EnviroPolitics Blog

What it’s like for the few who live through the heat in Death Valley

By Noah Haggerty, Los Angeles Times, July 21, 2024

DEATH VALLEY, Calif. —

The temperature had just crept past 125 degrees, and Stephen Peterson was staring absently at a family cooling off in the Stovepipe Wells hotel swimming pool.

“It can make you stir-crazy,” he said of enduring the oppressive heat.

Summer in Death Valley — famously (or infamously) the “hottest place on Earth” — can be brutal. Even without this month’s heat wave, the temperatures in July frequently top 120.

Although tourists and thrill seekers seldom spend more than 24 hours here in the summer, park rangers, tourism staff and Native Americans live here full-time, when conditions can easily kill those who are careless. For some of these year-round residents, the heat can feel like a prison because of the restrictions it places on life.

Peterson and his buddy Aniken Yeager work in the kitschy tourist town of Stovepipe Wells within the national park. Peterson works at the general store and Yeager is a line cook at the restaurant and saloon. Both live in the town’s dorm-style housing near the hotel.

To help fight cabin fever, Yeager adopted a stray dog. “It gets lonely, man,” he said. “I don’t want to take antidepressants.”

It’s a tight-knit community with about 50 employees — if you don’t know someone personally, you know of them. “We all take care of each other,” Yeager said.

Everyone has their own metaphor for describing the heat. Yeager said it’s like standing directly behind a running car, while to Peterson it’s a blow dryer to the face.

“It sneaks up on you,” Peterson said. “The science is brutal.” Sweat evaporates so fast that the skin never gets wet — he’s only ever felt sweat two or three times during the summer. On a bad day, heat exhaustion can set in within minutes.

Read the full story here

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NJDEP Brownfield Quarterly Roundtable Meeting

NJDEP Brownfield Quarterly Roundtable Meeting will take place on Wednesday July 31 from 9:30 am to 12:30 pm.  

This meeting will be hybrid.  You may join the meeting in one of two ways:

1. Join us at 401 East State Street in Trenton in the Public Hearing Room, or

2. Join us remotely via Microsoft Teams. Click here for The Teams link

There is street or meter parking available near the 401 building. Or you are welcome to park at the Perry Street Lot (Area 50), which you can find by using the interactive map on DEP’s website: https://dep.nj.gov/maps-directions/

The agenda will be provided at the event.

If you liked this post, you’ll love our daily environmental newsletter, EnviroPolitics. It’s packed daily with the latest news, commentary, and legislative updates from New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Delaware…and beyond. Please do not take our word for it, try it free for an entire month. No obligation.

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Partnership to build 60 MW of community solar projects in New York

Catalyze, an independent power producer (IPP) and integrated developer of distributed renewable energy assets, is collaborating with GreenSpark Solar, an engineering, procurement and construction (EPC) company based in Rochester, NY, to build ten projects totaling 60 MW of community solar.
This partnership will expand Catalyze’s portfolio in New York, including sites such as the Amherst solar project and others acquired via a recent transaction with BW Solar.

The community solar projects will be partially funded by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA) via the NY-Sun program. The partnership will contribute to the state’s initiatives to install 10 GW of distributed solar by 2030 and achieve 70% renewable energy in electricity generation by 2030. In addition, $100 million in funding from NY Green Bank will support these community projects.

Read the full story here

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Former CFO of NJ law firm gets 5 years for embezzlement

By Kimberly Redmond, NJBIZ

The former chief financial officer of McElroy, Deutsch, Mulvaney & Carpenter LLP received a five-year state prison sentence after embezzling more than $1.5 million from the Morristown-based national law firm, according to the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office.

During a July 26 appearance before Superior Court Judge Steven Taylor at Morris County Courthouse, John Dunlea was also ordered to restore the stolen funds. He must also pay $20,000 in restitution to the state.

The sentencing comes nearly three months after the 61-year-old Westfield resident pleaded guilty to two counts of theft by deception and five counts of failure to pay taxes.

At the time, prosecutors said they’d seek a five-year prison term and restitution to the firm. In entering his plea May 8, Dunlea admitted to:

Misappropriating $1.54 million from the firm. The total includes $1.18 million in authorized excess compensation and $355,256 in personal credit card charges from airline flights, hotels and restaurant outings for himself and his family.
Evading $22,586 in state income taxes for tax years 2018 to 2022 for income derived from the credit card scheme.

Read the full story here

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Project 2025 would wipe out NOAA and National Weather Service

By Hayley Smith, Los Angeles Times, July 28, 2024.

Among its many sweeping calls for change in American government, a conservative platform document known as Project 2025 urges the demolition of some of the nation’s most dependable resources for tracking weather, combating climate change and protecting the public from environmental hazards.

“Break up NOAA,” the document says, referring to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its six main offices, including the 154-year-old National Weather Service.

“Together, these form a colossal operation that has become one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry and, as such, is harmful to future U.S. prosperity,” the document says.

The call to dismantle a vital federal department has raised the hackles of experts who say NOAA provides not only important free data, such as weather forecasts and satellite observations, but also life-saving information about hurricanes, heat waves, atmospheric rivers and other extreme events — many of which have been shown, through myriad studies, to be worsening due to global warming.

Read the full story here

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