EnviroPolitics Blog

Pentagon to blacklist China’s largest EV battery and tech firms

Among the firms banned from doing business with the Defense Department is CATL, the world’s largest EV battery-maker, which supplies Elon Musk’s Tesla.

By Ellen Nakashima and Cate Cadell, Washington Post

The Pentagon will blacklist China’s largest EV battery manufacturer and its largest tech firm beginning in June 2026, barring them from Defense Department contracts and sending a powerful signal to American firms about the potential risks of doing business with them.

In a notice in the Federal Register on Monday, the Defense Department published a list of firms that it deems to be operating in the United States for, or on behalf of, the Chinese military or that contribute to China’s military buildup.

The “1260H list,” mandated annually by Congress since 2021, now includes CATL,the world’s largest electric-vehicle battery-maker, which supplies Tesla, the EV manufacturer owned by President-elect Donald Trump’s ally Elon Musk. It also lists the social media giant Tencent, China’s most valuable technology company.

Other firms of note added to the list are China’s top commercial-jet-maker, a DNA-sequencing firm with U.S. ties and two companies at the heart of China’s surveillance-technology boom.

Read the full story here

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Thumbing nose at Trump, Biden bans most coastal oil drilling

By MATTHEW DALY, Associated Press Updated 1:15 PM EST, January 6, 2025

WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden is moving to ban new offshore oil and gas drilling in most U.S. coastal waters, a last-minute effort to block possible action by the incoming Trump administration to expand offshore drilling.

Biden, whose term expires in two weeks, said he is using authority under the federal Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act to protect offshore areas along the East and West coasts, the eastern Gulf of Mexico and portions of Alaska’s Northern Bering Sea from future oil and natural gas leasing.

“My decision reflects what coastal communities, businesses and beachgoers have known for a long time: that drilling off these coasts could cause irreversible damage to places we hold dear and is unnecessary to meet our nation’s energy needs,” Biden said in a statement Monday.

“As the climate crisis continues to threaten communities across the country and we are transitioning to a clean energy economy, now is the time to protect these coasts for our children and grandchildren,” he said.

Biden’s orders would not affect large swaths of the Gulf of Mexico, where most U.S. offshore drilling occurs, but it would protect coastlines along California, Florida and other states from future drilling.

Read the full story here

Related offshore drilling news:
Biden makes an 11th-hour move to block coastal oil drilling (NPR)
Trump promises to ‘unban’ offshore drilling, reversing Biden (Washington Post)

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New Jersey increases campaign contribution limits for 2025

By Gibbons P.C. Government and Regulatory Affairs Group

The New Jersey Election Law Enforcement Commission (NJELEC) announced that effective January 1, 2025, campaign contribution limits will increase for all non-gubernatorial candidate committees, political committees, continuing political committees, legislative leadership committees, and political party committees. The Elections Transparency Act (P.L. 2023, c. 30), signed into law in April 2023, requires NJELEC to adjust for inflation the contribution limits for non-gubernatorial candidates and committees every two years. The following chart provided by NJELEC shows the new contribution limits that are now in effect.

This is the first time that NJELEC has adjusted for inflation non-gubernatorial candidates and committees. Contribution limits for gubernatorial elections, along with thresholds related to the Gubernatorial Public Financing Program, have been subject to inflation adjustment every four years since 1992.

Click Here to View Full Blog Post

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Two NJ Climate Action webinars – January 14 and January 28

Join ANJEC (Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions) for a two-session series with NJDEP:

Thriving through Change: Opportunities for Local Climate Action

Tuesday, January 14th, 7:00pm

Tuesday, January 28th, 7:00pm

Via Zoom Webinar

Click here to register now

Understand how your community may be affected by flooding and other climate hazards;
Review adaptation and mitigation actions that can improve community resilience;
Access resources for local government officials; and
Empower Environmental Commissions to take action to increase the resilience of their communities.

ANJEC staff will be joined by officials from NJDEP to delve into how to meet local climate action challenges.

Registration:

ANJEC Members, Free Non-Members $25

Click here to register now!

Let EnviroPolitics promote your upcoming event.
Send details to editor@enviropolitics.com
Include a phone number in case we have questions.

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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

Read the full story here

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