Archive for the ‘Uncategorized’ Category

Polar Bears left clinging to the ice.

Written by Mike Pisauro on May 14th, 2008 in Endangered Species, Global Warming, Uncategorized | No Comments »

Today the Federal Fish and Wildlife Service took a swing and missed the ball. While today the polar bear has been listed on the Federal Endangered Species list, that listing was as a threatened species and not an endangered species. Additionally, Secretary Kempthorne went out of his way to tell people that this listing will not have any impact on the United States’ climate change strategy. In fact in the press release (click here to read the release) he is quoted:

While the legal standards under the ESA compel me to list the polar bear as threatened, I want to make clear that this listing will not stop global climate changes . . . That is why I am taking administrative and regulatory action to make certain the ESA isn’t abused to make global warming policies.

The press release further made it very clear that this listing would not be used to prevent the exploitation of oil reserves in the arctic. This is clearly a miss on protecting the environment and on forward thinking on climate change. Unfortunately nothing better could have been expected from the current administration.

Once I have had a chance to read the actual proposal, I hope to provide more detail.  In the meantime the NRDC has some good information (click here).

Earth Day

Written by Mike Pisauro on April 22nd, 2008 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Today is Earth Day (just in case you haven’t looked at a calendar or talked to anybody). I certainly hope you were able to take some time to enjoy the day.

While today was a good day, I wish I can say that the last several weeks were as good for the environment. Recently, there has been a proposal from the Department of Community Affairs that it have the authority to review, modify or stop any DEP proposed regulation. DEP has instituted a task force to streamline the permitting process. DEP proposed at a joint hearing of the Senate Environment and Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee to outsource the review of site remediation. The recently released energy master plan (EMP) which took almost two years to draft was a disappointment. The EMP is very short of planning and is not visionary and will unlikely play much of role in meeting the State’s goals of reducing goal warming or meeting our energy needs without new fossil fuel plants. Lastly, a few legislators are discussing splitting DEP into two departments. The permitting programs will be moved with the State Planning Commission, Office of Smart Growth, etc. into a Department of Economic Development and Environment. The Fish and Wildlife, Open Space, Parks, etc. will be moved with the Department of Agriculture into a new Department of Agriculture and Conservation. Frankly, one of the complaints about DEP is that the various programs within the Department do not talk with each other. Can you imagine how good the communication when the people are not within the same building or departments.

On a more positive note, the harvesting of horseshoe crabs has been stopped giving the red knot a fighting chance. The coastal and ocean protection council has been passed (and awaiting appointments); the gobal warming response act was enacted; and at least there is discussion on how to fix site remediation. Last year the citizens of New Jersey told its government that we expected the government to protect open space and that we would pay for it. We are reducing fine particulate matter, which can lead to or exacerbate respiratory disease, from the buses that our children ride to and from school.

I hope that you take today and the next few days to enjoy mother nature. Also, please spend a few minutes to take one action to help improve the environment.

About time for State environmental reviews

Written by Mike Pisauro on February 7th, 2008 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

There has been a Federal National Environmental Policy Act since 1969.  At least 19 states have followed suit with some form of state level environmental policy act or environmental quality act, including New York, Maryland, California and others.  New Jersey has not enacted such a law.  The basics of the concept is that before the state take any action or before the state issues any permit the proponent of the project has to study the effects of the project on the environment.  The studies known as environmental assessments or environmental impact studies also look at alternative designs for the project including a “no build” scenario in order to find the most protective solution for the project.

 

Right now both major and minor projects are approved by various branches of the government without anyone really taking a look at the project and determining that the project can proceed without detrimentally effecting the state’s environment.  In most cases the project is judged on its own without considering how the project in conjunction with other proposed or approved projects will impact the environment.  A state nepa would integrate these considerations. DEP readily acknowledges that its departments are siloed.  The land use department may not know what the wetlands department is doing nor what the site remediation department is doing nor what the air emissions department is permitting.

 

By requiring new projects to perform an environmental assessment (ea) or an environmental impact statement (eis) all of the information is present at one time for the agency to review all aspects of the project before deciding whether to issue any of the permits.  Given the state of NJ’s environment it is high time we started to take a holistic approach to development in NJ

Welcome to NJ Environmental Blog

Written by Mike Pisauro on January 7th, 2008 in Uncategorized | No Comments »

Welecome to my first blog. With this blog I will look at environmental issues affecting New Jersey. In upcoming entries I will be talking about global warming, RGGI, renewable energy, and coastal issues. If there is a topic you would like to read about, please let me know at Mike@fplegal.com

-Mike Pisauro

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