Thursday, August 28th, 2008
Asbury Park officials are planning a bunch of upgrades for the city’s transportation center on Main Street, including improving restrooms, replacing doors, fixing leaks and stained tiles and dealing with moisture problems in the station tunnel, according to the Asbury Park Press.
Improvements being discussed also include new landscaping, new lighting, new paint for the station interior and overhead canopies, repaved parking lots and improved train platforms. The city also hopes to create a permanent parking area for city vehicles, buy tables to have on hand for community events and “develop a retail plan.” Future decor may include artwork by Asbury Park High School students.
The city plans to pay for improvements with a $190,000 grant it received last year from the state Department of Transportation’s Centers of Place grant program, according to Donald Sammet, director of planning and redevelopment (via the Press). The city is looking for other funds for future upgrades.
The City Council’s transportation center subcommittee will meet next on Sept. 9 at 7 p.m. at the station.
Wednesday, August 27th, 2008
Environmental leaders are calling on Gov. Corzine to improve the “Permit Extension Act,” which was approved earlier this week. They want him to make some clarifications and get rid of the so-called Dracula clause, among other things. Corzine has until Sept. 15 to make a move.
The Meadowlands Commission wants to restart deliveries of harbor dredge to the EnCap site, but that plan came under fire earlier this week in federal bankruptcy court.
Wind energy is great, but can the U.S. power grid handle it?
To bring frisbee golf to Green Brook, or not?
Brick’s Department of Parks and Recreation will hold its third and last town hall-style meeting on a recreation master plan Sept. 8.
Thomas B. Darlington, a “trailblazer” in the cranberry industry who served on the Pinelands Commission, died Friday at 84.
Monday, August 25th, 2008
The Canadian Press had an article yesterday pointing out that many of New Jersey’s beaches still seem, well, private.
From fees as high as $12 for a day to inaccessible parking to a shortage of bathrooms, some places don’t make it easy.
We’d like to see more beaches accessible by mass transit. Not $45 ferry accessible, but reasonably-priced-train-trip accessible.
People have a right to the state’s beaches and shores under the Public Trust Doctrine, a legal concept that dates back a long, long time.
New Jersey allowed its shore towns to instate beach fees in 1955 to pay for upkeep. The article gives Mantoloking as one example of a town that uses its fee to keep outsiders away — the upscale community charges $12 for a season, but doesn’t offer a day pass, meaning one beach day costs $12.
Of course there was this incident last month, where Bergen Record reporters Jeff Pillets and Elise Young sat on a beach in Bay Head and were accosted by hotel magnate Patrick Denihan, who said the beach was his. Pillets and Young informed him it wasn’t and called the police, who sided with them. (The mayor of Bay Head, William Curtis, wrote a letter of apology to Young and said Denihan regretted the incident.)
More: Welcome to the Jersey Shore. Now go home. (Canadian Press)
Sunday, August 24th, 2008
Image via mradomski.wordpress.com.
Greenpeace volunteers made a delivery to 3rd district U.S. House of Representatives hopefuls John Adler and Chris Myers on Wednesday: thousands of letters and postcards that prodded the politicians to take a stand on global warming, according to the Press of Atlantic City.
The volunteers had spent weeks collecting the letters from residents of Ocean and Burlington counties. When they went to the candidates’ offices to drop off the goods, they got what they described as a warm response from Adler’s people, and a chily reception from the Myers camp.
“Adler’s people seemed like they were very happy to see us, but the people in Myers’ office were much less willing to talk to us,” said (Linda) Grinfelds-Wilber, 52, of Island Heights, after leaving Myers’ Mount Holly office.
Fellow volunteer Bennett Wong agreed.
“The people in Myers’ office wouldn’t take a picture with us,” said Wong, 19, of Bayville. “But Adler’s staff took a picture with us and also talked to us about how concerned he was about global warming and that he was interested in working with us on a lot of things.”
When reached later, both Adler and Chris Russell, Myers’ campaign manager, said global warming was important and laid out some pro-environment plans.
Thursday, August 21st, 2008
Environment New Jersey announced yesterday that it chooses Obama and hopes you will too.
In endorsing Obama, the group joined the ranks of the Sierra Club, the League of Conservation Voters, Friends of the Earth and others.
In a statement, executive director Dena Mottola Jaborska said Obama had “publicly committed to fully addressing the pressing problem of global warming and moving the United States toward a new energy future. He has made clean energy one of the top issues of his campaign and as a public servant at the state and federal levels has a long and consistent record of supporting the environment.”
The endorsement was coordinated with that of the national Environment America and its other statewide environmental groups.
Why they dig him: Obama has voted with Environment America 86 percent of the time and achieved a 90 percent on the group’s 2008 Congressional Scorecard.
John McCain “was absent from each and every environment- or energy-related vote” and, thus, did much worse.
(Republicans for Environmental Protection has said McCain has a good excuse for missing those votes: He was campaigning at the time “against GOP challengers who had no similar commitments” and hasn’t missed that many before or since. The group, which seems pretty excited about McCain — can you blame them? — has endorsed him.)
Environment America prefers Obama because: Obama promoted recycling long ago as a NYPIRG organizer, recognizes the need for a shift away from fossil fuels, and co-sponsored the Global Warming Pollution Reduction Act of 2007, the toughest global warming legislation yet, the group says. He’s also voted to end some dirty tax breaks for companies, to raise vehicle efficiency standards, and to not drill in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And more.
McCain has supported new domestic oil drilling, that short-term feel-good gas tax holiday, more nuclear and coal power and global warming standards that don’t cut it, among other things, the group says. To boot, he has a load of senior advisors and staff who are lobbyists for the oil industry. (To be fair, we’ve heard Obama has one.) He’s also taken $1.4 million from oil industry employees in the 2007-2008 election cycle — more than any other politician — according to the Center for Responsive Politics. (To be fair, Obama has taken just under one-third as much.)
But it’s not about being perfect — politicians never are. It’s about who’s better environmentally, and both Environment America and Environment New Jersey think Obama is. By far.
Wednesday, August 20th, 2008
Mayor Bloomberg seeks to put wind turbines on buildings and bridges and in the water in New York, part of push toward renewable energy, according to several news reports.
Private companies are being asked to give clean-power generation ideas for the city to consider, including study how windmills can be used.
Bloomberg said yesterday that he wants to wean New York off the nation’s power grid, and generate perhaps 10 percent of the city’s electricity needs over the next 10 years with offshore wind power — he may be eyeing the coast off Queens, Brooklyn and Long Island for that.
He is also considering using geothermal and rooftop solar energy.
Soon, he will push private building owners to conserve electricity, giving energy users “more information” about conservation and requiring retrofits of some buildings, according to Reuters. He said the city would ultimately save money, and even make money, with more efficient buildings and vehicles.
All of this is part of the mayor’s plan to give New York the cleanest air of any large city in America. He wants to reduce city greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2030.
He has less than 18 months left in office. Can he do it?
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
If you’re in the neighborhood of Monmouth University tomorrow, learn about some of the alternative energies that could be generated off New Jersey’s coast, including offshore wind, wave and ocean current power.
The U.S. Minerals Management Service will host a public workshop there to discuss the proposed rules for development of these energies, according to the Sierra Club.
In an e-mail blast today, Jeff Tittel said offshore wind, wave and ocean current technologies, if sited properly, “have the potential to deliver the energy we need without harming the environment.”
The workshop takes place in Young Auditorium, Bey Hall, tomorrow afternoon.
Tuesday, August 19th, 2008
Even if Congress lifts the ban on new offshore oil drilling tomorrow, actual drilling is a long time coming, says this story in the Courier-Post.
It cites experts who say that even if Congress lifts the ban, companies may not choose to drill at all — if they don’t think there are enough oil and gas deposits off the coast of the New Jersey to justify the huge upfront costs involved in building platforms and pipelines, for example.
But the expert mentioned next works for the oil companies: Andy Radford, a policy adviser with the American Petroleum Institute.
“We have to walk before we can run in this case. We don’t want to give people the sense that this is going to happen overnight,” Radford said. “(In) the Atlantic, we pretty much have to start from scratch… We haven’t been out there in over 20 years.”
The Washington, D.C.-based API, a trade association/lobbying arm for the big oil companies, has funded research that tries to cast doubt on global warming and its causes and supports the lifting of the offshore drilling ban.
Sunday, August 17th, 2008
The Garden State Preservation Trust is expected to dry up by next June, bad news for New Jersey farmland that has yet to be preserved. According to the as-yet unofficial Highlands Master Plan, more than $1 billion will be needed for land preservation in the Highlands region.
The soonest a bank of windmills off the coast of New Jersey could start spinning power? 2012, according to a recent estimate from the state Board of Public Utilities.
Gov. Corzine is considering asking the federal EPA if the state can pass on ethanol, or at least limit its use.
New Jersey law firms are greening their operations, using cleaner energies, ditching water bottles, encouraging telecommuting and more. (Maybe the lawyers don’t want to be outdone by a doctor, Lawrence Rosen of Oradell.)
Volunteers purged the Hackensack River and its banks of garbage this weekend as part of a Hackensack Riverkeeper cleanup. (Click here to get involved.)
The 33rd Clearwater Festival rocked Asbury Park.
A tree ordinance was passed in West Orange, and a blogger cheered.
Friday, August 15th, 2008
Gov. Corzine has three more weeks to accept the Highlands Master Plan as is, or assign his veto, as many environmental groups are urging. (He doesn’t have to take any action.)
He has until Sept. 5 to deliver a veto, but is still making up his mind, according to the Star-Ledger.
Environmental groups like the New Jersey Sierra Club and New Jersey Environmental Federation say the master plan approved by the Highlands Council July 17 doesn’t do enough to protect the region and its critically important water supply. They say it fails to address affordable-housing requirements and wrongly allows high-density housing clusters, exemption opportunities for builders, and development in already water-deficient areas. Environmentalists had proposed amendments to the plan that addressed their concerns, but most were rejected.
Last month, more than two dozen organizations signed onto a letter to Corzine asking him to seek changes to the plan.
“I think (the plan) fails to uphold the intent of the Highlands Act,” Doug O’Malley, field director for Environment New Jersey, told Green Jersey last month. “While it’s not hard to argue that a weak plan is better than no plan, this plan is not protective of the Highlands’ water supply — and the multiple amendments which were rejected speak to that failure.”
Corzine told the Star-Ledger he hadn’t yet reviewed the plan “with all of the people who have a stake.”
In an interview Wednesday, the governor said he wants to cover all the bases, and is sitting down with farmers, environmentalists, mayors and others before making a final decision. He offered no hints on his final decision but said he can’t make the choice based on one constituency.
“We’re going to do what we think is right with regard to the overall issue,” Corzine said.
Thursday, August 14th, 2008
Lead temporarily closed the turf football field at TCNJ.
Image via playitgreen.com.
A federal commission said artificial turf fields are safe despite the presence of lead, but a New Jersey agency remains “concerned.”
A June 30 report by the U.S. Consumer Product Safety Commission found that lead in the fields poses no risk to kids. But state health department officials are still “concerned about cumulative lead exposures to children… and whether lead from artificial turf, particularly at older, worn fields, adds to those exposures,” via the Bergen Record:
The health department’s recommendations remain unchanged that children under 7 should be restricted from fields with high lead levels and that athletes wash their clothing and bodies after using the turf. Lead can impair brain development in young children.
The apparent contradiction has left some school officials in North Jersey confused, says the Record.
Earlier: High lead levels found in artificial turf (Green Jersey)
Tuesday, August 12th, 2008
If a new ordinance goes through, those bags had better be canvas.
Yesterday, Red Bank’s borough council finally introduced an ordinance that would phase out run-of-the-mill plastic shopping bags, which are so last year.
The ordinance has some teeth — if it passes, stores in town won’t be allowed to offer any non-recyclable, non-compostable checkout bags starting in January 2009. A store that does faces a $100 fine for its first violation, and fines of $200 and $500 thereafter. Any fines collected are pledged to support borough-sponsored environmental initiatives.
Recyclable, compostable and reusable bags all would be acceptable, and must be well-marked, the ordinance says.
A question was raised at the meeting, however, on the use of the word “non-recyclable…” From Red Bank Green:
Councilwoman Grace Cangemi said the law as worded might not have its intended effect of ending the distribution of lightweight supermarket bags. The ordinance, she said, bans non-recyclable bags, but grocery bags are recyclable. She also raised questions about a provision requiring compostable bags; neither the borough nor the county landfill, she says, has the industrial capacity needed to compost the bags.
Councilman Mike DuPont, who sponsored the ordinance, disagreed that the county doesn’t have the ability to compost the bags, and urged an end to what he called “objections and obstructionism.”
Debate on Red Bank’s plastic bag ordinance had been going on for months. A public hearing on this version is scheduled for Aug. 25 at 7:30 p.m.
More: Plastic bag ban is introduced by Red Bank council (Asbury Park Press)