EnviroPolitics Blog

Even as floods worsen with climate change, fewer buy insurance coverage

Isolated home in the Midwest half submerged by flooding. Scott Olsen, Getty Images — Scott Olsen/Getty Images

Christopher Flavelle reports for the New York Times
June 8, 2019

WASHINGTON — Despite years of devastating flooding and hurricanes, the number of Americans with flood insurance remains well below its level a decade ago, undermining the nation’s ability to cope with disasters just as climate change makes them more frequent and severe.

In some of the states hardest-hit by the recent brutal flooding in the Midwest, the number of federal flood insurance policies has dropped by at least one-third since 2011. As a result, in Nebraska, Illinois and Missouri, the share of homes in floodplains that have flood insurance is now 15 percent or less.

The declines have persisted despite a two-year campaign by the Trump administration aimed at doubling the number of Americans insured against floods, which standard home insurance policies typically don’t cover. That effort has faltered, and officials are now beginning to worry about the disaster after the disaster: What happens as the water recedes, and many people can’t afford to rebuild?

“They think they can gamble and avoid buying flood insurance,” said Paul Osman, chief of state floodplain programs for Illinois. “Low-income folks without a flood policy will likely be forced just to walk away from the damaged home.”

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Hold onto your lattes, book buyers, a hedge fund has bought Barnes and Noble

By MICHELLE CHAPMAN AP Business Writer
Jun 7, 2019

Barnes & Noble, with sales falling, is sold to hedge fund

Barnes & Noble is being acquired by a hedge fund for $476 million and will be taken private.

The national chain that many blamed for the demise of independent bookstores has been ravaged by Amazon.com and other online sellers, but remains a critical outlet for publishers.

On Friday, it was acquired by Elliott Management and, in a twist, will likely become a national chain with a business model more akin to that of a local bookstore.

Elliott bought Waterstones one year ago, a national U.K. book chain that has successfully navigated through the online/e-reader revolution by returning a lot of autonomy to the managers of its nearly 300 stores, who can select books that they believe local readers want.

The man who runs that U.K. chain, who will become CEO of Barnes & Noble, said that is what he has in mind for Barnes & Noble.

Leonard Riggio acquired the century old Barnes & Noble in the 1970s, including its flagship Manhattan store, in the 1970s. He pursued aggressive expansion throughout the 1980s and established Barnes & Noble as a national phenomenon with the acquisition of B. Dalton Bookseller and its 797 locations in 1987. It became the nation’s second-largest bookseller and began selling books online in partnership with IBM and Sears.

The company continued to gobble up other larger booksellers like Doubleday Book Shops and also BookStop, which ran discount superstores in Texas.

By 1993, Barnes & Noble was a publicly traded company that was upending the publishing industry.

The company tried to ride the digital transformation of books, rolling out its own e-reader, the Nook, in 2009 and offering more than a million books on its website.

But Amazon.com, which began as an online market place for books, was relentless and its Kindle e-reader is dominant today. The company has cut into sales of both Barnes & Noble and independent book sellers alike.

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Automakers Tell Trump His Pollution Rules Could Mean ‘Untenable’ Instability and Lower Profits

SUV production at a General Motors plant in Arlington, Tex.CreditCreditMatthew Busch/Bloomberg

Coral davenport reports for the New York Times

WASHINGTON — The world’s largest automakers warned President Trump on Thursday that one of his most sweeping deregulatory efforts — his plan to weaken tailpipe pollution standards — threatens to cut their profits and produce “untenable” instability in a crucial manufacturing sector.

In a letter signed by 17 companies including Ford, General Motors, Toyota and Volvo, the automakers asked Mr. Trump to go back to the negotiating table on the planned rollback of one of President Barack Obama’s signature policies to fight climate change.

The carmakers are addressing a crisis that is partly of their own making. They had sought some changes to the pollution standards early in the Trump presidency, but have since grown alarmed at the expanding scope of the administration’s plan.

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Mr. Trump’s new rule, which is expected to be made public this summer, would all but eliminate the Obama-era auto pollution regulations, essentially freezing mileage standards at about 37 miles per gallon for cars, down from a target of 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025. The policy makes it a near certainty that California and 13 other states will sue the administration while continuing to enforce their own, stricter rules — in effect, splitting the United States auto market in two.

For automakers, a bifurcated market is their nightmare scenario. In the letter to Mr. Trump, they warned of “an extended period of litigation and instability” should his plans be implemented.

The letter was delivered to the White House on Thursday morning, the same time as a similar letter to Gov. Gavin Newsom of California, according to a senior auto industry lobbyist.

In the letter to Mr. Newsom, the automakers said they would like to see a standard that is “midway” between the current Obama rules and the rollback proposed by Mr. Trump.

The letter to Mr. Trump said, “We strongly believe the best path to preserve good auto jobs and keep new vehicles affordable for more Americans is a final rule supported by all parties — including California.”

A White House spokesman, Judd Deere, in an email put the blame on California, saying the state “failed to put forward a productive alternative.”

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21 secret Jersey Shore spots we bet you’ve never visited – 2019 edition

Peter Genovese reports for NJ.com – Posted June 07, 2019

By Peter Genovese I NJ Advance Media for NJ.com — Andrew Mills I The Star-Ledger

The Jersey Shore is our greatest treasure and a source of jealousy for at least 45 other states. Yeah, it’s maddening and mobbed in the summer, but that doesn’t stop millions of us from making the trek down the Parkway every year just to enjoy pesky parking meters, packed beaches, and overpriced boardwalk food, among other indignities.

Why do we put up with it all?

Because the Shore is in our DNA, that’s why. We all have our special places down the Shore — the towns, beaches and restaurants we hit every summer, and that bring with them a flood of wonderful summertime memories. We also have our secret spots — the ones we don’t always want to share with others for fear that they will spoil our tiny slice of paradise.

Here’s our list of those places. You may have heard of some of them, but chances are you’ve never been there. We did similar lists in 2018 and 2017, but this is an all-new one.

What are your favorite secret Shore spots? Let us know in the comments section.

Crabby Jack’s, Somers Point

The Crab Trap in Somers Point is an enormously popular Shore restaurant; long waits for a table are often common. Avoid the crowds and get a spectacular view in the process by heading to Crabby Jack’s, a tiki bar behind the Crab Trap. You can order from a scaled-down menu from the Crab Trap, and the waterfront setting is marvelous. That’s Ocean City in the shimmering distance.

New Jersey Museum of Transportation, Allaire State Park, Wall

Did you know there is a New Jersey Museum of Transportation? I sure didn’t until recently. It’s supported exclusively by train fares, souvenir sales and private contributions is not funded by the state, and is staffed by volunteers. It operates the Pine Creek Railroad, one of the oldest operating narrow gauge rail lines in the country. You can ride the train seven days a week from July 1 to Sept. 2, and on weekends in the fall. The fare for the 15-minute ride is $4 for anyone 3 and older.

Lakes Bay Preserve, Egg Harbor Township

“Down a sand and clamshell road, away from the bustle of nearby Atlantic City, there is a secluded stretch of beach and marsh that juts into Lakes Bay.” If that description, from the New Jersey Conservation Foundation, doesn’t convince you Lakes Bay Preserve is worth a visit, nothing will. The 27-acre site, a mix of saltwater marshes, bayberry thickets, and sandy beaches, is a paradise for windsurfers, board sailors and kayakers. The New Jersey Conservation Foundation saved the property from development in 1998 and now operates it with the help of the nonprofit Lakes Bay Recreation Association. You can become an association member and enjoy full privileges, but the preserve is open to the public. Public parking is outside the gate on Bayport Drive. The bay is named after Simon Lake, a Pleasantville native whose submarine was the first to make a successful voyage on the open sea.

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If climate truth doesn’t fit your politics, deny it. If that doesn’t work, repress it.

According to the National Park Service, Glacier National Park’s ice sheets are a fraction of the size they were 100 years ago. (Beth J. Harpaz/AP)By

Juliet Eilperin, Josh Dawsey and Brady Dennis
report for the Washington Post – June 7 at 9:33 PM

White House officials barred a State Department intelligence staffer from submitting written testimony this week to the House Intelligence Committee warning that human-caused climate change could be “possibly catastrophic” after State officials refused to excise the document’s references to the scientific consensus on climate change.

The effort to edit, and ultimately suppress, the written testimony of a senior analyst at the State Department’s Bureau of Intelligence and Research comes as the Trump administration is debating how best to challenge the idea that the burning of fossil fuels is warming the planet and could pose serious risks unless the world makes deep cuts in greenhouse gas emissions over the next decade. Senior military and intelligence officials have continued to warn climate change could undermine America’s national security, a position President Trump rejects.

Officials from the White House’s Office of Legislative Affairs, Office of Management and Budget and National Security Council all raised objections to parts of the testimony that Rod Schoonover, who works in the office of geography and global affairs, prepared to present on the bureau’s behalf for a hearing Wednesday.

According to several senior administration officials, all of whom spoke on the condition of anonymity to talk about internal deliberations, Trump officials sought to cut several pages of the document on the grounds that its description of climate science did not mesh with the administration’s official stance. Critics of the testimony included William Happer, a National Security Council senior director who has touted the benefits of carbon dioxide and sought to establish a federal task force to challenge the scientific consensus that human activity is driving recent climate change.

Administration officials said the White House Office of Legislative Affairs ultimately decided that Schoonover could appear before the House panel, but could not submit his office’s statement for the record because it did not, in the words of one official, “jibe” with what the administration is seeking to do on climate change. This aide added that legislative affairs and OMB staffers routinely review agency officials’ prepared congressional testimony before they submit it.

A House Intelligence Committee aide confirmed that the panel received the written testimony of the two other intelligence officials who testified at Wednesday’s public hearing, but not Schoonover’s.

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Bank of America expands onsite solar to more than 60 locations

Alyssa Danigelis reports for Energy Manager Today

Bank of America is installing onsite solar at more than 60 locations across the country, including financial centers, ATMs, and offices. The investment bank and financial services company expects that their onsite solar initiative will generate more than 25 megawatts of electricity.

Six financial centers located in California, Florida, and Pennsylvania as well as and two office locations in Nevada and North Carolina already have onsite solar installations. In 2019, the bank plans to install solar panels at 15 financial centers and on 10 ATMs. Over the next three years, the company says it expects to add more than 60 solar installations across their operations.

“The onsite solar initiative is a critical component that will directly offset the bank’s energy use and lower energy costs, resulting in an estimated savings of $50 million over 25 years,” says Tom Scrivener, global real estate and enterprise initiatives executive at Bank of America.

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In 2018, the company says its total sourcing of renewable electricity was 1.8 million megawatt hours, amounting to 91% of its global energy use. Last November, the bank formed a partnership with Juhl Energy to support a solar hybrid project in Minnesota.

This year, the bank’s onsite solar initiative is focusing on installing panels at locations in these states: Arizona, California, Connecticut, Florida, Illinois, Kansas, Massachusetts, Maryland, Missouri, Nevada, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, Texas, and Virginia. In 2020 and 2021, Bank of America plans to install panels on select administrative offices in Arizona, Delaware, Florida, New York, North Carolina, Rhode Island, and Texas.

Bank of America, which is a member of RE100, indicated that increased onsite solar should help the company meet its broader operations commitment to carbon neutrality and purchasing 100% renewable electricity by the end of 2020, plus reducing location-based GHG emissions by 50% and energy use by 40% during the same time-frame.

“Having solar energy onsite to power our facilities is part of our responsible growth strategy and reduces our operational impact on the environment,” said Andrew Plepler, Bank of America’s global head of ESG.

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