EnviroPolitics Blog

Once-soaring solar sector slams into a stiff Trump bump

By Benjamin J. Hulac, Washington Correspondent, NJ Spotlight News

WASHINGTON — The U.S. solar industry hit a record in 2023, putting the most capacity ever on domestic power grids.

Then last year, it broke that record, installing 21% more.

But under the second Trump administration and a Republican-majority Congress largely hostile to renewable energy, the industry in New Jersey and elsewhere is facing a series of barriers after years of growth, and all the while it is buffeted with back-and-forth tariffs that spark international trade disputes.

Chief among these barriers is a new federal law that weakened renewable energy tax credits for wind and solar power and a recent Trump administration decision to cancel all funding from a $7 billion grant program that goes to residential solar projects for lower-income homes.

“I think it’s, coupled with the pending repeal of the tax credits, really a one-two punch that is going to make it harder for people to go solar, save money and create jobs,” Ben Delman, editorial director for Solar United Neighbors, a nonprofit advocacy group, said of the new law and the canceled grant money.

“The industry is trying to figure out where to go next,” Delman said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News. “In some ways, it feels like we’re walking backwards.”

Expiring tax credit

Changing tariffs and interest rates are also barriers for the industry, he said.

Because of a new federal budget law Congress wrote this year, a federal tax credit to help people pay to put solar panels on their homes will expire Dec. 31, instead of in 2034, almost a decade ahead of schedule.

Read the full story here

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New Jersey joint environmental committee meeting RELOCATED

The location of today’s joint meeting of New Jersey’s Senate and Assembly environmental committees, scheduled for 10 a.m., has been relocated from Toms River, NJ to the:

Point Pleasant Municipal Court at 2233 Bridge Avenue in Point Pleasant, NJ

The committees will take testimony from invited speakers on the topics of:

Tidal and wave energy,

Geothermal energy,

Demand-side management,

Advanced nuclear technologies, and,

The progress of the Board of Public Utilities in exploring energy technologies.

It’s possible, but not guaranteed, that you may listen to the testimony here

Please ignore the previous post stating that the meeting was canceled.

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Dwindling in numbers, Purple Martins find refuge at this LV hospital

A purple martin perches on one of a series of birdhouses Thursday, Aug. 7, 2025, at St. Luke’s-Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township. Purple martins, a type of swallow, were once commonplace in the Lehigh Valley. (Monica Cabrera/The Morning Call)

By Daniel Patrick Sheehan | dsheehan@mcall.com | The Morning Call

A hawk or an eagle had been circling overhead earlier, so Tom Fiorini wasn’t sure the purple martins would be hanging around Thursday morning as he led a couple of visitors to the birds’ new dwelling place, a cluster of gourd-shaped plastic houses atop a tall metal pole.

The white houses are set among the acres of sunflowers and patches of bright wildflowers at St. Luke’s Hospital-Anderson Campus in Bethlehem Township, where a vast swath of the 500-acre property is given over to nature and overseen by Fiorini, the health network’s director of landscape services.

As luck had it, a martin was perched atop one of the houses, albeit briefly. There were, presumably, bugs to catch — martins eat them practically by the pound — so it flitted off into the late-morning sun as the visitors drew near.

It was a heartening sight. Purple martins, a type of swallow and the largest of the North American varieties, were once common in the Lehigh Valley, but their numbers have fallen over the years. Farmers attracted them by erecting houses, because they eat crop-damaging insects, but as farmland vanished, so did the birds.

Read the full story here

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Ford ditches the assembly line to counter EV sales slump

From Morning Brew

Sorry, Henry Ford, your company thinks it’s time to overhaul the invention that turned you into a household name. Ford announced yesterday that it’s taking a $5 billion gamble to revamp its iconic assembly line so that it can make cheap EVs and compete with Tesla and Chinese EV rivals.

Instead of relying on a single conveyor, the Detroit automaker will construct EVs on a three-pronged “assembly tree”—an innovation the company likened to the Model T, aka the world’s first mass-produced automobile. Workers on each of the three lines will assemble the back, middle, and front of the vehicle separately, after which they will be bolted together.

Ford will also invest $2 billion to retool a Kentucky plant that currently makes gas-powered cars, where it’ll use the manufacturing method to produce midsize EV pickup trucks priced at around $30,000 starting in 2027. The designed-from-scratch EV is a major pivot from Ford’s current strategy of electrifying existing models, which has fallen flat with customers.

Potential game changerFord is betting the new production process—which was developed by a small Silicon Valley-based team led by Tesla veteran Alan Clarke—will save it time and money: The company says it’ll be 15% faster than its current assembly process, and will involve 20% fewer parts, as well as reduce physical strain for workers.

The vehicles will be powered by the lithium-iron phosphate prismatic battery favored by Chinese EV-makers, which are 30% cheaper than the lithium batteries Ford currently uses. They’ll be produced at a $3 billion Michigan battery plant that Ford is building.

Ford needs something new…because so far, its efforts to create cars that don’t burn gas have been incinerating cash. The automaker lost $5.1 billion on EVs in 2024 and expects to lose more this year as its EV sales have been declining.

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NJ State enviro committees set joint hearing at the shore

The Assembly Environment, Natural Resources, and Solid Waste Committee and the Senate Environment and Energy Committee will meet jointly on Thursday, August 14, 2025 at 10:00 AM in the LMH Room, Toms River Municipal Complex, 33 Washington Street, Toms River, New Jersey.

The committees will meet to take testimony from invited speakers on the topics of:

Tidal and wave energy,
Geothermal energy,
Demand-side management,
Advanced nuclear technologies, and
Progress of the Board of Public Utilities in exploring energy technologies.

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Explosion at PA steel plant leaves one dead, another trapped

By Raquel Ciampi, Pittsburgh’s Action News 4

CLAIRTON, Pa. — Pittsburgh Action News 4 has confirmed at least one person has died in the explosion at the U.S. Clairton Coke Works plant in Pennsylvania.

In addition to the person who has died, dozens of others have been injured, with at least two unaccounted for after the blast.

Video from Sky 4, Pittsburgh’s only news helicopter, captured fire crews battling flames as ambulances rushed to the scene.

Dispatchers confirmed multiple people have been injured. The extent of those injuries is unknown.

A timelapse from the Breathe Project captured the moment the explosion happened and the black smoke that followed.

The explosion rocked the U.S. Steel Clairton Coke Works plant in Pennsylvania on Aug. 11, 2025. (Reuters)

Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro said his administration is in touch with local officials in the area as they respond to the explosion.

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Lt. Governor Austin Davis, who grew up in McKeesport, also released a statement: “The Commonwealth is providing whatever resources and manpower are needed to help with emergency response. Please stay away from the area at this time to allow emergency crews to do their job and follow all future guidance from officials for those that live nearby.”

Reporter Yazmin Rodriguez spoke with Zachary Buday, who was working close to the scene during the explosion.

“Felt like thunder. Shook the scaffold, shook my chest, then shook the building. Then we saw the smoke coming up from the steel mill,” Zachary Buday said.

Follow the full story here

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