A Caroline County steel fabricator will supply $70 million in wind turbine foundations for projects that offshore wind farm developer Ørsted plans to develop in the ocean off Maryland and New Jersey, state and company officials announced Thursday.
Ørsted’s agreement with Crystal Steel Fabricators in Federalsburg will establish the state’s first offshore wind steel fabrication center. The manufacturer plans to expand its workforce by a third, hiring 50 additional welders, fitters, machine operators, painters and truck drivers.
Workers will make steel components used to construct wind turbine foundations for all of Ørsted’s mid-Atlantic projects, which are designed to power at least 1.3 million homes with renewable energy.
Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan toured Crystal Steel’s plant Thursday, joining officials and workers of both companies for the announcement.
“Ørsted is a cutting-edge company that has made it their mission to create a world that runs on green energy, and they are progressing toward that goal by their continued investment here in Maryland,” said the Republican governor, calling the potential economic benefits “an absolute game-changer.”
“Offshore wind presents a once-in-a-generation opportunity for the state of Maryland to grow and diversify our economy and our energy portfolio,” Hogan said.
Crystal Steel said the manufacturer’s work, to start this month, will support a long-term supply chain for an expanding offshore wind industry.
Rents surge to record high as developers scour state for booming logistics industry
May 18, 2021: A warehouse in New Jersey; industrial space under construction, almost all of which was for warehouses, rose to 13.9 million square feet in the latest quarter from 13.4 million in the second quarter of 2021.
Rents surged and vacancies dropped to a record low for warehouses and other industrial buildings in north and central New Jersey from June to September, a new report said Wednesday, as demand from e-commerce continued to fuel the state’s red-hot market for logistics space.
The asking price for industrial rents rose 15.6% to a record $10.72 per square foot while vacancies fell to 3.4% from 3.8% only three months earlier. For warehouses, which account for about three-quarters of the overall industrial market, the vacancy rate was even lower, at 2.9%, according to the report from Newmark, a commercial real estate company.
As in the first half of 2021, the growth was again driven by very strong demand from logistics companies for space to store and distribute an avalanche of goods ordered online.
“Insatiable demand from ecommerce, corresponding with a long-term shift in consumer spending habits towards online spending and away from traditional retail stores remains a key driver of leasing activity,” the report said.
Demand for logistics space has been strong for five years but was fueled further over the past year by online shopping during the pandemic. It has also been driven by the state’s proximity to Port Newark-Elizabeth where one of the nation’s largest volumes of consumer imports enters the country, and by New Jersey’s position at the heart of the populous Northeast market.
While the boom has created thousands of jobs, including some 50,000 at Amazon alone, it has also sparked protests and lawsuits in some communities where residents fear that local roads will be choked by new truck traffic, and that remaining rural enclaves will be occupied by giant warehouses that may cover a million square feet or more.
In the Legislature, public concern that warehouses affect areas beyond the towns where they are built has also spawned a bill co-sponsored by Senate President Steve Sweeney (D-Gloucester) that would require towns facing a warehouse application to alert neighboring municipalities and try to win their support for the project.
Read the full story here
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LANCASTER, PA — Three of the six Pennsylvania state universities being merged into two institutions received their new integrated name Thursday. California, Edinboro, and Clarion will operate under the name Pennsylvania Western University beginning July 1.
California will be known as Pennsylvania West-California, Edinboro will be called Pennsylvania West-Edinboro and Clarion will be Pennsylvania West-Clarion.
The state System of Higher Education board approved the change during a meeting at Millersville University.
The board delayed the renaming of the other three schoolsbeing merged: Bloomsburg, Lock Haven and Mansfield. But given Thursday’s action, Pennsylvania Eastern or Pennsylvania Northeastern seemingly would be fitting choices.
Dale-Elizabeth Pehrsson, current Clairion president and interim California and Edinboro president, said the goals for the new name were to choose one “that is distinctive, easy to remember and not a conflict” with other universities.
How the new name would perform in online searches also was a factor, Pehrsson said, because that is how most students initially begin researching a university.
The name was chosen after workshops with students, faculty, staff, alumni, trustees and community members, Pehrsson said.
Students of the three newly renamed universities will get to pick the new logo from among three choices emailed to them Thursday.
The State System contended the merger was necessary because over the past decade, it has lost 21 percent of its enrollment and hasn’t adjusted cost structures.
Governor Phil Murphy today announced the appointments of Christine Guhl-Sadovy as Cabinet Secretary and Dennis Zeveloff as Deputy Chief Policy Advisor at the Governor’s Office. Guhl-Sadovy currently serves as Chief of Staff to New Jersey Board of Public Utilities (NJBPU) President Joseph L. Fiordaliso. Zeveloff currently serves as Director of Budget and Outcomes for the Governor. Both will serve under Chief Policy Advisor Dr. Zakiya Smith Ellis, alongside Jayné Johnson, the recently announced Director of the Office of Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Belonging.
“Through Christine’s experience serving within the government and championing causes to promote equity, her ability to bring people together and drive priorities that are critical to New Jerseyans make her the right fit for this position,” said Governor Murphy. “I look forward to working closely with Christine in her new role. I am also grateful to Dennis’ continued leadership, who has been integral to my Administration in guiding state government and agencies over the past three years to strengthen New Jersey’s economic growth and workforce development. I could not think of a more qualified or committed team in their respective positions to help me and my Administration lead a stronger and fairer State for all.”
Christine Guhl-Sadovy
“I am honored to be taking on this new role in the Murphy Administration,” said Christine Guhl-Sadovy, incoming Cabinet Secretary. “It has been a privilege to help advance the Governor’s clean energy initiatives under NJBPU President Joe Fiordaliso. I look forward to the opportunity to continue the progress on the Governor’s ambitious agenda to make New Jersey stronger and fairer.”
“Since Governor Murphy’s inauguration, New Jersey has led the country in developing and implementing a bold and progressive policy agenda,” said Dennis Zeveloff, incoming Deputy Chief Policy Advisor. “I am very grateful to the Governor for this opportunity and excited to support Dr. Smith Ellis and her Policy team with advancing the Governor’s vision for New Jersey.”
Dennis Zeveloff
As Cabinet Secretary, Guhl-Sadovy will serve as a senior administration official within the Murphy Administration. In this capacity, she will oversee agency actions and liaise with the Administration’s Cabinet-level agencies and offices. In her current role as Chief of Staff, Guhl-Sadovy assisted BPU in spearheading the Governor’s clean energy agenda, including the 2019 Energy Master Plan, the 2018 Clean Energy Act, and the State’s Electric Vehicle Incentive program.
Guhl-Sadovy previously served as the Legislative and Political Director for Planned Parenthood Action Fund of New Jersey. At Planned Parenthood, she worked to ensure pro-women’s health candidates were elected to state office and advocated for the restoration of funding for family planning, which was the first piece of legislation Governor Murphy signed upon taking office. Prior to that, she worked on energy and environmental issues with the National Sierra Club as a representative of the Beyond Coal campaign.
She received her Bachelors of Arts Degree from Rutgers University. A life-long resident of New Jersey, she currently resides in Lambertville with her son, Julian.
As Deputy Chief Policy Advisor, Zeveloff will serve as a senior administration official within the Murphy Administration. In this capacity, he will play a critical role in advancing the Administration’s policy agenda. Zeveloff has served as the Director of Budget and Outcomes since 2019. In this role he coordinated the Governor’s state and federal spending proposals and helped jumpstart numerous initiatives across departments. Previously, he served as Policy Advisor to the Governor on budget and economic development issues. Prior to that, he served as the Policy Coordinator for then Governor-elect Murphy’s transition team and as Policy Advisor during then-candidate Murphy’s gubernatorial campaign.
Zeveloff grew up in Bergen County and received his Bachelors of Arts Degree from Dartmouth College and Juris Doctor and Master of Business Administration Degrees from Yale University.
As the state moves to electrify its transportation sector, one significant segment remains largely left out — the more than 15,000 buses transporting kids to and from New Jersey schools each day.
Few students, if any, make that trip on electric school buses, though some communities have taken steps to phase out diesel-fueled buses and switch to zero-emission vehicles now in use in 33 other states. Only 1,439 electric school buses are now in use, less than 1% of all school buses on the road now.
Clean-energy advocates, however, are pushing to change that dynamic, urging state officials to step up funding and incentives to get students out of buses that expose them and surrounding communities to unhealthy pollutants caused by the combustion of diesel engines.
At a day-long webinar, sponsored by the Electrification Coalition and World Resources Institute, various speakers made a case for widespread deployment of electric school buses in New Jersey.
Besides improving public health and accelerating the decarbonization of the transportation sector, that step could reduce operating expenses for school districts, lead to cleaner air and create new jobs, according to Justin Balik of WRI.
The biggest hurdle to converting diesel buses to zero-emission vehicles is the higher upfront cost of the latter. Electric school buses can cost upward of $300,000, triple the cost of the more conventional diesel bus, said James Woods of First Student, a company that is one of the largest providers of transportation in North America.
“The key barriers are financial — first and foremost,’’ agreed Peg Hanna, assistant director of the Division of Air Quality in the state Department of Environmental Protection.
Still, First Student said it hopes to convert 20,000 buses to electric by 2030, Woods said. Other electric-bus suppliers were also bullish about prospects for converting the nation’s fleet of nearly 500,000 school buses to electric buses.
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New York State Department of Environmental Conservation (DEC) Commissioner Basil Seggos today announced the completion of shellfish stocking at Shinnecock Bay Sanctuary to help to restore critical marine environments, improve water quality, support the local fishing industry, and build stronger coastlines. A total of 1.5 million adult clams were stocked at the Sanctuary, which is part of the Long Island Shellfish Restoration Project (LISRP) that is benefitting Long Island’s coastal communities.
“New York State is committed to working collaboratively with public and private partners to protect and restore our environment, water quality, and natural resources affected by our changing climate and human interaction,” said Commissioner Seggos. “Today’s milestone at the Shinnecock Bay Sanctuary demonstrates the State’s sustained progress to enhance and restore New York’s valuable marine environments. We are grateful to our partners for continuing this effort to enhance marine ecosystems while supporting New York’s shellfish industry.”
DEC oversees LISRP in collaboration with Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE), Stony Brook University, municipalities, and volunteer organizations. The Shinnecock Bay Sanctuary was established on underwater lands regulated by the Southampton Town Trustees. This large-scale shellfish restoration initiative established five shellfish sanctuary sites to be stocked with juvenile and adult shellfish over several years to meet the target densities necessary to support maximum water quality benefits and shellfish enhancement.
