EnviroPolitics Blog

As a candidate he wanted stock trades by congressmen banned. Now that he is one, well…

By The New York Times News Service Syndicate

WASHINGTON — Last March, when Rob Bresnahan, Jr., a wealthy business executive, was running to represent a competitive House district in northeastern Pennsylvania, he published a letter to the editor in a local newspaper demanding an end to stock trading by members of Congress.

“The trust our political leaders and institutions have from Americans is at a historic low and it’s easy to understand why,” Bresnahan wrote in the Wilkes-Barre Citizens’ Voice. “Too often we hear about how politicians are making millions of dollars during their time in office, and it is sickening. If we want to restore trust in government and our political leaders, then Congress needs to lead with these policies.”

If elected, Bresnahan told voters, he would co-sponsor legislation to ban stock trading by members of Congress, a practice he said “needs to come to an end immediately.”

More than two months after being sworn in, Bresnahan, who defeated a Democratic incumbent last November in one of the most expensive House races in the country, has not introduced or co-sponsored such a bill. Over that time, he has emerged as one of the most active stock traders in the freshman class, according to Capitol Trades, a site that monitors the stock market activity of lawmakers.

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Trump’s tariffs could choke healthy US solar market

By ARIANNA SKIBELL, Power Switch, 4/04/2025

U.S. solar power has been having a moment. President Donald Trump’s tariff blitz may end it.

The nation’s solar industry has experienced a staggering growth rate over the past decade, with generation growing 27 percent last year alone. But because companies import almost 75 percent of their panels from countries targeted by Trump’s tariffs, the industry’s growth could be clipped by snarled supply chains and soaring costs, writes Benjamin Storrow.

“It’s just an enormous expense to bear,” Brett White with developer Pine Gate Renewables told Ben.

For now, Trump is digging in his heels. The president insisted on social media, “MY POLICIES WILL NEVER CHANGE,” even as China retaliated with an eye-popping 34 percent tariff and U.S. stocks plummeted even further.

The nation’s leading solar manufacturer, First Solar, was no exception with its shares falling almost 6 percent this afternoon — a foreboding harbinger of what could be to come.

The tariffs arrive as the U.S. solar industry is weathering potential setbacks on at least two other fronts. Congressional Republicans are working to roll back subsidies for solar developers signed into law under the Biden administration. And the Commerce Department is expected to finalize separate, higher duties on solar imports from Southeast Asia after discovering China has been routing solar components through those countries at lower prices (i.e. “dumping,” in global trade parlance).

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Trump’s expediters fast track a driller with a dirty record

Workers move a section of well casing into place at a Chesapeake Energy natural gas well site near Burlington, Pa., in Bradford County, on April 23, 2010.

By Audrey Carleton (Capital & Main)

An Oklahoma-based natural gas producer that was fined $1.9 million in 2021 for damaging wetlands and streams at 76 drilling sites in Pennsylvania has had more than a dozen of those sites added to a list of projects that have been ordered fast-tracked by the Trump administration to address what he calls the nation’s “energy emergency.”

In addition to the fine, Chesapeake Energy, now Expand Energy, was required to restore 55 acres of wetlands and nearly 4,500 linear feet of streams. Wetlands are considered environmentally critical, sometimes referred to as “earth’s kidneys,” because they improve water quality and filter pollutants; they also help reduce erosion and prevent flooding. Chesapeake has a history dating back to 2013 of improperly filling in wetlands by discharging drilling fluids, sand, dirt, and rocks.

Chesapeake applied for retroactive federal permits to come into legal compliance on 17 of its fracking projects in Pennsylvania. Now, the firm’s wait may be nearly over.

Chesapeake’s fracking operations are among more than 600 projects across the country that have been earmarked by the Trump administration as energy emergencies. The list includes a pipeline to be bored under Lake Michigan, a deepwater export port off the coast of Louisiana, and a controversial plan by Chevron to build a housing development atop one of its old oil fields in northern Orange County, Calif.

The projects were added to the Army Corps of Engineers’ standing list of jobs that are considered priorities — typically those impacted by natural disasters such as hurricanes, tropical storms, and floods. Such emergency work is prompted by “dire” situations that “require short cutting the normal permitting,” said David Bookbinder, director of law and policy at the nonprofit Environmental Integrity Project.

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NJ farmers allowed controlled burns to protect crops April 6-12

With New Jersey expected to experience cooler spring temperatures, the Department of Environmental Protection has agreed with NJDA Secretary Ed Wengryn’s request to allow farmers to do controlled open burning or use specialized torches known as smudge pots to protect flowering crops from damage beginning Sunday, April 6 through Saturday, April 12.

Temperatures are expected to drop to the 30s or below next week with varying winds through portions of the state. These expected temperatures follow warm temperatures in recent days. Damage from freezing weather now can significantly reduce yields of certain fruits and vegetables that are in the flowering stage.

The DEP and Department of Agriculture are allowing these steps to protect farmers’ livelihoods and to ensure that consumers will be able to enjoy an ample supply of Jersey produce later this year.

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Experts: Trump’s Port Fee Plan Could Bollix Up Shipping Schedules

By Ira Breskin, gCaptain

STAMFORD, CT — Shipping industry executives are considering options to address Trump administration policy changes, under consideration or enacted, that could significantly disrupt operations, speakers said here this week at the 40th annual Connecticut Maritime Association annual meeting.

Containership operators, for example, are weighing radical reconfiguration of ship schedules to avoid costly ship call-based port fees being considered by the Trump administration.

Should operators decide to reroute their vessels to major US “load center” ports, at the expense of smaller secondary ones, to reduce exposure to new fees, “it would absolutely crush us,” said Bethann Rooney, port director for the Port of New York and New Jersey. “We need to prepare to work effectively,” she said.

PONY/NJ is the busiest container port on the East Coast and among the busiest in the US.

The result “would be far worse than we saw on the West Coast during the (COVID-19) pandemic,” Rooney said during a presentation on Wednesday.

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University signs agreement for micro nuclear reactor on campus

Agreement to build microreactor on US university site — *Rendering of the KRONOS MMR at the University of Illinois (Image: NANO Nuclear)*

By World Nuclear News

US microreactor technology company NANO Nuclear Energy Inc has signed a strategic collaboration agreement with the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign to construct the first research KRONOS micro modular reactor on the university’s campus.

The agreement formally establishes the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign as a partner in the licensing, siting, public engagement, and research operation of the KRONOS MMR, while also identifying the university campus as the permanent site for the reactor as a research and demonstration installation.

The university plans to re-power partially its coal-fired Abbott power station with the KRONOS MMR, providing a zero-carbon demonstration of district heat and power to campus buildings as part of its green campus initiative. The project team aims to demonstrate how microreactor systems integrate with existing fossil fuel infrastructure to accelerate the decarbonisation of existing power-generation facilities.

Following initial arrangements, NANO Nuclear will begin the process of geological characterisation, including subsurface investigations, to support preparation of a Construction Permit Application (CPA) for submission to the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC). The company said this preparatory work is essential to understanding the environmental parameters of the site, including critical inputs to safety analysis, to ensure the utmost reliability and safety of the facility, and support NANO Nuclear’s Preliminary Safety Analysis Report (PSAR) and Environmental Report (ER).

As part of the agreement, the University of Illinois Urbana-Champaign will lead the regulatory engagement with the NRC as well as public engagement, support licensing activities including the PSAR and ER, and play a key role in site layout, constructability assessment, and future operator training programmes. NANO Nuclear will oversee plant design, construction, system integration, and commercial pathway development.

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