Author: hankkalet

Hank Kalet is a poet and freelance journalist. He is the economic needs reporter for NJ Spotlight, teaches journalism at Rutgers University and writing at Middlesex County College and Brookdale Community College. He writes a semi-monthly column for the Progressive Populist. He is a lifelong fan of the New York Mets and New York Knicks, drinks too much coffee and attends as many Bruce Springsteen concerts as his meager finances will allow. He lives in South Brunswick with his wife Annie.

Green fight goes to court

New Jersey Gov. Jon Corzine is tired of waiting for the federal government to approve California’s emission restrictions — a delay that has similar New Jersey rules on hold. So the governor is adding the state to a lawsuit filed by California and several states (New York, Connecticut, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and Washington) that seeks to force the issue.

As The Record points out today,

If the permission is granted, New Jersey will require dealers to sell 168,000 hybrids and other low-emissions vehicles in 2009, and more in the future. The cleaner cars are part of a plan to reduce the pollution caused by carbon dioxide emissions 20 percent over the next 10 years. In as heavily trafficked a state as this one, that would have a lot of people breathing more easily — as well as reducing the greenhouse gases that contribute to climate change. Vehicles account for about half the annual greenhouse gas emissions in New Jersey.

This is only a drop in the greenhouse bucket, of course, but it is a start and could encourage other states to move ahead with their own tighter regulations. That, in turn, could get the federal government moving — which would make it a lot easier to convince nations in the developing world to pay attention to climate change.

In the end, global warming can only be addressed by a worldwide commitment led by the world’s biggets polluter — the United States.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Runner’s diary, Wednesday

Ran inside because of the morning rain. My plan was to knock out four miles, but I pushed to five and was pleased. Did it in 43:10 — a cool 8:38 pace. So far, 14 miles for the week with at least one more running day (hopefully, two) to go.

Music: Best fo R.E.M., the early years.

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.

Another critic heard from on Mukasey;this time from the right

Saw this on Chris Suellentrop’s Opinionator blog on the New York Times and thought I’d pass along the link. Essentially, we have a conservative (Ron Dreher) who finds significant constitutional issues in Judge Michael Mukasey’s answers to questions on torture and executive power.

I say they shouldn’t vote for him, period. This country cannot afford an attorney general who believes that executive power should be expanded so greatly. I don’t care if the office sits vacant until Bush is out of office. The line has to be drawn by the Senate.

Read my Dispatches column tomorrow for my take (Hint: It is the same as Ron Dreher’s.)

South Brunswick Post, The Cranbury Press
The Blog of South Brunswick

E-mail me by clicking here.

Email me at grassroots at comcast dot net.