promoted by the_promised_land - Thanks for drawing our attention to this important upcoming event!
Over recent weeks, Governor Christie has set to cut back on his campaign promises of a more energy efficient New Jersey by working toward scaling back the state goals of becoming more energy efficient. This issue is not something that only affects this great state, but also the other citizens of the US, and in the future, these actions will also affect the citizens of the world. The Governor's move to use inefficient practices in order to "save money" needs to stop in order to save our planet, and it is our duty as citizens to come together and work to promote better energy practices. We need to stand up and take action in some way. BUT, what if you want to do more than just pick up the phone to call your state legislators, how can you take your own action steps? The way that I learned how to create my campaign was by attending an Activist Workshop in Massachusetts where I learned a lot, not only about how to get a campaign like this started, but also how to engage more people. Not only this, I also learned a lot about myself, and that even though I was alone- I really wasn't because there were more people out there that also wanted to help, but just didn't know how. I know from experience that by learning how to create a great campaign, you can ultimately produce better results, have fun doing it, and make a major impact in your community. I urge you all to go to the Activist Workshop, sponsored by Environment New Jersey, in conjunction with New Jersey PIRG and The Public Interest Network, this Saturday because this is an opportunity of a lifetime, and you shouldn't pass it up! This is also a great way to meet people who are interested and excited about the same issues as you! Please come and learn how we can all work together to better the state of New Jersey in more ways than one. The information for the workshop is below, and I hope you all will attend. I promise- you won't be disappointed!!
Who: YOU!! Along with your other fellow activists and leaders.
What: An Activist Workshop. Learn how to create and work your own issues campaign.
When: THIS SATURDAY!! September 17th, 2011
Time: 11am - 2pm
Where: Rutgers University in New Brunswick, Douglass Campus
RSVP: https://secure3.convio.net/eng...
I hope that each of you reading this will find your voice within and come join Environment New Jersey to learn how to be better activists and leaders!
Just in case Jersey Jazzman's excellent series on Education Reform is not enough for you, dear reader, Blue Jersey is launching another series called Blue Jersey Focus. To help you stay informed on Garden State issues, we will be featuring government officials, political figures, and other movers and shakers, in exclusive video interviews. These interviews have run over successive days, today's is the final installment
It is fitting that as we move into the holiday weekend to recognize the contributions that organized labor has made to America's prosperity, our first guest is labor leader Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo of the 14th Legislative District.
Just in case Jersey Jazzman's excellent series on Education Reform is not enough for you, dear reader, Blue Jersey is launching another series called Blue Jersey Focus. To help you stay informed on Garden State issues, we will be featuring government officials, political figures, and other movers and shakers, in exclusive video interviews. These interviews are being run over successive days.
Who wants to go to this tomorrow? - promoted by Rosi
Join the Fracking Ban Caravan and say NO TO FRACKING IN NJ AND ACROSS THE COUNTRY!
In less than one month, the Delaware River Basin Commission could be voting on plans to allow fracking in thousands of acres of land in NJ, NY and PA that are under their control. In addition to destroying open space and polluting the air, this move would put the Delaware River, the drinking water source for over 15 million people, at risk of serious contamination.
Many people from across the region will be convening in Philly on September 7 to rally against fracking. If you are coming from New Jersey, we hope you can join us for this carpool to the demonstration. We will have signs, window paints and stickers you can use to personalize your own anti-fracking message on your car so you can tell the world why you support a ban on fracking!
Just in case Jersey Jazzman's excellent series on Education Reform is not enough for you, dear reader, Blue Jersey is launching another series called Blue Jersey Focus. To help you stay informed on Garden State issues, we will be featuring government officials, political figures, and other movers and shakers, in exclusive video interviews.
Just in case Jersey Jazzman's excellent series on Education Reform is not enough for you, dear reader, Blue Jersey is launching another series called Blue Jersey Focus. To help you stay informed on Garden State issues, we will be featuring government officials, political figures, and other movers and shakers, in exclusive video interviews. These interviews will be run over successive days.
It is fitting that as we move into the holiday weekend to recognize the contributions that organized labor has made to America's prosperity, our first guest is labor leader Assemblyman Wayne DeAngelo of the 14th Legislative District.
My interview with Assemblyman DeAngelo will be presented on four consecutive days from today through Saturday. Each segment will be posted around 6:00 PM.
Today, the assemblyman discusses politics, the tension between the governor and legislature, collective bargaining, and the governor's response to Hurricane Irene.
Thursday's segment is devoted to education - including charter schools, tenure, and testing. My thanks to Jersey Jazzman for his assistance in providing information and questions for this segment.
Friday's segment is about jobs and the state's energy policy, and how they are inexorably interrelated. Assemblyman DeAngelo also discusses the state's transportation policy.
Finally, on Saturday, we hear about the assemblyman's views on the transition from NJN to NJTV, marriage equality, his opinion on a full-time legislature, and his priorities for the General Assembly after the November elections.
Watch for future installments of Blue Jersey Focus where we talk to other decision makers and prominent personalities that impact our lives.
As Rosi reported in this morning's roundup, Sen. Barbara Buono is proposing to block the Christie Administration's "waiver rule" from going into effect. This rule would allow broad exemptions from any of the state's environmental laws on a case-by-case basis. It sets a troubling precedent because, well, when you can deal with regulatory applications on a case by case basis, it becomes a whole lot easier to treat your friends' cases differently from your enemies, continuing this Administration's attempt to centralize power at the top.
But this ain't any ordinary legislative proposal. It's a new exertion of legislative powers. And that makes it really interesting. More below the fold...
I wrote this diary for my blog, but what's true for the federal gas tax is also relevant to New Jersey's state gas tax. We can increase revenue and create jobs in the state while not impacting those who can least afford it. The dollar figures cited would be different for New Jersey, but the concept of increasing the gas tax has lots of benefits if it's done right.
The federal gas tax of 18.4¢ per gallon is set to expire at the end of September. Today's New York Times has an editorial titled The Clear Case for the Gas Tax, enumerating several reasons why this tax should not be allowed to expire. The money collected goes to the Highway Trust Fund, which in turn creates jobs and upgrades our deteriorating infrastructure.
No doubt, the Tea Party Republicans will oppose a proposed extension of this tax, claiming that in these tough times we need to reduce the amount of money that the government collects. They will most certainly ignore the fact that by further depleting the Highway Trust Fund, we will move construction workers from the role of tax payer to the role of unemployment insurance recipient.
It's good to know that Governor Christie is ok after suffering an asthma attack yesterday. Luckily, he recognized what it was, had his emergency inhaler and received the necessary treatment so he will be ok. News reports noted that he has suffered with asthma since he was a teenager.
And maybe we can all ask the Governor to sign it - or at least support policies that won't make our children sick. His number is:(609) 292-6000. And since I've got the day off today, I'll call as well, just because. Maybe Christie will take my call personally......
Tonight, the Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel and Americans for Prosperity's Steve Lonegan are debating the merits of New Jersey's (soon to be non-) participation in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. I'll be there, but I thought I'd post the live stream for those interested who can't make it.
The debate is scheduled for 7p, but if it hasn't quite started yet, you probaby have time to check out a description of the event, and extensive links with background information on RGGI, Click Here. Then, sit back, relax, and enjoy the fireworks:
Remember RGGI? That's the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative - the first real effort nationally to implement a "cap and trade" system in an effort to use market forces to reduce greenhouse gases. By most accounts, the program has been a success, raising hundreds of millions of dollars, while reducing carbon emissions, in ten northeastern states controlled by both democrats and republicans.
It really didn't seem too controversial in the Garden State, until this Spring, when Gov. Christie pulled NJ out of the program, a move most observers called pandering to a right-wing national audience, and which infuriated environmental groups. It got even more controversial when Democratic Sen. Paul Sarlo showed up for a press conference with "Americans for Prosperity" chief, Steve Lonegan, to announce his opposition to RGGI as well. Sarlo was soon followed by Sen. Nick Sacco and Sen. Jeff Van Drew in supporting the Christie move.
This prompted Sen. Barbara Buono (hey, why didn't they poll her against Christie the other day?) to write a post here on Blue Jersey calling out what she saw as a huge mistake, and other democrats in the Senate and Assembly to propose blocking Christie's move. Obviously, divisions within the party had begun, even before all the allegations about "fake democrats" and "Christiecrats" caught fire during the pension and budget battles.
Confused yet? I confess, I could use some education on the subject. So, I'm looking forward to next Wednesday's forum: Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative: Asset or Liability for New Jersey?, featuring none other than AFP's Steve Lonegan and the Sierra Club's Jeff Tittel. (Professor Alain L. Sanders, a member of the Political Science Department of St. Peter's College, will moderate the discussion.)
It's next Wednesday, July 27, 2011 from 7 to 9pm at the Ethical Culture Society of Bergen County, 687 Larch Ave, Teaneck, NJ, presented by Bergen Grassroots (DFA). See some of you there, and maybe just maybe we'll learn a few things - about RGGI, and about where our state is headed.
We face a serious crisis of conscience in New Jersey right now.
While campaigning, Gov. Chris Christie opined that we needed to do more about global warming, only to turn around after being elected and publicly express doubt over whether humans are impacting climate change. Just this week, he returned to his previous position that humans do play a role in climate change, yet yesterday announced that he is withdrawing New Jersey from one of the most monumental anti-global warming initiatives we have undertaken.
Well, it's official. Gov. Chris Christie has pulled the state out of the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), handing a big gift to the right-wing base that gives governors like him the big money, like the kind that powers Americans for Prosperity, which has made dismantling the 10 Northeast state compact one of its prime objectives. That's AFP, whose New Jersey leader Steve Lonegan was Christie's GOP primary opponent for governor, whose Tea Party followers spent most of Christie's first year kvetching he wasn't conservative enough, AFP, front group for oil and coal interests, largely underwritten by the Koch Brothers, billionaires David and Charles. Kinda people rising GOP stars need. Dig it.
WTF sign is Sarlo standing behind?
Sarlo: Inclined to blame Christie alone for all this? Think again. When he became the first Democrat to support AFP's anti-RGGI efforts, Sen. Paul Sarlo gave Christie's decision some Democratic cover. Yes, that's Sarlo behind the sign: I Am AFP!
Christie's had just a craptastic week - sagging poll numbers at home (you know, where it counts), a star-turn robo-call for the GOP loser in hot race NY-26, a Supreme Court ruling that undercuts his whole education zeitgeist. Worse, even reporters who used to be dazzled by him are beginning to report on his excesses, and his whole bluster and bullshit act is beginning to wear (except, apparently in Iowa). I'm sure he wants to get you talking about something else, anything but all that.
Dummies: This is an intelligent governor who nonetheless plays to the dummy chunk of his base by going along with the claim that there's insufficient proof of human-caused global climate change (yay, let's burn fuel and make our pals richer). Rutgers scientists even gave him a quiet science lesson. Sierra Club is apoplectic, roaring out with a 1432-word press release I won't recount here (not posted at their site yet). But it makes a pretty good case that Christie's choosing to make things easier for corporate polluters and the coal industry at the expense of your health. And that it has created (or saved) jobs, cut emissions and is supported by the state's major utilities. Christie's already raided $65 million from RGGI, money meant to support clean energy programs, diverted to the budget deficit.
RGGi is a first-of-its-kind initiative, and threats to it are national enviro news. NRDC just posted this poll that shows New Jerseyans will probably think their governor's headed in the wrong direction - increasingly.
We posted over this last night with an update about the Dem state conference changes - sorry, deciminyan - so I'm pulling it up top for a bit. - Rosi
For many years, my wife and I have been lucky enough to take a week's vacation every summer on Long Beach Island. We look forward to a time of relaxation and enjoyment of the pristine beaches. But during his first term in office, Congressman Jon Runyan is working to take that pleasure away from us.
Working in lock-step with his Republican colleagues, Runyan is actively promoting off-shore oil drilling in the Atlantic and providing the wealthy oil companies (i.e his campaign contributors) with more financial benefits - as if they need them.
To be fair, Runyan is delivering on campaign promises. I don't understand why Ocean County residents would vote for someone who will put their tourism industry in jeopardy, but they did.
Now Runyan is making it even more attractive for oil companies to drill. He voted on a bill to allow these companies to obtain new leases, even while they owe the government payments for fines from previous sins. And while he's voting to cut Medicare in the (false) name of fiscal responsibility, he also voted against elimination of taxpayer subsidies to oil companies.
Drilling off the Atlantic coast is not the way to solve our insatiable lust for energy. It's not a matter of whether an oil spill will devastate Atlantic beaches, it's just a matter of when and how badly.
Our vacations on LBI have become even more cherished over the last couple of years, as we have started a family tradition of having our grandson (and his parents!) visit us at the beach each summer. They live 300 miles from the nearest ocean, so this is a special time for our grandson as well as us. Let's hope that Runyan's pro-oil, anti-tourism approach magically avoids Murphy's Law and that we don't see a repeat of the BP disaster in our back yard. For our grandson's sake and the sake of all those kids who love the beach.
How many more years will my son and grandson be able to enjoy LBI if Oilman Runyan has his way?
If you're a regular reader of this blog, you are more likely than most to accept the fact that there are changes in the earth's environment that are a result of human action, and that most of these changes are detrimental to our quality of life and that of future generations. The scientists call this anthropogenic climate change. Similarly, you are probably frustrated with the influence that the corporate-funded denial industry has on the debate - especially when the facts are so clear that the need for a "debate" on this topic seems silly.
Yet, a large segment of the public is either skeptical about climate change or actively denies that it exists. To address this issue, a group of scientists and journalists convened today at Rutgers University at a seminar entitled, "Communicating About Climate Change - Research and Practice."
Frank Lautenberg laid it all out on the floor of the Senate yesterday, decrying the sharp rightward turn of the Republicans "on the other side of the aisle" to accommodate the Tea Party activists now controlling the GOP. On higher ed:
Here in Congress, tea party activists have seized control of the Republican side of the aisle. And it is far from a tea party for lots of jobless people, those qualified to study in college but just unable to pay the freight.
On the GOP plans to slash funding:
We know that cutting critical programs now brings high - sky high - prices later; more illnesses and a less educated society.
The Senator calls out the Tea Party's "toxic" agenda, proposed cuts to early education funding, college tuition assistance, medical research, women's health care and environmental protections. And that includes a big NO to "200,00 little kids who now go to Head Start."
Lautenberg urges a full-on rejection of the GOP's Tea Party agenda: "When they say, 'Have some Toxic Tea,' we must say: 'No.'" This is your senior Senator:
We often emphasize the fact that a way to make a difference and mitigate the scourge of anti-environment, pro-polluter Republicanism is to work hard to elect progressives at all levels of government. That's critical - we need regulations, standards, and incentives that only government can provide. But that's just one aspect of making the world greener and more sustainable.
Grass-roots action must go beyond the ballot box, and Sustainable Cherry Hill is one organization that is starting to "walk the talk." Two hundred environmentalists, businesspeople, senior citizens, and politicians gathered last night at Camden Community College in Blackwood to use their collective brainpower to develop ideas for sustainability. Don't let the name of the organization fool you - there were people from 35 towns in six counties participating in enthusiastic discussion in the school's cafeteria.
There's a term going around these days - "disruptive technology." It refers to innovations that result in a totally new way of using technology to do something that causes an existing technology to rapidly become obsolete. One example is portable music players. Soon they will completely supplant compact disk recordings, which itself was a disruptive technology that replaced cassette tapes.
Generation of electrical energy from wind is not strictly a disruptive technology because it will not totally replace fossil fuels (at least in the near term), but it does hold the promise of clean energy while reducing our dependence on dirty fuels like coal, oil, and uranium.
As reported today by the Star Ledger, AP and others, Governor Christie has killed the Liberty Natural Gas pipeline proposed to run both along the coast and underground through Middlesex and Union counties. In his statement, Christie cited "unacceptable risk to the state's residents, natural resources, economy and security" as his reasons for putting a halt to the project. Bravo, fearless leader.
But Hudson County? No soup for you! Despite a sustained and boisterous outcry from residents, activists, politicians (iike anti-pipeline firestarter JC Councilman Steven Fulop), Major Jeremiah Healy, the Sierra Club and the state DEP, Spectra Energy's proposed pipeline through Jersey City is still very much a go. And despite all the reasons to NOT build a 30" pipeline through the heart of one of NJ's most densely populated areas (explosions, airborne toxins, decreased property values and a laundry list of others), Governor Christie failed to file for Intervenor status with the Federal Energy Regulation Commission before the January 26 deadline. Now Spectra Energy is using flimsy claims of job creation as their latest diversion/stalling tactic. They seem happy to fend off the rabble for a short while longer, knowing that if Governor Christie does not speak up, the project will cross the rubicon all nice and neat-like.
Christie's reasons for killing the LNG project were solid. The same ones apply to the Spectra Energy gas pipeline proposed to run through JC. Why the inconsistency?
Last month, Gov. Christie said he thought "more science" was needed to convince him personally that the global warming effect is human-caused. Ignoring, or not being conscious of, real science in favor of 'science' directed by those who stand to gain maintaining the status quo, is a common refrain from the right. We've heard it before in NJ. Rush Holt, physicist and congressman, made an effort to address the Governor's concerns here at Blue Jersey.
Now there's another effort to offer some free tutoring on climate change to our Governor, hosted by a coalition of seven NJ environmental groups. Christie has been invited to attend, but you can go, too. It's open to the public. Given the Gov's busy schedule, the location couldn't be more convenient; it doesn't even require a commute (no fossil fuels burned). It's at the State House Annex. He's also been offered a private briefing at his scheduling convenience by the scientists involved.
Available to the Governor, and speaking at the State House program are Dena Mottola Jaborska (ED, Environment NJ and three well-known experts from Rutgers; Prof. Alan Robock (Dept. of Environmental Sciences) Prof. Paul Falkowski (Institute of Marine Sciences) and Dr. Jim Miller (Dept. of Coastal Sciences). The scientists will present a clear picture of the problem and discuss how climate change will impact NJ in the coming decades. I hope the Governor goes. We can't get ahead using the tremendous opportunity green technology & innovation and energy savings present if the guy at the top doesn't get it.
Climate Change Science Panel Today: 12 pm
State House Annex, Committee Room 1 on 1st Floor Open to the Public
Panel Sponsored By: Environment New Jersey, NJ Sierra Club, NJ Conservation Foundation, NY/NJ Baykeeper, Highlands Coalition, NJ Environmental Lobby, ANJEC and Audubon Society.
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If you're a regular reader of this blog, you are more likely than most to accept the fact that there are changes in the earth's environment that are a result of human action, and that most of these changes are detrimental to our quality of life and that of future generations. The scientists call this anthropogenic climate change. Similarly, you are probably frustrated with the influence that the corporate-funded denial industry has on the debate - especially when the facts are so clear that the need for a "debate" on this topic seems silly.
