Tag Archives: Climate and environment

World

3 dead, 1 missing as rain pounds New Zealand’s largest city

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Authorities said Saturday that three people had died and at least one was missing after record levels of rainfall pounded New Zealand’s largest city, causing widespread disruption.

Prime Minister Chris Hipkins flew to Auckland on a military plane after a state of emergency was declared in the region.

“Our priority is to ensure that Aucklanders are safe, that they’re housed and that they have access to the essential services that they need,” Hipkins said.

He said the city was in for a big cleanup and that people should remain indoors if possible. He said a break in the weather could prove temporary, with more heavy rain forecast.

“This is an unprecedented event in recent memory,” Hipkins said.

Friday was the wettest day ever recorded in Auckland, according to weather agencies, as the amount of rain that would typically fall over the entire summer hit in a single day. On Friday evening, more than 15 centimeters (6 inches) of rain fell in just three hours in some places.

The rain closed highways and poured into homes. Hundreds of people were stranded at Auckland Airport overnight after the airport stopped all flights and parts of the terminal were flooded.

Police said they found one man’s body in a flooded culvert and another in a flooded carpark. They said fire and emergency crews found a third body after a landslide brought down a house in the suburb of Remuera. One person remained missing after being swept away by floodwaters, police said.

Hipkins said power had been restored to most places, although about 3,500 homes remained without electricity.

Video posted online showed chest-deep water in some places.

Lawmaker Ricardo Menéndez posted a video of water surging into houses. “We’ve just had to evacuate our home as the water was already rising rapidly and coming in aggressively,” he tweeted.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand said crews had responded to more than 700 incidents across the region and staff had taken more than 2,000 emergency calls.

“We had every available career and volunteer crew on the road responding to the most serious events,” said district manager Brad Mosby.

Mosby said crews had rescued 126 people who were trapped in houses or cars, or who had been involved in vehicle crashes.

Air New Zealand said it resumed domestic flights in and out of Auckland on Saturday afternoon, but wasn’t yet sure when international flights would resume.

“The flooding has had a huge impact our Auckland operations,” said David Morgan, the airline’s chief operational integrity and safety officer. “We’re working on getting customers to their final destinations and getting our crew and aircraft back in the right place. It might take a few days to get everything back on track.”

In a series of updates on Twitter, Auckland Airport said people were able to leave the airport early Saturday for their homes or accommodation after hundreds spent the night in the terminal.

“It’s been a long and challenging night at Auckland Airport, we thank everyone for ongoing patience,” the airport wrote.

“Unfortunately, due to earlier flooding in the baggage hall, we are currently unable to return checked luggage to you,” the airport wrote. “Your airline will make arrangements for its return at a later time.”

The storm also caused an Elton John concert to be canceled just before it was due to start Friday night. A second concert by John that was planned at the stadium on Saturday night was also canceled.

About 40,000 people were expected to attend each concert at Mt Smart Stadium. Thousands were already at the venue Friday night when organizers decided to cancel not long before John was due to take the stage at 7:30 p.m.

Many concertgoers who had braved the conditions were frustrated the decision hadn’t been made hours earlier.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown defended criticism that his office did not communicate the seriousness of the situation well and held off on declaring an emergency until about 9:30 p.m. Friday.

He said the timing of the emergency declaration was guided by experts.

“We will review everything that took place,” Brown said. “We’ve got to make sure we had the coordination, and the consultation with the public, correct.”

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World

2 dead, 2 missing as rain pounds New Zealand’s largest city

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WELLINGTON, New Zealand (AP) — Police said Saturday that two people had died and two more were missing as record levels of rainfall pounded New Zealand’s largest city, causing widespread disruption.

Authorities declared a state of emergency for the Auckland region and the nation’s new Prime Minister, Chris Hipkins, flew to the city on a military plane to assess the damage. Hipkins was sworn in to the top job on Wednesday after Jacinda Ardern resigned.

Hipkins said the rain had hit the city fast. “Aucklanders need to brace for the fact there could be more rain,” he said.

Earlier, hundreds of people were stranded at Auckland Airport overnight after the airport stopped all flights and parts of the terminal were flooded.

Friday was the wettest day ever recorded in Auckland, according to weather agencies, as the amount of rain that would typically fall over the entire summer hit in a single day. On Friday evening, more than 15 centimeters (6 inches) of rain fell in just three hours in some places.

Police said they found one man’s body Friday evening in a flooded culvert and another man’s body early Saturday in a flooded carpark, and they were continuing to investigate both deaths.

Police said a third man had been reported missing after being swept away by floodwaters while a fourth person remained unaccounted for after a landslide brought down a house in the suburb of Remuera.

Video posted online showed chest-deep water in some places.

Lawmaker Ricardo Menéndez posted a video of water surging into houses. “We’ve just had to evacuate our home as the water was already rising rapidly and coming in aggressively,” he tweeted.

Fire and Emergency New Zealand said crews had responded to more than 700 incidents across the region and staff had taken more than 2,000 emergency calls.

“We had every available career and volunteer crew on the road responding to the most serious events,” said district manager Brad Mosby.

Mosby said crews had rescued 126 people who were trapped in houses or cars, or who had been involved in vehicle crashes.

Air New Zealand said it resumed domestic flights in and out of Auckland on Saturday afternoon, but wasn’t yet sure when international flights would resume.

“The flooding has had a huge impact our Auckland operations,” said David Morgan, the airline’s chief operational integrity and safety officer. “We’re working on getting customers to their final destinations and getting our crew and aircraft back in the right place. It might take a few days to get everything back on track.”

In a series of updates on Twitter, Auckland Airport said people were able to leave the airport early Saturday for their homes or accommodation after hundreds spent the night in the terminal.

“It’s been a long and challenging night at Auckland Airport, we thank everyone for ongoing patience,” the airport wrote.

“Unfortunately, due to earlier flooding in the baggage hall, we are currently unable to return checked luggage to you,” the airport wrote. “Your airline will make arrangements for its return at a later time.”

The airport on Friday said it was reducing its runway operations after an arriving aircraft had damaged runway lighting.

The storm also caused an Elton John concert to be canceled just before it was due to start Friday night. A second concert by John that was planned at the stadium on Saturday night was also canceled.

About 40,000 people were expected to attend each concert at Mt Smart Stadium. Thousands were already at the venue Friday night when organizers decided to cancel not long before John was due to take the stage at 7:30 p.m.

The concert was billed as a final farewell tour for John. Frontier Touring, one of the concert promoters, tweeted the concert had been canceled due to unsafe weather conditions.

Many concertgoers who had braved the conditions were frustrated the decision hadn’t been made hours earlier.

Weather agency MetService warned of flash flooding and hazardous driving conditions. On Friday night, transport authorities closed parts of State Highway 1, the main highway that bisects Auckland.

Auckland Mayor Wayne Brown told Radio New Zealand, “We need the rain to stop. That’s the main issue.”

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Business

Manchin pushes to delay tax credits for electric vehicles

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WASHINGTON (AP) — Ratcheting up his criticism, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin on Wednesday moved to delay new tax credits for electric vehicles, a key feature of President Joe Biden’s landmark climate law.

Manchin said guidelines issued by the Treasury Department allow manufacturers in Europe and other countries to bypass requirements that significant portions of EV batteries be produced in North America.

The climate law, officially known as the Inflation Reduction Act, “is first and foremost an energy security bill,” Manchin said, adding that the EV tax credits were supposed “to grow domestic manufacturing and reduce our reliance on foreign supply chains for the critical minerals needed to produce EV batteries.″

Manchin’s bid to delay the tax credits surfaced as Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm and White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi visited the Washington, D.C., Auto Show on Wednesday to highlight the administration’s efforts to boost electric vehicles and related infrastructure.

EV sales have tripled since Biden, a Democrat, took office two years ago, Granholm said. There are now more than 2 million EVs and 100,000 chargers on U.S. roadways, with more than $100 billion invested or pledged for EVs and their supply chains, including batteries, she said.

While batteries and components have long been manufactured in China, “we’re going to bring that manufacturing home,″ Granholm told reporters.

“We’re going to give Americans the chance to drive American vehicles made by American workers — and that is only going to compound as Americans start to drive these vehicles and realize how great they are,″ she said. “The demand is going to go very high. We expect that by 2030, half of all the vehicles sold in the United States will be electric.″

Granholm and the White House declined to comment on Manchin’s bill, but the measure by the West Virginia lawmaker is unlikely to gain traction in the Senate, where Democrats hold a slim majority and have shown no inclination to reopen a bill they just passed on a party-line vote. During the midterm election campaign, Republicans criticized Biden and other Democrats for supporting electric vehicles, citing their relative high costs and batteries made in China.

Tax credits of up to $7,500 per vehicle are intended to spur EV sales and domestic production of vehicles and batteries while reducing planet-warming greenhouse gas emissions. European and Asian allies, including French President Emmanuel Macron, have criticized the rules as unfair to foreign manufacturers.

While Macron applauded Biden’s efforts to curb climate change, he said during a visit to Washington that subsidies in the new law could be an enormous problem for European companies.

Biden acknowledged “glitches” in the legislation but said “there’s tweaks we can make” to satisfy allies.

Manchin’s bill follows a decision by the Treasury Department to delay rules on battery contents and minerals until March, while allowing the rest of the program to be implemented on Jan. 1. The Manchin bill directs Treasury to stop issuing tax credits for vehicles that don’t comply with battery requirements.

“The United States is the birthplace of Henry Ford, who revolutionized the automotive industry,″ Manchin said, calling it “shameful that we rely so heavily on foreign suppliers, particularly China, for the batteries that power our electric vehicles.″

Manchin, chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, was a crucial vote in passing the climate law, which was adopted without support from any Republican in the House or Senate. He has said exemptions approved by the Treasury — including one that allows tax credits for EVs purchased for commercial use, such as leasing or ride-sharing, even if they are foreign-made — undermine the law’s intent to reduce U.S. dependence on foreign countries, including adversaries, and create jobs in the United States.

At the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, last week, Manchin said he did not realize the European Union does not have a free trade agreement with the U.S. when Democrats passed the EV restrictions. He told reporters at the Capitol this week that European countries should reconsider their own policies for promoting clean energy, and the U.S. could work on a trade deal.

“Whether I realized it or not, they need to hopefully get that together and let’s get a free trade agreement,” Manchin said.

Senate Finance Committee Chairman Ron Wyden, D-Ore., has said he has no interest in reopening the climate law, which passed after more than a year and a half of sometimes contentious negotiations.

John Bozzella, president of the Alliance for Automotive Innovation, an industry trade group, said Manchin’s bill would only add confusion to an already complicated EV tax credit that many drivers — and even some car dealers — don’t fully understand.

“We want to make sure we don’t increase confusion for customers who might be confused already about what qualifies for a tax credit,” Bozzella said, “so I’m not quite sure what the value of the new legislation is.”

___

Follow the AP’s coverage of electric vehicles at https://apnews.com/hub/electric-vehicles.

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World

Sections of Balkan river become floating garbage dump

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VISEGRAD, Bosnia-Herzegovina (AP) — Tons of waste dumped in poorly regulated riverside landfills or directly into the waterways that flow across three countries end up accumulating behind a trash barrier in the Drina River in eastern Bosnia during the wet weather of winter and early spring.

This week, the barrier once again became the outer edge of a massive floating waste dump crammed with plastic bottles, rusty barrels, used tires, household appliances, driftwood and other garbage picked up by the river from its tributaries.

The river fencing installed by a Bosnian hydroelectric plant, a few kilometers upstream from its dam near Visegrad, has turned the city into an unwilling regional waste site, local environmental activists complain.

Heavy rain and unseasonably warm weather over the past week have caused many rivers and streams in Bosnia, Serbia and Montenegro to overflow, flooding the surrounding areas and forcing scores of people from their homes. Temperatures dropped in many areas on Friday as rain turned into snow.

“We had a lot of rainfall and torrential floods in recent days and a huge inflow of water from (the Drina’s tributaries in) Montenegro which is now, fortunately, subsiding,” said Dejan Furtula of the environmental group Eko Centar Visegrad.

“Unfortunately, the huge inflow of garbage has not ceased,” he added.

The Drina River runs 346 kilometers (215 miles) from the mountains of northwestern Montenegro through Serbia and Bosnia. and some of its tributaries are known for their emerald color and breathtaking scenery. A section along the border between Bosnia and Serbia is popular with river rafters when it’s not “garbage season.”

Some 10,000 cubic meters (more than 353,000 cubic feet) of waste are estimated to have amassed behind the Drina River trash barrier in recent days, Furtula said. The same amount was pulled in recent years from that area of the river.

Removing the garbage takes up to six months, on average. It ends up at the municipal landfill in Visegrad, which Furtula said “does not even have sufficient capacity to handle (the city’s) municipal waste.”

“The fires on the (municipal) landfill site are always burning,” he said, calling the conditions there “not just a huge environmental and health hazard, but also a big embarrassment for all of us.”

Decades after the devastating 1990s wars that accompanied the breakup of Yugoslavia, the Balkans lag behind the rest of Europe both economically and with regard to environmental protection.

The countries of the region have made little progress in building effective, environmentally sound trash disposal systems despite seeking membership in the European Union and adopting some of the EU’s laws and regulations.

Unauthorized waste dumps dot hills and valleys throughout the region, while trash litters roads and plastic bags hang from the trees.

In addition to river pollution, many countries in the western Balkans have other environmental woes. One of the most pressing is the extremely high level of air pollution affecting a number of cities in the region.

“People need to wake up to problems like this,” Visegrad resident Rados Brekalovic said.

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US

NJ governor: No pause in wind farm prep after 7th dead whale

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BRIGANTINE, N.J. (AP) — New Jersey’s governor said Friday he does not think undersea preparations for offshore wind farms should be halted in response to a recent spate of whale deaths in New Jersey and New York.

Democrat Phil Murphy spoke after lawmakers at the local, state and federal levels called for a temporary pause in ocean floor preparation work for offshore wind projects in New Jersey and New York after another dead whale washed ashore in the area.

Also on Friday, most of New Jersey’s environmental groups warned against linking offshore wind work and whale deaths, calling such associations “unfounded and premature.”

The death was the seventh in a little over a month. The spate of fatalities prompted an environmental group and some citizens groups opposed to offshore wind to ask President Biden earlier this week for a federal investigation into the deaths.

The latest death Thursday was that of a 20- to 25-foot-long (6- to 7.6-meter-long) humpback whale. Its remains washed ashore in Brigantine, just north of Atlantic City, which itself has seen two dead whales on its beaches in recent weeks.

There was no immediate indication of what caused the latest death. The Marine Mammal Stranding Center, based in Brigantine, said it and several other groups were formulating plans Friday for a post-mortem examination of the whale’s remains before the animal’s carcass is disposed of, most likely through burial on the beach.

“We should suspend all work related to offshore wind development until we can determine the cause of death of these whales, some of which are endangered,” said New Jersey state Sen. Vince Polistina, a Republican who represents the area. “The work related to offshore wind projects is the primary difference in our waters, and it’s hard to believe that the death of (seven) whales on our beaches is just a coincidence.”

Murphy said he does not think pausing offshore wind prep is necessary.

“This is tragic, obviously,” he said.

Murphy cited the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which earlier this week said that no humpback whale — the species accounting for most of the recent whale deaths in New Jersey and New York — has been found to have been killed due to offshore wind activities.

“They have said it’s been happening at an increased rate since 2016, and that was long before there was any offshore wind activity,” the governor said. “It looks like some of these whales have been hit by vessels.”

Orsted, the Danish wind power developer tabbed to build two of the three offshore wind projects approved thus far in the waters off New Jersey, said its current work off the New Jersey coast does not involve using sounds or other actions that could disturb whales.

It did not say what specific type of work it is doing off New Jersey and did not answer that question in an email to The Associated Press on Friday.

The Clean Ocean Action environmental group said such site work typically involves exploring the ocean floor using focused pulses of low-frequency sound in the same frequency that whales hear and communicate, which could potentially harm or disorient the animals.

Brigantine’s mayor, Vince Sera, joined in the call for a temporary halt to offshore wind site prep, as did U.S. Rep. Jeff Van Drew, a Republican congressman representing southern New Jersey.

At a news conference Monday in Atlantic City, the groups calling on Biden to probe the deaths said offshore wind developers have applied for authorization to harass or harm as many as 157,000 marine mammals off the two states.

NOAA said 11 such applications are active in the area but involve nonserious injuries or harassment of marine animals, not killing them.

“NOAA Fisheries has not authorized, or proposed to authorize, mortality or serious injury for any wind-related action,” agency spokesperson Lauren Gaches said.

Most of New Jersey’s major environmental groups said this week that they support offshore wind energy.

“The climate crisis demands that we quickly develop renewable energy, and offshore wind is critically important for New Jersey to reach the state’s economic development and environmental justice goals,” the groups said in a statement.

The groups include Clean Water Action, Environment New Jersey, the Sierra Club, New Jersey Audubon, NY/NJ Baykeeper and others.

“Blaming offshore wind projects on whale mortality without evidence is not only irresponsible but overshadows the very real threats of climate change, plastic pollution, and unsustainable fishery management practices to these animals,” said the Sierra Club’s New Jersey director, Anjuli Ramos-Busot.

“We need to base our decision making on science and data, not emotions or assumptions,” added Allison McLeod, policy director of the New Jersey League of Conservation Voters.

___

Follow Wayne Parry on Twitter at www.twitter.com/WayneParryAC



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US

California hit by more storms, braces for potential floods

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SAN FRANCISCO (AP) — California was hit with more turbulent weather Sunday as thunderstorms, snow and damaging winds swept into the northern part the state, preceding another series of incoming storms and raising the potential for road flooding, rising rivers and mudslides on soils already saturated after days of rain.

The National Weather Service warned of a “relentless parade of atmospheric rivers” — storms that are long plumes of moisture stretching out into the Pacific capable of dropping staggering amounts of rain and snow.

In the state capital, more than 60,000 customers were still without electricity Sunday evening — down from more than 350,000 — after gusts of 60 mph (97 kph) knocked trees into power lines, according to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District.

Joey Kleemann was listening to the winds howling shortly after midnight, wondering whether she should move her car, when she heard a “gigantic, thumping, crashing sound” as a massive tree fell onto the Sacramento home where she’s lived for 25 years.

The gusts were strong enough to rip the tree from its roots, pulling the concrete sidewalk up with it.

Cracks in Kleemann’s roof meant rain streamed into her dining area throughout the night. She planned to place a tarp over the damaged area in anticipation of another deluge.

“I just had a feeling with the winds. They were scary winds,” she said. “Mostly I focused on: It could be so much worse.”

Gov. Gavin Newsom said 12 people lost their lives as a result of violent weather during the past 10 days, and he warned that this week’s storms could be even more dangerous. He urged people to stay home.

“Just be cautious over the course of the next week, particularly the next day or two or so,” Newsom said during a briefing with California officials outlining the state’s storm preparations.

The weather service’s Sacramento office said the region should brace for the latest atmospheric river to roar ashore late Sunday and early Monday.

“Widespread power outages, downed trees and difficult driving conditions will be possible,” the office said on Twitter.

Evacuation warnings were in place for about 13,000 residents of a flood-prone area of Sonoma County north of San Francisco, where the swollen Russian River was expected to overspill its banks in the coming days.

And Sacramento County ordered evacuations for people living around Wilton, a town of about 6,000 roughly 20 miles southeast of downtown Sacramento, with warnings of imminent flooding. The rural area along the Cosumnes River saw flooding in an earlier storm.

“Residents must leave now before roads become impassable,” the county said.

The state Department of Transportation warned motorists to stay off mountain roads after closing a stretch of U.S. 395 in Mono County, along the Eastern Sierra, due to heavy snow, ice and whiteout conditions.

“With the severe nature of this storm, Caltrans is asking all drivers to limit nonessential travel until the peak of the storm has passed,” the department said in a statement.

The wet weather comes after days of rain in California from Pacific storms that last week knocked out power to thousands, flooded streets, battered the coastline and caused at least six deaths.

The first of the newest, heavier storms prompted the weather service to issue a flood watch for a large swath of Northern and Central California with 6 to 12 inches (15 to 30 centimeters) of rain expected through Wednesday in the already saturated Sacramento-area foothills.

In the Los Angeles region, scattered rain fell during the weekend while stormy conditions were expected to return Monday, with the potential for up to 8 inches (20 cm) in foothill areas. High surf was expected through Tuesday, with large waves on west-facing beaches.

Since Dec. 26, San Francisco has received more than 10 inches (25 centimeters) of rain, while Mammoth Mountain, a popular ski area in the Eastern Sierra, got nearly 10 feet (3 meters) of snow, the National Weather Service reported.

The storms won’t be enough to officially end California’s ongoing drought — but they have helped.

State climatologist Michael Anderson told a news briefing late Saturday that officials were closely monitoring Monday’s incoming storm and another behind it and were keeping an eye on three other systems farther out in the Pacific.



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US

Hawaii’s Kilauea volcano erupts again, summit crater glows

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By AUDREY McAVOYJanuary 6, 2023 GMT

HONOLULU (AP) — Hawaii’s Kilauea began erupting inside its summit crater Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey said, less than one month after the volcano and its larger neighbor Mauna Loa stopped releasing lava.

The Hawaiian Volcano Observatory detected a glow in webcam images indicating Kilauea had begun erupting inside Halemaumau crater at the volcano’s summit caldera, the agency said.

Kilauea’s summit is inside Hawaii Volcanoes National Park and away from residential communities.

Kilauea is one of the world’s most active volcanoes. It last erupted for 16 months starting in September 2021. For about two weeks starting Nov. 27, Hawaii had two volcanoes spewing lava side by side when Mauna Loa erupted for the first time in 38 years. Both volcanoes stopped erupting at about the same time.

Earlier Thursday, the U.S. Geological Survey raised the alert level for Kilauea due to signs that magma was moving below the summit surface, an indication that the volcano might erupt.

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US

EXPLAINER: How blizzard stunned even winter-wise Buffalo

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BUFFALO, N.Y. (AP) — The toll from the weekend blizzard that hit the Buffalo area was approaching 40 deaths Wednesday from the region’s deadliest storm in generations. Homes are only beginning to warm after days without heat. Drivers are still claiming cars they had abandoned.

In a region that prides itself on being able to handle frequent and heavy snowfall, the natural question is: Why was this storm so paralyzing?

Officials note that they declared emergencies, warned residents, and positioned crews and equipment well before the first storm winds blew in. But the ferocity of a blizzard packing near-hurricane-force winds and more than 4 feet (1.2 meters) of snow severely limited what crews could do, even in responding to 911 calls.

On Wednesday, tensions surfaced between the region’s two top elected officials, with Erie County Executive Mark Poloncarz swiping at snow-removal efforts in the county seat of Buffalo, where a driving ban remained in place and National Guard troops helped to enforce it.

“The city, unfortunately, is always the last one to open,” Poloncarz said. “It’s embarrassing, to tell you the truth.”

In the aftermath of the storm, many of the dead were found outside, and others were in snow-covered vehicles and unheated homes. Some were stricken after clearing snow. Others died while awaiting help during a medical crisis.

A look at the response and aftermath:

THE FORECAST

Meteorologists saw it coming. Four days before the arrival of bad weather, the National Weather Service on Dec. 19 warned of a powerful storm and repeated the warning with increasing detail each day. An urgent advisory on Dec. 20 warned of blizzard conditions and heavy snow. By Dec. 21, forecasters termed it a “once-in-a-generation” storm. On Thursday, a blizzard warning was posted to take effect at 7 a.m. Friday, describing heavy snow, high winds, windchills of minus 10 to 25 degrees (minus 23 to 32 below Celsius) and “difficult to impossible travel” through Christmas weekend.

PREPARATIONS AND RESPONSE

Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown, saying “a potentially life-threatening storm” was coming, announced Thursday that the city would be under a state of emergency once the storm arrived the next morning. Closures of schools, churches and offices, including government offices in Erie and neighboring Niagara and Chautauqua counties, poured in.

Gov. Kathy Hochul expanded the state of emergency to the entire state Thursday and said state equipment and personnel were standing by, and the state Thruway Authority — which oversees the interstate highways linking Buffalo to other major cities statewide — announced commercial vehicles would be banned for a stretch in the area at 6 a.m. Friday.

“We highly recommend private businesses to close on Friday and Saturday,” Erie County Executive Poloncarz said at a public briefing, using a slideshow to illustrate the forecast, blizzard conditions, and dangers of frostbite and hypothermia.

By Friday, the county upgraded a travel advisory to a ban — too late, critics said, for employees who were instructed to go into work. Poloncarz said later the intent was to allow third-shift workers to get home, that conditions deteriorated more quickly than expected.

Some people ventured out anyway. Among them was Sean Reisch, a 41-year-old salesman from the suburb of Cheektowaga, who came to regret the decision to pick up milk and bread Friday afternoon.

“As I pulled on one of our main streets, it was like incredibly whiteout conditions to the point where you literally couldn’t see anything.,” he said.

The store was closing when he arrived, and when he got stuck in the parking lot someone lent him a shovel to dig out his Nissan Sentra, loaded with presents for his young children.

He barely made it home, sticking his head out the window in a cold wind that “took your breath away” to dodge drifts. At last he stumbled into his house, stunned.

“I kept saying to my wife all night long, ’I don’t think you understand how lucky I am to be here.′ How lucky? I can’t believe I made it home through all that.”

STORM VETERANS

It’s no surprise that getting people to heed warnings is a challenge. But with climate change intensifying all kinds of global weather events, according to experts, the stakes are higher.

“People tend to normalize … ‘Well, I’ve lived here all my life. I went through the worst blizzard. I know what I’m doing,’” said Craig Fugate, administrator of the Federal Emergency Management Agency during the Obama administration. “This is something I think we’re going to really wrestle with with extreme weather … We’re seeing events that are exceeding our past experiences, and they’re exceeding our understanding.”

Fugate pointed to Hurricane Ian’s death toll in Lee County, Florida, in the fall, and the criticism the county faced for issuing a mandatory evacuation order just one day before the storm hit, choosing to wait while surrounding counties posted theirs.

With the blizzard arriving on the last shopping day before Christmas Eve, many employees, some citing the lack of a driving ban, said they felt pressured to go to work.

“If there’s criticism that it wasn’t done right, I’ll take it,” Poloncarz responded Wednesday.

THE HOLIDAY

Erie County Emergency Services Commissioner Dan Neaverth Jr. said he had to put his foot down to keep his own family members from running last-minute holiday errands in the storm, something many of those stranded were likely doing.

“How this fell, exactly where it did, heading into a holiday weekend,” he said, “I think that that had a tremendous impact on people wanting and feeling that need. … but not everybody had the benefit of a father who said, ‘Absolutely not, under no circumstances should you go out.’”

THE CRITICISM

Some residents of Buffalo, about 27% of whom live in poverty, bristled at instructions to “stock up” on food and medicine before the storm, calling it unrealistic.

Others questioned whether the region has enough specialized equipment to handle increasingly common extreme weather after volunteer snowmobile operators and emergency responders from outside agencies sent people and equipment. Poloncarz suggested Wednesday that the county, with more money and other resources, should take over the city’s future storm operations.

As National Guard members knocked on doors Wednesday conducting wellness checks, guard spokesperson Eric Durr addressed complaints members did not respond to the sometimes desperate pleas filling social media from people trapped in cars, freezing in homes without power or suffering medical emergencies.

Hochul had said Friday that 54 members of the National Guard and five vehicles would be deployed in Erie County to help.

At one point Saturday, almost every fire truck in Buffalo was stranded, along with numerous police vehicles, and residents of Buffalo and several suburbs were told emergency services were unavailable. Even plows were pulled from roads.

“If the fire department isn’t there, chances are the National Guard can’t get there,” Durr said.

On Saturday, Hochul announced additional troops. By Tuesday, more than 500 National Guard members were in western New York, her office said.

POLITICAL FALLOUT

Responding to Poloncarz’s critique of the city’s response, Brown said that the city bore the brunt of the storm and that its narrow residential streets posed challenges. He suggested Poloncarz, a fellow Democrat, was “crumbling” under stress.

“Some keep working, some keep trying to helping the residents of our community,” Brown said, “and some break down and lash out.”

“I don’t have any feud,” he said.

THE FUTURE

Erie County Sheriff John Garcia was among those looking for ways to improve after first responders were prevented from answering calls, saying “better equipment, more equipment” would help.

“We never thought that it was going to be as bad as it was,” he said. “So do we have to get better? Absolutely.”

Fugate said FEMA has benefited from talking with survivors of hurricanes to ask why they made the decisions they did.

“We can’t ask that of those who lost their lives, but we can people who were stranded,” he said. “We can ask the questions: What more information did you need to make a better decision?”

___

Associated Press reporter Heather Hollingsworth contributed from Mission, Kansas.

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Business

Yellen, Malerba become 1st female pair to sign US currency

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FORT WORTH, Texas (AP) — Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen on Thursday helped mark a milestone in U.S. history when she held up a newly minted $5 bill signed for the first time ever by two women.

Yellen’s signature will appear alongside that of U.S. Treasurer Lynn Malerba, the first Native American in that position.

Yellen joked during a stop in Texas about the bad handwriting of some of her male predecessors and said, “I will admit, I spent some quality time practicing my signature.”

“Two women on the currency for the first time is truly momentous,” added Malerba, who traveled with Yellen to a Bureau of Engraving and Printing facility in Fort Worth to provide their signatures.

They ceremonially signed fresh sheets of bills in $1 and $5 denominations and posed with samples to mark the history-making moment. The new notes will go into circulation next year.

Yellen made her reputation as a stoic chair of the Federal Reserve and a shrewd forecaster, and now is at the forefront of far-flung efforts to use economic levers to help stop Russia’s war in Ukraine, employ tax policy to protect the planet from climate change and oversee a massive effort to strengthen the beleaguered IRS.

That puts her at the center of domestic and global politics, inviting new levels of pressure and second-guessing by friends and foes. She is tackling this challenge as the United States is suffering from inflation that hit a 40-year high this summer and sowed fears of a coming recession.

Even as Yellen watched the fresh bills carrying her signature roll out at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing’s Western currency facility, her remarks focused on Biden administration policy accomplishments rather than her status as the first woman to serve as treasury secretary.

On the Ukraine conflict instigated last February by Russian President Vladimir Putin, she said, ”Together with over 30 countries, we have denied Russia revenue and resources it needs to fight its war.”

As for the domestic economy, she said, pandemic relief and a new law to boost production of semiconductors have positioned the U.S. “to capitalize on a wave of economic opportunities for the American people, including in communities often overlooked.”

Later, talking to reporters, Yellen said she thinks the U.S. can avoid a recession.

“Obviously, there are risks that the economy faces, but I think we’re not in a wage price spiral. Supply chain bottlenecks. are clearly beginning to ease. That’s helpful,” she said. “I believe we’re on the right track in terms of lowering inflation, and a recession is not inevitable.”

Now, two years into Joe Biden’s presidency, Yellen has put to rest rumors she might be ready to leave the administration early and is strapping in for more economic — as well as political — battles ahead.

Along with managing Treasury’s role in the Ukraine war, she faces the Herculean task of revitalizing an IRS that is getting a $80 billion funding boost, and enforcing an anti-money laundering effort that requires documenting the beneficial owners of tens of millions of U.S. businesses in hopes of crushing corruption around the world.

She occupies an increasingly politicized role in which Congress and foreign governments matter as much as the financial markets.

Her Treasury Department is seeking to hobble the Russian economy with an oil price cap, as House Republican leader Kevin McCarthy of California is questioning the level of U.S. support for Ukraine. The Treasury is also putting together tens of billions in tax incentives, to address climate change, that have rankled some European allies and proved controversial with Republicans. And the wage gains in the most recent U.S. jobs report suggest the economy might have to endure more pain than expected to bring inflation back to the Fed’s target of 2% annually.

Along the way, Yellen has not shied away from controversy or speaking her mind on issues that many Americans look at solely through a cultural lens.

When Sen. Tim Scott, R-S.C., at a May congressional hearing told Yellen she was “harsh” for speaking about the positive economic impacts of abortion access for women, she replied, “This is not harsh, this is the truth.” She also has challenged the view that havens for hidden cash lie outside the U.S., instead arguing that the U.S. has become the “best place” to hide illicitly obtained money.

Yellen generated some tension with the White House this year when she veered somewhat from Biden’s insistence that his $1.9 trillion in coronavirus aid package did not contribute to inflation. Republican lawmakers have drawn on analyses by major economists such as Harvard University’s Larry Summers to say that the sum was excessive and sparked inflation. Breakages in the global supply chain and a jump in food and energy costs after Russia invaded Ukraine also have contributed to boosting prices to uncomfortable levels, putting the economy at heightened risk of a recession.

Yellen acknowledged on CNN in May that she had been “wrong then about the path that inflation would take.” Biden said he had been apprised of the possible risks of inflation when putting together the relief package, but he told The Associated Press in an interview that “the idea that it caused inflation is bizarre.”

Yellen’s predictions at the Treasury about financial markets on other points have been proved accurate.

Her warnings about the risks of a deregulated cryptocurrency market foresaw the recent chaos. Crypto markets have seen at least two major crashes, dozens of scams, Ponzi schemes and hundreds of billions of dollars made and evaporated overnight.

Yellen has also used her platform as a top government official to warn that despite women’s advancements in the workplace, a glass ceiling prevents many from advancing to the very top positions.

Yellen, the only person ever to lead the Treasury Department, the Federal Reserve and White House Council of Economic Advisers, still gets flak from members of both political parties for not being more dynamic and politically savvy at times and for being too direct at other times.

Summers, treasury secretary under President Bill Clinton, said in a statement to The Associated Press that Yellen “continues a remarkable career in economic policy at the US Treasury Department. No other Treasury Secretary has had a deeper commitment to social justice as a central goal of macro and financial policies.”

The praise comes as Summers has leveled criticism at the Biden administration for the size of its coronavirus relief, saying its excesses flooded the economy with money and pushed up prices. He has argued that the Fed must continue to raise rates to reduce inflation, an action that could push the U.S. and other nations into recession.

Anusha Chari, an economist who chairs the American Economic Association’s Committee on the Status of Women in the Economics Profession, calls Yellen’s signature on U.S. currency “a huge milestone, but it also shows us how far we have to go.”

The Treasury Department was created in 1789, and until Yellen only white men had led it.

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Boak reported from Washington. Associated Press writer Darlene Superville in Washington contributed to this report.

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Business

Sale jumpstarts floating, offshore wind power in US waters

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PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) — Tuesday marks the first-ever U.S. auction of leases to develop commercial-scale floating wind farms, in the deep waters off the West Coast.

The live, online auction for the five leases — three off California’s central coast and two off its northern coast — has attracted strong interest and 43 companies from around the world are approved to bid. The wind turbines will float roughly 25 miles offshore.

The growth of offshore wind comes as climate change intensifies and need for clean energy grows. It also is getting cheaper. The cost of developing offshore wind has dropped 60% since 2010 according to a July report by the International Renewable Energy Agency. It declined 13% in 2021 alone.

Offshore wind is well established in the U.K. and some other countries but is just beginning to ramp up off America’s coasts, and this is the nation’s first foray into floating wind turbines. Auctions so far have been for those anchored to the seafloor.

Europe has some floating offshore wind — a project in the North Sea has been operating since 2017 — but the potential for the technology is huge in areas of strong wind off America’s coasts, said Josh Kaplowitz, vice president of offshore wind at the American Clean Power Association.

“We know that this works. We know that this can provide a huge slice of our our electricity needs, and if we’re going to solve the climate crisis we need to put as many clean electrons online as we can, particularly given increases in load demand with electric vehicles,” he said. “We can reach our greenhouse gas goals only with offshore wind as part of the puzzle.”

Similar auctions are in the works off Oregon’s coast next year and in the Gulf of Maine in 2024. President Joe Biden set a goal of deploying 30 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2030 using traditional technology that secures wind turbines to the ocean floor, enough to power 10 million homes. Then the administration announced plans in September to develop floating platforms that could vastly expand offshore wind in the United States.

The nation’s first offshore wind farm opened off the coast of Rhode Island in late 2016, allowing residents of small Block Island to shut off five diesel generators. Wind advocates took notice, but with five turbines, it’s not commercial scale.

Globally, as of 2021, there were only 123 megawatts of floating offshore wind operating, but that number is projected to increase to nearly 19 gigawatts — 150 times more — by 2030, according to a report last week by Offshore Wind California.

The California sale is designed to promote a domestic supply chain and create union jobs. Bidders can convert part of their bids into credits that benefit those affected by the wind development — local communities, tribes and commercial fishermen.

As envisioned, the turbines — possibly nearly as tall as the Eiffel Tower — will float on giant triangular platforms roughly the size of a small city block or buoyant cylinders with cables anchoring them underwater. They’ll each have three blades longer than the distance from home plate to the outfield on a baseball diamond, and will need to be assembled onshore and towed, upright, to their open-ocean destination.

Modern tall turbines, whether on or offshore, can produce more than 20 times more electricity than shorter machines, say, from the early 1990s.

As for visibility, “in absolutely perfect conditions, crystal clear on the best days, at the highest point, you might be able to see small dots on the horizon,” said Larry Oetker, executive director of the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District, which has been preparing its deep-water port for the projects.

Offshore wind is a good complement to solar energy, which shuts down at night. Winds far out to sea are stronger and more sustained and also pick up in the evening, just when solar is going offline yet demand is high, said Jim Berger, a partner at the law firm Norton Rose Fulbright who specializes in financing renewable energy projects.

California has a 2045 goal of carbon neutrality. But “when the sun goes down we’re relying more on fossil fuel generation,” Berger said. “These projects are huge so when you add a project or a couple projects, you’re adding significantly to the power generation base in the state,” he said.

The lease areas have the potential to generate 4.5 gigawatts of energy — enough for 1.5 million homes — and could bring big changes to communities in the rural coastal regions nearest the leases.

In remote Humboldt County, in northern California, the offshore projects are expected to generate more than 4,000 thousand jobs and $38 million in state and local tax revenue in an area that’s been economically depressed ever since the decline of the timber industry in the 1970s and 1980s, according to the Humboldt Bay Harbor, Conservation and Recreation District.

The district already received $12 million from California to prepare its deep-water port for the potential assembly of the massive turbines, which are too tall to fit under most bridges as they are towed out to sea, said Oetker, the district’s executive director.

“We have hundreds of acres of vacant, underutilized industrial property right on the existing navigation channel … and there’s no overhead bridges or power lines or anything,” he said.

But some are also wary of the projects, despite favoring a transition to clean energy.

Environmentalists are concerned about the impacts on threatened and endangered whales, which could become entangled in the cables that will anchor the turbines. There are also concerns about birds and bats colliding with the turbine blades and whales getting struck by vessels towing components to the site. Federal regulators have set a boating speed limit for the project of less than 12 mph to address that concern, said Kristen Hislop, senior director of the marine program at the Environmental Defense Center.

“Floating offshore wind is brand new and there’s only a couple projects in the world and we don’t know how that’s going to impact our coast,” she said.

Tribes in the vast coastal regions also worry about damage to their ancestral lands from turbine assembly plants and transmission infrastructure. They fear that the farms will be visible on clear days from sacred prayer spots high in the mountains.

Frankie Myers, vice chairman of the Yurok Tribe, has attended four wind developer conferences in the past year. Tribes worked with the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, which is overseeing the leasing process, to secure a 5% bid credit that includes tribal communities for the first time, he said. The agency also helped with a cultural assessment of the potential impact on views from sacred prayer spots, he said.

The tribes are so engaged now, early on, because they are used to outside industries coming to them with promises that aren’t fulfilled. They’ve seen things done wrong, and knowing this windswept area intimately, they want this to be done right, he said.

“Before they even showed us the map, before they even showed us all of their breakdowns … we were like, ’We know exactly where it’s going,’” Myers said. “There’s no question where the best wind comes from, we all understand that. We’ve been here for a couple of thousand years.”

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Follow Gillian Flaccus on Twitter here.

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Associated Press climate and environmental coverage receives support from several private foundations. See more about AP’s climate initiative here. The AP is solely responsible for all content.



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