Contacts

Newark
Phone: (973) 639-8700
Toll Free: (888) 398-1642
Fax: (973) 639-8723

Camden
Phone: (856) 338-8922
Fax: (856) 338-8936

Washington, DC
Phone: (202) 224-3224
TTY: (202) 224-2087
Fax: (202) 228-4054

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Protecting the Environment

 

  • Preventing Oil Spills: Following the 2004 incident in which the Athos I, a single-hulled oil tanker ship, spilled 265,000 gallons of crude oil into the Delaware River, Senator Lautenberg sought to change federal law to force oil shippers to switch to “double-hull” tankers. He successfully inserted new standards into the 2006 Coast Guard law to nearly triple the federal liability limits for shippers who continue to use single-hulled vessels instead of much safer double-hulled vessels (Public Law No. 109-241).

 

  • Turning Federal Buildings Green: Senator Lautenberg’s “High Performance Green Buildings Act” (110th Congress, S.506) became law on December 18, 2007, as part of broader energy legislation. (Included in S.Amdt.1502 to H.R. 6, which was approved on June 21, 2007; H.R. 6 enacted as Public Law No. 110-140 on Dec. 19, 2007). Lautenberg’s law will improve the energy efficiency, indoor air quality and environmental impact of our nation’s federal buildings, including a reduction in greenhouse gas emission.

 

  • Brownfields: Congress approved Senator Lautenberg’s amendment to relieve tax-exempt entities such as foundations and university endowments from paying the “unrelated business income tax” when their investments are used to clean up Brownfield sites (108th Congress, Public Law No. 108-357).

 

  • Stopping Ocean Dumping: When concerns arose about the source of syringes on New Jersey's beaches and threatening public health during the 1980s, Senator Lautenberg authored legislation requiring a tracking program for medical waste in New York, New Jersey, Connecticut, and the Great Lakes states. Senator Lautenberg also wrote the 1988 laws banning ocean dumping of sewage and plastics (Public Law No. 92-532).

 

  • Coastal Heritage Trail: On May 08, 2008, Senator Lautenberg’s legislation to reauthorize and protect the Coastal Heritage Trail in New Jersey (S. 1039) became law as part of the Consolidated Natural Resources Act (Public Law No 110-229).

 

Senator Lautenberg speaks during a press conference at Overlook Park in Paterson to announce the Great Falls Urban Design Competition. Lautenberg is joined Governor Corzine. (November 29, 2006)

 

  • Great Falls in Paterson: In March 2009, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a package of public lands bills (H.R. 146) introduced in the previous session of Congress, including Senator Lautenberg’s legislation (S. 148, H.R. 189) to make Great Falls in Paterson a National Historical Park. This legislation became law on March 30, 2009 (Public Law No 111-11).

 

  • BEACH Act: Senator Lautenberg’s BEACH bill was signed into law by President Clinton. The law requires consistent water quality standards across all states and an improvement in the public’s right to know about the safety of beaches (Public Law No. 106-284).

 

  • Toxic Right-To-Know: In 1986, Senator Lautenberg created the Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) giving residents the right to know about toxic emissions companies spew into the air, water and ground from chemical facilities (Public Law No. 99-499). In late 2006, the Bush Administration implemented new rules that severely weakened reporting requirements under TRI. On March 11, 2009, Lautenberg successfully led efforts to overturn the Bush EPA’s rules in the FY2009 Omnibus Appropriations Act (H.R. 1105, Public Law No 111-8), based on Lautenberg’s “Toxic Right-to-Know Protection Act” (S. 595), which passed the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee on July 31, 2007 (Committee Report 110-253).

 

  • Trash Along Railways: When unregulated rail waste sites began to proliferate in NJ, Senator Lautenberg wrote a law to allow states to regulate the health, safety, and environmental protection of solid waste handling at these sites. In 2007, the Senate Commerce Committee approved Lautenberg’s Clean Railroads Act of 2007 (S.719, included via amendment to S.1889), to allow states to regulate these waste sites. The full Senate passed S. 1889 on October 1, 2008, as part of H.R. 2095. H.R. 2095, and Lautenberg’s Clean Railroads Act, became law on October 16, 2008 (Public Law No 110-432).

 

  • Ocean Acidification: In March 2009, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a package of bills (H.R. 146) introduced in the previous session of Congress, including Senator Lautenberg’s “Federal Ocean Acidification Research and Monitoring Act” (S. 1581). This legislation passed the Senate Commerce Committee on December 4, 2007 (Committee Report Number 110-339), and establishes a federal committee led by NOAA to research, monitor, and coordinate activities on ocean acidification across federal agencies.

 

  • Coastal Land Protection: In March 2009, both the House of Representatives and the Senate passed a package of bills (H.R. 146) introduced in the previous session of Congress, including the “Coastal and Estuarine Land Protection Act” (S. 1142), introduced by Senators Lautenberg and Gregg (R-NH). This legislation passed the Senate Commerce Committee on June 5, 2007 (Committee Report Number 110-78), and awards grants to states with approved coastal management programs to protect environmentally sensitive lands.