Princeton NuEnergy one of top winners at CleanTech Open Northeast

By ROI-NJ Staff (Bordentown) – October 4, 2021

Princeton NuEnergy in Bordentown was one of four startup companies to take home the top prize in the 17th Annual Cleantech Open Northeast accelerator awards — an annual competition that honors companies breaking new ground in greenhouse gas reduction.

Princeton NuEnergy, which has developed a novel lithium-ion battery recycling process to directly recover and regenerate used battery materials, will receive $10,000 in cash plus additional in-kind services.

Launched in 2005, Cleantech Open Northeast has served as an accelerator for 523 clean technology startups from the northeast United States and eastern Canada and is part of the world’s largest environmental technology accelerator, Cleantech Open. This year, for the first time ever, global applicants were able to participate virtually, provided they had strong ties to the northeast North American region.

The other three winners showed the global nature of the competition:

  • Innovia GEO, from Oakville, Ontario, which specializes in accessible geothermal energy;
  • Osmoses, from Somerville, Massachusetts, which performs sustainable, industrial-grade molecular filtration and carbon capture;
  • STAC Technology, from Hellerup, Denmark, which performs large-scale heating and cooling using advanced water-vapor driven turbo-compressors.

Princeton NuEnergy describes itself as delivering innovative and sustainable energy and environmental solutions. Its current focus is on second-life battery solutions and closed-loop lithium-ion battery recycling, according to its website.

It lists the following as its missions:

  • Create new solutions in renewable energy, alternative fuels and environmental protection by generating novel processes and materials;
  • Lead the industry in lithium-ion battery recycling and diagnostics;
  • Boost the U.S. economy by creating new manufacturing jobs;
  • Educate and train the new generation in STEM.

All four startups will represent the Northeast at the virtual 2021 Cleantech Open Global Forum on Oct. 20-22. There, they will compete with emerging environmental and energy technology firms throughout the nation for the national grand prize.

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Owner of California oil-spill platform faced bankruptcy, history of regulatory problems

Workers with Patriot Environmental Services clean up oil that flowed into the Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, California on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. Authorities said 126,000 gallons of oil leaked from the offshore oil rig Elly on Saturday. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS)
Workers with Patriot Environmental Services clean up oil that flowed into the Talbert Marsh in Huntington Beach, California on Sunday, Oct. 3, 2021. Authorities said 126,000 gallons of oil leaked from the offshore oil rig Elly on Saturday. (Myung J. Chun/Los Angeles Times/TNS) MYUNG J. CHUN/TNS

By Connor Sheets, Robert J. Lopez, Rosanna Xia and Adam Elmahrek / Los Angeles Times

LOS ANGELES — The owner of an offshore oil operation that spewed at least 126,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean and fouled Orange County beaches had emerged from bankruptcy just four years ago and amassed a long record of federal noncompliance incidents and violations.

As divers for Houston-based Amplify Energy Corp. on Sunday searched for the location and cause of the massive leak, public records revealed a pattern of changing ownership and compliance warnings for the company. Amplify had also been working to upgrade its aging infrastructure and had plans to initiate new drilling near the site of the leak in the final three months of this year, according to company records. It remains unclear whether the drilling had commenced or whether the work was connected to the leak.

Government officials say the spill originated from a broken pipeline off the coast of Huntington Beach that runs from the Port of Long Beach to a production and processing platform called Elly, located in the Beta Field, an accumulation of oil nine miles from the California coast. Drilling in the Beta Field, discovered by a consortium led by Shell Oil Co. in 1976, began in 1980 and oil production started in January 1981.

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The exact cause of the leak remains unclear. But the devastating scope of the spill is already renewing calls for the government to take more aggressive action against the aging oil platforms that dot the Southern California coast. Environmental groups have raised the alarm for years about the condition of some of the systems and what they consider a lack of oversight.

In 2018, Miyoko Sakashita, oceans program director for the Center for Biological Diversity, and other environmental advocates took part in a fact-finding cruise along the California coast to inspect about a dozen oil platforms, some more than 40 years old. They saw rusted pipes and equipment and used an optical gas imaging camera to document flaring incidents on several platforms, she said.

“So much of that infrastructure is old and corroded,” Sakashita said. “[The platforms] should have been decommissioned. … It’s not a robust system of oversight.”

Read the full story here

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The price of living near the shore is already high. It’s about to go through the roof.

A flooded street in Pensacola, Fla., as Hurricane Sally made landfall last year. (Gerald Herbert/AP)


By Darryl Fears and Lori Rozsa Washington Press

PALM BEACH, Fla. — When Brian and Susan Gary settled down on this exclusive island spit a decade ago, climate scientists were already sounding an alarm: Global temperatures were warming, sea levels were rising and damaging floodwaters were creeping ever closer to homes.

The Garys had joined 8 million Americans who moved to counties along the U.S. coast between 2000 and 2017, lured by the sun, the sea and heavily subsidized government flood insurance that made the cost of protecting their homes much less expensive, despite the risk of living in a flood zone near a vast body of water.

But a reckoning is coming.

On Friday, the Federal Emergency Management Agency will incorporate climate risk into the cost of flood insurance for the first time, dramatically increasing the price for some new home buyers. Next April, most current policyholders will see their premiums go up and continue to rise by 18 percent per year for the next 20 years.

The price hike under a new assessment, Risk Rating 2.0, will more accurately reflect the threat of flooding in a changing climate, federal officials say.

Most homeowners will see modest increases starting at $120 per year in addition to what they already pay, and a few will see their insurance costs decrease. But wealthy customers with high-value homes will see their costs skyrocket by as much as $14,400 for one year. About 3,200 property owners — mostly in Florida, Texas, New Jersey and New York — fall in that category.

Like the climate threat, the cost increase will reach far beyond the coast.

Read the full story here

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NJ environmental group, Clean Water Action, endorses Gov. Phil Murphy’s re-election

Murphy Vows to Reduce Pollution in Environmental Justice neighborhoods

Clean Water Action (CWA) joined with NJ Gov. Phil Murphy in Newark on Thursday “to publicly vow to rev up his plans to reduce pollution more and faster than currently planned, especially in overburdened communities.”

The group said the governor also has pledged to “eliminate dirty diesel vehicles and equipment with zero-emission alternatives.”

CWA State Director Amy Goldsmith

“The Garden State is waking up to the reality of today’s climate and environmental injustices. This is not a new revelation to the Governor. He is spot on when he says that we can’t do too much, too soon, too fast,” stated Amy Goldsmith, CWA’s NJ State Director.

Goldman portrayed Democrat Murphy’s opponent for governor, Republican Jack Ciattarelli, as one who is following in the footsteps of the Trump and Christie Administrations, believing Murphy’s clean energy goals are “not realistic and are too much, too soon, too fast.” 

“For too long, the children in our environmental justice communities, including the kids right here in Newark, have borne the costs of lead in our tap water and polluting industries concentrated in our neighborhoods, ” said Kim Gaddy, a Newark resident, and CWA’s Environmental Justice Director. “

“By championing the nation’s strongest environmental justice and lead service line laws, Governor Murphy has given everyone in this city a voice to oppose polluting projects that poison our air and water,” Gaddy said.

“Fifty years from now future generations will either look back at us in gratitude for giving up our selfish ways and tackling the climate emergency or they will be living with nightmarish burdens and angrily wondering how a generation could have so brazenly ignored science and doomed the planet, added Janet Tauro, CWAs NJ Board Chair.

“Right now in NJ, we need Governor Murphy’s clear-eyed, dedicated, and robust climate leadership.”

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The salmon are running in New York State

From the New York Department of Conservation

Lake Ontario Tributary Fishing

Angler with Chinook salmon

With higher than average water levels, good runs of migrating salmon and trout are expected in Great Lakes tributaries this fall. Anglers can expect quality fishing opportunities for Chinook and coho salmon from now through early-November, but the first two weeks of October is when it typically peaks. Steelhead fishing turns on later in the season, usually in late October through November when water temperatures are around 45-58 degrees F. And lest we forget brown trout where world-class waters such as Niagara River, Oswego River, Oak Orchard Creek, Eighteenmile Creek, Sandy Creek and Maxwell Creek provide peak fishing opportunities in November and December.

For information on fishing Great Lakes tributaries, visit the DEC website.

Lake Erie Steelhead: 2021 Fall Fishing Forecast

Angler with Lake Erie steelhead

New York’s Lake Erie tributaries boast some of the highest angler catch rates for steelhead (PDF) in the entire country, and the arrival of fall’s colors signals the beginning of the steelhead season. This year is shaping up to be a more “typical” fall on the Lake Erie tributaries compared to the hot and dry conditions in recent years. Plenty of rain in recent weeks coupled with cooler temperatures has already brought in the first runs of steelhead into the lower sections of favorite fishing destinations such as Cattaraugus, Eighteen Mile, and Chautauqua creeks. As long as this pattern continues, anglers should experience excellent fishing in October and November. Expect a lot of jacks in the early going with larger fish becoming more plentiful as the water temperatures cool off. Anglers looking for current water conditions can look online at the USGS water gauges for all of the major Lake Erie tributaries, or visit the DEC Lake Erie Fishing Hotline for weekly updates on the steelhead fishery.

Steelhead Fishing in Lake Erie Tributaries

Fishing Finger Lakes Tributaries

Anglers that prefer to avoid crowds and get in on some high quality tributary fishing should consider setting their sights on New York’s Finger Lakes. Of the 11 Finger Lakes, nine have annual migratory trout and salmon runs, so there is no shortage of opportunities to choose from. Pair a fishing trip with a wine tasting for a fun fall Finger Lakes weekend. For information on tributary access (Public Fishing Rights) visit DEC’s website.

Saranac River Atlantic Salmon Run

Angler with landlocked salmon

With much cooler nights and increased rainfall, the fall Atlantic salmon run has begun. Anglers are catching salmon all the way to below the Imperial Mills Dam. Please be advised that DEC and the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service are currently netting salmon in the river as part of a research project but are returning all fish back to the river after a sample is collected. We have received reports of some quality fish. 

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