Lumberton sidesteps early release of deputy mayor’s 911 call

Gina LaPlaca. (Photo: Nikita Biryukov for the New Jersey Globe)

David Wildstein, New Jersey Globe, October 30 2023 9:37 pm

Lumberton Township officials have so far declined to expedite requests for 911 calls and police body camera footage of an incident late Friday night that led to the arrest of Deputy Mayor Gina LaPlaca for assaulting her husband, political activist Jason Carty.

LaPlaca, a Democrat, is up for re-election in next week’s general election.

The New Jersey Globe asked for copies of the arrest reports, summonses, audio and video files under the state’s Open Public Records Act.  The municipality has seven business days to respond but was asked to provide the records immediately to obviate any appearance that they are making decisions based on the upcoming election.

Carty was arrested first, and based on his comments to the Lumberton Police Department, a sergeant was dispatched to their home to take LaPlaca into custody.  On Sunday, Carter said he was entirely at fault.

LaPlaca is at the center of a dispute in Neptune Township, where she is the business administrator.   A series of anonymous emails sent to Lumberton officials allege that she was involved in an inappropriate relationship with a police officer who was her subordinate.

In a telephone interview with the New Jersey Globe on Monday, LaPlaca confirmed the issue but insisted that nothing was improper.

“My relationship is purely professional.  We had a social relationship where we’d grab a beer together and talk shop,” La Placa told the New Jersey Globe.  “The social aspect of our relationship has been over for quite some time.  Some will try to make more of this than there is.”

Read the full story here

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Meet Andy Kim’s new campaign manager

Noah Dion has worked for Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg and helped Democrats win Senate and Governors’ races in Pennsylvania in 2022

Andy Kim for U.S. Senate campaign manager Noah Dion. (Photo: Noah Dion via LinkedIn.)


By David Wildstein, New Jersey Globe, October 27 2023 3:09 pm

Andy Kim has tapped a veteran political operative who worked for Joe Biden and Pete Buttigieg to manage his U.S. Senate campaign.

Noah Dion spent the 2022 cycle running the Pennsylvania Democratic Party’s coordinated campaign.  On his watch, Josh Shapiro was elected governor by a 15-point margin, and John Fetterman won a U.S. Senate seat by five points; both defeated New Jersey men, Doug Mastriano of Hightstown and Mehmet Oz of Cliffside Park, respectively.

He was the deputy national vote-by-mail director for Biden during the 2020 general election.  In the Democratic presidential primaries, Dion was Buttigieg’s New Hampshire Organizing Director and Ohio State Director.   Kim has close ties to Buttigieg: they were Rhodes Scholars together, and following Cory Booker’s withdrawal, he endorsed the former South Bend, Indiana mayor for president.

Dion has run multiple campaigns in Ohio and worked for the American Federation of Teachers and the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee.

Read the full story here

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Can you guess which is the poorest town in New Jersey?

Editor’s Note: We were wrong, guessing it was in Salem County

By Jesse P. Diaz, Newton (Ga.) County News

Lakewood, a municipality located in Ocean County, approximately 50 miles to the east of Philadelphia, holds the distinction of being the most economically challenged town in New Jersey. According to the data from the U.S. Census Bureau in 2019, Lakewood had a poverty rate of 40.5%, which was the highest among all places in the state with a population of at least 1,000.

Remarkably, Lakewood’s poverty rate surpasses that of nearly every city in the United States, with Pharr, Texas being the sole exception. In this blog post, we will delve into the factors contributing to Lakewood’s high poverty rate and explore both the hurdles and possibilities that the town confronts.

Established in the late 19th century as a resort destination for affluent visitors from New York and Philadelphia, Lakewood was renowned for its picturesque lake, upscale hotels, and golf courses. The town also drew in many Jewish immigrants and subsequently became a hub for Orthodox Judaism in America.

Over the course of the 20th century, Lakewood experienced transformative shifts affecting its economic landscape and demographics. The Great Depression, World War II, and suburbanization led to a decline in tourism and the closure of numerous hotels. Simultaneously, the town’s population became more diverse with an influx of African Americans, Hispanics, and immigrants from various countries.

Lakewood presents a stark contrast in terms of economic disparities, with a substantial gap between the wealthy and the impoverished. With a population of around 106,000 residents, it ranks as the seventh-largest municipality in New Jersey. The town is also home to one of the largest yeshivas (Jewish religious schools) globally, Beth Medrash Govoha, boasting over 6,500 students.

The Orthodox Jewish community accounts for approximately half of the town’s population, profoundly influencing its culture and politics. Additionally, Lakewood houses a sizable Hispanic community, primarily from Mexico and Guatemala, along with various other ethnic and religious groups. The median household income in Lakewood stands at $47,533, well below the state average of $89,703, and the town grapples with a high unemployment rate of 9.9%, compared to the state average of 6.7%.

Read the full story here

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Here are the worst of the worst climate polluters in 2022

EPA’s annual greenhouse gas report for large emitters shows some facilities slashed their emissions while others polluted more than ever.

The U.S. Steel Corporation Gary Works, Tennessee St. gate, in Gary, Indiana, in September. The Gary Works was the largest greenhouse gas emitting iron and steel plant in the U.S. in 2022 with 10.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Credit: Vincent D. Johnson / for Inside Climate News
The U.S. Steel Corporation Gary Works, Tennessee St. gate, in Gary, Indiana, in September. The Gary Works was the largest greenhouse gas-emitting iron and steel plant in the U.S. in 2022 with 10.3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions. Photo credit: Vincent D. Johnson / for Inside Climate News


By Phil McKenna, Inside Climate News October 29, 2023

Emissions from the largest greenhouse gas emitters in the U.S. were down slightly in 2022, but thousands of industrial facilities with substantial emissions remain, according to the Environmental Protection Agency’s recently released Greenhouse Gas Reporting Program data.

Emissions from large industrial sources decreased by approximately 1 percent to 2.7 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent in 2022, according to the annual update of emissions data released on Oct.  5. The data represents emissions from 7,586 industrial facilities across nearly all sectors of the economy and represents about half of all U.S. emissions.

An Inside Climate News analysis of the data highlights the top 10 greenhouse gas emitters as well as the top emitter for each of six leading greenhouse gases: carbon dioxide, methane, nitrous oxide, hydrofluorocarbons, perfluorocarbons and sulfur hexafluoride, the world’s most potent greenhouse gas. 

Related

The assessment also identified top emitters of CO2 and methane, the two leading drivers of climate change,  from each of several significant sectors of the economy for greenhouse gas emissions—refineries, steel mills, liquified natural gas (LNG) export terminals, and underground gas storage facilities. 

Some of the country’s largest climate polluters slashed their emissions in 2022 or said they are in the process of doing so, either voluntarily or by government mandate.

Moving off this year’s list was an underground natural gas storage facility, the Petal Gas Storage Compressor Station in Petal, Mississippi,  a once-leading climate polluter that reduced its methane emissions by 91 percent from 2018 to 2022 and is no longer the highest emitter among gas storage sites. Other industrial facilities remained top polluters in 2022 but said they have reduced or will reduce, their emissions by 99 percent or more by the end of this year. Still, others reported their highest emissions yet in 2022.  

Click for two ‘worst’ lists

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Appalachian hydrogen hub companies and projects finally revealed

By ANYA LITVAK, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

After more than a year of speculation, the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub finally lifted the cloak and named names.

The mammoth consortium that has been selected by the U.S. Department of Energy for up to $925 million in funding to establish a hub for methane-derived hydrogen production and use, includes 15 projects and more than a dozen companies. 

Shawn Bennett, energy and resilience division manager at Battelle, and a former DOE assistant secretary, said he’s never been involved in anything this big. What some have derided as a lack of transparency has been a mad-dash, super-competitive process that’s still not over, he said. Negotiations with DOE are slated to last the next few months until the award is secured.

Still, “the cloak of competition has been removed,” said Melanie White, director of strategic engagement with Allegheny Science and Technology who is leading community engagement efforts for the hub. 

Ms. White and Mr. Bennett unveiled the projects at a DOE-run public webinar. 

The map they presented on Tuesday was different from the one Mr. Bennett showed during a presentation at an oil and gas industry conference, Shale Insight, last month. Most notably, it included the names of the companies and which projects they were developing. It also slimmed down its Pennsylvania inventory.

The map shows two dots in the Keystone State: one, in Fayette County, is EQT’s planned natural gas-derived hydrogen facility that would turn some of it into aviation fuel and sell the rest to Air Liquide, a French chemical company that plans to turn hydrogen into ground transportation fuel. The other is KeyState Zero’s project in Clinton County. This expanding effort has been in the works for years. It aims to marry onsite gas drilling with hydrogen, ammonia, and urea production and carbon sequestration.

Read the full story here

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Hydrogen Storage, Distribution, and Transportation: Developments in Hydrogen Carriers

Hydrogen Carriers


By Clare Frederick, Jason A. Engel of K&L Gates

According to the joint EPO-IEA report summarizing patent trends in the hydrogen economy  (summarized here), technologies related to storage, distribution, and transportation of hydrogen are among the most critical challenges for large-scale deployment. Standardized infrastructure for hydrogen trade is essential to allow the market to function and flow.

While trends show that established technologies have generated high levels of patent-related activities, emerging technologies such as the use of hydrogen carriers are key to encouraging widespread hydrogen distribution systems. Patent filings in the fields of liquid organic hydrogen carriers (LOHCs) and ammonia cracking, two example hydrogen carriers discussed below, have increased since 2011.

Conventional storage and transportation of hydrogen relies on liquid-compressed hydrogen, which is stored at either extremely high pressures or extremely low temperatures. LOHCs and ammonia cracking enable hydrogen to bond with a stabilized carrier, which allows for safer and more economical transportation. The two examples below illustrate the types of improvements that have been patented recently.

Ammonia Cracking

Ammonia cracking is the process of using ammonia as an energy carrier for transporting hydrogen. In this process, hydrogen is first produced through means such as electrolysis and then combined with nitrogen extracted from ambient air using an air separator to produce green ammonia, which can be transported using conventional means. Once the green ammonia arrives at its destination, the compound is separated into hydrogen and nitrogen using an ammonia-cracking process.

Topsoe A/S recently received US Patent No. 11,511,991 (‘991 Patent) issued 29 November 2022, entitled “Autothermal Ammonia Cracking Process.” The ‘991 Patent discloses a process for ammonia cracking that reduces or eliminates the need to remove residual nitrogen oxides from the cracked gas.  (NOx), a common byproduct of ammonia cracking, are gases that contribute to air pollution and present health hazards.

Read the full story here

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