Deaths at two NY hospitals are nation’s first cases of pan-resistant fungus

Deaths fuel fears of an outbreak of Candida auris that can resist many, or all, medications; no reports of pan-resistant C. auris in New Jersey

Jon Hurdle reports for NJ Spotlight

Surgical gloves

Two patients who died in New York City hospitals within the last month were confirmed as the nation’s first cases of a kind of fungus that’s resistant to all classes of anti-fungal medication, the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has said.

It’s unclear whether the “pan-resistant” strain of the Candida auris fungus was the cause of their deaths, or whether they were caused by unrelated infections, but the appearance of the new strain in the United States has fueled fears about the recent spread of a fungus that can survive many kinds of medications.

In New Jersey, there have been no reports of pan-resistant C. auris so far but 115 cases of other strains of the fungus have been confirmed — representing an increase of 11 cases since the end of February, said Nicole Kirgan, a spokeswoman for the state’s Department of Health. In addition, there are currently 22 “probable” cases, she said.

Candida auris

CDCA strain of Candida auris cultured in a petri dish

In the current outbreak of C. auris, most cases have been in New York, New Jersey and Illinois, according to the CDC which reported a total of 587 cases nationwide by February 28. In New York, 309 cases were confirmed by the end of February, according to the CDC.

Kirgan declined to say whether any of the New Jersey patients have died from the fungus, noting that many are already weakened by other conditions that required hospitalization to begin with.

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Will Virginia become the first southern state to join emissions-trimming RGGI?

The Virginia City Hybrid Energy Center, shown above in Lebanon, is a 600-megawatt station said to be one of the cleanest coal-fired plants in the country. (Michael S. Williamson/The Washington Post)

Gregory S. Schneider reports for the Washington Post
April 19, 2019

RICHMOND — Virginia regulators have voted to join a regional carbon cap-and-trade program, becoming the first Southern state to do so. The effort could lead to a 30 percent reduction in carbon emissions from the state’s largest power plants.

But there’s a hitch.

Republican lawmakers put language into the state budget that effectively prevents Virginia from participating.

Gov. Ralph Northam (D) could veto the language but must do so by a May 3 deadline.

Several environmental groups, which have supported Northam on conservation issues but have clashed with him on energy policy, turned up the pressure on him to act.

“Gov. Northam must now demonstrate leadership by vetoing the General Assembly’s procedural roadblock of the plan,” Walton Shepherd, Virginia policy director for the Natural Resources Defense Council, said via email.

Friday’s 5-to-2 vote by the State Air Pollution Control Board would put Virginia into the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, or RGGI, a cap-and-trade program among nine other states in the northeast, including Maryland.

It puts limits on carbon emissions from the biggest power generators and sets up the trading of allowances on a market. Emitters that come below the cap can sell allowances to those who exceed it.

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Judge Delivers Major Setback to Trump Policy to Increase Coal Mining on Federal Land

Mining operations near Douglas, Wyo. A judge on Friday delivered a setback to a Trump policy to encourage coal mining on federal land.CreditCreditRyan Dorgan/The Casper Star-Tribune, via Associated Press

Coral Davenport reports for the New York Times

WASHINGTON — A federal judge late Friday delivered a significant setback to the Trump administration’s policy of promoting coal, ruling that the Interior Department acted illegally when it sought to lift an Obama-era moratorium on coal mining on public lands.

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The decision, by Judge Brian Morris of the United States District Court of the District of Montana, does not reinstate President Barack Obama’s 2016 freeze on new coal mining leases on public lands. That policy was part of an effort by the Obama administration to curtail the burning of coal, a major producer of greenhouse gases contributing to climate change.

But the court ruling does say that the 2017 Trump administration policy, enacted by former Interior Secretary Ryan Zinke, to overturn Mr. Obama’s coal mining ban did not include adequate studies of the environmental effects of the mining, as required by the National Environmental Policy Act of 1970, or NEPA, one of the nation’s bedrock environmental laws.

“Federal Defendants’ decision not to initiate the NEPA process proves arbitrary and capricious,” Judge Morris wrote.

The decision means that “the Interior Department has to go back to the drawing board if they want to continue to sell coal mining leases on public lands — they have to do a better job of legally and scientifically justifying this,” said Jenny Harbine, an attorney for Earthjustice, who took part in the oral arguments against the Trump administration.

The judge also told the plaintiffs and defendants that in the coming months he will put forth a second legal decision on whether the Obama-era mining ban should be reinstated.

A spokeswoman for the Interior Department, Faith Vander Voort, and Conor Bernstein, a spokesman for the National Mining Association, which joined with the Trump administration on the case, said they are reviewing the decision.

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Oregon could restrict use of controversial herbicide, ACP

Amanda Waldroupe reports for UPI

Oregon might restrict use of aminocyclopyrachlor, or ACP, after the chemical was blamed for the slow death of almost 2,000 ponderosa pine trees that were more than a century old. Amanda Waldroupe/UPI

March 18 (UPI) — Oregon could become the first state to strictly limit the use of the herbicide aminocyclopyrachlor, or ACP, after the chemical was blamed for the slow death of almost 2,000 ponderosa pine trees that were more than a century old.

“It’s showing that this chemical is inherently dangerous and should not be on the market … if it is going to cause such damage to trees,” said Drew Toher, the policy director of Beyond Pesticides, a Washington, D.C.-based environmental organization.

The Oregon Department of Agriculture has proposed a new rule, to take effect March 25, that would prohibit spraying ACP along rights of way and in natural and restoration areas, protected sage grouse habitat and wetlands.

Spraying areas where tree roots may be present also would be prohibited, along with aerial spraying.

In one exception, ACP could be sprayed once a year to control invasive weeds, and only in “spot treatments” no bigger than 9 square feet, or 5 percent of an acre.

Commonly sprayed alongside roads to control weeds and vegetation, ACP is found in several pesticides regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. It is not commercially available and applicators must have a state-issued license.

The EPA banned ACP use in residential areas after Imprelis, which contains the chemical, was shown to damage or kill shrubs and trees, including Norway Spruce, when it was used on golf courses, lawns and sod farms.

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Florida Court Orders Drilling In Everglades To Move Ahead

A bird taking flight in the Everglades National Park, Florida

David Blackmon reports in Forbes Energy

A court decision in Florida earlier this week illustrates the difficulties involved in drilling for oil and natural gas in environmentally sensitive areas. The inevitable tensions between environmental conservation and the exercise of property rights can become especially challenging to resolve when they take place in a state where existing oilfield regulations are inadequate and outdated.

That is what is happening in Florida this week, where a three-judge panel of the state’s First District Court of Appeal ruled on Tuesday that the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) acted improperly in denying a permit to drill the first exploratory oil well in the Everglades in half a century. The DEP had initially denied the permit when it was filed in 2016 by mineral owner Kanter Real Estate LLC, citing threats to surface and groundwater.

After an administrative law judge, E. Gary Early, issued a finding that the five-acre parcel of land on which Kanter wants to drill the well is in fact isolated from groundwater and the local public water supply, and published a “recommended order” for the project to move forward, DEP officials once again denied the permit. The Court of Appeal ruled, in a 14-page decision, that “DEP Secretary Noah Valenstein improperly rejected ‘factual findings’ by” Judge Early and that “state law requires agencies to accept administrative law judges’ findings of fact unless they are not supported by ‘competent, substantial evidence.'”

The Court of Appeals decision now sends the matter back to DEP, which is now ordered to issue the permit.  Barring further appeals, court injunctions in lawsuits filed by activist groups or executive action by new Florida Governor Ron DeSantis – who campaigned against hydraulic fracturing (aka, “Fracking”) during the election season last Fall – the permit will probably be issued in the coming weeks.

If drilled, the proposed well would be completed in the “Sunniland Shale” formation, a formation that to this point has not been extensively tested with fracking or horizontal drilling.  [Note: While the lower Sunniland formation is referred to as a “shale” in industry trade journals and the broader news media, it is actually a more-porous “carbonate” formation.]

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‘It’s a miracle’: hundreds of thousands of bees survive Notre Dame fire

Lauren Aratani reports for The Guardian

Three hives containing more than 180,000 bees in total were found intact on the cathedral’s roof despite the devastating blaze

Bees fly next to beehives set up by French beekeeper Audric de Campeau on the roof the Monnaie de Paris on 16 July 2017 in Paris.
 Bees fly in 2017 next to beehives set up on the roof the Monnaie de Paris, with Notre Dame in the background. Photograph: Patrick Kovarik/AFP/Getty Images

Following the tragedy of Monday’s fire at the Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris, news came on Friday of a miracle as sweet as honey.

The hundreds of thousands of bees that lived in hives inside Notre Dame’s roof are alive and well, according to the beekeeper, or apiculteur, that oversees them.

“Thank goodness the flames didn’t touch them,” Nicolas Géant, the hives’ 51-year-old beekeeper, told CNN. “It’s a miracle.”

Three hives that are home to an estimated 60,000 bees each – 180,000 bees in total – are located on a lower roof atop the cathedral’s first floor.

The flames of Monday’s fire – which investigators say was probably causedby an electrical short circuit – took down the cathedral’s spire and a large portion of its roof.

For a few days after the fire, Géant was worried about his beloved bees, and the French police and firefighters wouldn’t let him go up on the roof to check on them. Hopes that the bees survived rested on aerial photos of the cathedral’s roof, which showed the hives still intact.

“You see that everything is burnt, there are holes in the roof, but you can still see the three beehives,” Géant told NBC News on Wednesday.

On Thursday, the French urban beekeeping company Beeopic Apiculture posted a picture on Instagram that confirmed the Notre Dame bees were OK

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