Senate Budget and Appropriations Approves Bill Allocating Voter Designated Open Space, Farmland, and Historic Preservation Funding
Press Release • 3/1/2016
The New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved, with bipartisan support, a bill to appropriate the voter approved funds for open space, farmland, and historic preservation and stewardship. New Jersey Keep It Green (NJ KIG), the state’s largest coalition of conservation and historic preservation organizations, applauds the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for voting to approve S969.
Senate Budget and Appropriations Approves Bill Allocating Voter Designated Open Space, Farmland, and Historic Preservation Funding
Press Release • 3/1/2016
TRENTON, N.J. – The New Jersey Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee approved, with bipartisan support, a bill to appropriate the voter approved funds for open space, farmland, and historic preservation and stewardship. New Jersey Keep It Green (NJ KIG), the state’s largest coalition of conservation and historic preservation organizations, applauds the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee for voting to approve S969. This bill ensures that corporate business tax (CBT) revenues constitutionally dedicated to preservation and stewardship of New Jersey’s land, water and historic resources are used as intended by the voters. NJ Keep It Green urges members of the Assembly Budget Committee, and the full Legislature to vote on the bill swiftly. S969/A780 is sponsored by Senators Smith and Bateman, and Assembly members Andrzejczak, McKeon, Spencer, Pintor Marin, Dancer, Vainieri Huttle, and Land.
LCV cites NJ's best and worst in Congress on green issues
News Article • 2/25/2016
The New Jersey League of Conservation Voters today gave the highest score (100 percent) to four members of the state's congressional delegation for their 2015 voting records on environmental issues, while lambasting the lowest-scoring for being "complicit in extreme attacks on important environmental laws and more recent progress to protect our air, water, public lands, and wildlife.”
New Jersey LCV Announces Delegation Scores from LCV’s 2015 National Environmental Scorecard
Press Release • 2/24/2016
Trenton, NJ – New Jersey LCV today unveiled scores for the New Jersey delegation released as part of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) 2015 National Environmental Scorecard. The Scorecard includes the most votes ever scored and reveals the most anti-environmental Congress in our history. Nonetheless, President Obama, joined by some strong conservation allies from New Jersey, led the way on combating climate change and protecting our environment. The Scorecard is available in both English and Spanish at scorecard.lcv.org.
New Jersey LCV Announces Delegation Scores from LCV’s 2015 National Environmental Scorecard
Press Release • 2/24/2016
New Jersey LCV today unveiled scores for the New Jersey delegation released as part of the League of Conservation Voters (LCV) 2015 National Environmental Scorecard. The Scorecard includes the most votes ever scored and reveals the most anti-environmental Congress in our history. Nonetheless, President Obama, joined by some strong conservation allies from New Jersey, led the way on combating climate change and protecting our environment. The Scorecard is available in both English and Spanish at scorecard.lcv.org.
N.J. delegation gets mixed reviews from League of Conservation Voters
News Article • 2/24/2016 • by David Giambusso at Politico
The National League of Conservation Voters has released its annual congressional scorecard and the results for New Jersey are middling.
The environmental advocacy group rates senators and representatives based on their votes in their respective chambers on a slew of bills from 2015, ranging from clean energy to land conservation to pollution.
Protesters say no to offshore drilling
News Article • 1/31/2016 • by Amanda Oglesby at Asbury Park Press
ASBURY PARK - If the federal government approves oil and gas drilling offshore, a group of New Jersey elected officials, environmentalists and residents worry that beaches like Asbury Park's would be in jeopardy.
They envision a disaster like the one in Gulf Coast states after the Deepwater Horizon explosion of 2010, when millions of barrels of oil coated animals and slicked beaches for hundreds of miles. In the months afterward, crews cleaned oil and tar from beaches, ocean-dwelling animals died in unusual numbers, and that region's fishing and tourism industry were temporarily crippled.
Asbury Park Mayor John Moor said he worries a similar disaster could happen at the Jersey Shore.
OPEN-SPACE PRESERVATION FUNDING GETS PUT ON LEGISLATIVE FAST TRACK
News Article • 1/26/2016 • by Tom Johnson at NJ Spotlight
Hoping to free up funds sooner rather than later, a legislative committee yesterday quickly revived a bill to provide money to preserve open space, farmland, and historic structures.
Greens claim victory in Assembly elections
News Article • 11/4/2015 • by David Giambusso at Politico
Environmentalists ran a victory lap Wednesday as green candidates scored decisive victories in some Assembly districts and others staged upsets.
The environment and energy are usually considered less-burning topics in public opinion polls, though that dynamic has changed slowly in New Jersey since Hurricane Sandy. Green groups and pro-environment legislators say the election Tuesday is providing evidence that issues relating to climate change are becoming more important in the minds of voters.
"What we saw was a record number seeking our endorsement, a record number getting our endorsement and a record number winning," Ed Potosnak, executive director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters, said in an interview on Wednesday. "We had a record night last night."
The link between childhood health and available parkland
News Article • 8/15/2015 • by Ed Potosnak at NJ.com
Childhood health and obesity has increasingly become a problem. More than one-third of American children and adolescents are now either obese or overweight, according to the Centers for Disease Control. Rather than playing outside and being active, kids now spend five to seven hours a day watching TV, on the computer or playing video games. In many areas of New Jersey there simply are not enough open spaces for kids to get outside for healthy recreation.