EnviroPolitics Blog

Architects’ group will put solar on dozens of Habitat for Humanity homes

The District of Columbia-based American Institute of Architects is offsetting greenhouse gas emissions from a major renovation with a $500,000 donation that will cover the cost of solar panels on an estimated 72 homes.

By Elizabeth McGowan, Energy News Network

Virtue Solar operations manager Kim Monge Fera, center, directs high school classmates Ashton Wisecarver, left, and James Jackson as they hoist a solar panel in Warrenton, Virginia. Credit: Courtesy

Renovating a 50-year-old landmark structure in the heart of the nation’s capital is expected to save dozens of low-income Virginia families thousands of dollars on their electric bills.

It’s possible because of a new green pledge between neighboring entities that is simple yet trailblazing.

The District of Columbia-based American Institute of Architects (AIA) will offset greenhouse gas emissions generated from its major modernization by funding the bulk of 360 kilowatts of solar power on the roofs of Habitat for Humanity Virginia homes.

Jeff Heie, who directs the nimble startup Give Solar, will coordinate the installations over the next two years. AIA’s $500,000 donation will cover enough panels for 72 houses, he estimated.

“It’s huge,” the solar champion said about the gift’s role in crushing barriers to renewable energy.

Two years ago, he initiated a Give Solar-Habitat Virginia partnership via a pilot project with the housing nonprofit’s Central Valley affiliate. Both organizations are based in the Shenandoah Valley’s Rockingham County.

Since then, due to Heie’s doggedness, more than half of the 39 Habitat Virginia affiliates have either completed solar conversions or expressed interest in doing so.

Read the full story here

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Nine Mile Point nuclear plant in New York becomes the first to produce green hydrogen

From Renewable Energy World

Clean hydrogen production is underway at the Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station in Oswego, New York. The facility is the first of its kind in the United States to generate clean hydrogen using nuclear power.

This nuclear milestone is part of a $14.5 million cost-shared project between the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) and Constellation to demonstrate how nuclear power plants can help lower the cost and scale up the production of clean hydrogen.

Constellation will use the hydrogen generated on-site to help cool the power plant.

DOE supported the construction and installation of a low-temperature electrolysis system at the Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant that leverages the facility’s existing hydrogen storage system.

Constellation’s new Hydrogen Generation System produces hydrogen without emissions by using electricity generated at the plant to split water into hydrogen and oxygen.

The system started producing clean hydrogen in February to supply hydrogen for plant operations—a process that was previously dependent on trucked-in deliveries of hydrogen made from fossil fuels.

Read the full story here

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Did PFAS in Vets Stadium turf kill 6 Philadelphia Phillies? [UPDATED]

“Forever chemicals” which advocates say caused cancer clusters in Willow Grove and elsewhere are now correlated to the deaths of 6 Phillies.

By Justin Heinz, Patch Staff, March 6, 2023

PHILADELPHIA, PA — At a time when cigarette smoke clouded press boxes and club boxes, the Broad Street Bullies played next door, and powder blues were donned by the Phils unironically, one of the most notorious ballparks in the world was in south Philadelphia. It was a different age indeed, but for more than the cigar-chomping fanatics in Rose and Schmidt jerseys, holding golf pencils and scorecards as they prowled above the bowels of a stadium so violent and anarchic it had its own court and its own prison.

Veterans Stadium, for all its grit and guts and glory, harbored a dark secret: chemicals in the artificial turf, the AstroTurf once proclaimed as a futuristic technological wonder, known to cause cancer and other deleterious effects. And not just any chemicals, but the “forever” chemicals called per-and polyfluoroalkyl substances, also known collectively as PFAS, already infamous in the Philadelphia area and sparking scandal in communities around the country.

That’s according to a new investigative report from the Inquirer, run by reporters who purchased souvenir samples of the old Vet turf online and commissioned diagnostics through a local Eurofins Environmental Testing laboratory.

It’s the first study of its kind definitively linking PFAS to the Vet’s playing surface, which has already been under scrutiny and faded from style for a generation due to the number of joint injuries it caused players.

Six former Phillies who played at the Vet, which was the home of both the Phillies and the Eagles from 1971 to 2003, have all died from glioblastoma, a form of aggressive brain cancer. The names are so familiar to those of that broken golden age of Philadelphia baseball: Darren Daulton, David West, John Vukovich, John Oates, Ken Brett, and Tug McGraw.

Read the full story here

If you like this post you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

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Adirondack Park Agency goes 0-for-2 in lawsuits in 1 week

By RY RIVARD, Politico 03/06/2023 10:00 AM EST

ADIRONDACK PARK AGENCY LOSES TWO — The Adirondack Park Agency, tasked with overseeing six million acres of New York state, suffered two significant court losses last week in lawsuits challenging separate decisions the agency took and stood by in spite of controversy and major opposition.

On Friday, New York State Supreme Court Justice Robert Muller ruled that the agency improperly approved the use of a chemical herbicide in Lake George. The APA, as the agency is known in the North Country, last year issued permits to allow the application of the chemical ProcellaCOR in two parts of the lake to go after Eurasian watermilfoil, a tricky weed. The judge found the agency acted arbitrarily and capriciously by not holding a public hearing on the issue.

“It was the second of two court decisions this week rebuking how the agency, charged with long-range planning and overseeing public and private development in the 6-million-acre park, conducts business,” the Adirondack Explorer’s Gwendolyn Craig wrote.

The other decision, issued Thursday, invalidated a permit the agency had approved to expand a marina at Lower Saranac Lake. That case pitted the former head of the state Department of Environmental Protection, Thomas Jorling, against current state officials and dredged up years of uncomfortable questions about whether the state has know-how and will to protect the Adirondacks.

“While the decision from the state Supreme Court Appellate Division, Third Judicial Department, called the state’s failure to conduct a carrying capacity study of the lake ‘inexplicable,’ the court ruled that that failure did not prevent APA from determining the project would not have an adverse impact on the park’s surrounding environment,” the Explorer’s Zachary Matson reported.

Read the full column here

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Federal aid prefers Iowa corn over Jersey tomatoes

Unmasked — *People shopping at Astede Farms stand at Duke Farms Market in Hillsborough in July 2020. Ed Murray | NJ Advance Media*

By Jonathan D. Salant | NJ Advance Media for NJ.com

If you farmed in Nebraska, Illinois, or Iowa and needed help from the federal government because the coronavirus pandemic cut into your business, you likely got aid. After all, more than 9 out of 10 farmers did in those states.

But if you farmed in New Jersey, New Hampshire or Connecticut, no such luck. Fewer than 2 in 10 farmers in those states saw any federal help.

That’s because the COVID-19 assistance program funds were doled out according to existing farm formulas, which shortchanges New Jersey and other states without huge agribusinesses. The lion’s share of federal farm assistance goes to farms that grow wheat, corn, and soybeans at the expense of smaller farmers who grow fruits and vegetables.

In short, the feds say yes to sending aid for Iowa corn and no for Jersey tomatoes.

NJ Senator Cory Booker says he’s looking to even things out

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