US ports are bracing for a tempest, but the ominous choppiness is in the negotiating room. Dock workers on the East and Gulf Coasts are preparing to walk off the job if their union can’t negotiate a new contract with shipping companies by October 1, threatening a throwback to pandemic-era supply chain bottlenecks.
The International Longshoremen’s Association union and the United States Maritime Alliance, the trade organization representing port operators, remain oceans apart in their talks. The main sticking points are worker pay and plans to automate certain container operations.
The union warns that up to 45,000 port workers could strike. The labor stoppages would disrupt major ports that handle 60% of US shipping traffic, per Oxford Economics.
JPMorgan analysts say a work stoppage could cause $5 billion in economic damage per day.
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After decades, giant Passaic River Superfund cleanup details released
The Passaic River is one the nation’s most toxic waterways, tainted by the by-products of Agent Orange manufacturing and decades of industrial dumping, leaving the lower 17 miles of the river marked for cleanup in the nation’s most complex environmental remediation effort.
But the bulk of that work still has not started almost 40 years after the river and surrounding areas were placed on the federal Superfund list. Today the Environmental Protection Agency has split the challenge into four parts that it is trying to tackle separately but in concert with each other: the former factory in the Ironbound section of Newark that once produced the defoliant Agent Orange, the lower eight miles of the river, the upper nine miles of the river above that section and Newark Bay.
The EPA has completed interim work to entomb toxic material at the site of the former Diamond Alkali site in Newark. In addition, some material near Lyndhurst was dredged up in 2013.
The EPA has lurched forward toward cleanup in recent years, emphasizing a $1.38 billion plan to carry out an intensive remediation effort on the heavily polluted lower eight miles of the river — the stretch between Newark Bay and the Newark-Belleville border.
It’s that part of the river that contains the bulk of the contamination — the place where dioxin, PCBs, PAHs, and heavy metals like lead and mercury settled into the mud long ago. The EPA’s plan calls for this part of the river to be dredged from bank to bank, ultimately scooping and sucking an estimated 2.5 million cubic yards of polluted sediment from the riverbed.
BMW and Redwood partner to recycle lithium-ion batteries
By Hannah Carvalho, ReMA News
On Thursday, Sept. 19, battery recycler Redwood Materials announced a partnership with BMW of North America to recycle lithium-ion batteries from all electrified vehicles (EVs) in the BMW Group, including BMW, MINI, Rolls Royce, and BMW Motorrad. Redwood and BMW aim to forward the future of electrification and toward a more sustainable battery supply chain.
Redwood will work with BMW Group’s network of over 700 locations, including dealerships, distribution centers, and internal facilities, to facilitate the recovery of end-of-life lithium-ion batteries.
According to the company’s press release, Redwood’s relationship with BMW of North America embodies its continued commitment to recovering end-of-life EV battery packs to ensure valuable materials are recycled, refined, and returned to the battery supply chain to build sustainable electric vehicles.
In its two U.S. campuses—one outside Reno, NV, and the other under construction in Charleston, SC—Redwood recycles, refines, and manufactures battery components. With South Carolina’s rich automotive history and being home to more than 500 automotive companies, including BMW, it’s no surprise that both Redwood and BMW are establishing significant operations in that region. Redwood’s Carolina Campus is located near BMW Group’s Plant Spartanburg and Plant Woodruff, where the company plans to assemble at least six fully electric models, and the high-voltage battery packs for those vehicles, before the end of the decade.
According to the press release, Redwood’s mission to build a sustainable battery supply chain is realized through collaborations with leaders in the electric vehicle and clean energy sectors. Its partnership with BMW of North America represents a significant milestone toward building a more sustainable future.
NanoGraf gets $60M grant for battery materials plant in Michigan
NanoGraf, the West Loop-based maker of advanced lithium-ion batteries, will build a $175 million manufacturing facility in Flint, Michigan. The company announced last week it received a $60 million U.S. Department of Energy grant through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal. Additional grants could come from the Make it in Michigan Competitiveness Fund, a pool of state money administered through the Michigan Infrastructure Office.
The project, which will retrofit an existing facility, will be completed in 2027 and produce an annual 2,500 tons of silicon anode material — enough to supply 1.5 million electric vehicles per year.
California’s new law bans all plastic shopping bags at grocery stores
“Paper or plastic” will no longer be a choice at grocery store checkout lines in California under a new law signed Sunday by Gov. Gavin Newsom that bans all plastic shopping bags. California had already banned thin plastic shopping bags at supermarkets and other stores, but shoppers could purchase bags made with a thicker plastic that purportedly made them reusable and recyclable.
The new measure, approved by state legislators last month, bans all plastic shopping bags starting in 2026. Consumers who don’t bring their own bags will now simply be asked if they want a paper bag. State Sen. Catherine Blakespear, one of the bill’s supporters, said people were not reusing or recycling any plastic bags. She pointed to a state study that found that the amount of plastic shopping bags trashed per person grew from 8 pounds (3.6 kilograms) per year in 2004 to 11 pounds (5 kilograms) per year in 2021.”
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A 60-year-old tourist from New Hampshire suffered second- and third-degree burns after walking off-trail over a geothermal crust in Yellowstone. The woman was life-flighted to a hospital in Idaho.
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Tugboats guide the Maersk Atlanta container ship at the Port of Newark in Newark, New Jersey, US, on Saturday, March 30, 2024.
By Lisa Baertlein, Reuters
LOS ANGELES, Sept 18 (Reuters) – A threatened Oct. 1 strike by dockworkers at ports on the U.S. East Coast and Gulf of Mexico would immediately disrupt the flow of goods in the country, the North America chief executive of French container carrier CMA CGM said on Wednesday.
The International Longshoremen’s Association union represents 45,000 workers at 36 ports including New York/New Jersey, Houston and Savannah, Georgia. The union has vowed to stop work if it does not have a new labor agreement in place when the current six-year contract expires on Sept. 30 at midnight.
“The moment you close the door, things begin to back up,” George Goldman, CMA CGM’s North America chief, said on a webcast hosted by the Port of Los Angeles.
“One day is too long” for port closures, he said.
CMA CGM is a member of the United States Maritime Alliance employer group that is negotiating with the ILA.
The ports that stand to be affected handle about half of U.S. imports. Worried retailers, manufacturers and other ocean shippers have been shifting some cargo to the West Coast to cut the chance of having cargo stuck at idled facilities.
Analysts at Sea-Intelligence, a Copenhagen-based shipping advisory firm, estimate it could take anywhere from four to six days to clear the backlog from a one-day strike.
A two-week strike could mean that ports would not return to normal operations until 2025, Sea-Intelligence said.
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Freehold Raceway — the oldest operating racetrack in the country — is ceasing all live racing and simulcast operations at the end of the year, racetrack officials announced Thursday.
The last day at the horse-racing track in Monmouth County will be Dec. 28. New Jersey’s other tracks — Monmouth Park and the Meadowlands — are not affected by the closure.
“This was an extremely difficult decision, especially given the historical importance of Freehold Raceway to the local community and the New Jersey horse racing industry,” said Howard Bruno, the raceway’s general manager.
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Constellation Energy Corp. says it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1.
Reactor operators Brian Bowers (left) and Bryan Bricking in the control room of Three Mile Island in 2017. Constellation Energy Corp. signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft to provide power from TMI Unit 1. That reactor is located at an independent facility from Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after a partial meltdown. Clem Murray / Staff Photographer
Baltimore-based Constellation Energy Corp. said Friday that it has signed a 20-year agreement with Microsoft under which the technology company will purchase power from Three Mile Island Unit 1. That reactor is located at an independent facility from Unit 2, which closed in 1979 after experiencing a partial meltdown.
Constellation said it would spend $1.6 billion to restart Unit 1 — and won’t seek “a penny in grant money” from the state or federal governments — which the company said “operated at industry-leading levels of safety and reliability for decades.” Federal regulators would need to approve a restart, though it already has support from Gov. Josh Shapiro. The company said it expects the reactor to come online by 2028.
“I think policymakers have recognized that a strategy that is dependent just on wind, solar, batteries isn’t going to fully get us there and meet the needs of the system from a reliability standpoint,” Joe Dominguez, Constellation’s president and CEO, said in an interview.
The Three Mile Island power plant complex in Londonderry Township, Pa. Unit 2, on the left, infamously shut down in 1979 after an accident. Unit 1, on the right, was shut down in 2019 for financial reasons.Read moreClem Murray / Staff Photographer
For Microsoft, buying energy from the renewed plant, dubbed the Crane Clean Energy Center, will “help match the power its data centers in PJM use with carbon-free energy,” according to a news release. Valley Forge-based PJM Interconnection, a regional transmission organization, operates the electric grid in 13 states, including Pennsylvania and New Jersey.
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