Get “The Wrap,” our take on the news of the week, in your inbox every Tuesday. Sign up at: https://capemaycountyherald.com/newsletter-subscription/
Sept. 23 to 29
Climate Week
Climate change was front and center last week in the Big Apple. Sept. 22 to 29 was Climate Week NYC, when upwards of 100,000 people flooded into New York, especially in the area of the United Nations, for discussions and presentations on climate threats, carbon emissions, renewable energy and, as one would expect, money. The world financial center was abuzz with conversations about the vast amounts of money tied up in the energy transition.
The Bill and Malinda Gates Foundation took over Lincoln Center for its presentation. Hundreds like it occurred all around the city. Corporate executives, academics and politicians all talked technology and strategies to thwart the most harmful impacts of climate change. While there, the Wall Street Journal reports, they sampled climate-adapted cocktails and watched the unveiling of an all-electric NASCAR prototype.
Earlier in the week, as the festivities began, the Journal published a story with the headline “America’s Ambitious Climate Plan Is Faltering.” It spoke of higher-than-expected costs, consumer pushback and the slow emergence of needed technology. The article also pointed to gains in renewable generation of electricity and the “surging demand for power that is sucking up the additional capacity and more.” Bottom line – utilities continue to burn fossil fuels, including coal, to meet demand.
Recent years have seen trillions of dollars invested in the energy transition while carbon emissions continue to grow. Activities appear more like the product of Brownian motion than the result of a carefully crafted plan. Among the oddities: Microsoft has struck a deal to resurrect a unit at the Three Mile Island nuclear facility in Pennsylvania to power a data center.
Meanwhile, Philip Davis, prime minister of the Bahamas, said, “If they allow the status quo to remain, they’ll find themselves overwhelmed by refugees from countries like mine.”
Sea Level Website
Eight federal agencies, including the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, the Army Corps of Engineers and the Federal Emergency Management Agency coordinated in the development of a sea level change website for the public dissemination of sea level science. The website discusses a “diverse range of capabilities needed to build a resilient coastal future.”
A component of the website allows a view of sea-level-rise science and related flood impacts for a variety of coastlines, including Cape May County. Plugging the county into the model returns data on the current federal view of sea level rise for the area.
Two key points emerge. Since 1970 along the county coastline, sea level rose 11 inches. The second point looks to the future, with a projection of a rise of 12 inches from 2020 to 2050. These numbers are not at the level they would have to be to meet the state’s projection of a 5-foot increase by 2100, a projection based on a 2019 Rutgers University study. The Rutgers projection of 5 feet in 2100 calls for more than 2 feet of sea level rise by 2050.
Looking at flooding on the new website for Cape May County, again two key points emerge from the discussion. First is the increase in minor high-tide flood days, which is projected to rise from 69 days in 2010 to 100 in 2050. Among the most significant contributors to sea level rise in Cape May County is projected to be “vertical land motion,” the movement down of the land.
Zillow and New Risks
Staying with the climate week theme, we report on Zillow’s decision that sales lists will now have detailed climate risk information across five categories – flood, wildfire, wind, heat and air quality. The listing will also contain insurance recommendations.
The climate risk data will come complete with risk scores and insurance requirements. The Insurance Journal quotes Skylar Olsen, Zillow’s chief economist, as saying, “Climate risks are now a critical factor in home-buying decisions.”
Zillow’s listings will be informed by data from financial modeler First Street and may include things like flood insurance recommendations even for some properties that are outside the mandatory flood insurance areas mapped by FEMA.
This comes as homeowners’ insurance premiums rose 34% between 2017 and 2023, according to the federal reserve bank of Minnesota. An article in the Insurance Journal claims the common thread is climate change. Rising damage claims mean increases in premiums. Insurance companies are increasingly factoring climate change into their policy models.
Rising insurance costs are putting a price on climate risk, leading companies like Zillow to change how they present properties for sale. The federal government and state agencies are also getting onto the disclosure bandwagon.
The New Jersey Flood Risk Notification Law was signed on July 3, 2023. It mandates that a seller or a landlord must disclose a property’s flood risk, history of flooding and location on flood hazard maps. The areas at risk in these disclosures may grow as states like New Jersey seek to adopt increasingly stringent land use laws like those in the proposed Resilient Environments and Landscapes (REAL) rule.
Happenings
*Woodbine has received a $1 million federal grant toward the cleanup of four sites, including a fenced area near the town’s water tower that once served as a hat factory.
*School district officials in Dennis and Middle townships were left to pick up the pieces after their hopes for increased funding for their schools were shattered in special elections Sept. 17.
*Complaints from Cape May County residents about unexpected increases in electricity bills have led to a coordinated response from the county government and the governing bodies of county municipalities.
*Stone Harbor police issued 3,151 parking tickets between May and August, a 6% drop over the comparable period for last year but still well ahead of the 748 tickets issued during that time period in 2022.
*Two Republican incumbents and a Democratic challenger are running for three seats on the Woodbine Borough Council in the Nov. 5 election.
*The Delaware River and Bay Authority has received a $20 million federal grant toward the purchase of a new hybrid ferry to replace a more-than-40-year-old diesel ferry that runs between Lewes, Delaware, and Cape May.
*Cape May Mayor Zach Mullock and City Manager Paul Dietrich spoke against proposed state coastal land use regulations at the final public hearing on the regulations, held remotely Sept. 19.
*Cape May City’s chief financial officer says that the city enjoyed a strong summer season, financially.
*A fire that broke out in a home under construction in the 4600 block of Fourth Avenue in Avalon Tuesday evening, Sept. 24, is under investigation by the Cape May County fire marshal but is not considered suspicious.
*Former Wildwood Mayor Pete Byron pleaded guilty on Sept. 27 to charges that he misused the State Health Benefits Plan, in an agreement that will have him cooperating in the prosecution of his former co-defendants, current Wildwood Mayor Ernie Troiano Jr. and Deputy Mayor Steve Mikulski.
*Avalon Borough Business Administrator Scott Wahl says he expects work to start on the $8.6 million Bay Park Marina project sometime in February.
*Surfers and fishermen could get to the water’s edge without having to buy a beach tag under legislation introduced by a New Jersey assemblywoman.
*Avalon Business Administrator Scott Wahl says the borough conserved 9.5 million of gallons of water in the four months since a new ordinance putting restrictions on irrigation went into effect.
*The state Board of Public Utilities has stayed its January order that awarded a contract for a wind farm 40 miles off the New jersey coast until December, a move that likely will push back the project’s construction schedule.
*A Wildwood woman who was the passenger in a vehicle died after the vehicle left the roadway and struck a tree in Vineland on Saturday, Sept. 28, at around 12:30 a.m.
*Forty school board seats are up for election across the 17 municipal school districts in Cape May County on Nov. 5.
Spout Off of the Week
There is a saying that ‘a rising tide lifts all boats”. Well this is so true about the small businesses in CMCH. I recently needed help finding a specific product and each business I went to that did not have it suggested another local business until I found what I needed at the fourth stop. How great is it to have small shops be more worried about helping a customer than trying to sell you something you don’t need. Reputation is paramount with locally owed. Thank you
Court House
