Bipartisan legislation seeks repeal of tariff on solar panels



Betsy Lillian reports for Solar Industry:

Rep. Jacky Rosen, D-Nev., has introduced the bipartisan Protecting American Solar Jobs Act, which would repeal the Trump administration’s solar tariffs.
H.R.5571 was introduced along with Reps. Jared Huffman, D-Calif., Mark Sanford, R-S.C., Ralph Norman, R-S.C., and Steve Knight, R-Calif.
According to a press release from Rosen, the bill would repeal the Trump administration’s “misguided decision” to impose tariffs on solar. In January, President Donald Trump approved an order applying import tariffs on crystalline silicon photovoltaic cells and modules starting at 30%, with an annual exemption for the first 2.5 GW of imported solar cells.
Under the proposed legislation, however, duties and tariffs would default back to previous rates and would allow companies that imported any affected solar products under the new tariff to receive retroactive reimbursement.
“Solar energy’s success throughout Nevada has led to new jobs, cheaper power bills and the growth of a new industry that is diversifying our state’s economy,” states Rosen. “This administration directly threatened the stability and financial well-being of our local solar industry when the president decided to impose a 30 percent tariff on imported panels. An attack on solar energy is an attack on the countless hardworking Nevadans who benefit from this growing industry, and my new bill will reverse this damaging decision.”

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Ex-Mercer County mayor who ripped off Asbury Park housing authority to give himself raise gets jail time

Jeff Goldman reports for NJ.com:
The former mayor of a Mercer County (NJ) town has been sentenced to five years in prison for stealing thousands of dollars and using the money to give himself a raise while he served as the executive director of Asbury Park Housing Authority.
Mark W. Holmes Sr., 56, was ordered to pay $35,000 in additional restitution and to forfeit his pension. In addition, Holmes can never again hold a public job, the Monmouth County Prosecutor’s Office said in a statement.
Holmes, a Democratic former mayor and councilman in Lawrence Township, pleaded guilty to second-degree theft in January.
He stole more than $90,000 by using state grant money intended to help low-income residents of Asbury Park to give himself a salary increase that wasn’t approved by the agency’s board between 2008 and 2011.

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Defying Trump, NJ bans drilling in state waters along coast

Offshore drilling rigs ike this one are banned from NJ waters (Getty Images)

Brent Johnson reports for NJ.com:

New Jersey has now banned drilling for oil and natural gas in state waters — and taken a step aimed at preventing President Donald Trump‘s administration from allowing drilling farther offshore.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bipartisan bill into law Friday that prohibits drilling in the three miles of ocean water that the state controls along the Atlantic coast.
NJ Governor Phil Murphy at bill -signing ceremony
And though the state cannot ban drilling in federal waters, this law also prohibits the state from approving any facilities or infrastructure related to drilling to be built in New Jersey — including pipelines and docks.
Murphy said that will make it “awfully hard” for drilling in wters beyond the Garden State’s jurisdiction.
The move comes a few months after Trump’s administration announced it would open nearly all U.S. water to new offshore drilling to expand the nation’s energy resources.
New Jersey is one of a few states that have been pushing local legislation as a back-door way to stop Trump, a Republican.New Jersey has now banned drilling for oil and natural gas in state waters — and taken a step aimed at preventing President Donald Trump‘s administration from allowing drilling farther offshore.
Gov. Phil Murphy signed a bipartisan bill into law Friday that prohibits drilling in the three miles of ocean water that the state controls along the Atlantic coast.
And though the state cannot ban drilling in federal waters, this law also prohibits the state from approving any facilities or infrastructure related to drilling to be built in New Jersey — including pipelines and docks.
Murphy said that will make it “awfully hard” for drilling in wters beyond the Garden State’s jurisdiction.
The move comes a few months after Trump’s administration announced it would open nearly all U.S. water to new offshore drilling to expand the nation’s energy resources.
New Jersey is one of a few states that have been pushing local legislation as a back-door way to stop Trump, a Republican.

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China trash ban is a global recycling wake up call

chinese man swimming in plastic bottlesChina’s trash import ban is giving the global recycling industry an enormous headache. The flip side: the world has finally been forced to rethink its approach to waste.

Ivana Kottasová reports for CNN Money:
Beijing has last year banned the imports of 24 varieties of solid waste, including types of plastic and unsorted paper. On Friday, it extended the ban to dozens more types of recyclable materials, including steel waste, used auto parts and old ships.
The ban has terrible consequences for some places. A town in Australia has been sending recyclable waste to a landfill because it can no longer afford to recycle it.
In the UK, hoards of low-grade plastic have been hanging around in storage, eventually heading for incineration.
The US Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries warned the ban is disrupting global supply chains and may lead manufacturers to use new materials rather than recycled ones.

But experts say the ban has been a massive wake-up call for countries like the United Kingdom, United States, Australia, Japan and others who relied on China to buy and handle their trash from them. 


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‘Man the pumps’ to save Miami Beach from a rising ocean?

An anti-flooding water pump roars at full capacity at Maurice Gibb Park in Miami Beach due to the beginning of King Tide last October. (C.M. GUERRERO photo)

Alex Harris reports in The Miami Herald:

Miami Beach’s $500 million attempt to elevate and pump itself out of sea level rise’s path has drawn criticism, but an expert panel concluded Thursday that the city’s doing what it needs to survive.
The question of Miami Beach’s future, whether the community stands a chance in the face of rising seas, was an unspoken theme in every interview the panel held this week, said Mark Osler, a national practice leader in Coastal Science and Engineering with Michael Baker International.
“Our professional opinion is that the outcome is uncertain, and it is in your hands,” he said, to audible gasps from the audience. Osler said the panel believes the city has a future if the public and the government work together on solutions and don’t let up on the push to enact them.
The experts praised the city for “acting with courage” to start construction on the elevated roads and pumps that have left streets dramatically drier after floods — provided, of course, the power isn’t knocked out in a storm.
That’s not to say the island’s engineering-first, green-solutions-never approach drew perfect marks. The experts, a nine-member panel convened by the Urban Land Institute, called for a more comprehensive plan for living with water and increased transparency with the public on what’s changing and why.
The city should embrace more “green” infrastructure, they said, like parks to soak up floodwater and mangroves to lessen wave impacts on the coast, in addition to “gray” infrastructure like elevated roads and sea walls. A group of Harvard graduate students recommended a similar approach last week.
The panel also critiqued the city on water quality, a topic that wasn’t included in the panel’s scope and became a controversial issue following a Florida International University scientist’s discovery that the city’s pumps push more pollutants into the bay.

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