Trump, some states going in opposite directions on climate

Wind farm in Colorado City, Tex. Texas  has more wind power than any other state.Spencer Platt/Getty Images


Tatiana Schlossberg writes for The New York Times:

The incoming Trump administration appears determined to reverse much of what President Obama has tried to achieve on climate and environment policy.

In position papers, agency questionnaires and the résumés of incoming senior officials, the direction is clear — an about-face from eight years of policies designed to reduce climate-altering emissions and address the effects of a warming planet. The Republican-led Congress appears to welcome many of these changes.

But mayors and governors — many of them in states that supported President-elect Donald J. Trump — say they are equally determined to continue the policies and plans they have already adopted to address climate change and related environmental damage, regardless of what they see from Washington.

Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >>

“With a federal government that’s hostile to climate action, more and faster climate action work from cities, states and businesses will be required to stay anywhere near on track with our carbon pollution goals,” said Sam Adams, the former mayor of Portland, Ore., and current director of the World Resources Institute United States.

“In many cases, the solutions that help address climate change are what you have to do anyway in a city — transit options so the city doesn’t get gridlocked, which reduces greenhouse gas emissions and unlocks a tremendous amount of economic competitiveness because you don’t have thousands of people stalled in traffic,” Mr. Adams added.

In last month’s election, Seattle, Los Angeles and Columbus, Ohio, voted to expand mass transit. Portland, Ore., which many say is the most environmentally minded city in the country, began a new municipal waste program a few years ago, resulting in higher recycling and composting rates, and smaller amounts of trash headed to landfills. Miami Beach is raising roadbeds and building flood walls to hold back the rising seas.

California, led by the Democratic Gov. Jerry Brown, has adopted a cap-and-trade program, which limits carbon dioxide emissions and sets up a market for companies to buy and sell carbon allowances, so companies can meet or come under that carbon dioxide limit. The state has set one of the nation’s most ambitious climate targets — to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions to 40 percent below 1990 levels by 2030. Hawaii is planning to use 100 percent renewable energy by 2045.

Read the full story here

Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >>

Trump, some states going in opposite directions on climate Read More »

Cause of deaths of 200 blackbirds remains a mystery in NJ

Bill Gallo Jr. reports for NJ.com: STOWE CREEK TWP–What caused the sudden deaths of scores of red-wing blackbirds last month remains a mystery, state officials say.

bird.jpgWhat caused the death of blackbirds in Stow Creek remains a mystery. (Wikipedia) 
Tests on the estimated 200 of birds found around Frank Davis Road in late November “are inconclusive,” said Larry Hajna, spokesman for the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection.
Hajna said the DEP’s Division of Fish and Wildlife reviewed necropsy and other test results, but the exact cause of the birds’ deaths could not be pinpointed.
“We cannot rule out some sort of pesticide poisoning because of the highly localized nature of the mortalities, but we have determined that if this were the case, the deaths were not caused by pesticides commonly known to be toxic to wildlife,” Hajna said on Friday.
He also said that the birds’ deaths were not likely caused by the compounds used to treat wheat seed planted in fields near where the dead birds were found.hat caused the sudden deaths of scores of red-wing blackbirds last month remains a mystery, state officials say.

“We also determined the deaths were not likely the result of infectious disease,” Hajna added.
The large number of dead birds were discovered on Nov. 22 in a rural area of the Cumberland County township. Their bodies were scattered across roadways and in fields and wooded areas.
It was the same area where 12 to 18 dead red-wing blackbirds were found two weeks earlier.
Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >>

 
 


Cause of deaths of 200 blackbirds remains a mystery in NJ Read More »

Lawmakers ignoring $7.4B boom in ‘corporate welfare’?

New Jersey Governor Chris Christie

Salvador Rizzo reports for The Record:

At a time when New Jersey lawmakers are rushing a bill to end what they call “corporate welfare” for the news media, Gov. Chris Christie’s administration this month surpassed $7.4 billion in tax subsidies awarded to hand-picked businesses and nonprofits.

This historic boom in tax giveaways — one of the largest on record in the United States — has been facilitated by both parties in the Legislature during a years long financial crisis and a plague of revenue shortages. Some of the biggest grants Christie has doled out have benefited politically connected insiders. The cost for state taxpayers could grow by billions of dollars more before New Jersey’s main subsidy program expires in 2019.

Christie asserts that government bodies and private businesses would save $80 million a year by posting legal notices online, instead of printing them in newspapers, as New Jersey law currently requires. The governor’s office has refused to break down its cost analysis and has not provided supporting documentation requested by The Record under the Open Public Records Act.

TWITTER: Christie upbraids Dems over newspaper bill

NEWSPAPER BILL: Panels OK bill to change print legal ads rule despite outcry

TRENTON: How lawmakers voted on Christie book bill, salary boost

Meanwhile, the New Jersey Press Association said the cost of publishing legal notices is $8 million a year for taxpayers and $12 million for businesses, according to a 2010 study. Advertisement rates for legal notices are set by law, and they were last increased three decades ago. Publication of public notices in newspapers is hardly unique to New Jersey and has for nearly a century been an established method of communication for governments across the nation.

Whether it is $8 million or $80 million a year, the figure pales in comparison to the $7.4 billion in corporate subsidies Christie has awarded as of this month through the state Economic Development Authority, an agency tasked with creating and retaining private-sector jobs. This subsidy boom has been enabled largely by the passage of the bipartisan Economic Opportunity Act of 2013.

Conservative and liberal groups have criticized the explosion in tax breaks under Christie, calling it textbook “corporate welfare” and noting that the state has garnered a record 10 credit-rating downgrades because of a lack of revenue to cover the cost of hospitals, pensions, schools, property tax rebates and other services. State revenue is not keeping pace with New Jersey’s ballooning, legally mandated costs, analysts at Fitch Ratings, Moody’s Investors Service and S&P Global Ratings say.



Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates 
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >> 

Lawmakers ignoring $7.4B boom in ‘corporate welfare’? Read More »

Panels OK bill to change print legal ads rule despite outcry

Assembly Appropriations Committee hears testimony from newspaper industry Chris Pedota/NorthJersey.com)

Nicholas Pugliese reports for The Record: 


Undeterred by a combined
2½ hours of unanimous testimony against a bill that would allow governments to
forgo publishing legal notices in newspapers and instead post them exclusively
online, committees in both the Senate and Assembly voted to advance the measure
on Thursday.
Publishers,
union representatives, environmental activists, residents and others lined up
to rail against a bill that they said could result in the loss of as many as
300 jobs, force some publications to shut down and hand governments a lever
with which to strong-arm local newspapers.
“It’s
been characterized as a thumb in the eye of the dailies,” said Stephen Parker,
co-publisher and general manager of New Jersey Hills Media Group, which
publishes newspapers in four counties. “It’s a shotgun blast to the weeklies.”
Lawmakers
in favor of the bill argued that it would be a money-saver for
municipalities and their taxpayers despite the fact that it was introduced and
voted on with such haste that the non-partisan Office of Legislative Services
has not had time to conduct a cost analysis.
Assemblyman
John Burzichelli, D-Gloucester, who voted in favor of the measure, also
questioned the usefulness of printed legal notices in an increasingly digitized
media environment and an era of declining print circulation.
“There
are some things that are simply inevitable and that is the electronic world is
not going away,” he said. “The serving of public notice is critical
to democracy, but we are not serving public notice if there’s no
circulation.”
The
Senate State Government, Wagering, Tourism and Historic Preservation Committee
was the first panel to vote on the measure Thursday morning. After 90 minutes
of critical testimony, they voted 2-1 to release it to the full Senate, albeit
without the customary recommendation that it be approved there.
Asked
after the hearing why he wouldn’t recommend a bill of which he is the primary
sponsor, Jim Whelan, D-Atlantic, responded, “I think the bill was important
enough that it should go to the full floor.”
The
Assembly Appropriations Committee then took up the measure in the afternoon
and, following roughly an hour of unfavorable testimony, approved it 7-0 with
two abstentions.
Representatives
of the New Jersey Bankers, New Jersey Association of Counties, New Jersey
League of Municipalities, New Jersey School Boards Association and New Jersey
Conference of Mayors submitted forms Thursday indicating that they were in
favor of the legislation but did not testify at either hearing.
The
bill was introduced on Monday as part of a package that included a measure to
allow Governor Christie to earn income from a book deal while in office in
exchange for raises for lawmakers’ staffs, judges, county prosecutors and other
officials. That bill, too, moved through Senate and Assembly committees on
Thursday.
The
legal notices measure would give governments the option to publish such public
records as budgets, bids for services and meeting announcements online as
opposed to in print. Under current law, governments and some private entities
are required to publish such notices in locally circulated newspapers. The
rates for legal notices are set by statute and have not risen since 1983.
Thomas
Cafferty, chief counsel for the New Jersey Press Association, testified
Thursday that the current arrangement is “designed to prevent municipalities
from using legal advertisements to either curry favor with a publication whose
writings might be favorable … or to punish newspapers whose writings may be
contrary to what the administration thinks the views of it should be.”
Allowing
local officials to choose where to publish legal notices — a provision of the
bill touted by supporters as creating flexibility for governments — would
actually arm them with the ability to hurt newspapers financially, he said.
Richard
Vezza, publisher of the Star-Ledger, called the measure “a bill of unintended
consequences” that could put as many as 300 people in the newspaper industry
out of work.
“The
road to hell is paved with good intentions,” he admonished lawmakers. “Do not
put 300 employees on the road to hell because you haven’t done your homework.”

Parker, the co-publisher of New Jersey Hills Media Group, said his company
operates with a profit margin of about 5 percent and would take a 15 percent
revenue hit without the income from legal notices.

“This
bill will be the straw that breaks the camel’s back,” he said. “It will
certainly result in big layoffs, dropped coverage in many of the communities
that we serve and very likely the closure of many of our newspapers.”

Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >> 


Panels OK bill to change print legal ads rule despite outcry Read More »

Enviro bills up for votes in NJ on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016

        


EnviroPolitics
NJ
Legislative Report    

Legislative
information supplied by BillTrak
  


A-3539  Muoio, E.M. (D-15); Chiaravalloti, N. (D-31)
Requires public and nonpublic schools to test for and
remediate lead in drinking water, and disclose test results.  Related
Bill: S-2082
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Assembly
ACR-127  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Benson, D.R. (D-14);
Eustace, T. (D-38)
Amends Constitution to dedicate all State moneys
received from settlements and awards in cases of environmental contamination
relating to natural resource damages for certain environmental purposes.
Related Bill: SCR-39
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Assembly  
ACR-192  McKeon, J.F. (D-27); Spencer, L.G. (D-29);
Muoio, E.M. (D-15)
Determines that DEP’s proposal to amend septic system
density standards in Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act Rules is
inconsistent with legislative intent.
  
Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates 

See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >> 


S-874  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Turner, S.K. (D-15)
Directs installation of electric vehicle charging
stations at service areas on State’s toll roads.
Related Bill: A-404
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Senate
S-1602  Weinberg, L. (D-37); Cardinale, G. (R-39)
Modifies powers and allocation of Historic New Bridge
Landing Park Commission.
Related Bill: A-1406
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Senate
S-2300  Stack, B.P. (D-33); Beck, J. (R-11)
Ensures fairness of project deadlines, enhances
transparency, and creates foreclosure protections for Superstorm Sandy victims. 
Related Bill: A-333
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Senate
S-2731  Greenstein, L.R. (D-14); Bateman, C. (R-16)
Authorizes New Jersey Environmental Infrastructure
Trust to expend additional sums to make loans for environmental infrastructure
projects for FY2017. 
Related Bill: A-4326
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Assembly
S-2732  Codey, R.J. (D-27); Gill, N.H. (D-34)
Amends list of environmental infrastructure projects
approved for long-term funding for FY 2017 to include new projects and revise
allowable loan amounts. 
Related Bill: A-4327
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Assembly
SCR-39  Smith, B. (D-17); Greenstein, L.R. (D-14)
Amends Constitution to dedicate all State moneys
received from settlements and awards in cases of environmental contamination
for certain environmental purposes.
Related Bill: ACR-127
    Dec 19, 2016           –          Posted:
Senate

Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates 
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >> 

Enviro bills up for votes in NJ on Monday, Dec. 19, 2016 Read More »

DEP doles out enviro settlement dollars along the Passaic

At an chilly outdoor news conference Wednesday alongside the Passaic River in Newark, NJDEP Commissioner Bob Martin and Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno made quite a show of the $53 million that the state is returning to local communities along the polluted waterway. The money was won by the state in law suits brought against river polluters.


Lt. Gov. Kim Guadagno announces grants for Passaic River improvements (Photo: Dale Mincey/NorthJersey.com)



Was it all staged as a look-what-we’ve-done-for-you-lately reminder to state Senators who will vote on bill on Monday that would require all of the proceeds of such settlements to go in the future to the affected communities?


Maybe so, Governor Christie and several of his predecessors have made a practice of skimming large percentages of pollution settlement money to balance the state’s always-challenged budget. Christie alone diverted $302 million of the $358 million collected from the three Passaic-related settlements


Still, none of the takers were grumbling at the news event. 
After all, as DEP chief Martin said, “it is a big chunk of change” and the money will be used on a number of projects that will bring noticeable improvements to waterfronts along the river.


The Record‘s Scott Fallon provides the print details 


NJTV NEWS’s Erin Delmore reports in the video below.






Like this? Use form in upper right to receive free updates 
See popular posts from the last 30 days in right column — >> 



DEP doles out enviro settlement dollars along the Passaic Read More »