Assembly Enviro Bills In Appropriation Committee Monday

The following legislation has been released in committee on Monday, December 10, 2018:

Assembly Appropriations Committee:

A1241 (McKeon/Benson) Provides governance, oversight, and accountability reforms at NJT. The bill establishes four new positions on the board and restructures the existing board so that all public members are required to either have experience as regular public transportation riders or have expertise in human resources or certain transportation topics. The bill also includes statutory duties such as direct oversight of NJT’s management team and monitoring financial implementation.

“Of all the government agencies, New Jersey Transit needs credibility and oversight. This bill is a step in the right direction that will allow for more open process in an agency that affect most of NJ citizens. New Jersey is the second biggest commuter railroad in the nation and was once a national model until Governor Christie cut its budget eight years in a row.  It has been reported that NJ Transit has 12 times more equipment failures than any other commuter train in the nation. This is the direct result of funding being slashed by 90 percent in the past 11 years. Slashing funding has led to an increase in accidents and federal safety fines, plummeting its national model title,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.  “NJ Transit is making progress on installing positive train control for their trains however they need to do more like and they need to be held accountable.”

A2558 Aca (1R) (DeAngelo/Wirths) “Vegetation Management Response Act”; concerns vegetation management related to electric public utility infrastructure.

“This bill gives utilities too much power without proper oversight. The legislation allows for open season on important vegetation that could harm environmentally sensitive areas. We need to protect power lines from trees but not allow for power companies to just clear-cut whatever they want. This bill also exempts utilities from local tree ordinances and shade tree commissions. This gives them a blanket to clear-cut anything they want. We need protective and selective cutting, not just open discretion,” said Jeff Tittel. “Vegetation removal can result in increased erosion and sedimentation, increased flooding and pollution in our waterways, and destruction of wildlife habitat.

A2614 (DeAngelo/Mukherji) Increases civil penalties for certain natural gas or hazardous liquid facility safety violations. The bill doubles the amount of money that a violator may be charged with for these violations.

“We support this bill as an incentive for these facilities to be safer and have less violations. Natural gas and hazardous liquids are dangerous to our communities and our environment. Given all the problems we’re seeing with natural gas like fires, explosions and property loss, we need to update the penalties. Polluters should have to pay, especially when it puts us at risk,” said Jeff Tittel.

A4392 Aca (1R) (Burzichelli/Giblin) Eliminates certain aviation fuel tax exemptions; provides funding for aviation capital projects.*

“We support the tax and believe that it should be put to use for a proper mass transport system that brings travelers and workers to the airport. For example, the Port Authority could extend the Newark Light Rail to Penn Station. We should be promoting public transportation to benefit our citizens and reduce our impact on climate change. This should include a variety of transit projects that help a variety of different communities,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club.“We support the tax going to transit projects that help people get to and from the airport.”

A4578 (Land/ Andrzejczak) Makes supplemental appropriation of $50 million from General Fund to DEP and adds language provisions concerning use of certain environmental settlement monies for natural resource restoration projects.

“New Jersey is finally spending the $50 million of the $225 million Exxon Settlement Money that wasn’t stolen. We challenged this settlement because polluters need to clean up their mess and pay for the damages they’ve done. The bill however is too vague on where the money is going to go. We want to make sure the funding for restoration projects are going directly to areas impacted by Exxon,” said Tittel. 

The settlement also includes additional industrial sites in Paulsboro, Flemington and Pennington oil depots, Edison Research Lab, Linden oil depot and many other contaminated sites around New Jersey. The Paulsboro Refinery is a 950-acre site that has contaminated wetlands and tidal marshes and clean up there alone could cost billions. There was a 135,000-gallon oil spill and nine additional spills as well contaminating 63 acres of the aquifer and billions of gallons of groundwater. In our own files we’ve found information on two gas stations, the Linden Exxon lab, and the Paulsboro Exxon Lube site.

“We believe the money should be targeted to areas that have been impacted by pollution. The areas that will be funded under the bill however have not been impacted. We support projects that will be funded using $10 million for Hudson-Raritan Estuary Water Quality Infrastructure/CSO Improvements are good for Cape May and White Cedar Swamp restoration, however towns and cities like Bayonne and Paulsboro that have suffered injuries from Exxon should be the main focus for restoration. Projects should also focus on urban areas too. There is a committee working on NRD right now on solutions for cities and towns affected,” said Jeff Tittel, Director of the New Jersey Sierra Club, “Communities affected by Exxon have been impacted twice by pollution and dumping and now a third time by diverting funding for clean-up and restoration projects.”