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A U.S. Forest Service scientist stands beside a red spruce growing on Mount Mansfield in Stowe, Vt., last year. (Lisa Rathke/AP)
ByJim Furnish in the Washington Post – August 11. 1:38 PM
Jim Furnish is a consulting forester in Iowa, following a 34-year career with the U.S. Forest Service, including as the agency’s deputy chief from 1999 to 2002.
I was the supervisor of Oregon’s Siuslaw National Forest in 1996 when a huge landslide caused by shoddy road construction sent tons of mud and debris into a critical salmon stream. I felt terrible ― and personally responsible. In the rush to build logging roads along treacherously steep hillsides, we mismanaged forests for decades and pushed salmon and spotted owls to the brink of extinction.
When I came to Washington to become deputy chief of the Forest Service a few years later, that Oregon landslide ― and countless other road-building mistakes ― motivated me to rewrite national forest policy. I was a chief architect of two landmark rules to reform logging and road-building in our national forests.
But I learned another important lesson: The Forest Service shouldn’t operate in a vacuum. The public should have its say, and we can’t cut it out of its rightful role just because that would be quick, easy or politically expedient.
This is why I’m so deeply troubled by the Trump administration’s latest attempt to roll back some of the most important rules protecting our national forests via the National Environmental Policy Act. That law has fostered government transparency and accountability for our environment and public health for 50 years. But a new Forest Service proposal would eliminate opportunities for citizen involvement and environmental review on more than 90 percent of all Forest Service projects.
I recall feeling miffed when, as a young Forest Service employee in the 1970s, NEPA required me to document why we did things such as cut down trees. Over time, I came to learn that many concerned citizens knew a lot more than I did. They also owned the public land where I worked on their behalf.
Federal agencies that authorize logging, mining and drilling on public land should aspire to accountability, transparency, trustworthiness and scientific rigor. So when the Forest Service claims that sweeping changes to its NEPA rules will “increase efficiency,” I measure its proposal against those bedrock principles.
During my 34-year career with the Forest Service, I authored several rule changes. But with this one, I see smoke and mirrors.
Buried deep within 16 pages of legalese are some nasty surprises: a nearly unlimited license to commercially log nearly seven square miles — about 3,000 football fields — or build five miles of logging roads at a time without involving the public or disclosing environmental consequences.
This proposed rule will stifle citizen participation, foster deepened opposition and increase litigation.
The state has handed out about $1 billion in tax breaks to companies and individuals that invested in solar farms. Now the state tax collector is looking to cancel some of those breaks and collect the money.
Anxiety among tax attorneys and companies that claimed tax credits and their fight with the state Department of Revenue has been burbling for more than a year.
This month, Monarch Private Capital, a tax-credit broker based in Georgia, asked Revenue Secretary Ronald Penny to renounce the department’s position through an administrative process called a “declaratory ruling.”
Monarch Private Capital offers state and federal tax credits to companies and individuals looking to lower their tax bills.
Schorr Johnson, a spokesman for the state Department of Revenue, said in an interview last month and in emails last month and Thursday that state law prohibits the department from discussing tax audits.
“We cannot comment on ongoing audits or any potential litigation,” Johnson wrote Thursday.
The state offered a 35% tax credit to investors in renewable energy projects. The tax credit, along with other state polices encouraging renewable energy, helped make North Carolina one of the top states in the nation in solar farm capacity, The News & Observer has reported.
The renewable energy tax credit ended in 2015, but investors were given a few more years to claim the tax breaks.
Over the last nine years, the state allowed more than $1 billion in tax breaks for investments in renewable energy property, according to theDepartment of Revenue reports.
A September public notice from the tax department said some people who invested in credits through partnerships don’t qualify for tax breaks.
Some of the items that you should not put in your recycling bin might surprise you. Worse still, placing them there could violate local recycling laws and earn you another surprise–a fine.
The Sierra Club prepared this video as a general guideline, and it is helpful. The problem is that some local recycling laws might grant exceptions–or add even more items to the no-no list.
What’s your experience in your town or county? If it varies from the guidance in the video, tell us about it in the comment section.
Do you think that town-by-town the rules conflict too much and cause unnecessary confusion? Would you prefer a standardized set of what’s legally recyclable and what’s garbage? Click the comment link and tell us your recycling stories.
Rental sign in Belmar, a block from the beach. Mel Evans AP photo
Criticism from some Republican lawmakers met NJ Gov. Phil Murphy’s signing today of a bill to provide tax relief to Jersey shore home renters
By Frank Brill, EnviroPolitics Editor
New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy today signed into law (A4814) which seeks to provide relief for many shore homeowners who rent out their properties during the summer. It amends the transient accommodations law, enacted in 2018, to narrow the scope of rentals subject to taxation.
The bill was sent to the governor at the beginning of this summer vacation season. Numerous lawmakers representing shore towns have been urging him ever since to sign it.
In apparent anticipation of criticism over the time it took to act, a news release announcing the signing said:
“The administration conducted a thorough legal and technical review to ensure that the legislation, as written, was not only feasible to implement, but more closely mirrors the original intent, which was to create parity throughout the rental industry by extending the existing tax on hotels and motels to certain short-term rentals, such as those done through online marketplaces.
Republican Senator Declan O’Scanlon of Monmouth County called the signing “way too late.”
“We are in August at this point, summer is nearly over and most of the damage of this ill-conceived aspect of this tax has been done. The Governor and his policy folks need to recognize when something is emergent and do their homework up front, so they’re ready to take action the minute such bills land on his desk. This was a total failure of administrative planning and it likely, needlessly, cost the New Jersey economy millions of dollars.”
Assemblywoman Serena DiMaso, also a Republican, added this zinger: “I’m happy our voices were heard, it’s just unfortunate that the Governor didn’t elect to sign this repeal before he set off for his Italian vacation in July,”
Primary sponsors of the legislation include Democratic Assembly members Joann Downey, John McKeon, John Armato, Bruce Land, Wayne DeAngelo, Eric Houghtaling, Vincent Mazzeo, Nancy Pinkin, Matthew Milam, Valerie Vainieri Huttle, and Senators Vin Gopal and Bob Andrzejczak.
Their joint response was far more positive.
“Over the past several months, we’ve listened to Jersey Shore homeowners – many of whom are still recovering from Hurricane Sandy – who are worried they’ll see far less summer guests this season as a result of the short term rental tax. Summer tourism is the heartbeat of the shore, and this law was never intended to hurt the private homeowners who help it grow and thrive.”
“The bill signed into law today will help property owners who rely on word of mouth, signs, social media and longstanding customers to keep their rentals booked through the summer. It will help shore businesses keep customers flocking to their doors. And it will help tourists afford to have the vacation of their dreams right here at the Jersey Shore,” the sponsors continued.
Are you a Jersey shore property owner who rents during summers? What’s your opinion?Share it in the block below
A glacial outburst at about 6:50 p.m. Monday at the mountain’s South Tahoma Glacier sent debris and boulders as big as pickup trucks flowing down the mountain, said Mount Rainier National Park geologist Scott Beason.
The debris flow registered on seismic monitors and ran for more than 8 miles, Beason said.
Beason suspects warm, sunny weather filled the glacier with melt, rearranged the “internal plumbing” at the glacier’s base, caused water to blast a new channel through the glacier, and then flooded glacial melt into Tahoma Creek.
“The event lasted an hour and had four separate surges,” Beason said of the outburst flooding. “The outlet channel definitely shifted. It picked up a lot of loose material just below the glacier and carried it downstream and mobilized it into a debris flow.”
As the world warms and Mount Rainier’s glaciers thin and retreat over time, these massive debris flows have become a common occurrence on the mountain’s south side. The park is building systems to forecast massive debris flows and send alerts to park staff when they’re triggered, Beason said.
