Week’s top environmental/political news: Aug 13-17

Some of the top stories appearing Aug 13-17 in EnviroPolitics. Captured from newspapers and other information sources in New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York and beyond.

NJ Environment

– Exelon hires lobbyists to promote nuclear reactor Two lobbyists being paid by the corporate owner of the Oyster Creek nuclear power plant announce the formation of a coalition that will tout the benefits of nuclear energy in the face of a grass-roots effort to close the Lacey reactor AP Press Star-Ledger AC Press – State says hauler put toxic dirt onto farm The 64-year-old owner of a Burlington County trucking company has been charged with billing the state for proper disposal of more than400 truckloads of contaminated soil, then dumping the dirt on a Moorestown farm
Courier Post Star-Ledger – Firms cry foul over Marcal’s cleanup deal A group of 73 businesses objects in federal court to the proposed settlement between Marcal Paper Mills and the federal government over Passaic River cleanup costs Herald News – DEP defends dredge spoils decision NJ DEP commissioner Lisa Jackson tries to convince an overflow Burlington County crowd that dredge deposits and nature hikes can peacefully coexist Courier Post – BASF wins lawsuit against supplier A Morris County jury yesterday ordered Texas-based chemical company Lyondell to pay BASF $170M after determining it overcharged the Florham Park-based business for eight years Star-Ledger – Buddhist ritual brings no peace to NJ enviro-regulators A New York sect of Amitabha Buddhists who bought hundreds of eels, frogs and turtles in Chinatown to set them free in the Passaic River face a NJDEP fine of up to $1,000 Herald News – Highlands Act is fair, court rules The state’s controversial law restricting development across a large swath of North Jersey doesn’t trample property owners’ constitutional rights, an appellate court ruled on Friday Express-Times Bergen Record
NJ Politics

– Poll: Voters concerned about Lautenberg’s age Three out of five NJ voters think it’s time for someone else to take his job, as Senator turns 84 as new term starts Star-Ledger

– Hospital in Paterson seeks bankruptcy protection Barnert the latest to seek relief from financial pressures Star-Ledger

– Behind bars, Brennan still owes investors Eight years after imprisoned stock promoter Bob Brennan agreed to pay $45M to settle allegations he directed stock frauds at two brokerage firms he was said to have secretly controlled, the state Bureau of Securities is taking steps to distribute nearly $5.6 million to certain investors Star-Ledger – After killings, sense of unity surprises Newark A brutal triple murder has provoked a level of outrage not seen since the riots of 40 years ago NY Times – Former MUA director gets 51-month jail term Former Western Monmouth Utilities Authority executive director Frank G. Abate is sentenced to 51 months in federal prison today for taking thousands of dollars in free architectural services paid for by developers with applications pending before the WMUA AP Press

PA Environment

– Site, timeline set for PA’s first ethanol plant BioEnergy International officials announce that they expect to begin construction as early as October on their new ethanol plant to be located in Clearfield Borough Technology Park Centre Daily Gant Daily – Report says renewable energy would lift PA’s economy Moving to “a renewable energy economy” would create more than $6 billion in new economic activity, including a $460 million increase in net farm income, and create more then 44,000 new jobs in Pennsylvania, according to a study released yesterday Post-Gazette – Coal industry all fired up about liquid fuels While the energy industry has been focused on alternative fuels and new sources of oil, the coal industry is going ahead with plants to turn coal into liquid fuels such as diesel and gasoline AP – PPL’s nuclear plant may hike power output in 2008 PPL could get permission as soon as January to increase the power it puts out from its Salem Twp. nuclear plant here, says an NRC official Press Enterprise – Rendell late in delivering global warming proposal Gov. Ed Rendell, who has been outspoken on the need to limit emissions of global warming gases, has not delivered on a promise to come up with his own strategy for Pennsylvania. Part of the problem may be the state’s prevalent use of coal for energy Associated Press – Rush has I-80 interchange compromise on the table Township supervisors may have found a compromise that will finally bring a proposed privately funded interchange off of Interstate 80 to a resolution The Progress
PA Politics

– Future of I-80 tolls unclear PA’s two U.S. senators differ over whether the state should toll I-80 to raise transportation money, and Gov. Ed Rendell’s again talking up the idea of leasing the Pennsylvania Turnpike instead Centre Daily

– Specter: Driven to crisscross the state When Sen. Arlen Specter takes the stage at one of his famous town-hall meetings, you can’t be sure what you’ll get Inquirer – New speaker O’Brien settles into role in divided House Rep. Dennis M. O’Brien is no obscure backbencher, but who could have been prepared for the history making deal in January that elevated the Philadelphia Republican, out of the blue, to speaker of the Democrat-controlled chamber? Observer-Reporter
New York/Nation/World

– 50 staffers cut from nuclear cleanup project Buffalo News

– Study: Dredging causing ‘leaks’ in Great Lakes AP

– Bloomberg’s traffic plan gets U.S. boost NY Times

– Spitzer ally returns to DEC to oversee 9-county region Times Union

– East River fights bid to harness its currents NY Times

– When it rains, sewage often pours into NY harbor NYT
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Week’s top environmental/political news: Aug 13-17 Read More »

The electric car’s slow shift from fantasy to fact

Picture yourself behind the wheel, cruising silently down the road, thumbing your nose at the gas station where you used to spend so much to fuel up.

Daydream? Today, yes. Tomorrow? Maybe not. The financial and political consequences of America’s dependence on foreign oil has made the design and production of a dependable and affordable electric car once again the topic of much news copy. And several developers, including General Motors and Tesla Motors, are making progress on prototypes that show promise but still may be years away form mass production.

Pictured, at left, GM’s Volt concept car which gets its juice from a high-voltage battery pack that can store enough energy to drive the car up to 40 miles in standard driving conditions. That battery pack is recharged by plugging the car into your standard home 110 volt wall outlet, just like you do your iPod or cell phone. It will take 6 hours to charge but overnight rates are lower, so you could do it while you snooze.

And to really get your motor revving, check out the Tesla Roadster which goes from 0 to 60 in about 4 seconds and can reach a top speed of over 130 mph. Its manufacturer claims the car will be able to travel more than 200 miles on a single charge of its lithium-ion battery system.

The electric car’s slow shift from fantasy to fact Read More »

Are solar-home developments feasible in the northeast?

Each of the 45 homes built in Meritage Homes Corporation’s new Encore Community development, in Vacaville, California, is equipped with a 2.3-kilowatt (kW) solar roof tile system from SunPower Corporation. The homes are also built to exceed state and federal energy efficiency standards by 35 percent or more.

This combination of solar power and energy-efficient materials should save each homeowner up to 70 percent on their utility bills, according to the builder.

OK, that’s in sunny California. And it also should work in Arizona, Florida, New Mexico and wherever else the sun shines consistently.

But what about in the cooler, shadier and often smoggier states like New Jersey, Pennsylvania and New York. Could such developments work here?

The surprising fact is that New Jersey, while it does not enjoy as many cloud-free days, is second only to California in the number of installed solar-energy systems. In 2001, a total of six NJ residents had installed solar tiles on the roofs of their homes to capture the sun’s rays and convert them into electricity. Since then, some 2,300 homes, businesses, houses of worship and schools have installed solar panels that generate about 38 megawatts of electricity — enough energy to power about 4,500 homes.

Those installing the systems have been encouraged both by the prospect of reducing their monthly electric bills and by generous state rebates paying up to 70 percent of the average $60,000 residential installation cost. (Commercial systems tend to be more expensive and their rebates are smaller).

But the New Jersey solar energy program has become a victim of its own success. It now has far more applicants than rebate money available, and the state is looking to develop a new funding source, which has some folks in the solar-energy business worried.

What we haven’t seen so far are entirely new residential construction developments–like the California example above–that offer homes engineered from scratch to be both highly energy efficient and energy producing.

Current land costs, environmental restrictions, and municipal add-ons have already pushed the cost of a new home beyond the reach of the average New Jersey wage earner. Solar energy systems can actually pay for themselves in avoided energy costs when operating for more than a decade. But their initial cost might pose too high a hurdle for residential track housing.

We’d love to hear from you if you have information to share on this topic. Just click on the “comment” line below and type away!

Are solar-home developments feasible in the northeast? Read More »

British bees and Parisian bikes

Since we posted Saturday on the topic of bees (Would hives collapse if the males worked more?), everywhere we look another story about the creatures and their catastrophe seems to appear.

I had assumed the problem was particular to the American honeybee. Sadly, this is not the case. Apiarists across the pond are confronted (and confounded) by a similar scourge, as related by Times (of London) columnist Ben Macintryre in Wake up! The bees are on their knees.

On a sunnier note, Parisians are doing their best to reduce carbon emissions by replacing Peugeot power with pedal power. The Times (again) reports on the Vélib’:


“Taxi drivers and other critics said that it would never work, but three weeks after Paris was sprinkled with 10,000 self-service bicycles, the scheme is proving a triumph and a new pedalling army appears to be taming the city’s famously fierce traffic.

Bertrand Delanoë, the city’s mayor, and his green-minded administration are jubilant at the gusto with which Parisians and visitors have taken to the heavy grey cycles that have been available at 750 ranks since July 15. “

You can read more about it here and here and here.

British bees and Parisian bikes Read More »

Fix our bridges? Nah, let’s bomb one instead

Last week’s bridge collapse in Minneapolis focused public attention, at least fleetingly, on the problem of our aging infrastructure. How many more infrastructure-failure deaths we wonder will it take to prompt lasting attention in the form of project development and funding?

The government’s failure to act is not surprising. Infrastructure isn’t politically sexy. As Gilbert Wesley Purdy writes:

“Largely ignoring the crumbling state of our national infrastructure has been a bi-partisan trait for decades now. The Republican successes of the past 20 years have been founded almost entirely upon the idea that government and taxes should be reduced. Democrats stumping for universal health care and other admirable big-ticket programs, during much of that time, as their alternative to Republican minimalism, have been in no position suggest yet another such program.”

Despite all that, Purdy reminds us that:

“In 2005, the American Society of Civil Engineers (ASCE) completed an infrastructure report card for the country. They estimated the total cost of recovering the public road systems, water systems, sewer systems, dams, levees and buildings, at $1.6 trillion over five years. The figure also includes projected expenses associated with the increased oversight of the U.S. power transmission grid which the group considered essential in order to avoid such debacles as the Great 2003 Blackout and the 2006 Queens Blackout.”

The situation, already serious, is likely to get worse. The Philadelphia Inquirer on Sunday reported :

“Sometime after October 2008, the main money source for interstate repairs, the federal Highway Trust Fund, is expected to start running a deficit. When that happens, some green-lighted reconstruction projects could have trouble getting the U.S. government to pay up, forcing states to put off essential road repairs.”

With so many other important needs competing for federal funds–like health care, education, medical research, alternative energy development, and environmental remediation–the obvious question is, where will all the money come from?

Would it be unpatriotic to note that, with Congress’s recent approval of an additional $100 billion, the total amount spent or allocated for the Iraq War is reaching an astounding half a trillion dollars?

Do you, fellow taxpayer, believe you’re getting an adequate return on that investment?

It may be titillating to watch American smart bombs blow up bridges in Baghdad, but wouldn’t it be even smarter to use the money to rebuild bridges at home?

Fix our bridges? Nah, let’s bomb one instead Read More »

Would hives collapse if the males worked more?

Setting out to research colony collapse disorder among domestic bees, New Yorker writer Elizabeth Kolburt became so interested in her subject that she began keeping bees in the woods near her Western Massachusetts home. Her hive is a wooden box that dangles from a wire strung to two tall trees, high enough to elude a bear’s reach.

One of the things Kolburt found interesting about bees is their incredibly cooperative social order. She estimates that some 50,000 bees inhabit her hive (about the size of a three-drawer file cabinet) and get along in a highly productive social order. Well, almost.

The occupants, she explains in a New Yorker audio report, are predominantly female. The females, she says, do all the work, while the “completely incompetent” minority, male occupants refuse to forage. They live off the women, won’t clean up after themselves, and, at the season’s end, are thrown out of the hive by the females and left to die.

That sounds to me like a happy, feminist ending to a Marxist fairy tale. But my “ex” might view it differently.

Would hives collapse if the males worked more? Read More »

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