, made national headlines in 2021 when he won election to the state senate by upsetting incumbent Stephen Sweeney, one of New Jersey’s most powerful Democrats.

Even though he was defeated in his bid for reelection two years later, Durr is now running for governor, one of a handful of Republicans buoyed by Trump’s surprising strength in a deep-blue state that hasn’t voted for a GOP presidential candidate since 1988.

For many Republicans like Durr, Trump’s victory is confirmation that New Jersey is turning red, and doing it quickly. Even though Kamala Harris won the state by 6 percentage points, Trump’s performance jumped dramatically compared to 2020, when he lost to Joe Biden here by 16 points.

Five New Jersey counties that voted for Biden in 2020 flipped to Trump, including traditional Democratic strongholds such as Passaic County. Even counties Harris carried saw droves of voters switching to Trump: Essex, Bergen, Hudson and Middlesex counties all saw double-digit swings to Republican.

Perhaps the scariest trend for Democrats: Huge swaths of New Jersey’s 2 million-strong Latino community voted for Trump, even as he campaigned on the mass deportation of illegal immigrants and their American-born children.

Read the full story here

Is New Jersey Going Red? What the 2024 Election Means Read More »

Feds OK Cleanup Plan For Polluted Site Near Passaic River In Newark

A cleanup plan is officially on the books for the 80-120 Lister Avenue portion of the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site in Newark, the EPA announced Friday.

By Eric Kiefer, Patch Staff

NEWARK, NJ — A cleanup plan is officially on the books for part of a polluted Superfund site in Newark, federal officials announced Friday.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said it has finalized its cleanup plan for the 80-120 Lister Avenue portion of the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site. The plan will address the contaminated soil, debris and groundwater that was left behind by activities at the facility.

Need a refresher? Here’s some background on the case, according to the EPA:

“The Diamond Alkali Superfund site includes the former manufacturing facility at 80-120 Lister Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, the Lower Passaic River Study Area (LPRSA), and the Newark Bay Study Area. The LPRSA includes the 17-mile tidal stretch of the river from Dundee Dam to Newark Bay and tributaries. The Newark Bay Study Area includes Newark Bay and portions of the Hackensack River, Arthur Kill and Kill van Kull. The area surrounding the site is densely populated and heavily industrialized.”

Here’s what happened, the EPA says:

“Kolker Chemical Works Inc. produced Dichloro-diphenyl-trichloroethane (DDT) and other chemicals at 80 Lister Avenue in the 1940s. The Diamond Alkali Company (later purchased by and merged into Occidental Chemical Corporation or OCC) owned and operated the facility in the 1950s and 1960s. The facility manufactured agricultural chemicals including herbicides used in ‘Agent Orange,’ a defoliant chemical that removes leaves from trees and plants. These manufacturing processes produced an extremely toxic chemical, 2,3,7,8-TCDD (dioxin).”

According to the EPA, the state of New Jersey and federal officials took samples at and near 80 Lister Avenue and in the river in 1983. The results? High levels of dioxin.

The EPA and New Jersey also found pesticides and other hazardous substances in the soil and groundwater at 80-120 Lister Avenue, as well as dioxin, polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), metals, polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and pesticides in sediment in the Lower Passaic River.

The EPA listed the site on the Superfund National Priorities List in 1984, and cleanup at the site has been taking place ever since.

Due to its size and complexity, the EPA separated the Superfund site and project work into four phases known as Operable Units (OUs):

OU1 – the 80-120 Lister Avenue properties
OU2 – the lower 8.3 miles of the Lower Passaic River
OU3 – the Newark Bay Study Area
OU4 – the entire 17-mile Lower Passaic River Study Area

The final cleanup plan announced this week – known as a Record of Decision – focuses on “OU1,” the location of a former pesticide and herbicide manufacturing facility that contaminated the surrounding area, the Lower Passaic River and Newark Bay.

“The contamination stemming from the Lister Avenue facility has impacted Newark for decades, and this cleanup plan marks a significant milestone in addressing it,” EPA regional administrator Lisa Garcia said.

Read the full story here

Feds OK Cleanup Plan For Polluted Site Near Passaic River In Newark Read More »

Justice Department says it will prosecute local officials over immigration enforcement

The directives to Justice Department employees could face fierce blowback from legal advocacy groups and officials in cities and states led by Democrats.

The limits to Trump’s offshore energy plans

NYDEC to Hold Jan 23 Virtual Public Information Session About Air Quality at Goodyear Tire & Rubber Co., Niagara Falls

NJ to lead challenge to Trump’s national birthright elimination

So called “birth tourism” will face further scrutiny by the Trump White House as it looks to eliminate the practice.

Is New Jersey Going Red? What the 2024 Election Means

Assessing the new electoral landscape after a surprising surge in Trump support.

Feds OK Cleanup Plan For Polluted Site Near Passaic River In Newark

A cleanup plan is officially on the books for the 80-120 Lister Avenue portion of the Diamond Alkali Superfund Site in Newark, the EPA announced Friday.

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