EnviroPolitics Blog

With hurricane season growing longer, meteorologists will ditch Greek names and start forecasts earlier

Record ocean warmth means 2021 could be another busy year for tropical storms in the Atlantic.

Aerial view of a flooded area in the village of Queja, in San Cristobal Verapaz, Guatemala on Nov. 7, 2020 after Hurricane Eta. Credit: Esteban Biba/Pool/AFP via Getty Images

By Bob Berwyn, Inside Climate News

The record-setting hurricane season of 2020 has prompted the World Meteorological Organization’s hurricane experts to change how they name tropical storms and when to start issuing regular hurricane bulletins.

When Hurricanes Zeta, Eta and Iota slammed the Caribbean and the Gulf of Mexico in the first two weeks of November 2020, the rapidly growing list of unusual, similar-sounding names may have diluted critical safety messaging in the storm-plagued region, National Hurricane Center director Ken Graham said Wednesday, during a discussion of the changes at a meeting of the WMO’s Hurricane Committee.

There were a record number of named tropical storms in the Atlantic last year, and some storm-weary residents in hurricane-prone regions were getting the names mixed up, he said. Hurricane experts, the WMO announced, will stop using Greek alphabet names after exhausting the “regular” alphabet, which has only happened twice—in 2005 and last year. The committee is also retiring the names Eta, Iota, and Laura, which were given to 2020 storms, and Dorian, from the 2019 season, because of the death and destruction that the hurricanes with those names caused.

“There was so much focus on the names that maybe the impacts of storms were lost,” he said of the series of confusing storm names last year. “In some cases, names were pronounced incorrectly, and some of the names were not easily translatable to Spanish,” he added. “Hurricanes do not have international boundaries,” so critical safety communication needs to be absolutely clear in various languages.

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Hurricane experts in the United States started giving tropical storms short, distinctive female names in the mid-1950s, to streamline communications about the hazards. The WMO added male names in 1978 and Greek alphabet letters toward the end of the hyperactive 2005 hurricane season, which had the most named tropical storms until last year.

The unusual spate of late season storms started Oct. 27, when Zeta hit Louisiana at peak intensity, after causing widespread damage in the Yucatán Peninsula and Jamaica. In the Southeast United States, Zeta killed six people, flooded city streets and knocked out power for more than 2 million people.

Hurricane Eta hit Nicaragua’s Mosquito Coast Nov. 3 as a 150 mph, category 4 storm, killing 210 people. Two weeks later, Iota’s winds quickly ramped up from 110 mph to 150 mph, just before blasting nearly the same section of the Nicaraguan coast. It was the strongest storm of the 2020 season, and the latest-forming category 5 hurricane on record in the Caribbean.

Together, the two late-season tropical storms caused 272 fatalities and more than $9 billion in damages.

The WMO’s Hurricane Committee also decided to start issuing its regular hurricane bulletins for the Atlantic on May 15, two weeks earlier than in previous seasons, Graham said. That decision came after discussions about changing the “official” start date of the season from June 1 to May 15—considerations that are continuing amid worrying signs that the hurricane season may be getting longer.

While research into whether the season is expanding is still inconclusive, the 2020 season was the record sixth in a row in which a tropical storm formed before the official start date. Ocean heat is the main fuel for hurricanes, and global warming is driving sea surface temperatures and deep ocean heat to new record levels nearly every year.

“The length of the hurricane season increases by about 40 days per degree Celsius of warming (the season starts about 20 days earlier and lasts about 20 days longer, on average),” according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Service. “But the link to climate change for this is not as clear because our understanding of how and why hurricanes form is not as strong as our understanding of how and why hurricanes intensify.”

Right now, the Atlantic Ocean is about 1.8 degrees Fahrenheit to 3.6 degrees Fahrenheit warmer than average, so the coming season is likely to again see above average hurricane activity, said Jim Kossin, a hurricane researcher with NOAA and the University of Wisconsin.

“We’ve had a number of advances in our understanding of how tropical storms will be affected by global warming,” he said.

The most intense storms are more frequent, tropical storms are intensifying faster over warmer water and hurricane tracks seem to be shifting toward the poles, Kossin noted.

“They seem to be moving more slowly along their tracks over land, which can have a huge effect on local rainfall amounts and wind damage,” he added. “Any of these changes would certainly affect hurricane risk for people and communities.”

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Legislation encouraging the use of recycled products and material starting to move in NJ

Small sample of products made from recycled material

By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor

(TRENTON) – A bill designed to encourage New Jersey State government to purchase recycled items and material was released on Monday by the Assembly Environment and Solid Waste Committee.

The measure, (A-2783), seeks to have the state set an example for the private sector by putting its purchasing power behind products containing recycled content. The bill would require that the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) develop and update guidelines for State and local agencies when entering into contracts for the purchase of recycled goods.

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The Assembly committee amended the bill to:

1) Require that the guidelines to be developed pursuant to the bill may be based upon, or incorporate by reference, guidelines developed by the United States Environmental Protection Agency, including but not limited to the recommended recovered materials content levels specified in the United States Environmental Protection Agency’s Consolidated Recovered Materials Advisory Notice;

2) Specify that the requirement to review and modify bid and product specifications applies to the Director of the Division of Purchase and Property in the Department of the Treasury, the Director of the Division of Property Management and Construction in the Department of the Treasury, and any State agency having authority to contract for the purchase of goods or services and provide that bid and product specifications would be modified to the extent practical and feasible; and

3) Provide that bill would not apply to bid and product specifications for the purchase of goods or services entered into prior to the effective date of the bill, as well as bid packages advertised and made available to the public, or to any competitive and sealed bids received by the State, prior to the effective date of the legislation.

Following the bill’s release, sponsors Sterley Stanley (D-Middlesex), Valerie Vainieri Huttle (D-Bergen), and Robert Karabinchak (D-Middlesex) issued the following joint statement:

“There is a big market for recycled material that has been hit hard the past few years. This bill will spearhead the purchase of recycled contents in public projects and increase the overall market. Not only will it help the market further excel, but by using goods with a high percentage of recycled material, we can also further our goal toward a clean and healthy environment.

Other NJ bills aimed at stimulating recycled material markets

Since China banned the import of recyclable material from other countries, New Jersey’s recycling industry and environmental organizations have been lobbying state and federal lawmakers to help stimulate new domestic markets for paper, plastic, glass and other materials formerly absorbed by the Chinese.

A number of bills designed to help, like A2783 (above), have been introduced this session in New Jersey,:

Perhaps the most significant is S2515, sponsored by Senator Bob Smith, D-Middlesex, who chairs the Environment and Energy Committee. Smith’s bill would establish post-consumer, recycled-content requirements for rigid plastic containers, glass containers, paper and plastic carryout bags, and plastic trash bags. The bill was the subject of several hearings and amendments prior to its release from Smith’s committee in December. It subsequently was referred to the Senate Budget and Appropriations Committee.

The measure is patterned on a ‘recycled-content’ law in California and has the support of New Jersey’s Department of Environmental Protection plus a large number of recycling industry and environmental organizations.

Bills also have been introduced to establish a Recycling Markets Advisory Council and to reconstitute the state’s Solid Waste Advisory Council which essentially went out of business when member appointments expired and new members were not named during the eight-year administration of former Gov. Chris Christie.

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NJ lawmakers offer bills to help get the lead out of drinking water

News From The Assembly Democrats

Moving to address New Jersey’s aging water system infrastructure and the ongoing concerns of lead contamination in many cities across the state, Assembly Democrats Gary Schaer, Angela McKnight, William Spearman, and Robert Karabinchak sponsor legislation that would require public water systems to inventory and replace lead service lines within 20 years and provide for recoupment of costs by investor-owned public water systems.

The bill was passed by the Assembly Special Committee on Infrastructure and Natural Resources on Monday.

In 2019, at least 35 water systems in New Jersey were found to have high levels of lead in their tap water. The state’s aging water system quickly became the epicenter of national attention and keeping residents safe in Newark and other cities emphasized the need for a rigorous effort to address our water infrastructure and environmental concerns.

Before the COVID-19 pandemic began, New Jersey was already facing an ongoing public health crisis,” said Schaer (D-Bergen, Passaic). “Every year, more than 4,800 new cases of childhood lead poisoning are reported in our State, causing potentially irreparable damage to our shared future. Ending the lead crisis in New Jersey is not insurmountable, it is achievable if we believe it is worth doing. This legislation provides a path forward to guaranteeing every resident the right to safe drinking water.”

The bill (A5343) would require each public water system (PWS) in the State to develop a service line inventory and a replacement plan for lead service lines that provides for the replacement of all lead service lines within 20 years and would authorize an investor-owned PWS to recoup the costs of lead service line replacements.

“Critical upgrades to New Jersey’s water infrastructure are needed to modernize a decaying water system and ensure safe drinking water for New Jersey residents,” said McKnight (D-Hudson). “Major cities and the most historic cities, such as Jersey City and Newark, continue to battle a lead crisis on top of the current public health crisis in which we find ourselves. Lead contamination and aging water infrastructure will amount to a public health crisis, an environmental emergency, and have an impact on our roadways for future generations if we don’t take action and develop a plan now.”

Within 12 months of enactment, each PWS would be required to submit, for review and approval by the DEP, an initial plan for replacing all lead service lines within its service area. The plan would be required to provide for the annual replacement of at least seven percent of all lead service lines known to the PWS on the date it submits its initial plan to the DEP, and the replacement of all lead service lines within the PWS’s service area within 20 years. Each PWS would be required to update its replacement plan annually and keep consistent with the PWS’s updated service line inventory.

“Water systems cannot go overlooked and we must continue to make drinking water as safe as possible,” said Spearman (D-Camden, Gloucester). “Updated infrastructure systems and a well-thought-out plan to replace any old service lines is very important and will help keep harmful lead out of our water.”

The measure would also authorize investor-owned PWSs to recoup the costs of lead service line replacements by including a proposal for recoupment to the Board of Public Utilities (BPU) in a general rate case proceeding. BPU would be required to consider the costs to customers before approving the proposal.

“Replacing the service lines is crucial, but we must also make sure that public water systems have the time necessary to make all the required changes,” said Karabinchak (D- Middlesex). “By giving a 20-year time frame, we can ensure that nothing is rushed and the proper changes are made at a high quality”.

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IRS to delay 2020 filing deadline to mid-May

By Kevin Liptak, Katie Lobosco and Jeanne Sahadi, CNN

(CNN) The Internal Revenue Service plans to delay this year’s tax filing deadline by roughly a month, to mid-May, according to an official familiar with the plans. The official said the decision was made in order to allow filers more time to navigate tax situations complicated by the coronavirus pandemic. Lawmakers, led by Democratic Reps. Jamie Raskin of Maryland and Bill Pascrell of New Jersey had urged the move, citing the pandemic.

Last year, the IRS moved the deadline to July 15, giving Americans an additional three months to file their taxes amid the pandemic.

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The Irish who failed to reach our shores

BILLYGRAM for St. Patrick’s Day, 2021
(photo by @justjo1002)

Sculpted by artist Glenna Goodacre, the Irish Memorial at Front and Chestnut Streets in Philadelphia was dedicated in 2003 as a national monument. Its 35 life-size figures remember the one million lives lost during immigration from Ireland to the United States in the mid-19th century.

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Energy and Environment bills in NJ Assembly Appropriations Committee today

The Assembly Appropriations Committee will meet remotely at 10:45 a.m. today

Due to the public health emergency, the State House Annex remains closed to visitors. The public may not attend the Committee meeting in person but may view and participate in the meeting via the New Jersey Legislature home page at https: / / www.njleg.state.nj.us / .

Among the bills to be considered are the following:

A1841 (Timberlake / Quijano / Schaer) – Allows gross income tax deduction for amounts paid for removal of lead, asbestos and other contaminants from taxpayer’s residential property.

A1976 (Benson) – Establishes Renewable and Efficient Energy Financing Program; authorizes BPU to transfer up to $20 million annually in societal benefits charge revenues to New Jersey Infrastructure Bank for purposes of program.

A4819 / S3033 (Lampitt / DeAngelo / Giblin / Sweeney / Singleton) – Establishes School and Small Business Energy Efficiency Stimulus Program in BPU.

A4825 / S647 (McKeon / Karabinchak / Greenstein / Singleton) – Revises cybersecurity, asset management, and related reporting requirements in the “Water Quality Accountability Act.”

A5121 (Coughlin / Zwicker / Karabinchak) – Concerns provision of energy to certain manufacturing facilities by providing exemptions to certain energy related taxes.

A5478 / S2714 (Mazzeo / Freiman / Dancer / Sarlo / Addiego) – Authorizes special occasion events at certain farms on preserved farmland, under certain conditions

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