EnviroPolitics Blog

Not Trump, Not Disney: DiSantis’s latest headache

By Elena Shao, New York Times, April 19, 2023

Floating mats of seaweed accumulate in the central Atlantic Ocean for much of the year. But during the spring and summer, patches of it are carried by ocean currents toward the Caribbean, eastern Florida, and elsewhere along the Gulf Coast.

It’s hard to predict how much will creep onto beaches in the coming months, but the right combination of ocean currents and wind conditions could push a lot of it ashore, experts said.

Some parts of the Florida Keys have already seen unusually large amounts of seaweed for this time of year, said Brian Lapointe, a research professor at Florida Atlantic University who has studied Sargassum for most of his career.

“I was amazed at what I saw driving along the Overseas Highway,” he said, referring to the main road that runs through the Keys.

Mats of Sargassum, which is technically algae, have been observed for centuries, but researchers started noticing abnormally large accumulations in 2011. The immense blooms have continued to grow almost every year, in large part because of excessive, nutrient-rich runoff from the Congo, Amazon, and Mississippi rivers.

Alyson Crean, the public information officer for the City of Key West, Fla., said this year has been heavier than usual so far, though the seaweed hasn’t yet required raking more than once a day.

Read the full story here

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Supreme Court ends stalemate over where climate change suits can be brought by local governments against Big Oil

Cities bringing climate litigation against oil majors welcome the U.S. supreme court’s decision to rebuff appeal to move cases to federal courts

By Hilary Beaumont, The Guardian, Tue 25 Apr 2023

The decision, climate experts and advocates said, felt “like a dam breaking” after years of legal delays to the growing wave of climate lawsuits facing major oil companies.

Without weighing in on the merits of the cases, the supreme court on Monday rebuffed an appeal by major oil companies that want to face the litigation in federal courts, rather than in state courts, which are seen as more favorable to plaintiffs.

ExxonMobil Corp, Suncor Energy Inc., and Chevron Corp had asked for the change of venue in lawsuits by the state of Rhode Island and municipalities in Colorado, Maryland, California. and Hawaii.

Six years have passed since the first climate cases were filed in the US, and courts have not yet heard the merits of the cases as fossil fuel companies have succeeded in delaying them. In March, the Biden administration had argued that the cases belonged in state court, marking a reversal of the position taken by the Trump administration when the supreme court last considered the issue.

The Rhode Island attorney general, Peter Neronha, said his state was now finally preparing for trial after “nearly half a decade of delay tactics” by the industry. A joint statement from the California cities of Santa Cruz, San Mateo, Richmond, and Marin County said the oil companies knew the dangers of fossil fuels but “deceived and failed to warn consumers about it even as they carried on pocketing trillions of dollars in profits”.

The cases have been compared to tobacco lawsuits in the 1990s that resulted in a settlement of more than $200 billion and changed how cigarettes are advertised and sold in the US.

“It was a really amazing feeling to see that the supreme court was ruling in a very logical way by continuing with the unanimous decisions that have been made in the previous courts to not [grant petitions for review] and to allow these cases to move forward,” said Delta Merner, lead scientist at the Science Hub for Climate Litigation.

Read the full story here

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Floodwaters threaten to drown farm town and prison in California

A vineyard is flooded along 4th Avenue in Corcoran, Calif. (Robert Gauthier / Los Angeles Times)

BY JESSICA GARRISON, SUSANNE RUST, IAN JAMES, LA Times

CORCORAN, Calif. — Just west of this normally dusty prison town, a civic nightmare is unfolding: Tulare Lake, a body of water that did not exist just two months ago, now stretches to the horizon — a vast, murky sea in which the tops of telephone poles can be seen stretching eerily into the distance.

Anxious residents in this Central Valley city of 22,000 know all too well that the only thing keeping this growing lake from inundating their homes and businesses — as well as one of the state’s largest and most crowded prison complexes — is a 14.5-mile-long dirt levee that rises up from sodden earth to the west, south and east.

And that levee, according to city officials and local farmers, could be in big trouble.

Map of Tulare Lakebed and Corcoran, with its protective levee.

They worry that this nondescript earthwork may be too low to hold back the millions of gallons of melted snow that are expected to course into the Tulare Lake Basin as summer sunshine warms the slopes of the Sierra Nevada. They worry even more that with water sloshing against the levee for up to two years, it may start to erode and breach.

Many here say they are perplexed and frightened that state and federal officials don’t seem to be taking the threat seriously since the federal government has estimated that flooding would cause $6 billion worth of damage. They note that both California State Prison, Corcoran, and the California Substance Abuse Treatment Facility — a dual prison complex that holds about 8,000 incarcerated men and employs many local residents — stand in the path of potential destruction.

“Nobody has ever seen that much snow,” said Jason Mustain, a clerk at the Corcoran hardware store and a former firefighter. “Of course, I’m stressed.”

Corcoran, CA, Thursday, March 30, 2023 - Bee sheds and farmland are flooded just South of Tulare River Rd. Near as the resurgence of Tulare Lake continues. (Robert Gauthier/Los Angeles Times)

A bottle of Tums antacid tablets rattled in the cup holder of Kirk Gilkey’s truck recently as he drove around the area surveying the rising water.

Gilkey’s family has been farming in the area for generations. He said this is the first year in decades that his farm won’t plant cotton because of flooding. But what distresses him most is not the financial pain big farmers will experience but the hardship that will be visited upon workers and their families who are dependent upon agriculture for their livelihoods.

“People are scared,” he said. If “Corcoran floods, it’ll be a ghost town after. It won’t survive.”

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Delaware is going to pot without the governor’s approval

Budtender Taylor Altshule holds Cherry Pie marijuana at a California Street Cannabis Company location in San Francisco in March.

By Nick Vadala, Philadelphia Inquirer

Marijuana legalization is coming to Delaware — without Gov. John Carney’s signature.

Carney announced Friday that he would not take action on a pair of bills legalizing cannabis in the state, which will allow them to become law by default. In a statement, Carney, a Democrat who does not support marijuana legalization, said it was “time to move on.”

“I came to this decision because I believe we’ve spent far too much time focused on this issue, when Delawareans face more serious and pressing concerns every day,” Carney said in a statement.

With Carney’s decision, Delaware becomes the 22nd state to legalize recreational marijuana. Carney said that legalization is “not a step forward,” and that he remains concerned that the state could be negatively impacted by recreational cannabis.

“I’m concerned especially about the potential effects on Delaware’s children, on the safety of our roadways, and on our poorest neighborhoods, where I believe a legal marijuana industry will have a disproportionately negative impact,” Carney said.

Read the full story here

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Three from South Jersey Admit To Jan. 6 Capitol Riot Breach

The trio, including a father and son, was caught on surveillance footage and in photos breaking into the U.S. Capitol on Jan. 6, 2021.

By Josh Bakan, Patch Staff

WASHINGTON, DC — Three South Jersey residents admitted last week to participating in the Jan. 6, 2021 breach of the U.S. Capitol. Surveillance footage and several photos caught the trio among the mob that broke into the building.

David Krauss, of Sewell, Nicholas Krauss, of Pitman, and Russell Dodge Jr., of Pedtrickdown, pleaded guilty on April 13 to parading, demonstrating, or picketing in a Capitol building — a misdemeanor offense. David and Nicholas Krauss are father and son.

All three were arrested last November. Their charges had also included entering and remaining in a restricted building or grounds and disorderly conduct on Capitol grounds.

Read more: Father, Son Charged In Capitol Riot With Third South Jersey Man: Feds

Each man faces up to six months in prison, a maximum fine of $5,000, and up to five years probation. The agreements also require each to pay $500 in restitution for damage to the Capitol.

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Warehouses continue to grow in NJ. Rents, too. But pace may slow.

By Jon Hurdle, NJ Spotlight

New Jersey’s red-hot warehouse market showed more strong demand in the last three months although may see less vigorous growth in the future if the economy slows and curbs on the industry are imposed by state lawmakers and local officials, according to industry analysts.

Data for the first quarter of 2023 from the real estate firms Newmark and Cushman & Wakefield showed that rents rose again for warehouse space throughout the state, reflecting continued strong demand despite the addition of millions of square feet of new space becoming available.

Almost 12.5 million square feet of industrial space — a category that consists mostly of warehouses — was under construction statewide in the quarter, well ahead of the 3.7 million square feet where construction was completed during the period, according to the Cushman & Wakefield report.

The new data shows a market where growth is moderating from its breakneck pace spurred by the COVID-19 pandemic but still shows strength, the company said.

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