EnviroPolitics Blog

Trump wants to slash payments to California for fighting wildfires on federal land

JOSEPH SERNA reports for the LA Times MAY 22, 2019 | 6:10 AM

The relationship between President Trump and California has long been fraught, but in the aftermath of the state’s deadliest wildfire season, the acrimony is burning hotter than ever.

In November, as crews battled the Camp and Woolsey fires, Trump blamed the state for “gross mismanagement of the forests” and delivered this ultimatum: “Remedy now, or no more Fed payments!”

Then, while visiting the devastated town of Paradise later that month, Trump suggested California could eliminate the threat of wildfire by “raking.”

Now, the Trump administration has taken matters a step further.

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As California prepares for what some officials fear will be another devastating fire season, the U.S. Department of Agriculture and U.S. Forest Service are withholding reimbursements that state fire agencies say are owed for battling wildfires on federal lands last year.

Instead of fulfilling California’s full $72-million reimbursement request, the Forest Service conducted an audit of the California Fire Assistance Agreement and now accuses the state of overbilling.

The Forest Service has demanded that the state provide proof of its “actual expenses.”

With the start of the traditional fire season just weeks away, California officials worry that the audit is a precursor to the Trump administration cutting back on fire assistance.

In a May 14 letter to Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and Forest Service Chief Vicki Christiansen, Sen. Dianne Feinstein implored them to delay any actions that would reduce reimbursement rates.

“As you know, around 60% of forested land in California is owned by the federal government,” Feinstein wrote. “Wildfires don’t stop at jurisdictional boundaries, so a unified federal-state approach is the only way to properly protect lives and property.”

President Trump visits a neighborhood ravaged by the Paradise fire with Gov.-elect Gavin Newsom, left, and outgoing Gov. Jerry Brown in November. (Evan Vucci / Associated Press)

The dispute marks a sudden change in a decades-long partnership between federal and local authorities.

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Graves beneath Schuylkill Yards? Developer meets with experts — and Quakers — to discuss what to do

Stephan Salisbury reports for Philly.com

In the wake of revelations that its massive Schuylkill Yards development around 30th Street Station might be rising in the midst of extensive historic burial grounds, Brandywine Realty Trust called an informal meeting last week to discuss what the situation might portend for the project.

Brandywine and its partner, Drexel University, owner of much of the land that will be used for the $3.5 billion development, learned in March that the site sits atop two burial grounds begun by Quakers around the time of the city’s founding in 1682.

Known as the Upper and Lower Burial Grounds, the cemeteries became heavily used potter’s fields through much of the 18th and 19th centuries, until the land was acquired by the Pennsylvania Railroad in 1850.

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After publication in The Inquirer this month of an account of the potential for disruption of historic gravesites, Brandywine contacted members of the city’s design, historic preservation, and archaeological communities, as well as state officials and representatives of the Society of Friends to discuss how best to proceed.

At a private meeting Thursday in the Brandywine offices on the 17th floor of the Cira South building south of the station, a historical report on the site was presented to attendees by George Thomas, a well-known architectural historian. Gerard H. Sweeney, Brandywine president, chief executive, and trustee was present, according to several attendees.

**HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF PENNSYLVANIA**1864 watercolor painting by David J. Kennedy of coffins protruding from the ground at Lower burial ground near the present site of 30th St. station. Historical Society of Pennsylvania.

Thomas said that, given the extensive building and railroad construction in the area, it was unlikely any human remains survive on the site.

“It can be safely concluded that the site has been scraped, graded, excavated, and otherwise completely altered so that the likelihood of human remains on the proposed building sites has been much reduced,” he said in the executive summary of his report, which Brandywine released to The Inquirer.

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‘Earthworm Dilemma’ Has Climate Scientists Racing to Keep Up

The world’s boreal forests have been largely earthworm-free since the last Ice Age. But as invaders arrive and burrow into the leaf litter, they free up carbon and may accelerate climate change. Photo credit Cristina Gonzalez Sevilleja

Alanna Mitchell reports for the New York Times

Cindy Shaw, a carbon-research scientist with the Canadian Forest Service, studies the boreal forest — the world’s most northerly forest, which circles the top of the globe like a ring of hair around a balding head.

A few years ago, while conducting a study in northern Alberta to see how the forest floor was recovering after oil and gas activity, she saw something she had never seen there before: earthworms.

“I was amazed,” she said. “At the very first plot, there was a lot of evidence of earthworm activity.”

Native earthworms disappeared from most of northern North America 10,000 years ago, during the ice age. Now invasive earthworm species from southern Europe — survivors of that frozen epoch, and introduced to this continent by European settlers centuries ago — are making their way through northern forests, their spread hastened by roads, timber and petroleum activity, tire treads, boats, anglers and even gardeners.

As the worms feed, they release into the atmosphere much of the carbon stored in the forest floor. Climate scientists are worried.

“Earthworms are yet another factor that can affect the carbon balance,” Werner Kurz, a researcher with the Canadian Forest Service in Victoria, British Columbia, wrote in an email. His fear is that the growing incursion of earthworms — not just in North America, but also in northern Europe and Russia — could convert the boreal forest, now a powerful global carbon sponge, into a carbon spout.

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NJ students rally against controversial Meadowlands power plant project

A protest against a power plant project in the Meadowlands drew hundreds. *(Photo: Tom Nobile/northjersey.com)*

Tom Nobile reports for the North Jersey Record

A marching protest to “Save Our Lungs” by blocking a controversial power plant proposal in the Meadowlands drew hundreds of protesters to Ridgefield High School on Saturday, who sought to press Gov. Phil Murphy’s administration into rescinding permits granted to the project.

The march featured a strong contingent of local high school students from across the county, who partnered with environmental organizations such as the Sierra club and Food and Water Watch to rally against the gas-fired power plant in an area already graded an ‘F’ for clean air by the America Lung Association.

Federal data shows that the plant, slated for North Bergen, would likely pump millions of tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, enough to become the highest emitter of carbon dioxide in the state, tied with the Phillips 66 Bayway Refinery in Linden.

“Today we live in a world where we have to fight for the privilege to breathe clean air,” Yoon Yung Kim, a high school student, said Saturday. “No amount of money is worth risking our lungs and our health.”

A collage of signs filled Ridgefield’s streets on Saturday as protesters embarked on a march from the high school to the plant’s proposed site less than a mile away. Horns honked and residents waved from their windows to chants of “It’s not fair, we need clean air” and “Hey Governor Murphy, don’t do us dirty.”

“Speak now or forever hold your breath,” one sign read.

“I am committed to protesting and marching until this project is finally rejected,” said Arturo Garcia, a Ridgefield student who helped organize the march.

The plant, dubbed the North Bergen Liberty Generating station, is proposed by Diamond Generating Corp, a subsidiary of Mitsubishi.

To date, more than 40 towns have passed resolutions against it, including mayors of many Meadowlands communities along with the Bergen County League of Municipalities.

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NJ bill aims to encourage private investment in public energy projects

Lawmakers warm to prospect of private investment in long-neglected projects, including in renewable energy

princeton microgrid — Microgrids are being considered; the microgrid at Princeton University kept the lights on during superstorm Sandy

Tom Johnson reports for NJ Spotlight

With an aging and often obsolete energy infrastructure in government-owned facilities in New Jersey, lawmakers are pushing a bill that would allow the private sector to invest in energy-related projects at those facilities.

The bill (S-2958)/(A-4535) won approval from committees in both houses last week, a sign that legislators are warming to the idea of private investments funding long neglected projects because of increasing constraints on local and other government entities.

To advocates, the concept represents a cost-effective way to fund projects that could help governments reduce energy costs, improve resiliency and develop cleaner ways of meeting government facilities’ energy needs.

“There is a large amount of aging and obsolete energy infrastructure,’’ Steven Goldenberg, a lawyer representing the New Jersey Distributed Energy Coalition, told the Senate Environment and Energy Committee, noting that government entities have consistently put off upgrades because of budgetary constraints. “Projects are not happening in the current environment.’’

Tax abatements

If the bill is enacted into law, Goldenberg argued it could lead to governments developing a wide range of projects, including renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage, and even microgrids. The latter could help critical facilities, like hospitals, keep their lights on even during failures of the conventional power grid.

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Shuttered steelmaker’s 21-story headquarters implodes

By the Associated Press

BETHLEHEM, Pa. — Sixteen thousand tons of Bethlehem Steel collapsed in a matter of seconds Sunday as a demolition crew imploded Martin Tower, the defunct steelmaker’s former world headquarters.

Crowds gathered to watch the demolition of the Pennsylvania area’s tallest building, a 21-story monolith that opened at the height of Bethlehem Steel’s power and profitability but had stood vacant for a dozen years after America’s second-largest steelmaker went out of business.

Explosives took out Martin Tower’s steel supports and crumpled the 47-year-old building, which had earned a spot on the National Register of Historic Places despite its relatively young age. The implosion, which took 16 seconds, created a thick plume of dust that lingered for several minutes.

Tyler Kent, whose father worked at Bethlehem Steel for 46 years and raised 11 children, said his “heart stopped” as he watched the building fall. His father and other relatives took pride in working at the industrial behemoth that armed the U.S. military and helped shape skylines across the country,

“To see it come down brought a tear to my eye. I didn’t think it was going to affect me emotionally like it did, but I just can’t imagine it’s gone. It’s so sad,” said Kent, who could see the tower from his house.

Martin Tower’s current owners spent years trying to redevelop the 332-foot (101-meter) structure — the tallest in a heavily populated region of Pennsylvania that includes the cities of Allentown, Bethlehem and Easton — but ultimately concluded it made more economic sense to knock it down and start over. Plans call for a $200 million development with medical offices, retail stores, a restaurant, a convenience store, a hotel and 528 apartments.

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