Dianne and Robert Teglia with their Tesla sedans at their home in Carmel Valley, a well-to-do neighborhood in San Diego where electric vehicle adoption is notably high.
By Ivan Penn and Niraj Chokshi, New York Times
Why aren’t more people already driving electric cars? There are several reasons, but one of the big ones is the price tag. They cost a lot more than gasoline vehicles.
At the high end, for example, a Tesla Model S starts at more than $80,000. At the low end, a Chevrolet Bolt starts at $31,000, nearly $10,000 more than a larger gasoline-powered sedan like the Chevy Malibu.
But that’s not the whole story. There are government incentives in place to help E.V. buyers. Those programs, however, heavily favor the affluent over average families.
The incentives are, in effect, “subsidizing my luxury,” said one buyer.
One of the largest stakeholders in the seaside city’s future will soon be presenting plans for a mixed-use project that would rise along a block of land just steps from the Atlantic Ocean.
During the next meeting of Asbury Park’s planning board, an application will be heard to develop a 112,000-square-foot property directly west of the Asbury Ocean Club. The company behind the endeavor, called AP Block 4001 Venture Urban Renewal, is a subsidiary of Manhattan-based iStar.
Site of proposed iStar development in Asbury Park. Photo via Google Maps/Street View.
The project would consolidate 14 concurrent lots that span from 3rd Avenue to 4th Avenue along Kingsley Street and redevelop the entire vacant parcel. The endeavor would be constructed in three phases if approved and the first and most prominent portion would consist of a 206-unit building that rises 61 feet at the tallest point.
Designed by Virginia-based Lessar Design, the initial structure would vary in height from three to six stories. Units spanning from studios to three-bedroom spaces would be featured at the property, with select residences sporting balconies. A contemporary palette of light gray brick and wood cementitious fiber siding would be utilized on the building’s exterior.
A 247-space parking garage would occupy most of the building’s first two floors, with an amenity deck sporting a swimming pool perched above the parking portion. The ground floor of the building would include 4,600 square feet of retail space fronting Kingsley Avenue split between two storefronts, and renderings released through Asbury Park show a Tandem Cycle outpost consistently referenced in the plans.
The new iStar development would include street-level retail. Rendering by Lessar Design.Swimming pool. Rendering by Lessar Design.
The Kern County Board of Supervisors has authorized a lawsuit against Gov. Gavin Newsom over the state’s recent denial of hydraulic fracturing permits.
A 4-1 vote in closed session on Tuesday morning gives the green light to county attorneys to draft the lawsuit against Newsom, who supervisors say has violated the state constitution in his attempt to institute an administrative ban on fracking.
“The decisions (Newsom) has made to unilaterally come after the oil and gas industry in violation of standing rules and standing law, that’s been established by the state Legislature, has been a gross overreach of his power,” Board Chairman Phillip Peters said after supervisors announced their intent to sue the state on Tuesday. “He’s supposed to be executing the laws, not decreeing them. So we’re going to try and push back on that.”
In early July the state oil and gas supervisor, Uduak-Joe Ntuk, head of the California Geologic Energy Management division, rejected 21 fracking permit applications filed by Bakersfield-based Aera Energy LLC. For what appeared to be the first time ever, the applications were denied not for technical reasons but based on Ntuk’s discretionary authority.
Then, on Monday, Ntuk denied 14 more permit applications, also filed by Aera for fracking wells in western Kern County. Again he cited his discretionary authority, not technical standards, to protect health, safety, and the environment. The denial letters cited risks relating to greenhouse gases, a clear reference to concerns about climate change.
Prior to the denials, Newsom had called on the state Legislature to pass a bill that would ban new fracking permits by 2024. But legislators drafted a bill that would ban not only fracking but other common oilfield techniques. It died in committee after labor unions and other groups voiced disapproval.
Newsom then moved to bypass the Legislature by imposing an administrative fracking ban through the state regulatory process. The ban has yet to be officially approved by CalGEM, but the agency has nevertheless moved forward with denying fracking permits at its own discretion.
“Gov. Newsom is operating like a dictator,” Supervisor Zack Scrivner said. “In this country, you have the separation of powers — executive, legislative, judicial — the legislative branch in the state of California is the one who controls the policy in regards to these permits. But Newsom, even though the Legislature denied his request to pass legislation to ban fracking, Newsom went around the Legislature and went straight to his regulatory agencies to do so.”
EDP Renewables NA Distributed Generation, the distributed generation business unit of EDP Renewables, has been given the green light to develop the company’s 13th community solar project in New York State in 2021.
The project brings the company’s total community solar capacity to 54 MW in New York alone. The company has not yet shared the project’s specific location, what hardware will be used in the installation, nor any details on potential construction partners.
In the last two years, New York has made unprecedented community solar capacity additions. According to the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA), the state added 549 MW of community solar capacity in 2020, leading the nation. More than 90% of the state’s 2.7 GW pipeline of projects under development that have been awarded NY-Sun incentives, and are expected to come online in the next two years, are community solar, comprising more than 800 projects.
Cuomo Will Resign Amid Sexual Harassment Scandal Gov. Andrew M. Cuomo is stepping down after an investigation found he sexually harassed 11 women. Lt. Gov. Kathy Hochul will be the first female governor of New York. New York Times
