EPA DEFERS ON HUDSON RIVER — POLITICO’s Marie J. French: President Joe Biden’s administration is delaying a key decision about whether dredging the Hudson River to remove harmful chemicals dumped by General Electric will allow people to safely eat fish from the river. The Environmental Protection Agency on Wednesday released its third five-year review of the cleanup of the nation’s largest Superfund site. The agency said it doesn't have enough data to make a decision on whether the dredging that ended in 2015 is working as intended. More data on the level of PCBs — polychlorinated biphenyls — in fish tissue is needed, EPA Region 2 Administrator Lisa Garcia said in a briefing with reporters. “The road to recovery by the Hudson River is long,” Garcia said. “It'll be many years before people can fish and swim regularly in the Hudson River — especially fish. But we recognize that this is longer than people wanted to take so we are actively in the river monitoring every year, and we will continue to be looking closely at that data.” An addendum to the third five-year review could come as soon as next year, once the agency has had time to review preliminary data from fish collected in 2024. ADVOCATES OPPOSE EPA HUDSON RIVER DECISION: Environmental and community health groups that have pressured the EPA for years to take more action to clean up the Hudson River are criticizing the federal agency for deferring action — again. Advocates for the Hudson River and the communities along it slammed the delay, saying the science is already clear. “With this misguided ruling, EPA is not only abdicating its legal and ethical responsibilities but it damages the integrity of the entire federal Superfund program,” said Scenic Hudson President Ned Sullivan in a statement. “Scenic Hudson has been fighting for a clean river for decades — and we won’t stop until EPA acknowledges its remedy has failed and the agency commits itself to additional cleanup.” “The EPA's conclusions disregard clear data trends and contradict environmental justice principles,” said Riverkeeper President Tracy Brown in a statement. “PCB concentrations continue to persist in the Upper Hudson River at hazardous levels, continuing to endanger both humans and wildlife.” Riverkeeper and Scenic Hudson are among the groups backing a report released last year that analyzed the available data and made the case that the fish in the river are not recovering at a pace to meet the original goals of dredging PCBs dumped by GE decades ago. But EPA Hudson River field office director Gary Klawinski said there’s too much variability from year to year and across species to “draw a line … that’s reliable” without eight years of information. “We're in the time period of getting close to knowing that we can assign a reliable trend to the fish,” he said. “If someone is looking at only a certain number of years of data, it's possible that their interpretation of that data might not be reliable.” Klawinski said looking at fewer years of data, “You could easily make a mistake and say it’s recovering, and it not be, or the other way around — it’s recovering and it isn’t.” What about DEC? The agency has pushed generally for additional action to clean up the river and more data collection. Spokesperson Cecilia Walsh said in a statement the agency was reviewing the report closely. “DEC is committed to working with the EPA to fully assess and develop further actions to hold GE accountable for fully addressing unacceptable levels of contamination that remain in the river, safeguarding the Hudson River and its surrounding communities and environment for future generations,” Walsh said. — Marie J. French DEC DROPS DRAFT WETLAND REGULATIONS: A key victory for environmental groups in the 2022 budget deal to expand protections for freshwater wetlands is closer to becoming a reality. The Department of Environmental Conservation on Wednesday released draft regulations to implement the broader protections, which include DEC jurisdiction over wetlands down to 7.4 acres, ending reliance on outdated maps and protecting even smaller areas deemed to be of “unusual importance.” New protections for those of “unusual importance” kick in next year and the lower 7.4-acre threshold kicks in starting in 2028. More than 1 million additional acres of wetlands will be protected, according to DEC. Comments are being accepted through Sept. 19 and hearings are scheduled for Sept. 10 and 12. — Marie J. French TRANSMISSION PLANNING PUSH: Ten states have formalized an agreement to collaborate on efforts to plan for regional and interregional, offshore and onshore transmission systems. The memorandum of understanding released Tuesday was signed by leaders from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Rhode Island and Vermont. Discussions began last year. Abe Silverman, a former top official with the New Jersey Board of Public Utilities, is facilitating the multistate collaborative. “New Jersey is not alone in experiencing increasingly frequent extreme weather events and record-breaking temperatures that threaten public health and safety,” said New Jersey Gov. Phil Murphy in a statement. “We are also not alone in our response to the intensifying climate crisis, which provides crucial opportunities to leverage inter-regional partnerships toward improving our collective resilience and economic vitality. As the Garden State bolsters its standing as a national offshore wind hub, we will continue working tirelessly alongside our regional partners to improve grid reliability.” The MOU recognizes that integrating shared transmission priorities into regional planning may have benefits and that common standards for offshore wind transmission could reduce costs in the future to meet state and federal offshore wind goals. The states also place some responsibility on the federal government. “Federal policy and programmatic support is desirable to facilitate regional and interregional transmission planning for offshore wind and other clean energy objectives,” the agreement states. Of course, the big hurdle to regional transmission planning — including the dream of an offshore grid — is who pays for it. The MOU doesn’t attempt to tackle that thorny issue. The group of states does plan to develop a strategic plan for offshore wind transmission, including barriers to those types of projects and actions to address them. “Our collective planning now will ensure that we maximize investments in infrastructure that are foundational to meeting power system demands in the decades to come,” said Jason Marshall, Massachusetts Energy and Environmental Affairs deputy secretary for federal and regional energy affairs. — Marie J. French PRESSURE ON RGGI — POLITICO’s Jordan Wolman: A coalition of environmental groups is making the first move to apply organized pressure on 10 Eastern states to set new climate goals for a regional carbon market and provide a status update on a review of the program that is more than 18 months overdue. The groups said in new letters, led by Acadia Center and released Wednesday, that they “have grown increasingly concerned with the lack of communication and engagement” from the Northeastern and mid-Atlantic states participating in the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative. GATEWAY TUNNEL DEAL INKED: Gov. Kathy Hochul hailed President Joe Biden’s leadership during the celebration for the nearly $6.9 billion in federal funding for the Hudson Tunnel. The joint effort from New York and New Jersey, which Sen. Chuck Schumer described as “probably the largest public works project in the country,” will create a new rail tunnel connecting the two states and also rehabilitate the existing tunnel. “Yes, we will give praise to President Biden,” the governor said at an announcement for the Gateway Development Commission’s Hudson Tunnel Project. “I think we give him a huge round of applause for not just loving Amtrak, loving trains, but being truly the embodiment of what an infrastructure president actually is and does.” The major funding win comes as Hochul is still dealing with the fallout of her decision to indefinitely pause the congestion pricing toll program weeks before it was set to start. She still has not come up with a solution to the $16.5 billion now missing from the MTA’s Capital Plan budget, even though she continues to promise that no MTA projects will be delayed. Billions of dollars expected in federal matching programs for projects like the Second Avenue Subway extension also hang in the balance. “As the governor cheers one project, her flip flop lost New York the biggest ever federal capital investment grant, which would have built the Second Avenue subway to East Harlem,” Danny Pearlstein, the spokesperson for transit advocacy group Riders Alliance, said in a statement. “While wooing suburbanites, who hate her, the governor has abandoned millions of city bus and subway riders, who elected her and are stuck waiting for reliable and accessible public transit." Speaking to reporters at the Gateway announcement last Monday, Deputy U.S. Department of Transportation Secretary Polly Trottenberg also touched on congestion pricing, saying she was blindsided by Hochul’s decision to suspend the program. — Jason Beeferman IDLING SCHOOL BUSES TARGETED: Attorney General Tish James announced a settlement with four school bus companies over alleged excessive idling of vehicles in low-income communities. The deal requires all four companies — Consolidated Bus Inc., Logan Bus Company, Pioneer Transportation Co., and Total Transportation Corp. — to invest up to $2 million each in electrifying their current fleet or purchasing new electric buses. "School bus companies play an important role in getting children to and from school safely, but they should be able to do so without polluting our communities,” James said in a statement. The idling was identified by technology installed on all city school buses. The companies will install new automatic idling shut-off timers and train their drivers. New York state is targeting all-electric school buses by 2035. — Marie J. French ENVIRONMENTAL BOND BUILDING PLANS: The state wants input on guidelines for a bond act-funded program to lower emissions from state-owned buildings. DEC and NYSERDA released the draft guidance last week. Eligible projects include installing renewable energy, green roofs, heat pumps or other clean heating or cooling systems, building electrification and projects to reduce energy use would be eligible for funding. An energy plan or equivalent for the building must have been completed. Installing fossil fuel systems or conversions to natural gas are not eligible for funding. Comments are due Aug. 2. — Marie J. French
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