The Ridgewood Blog Brings a Free Market Laissez-faire Point of View to Local, New Jersey State and National Issues.
Trenton NJ, with the U.S. having gained 216,000 jobs in December, WalletHub today released updated rankings for its report on Changes in Unemployment Rate by State, along with a WalletHub Q&A.
Continue reading New Jersey Is the State with the 2nd Worst Unemployment Rate Change
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Ocean City NJ, President Biden’s Green New Deal faced a significant setback as developers of a large offshore wind project in New York withdrew from a deal with the state. Approximately 30% of current wind projects are at risk of delays or cancellations. Since July, projects in Massachusetts, New Jersey, and Connecticut have been put on hold. The withdrawal of BP and Equinox from the New York project adds to the challenges facing offshore wind initiatives. While there may be attempts to revive the projects, this setback contributes to the offshore wind sector’s recent struggles. Notably, two other major projects, Empire Wind 1 and Beacon Wind, are facing financial difficulties, although they haven’t been officially canceled yet. The much-touted “green energy transition” appears to be encountering significant challenges.
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Trenton NJ, Governor Murphy and Lab or Commissioner Asaro-Angelo have been taking victory laps on New Jersey’s January 1st minimum wage raise :
Continue reading Unintended Consequences of Minimum Wage Increases
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Trenton NJ, New Jersey recorded the most significant rise in the nation’s unemployment rate, as reported by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics on Friday.
Continue reading New Jersey Sees Highest increase in Unemployment Rate in the U.S.
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Ridgewood NJ, NFIB’s Small Business Optimism Index decreased 0.1 point in November to 90.6, which marks the 23rd consecutive month below the 50-year average of 98. Twenty-two percent of owners reported that inflation was their single most important problem in operating their business, unchanged from October but 10 points lower than this time last year.
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Ridgewood NJ, NJ Transit’s board has approved a $54 million expenditure for outfitting its new headquarters, raising concerns as there is no apparent indication of cost-cutting measures being explored to address an impending budget shortfall. This financial challenge has persisted for eight months since state officials announced a restructuring process.
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Trenton NJ, Governor Phil Murphy and Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) Commissioner Shawn M. LaTourette today announced the filing of the Advanced Clean Cars II rule for adoption on December 18, setting the state on the road toward better air quality and cleaner choices for new car buyers while combatting the worsening climate crisis. New Jersey joins a growing number of states that are requiring vehicle manufacturers to make zero-emission vehicles (ZEVs) an increasing percentage of their new light-duty vehicle sales beginning in model year 2027, ramping up to 100% ZEVs by 2035.
Continue reading Murphy Administration to require all new car sales to be electric by 2035
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Ocean City NJ, a group of 11 grassroots groups representing coastal waters and communities against the industrialization of the Atlantic Ocean through Offshore Wind Turbine development welcome the announcement by Danish energy conglomerate Orsted that it was abandoning development on its Ocean Wind 1 and Ocean Wind 2 offshore wind projects along the Jersey Shore. The announcement marks an important milestone in the coalition’s ongoing fight against offshore wind industrialization along the East Coast.
Continue reading 11 Coastal Groups Welcome Orsted’s Abandonment of Ocean Wind 1 & Ocean Wind 2
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Trenton NJ, Senator Kristin M. Corrado issued the following statement encouraging lawmakers to return to Trenton to address critical flaws in New Jersey bail reform that are putting Law Enforcement Officers and New Jerseyans’ lives at risk.
Continue reading State Senator Kristin M. Corrado, “Bail Reform Simply Isn’t Working”
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Paterson NJ, in the city’s sixth homicide in October, a man was fatally shot at about 3 a.m. Sunday morning near the parking lot of the Food Fair supermarket on Market Street, near East 36th Street, authorities said. The outbreak of October killings all in separate shooting incidents, represents Paterson’s worst month for homicides in more than three years.
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Trenton NJ, with inflation slowing but prices still relatively high and the U.S. gaining 336,000 jobs in September, WalletHub today released updated rankings for its report on Changes in Unemployment Rate by State.
Continue reading WalletHub Study: New Jersey Is the State with the 2nd Worst Unemployment Rate Change
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LBI NJ, under the guise of saving the planet from climate change and providing long term economic growth the federal government and the State have been extremely generous to foreign wind energy companies
with your money and environment. This generosity includes: federal tax credits, increases in electric bills, taxpayer funding of onshore support facilities, additional direct subsidies, a weakening of the
environmental impact statement process, and the potential for your children to pick up the tab for removing the turbines, substations and cabling in the future.
file photo
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Trenton NJ, Senate Judiciary Committee member, Michael Testa, called on the Legislature to return to Trenton immediately to authorize subpoena power for the Senate Judiciary Committee and retain special counsel to facilitate a thorough investigation of the New Jersey Attorney General’s Office handling of a 2019 prosecution involving a businessman with ties to U.S. Senator Bob Menendez.
Report finds marine mammals are being exposed to much louder noise levels than NOAA has stated which could be the cause for whale deaths
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Atlantic City NJ, An investigation into recent whale deaths in the Atlantic has found that the noise produced by offshore wind sonar activities is much louder than NOAA Fisheries’ National Marine Fisheries Service (NMFS) has reported. Consequently, the setback distances adopted by NMFS to protect ocean life from the noise are too short and place whales and other marine mammals at a high risk of encountering harmful levels.
photos courtesy of Assemblyman Robert Auth
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Paramus NJ, Assemblyman Robert Auth joined parents rights protesters on Saturday saying, “There is a sentiment among our constituents that simply must be addressed…Parental Rights! To accomplish that reasonable task requires that we take the Majority from the Democrats to put the brakes on what many feel is an inappropriate Education policy.”
