A recently released Rutgers and CDC study shows New Jersey with a shockingly high autism rate in one age group. (YouTube photo)
New Jersey has a shockingly high autism rate in one age group – the highest ever recorded by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, researchers say. And nobody seems to know why.
The report, released Thursday by Rutgers University and the CDC, found that about one in 59 4-year-old children has autism in America. New Jersey’s rate was the highest of the states studied: one in 35.
That puts the national rate of autism at 1.7 percent of the 4-year-old childhood population and New Jersey’s autism rate at 3 percent. Twenty years ago, the New Jersey rate was 1 percent.
Walter Zahorodny, an associate professor of pediatrics at Rutgers New Jersey Medical School who directed the New Jersey portion of the study, called the results “consistent, broad and startling.”
Murphy and BPU president Fiordaliso play it cagey when answering questions about the role of fossil fuel in governor’s clean-energy agenda
Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight
The state is planning to release a revamped energy plan in the next few weeks, but officials are keeping a tight rein on how much it will slow the prior administration’s aggressive expansion of New Jersey’s natural-gas infrastructure.
At an event yesterday, Gov. Phil Murphy and Board of Public Utilities president Joseph Fiordaliso extolled the administration’s clean-energy agenda. But they offered few, if any, insights into how it will impact the state’s heavy reliance on natural gas — a fuel that provides about 40 percent of New Jersey’s electricity and heats more than 70 percent of homes and businesses.
How those realities fit into the Murphy administration’s goal to have 100 percent of the state’s energy to come from renewable sources by 2050, and presumably a significant portion from New Jersey’s three nuclear plants, remain unanswered.
The issue is becoming more controversial as many environmental groups are pressing for a moratorium on new fossil-fuel projects. At least nine natural-gas pipelines or other projects are pending in the state, as well four natural-gas-fired power plants, most of which face fierce opposition.
Phasing out fossil fuels?
BPU president Joseph Fiordaliso (seated) and Gov. Phil Murphy talk up the administration’s new energy master plan
Fiordaliso was cautious in describing the administration’s plans for those projects. He declined to answer a question on whether the plan would phase out those projects, saying only “Wait until the master plan.’’
Asked if natural gas would be phased out of the state’s energy mix, as many organizations have called for, he only said that it, along with nuclear power, would be a bridge to a new clean-energy future.
Neither Fiordaliso nor Murphy mentioned the pending application by PSEG Power, which is seeking a $300 million ratepayer subsidy to keep its three nuclear power plants from closing. The company has threatened to close the units, the source of 90 percent of the state’s carbon-free electricity, without the subsidies. A decision is expected to be made on the subsidy at a BPU meeting next Thursday.
The proposed nuclear subsidy is opposed by an array of business, consumer, and environmental groups. Some fear it will crowd out limited state resources to fund clean-energy programs; others say the company has failed to demonstrate that its three nuclear plants are not profitable.
Not burning any bridges
But the question of how big a role natural gas plays in New Jersey’s energy future remains unanswered. “We need that bridge,’’ Fiordaliso said, answering questions from reporters after the event, saying natural gas and nuclear power will provide that link.
Washington (CNN Business)General Motors and Tesla sales could get a boost if a bill introduced this week by a bipartisan group of lawmakers to expand the electric car tax credit passes Congress.
Michigan Democrats Sen. Debbie Stabenow, Sen. Gary Peters and Rep. Dan Kildee joined with Tennessee Republican Sen. Lamar Alexander and Maine Republican Sen. Susan Collins to propose the legislation, which they say would increase production in electric vehicles and create jobs.
Currently, customers who buy electric cars receive a $7,500 tax credit. But it phases out after an automaker sells 200,000 vehicles.
Tesla (TSLA) was first to hit the cap last year and responded by cutting the price of its cars by $2,000. GM (GM) exceeded 200,000 vehicles sold earlier this year and has warned that sales of their plug-in cars, like the Chevrolet Bolt and Volt, could drop as the tax credit phases out.
The proposed legislation would raise the cap so that another 400,000 vehicles sold by each manufacturer will be eligible for a $7,000 tax credit. It would start phasing out after 600,000 vehicles are sold.
“At a time when climate change is having a real effect on Michigan, today’s legislation is something we can do now to reduce emissions and combat carbon pollution,” Stabenow said in a statement.
The proposal could get pushback from the Trump administration. White House economic adviser Larry Kudlow said in December that the president wants to end the electric vehicle tax credit, the Wall Street Journal reported.
SunRun installers put panels on a home in Sunnyvale. Legislation dubbed the “Solar Bill of Rights,” aims to help customers quickly connect renewable energy projects on their sites to the grid.
J.D. Morris reports for the San Francisco Chronicle April 10, 2019 Updated: April 10, 2019 4:06 p.m.
Clean-energy advocates advanced legislation Wednesday that aims to make it easier for Californians to use solar power despite concerns about the possible impact on customers who remain fully reliant on the electric grid.
The bill, authored jointly by state Sens. Scott Wiener, D-San Francisco, and Jim Nielsen, R-Gerber (Tehama County), is designed to enshrine in state law a right for homes, schools and businesses to take advantage of solar power without utilities putting up too many roadblocks.
Dubbed the “Solar Bill of Rights,” SB288 is also intended to help customers quickly connect renewable energy projects on their sites to the grid and avoid fees that the legislation’s major supporters call discriminatory.
The bill cleared the state Senate’s Energy, Utilities and Communications Committee on a unanimous vote, even as some lawmakers on the committee voiced sympathy with objections from the utility industry and ratepayer advocates.
Crews dredge the Hudson River in Fort Edward, N.Y., in June 2011. The work was part of a project on the Upper Hudson to clean up areas where General Electric released PCBs. (Photo: AP )
General Electric Co. will not be forced to continue dredging toxic PCBs from the upper Hudson River unless additional studies show that the company’s $1.7 billion cleanup failed to make the river significantly cleaner, federal officials announced Thursday.
The decision by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency prompted New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo to say hours later that he will sue the agency for failing to hold GE accountable.
Even after GE’s cleanup in recent years, more than two-thirds of the 1.3 million pounds of PCBs dumped by the company remain in the Hudson — pollution that stretches 200 miles south to NewYork Harborand the riverfront towns of New Jersey.
The EPA will begin studying PCB pollution in the lower 160 miles of the Hudson in places like Poughkeepsie, Westchester and Rockland counties and the shores of New Jersey, although no timeline was given Thursday, agency officials said.
Officials say they need more time to determine whether GE’s dredging of PCBs from the Hudson River was thorough enough to protect human health. The agency also issued GE a certification that the PCB cleanup was conducted properly, which environmentalists say lets the company off the hook.
In a teleconference with reporters, EPA Regional Administrator Pete Lopez said the agency “is deferring a determination about the protectiveness of the remedy” until more years of data on Hudson River fish tissue are gathered.
Lopez downplayed the certification given to GE, saying it only “confirms that the dredging, capping, habitat restoration … were properly performed.”
Mark Behan, a GE spokesman, said the EPA’s decision confirms that the company’s cleanup was a success. “EPA concluded that the dredging project was effective in reducing PCB levels and said these declines are expected to continue,” he said in a statement.
Cuomo, however, said New York State will sue the EPA, arguing that the certificate of completion could make it harder for the agency to require GE to implement more dredging or other remedial measures along the upper Hudson River.
“Pollenpocalypse” descends upon Durham, NC. Jeremy Gilchrist via Facebook
On Monday, residents of Durham, North Carolina encountered what some are calling “pollmageddon,” during which an onslaught of greenish-yellow pollen blanketed the area. It covered cars and patios, and even visibly floated through the air. Photographer Jeremy Gilchrist saw the allergy apocalypse from his car and sent up his drone to document it.
He posted the eye-watering photos on Facebook, writing, “No tricks here. Yes you are looking at a green haze made up of tree pollen from the pines of central NC!”1.0001:1707:30
The region’s trees have begun mating in the warmer weather, and that means high pollen counts. The Raleigh-Durham area experienced the fifth highest pollen count in the U.S. on Wednesday, according to Weather.com. From 10 a.m. Monday to 10 a.m. Tuesday, the North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality reported that the count was over 2,500 pollen grains per cubic meter.
Historically, North Carolina’s pollen levels have stayed between 1,000 and 1,500 grains per cubic meter during peak season. The highest pollen count ever recorded in the Raleigh-Durham area was 3,524 grains per cubic meter—Thursday’s count is expected to come in a close second.
Research suggests climate change could be to blame. It heightens temperatures and makes warmer weather last longer, giving plants more time to release pollen. This makes allergy seasons longer and more intense. What’s more, a 2010 study conducted by the Asthma and Allergy Foundation of America found that ragweed (another source of pollen) releases more pollen at higher carbon dioxide concentrations.
Several hours after Gilchrist took the photos, residents got a much-needed break from the particles after thunderstorms rolled through the area and washed most of them out of the sky. Gilchrist captured that, too.
Down came the rain and washed the pollen out. Jeremy Gilchrist via Facebook L
But North Carolinians aren’t out of the allergy-infested woods yet. Pollen counts through the end of this week are expected to remain very high as the trees continue their airborne courtship. Hunker down—it’s going to be a sneezy, yellow spring.
