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New York’s Polystyrene Foam Ban | Earth Wise

January 19, 2022 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

As of January 1, the state of New York now prohibits any person engaged in the business of selling or distributing prepared food or beverages from selling, offering for sale, or distributing disposable food service containers that contain expanded polystyrene foam in the state. In addition, no manufacturer will be allowed to sell, offer for sale, or distribute polystyrene loose fill packaging in the state.

In other words, there will be no more Styrofoam bowls, cartons, clamshell containers, lids, plates, trays, or packing peanuts.

There are still some exceptions. Raw meat, seafood, poultry, or fish sold for the purpose of cooking or preparing off-premises can still be packaged in polystyrene foam. Prepackaged food filled or sealed prior to receipt by a food service provider can also still be packaged in polystyrene foam.

The New York State Department of Environmental Conservation is initially focusing its efforts on outreach and education to achieve compliance rather than on enforcement. The DEC has provided detailed regulations to assist stakeholders with complying with the law.

Expanded polystyrene foam is a major contributor to environmental litter. The material breaks apart easily and does not readily biodegrade, causing it to be persistent in the environment and contribute to microplastic pollution. The foam causes negative impacts to wildlife, waterways, and natural resources.

An estimated 65% of New Yorkers were already living in communities that banned polystyrene foam, notably including New York City and Long Island which imposed a ban in 2019.

New York becomes the fourth state to impose such a ban after Maine, Maryland, and Vermont. Colorado and Virginia will follow suit in the next two years.

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Expanded Polystyrene Foam Container and Polystyrene Loose Fill Packaging Ban

Photo, posted November 16, 2015, courtesy of Karim Ghantous via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Drought And U.S. Hydropower | Earth Wise

November 29, 2021 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The ongoing severe drought in the western U.S. has led to low water levels in the rivers and reservoirs that feed hydroelectric power systems. The Energy Information Administration is projecting a 13.9% decrease in hydroelectric generation this year compared to 2020.

Water levels in Lake Powell have fallen so low that it may not be possible to operate the power plant at Glen Canyon Dam starting as soon as 2022. California officials took the Edward Hyatt hydroelectric plant offline in August because of low water levels on Lake Oroville. Washington, the state with the most hydroelectric power generation, has seen an 11% drop in electricity generated to date this year as compared to last year. That state is actually doing better than others in the West, such as California, where hydro generation is down 38%.

Hydropower accounts for over 7% of the electricity generated in the United States. Five states – Washington, Idaho, Vermont, Oregon, and South Dakota – generate at least half of their electricity from hydroelectric dams.

The current decrease in hydropower is alarming, but it is not unprecedented. The more significant question is whether the drop in generation this year is a sign that this power source is declining and becoming less reliable. According to some scientists, the West is in a “megadrought” that could last for decades.

The greater concern is whether the bad years are likely to become more common because of climate change. Climate projections agree that temperatures will continue to rise, but what will happen to precipitation levels in specific places is much less certain. That is what will determine what the future holds for hydroelectric power.

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Inside Clean Energy: Drought is Causing U.S. Hydropower to Have a Rough Year. Is This a Sign of a Long-Term Shift?

Photo, posted May 7, 2014, courtesy of Tyler Bell via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Conservation In Vermont | Earth Wise

May 6, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

In recent times, Vermont and neighboring states have been losing forest land to development at a rate of almost 1,500 acres per year. With forest fragmentation gaining ground across New England, conserving land for future generations of people, wildlife, and plants has become both increasingly important and increasingly difficult.

According to a new study published by researchers at the University of Vermont, the state has already protected a third of the highest priority targeted lands needed to protect and connect valuable wildlife habitats and corridors. The protected lands amount to 1.3 million acres.

Most of the currently conserved lands are forested. However, there are high-priority targeted surface water and riparian areas – ponds, rivers, shorelines, and wetlands – and not nearly enough of these have been protected. (Many animals require zones along waterways in which to travel between the habitats they need to survive).

The state of Vermont and a number of partners have laid out a comprehensive and thoughtful vision that would ensure that Vermont remains a good place for all forms of life in the future. The new study provides a crucial benchmark of current levels of forest protection to help prioritize future conservation actions.

Three groups dominate in responsibility for the state’s protected lands: the federal government, the state government, and private non-profit organizations. (Each of these account for roughly a third of existing protected lands).

Going forward, Vermont’s nonprofits will play an increasingly important role in land conservation, especially in continuing to protect those areas that are rich with species diversity. Nonprofits are engaging more and more deeply in restoring wetlands that were previously degraded, planting new forests along river shores, and protecting unique natural communities while also protecting working forests and farmland.

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Vermont Has Conserved One Third of the Land Needed for an Ecologically Functional Future

Photo, posted June 15, 2014, courtesy of Wesley Carr via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

More Solar And Wind Power In The U.S.

January 2, 2020 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, both wind and solar power are contributing more and more to total electrical generation in the United States. For the first 8 months of 2019, the combination of wind and solar power accounted for almost 10% of U.S. electrical generation.

Solar, including small-scale PV systems on home rooftops, grew by almost 14% compared to the first eight months of 2018 and accounted for more than 2.7% of total electrical output. In fact, small-scale solar generation increased by 19% and provided nearly a third of all the solar power in the country.

Wind energy in the U.S. increased by 4.4%, accounting for almost 7% of the country’s electricity.

Overall, renewable energy sources – which include biomass, geothermal, hydropower, solar, and wind – accounted for 18.49% of net domestic electrical generation during the first 8 months of 2019. The non-hydro renewable sources actually accounted for over 11% of total electricity production and saw a year-over-year growth of 6%.

Outside of renewables, nuclear-generated electricity declined by 0.6% and coal power dropped by almost 14%. Much of the coal generation was replaced by natural gas, which grew by 6.5% compared to the previous year.

Renewables now accounting for nearly 20% of overall electricity generation in the US represents significant progress. But the variations by state continue to be substantial. For example, while Vermont gets 99% of its power from renewables, Ohio gets only 2%.

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Solar and wind energy provide almost 10 percent of total generation in the US in 2019

Photo, posted April 8, 2019, courtesy of City of St. Pete via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

Maple Syrup And Climate Change

October 11, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

According to a study recently published in the journal Forest Ecology and Management, scientists are predicting another casualty of climate change: the U.S. maple industry. By the year 2100, the maple syrup season in the United States may be less productive and arrive one month earlier than it has between 1950 and 2017.

Maple syrup production is impacted by two climate-sensitive factors: sugar content and sap flow. Sugar content is determined by the previous year’s carbohydrate stores. Sap flow depends on the freeze/thaw cycle. Sap begins to flow in sugar maples when winter nights dip below freezing and the days warm above freezing.

The researchers studied six sugar maple stands from Virginia to Quebec, Canada over a six year period. They created a model that predicted the timing of optimal sap flow based on historical temperature data on freeze/thaw days, actual sap collection from their field work, and monthly climate.

According to modeling projections, the maple syrup season is expected to be, on average, one month earlier by the end of the century. States like Indiana and Virginia will barely produce any sap. New Hampshire and Vermont are likely to be least affected, but are still expected to experience a decrease in production. In fact, most areas of maple production in the United States are projected to see decreases in production by the year 2100, while areas in northern Ontario and Quebec should see moderate to large increases in production.

Currently, Canada is responsible for approximately 80% of global maple syrup production while the U.S. produces 20%. The shifting climate for optimal maple production will leave many scrambling to find the sweet spot.

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Climate change study finds that maple syrup season may come earlier

Photo, posted March 24, 2019, courtesy of Paul VanDerWerf via Flickr.

Earth Wise is a production of WAMC Northeast Public Radio.

The Changing Face of Electricity

March 15, 2019 By EarthWise Leave a Comment

The New York Times recently published an article on how electricity is made in the United States on a state-by-state basis and how it has been changing over the past two decades. Two conclusions to draw are that the mix of energy sources is wildly different from one state to another and that the mix has been changing rather dramatically in many places.

Overall, the past two decades have seen the dramatic rise in the use of natural gas and a dramatic drop in the use of coal. Coal plants used to account for over half of the electricity produced in the U.S. at the turn of the 21st century. Now natural gas has passed coal as the largest energy source at roughly 1/3 of the total generated.

Switching from coal to natural gas is a good thing since modern gas power plants emit only about half the carbon dioxide as modern coal plants. But industry spin about “clean gas” is just spin. Gas is not really clean; it is just cleaner than coal. So, having the electric grid powered by gas is not really going to solve our emissions problems.

That being said, there are still states that make nearly all their electricity with coal. Indiana, Kentucky, Missouri, Utah, Wyoming, and West Virginia are on that list. Meanwhile, Delaware, Massachusetts, Mississippi, Nevada, and Rhode Island are powered mostly by gas. Idaho, Oregon, Washington, and Vermont rely heavily on hydropower.

Newer renewables like solar and wind are starting to make major contributions in many states. Wind contributes only 6% nationwide but is much bigger in places like Iowa, Kansas, Minnesota, the Dakotas, Oklahoma and Texas.

The face of electricity continues to change.

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