EnviroPolitics Blog

John le Carré, who lifted the spy novel to literature, dies at 89

By Matt Schudel, Washington Post

John le Carré, a British author who drew on the enigma of his incorrigibly criminal father and his own experiences as a Cold War-era spy to write powerful novels about a bleak, morally compromised world in which international intrigue and personal betrayal went hand in hand, died Dec. 12 at a hospital in Cornwall, England. He was 89.

The cause was pneumonia, his U.S. publisher, Viking Penguin, said in a statement.

In a literary career spanning six decades, Mr. le Carré published more than two dozen books. His best-known titles, including “The Spy Who Came in From the Cold” (1963) and “Tinker Tailor Soldier Spy” (1974), sold in the millions and were made into acclaimed film and television adaptations. More than a master of espionage writing, he was widely regarded as an elegant prose stylist whose skills and reputation were not limited by genre or era.

After the collapse of Communism in Europe in the early 1990s, Mr. le Carré turned his attention to a changing landscape of global insecurity, sending his fictional spies to Israel, the Middle East, Africa, Asia and Central America in such books as “The Little Drummer Girl,” “The Night Manager (1993),” “The Tailor of Panama” and “The Constant Gardener.”

His literary admirers included Graham Greene, Philip Roth and Ian McEwan, who once called him “the most significant novelist of the second half of the 20th century in Britain” and championed him for the prestigious Booker Prize. (Mr. le Carré rejected any entreaties to compete for literary honors.)

“He will have charted our decline and recorded the nature of our bureaucracies like no one else has,” McEwan told the Daily Telegraph in 2013. “But that’s just been his route into some profound anxiety in the national narrative. Most writers I know think le Carré is no longer a spy writer.. . . He’s in the first rank.”

Praised for his cunning plots, psychological complexity and flawed, many-faceted characters, Mr. le Carré also showed a deft hand for misdirection. Even his name was an act of deception: “John le Carré” was a pseudonym adopted by David Cornwell — his given name — because British intelligence officers were forbidden to publish under their own identities.

Having created such brooding anti-heroes as Alec Leamas, George Smiley and Magnus Pym, Mr. le Carré offered an understated view of the spy world that was in sharp contrast to the sex, gadgets and chase-scene formula of Ian Fleming’s James Bond.

Instead, Mr. le Carré’s agents tend to furrow their brows, adjust their eyeglasses and walk inconspicuously along rain-soaked streets, relying on careful observation and endless paperwork. Conversations are muted, offices are shabby and guns remain (mostly) holstered. Everything in his novels, from the weather to the clothing to the fine-grained moral choices, seems outfitted in shades of gray.

Tension builds through cryptic gestures, dry humor or meditative glimpses through windows. Loyalties are questioned, relationships are sacrificed, and the fate of nations seems to hinge on all-too-human frailties.

“Le Carré’s contribution to the fiction of espionage has its roots in the truth of how a spy system works,” novelist Anthony Burgess wrote in the New York Times Book Review in 1977. “The people who run [British] Intelligence totally lack glamour, their service is short of money, they are up against the crassness of politicians. Their men in the field are frightened, make blunders, grow sick of a trade in which the opposed sides too often seem to interpenetrate and wear the same face.”

During his years in Britain’s domestic and international spy services, known as MI5 and MI6, respectively, Mr. le Carré did not hold a high rank. Yet his foreign assignments and his experience in the London headquarters of the spy service — known as “the Circus” in his books — gave his fiction an air of verisimilitude.

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Compressor-station opponents dealt a harsh lesson in power politics

Weymouth, MA residents who fought a six-year battle with an energy giant over a controversial gas compressor never had much of a chance, with both the federal and state governments consistently ruling against them

By Mike Stanton Boston Globe Spotlight Fellow

As the new gas pipeline compressor station (in background) is set to start operating this week, citizen activist Alice Arena places an elf on a tree in Kings Cove Park in Weymouth. JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF photos

WEYMOUTH — Alice Arena was sitting at the kitchen table in her Colonial home at the end of September, composing yet another e-mail to government regulators, when her phone erupted with a flurry of calls and texts.

“What’s this? They had another accident?” read one message.

For six years, Arena has battled federal regulators and Governor Charlie Baker’s administration to stop one of North America’s biggest pipeline companies from constructing a natural gas compressor station in her South Shore neighborhood. The 7,700-horsepower compressor would pump gas under high pressure to speed it on its journey north, as far away as Nova Scotia.

What is a compressor station? How does it work?

This has been an epic battle over a crucial piece of the natural gas energy system — featuring a hunger strike, lawsuits, arrests, and big money lobbyists. The battle was especially fierce in Weymouth, both because of its history of pollution and its dense population — and also because Massachusetts has seen the tragedy that can come when natural gas pipelines fail: the Merrimack Valley explosions of 2018.

That hazard — as well as fears of cancer-causing pollutants — has mobilized Arena and her citizens group, one of the longest-running in the state opposing a major energy project.

A group of protesters convened at the Weymouth compressor station last January. Several were arrested that day for blocking the construction site. DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

“They are trying to plant a time bomb in our neighborhood,” one resident warned at a public hearing.

The day after that flurry of texts, a copy of a government order dropped into Arena’s e-mail, bringing her guarded excitement. Federal regulators cited two emergency shutdowns at the station that had occurred in the past few weeks. They ordered an indefinite delay to its planned startup Oct. 1, pending a safety review.

Arena knew better than to get too hopeful — so often her group’s victories had been followed by setbacks. And that would be the case again.

The day before Thanksgiving, after an eight-week review, federal investigators said that the $100 million station could safely begin work, pumping up to 57.5 million cubic feet of gas a day and pressurizing it to 1,440 pounds per square inch through high-strength carbon steel pipes. After running tests over the past week, operators are hoping to start running the compressor this week.

Nearly 1,000 homes, along with nursing homes and schools, are within a one-mile radius of the gas compressor station.JOHN TLUMACKI/GLOBE STAFF

But Arena does not see this as the end. Legal appeals are still pending, and she believes new troubles could surface at the station to cause another shutdown — one her group hopes would become permanent.

She’s not afraid of a fight, and lives by a favorite quote from the early 20th-century progressive organizer Mother Jones — “Pray for the dead and fight like hell for the living.”

* * *

Even as Arena and her allies gear up to keep fighting, they know they are running out of options.

A Globe investigation of government actions leading up to this point shows the political deck has long been stacked against citizen groups like Arena’s. Community input is often overridden by the interests of pipeline owners and government regulators.

From 1999 to 2017, an independent study found, the federal agency that issues permits for new pipelines had approved 400 projects and declined just two. The commission has also rejected calls to weigh the impact of new pipelines on climate change. And under President Trump, the federal government has sought to speed up approvals for new pipelines.

If federal regulators offered little hope, Arena’s group looked to Governor Baker, who routinely touts his green credentials. His administration had power over the project because state air and water permits were required.

But the citizens group would be disappointed time and time again.

Protesters met in the early-morning darkness at an empty business in January prior to blocking the construction site of the compressor. David Klafter of Brookline used the light from his cellphone as he wrote down information in case he was arrested. DAVID L. RYAN/GLOBE STAFF

Baker’s spokespeople tell the Globe he authorized extensive state reviews of the project, but that the federal government holds the power to approve new pipelines. Besides, Baker says, bringing new gas into Massachusetts is a key part of his energy agenda, along with wind and hydropower, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from dirtier coal and oil.

Proponents call gas, which supplies half of Massachusetts’ energy needs, the “bridge fuel” to a green future. But state utilities regulators launched an investigation this fall of future demand amid concerns that more pipelines and more gas will bring more methane pollution, a much more potent greenhouse gas than carbon dioxide.

Enbridge, the Canadian pipeline giant, built the Weymouth compressor as the linchpin of its $600 million Atlantic Bridge project to transport 133 million cubic feet a day on the company’s Algonquin Pipeline from New Jersey to Massachusetts. Industry officials say the added capacity is necessary to guarantee reliability on cold winter days.

But to Arena, the bridge leads to Canada. The Weymouth compressor will push gas through a pipeline beneath Boston Harbor then north to Enbridge’s Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline that runs through Maine to Nova Scotia. The vast majority of the Atlantic Bridge gas will go to Canada, according to federal records.

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Multiple people stabbed after thousands gather for pro-Trump demonstrations in Washington

Thousands of people marched in support of President Trump two days before the electoral college is set to vote to confirm the vote of the 2020 election. (Video: Jorge Ribas, Ashleigh Joplin/Photo: Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post/The Washington Post)

By Emily Davies, Rachel Weiner, Rachel Weiner, Washington Post

Thousands of maskless rallygoers who refuse to accept the results of the election turned downtown Washington into a falsehood-filled spectacle Saturday, two days before the electoral college will make the president’s loss official.

In smaller numbers than their gathering last month, they roamed from the Capitol to the Mall and back again, seeking inspiration from speakers who railed against the Supreme Court, Fox News and President-elect Joe Biden. The crowds cheered for recently pardoned former national security adviser Michael Flynn, marched with conspiracy theorist Alex Jones and stood in awe of a flyover from what appeared to be Marine One.

Election results under attack: Here are the facts

But at night, the scene became violent. At least four people were stabbed near Harry’s Bar at 11th and F streets NW, a gathering point for the Proud Boys, a male-chauvinist organization with ties to white nationalism.AD

The victims were hospitalized and suffered possibly life-threatening injuries, D.C. fire spokesman Doug Buchanan said. It was not immediately clear with which groups the attackers or the injured might have been affiliated.

The violence escalated after an evening of faceoffs with counterprotesters that took place near Harry’s, Black Lives Matter Plaza, Franklin Square, and other spots around downtown.

At first, officers in riot gear successfully kept the two sides apart, even as the groups splintered and roamed. In helmets and bulletproof vests, Proud Boys marched through downtown in militarylike rows, shouting “move out” and “1776!” They became increasingly angry as they wove through streets and alleys, only to find police continuously blocking their course with lines of bikes.

Proud Boys march during a rally for President Trump on Saturday in Washington. (Evelyn Hockstein for The Washington Post)

“Both sides of the aisle hate you now. Congratulations,” a Proud Boy shouted at the officers.

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In New Jersey, wind energy, liquid gas projects move forward

By WAYNE PARRY Associated Press

ATLANTIC CITY, N.J. (AP) — Wind energy companies proposed projects off New Jersey’s ocean coast Thursday, as an environmental group vowed to appeal approval of a hotly contested liquefied natural gas terminal on the Delaware River.

Orsted, the European wind energy firm, said Thursday it has submitted a bid to build “Ocean Wind 2,” a wind farm that would generate 2,400 megawatts of electricity — more than twice the amount of a separate project for which it already has been approved off the coast of Atlantic City.

The company’s original 1,100-megawatt Ocean Wind project will produce power for half a million homes.

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In a statement, Orsted said Thursday’s bid includes what it considers significant investments into New Jersey’s offshore wind manufacturing capabilities, though it did not give dollar figures.

In September, New Jersey State Senate President Steve Sweeney and two other legislators asked the state Board of Public Utilities to suspend approval of Orsted’s original project off Atlantic City and to consider whether to replace the company. They said Orsted has not delivered enough economic benefits to the state and local communities, which the company disputed.

Also Thursday, Atlantic Shores Offshore Wind proposed an offshore wind farm between Atlantic City and Barnegat Light capable of powering 1 million homes with up to 2,300 megawatts of electricity.

It is a joint venture between EDF Renewables North America and EDF Renewables North America.

The deadline for submitting project bids to the BPU in the latest round was 5 p.m. Thursday.

At the state’s opposite coastline along the Delaware River, environmental groups are smarting from a regional commission’s Wednesday approval of a port to handle liquefied natural gas shipments in a section of Greenwich Township in Gloucester County at the site of a former DuPont explosives plant.

The Delaware River Basin Commission upheld its initial approval of the plan, which was proposed by Delaware River Partners, a subsidiary of New Fortress Energy, to provide a transit point for liquefied natural gas by rail, truck and boat.

Tracy Carluccio, a spokesperson for Delaware Riverkeeper, said Thursday the environmental group will appeal the decision in federal court. She said the group, which challenged the proposal in regulatory proceedings, did not receive a fair hearing.

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Oysters: If you can’t eat ’em, plant them live in coastal reefs

With pandemic restrictions repressing shellfish sales at restaurants, oyster farmers get a needed boost from a program that pays them to sink live oysters to create manmade reefs

By Michelle Brunetti, Atlantic City Press

The COVID-19 pandemic has put a dent in the market for farmed oysters, which many people eat only at restaurants.

With eateries closed to all but takeout in the spring, and capacity restricted since then, farmer Betsy Haskin of Betsy’s Cape Shore Salts said her sales are down almost 50% for 2020.

The pandemic spurred a project to both help growers survive and buy live oysters for reef building projects, said Zack Greenberg of the Pew Charitable Trusts’ campaign to protect marine life on the East Coast. The reefs create habitat, clean the water and help absorb wave action for shoreline stabilization, he said.

With the help of $2 million from an anonymous donor, the foundation is working with the Nature Conservancy in seven states to buy about 5 million large oysters from farmers and “replant” them in the wild in reefs.

The Supporting Oyster Aquaculture and Restoration project is active in Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York and Washington.

On Wednesday, a half dozen oyster farmers delivered tens of thousands of oysters to the project at Rutgers University’s Haskin Shellfish Research Lab in the Port Norris section of Commercial Township.

Betsy Haskin was one of them. She said she is a small grower — mostly a one-woman operation, though she gets help from her husband, Mark Schroer. She sold 10,000 oysters to the project, she said, and has about 100,000 in the water for next year. Larger farming operations have more than 1 million oysters in the water.

The facility is named for Betsy Haskin’s father, Harold, a Rutgers faculty member instrumental in starting a program to breed disease-resistant oysters in the 1950s. He is credited with helping the oyster industry recover from the MSX blight and other diseases that had decimated shellfish populations.

“It’s a wonderful thing … a big boost,” Haskin, who sells mostly to wholesalers, said of the program. “For me to sell 10,000 oysters is a good month.”

Spring sales were decimated, and summer was better than expected, but still not a normal summer, she said.

“It usually slows down a little bit after Labor Day,” Haskin said. “Then during the holiday season people want oysters.”

But this year, “that just isn’t happening,” she said.

So the sale to the reef project came at a good time, giving her normal holiday sales, she said.

Oysters are at their best this time of year, Haskin said, because as the water gets cold, they fatten up for winter.

“The program is generally structured to buy oversized, unmarketable product,” Greenberg said. “Growers can clear out product … and get ready for next season.”

The 620,000 or so oysters purchased from New Jersey farmers will be used to build reefs along the Delaware Bay and in a couple of locations on the Atlantic Coast, he said.

In New Jersey, the groups are partnering with the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection and the East Coast Shellfish Growers Association to make it all happen.

More than 20 growers across the state are selling their larger oysters to the project, Greenberg said.

The DEP helped identify reef sites, Greenberg said. No one at the DEP was available Wednesday to talk about its role in the project.

But in general, the location of oyster reefs is kept from the public, to prevent poaching and illegal selling of oysters. Oysters from reefs in polluted areas, there in part to help filter and clean the water, can sicken those who eat them.

Bill Shadel, New Jersey coastal projects manager at The Nature Conservancy, said the oysters can survive for a few days out of the water in cold weather. But on Wednesday, those dropped off at the Haskin center were taken out on boats to a reef site in the mouth of the Maurice River.

“They are pretty hardy,” Shadel said. “They clam up and stay closed when out of the water so they don’t lose their moisture.”

On farms, the oysters live in the intertidal zone, where they are underwater much of the time, but when the tide goes out, they are exposed to the air for a time. That’s when farmers can clean them and do maintenance.

Earlier collections of purchased oysters were taken to reefs on the Atlantic Coast, he said, including one off Tuckerton.

Purchases next week will be taken by boat directly from farms to other reef sites on the Delaware Bay, Shadel said.

It’s a two-year program, Greenberg said.

There are still plenty of oysters left on farms for eating, and people can buy directly from farms, Haskin said. She is in a cooperative with two other small sellers called the Cape May Oyster Cooperative.

“We opened some today on the dock. They are just so big, fat and beautiful,” Haskin said.

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Funding bills for environment, agriculture, parks, recreation and Blue Acres clear NJ Senate Environment and Energy Committee

Affordable loans would be available for more than 170 environmental infrastructure construction projects under legislation sponsored by Senators Kip Bateman (R) that was approved yesterday by the Senate Environment and Energy Committee.

The legislation, S3211, would help fund 178 environmental infrastructure projects and protect the flow of clean water in the state with low-interest and market-rate financing from the New Jersey Infrastructure Bank in FY 2021.

“This funding will help vital projects proceed, protecting the flow of clean drinking water to communities throughout the state,” said Bateman (R-16). “These costly undertakings could be delayed indefinitely or postponed without the affordable funding available from the Environmental Infrastructure Trust.”

Eligible projects include 123 from the “Storm Sandy and State Fiscal Year 2020 Clean Water Project Eligibility List” and 44 projects from the “Storm Sandy and State Fiscal Year 2020 Drinking Water Project Eligibility List.”

Other funding bills released by the Senate committee were:

S3227 Bateman (R) and Codey (D) Appropriates $3.7 million from constitutionally dedicate corporation business tax revenue to the State Agriculture Development Committee (SADC) for farmland preservation. Grants provided by the bill fund up to 50 percent of the cost of development easements on farmland for preservation purposes, or up to 50 percent of the cost of acquiring fee simple titles to farmland for resale or lease with agricultural deed restrictions.

S3229 Codey (D) and Corrado (R) Appropriates $37.16 million to the Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to fund capital projects and park development on land administered by DEP’s Division of Parks and Forestry, and Division of Fish and Wildlife, pursuant to the Preserve New Jersey Act.

New Jersey Recreation and Park Association - Home

S3230 Greenstein (D) Corrado (R) Bateman (R) Appropriates $30.3 million to DEP to fund state acquisition of lands for recreation and conservation purposes, including Blue Acres projects for flood-prone properties.

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