Posted: March 29, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: HB 2014 is a dead end

Mar 29, 2025

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

House Bill 2014, the Power Generation and Consumption Act of 2025, introduced on 3/18/25 into the WV House of Delegates by Speaker Roger Hanshaw at the behest of Gov. Patrick Morrisey, is a recipe for keeping West Virginia an extraction colony and sacrifice zone, with a 21st Century spin.

HB2014 would enable microgrids (smaller energy grids that are not connected to broader utility grid operations) to utilize fossil fuels instead of renewable energy only, as the law pertaining to microgrid energy use is written today. It would also expand land use options for microgrid districts and “high impact” data centers and allow for certified microgrid districts to avoid being subject to the Public Service Commission “with respect to rates, obtaining a certificate of convenience and necessity, conditions of service or complaints…”

A recent piece published by Reuters News pointed out that the power used by data centers has tripled over the last decade and could triple again by 2028, according to a report by the Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory for the Department of Energy issued in December 2024. Last July, 60 data centers operating in what is referred to as Data Center Alley (a 30-square-mile area outside of D.C.) suddenly dropped off the grid and switched to on-site generators. The drop was caused by a standard safety mechanism used by the data center industry to protect electronic equipment, computer chips and more from damage caused by fluctuations in voltage.

This drop-off resulted in a huge surge of excess electricity, forcing grid operator PJM and utility Dominion Energy to reduce output from power plants in order to avoid mass outages across the region. What happens with these microgrids if a safety mechanism triggers a switch to generators? How are those generators going to be powered if not by the microgrid? Will we be seeing generators instead powered by the utility grid and a sudden influx of demand from a data center(s) in a scenario like this?

Data centers also require intensive cooling to counter the heat generated. This often leads to not only further energy demand but extensive water usage. With all the surface and subsurface water already permanently pulled from our region for fracking, as just one example, what will ever-growing and ever more demanding data centers do to our fresh water supplies? What about the waste heat from data centers? How will it be managed or possibly utilized? Will it be managed or put to use at all?

With data centers come high operating costs. Costs for things like components, services and energy are variable, especially if you’re using fossil fuels for power. There can also be supply chain issues, especially in an increasingly unstable world caused by the “very stable genius” regrettably occupying the White House at the moment. The legislation makes mention of taxation of high impact data centers and taxes for microgrid districts, but something we can all bet on is that the private companies involved (e.g., Microsoft, Google, Amazon) will be given every opportunity to avoid taxation and regulatory oversight.

Returning to the issue of land use, these data centers tend to be enormous complexes. The last thing this state needs are more runoff and drainage issues and more roads to have to maintain for these companies while miles and miles of our other roads crumble. There are thousands of people in this state who lack adequate septic systems (if they have one at all) and are not part of communal water and sewer systems, but I’m sure water and sewer will be top of the line for these private companies. Think they’ll let West Virginians in flooded out Southern WV counties come use their facilities routinely?

I understand society’s need for data storage and use and fast computing and that AI is a genie that’s out of the bottle in both good ways and bad. These facilities will be built somewhere, but West Virginia needs these companies to provide strong flows of tax revenue, to be held accountable for their own messes, and to use renewable energy, with maximized energy efficiencies and a focus on sustainability. How many jobs will these data centers and the development and maintenance of these microgrids actually create, both short-term and long-term, and what will the pay and benefits look like for them? The legislation has nothing to say about that, no estimates or predictions. Such figures usually come from separate studies, with industry numbers always comically overstated.

It is long past time for West Virginians to start asking what’s in it for us. We deserve well-paying, safe, accommodating jobs with great benefits and a union contract. We deserve to see large corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share into our tax bases. We deserve clean, safe potable water and healthy, thriving rivers and streams. We deserve clean air and healthy, safe soils and a stable global climate system. We deserve safe, sustainable, well-engineered infrastructure. We deserve sustainable agriculture and development and a circular waste economy.

HB2014 is another dead end. As I write, it is in the House Energy and Public Works Committee where it was introduced, but it will no doubt move quickly with this legislative session coming to an end April 12. You can track the bill’s status at wvlegislature.gov under “Bill Status” by typing in 2014 as the bill number. Let your Delegates and State Senators know that we deserve better than this legislation.

***

Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: March 24, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Carbon Capture and Sequestration not the answer

Mar 22, 2025

Randi Pokladnik

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) is a process which captures carbon dioxide from industry emissions and injects the CO2 deep into the ground via Class VI injection wells. It is an unproven technology at scale and relies on taxpayer subsidies to be affordable. Once again, marginalized communities of the region will be facing more pollution from this process and taxpayers will be footing the bill.

One of many risks associated with CCS is potential leakage of carbon dioxide. These leaks would negate any climate benefits that CCS might provide, and have the potential to asphyxiate people and animals who are exposed. Several factors could contribute to leaking of the super critical CO2 gas from the underground storage locations. One of these is seismic activity. “The presence of seismic activity, both natural and induced, is of great importance when evaluating CO2 sequestration potential. Extensive fault zones may provide leakage pathways along which CO2 could migrate.” Additionally, the very act of injecting high-pressure CO2 into continental crusts could induce earthquakes and jeopardize carbon storage. “Deep borehole stress measurements at the Mountaineer coal-burning power plant on the Ohio River in West Virginia indicate a severe limitation on the rate at which CO2 could be injected without the resulting pressure build-up initiating slip on preexisting faults.”

The 2022 report by the Department of Energy, “Carbon Capture Transport, and Storage,” researches the supply chain needed to create what the DOE refers to as a “carbon pollution-free power sector” by 2035. The supply chain includes necessary materials, energy, and infrastructure needed. One of the materials needed is the chemical monoethanolamine (MEA). “Through 2050, the United States’ CCS program will require 13.7 million tons of MEA, which is made from ethane gas obtained from fracking. It is the absorbent solvent used to trap the carbon dioxide from industrial emissions. This compound, as well as an intermediate chemical in the process, ethylene oxide, are extremely dangerous and will be produced, stored, and used in our communities. In addition, CCS infrastructure in the U.S. will require 632 kilotons of triethylene glycol (TEG), 24-32 million tons of steel, and 1.1 million tons of cement. The production of these materials will add even more carbon dioxide emissions into the atmosphere.

CCS does not remove any existing carbon dioxide from the atmosphere but rather captures carbon dioxide from industrial processes, including ethanol fermentation, methane reforming, Portland cement production, gasifying fuels like waste plastics, and fossil fuel power plants. CCS will therefore not lower the current amount of CO2 in the air; only direct air capture could do that. CCS is not a climate solution, and CCS employed on power plants will require 30% additional energy output and two times the water use. This is at a time when AI is positioned to require enormous amounts of additional energy.

CCS tax credits will be rewarding companies for their pollution using taxpayers’ money. The Inflation Reduction Act established rates per ton of CO2 sequestered at $85/ton. Considering that a large coal power plant emits 15 million tons of CO2 per year; the subsidy would be 1.25 billion tax-payer dollars per year for one power plant.

Tenaska, a company out of Omaha, Neb., has set up offices in the tri-state area and is creating what it calls a carbon hub. The amount of carbon dioxide they claim can be stored per year in this hub area is just over 5 million tons. This pales in comparison to the amounts of carbon dioxide emitted by local industry. Additionally, the company claims, “A CCS storage field can coexist with oil and gas production.” But peer reviewed studies state the opposite. “Production of natural gas from shale and other tight formations involves fracturing the shale with the explicit objective to greatly increase the permeability of the shale. As such, shale gas production is in direct conflict with the use of shale formations as a caprock barrier to CO2 migration.”

Another consideration is that the Ohio Valley’s geology is like Swiss cheese; containing hundreds of old vertical oil wells, unplugged orphan oil wells, and underground coal mines. The previous extraction of oil and coal has poked holes into the bedrock and now companies want to inject high pressure (1000 psi) carbon dioxide in these areas hoping it will remain underground in perpetuity. These old wells will need to be permanently plugged before any carbon sequestration can occur. “The cost of plugging an oil or gas well varies, but states report average costs between $3,500 and $80,000 per well.”

Some landowners are worried that companies might try to invoke eminent domain to use the pore space under their land. In West Virginia, the government can use eminent domain to take private property for public use, including for carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects. West Virginia was granted primacy for CCS Class VI wells on February 26, 2025. Ohio is currently seeking primacy for Class VI wells and is also proposing the use of eminent domain to seize private lands for CCS. See the recently introduced (HB 170).

Although industries try to claim over 50 years of experience in CCS, the methods they have used are primarily enhanced oil recovery, not the injection of a known asphyxiant under farmlands and forests. Failures of two CCS projects run by Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor ASA, shine light on the reliability of CCS. The Sleipner, running since 1996, and Snohvit, running since 2008, were said to be success stories of CCS. “But Sleipner struggled with carbon dioxide unexpectedly migrating upwards by 220 meters from the original underground storage site, while Snohvit saw storage capacity cut from an estimated 18 years to less than two years once the operation was underway, according to a review of studies by Grant Hauber of the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis.”

The real proof of the failure of CCS is “as of 2024, approximately 50 million metric tons of carbon dioxide were captured annually by operational CCS facilities worldwide. This accounts for roughly 0.1 percent of global CO2 emissions.” We need to turn off the tap for carbon emissions. CCS is too expensive and too dangerous.

***

Randi Pokladnik, Ph.D., of Uhrichsville, is a retired research chemist who volunteers with Mid Ohio Valley Climate Action. She has a doctorate degree in environmental studies and is certified in hazardous materials regulations.

Posted: March 15, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Ban the brine

Mar 15, 2025

Rebecca Phillips

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

On the increasingly rare occasions when this old lady has to drive in the winter, I try to wait until after the road-clearing crews and salt trucks have done their work. Since moving to Ohio more than forty years ago, I have developed a true appreciation for these winter warriors who do so much to make the roads safer for the rest of us.

Unfortunately, in Ohio, some of those road-clearing trucks may well be spraying oilfield brine. Plain brine, of course, is salt water, and we are all familiar with salt’s ice-melting properties. Oilfield brine, unfortunately, is not just salt and water. This byproduct of oil and gas drilling contains a number of toxic substances, and spraying it on Ohio roadways has been legal since 1985.

The brine sprayed on roadways does not come from fracked wells (that waste going instead into the injection wells causing earthquakes in Washington County), only from conventional vertical wells. When the law permitting the use of oilfield brine was written, waste from conventional wells was believed to be less toxic than that from horizontal (fracked) wells. Unfortunately, that is not the case. Studies commissioned by various state agencies over the last forty years have found that all oilfield waste brine contains a toxic stew of, among other things, benzene, toluene, ethyl benzene, xylene, and our old friends, the “forever chemicals” PFOA and PFAS. In addition to these substances, oilfield brine contains radium brought up from the underground regions where it normally resides.

Radium is one of the most worrisome materials found in oilfield brine. Its two most common isotopes (Radium-226 and -228) have a half-life of more than 1600 years, making it yet another “forever chemical” in human terms. Radium-226 dissolves in water and is “bone-seeking;” that is, the body mistakes it for calcium and stores it in bones, which can lead to bone cancer.

Both 226 and 228 decay into lead, a known neurotoxin, and radon, the second most common cause of lung cancer. Many MOV residents already need to seal their basements against the naturally-occurring radon in our soils; we do not need more exposure. Our cancer rates are already high; they do not need to be higher.

Radium exposure is cumulative. A 2021 Ohio Department of Health study of AquaSalina, a brine product then available for residential use, found that a single driveway application would expose the home’s residents to a year’s worth of background radiation. Because of radium’s half-life, that exposure would be repeated with every use of the product, endangering children in particular and increasing their risk of a variety of cancers. ODH recommended against its residential use, and the product is no longer sold in our big box stores; ODOT, which had been purchasing it for several years by the time of the study, discontinued use. Unfortunately, other varieties of oilfield brine are still being used on roads in Ohio and other states. Even though the material is not available to spray on our driveways, runoff from melting snow and ice contaminates roadside soils, increasing exposure anytime we or our children are in these spaces. Additionally, runoff finds its way into groundwater, endangering not only drinking water for humans but all the wildlife that depends on natural water sources. And we are not exposed only in winter: brine is sprayed as a dust suppressant during summer dry spells and finds its way onto our cars and into their ventilation systems. If you have ever driven on a dusty Ohio back road, you have probably inhaled a fair amount of radium.

Fossil fuel companies argue that this brine is “natural,”and it is true that many of the substances found in drilling brine–like radium and arsenic–are naturally occurring. It is also true that all of us are exposed to natural background radiation every day of our lives–but the brine coming up from production wells exceeds all recommended radiation exposure limits. Ohio’s legal limit for radium per liter of oil and gas waste allowed in landfills is 0.005 picocuries. One batch of processed brine tested in 2021 contained 9,602 picocuries per liter, or NINETEEN THOUSAND TIMES the legal limit for landfills, and brine from production wells all over Ohio has been found to contain elevated levels of radium. Do we really want this substance on our roads, our tires, and our garage floors? ODOT no longer uses oilfield brine, but the Ohio Revised Code allows local governments to apply for permits to use this dangerous substance, and the ODNR website contains an application form. When a bill that would have prohibited brine spreading statewide was introduced in the Ohio legislature in 2022, it died in committee and has not been reintroduced. Safer ice melts are readily available. For the long-term health of our children, we need to write our legislators and urge a permanent statewide ban on oilfield brine spreading.

***

Rebecca Phillips is a longtime Ohio resident and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

Last Updated: March 11, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Profit, people, planet

Mar 8, 2025

Jean Ambrose

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Is it true that government should be run more like a business? This seems to be a given these days, but it couldn’t be further from the truth.

The goal of a business is straightforward: to return a monetary profit to its owners or shareholders. The objectives are clear and simple.

However, the goals of government — our government — are not as easily defined. The preamble to the U.S. Constitution outlines our national purpose: to form a more perfect union, establish justice, ensure domestic tranquility, provide for the common defense, promote the general welfare. Nowhere in our national purpose statement do we find efficiency or profit as objectives. Rather, the Constitution describes how we will make decisions together to achieve these ambitious goals.

Our Founding Fathers set forth a challenge: to balance multiple, often competing, priorities. Running a democratic government successfully requires a level of competence, experience and intelligence far beyond that needed to run a business. The general welfare of the people does not lend itself to the cheapest option possible. If “We the People” truly means all the people, then ensuring access to health care, education, housing, nutrition and safety is not just a financial decision — it is a shared commitment to long-term prosperity and a resilient nation.

While such a mandate from the past requires resources, an unhealthy, uneducated and unskilled population is no asset to a nation. Smart governments invest in their people and their environment with confidence that the general welfare and prosperity will be strengthened, just as smart businesses invest in research and development. The current obsession with slashing government spending is akin to taking a chainsaw to our Constitution instead of making thoughtful, measured adjustments. Using efficiency as the primary benchmark for government success ignores its fundamental responsibilities. A better approach — the Triple Bottom Line — considers more than just cost reduction.

The Triple Bottom Line concept, introduced by John Elkington over 25 years ago, holds that sustainable decision-making requires balancing three key pillars: People, Planet and Profit. Including social and environmental considerations alongside financial factors provides a more accurate picture of an organization’s true impact. Yet, economic priorities often overshadow the other two, putting long-term sustainability at risk.

Many businesses have come to embrace this philosophy, endeavoring to ensure that their economic decisions actively support human and environmental interests rather than harm them. They have successfully integrated social impact initiatives into their business models, and they expect places where they operate to have similar ambitions. Examples include Ben and Jerry’s, LEGO, Mars, Starbucks, Unilever, Patagonia, Intuit, Dannon and IKEA. There are many more.

West Virginia provides one example of the Triple Bottom Line in action. Since 2019, communities across the state have participated in the SNAP Stretch program, created by the WV Food and Farm Coalition in partnership with the USDA. This initiative provides access to fresh, affordable food while supporting small agricultural businesses and promoting environmental sustainability. Local food production reduces long-distance transportation, cutting fossil fuel use and benefiting the environment. To date, the program has benefited nearly 80,000 families and generated $3 million in agricultural sales but its future is threatened, like many state/federal partnerships that have been incubators for new ways of doing things.

The Triple Bottom Line challenges the idea that financial goals should override human and environmental well-being. Sustainable economic decisions must support people and the planet rather than exploit them. This 3P approach should also guide policy decisions today, rather than allowing financial goals to be the sole driver of governance.

This kind of forward-thinking approach is what we should demand from leaders at the community, state and federal levels — not short-sighted, indiscriminate budget cuts. We need to demand to know the costs to people and to the environment of budget cuts. If we are to thrive as a nation and as a state, we must recognize that prosperity is not just about profit — it is about people and the planet as well.

***

Jean Ambrose lives on a ridge near Mountwood Park.

Posted: March 5, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Film Festival!

10 films from 4 continents in 2 hours! Climate Future Film Festival!

 

Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action invites you to join us (and co-host Green Sanctuary Committee)

for Merlyn Climate Grants Climate Future Film Festival, in the social hall at First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, (232 Third St.).

We plan two, free-admission screenings:

 

Thursday, March 20, at 7:00pm

or

Saturday, March 22, at 2:00pm

 

This traveling festival of award-winning short films explores the full range of human and artistic response to what may be coming next. The 10 short films – drama, satire, comedy, films of hope and films of sadness, documentary and animation – were created by filmmakers from four different continents.

Bill McKibben, one of  America’s leading voices and authors on climate, is the Festival’s Honorary Judge and introduces it on screen.

While climate change is front-page news, in our own back pages many are grieving. Or numb. Or outraged. Or frightened. Or isolated and feeling hopeless. Others may be oddly celebrating a future of climate disorder. Watch the trailer and see the descriptions of the films at https://www.climatefuturefilm.com

Calling all filmmakers: The Festival is produced by Merlyn Climate Grants (Merlyn Education and Climate Protection Project), a Rhode Island 501(c)3). Merlyn is currently accepting short film submissions for their second Festival, which will premiere in Rhode Island in late 2025 and  tour throughout 2026. Rules and information about submissions are available at https://filmfreeway.com/ClimateFuture

Adeline Bailey, MOVCA program organizer.

Posted: March 1, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: No movies on a dead planet

Mar 1, 2025

Aaron Dunbar

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

This weekend marks the occasion of the 97th annual Academy Awards. This year’s Oscars come on the heels of the January wildfires that devastated much of Los Angeles, scorching nearly 57,000 acres of Southern California. Among the untold victims of these deadly conflagrations, which were made an estimated 35% more likely due to climate change, was the widely acclaimed and visionary filmmaker David Lynch.

Lynch, a lifelong smoker from the age of eight, announced in August of last year that he’d been diagnosed with emphysema and had become largely housebound, requiring supplemental oxygen to perform even the most basic of tasks. Being forced to evacuate during the L.A. fires ultimately proved fatal for Lynch, robbing us of one of the most iconic and influential directors of his era. As one article published in The Vermont Cynic aptly puts it: “David Lynch’s death represents the intersection of the two major addictions of the twentieth century: tobacco and fossil fuels.”

Not so coincidentally, the brood of vipers once selling cigarettes to 8-year-old David Lynch is the same one currently brainwashing today’s children into believing that climate change is a hoax (see the 2014 documentary “Merchants of Doubt.”)

These events got me thinking about the subject of climate change as it’s depicted in film. Despite the misguided conservative notion of Hollywood as some devious purveyor of leftwing propaganda, I generally find myself quite disappointed with the scant supply of popular media attempting to meaningfully explore the most urgent crisis of our times.

Still, there are a handful of decent climate films I’ve managed to stumble across through the years, so I thought I’d share my abbreviated thoughts on a few that have made a lasting impact on me.

* Snowpiercer (2013), directed by Bong Joon-ho

From the Korean filmmaker who directed 2020 Best Picture winner Parasite (also, arguably, an excellent climate film in its own right), Snowpiercer is a dystopian scifi tale set a mere six years into the future. Humanity, in its attempt to restore the balance from catastrophic global warming, has unwittingly unleashed a new Ice Age on the planet via a doomed attempt at geoengineering. The few remaining survivors of this disaster are housed aboard a train whose tracks encircle the Earth, and whose passengers are sorted into different cars by adherence to a rigid class structure. The film presents a relentlessly bleak and brutal vision of the future, wherein environmental desecration intersects with a hellish society of total elite domination- one which we presently find ourselves knee-deep in the process of creating.

* Don’t Look Up (2021), directed by Adam McKay

Often described as “Dr. Strangelove for the climate crisis,” this Oscar nominated film depicts global society’s widespread failure to respond to the impact of an approaching comet, which threatens to destroy the Earth. An obvious metaphor for climate change, the film has been dismissed by some critics as too heavy-handed or on-the-nose. Curious, then, that our entire society should still be acting identically to the one depicted in the film.

* Four Souls of Coyote (2023), directed by Aron Gauder

A gorgeously hand-drawn animated feature of the kind that seldom gets produced these days, Four Souls of Coyote is initially set in the present day, depicting a group of Indigenous land protectors as they attempt to halt an oil pipeline being constructed on their ancestral lands. From here the film leaps back for most of its runtime to explore humanity’s larger, fraught relationship with nature through the telling of ancient Indigenous Creation stories.

There are some potential issues with representation in this film, being a Hungarian production centered around Native American folklore, that I do want to make a point of acknowledging. That said, I find the visuals and underlying themes of this movie to be deeply impactful.

* Take Shelter (2011), directed by Jeff Nichols

Having loved this film for years, I only recently had the belated epiphany that it could, in fact, be considered a climate change movie at all.

Take Shelter tells the story of Curtis LaForche, an Ohio construction worker with a family history of schizophrenia, who begins suffering from vivid nightmares and hallucinations of biblical storms that threaten him and his family. He begins to work obsessively at building an elaborate storm shelter in his backyard, convinced that these visions will soon come to fruition. His panicked doomsaying soon alienates members of his close-knit community and puts the security of his wife and hearing impaired daughter at risk. Powerfully acted by the incomparable Michael Shannon, this film essentially explores the premise: what if God told Noah to build the ark, and everyone, including himself, thought he was insane for doing so?

There’s little doubt in my mind that many of our readers must surely view folks like myself with a disdain similar to LaForche’s own community, with his seemingly hysterical warnings of a coming apocalypse, and very little in the way of tangible proof he can offer for his claims. This sort of evangelizing on behalf of the climate puts one in a strange position of wanting to be proven both right and wrong at the same time. Obviously, the accusation that one is delusional makes one all the more eager to vindicate oneself, and yet I can safely say that most climate activists would love nothing more than to be proven incorrect, if it meant being able to somehow spare the world from the coming storm that awaits it.

* First Reformed (2017), directed by Paul Schrader

A favorite film of mine, and arguably the darkest one on this list. First Reformed features a harrowing performance by Ethan Hawke as Reverend Ernst Toller, the troubled minister of a small Dutch Reformed church. One Sunday, a pregnant parishioner asks Toller to provide counseling to her husband, a radical environmentalist caught in the grip of hopelessness over climate change, who believes that it’s wrong of them to be bringing a child into a doomed world.

Toller’s own demons leave him highly susceptible to the influence of the conversation that ensues. The crisis of faith he’s been experiencing becomes sharply accentuated by climate despair, and his psychological state grows increasingly disturbed as his personal circumstances worsen.

Toller is further vexed upon realizing that the Albany megachurch bankrolling his tiny congregation is heavily funded by a major industrial polluter, a conflict of interests that prevents the church from meaningfully addressing the issue of climate change. This puts me in direct mind of a comment I once received from a reader some years back, about how the preacher at her church refused to discuss climate change and its spiritual implications, for fear of offending pipeline workers present in her congregation. This is, I think, the exact sort of moral cowardice that would have Jesus Christ of Nazareth flipping over tables in outrage.

Regardless of one’s religious affiliation, this film asks a question that will haunt the viewer long after the credits have rolled: “Can God forgive us for what we’ve done to this world?”

***

Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action

Posted: February 22, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Pulling the plug

Feb 22, 2025

Giulia Mannarino

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

Since the purchase of the White House by the unelected Elon Musk, who contributed $288 million to back Republicans including Donald Trump and others, there has been a flurry of activities from the Oval Office, most motivated by revenge. These include unjustified firings, unqualified appointees, pardons of violent criminals and several executive orders. There is no legal basis for many of these actions. The oligarchs are in power and their policies are focusing on tax breaks for the rich, tariffs passed on to consumers and fewer services for the needy. There also is an unhealthy interest in dismantling as many of the environmental policies put in place by prior administrations as possible. Although lawsuits are being filed, presently, chaos reigns. An example is an executive order signed by Trump on his first day, that pauses billions in funding for a nationwide buildout of fast electric car chargers. These funds had been allocated to states through the National Electric Vehicle Infrastructure Formula program. The Federal Highway Administration, which distributes NEVI funding, recently told states to stop carrying out their plans, pending new guidelines.

This announcement creates uncertainty and means that states with projects in the works or those currently contracting for them, are to be halted immediately. And there is no information on if or when they will be able to proceed and request reimbursement. This is only one example of the administration’s illogical backpedaling decisions in support of the polluting fossil fuel industry. The dismantling of this particular environmental policy makes no sense. The transportation industry’s use of gasoline vehicles, known as internal combustion engines is the number one contributor to the pollution that is warming the planet. Due to market forces and technological progress, ICEs will soon be a thing of the past. The switch to electric vehicles and the infrastructure necessary to support this transition is critical. Elon Musk is amenable to Trump’s action because the reduced subsidies will hurt other competitors and could provide a boost for Tesla sales. The federal buildout is not the only effort to install EV charging across the nation. Private companies have collectively spent billions on this infrastructure. Experts agree that although Republicans may slow down a transition to EVs, they will not be able to stop it. No matter who is in the White House, automakers have a financial interest in promoting EVs.

The Democrats, unlike the Republicans, don’t deny the fact that global warming is real and caused by human use of fossil fuels. However, neither party, regardless of which has control of Congress, has done much of anything to address the seriousness or the urgency of the climate crisis. However, Trump’s campaign promises of “Drill, Baby, Drill” go overboard in contradicting overwhelming scientific evidence and consensus. “Kill, Baby, Kill” is more accurate for the future of the planet and the grandchildren. Climate change which emerged as an issue in the 1970s led to the establishment of Earth Day. Throughout the 1980s scientists testified before Congress about the problem of global warming caused by human use of fossil fuels. In 1990, with the issue of their first report, the problem of global warming was given international attention by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, a group organized through the Paris Agreement. Since that time, regular reports have been issued and predictions that were made in the earlier reports have come true.

Now Trump has once again withdrawn the U.S. from the Paris Agreement, but the other members of the United Nations that have endorsed this document continue to take actions necessary to combat the climate crisis. There is a growing trend of countries and regions across the globe that are moving to replace ICEs with the cleaner, cheaper alternatives of EVs. The European Union phaseout of ICEs will take place by 2035. Twelve U.S. states also have announced official targets or similar plans. Although the world is switching to EVs, the Republicans want the U.S. to go backward. This slowdown will put the U.S. auto industry further behind the rest of the world. As Aldous Huxley wisely noted: “Facts do not cease to exist because they are ignored.

Posted: February 15, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: Tough times in Margaritaville

Feb 15, 2025

Linda Eve Seth

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

National Margarita Day – Feb. 22, 2025

If you are planning to celebrate National Margarita Day on Saturday, Feb. 22, 2025, here is something to think about as you make your plans: The margarita — triple sec, tequila, and lime juice — created in 1938 in Mexico, is facing a sustainability crisis. The delicious concoction’s main ingredient is threatened by changing weather patterns.

Beyond the lime wedges and salt lies a complex ecological story involving the blue agave plant – the cactus-like plant which forms the base ingredient of tequila – and bats, which are both under threat due to current shifts in the climate and agricultural practices.

Climate change is impacting agave plants primarily through increased drought conditions and extreme weather events which can disrupt their growth cycle and potentially threaten the production of tequila, as agave is the key ingredient for these spirits. While agave is naturally drought-tolerant, extreme fluctuations in temperature and unpredictable rainfall patterns still negatively affect its development and impact pollination, which are crucial for its reproduction.

The spiky plants are sensitive to sudden shifts in weather, such as extreme heat followed by unseasonable storms. These shifts caused by climate change, coupled with overgrazing from cattle ranching and other human activities, disrupt the distribution and cultivation of agave, the main ingredient of tequila. Agave plants also grow more quickly in hotter seasons, but they don’t concentrate as much sugar in their cores. This means that more agave plants need to be planted to meet the growing popular demand.

Compounding the problem, the only animal that pollinates this special plant is rapidly disappearing as its natural habitat and food sources succumb to a warming world. Agave plants are pollinated by bats. If you like tequila, you should love bats! Without bats, you can have no tequila because that’s the only thing that pollinates the agave plant that makes tequila. The bat-plant association is so strong that the disappearance of one would threaten the survival of the other.

Warming temperatures have become a growing concern for the Mexican long-nosed bat — a key species for tequila. Leptonycteris nivalis, known as the greater long-nosed bat or Mexican long-nosed bat, and the lesser long-nosed bat (Leptonycteris curasoae), are the primary pollinators of this economically and ecologically valuable plant.

This agave-bat relationship is mutually beneficial. These one-ounce mammals fly over 750 miles each year — from their winter roosts in central Mexico to birthing caves along the U.S.-Mexico border — in search of flowering cacti and agaves. The bats rely on agave nectar to fuel their return trip, and the agaves depend on the bats to cross-pollinate their flowers so they can produce seeds.

A 2019 study showed that suitable environments for the species are being reduced due to the changing climate. New research has shown its natural habitats are disappearing and its food sources are starting to dwindle as temperatures rise higher in the region. Scientists warn that as bat numbers dwindle, their interaction with agave plants will be reduced by 75%.

The potential extinction of the bat would have negative effects on the sexual reproduction and genetic variability of agave plants, further increasing their vulnerability to future environmental changes.

But don’t despair! Help might be on the way: By combining educational resources with financial incentives, there is an opportunity to make sustainable practices more appealing to farmers. The goal is to strike a balance that benefits the environment, particularly the bats, while ensuring the long-term viability of the blue agave crop.

Scientists have recently learned that agave has a nocturnal “body clock” which allows it to “breathe” at night and withstand the driest of conditions. New research has shown that agaves have evolved to supply most of their nectar after dark to attract the nocturnal fliers. Now scientists are hoping to harness this reverse molecular clock to engineer new drought-resistant crops that will be able to adapt to our changing climate.

So, if you are celebrating National Margarita Day on Feb. 22, take a moment to raise your glass and drink a toast to the hard laboring scientists, wildlife organizations, and farmers who are striving to help keep tequila and margaritas available at your local bar/liquor store. SALUD!

Until next time, be kind to your Mother Earth.

***

Linda Eve Seth, SLP, M Ed., mother, grandmother, concerned citizen and member of MOVCA.

Last Updated: February 13, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Suggested Readings for February 2025

Compiled by Cindy Taylor

NOTE from Cindy: When scrolling through this selected media listing, you will find some media postings openly available without any costs, while other sites may have a paywall or request contributions (or registration). MOVCA appreciates the coverage provided by independent journalists, coalition groups and all media sources that publicize climate and environmental concerns, sustainable solutions, legislative actions, and opportunities for community members to learn and make a difference. Public libraries and educational institutions have many of these sources available to everyone.

 

Available on The Marietta Times:

January 8, 2024 Local News

“Save Ohio Parks react to explosion”

https://www.mariettatimes.com/news/2025/01/save-ohio-parks-reacts-to-explosion/

 

 

Available on the Charleston Gazette-Mail:

See articles by Mike Tony, Environment and Energy Reporter: (example provided below)

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/

 

January 7, 2025 Article by Mike Tony, Environment and Energy Reporter

“Feds pledge ARCH2 hydrogen hub environmental review, schedule meeting for input”

https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/feds-pledge-arch2-hydrogen-hub-environmental-review-schedule-meeting-for-input/article_13a41512-cc72-11ef-b587-4ba94fde1d0b.html

 

Available on The Canton Repository (Canton, OH):

January 10, 2025 Article by Kelly Byer, Canton Repository reporter

“SARTA, Enbridge plan electrolysis as part of Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub”

https://www.cantonrep.com/story/news/local/stark-county/2025/01/10/appalachian-hydrogen-hub-enters-1st-phase-hosts-open-house-in-canton/77507097007/

Key points: The Columbus-based Battelle is leading the Appalachian hydrogen hub, which is referred to as ARCH2.

The hub received $30 million in July 2024 for the first phase. The Stark Area Regional Transit Authority and Enbridge Gas Ohio aim to produce hydrogen fuel through electrolysis.

 

Available on WTAP:

January 20, 2025 Feature by Chase Campbell

“West Virginia Rivers Coalition lawsuit alleges Chemours’ PFAS contamination continues”

https://www.wtap.com/2025/01/29/west-virginia-rivers-coalition-lawsuit-alleges-chemours-pfas-contamination-continues/

 

Available on Mountain State Spotlight:

January 3, 2025 Environment Article by Sarah Elbeshbishi

“Residents near the proposed Appalachian hydrogen hub can voice their concerns about the project”

https://mountainstatespotlight.org/2025/01/03/doe-arch2-public-comment/

 

Available on Save Ohio Parks: https://saveohioparks.org

January 7, 2025 Blog post about FracTracker Alliance press release

“Ohio Well Pad Fire Highlights Pattern Of Frequent Oil And Gas Incidents Statewide”

https://saveohioparks.org/2025/01/07/ohio-well-pad-fire-highlights-pattern-of-frequent-oil-and-gas-incidents-statewide/

 

January 3, 2025 Press Release

“Statement on Explosion of Gulfport Appalachia Fracking Well Pad Near Salt Fork State Park”

https://saveohioparks.org/2025/01/03/statement-on-explosion-of-gulfport-appalachia-fracking-well-pad-near-salt-fork-state-park/

 

Available from Buckeye Environmental Network:

January 7, 2025   “Halt the Hydrogen Hoax” Webinar @ Appalachian Regional ‘Clean’ Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2)

Moderated by Bev Reed, Buckeye Environmental Network. Speakers: Dr. Randi Pokladnik & Sean O’Leary, Ohio River Valley Institute

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I5mYvy39a9U

 

Available on Public News Service:

January 17, 2025 Article by Radia Ramlagan, Producer

“What’s next for Appalachia’s green energy economy?”

https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2025-01-17/rural-farming/whats-next-for-appalachias-green-energy-economy/a94714-1

 

January 10, 2025 Article by Farah Siddiqi, Producer

“Local concerns rise over Ohio’s hydrogen project”

https://www.publicnewsservice.org/2025-01-10/environment/local-concerns-rise-over-ohios-hydrogen-project/a94569-1

 

Available on West Virginia Rivers Coalition:

January 2025 Updates from WV Rivers Coalition

https://wvrivers.org/2025/01/wv-rivers-news-january-2025/

 

Available on West Virginians for Energy Freedom:

January 7, 2025 Opinion Article by Gary Zuckett, Ex. Director WV Citizen Action

“Coal’s Costs are burdening West Virginians: It’s Time to Embrace More Affordable Energy Options”

https://www.energyfreedomwv.org/news/2025/1/7/coals-costs-are-burdening-west-virginians-its-time-to-embrace-more-affordable-energy-options

 

Available on Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI):

Resource available: Appalachian Hydrogen Facts , an ORVI project.  https://appalachiahydrogenfacts.org

 

January 31, 2025 Article by Joe Cullen

“BIL/IRA Implementation Digest – January 27, 2025”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/bil-ira-implementation-digest-january-27-2025/

 

January 30, 2025 Article by Ben Hunkler

“Tens of Thousands of Abandoned Wells Overlay West Virginia’s Prospective Carbon Storage Reservoirs, Risking Leakage, Report Finds”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/10774-2/

 

January 30, 2025 Article by Ted Boetner

“Abandoned Wells Could Wreak Havoc for Carbon Storage in West Virginia”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/abandoned-wells-could-wreak-havoc-for-carbon-storage-in-west-virginia/

 

January 10, 2025 Article by Ben Hunkler

“Meeting Unrealistic PJM Demand Forecasts with New Gas Generation Could Cause Utility Bills to Spike by 62%”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/meeting-unrealistic-pjm-demand-forecasts-with-new-gas-generation-could-cause-utility-bills-to-spike-by-62/

 

January 6, 2025 Article by Joe Cullen

“BIL/IRA Implementation Digest – January 6, 2025”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/bil-ira-implementation-digest-january-6-2025/

 

January 2, 2025 Article by Sean O’Leary

“Load Growth Fever, LNG, and the Risk of Higher Electric Rates”

https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/load-growth-fever-lng-and-the-risk-of-higher-electric-rates/

 

Available on ReImagine Appalachia:

See all events (to register) and access recordings and resources: https://reimagineappalachia.org/events/

 

January 14 & 15, 2025 11AM -2PM Both Days    “ReImagine Appalachia Virtual Strategy Summit”

https://reimagineappalachia.org/reimagine-appalachias-2025-strategy-summit/

 

Available on West Virginia Citizen Action Group:

January 18, 2025 10AM – 4PM Free Training at Kanawha Co. Public Library, Charleston, WV

“Fundamentals of Organizing: Building People Power” (registration link expired)

 

January 11, 2025 News by Dani Parent “POSTPONED- 50th Anniversary Celebration”

https://wvcag.org/50th-postponed/

 

Available on Conservation West Virginia:

See WV Conservation’s list of details and evaluation on current bills before legislature regarding: Clean Air, Pure Water, Climate, Land & Wildlife and Development:  https://www.conservewv.org/issues/

 

Appalachian Voices https://appvoices.org 

January 8, 2025 Article by Matt Allenbaugh

“Make your home energy efficient to save money by lowering your power bills!”

https://appvoices.org/2025/01/08/energy-efficiency/

 

Available on FaCT (Faith Communities Together for a Sustainable Future:  https://factsustain.org

See  Distinguished Speakers: https://factsustain.org/Distinguished/

 

January 24, 2025 Article by Ron Prosek
“Aerobic Composting and Climate Change”

https://factsustain.org/articles/aerobic-composting-and-climate-change

 

January 5, 2025 Article by Linda New

“Sustainable Living: 5 Simple Actions”

https://factsustain.org/articles/sustainable-living-5-simple-actions

 

Available on E&ENEWS by Politico:

January 30, 2025 ClimateWire Article by Jean Chemnick

“EPA cuts off IRA solar money already under contract”

https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-cuts-off-ira-solar-money-already-under-contract/

 

January 27, 2025 Article by Ellie Borst

“Republicans revive efforts to kill Superfund chemicals tax”

https://www.eenews.net/articles/republicans-revive-efforts-to-kill-superfund-chemicals-tax/

 

January 21, 2025 Article by Carlos Anchondo

“EPA hands West Virginia authority over CO2 injection wells”

https://www.eenews.net/articles/epa-hands-west-virginia-authority-over-co2-injection-wells/

 

Available on Environmental Health News EHN:

January 10, 2025 Article by EHN Curators

“Ending exposure to two plastic chemicals could have saved over 500.00 lives in one year, study estimates”

https://www.ehn.org/plastic-chemicals-disease-burden-2670794894.html

 

January 10, 2025 Article by EHN Curators

“Firefighting chemical raises concerns about environmental toxicity”

https://www.ehn.org/firefighting-chemical-raises-concerns-about-environmental-toxicity-2670793471.html

 

December 11. 2024 Article by EHN Curators (omitted from previous listing)

“Heat pumps could save lives and billions with cleaner energy”

https://www.ehn.org/heat-pumps-could-save-lives-2670415175.html

 

Available on WV Public Broadcasting:

January 8, 2025 Article by Chris Schulz

“Shop- And Return – Locally For a More Sustainable Holiday”

https://wvpublic.org/shop-and-return-locally-for-a-more-sustainable-holiday/

 

SEE ALSO THESE EVENTS, RESOURCES, RESEARCH AND ARTICLES OF INTEREST

Available on US Department of Energy: Office of NEPA and Compliance –

“DOE/EIS-0569: Appalachian Hydrogen Hub”

https://www.energy.gov/nepa/doeeis-0569-appalachian-hydrogen-hub

 

Available on US Department of Energy: https://www.energy.gov

Check out Tax Credits & Rebates and Energy Saving Tips

 

Available on The Science & Environmental Health Network: https://www.sehn.org

SEHN’s January 2025 focus is The Plastics Pollution Crisis. See these articles:

January 21, 2025 Article by Rebecca Altman

“All of a Piece: Moving Past Fifty Years of Piecemeal Approaches to Plastic Pollution”

https://www.sehn.org/sehn/2025/1/17/all-of-a-piece-moving-past-fifty-years-of-piecemeal-approaches-to-plastic-pollution?

 

January 21, 2025 Article by Ted Schettler

“Micro- and Nanoplastics: The Fatal Material Flaws”

https://www.sehn.org/sehn/2025/1/17/micro-and-nanoplastics-fatal-material-flaws?

 

January 21, 2025 Article by Sandra Steingraber

“RePercussion Section: Taking Plastics Personally”

https://www.sehn.org/sehn/2025/1/21/repercussion-section-taking-plastics-personally?

 

Available on Food & Water Watch:

January 16, 2025 Climate and Energy Article by Mia DiFelice

“In Case You Missed Them: Biden’s Last Climate Actions” (WV mentioned)

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/01/16/bidens-last-climate-actions/

 

January 15, 2025 Climate and Energy Article by Mia DiFelice

“The Biggest Fights for Our Food, Water, and Climate in 2025”

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2025/01/15/2025-biggest-fights/

 

November 25, 2024 Article by Erin Doran and Natalie Balbuena (omitted from previous listing)

“The Mega-Crisis of Microplastics in Our Drinking Water”

https://www.foodandwaterwatch.org/2024/11/25/microplastics-drinking-water-petition/

 

Available on Halt the Harm Network:

January 17, 2025 3PM Comment Writing & Open Office Hours with FracTracker Alliance hosted by Katie Jones

“2024 Liquid Natural Gas Export Study”

https://network.halttheharm.net/c/calendar/2024-liquid-natural-gas-export-study-comment-writing-open-office-hour-e0dc18bf-ce18-434f-b15b-8b37cd8b91f2

 

See Resources available on Fractracker Alliance:  see https://www.fractracker.org/about-us/

 

Available on Inside Climate News:

January 27, 2025 Clean Energy Article by Dan Gerino

“Are We Doing This Again? Home Efficiency Pros Are Wary as Ohio Gets Federal Rebates, Just a Few Years After State Funding Was Yanked”

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27012025/home-efficiency-pros-wary-of-ohio-federal-rebates/

 

January 18, 2025 Clean Energy Article by Philo McKenna

“A Little-Known Clean Energy Solution Could Soon Reach ‘Liftoff’” (Ground source heat pumps)

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/18012025/geothermal-heat-pumps-doe-report/

 

January 10, 2025 Science Article by Kristoffer Tigue

“Another Polar Vortex Is Blasting the U.S. With Harsh Winter Weather. So How Is Climate Change Involved?”

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/10012025/polar-vortex-blasting-us-with-harsh-winter-weather/

 

January 2, 2025 Fossil Fuels Article by Kiley Bense

“Elevated Levels of Radium Found in Western Pennsylvania’s Freshwater Mussels”

https://insideclimatenews.org/news/02012025/elevated-levels-of-radium-found-in-western-pennsylvanias-freshwater-mussels/

 

Available on The Guardian:

January 7, 2024 Article by Tom Perkins

“Environmental groups sue FDA over refusal to tackle risky plastic packaging”

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2025/jan/07/fda-phthalates-plastic-lawsuit

 

Available on Environmental Working Group:

January 15, 2025 EWG Press Release  Iris Myers, press contact

“Biden FDA moves to ban toxic Red Dye No.3 in food” Chemical linked to cancer, memory problems in children

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2025/01/biden-fda-moves-ban-toxic-red-dye-no-3-food

 

January 2, 2025 EWG Press Release  Alex Formuzis, press contact

“Over 53,000 people call on President Biden to ban toxic weedkiller linked to Parkinson’s disease”

https://www.ewg.org/news-insights/news-release/2025/01/over-53000-people-call-president-biden-ban-toxic-weedkiller

 

Available on Yale Climate Connections:

January 24, 2025 Article by Samantha Harrington

“ ‘This is a moment in time to name names’: Writer Karin Kirk and your editors discuss oil and gas contributions to newly elected leaders”

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/this-is-a-moment-in-time-to-name-names-writer-karin-kirk-and-your-editors-discuss-oil-and-gas-contributions-to-newly-elected-leaders/

 

January 22, 2025 Energy Article by Katarina Zimmer, Knowable Magazine

“How engineers are working to solve the renewable energy storage problem”

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/how-engineers-are-working-to-solve-the-renewable-energy-storage-problem/

 

January 17, 2025 Article by Ana Maria Duran Calisto and Cristiana Baleoscu

“Young people are suffering from climate anxiety. Here’s how to help.”

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/young-people-are-suffering-from-climate-anxiety-heres-how-to-help/

 

January 13, 2025 Review by Michael Svoboda

“12 books to prepare you for Trump 2.0”

https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2025/01/12-books-to-prepare-you-for-trump-2-0/

 

Available on Earthday.org; https://www.earthday.org

Posted  “Earth Day 2025 : OUR POWER, OUR PLANET”

https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-2025/

Includes links to planning events and many resources such as Quizzes, Fact Sheets, Articles and MORE.

 

January 6, 2025 Article by Sarah Davies

“Earth Day Turns 55 In 2025”

https://www.earthday.org/earth-day-turns-55-in-2025/

 

Available on Rewiring America https://www.rewiringamerica.org:

Resource- “See how much you could save on electric appliance upgrades”

https://homes.rewiringamerica.org/calculator

 

January 7, 2025 Press Release: “New report looks at how to motivate Americans to electrify”

https://www.rewiringamerica.org/newsroom/press-releases

 

December 10, 2024 Article: “New report shows how electric appliances improve public health outcomes”

https://www.rewiringamerica.org/newsroom/health-report-2024

 

Posted: February 8, 2025 by main_y0ke11

Climate Corner: The right path forward

Feb 8, 2025

Eric Engle

editorial@newsandsentinel.com

An AP newswire piece in the Parkersburg News and Sentinel last weekend contained a section that jumped out at me. The piece read, in part, “…a Chinese upstart, DeepSeek, said it developed a large language model capable of competing with the world’s best, without having to use top-flight chips. The disruption raised questions about whether all the investments expected for AI chips, data centers and electricity is really needed.”

Intriguing. While politicians from both parties used news of DeepSeek to generate another hair-on-fire panic about China and the national security implications of Chinese everything, a little easily missed reporter’s analysis in an AP piece I found on the back pages of a local paper revealed a key truth: we don’t need all these power-hungry data centers, we just need a little global cooperation.

Truths like this, though, don’t sit well with industries like fossil fuels. You see, they want to power these data centers with gas and coal and hydrogen derived from gas. They want countries overseas to do the same so they can build their liquified natural gas and coal export facilities with all the related infrastructure here, predominately in environmental justice communities, while this new administration rids the federal government of the very concept of environmental justice.

AI is another genie let out of a bottle impossible to put back in. Like a genie, it can help accomplish some amazing things that humanity could really benefit from in both the short and long term. But, also like a genie, it can be extraordinarily dangerous (think deepfakes, mis-and-disinformation bots, even SkyNet from the Terminator movies). AI’s most pressing immediate threat is soaring electricity consumption at a time when all human beings need to consume less electricity, more efficiently than ever, sourced from renewables.

Leave it to those profiting inconceivably from the status quo to spend hundreds of millions of dollars electing a president and congressional majorities sympathetic to protecting their profits. They have already begun dismantling portions of crucial renewable energy and energy efficiency gains desperately needed to combat the global climate crisis. Only now, they’ve rebranded. Instead of bringing to mind images of filthy old coal plants and frack pads and blighted tar sands fields in Canada, they want you thinking about supercomputing and AI and “clean” hydrogen and all that futuristic fancy stuff!

It makes me think of a Golden Girls episode (I’m a die-hard Golden Girls fan) where a funeral director named Mr. Pfeiffer (the “p” is not silent) tells the girls that “here at Forever Peaceful Mortuary, we’ve gotten rid of all that morbid death stuff.” To which Sofia replies “whaddya runnin’ here, a sushi bar?” We need a wisecracking Italian lady like Sophia Petrillo to ask these oil and gas and coal companies with their hydrogen schemes and efforts to eliminate competition from renewables what they think they’re runnin’ here! Actually, our incredible member Giulia Mannarino fills that role very well!

It’s not that a lot of these companies can’t also make money in renewable energy. They can and they have. It’s not that renewables require any more government subsidy than fossil fuels. They don’t. In fact, fossil fuels have consistently been some of the most heavily government subsidized commodities in the world. The trouble is that once you provide customers with the means to capture the electrons of the sun’s rays and of moving wind and water, you can’t keep charging them (with heavy markup) for the costs of securing more inputs.

Once you solve for intermittency with battery and other storage and delivery options and given the high degree of recyclability of the component parts of renewable energy and energy storage methods, you’re out of excuses to constantly “drill, baby, drill.” If you also manage to use GREEN hydrogen (hydrogen derived from separating water molecules using a renewably powered electrolysis process) to decarbonize sectors like steel and cement production, well, there goes that remaining demand for things like metallurgical coal.

Technological improvements in heat pumps, to give another example, are driving down the popularity of gas utilities in homes for indoor air and water heating and cooking due to greater efficiency and lower costs. While plastics polymers and petrochemicals are still a driving force for use of natural gas liquids, 40% of the plastics market could be gone tomorrow (disposable plastics) and sustainable agriculture and research into polymeric alternatives will continue to address the rest.

The best path both today and going forward is in renewables, maximized energy efficiencies, sustainability, and a circular waste economy. One promising potential for AI and super or quantum computing is finally solving nuclear fusion, which would permanently solve our energy woes, but we can’t get there from here by continuing to rely heavily on filthy, dangerous, expensive, and climate-destabilizing fossil fuels. Doing so just doesn’t make sense or cents.

***

Eric Engle is board president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.

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