Board to consider easing dicamba ban
A formal request that Arkansas' ban on spraying dicamba be temporarily lifted will be considered by the state Plant Board in a special meeting at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday.
The ban on in-crop use of the herbicide runs through Oct. 31.
About 250 farmers and farming entities last week asked the Plant Board to lift the ban and allow farmers to spray dicamba across soybeans tolerant of the herbicide until June 25. The farmers said a cool, wet April delayed planting, and hot weather in May brought an early emergence of pigweed, a crop nuisance now resistant to other herbicides.
Any change approved by the board has to go to the governor's office for his approval and to the executive subcommittee of the Legislative Council, which conducts lawmakers' business when they're not in session. The new rule then must be filed with the secretary of state's office before it takes effect.
The board implemented the ban after receiving nearly 1,000 complaints of dicamba damage to soybeans, backyard gardens, ornamental shrubs and trees, and other crops, including watermelons, peanuts and vegetables, not tolerant of the herbicide.
-- Stephen Steed
Co-op plans Ashley County solar project
Ashley-Chicot Electric Cooperative plans to install a 1 megawatt solar system in Ashley County, the cooperative said Friday.
Ashley-Chicot Electric will enter into a solar power service agreement with Today's Power Inc.
The project will include a 3,888-panel tracking system that will cover about 8 acres.
It will provide enough power to serve about 135 homes at peak production, said Rodney Chapman, chief executive officer of Ashley-Chicot Electric.
"This solar system will be among the most technologically advanced in the country," said Michael Henderson, president of Today's Power, a wholly owned subsidiary of Arkansas Electric Cooperatives Inc. of Little Rock. "It is a system in which the members of Ashley-Chicot [Cooperative] can be proud."
-- David Smith
Manufacturing index shows expansion
WASHINGTON -- U.S. manufacturers expanded at a faster pace last month, another sign of strength for American industry.
The Institute for Supply Management, a trade group of purchasing managers, reports that its manufacturing index rose to 58.7 in May from 57.3 in April. Anything above 50 signals growth. American manufacturing is enjoying a 21-month winning streak.
New orders, production and hiring all grew faster. Export orders grew more slowly than they did in April.
Sixteen of 18 manufacturing industries expanded, led by textile mills and producers of nonmetallic minerals.
Factories are benefiting from healthy economic growth in the United States and around the world.
-- The Associated Press
Nuclear plant charts 60-year shutdown
LACEY TOWNSHIP, N.J. -- The owner of the nation's oldest nuclear power plant says it will cost $1.4 billion and take 60 years to shut down a site set to close in October.
A subsidiary of Chicago-based Exelon Corp. recently filed its plan for the Oyster Creek plant. It will now be reviewed by the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, which must give its approval.
If the plan is accepted, the plant shutdown and defueling would start Sept. 17 and finish Sept. 30. That would be followed by about 18 months of preparation for 55 years of dormancy, a time when spent fuel rods would be stored in wet pools for five years, then moved to dry storage and ultimately removed to a federally approved waste-storage facility.
Oyster Creek is about 60 miles east of Philadelphia.
-- The Associated Press
Union wins vote at Boeing's S.C. factory
Boeing Co. technicians voted to form the first collective bargaining unit at the plane-maker's factory in South Carolina, scoring a rare victory for organized labor in a state traditionally hostile to unions.
The "micro-unit" will represent more than 170 flight-line workers, a small subset of the 7,000 or so mechanics who build Boeing 787 Dreamliners in North Charleston. Even so, the result gives the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers a foothold in a so-called right-to-work state. Boeing said it would challenge the election, which it contended was in violation of U.S. labor law.
"Boeing continues to believe that this type of micro-unit is prohibited by federal law," the company said in a statement Thursday.
In the Thursday vote, 104 employees voted in favor of the union while 65 voted against, according to an email from the National Labor Relations Board. There was one challenged ballot and a void vote.
-- Bloomberg News
Business on 06/02/2018