EnviroPolitics Blog

Expect extended shipment delays if ports go on strike

Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, US, on Saturday, March 30, 2024. The bridge collapse Tuesday that shut the Port of Baltimore and closed a major highway will cause weeks or months of transportation disruptions in the Mid-Atlantic region and accelerate a shift of cargo to the US West Coast as importers and exporters try to avoid potential bottlenecks at trade gateways from Boston to Miami. Photographer: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images — *Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, US, on Saturday, March 30, 2024.*

By Lisa Baertlein, Reuters

LOS ANGELES, Sept 18 (Reuters) – A threatened Oct. 1 strike by dockworkers at ports on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico would immediately disrupt the flow of goods in the country, the North America chief executive of French container carrier CMA CGM said on Wednesday.

The International Longshoremen’s Association union represents 45,000 workers at 36 ports including New York/New Jersey, Houston and Savannah, Georgia. The union has vowed to stop work if it does not have a new labor agreement in place when the current six-year contract expires on Sept. 30 at midnight.

“The moment you close the door, things begin to back up,” George Goldman, CMA CGM’s North America chief, said on a webcast hosted by the Port of Los Angeles.

“One day is too long” for port closures, he said.

CMA CGM is a member of the United States Maritime Alliance employer group that is negotiating with the ILA.

The ports that stand to be affected handle about half of U.S. imports. Worried retailers, manufacturers and other ocean shippers have been shifting some cargo to the West Coast to cut the chance of having cargo stuck at idled facilities.

Analysts at Sea-Intelligence, a Copenhagen-based shipping advisory firm, estimate it could take anywhere from four to six days to clear the backlog from a one-day strike.

A two-week strike could mean that ports would not return to normal operations until 2025, Sea-Intelligence said.

Read the full story here

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Last lap coming for New Jersey’s historic Freehold Raceway

By Brianna Kudisch | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

Freehold Raceway — the oldest operating racetrack in the country — is ceasing all live racing and simulcast operations at the end of the year, racetrack officials announced Thursday.

The last day at the horse-racing track in Monmouth County will be Dec. 28. New Jersey’s other tracks — Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands — are not affected by the closure.

“This was an extremely difficult decision, especially given the historical importance of Freehold Raceway to the local community and the New Jersey horse racing industry,” said Howard Bruno, the raceway’s general manager.

Read the full story here

Related news:
Landmark Freehold Raceway to cease operations (Asbury Park Press)
Nation’s oldest daytime harness racing track, announces closure (News12 video)

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Microsoft wants to pay to reopen the Three Mile Island nuclear plant

Constellation Energy Corp. says it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1.

Reactor operators Brian Bowers (left) and Bryan Bricking in the control room of Three Mile Island in 2017. Constellation Energy Corp. signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to provide power from TMI Unit 1. That reactor is located at an independent facility from Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after a partial meltdown. Clem Murray / Staff Photographer

By Andrew Seidman, Philadelphia Inquirer

Five years after a nuclear reactor at the Three Mile Island plant in central Pennsylvania closed amid financial troubles, its owner wants to bring it back online.

Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corp. said Friday that it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1. That reactor is located at an independent facility from Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after experiencing a partial meltdown.

Constellation said it would spend $1.6 billion to restart Unit 1 — and won’t seek “a penny in grant money” from the state or federal governments — which the company said “operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades.” Federal regulators would need to approve a restart, though it already has support from Gov. Josh Shapiro. The company said it expects the reactor to come online by 2028.

“I think policymakers have recognized that a strategy that is dependent just on wind, solar, batteries isn’t going to fully get us there and meet the needs of the system from a reliability standpoint,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president and CEO, said in an interview.

The Three Mile Island power plant complex in Londonderry Township, Pa. Unit 2, on the left, infamously shut down in 1979 after an accident. Unit 1, on the right, was shut down in 2019 for financial reasons.Read moreClem Murray / Staff Photographer

For Microsoft, buying energy from the renewed plant, dubbed the Crane Clean Energy Center, will “help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy,” according to a news release. Valley Forge-based PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization, operates the electric grid in 13 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

Read the full story here

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Newark residents told toxics better left locked underground

By Brenda Flanagan, NJ Spotlight

What lies beneath this cement cap along the riverfront in Newark’s Ironbound makes it one of America’s most toxic Superfund sites in the country. The Diamond Alkali chemical plant manufactured Agent Orange, used as a defoliant during the Vietnam War, and it poisoned the site with dioxin — a cancer-causing byproduct so toxic, the EPA sent workers in hazmat moon-suits to vacuum the streets back in the early 1980s.

Residents still remember that, and more than 40 years later during a public hearing this week on the site’s future, they were still asking the EPA about its plans.

“What’s the plan to keep the community safe? In the past, the community got screwed,” complained one Ironbound resident named Sharon. “They were sitting outside watching people in hazmat suits cleaning up.”

Speaking at the hearing, Eugenia Naranjo, the EPA’s project manager, said the waste is “not migrating.”

“The community has no access,” she said. “There are no risks from it.”

EPA officials said that for 37 years, the agency contained the toxic chemicals on-site — locked up within underground slurry walls. The agency contends that remains the best, most cost-effective option to safely secure the site for years to come.

Read the full story here

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Siting debate postpones vote on new incinerator in Miami-Dade

The Miami-Dade County Department of Solid Waste Management is facing a budget shortfall after only increasing its fee three times in the last decade.

A Miami-Dade County side-loading waste collection truck picks up a garbage bin on a street.

By Jacob Wallace, Waste Dive

Miami-Dade County, Florida, officials once again delayed a decision on siting an incinerator in the county at a meeting Tuesday. The decision came as county commissioners said they needed more time to assess their options.

The decision was pushed back until the board’s Nov. 6 meeting, delaying the permitting process for what would be a facility with up to 4,000 tons per day of capacity.

Commissioner Keon Hardeman initially moved to defer the item from the county’s agenda. He said the decision should not be taken lightly given the history of “Old Smokey,” an incinerator that polluted the neighborhood of West Coconut Grove for decades, or the former refuse-derived fuel facility in Doral, which was destroyed in a fire last year.

“This plant burned down. Maybe that was a good thing, maybe it wasn’t. But whatever it is, I feel like we need to make the decision about it with all of the information and not feel rushed,” Hardeman said.

The county is currently considering four sites: a portion at the dormant Opa-Locka West Airport; the site of the former WTE facility run by Covanta, now Reworld, in Doral; a filled quarry site in Medley; and a site in Okeechobee offered by a developer. In a memo sent to county officials on Friday, Mayor Daniella Levine Cava said she supports the airport site, which her office said had the second-lowest total cost of development and second-quickest development time.

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Atlantic City mayor, wife charged with abusing daughter

Atlantic City Mayor Marty Small Sr. and his wife, La’Quetta Small, the city’s superintendent of schools, have been indicted on child endangerment as well as other charges on allegations of emotional and physical abuse of their teenage daughter. Mayor Small was also charged with making terroristic threats.

By Briana Vannozzi, NJ Spotlight

Prosecutors alleged both parents abused their daughter on multiple occasions, including an allegation the mayor struck the girl on the head with a broom, causing her to lose consciousness, along with punching her and leaving bruises. Prosecutors also alleged the mayor threatened to “smack the weave out” of her head during the incident.

La’Quetta Small is accused of punching and bruising her daughter on several occasions. She is also accused of dragging her daughter by the hair and striking her with a belt on her shoulders.

According to the indictment, Small’s daughter, who was 15 at the time, reported the abuse allegations to Atlantic City High School Principal Constance Days-Chapman. Days-Chapman, who did not inform authorities as required by law, was indicted on official misconduct and child endangerment charges.

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