EnviroPolitics Blog

Eligibility not questioned as people line up for COVID booster shots

Some NJ mega-sites could reopen to handle demand when more people become eligible

By Brenda Flanagan, Senior Correspondent, NJ Spotlight

Some people who got their initial COVID-19 shots when vaccines first became available in New Jersey are lining up to get booster shots, even though they may not meet the Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s strict eligibility requirements.

Right now, third shots are supposed to be limited to people with compromised immune systems or people who have had organ transplants. But those administering the shots don’t ask for that information and many people don’t tell.

The CDC is expected to issue new guidelines for a broader booster program. Gov. Phil Murphy says the state expects those guidelines could make up to 2.4 million people in the state eligible for a booster shot. Some mega-sites could be reopened to handle the demand.

Don’t miss news like this Click for updates

Eligibility not questioned as people line up for COVID booster shots Read More »

West coast wine threatened by wildfire smoke

As climate change brings longer, more destructive fire seasons, the wine industry scrambles to protect vineyards from the dreaded taint of smoke.

The Glass Fire burns near the Jericho Canyon Vineyard and Winery about a mile out of downtown Calistoga, California, on Wednesday, Sept. 30, 2020. Credit: Jane Tyska/Digital First Media/East Bay Times via Getty Images

By Lisa Gross, Inside Climate News

In August 2013, Ron and Cheryl Harms were eagerly anticipating the third harvest from their boutique vineyard in the Sierra Foothills when the massive, fast-moving Rim Fire zigzagged perilously close to their property.

The couple’s four-acre Yosemite Cellars vineyard sits on a rocky hillside surrounded by forest about 20 miles west of Yosemite National Park. From their perch high above the valley, the Harms watched helplessly as planes released flame retardant around the gathering firestorm and thick clouds of smoke settled on their ripening grapes.

“Once we convinced ourselves that we were probably going to be okay, personally, and that our property was going to be okay, it was fascinating to just see where the fire was going and how it was being fought,” said Ron Harms.

Fascinating yet terrifying, said Cheryl Harms, fighting back tears. “I have PTSD from it,” she said.

The Rim Fire, at the time California’s third-largest wildfire, torched more than a quarter of a million acres of Sierra forestland, including nearly 80,000 acres in Yosemite. The inferno spared the Harms’ home and vineyard. But it left the couple grappling with a grape affliction that has emerged as the West Coast wine industry’s latest scourge: smoke taint.

“Our grapes were very smoky,” said Cheryl Harms. When they had juice from their grapes analyzed, she said, “it was smokier than anything they’d ever tested.”

And there was little they could do to remove the taint.

Wildfires can cause extensive damage throughout the agricultural industry, destroying crops and killing livestock. But grapes appear to be the only commodity affected by smoke taint.

Winemakers intentionally add subtle smoky notes to increase the complexity of wines by aging them in toasted oak barrels. But wildfire smoke can make wines undrinkable. Smoke-tainted wines have unpleasant aromas often described as disinfectant or burnt rubber and taste “like licking an ashtray,” experts say.

Read the full story here

If you liked this post you’ll love our daily newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Don’t take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

West coast wine threatened by wildfire smoke Read More »

Europe, grappling with catastrophic wildfires, seeks solutions

Dealing with conflagrations driven by climate change will require modifications to the way people live and how land is used

Smoke and flames rise as firefighters, locals and volunteers try extinguish a wildfire, near Vilia Village, Western Athens, Greece, on Aug. 18, 2021. Credit: Nick Paleologos/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images

By Anna Gross, Daniel Dombey and Eleni Varvitsioti, 

As wildfires ravage the Mediterranean region, many have asked if such blazes are an inescapable part of global warming or whether steps can be taken to reverse the trend.

A colossal heatwave, with temperatures hitting a record 48.8 degrees Celsius in Italy last week, has stoked the wildfires that have devastated swaths of land and killed dozens of people across southern Europe and North Africa, from Turkey, Greece, and Italy to Morocco and Algeria.

“What’s clear is that climate change will lead us to see [more of] such events,” French President Emmanuel Macron said this week after traveling to the Saint-Tropez region, where a huge blaze caused 10,000 people to be evacuated from their homes.

Tom Smith, associate professor at the London School of Economics, said “climate change is certainly playing a role in every wildfire on the planet now.” By drying out the air and sucking moisture from vegetation, rising temperatures create ideal conditions for fires to start and rapidly spread.

The U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change has predicted the Mediterranean region will face more extreme heat in the decades to come.

Yet while climate change plays an indisputable role in the proliferation and scale of wildfires, so too have changes in how people live and the way land is used. Human actions are also behind the vast majority of Europe’s blazes.

Much of Europe is fertile ground for fires, with about 40 percent of its landmass covered by trees. As rural populations have moved to cities and towns in search of employment, some farmed land has been turned over to flammable vegetation and forest.

Read the full story here

Europe, grappling with catastrophic wildfires, seeks solutions Read More »

Initial Phase of Newark Penn Station’s $160 Million Overhaul Begins

Newark Penn Station Renovation Nj Current Exterior

Newark Penn Station. The first phase of the renovation project has begun. Photo courtesy Amtrak.

By Chris Fry, Jersey Digs

Late last year, Governor Phil Murphy announced a massive plan to revitalize the aging Newark Penn Station. The 86-year-old facility is set to undergo a state-funded $160 million improvement project that aims to “restore Newark Penn Station to its full glory as the centerpiece of the region’s transportation network.”

Don’t miss transportation news like this, Click for free updates

The first phase of renovations kicked off earlier this month at a price tag of $30 million. It is focusing on aesthetics and includes work such as restoration of the waiting room benches, installation of brighter lighting, improved HVAC and air handling, and fresh paint and re-tiling in various areas throughout the station.

Newark Penn Station Renovation Nj Lobby — Restoration of the historic waiting room benches. Photo via NJ Transit.

Newark Penn Station Renovation Nj Painting — Fresh paint. Photo via NJ Transit.

Updates to the property’s bathrooms are also planned, as is a deep clean of the property’s Art Deco limestone exterior.

Read the full story here

Initial Phase of Newark Penn Station’s $160 Million Overhaul Begins Read More »

Consumer advocate Stefanie Brand, director of the Division of Rate Counsel, is retiring today

Her departure comes as New Jersey pushes for green power and conservatives claim costs will rise

By TOM JOHNSON, ENERGY/ENVIRONMENT WRITER, NJ SPOTLIGHT

Stefanie Brand, the longtime director of the New Jersey Division of Rate Counsel, is retiring Friday, ending a 14-year run as the state’s most prominent, and probably most effective, advocate fighting customers’ rising utility bills.

Her departure comes amid sweeping changes occurring in the utility sector and as the transition to clean energy threatens to impose huge new costs on ratepayers, who are largely being asked to pay to subsidize these efforts. It is here where Brand generated her most criticism, sometimes being dubbed “Dr. No’’ by opponents.

‘She’s been incredibly effective and a real champion for consumers.’

During her time as director, Brand led the opposition to awarding $300 million in subsidies to keep New Jersey’s three nuclear plants from closing; repeatedly sought to lower incentives to the state’s thriving solar sector; and largely succeeded — so far — in limiting the state’s ability to build out the infrastructure for charging electric vehicles.

“She’s been incredibly effective and a real champion for consumers,’’ said Evelyn Liebman, associate director for AARP in New Jersey and a longtime ally of Brand on those issues.

Doug O’Malley, director of Environment New Jersey, agreed. “Her advocacy for ratepayers on the nuclear subsidies was unpopular, but she stuck by her guns,’’ he said.

Brand makes few apologies for fighting some high-priority climate issues, denying accusations by some who called her a climate-change denier. “I have never said we don’t have to address climate issues. It doesn’t mean you have to make hard choices on how much it costs,’’ Brand said in an interview with NJ Spotlight News.

Before serving as rate counsel director, Brand was in the Division of Law in the Department of Law and Public Safety for 17 years, working on environmental issues, before eventually rising to an assistant attorney general.

Tom Gilbert, campaign director for the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, defended Brand. “She never questioned the value or importance to move to clean energy. She questioned whether the goals were being met in a cost-effective way,’’ he said.

Read the full story here

Consumer advocate Stefanie Brand, director of the Division of Rate Counsel, is retiring today Read More »

Queens congresswomen speak out against peaker plants during hearing on environmental justice

Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney speaks out against peaker plants during a hearing in Queensbridge Houses, joined by Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez. (Photo courtesy of House Oversight Committee)

By Bill Parry, QNS

The progressive war against peaker power plants in western Queens — long known as “Asthma Alley” — got some additional firepower when Congresswoman Carolyn Maloney held a community roundtable discussion during a House Oversight and Reform Committee session in Astoria on Thursday, Aug. 26.

The special session began with a press briefing in front of the Ravenswood Generating Station in Long Island City with Brooklyn Congresswoman Yvette Clarke, highlighting the urgent need to transition away from peakers in New York. The session then moved indoors for a committee roundtable at the Variety Boys and Girls Club in Astoria, where Maloney was joined by Bronx/Queens Congresswoman Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez as well as community members impacted by peaker plants.

Don’t miss environmental news like this Click for free updates

Maloney noted that it’s been reported that more than 3,000 New Yorkers “lose their lives” from health conditions related to particulate pollution annually. She said the city’s power plants are “chiefly responsible.”

“Peakers are the dirtiest and most dangerous smokestack, used at times of peak energy demand and largely concentrated in low-income communities. For the 1.2 million New Yorkers living within one mile of a peaker, rates of asthma and deaths from COVID-19 are severely elevated,” Maloney said. “In addition to the noxious fumes from peaker plants, these residents are exposed to constant pollution from large power plants that run all the time, and chronic vehicle congestion.”

Maloney spoke of Clarke’s PEAKER Act, which would create a tax incentive and a new grant program to help retire peaker plants in historically marginalized communities.

She also said she supports community-driven solutions, such as the PEAK Coalition’s proposals to eliminate half of the city’s 89 peakers by 2025 and all of them by 2030.

Read the full story here

Queens congresswomen speak out against peaker plants during hearing on environmental justice Read More »