Ban bags and straws? N.J. proposal would be the strictest in the nation
News Article • • by Michael Sol Warren at NJ.com
The governor wanted more, and that's exactly what lawmakers are trying to deliver.
After Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a bill that would've created a five-cent sales tax on plastic and paper disposable bags and calling for stricter measures, lawmakers are back with a new proposal aimed at cutting back on plastic waste in the Garden State.
The proposal would ban stores from handing out single-use plastic shopping bags, plastic drinking straws and polystyrene food containers (like foam takeout clamshells) from being used in New Jersey. The bill would also create a 10-cent fee on single-use paper bags, which would finance a new "Plastic Pollution Prevention Fund."
The bill was advanced out of Senate environment committee on Thursday with a four-to-one vote.
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The proposed 10-cent fee on paper bags would send five cents back to the store operators. The remaining money would go to the newly created fund. The New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, a supporter of the bill, praised the paper bag fee.
"Paper bags are extremely resource-intensive and, in the U.S., we use over 10 billion per year. That results in thousands of acres of trees cut down, over 1,300 acres just from New Jersey's paper bag consumption," said Ed Potosnak, the executive director of the NJLCV. "This fee is essential to drive the behavioral change we need - and that's to use reusable bags."
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Energy Master Plan Committee holds hearing on clean transportation
News Article • • by Andrew Schmertz at NJTV
A new poll sends a strong message to policy makers. Fully two thirds of voters surveyed for a new Fairleigh Dickinson University poll do not view natural gas as clean energy — that’s a 23 percent increase since 2016. It also shows three-quarters want New Jersey to achieve a goal of 100 percent of renewable energy by 2050. The state’s enlisting the public in crafting its new energy master plan at a hearing that drilled down on transportation technology. Andrew Schmertz has this report on Peril and Promise: The challenge of climate change.
By 2025, one in seven cars on New Jersey’s roads must be zero-emission electric vehicles. A government commission known as the Energy Master Plan Committee heard from a range of groups Thursday on how to meet that goal, which some say has been stalled since the 2004 Clean Car Program passed.
Community Members Participate in 'Climate, Jobs and Justice Rally' at Morristown Town Hall
News Article • • by TapInto Morristown Staff at TapInto Morristown
Morristown, NJ - Community members gathered today at Morristown Town Hall for the Rise for Climate, Jobs and Justice Event. Same day events were happening in Red Bank, Newark and Jersey City where citizens, elected officials and members of environmental, labor, civil and faith-based groups gathered for the People’s Climate Movement to Rise for Climate, Jobs, and Justice.
Gov. vetoes bag fee bill, opening way for ban on single-use plastics
News Article • • by Michelle Brunetti Post at Press of Atlantic City
Gov. Phil Murphy vetoed a bill Monday that would have imposed a 5-cent fee on all single-use bags supplied by merchants, opening the way for an outright ban on single-use plastic bags statewide.
Many environmental groups celebrated, saying the fee bill was just a money grab by the state — 4 cents of every fee would have gone to state coffers — and would not cut down enough on plastic bag pollution.
But others, including New Jersey Audubon, the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters and the N.J. Association of Environmental Commissions, saw the veto as a lost opportunity. They don’t know if there are enough votes in the Legislature to pass a ban bill.
Murphy vetoes plastic bag tax, tells lawmakers to try again
News Article • • by Michael Sol Warren at NJ.com
Try again.
That's the message that Gov. Phil Murphy is sending to state lawmakers after vetoing a proposed fee on plastic and paper single-use shopping bags in New Jersey.
Murphy announced Monday morning he vetoed bill, which would have placed a five-cent fee on single-use plastic and paper bags handed out by retailers statewide.
The money collected by the fee would have been placed in a new fund administered by the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection to help pay for lead abatement projects.
In his statement on the veto, Murphy made it clear that he didn't think the bill went far enough. He called the issue a "critical policy area" and detailed the environmental threats posed by plastic waste, from clogging urban water infrastructure to littering New Jersey's parks and beaches.
"While well intentioned, the approach reflected in this bill strikes me as incomplete and insufficient," Murphy wrote. "Instituting a five-cent fee on single-use bags that only applies to certain retailers does not go far enough to address the problems created by overreliance on plastic bags and other single-use carryout bags."
Phil Murphy to veto bill imposing 5-cent fee on plastic grocery bags. Is a ban next?
News Article • • by Scott Fallon at North Jersey Record
TOMS RIVER — Gov. Phil Murphy will veto a much-criticized bill that would place a 5-cent fee on plastic grocery store bags, his office confirmed Thursday afternoon, leading some environmentalists and lawmakers to believe he will push for an outright ban.
Murphy called the bill's sponsors this week and told them he would veto the bill, which was rushed through the Legislature in June amid frenzied negotiations over a roughly $37 billion state budget.
More than a dozen municipalities, including Jersey City, Hoboken and Monmouth Beach, have passed local bans this year that will soon go into effect despite heavy lobbying efforts against a statewide ban.
Murphy's office confirmed that he will sign a veto and explain his position on Friday or Monday — the deadline to take action.
Murphy to veto fee on plastic bags
News Article • • by Danielle Muoio at Politico
Gov. Phil Murphy plans to veto a controversial bill that would have placed a 5-cent fee on plastic bags, according to a senior administration official.
Murphy plans to veto the bill in the coming days, per the source. The governor must act on the legislation by Monday, as both houses of the Legislature have said they intend to hold quorum calls that afternoon, triggering the deadline for a veto.
5 things Murphy could do with plastic bag bill to truly reduce pollution | Opinion
News Article • • by Ed Potosnak at NJ.com
Earlier this summer, a harrowing story blanketed the nightly news. In Thailand, a whale washed up on shore, which isn't uncommon or noteworthy, but something insidious ended its life. The whale died from poisoning -- death by plastic.
There were a staggering 80 plastic bags and nearly 18 pounds of plastic debris found in the pilot whale body.
This isn't a singular event, but a telling symbol of the massive impact of plastics impose on the health of our environment.
It is estimated that over 100,000 marine mammals and turtles, over 1 million sea-birds and countless fish die every year from ingesting plastics, and more than 800 types of wildlife have been documented to be harmed by this pollution. Astoundingly, it is estimated that there are 500 times more microplastics in our ocean than the 100 billion stars in our galaxy.
The statistics on the pervasive nature of plastic pollution can go on.
Protecting the Water of 5 Million New Jerseyans: Lisa Plevin to Lead Highlands Council
News Article • • by Alex Ambrose at Coalition for the Delaware River Watershed
New Jersey League of Conservation Voters would like to congratulate Lisa J. Plevin to her appointment as Executive Director for the New Jersey Highlands Council. Lisa takes over the role after Margaret Nordstrom, who is stepping down after joining the Highlands Water Protection and Planning Council staff six years ago. The Highlands Council is a 15-member appointed body tasked with implementation of the New Jersey Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act of 2004. The Highlands Council is advised in its actions by its Executive Director, who serves as the chief administrative officer of the Council.
The Highlands Water Protection and Planning Act was passed to protect the Highlands from piecemeal development patterns that were consuming 5-square-miles of Highlands forests and wetlands each year. The Highlands Council’s primary goal is to uphold this Act and protect the Highlands, a physiographic region of New Jersey that includes 88 municipalities within 7 counties and provides drinking water for over 5 million residents of New Jersey. As I’ve seen under past state administrations, it’s hard not to lose sight of protecting water sources while wading through the polluted waters of partisan fighting - but I know Lisa can do it.
Plastic bags will soon be joining the dodo bird -- history
News Article • • by Joan Quigley at NJ.com
When you bring stuff home, what do you do with all the plastic bags it was packed in?
Do you cram them in the trash (probably into a bigger plastic bag) or do you stash them away for next time you need to carry something? Maybe keep them near the door to grab when you walk the dog and need to clean up after him. Or maybe you are one of those environmentally-conscious folks who saves them for the recycling box in the supermarket lobby.
No matter, really, because lawyers who draft bills and ordinances for government consider them all to be "single-use plastic bags."
Manufacturers disagree, of course, arguing they are 100 percent reusable and recyclable and claiming nine out of ten Americans reuse plastic bags at least once for everything from storage to waste disposal to packing materials.