CANTON – Ohio plans to spend about $100 million over the next five years to build fast-charging stations for electric vehicles along highways, including possibly two in Stark County.
A map in a state draft plan proposes such stations be located near the Interstate 77/U.S. Route 30 interchange and off the Whipple Avenue NW/Everhard Road NW exit.
The Ohio Department of Transportation, using federal money, wants to place one EV station every 50 miles along interstate highways. Each station, which could charge at least four vehicles at a time, would cost anywhere from $600,000 to $1.2 million to build.
The Federal Highway Administration has designated all of I-77 in Ohio and Route 30 west of I-77 as alternative fuel corridors where planners would want to build EV charging stations.
At the end of May, Ohio had 24,502 registered electric vehicles, according to DriveOhio’s registered alternative fuel vehicles dashboard. Ohio has 8.1 million registered passenger vehicles overall.
KEYPORT, NJ – A North Jersey man drowned Sunday while kayaking in the Raritan Bay, authorities said.
At around 1:35 p.m. on Sunday, Keyport police responded to a 911 call reporting two kayakers in distress in the bay, Keyport police said in a statement. At the scene, one kayaker on the shore told police that their friend was still in the water.
Officer Degroat, a member of the Monmouth County Dive Team, was able to use a kayak and locate the subject in the water, Keyport police said. Keyport Fire Department members arrived and used their boats to aid in the recovery effort.
CPR was provided to the man as he was brought to shore, police said. The individual, a 64-year-old Irvington resident, was taken to Bayshore Medical Center where he succumbed to his injuries.
It is estimated that statewide, there are still at least 250,000 homes with lead paint hazards occupied by children.
An additional $300 million is in the budget for water infrastructure funding. (Shutterstock)
By Veronica Flesher, Patch Staff
NEW JERSEY — Gov. Phil Murphy recently signed New Jersey’s largest state budget ever – a $50.6 billion spending plan that includes tax relief, school aid, and more. It also set aside $170 million for lead paint remediation in homes and apartments across the state in a move that advocates have applauded as a “crucial” step towards ending childhood lead poisoning in New Jersey.
The $170 million comes out of federal funds from the American Rescue Plan Act (ARPA).
While lead-based paint was banned in the U.S. by Congress in 1978, the risk still remains in the thousands of older homes in NJ. Isles, Inc., a state-based organization that emphasizes healthy and sustainable communities, estimates that at least 250,000 housing units occupied by children have lead paint hazards. And experts say that no amount of lead is safe.
Even a low level of lead in blood can damage a child’s brain and nervous system, leading to slowed growth and development, and even learning and behavior problems, according to the CDC. Evidence also suggests that lead poisoning causes long-term damage, the CDC said.
“There is no such thing as a safe level of lead,” said Elyse Pivnick, Isles’ Senior Director of Environmental Health. “Children with even low levels of lead are six times more likely to enter the juvenile justice system, thirty percent more likely to fail 3rd-grade reading and math, and seven times more likely to drop out of school. Tragically, in 2015, 13 municipalities in New Jersey had a higher percentage of children with elevated blood lead levels than Flint, MI.”
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WASHINGTON — In a twist of fate, Congress is suddenly poised to pass the most ambitious climate bill in United States history, largely written by a senator from a coal state who became a millionaire from his family coal business and who has taken more campaign cash from the oil and gas industry than any of his colleagues have.
That senator, Joe Manchin III, Democrat of West Virginia, managed to win several major concessions for the fossil fuel industry in the $369 billion climate and energy package, which was made public on Wednesday by Senate Democrats. Mr. Manchin’s vote is critical in the evenly divided chamber because no Republicans support the bill.
The measure requires the federal government to auction off more public lands and waters for oil drilling. It expands tax credits for carbon capture technology that could allow coal or gas-burning power plants to keep operating with lower emissions. Mr. Manchin also secured a promise from Democratic leaders to vote on a separate measure to speed up the process of issuing permits for energy infrastructure, potentially smoothing the way for projects like a natural gas pipeline in West Virginia.
Yet most environmental groups and Democrats were jubilant about the final bill, which would also pump hundreds of billions of dollars into low-carbon energy technologies — like wind turbines, solar panels, and electric vehicles — and would put the United States on track to slash its greenhouse gas emissions to roughly 40 percent below 2005 levels by 2030.
“We just made a deal with Joe Manchin,” said Senator Brian Schatz, Democrat of Hawaii, who had pushed for more expansive climate provisions. “I don’t think anybody should have expected that this is the bill I would have written.” But even with the fossil fuel provisions, he said, the measure is “the most significant move in the right direction that the United States has ever taken.”
The legislation, if it passes, is expected to bring big benefits to West Virginia. It would make permanent a federal trust fund to support coal miners with black lung disease. It would offer new incentives for companies to build wind and solar farms in areas where coal mines or coal plants have recently closed. And it would provide generous tax credits for nascent technologies like carbon capture and storage and low-emissions hydrogen fuels, which Mr. Manchin has supported.
“Those are his pet projects,” James Van Nostrand, a law professor at West Virginia University, said. “I think he’s going to say, ‘I used my strategic position to bring back benefits for West Virginia.’ And he’ll probably do pretty well in the next election.”
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Ron Goldman filed this report for NJ Spotlight News
Nearly two years after it was introduced, New Jersey’s landmark environmental justice law has yet to take effect. It’s been touted as a national standard for protecting low-income communities against having to bear the brunt of pollution. State environmental authorities are giving community groups and business lobbyists a final chance to influence the new regulations.
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the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” the bill would spend nearly $370 billion on a raft of tax credits to help stimulate the adoption of clean energy technologies.
Senate Democrats struck a deal with West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin on Thursday for an expansive bill that includes the biggest package in U.S. history to address climate change.
The bill, H.R. 5376 (117), dubbed the “Inflation Reduction Act of 2022,” would spend nearly $370 billion on a raft of tax credits to help stimulate the adoption of clean energy technologies, as well as spending for low-income and minority communities that suffer disproportionately from pollution.
It also calls for holding lease sales for oil and gas production on federal land and water, while establishing fines for excessive methane pollution.
Here’s a breakdown of what’s in the bill expected to reach the Senate floor next week:
Clean energy tax credits
Democratic lawmakers have long eyed the party-line budget reconciliation as a crucial vehicle for the extension and expansion of a host of renewable energy tax incentives and for next-generation technologies, including clean hydrogen and advanced nuclear — all of which saw support in the final agreement. The package of credits is seen as the biggest driver of emissions reductions, given its role in accelerating the deployment of renewable energy and new technologies.
The agreement includes 10-year extensions of existing credits for wind and solar, as well as provisions for heat pumps, rooftop solar and standalone energy storage, like batteries. The credits also are tied to prevailing wage and domestic content requirements — a bid to help ensure the clean energy transition is built by a unionized workforce and through a domestic supply chain.
EVs
While Manchin raised criticisms about electric vehicle incentives, they ultimately made it into the package: A $7,500 rebate for new vehicles and a $4,500 tax credit for used ones. It’s a potentially significant boon for expanding electric vehicle purchases to drive down greenhouse gas emissions from transportation, the largest source of the greenhouse gases in the U.S.
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