Nov 4, 2023
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
How many genocides? How many extinctions?
How many wars must we wage? How many lives must we destroy? How many lands must we make uninhabitable?
How many thousands of Palestinian children must be exterminated for the sake of America’s imperialist interests? Is it merely a coincidence that the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank sit atop nearly half a trillion dollars in oil and gas reserves? Is there no level of depravity to which the client state of Israel may sink before its American benefactors develop any semblance of a conscience?
How many babies need to be blown apart by rockets? How many civilians must be scorched to their bones by white phosphorus? How many more bombs will we supply to Israel to drop on hospitals and refugee camps?
From Israel to Ukraine, how many more proxy wars will we finance? How many more blank checks will we sign to brazen war criminals?
All this, we say, is for the sake of American interests. No amount of human and environmental destruction is too great for the most heavily militarized superpower in the history of the world. In his book “Endless Holocausts,” David Michael Smith estimates the American empire is responsible for nearly 300 million deaths throughout its history. Is that enough?
The U.S. is historically responsible for nearly 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions destroying our planet. The Department of Defense is the single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. Billions of innocent lives not directly destroyed by the sociopaths at the Pentagon through illegal acts of war will instead be subject to the horrors of the climate crisis it’s creating.
And still it isn’t enough.
Every year the war machine needs more. More innocent blood. More money — trillions spent over decades — more than any other nation on the planet, more than 144 other nations combined.
Politicians and an indoctrinated public squabble and hand-wring over the cost of climate legislation, a woefully inadequate $369 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act that is nevertheless our largest ever investment in mitigating a world-ending existential threat. We spend twice this amount every year on slaughter and bloodshed, on escalating tensions with nuclear superpowers, on a mind-boggling 750 military bases in 80 countries poisoning the water around them, on $100 million fighter jets that somehow go missing, and on developing nuclear bombs 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.
We endlessly finance these horrors without giving them a second thought. We hiss and we snarl at the homeless and at welfare recipients, we allow our infrastructure to crumble, and we sleepwalk into a climate apocalypse that could rob us of everything. Yet we bow at the feet of mass murderers as they bleed us dry, enriching weapons manufacturers and war profiteers, demons in designer suits who will never have to look into the eyes of the innocents they massacre.
When will it be enough?
How long must the needs of the many be sacrificed for the insatiable bloodlust and gluttony of the few?
This is simply how things work, we’re told — the way they must be in order for the system to function.
And if that is the case, I say, then maybe the system has never been functional. And maybe it’s near time for us to find another system.
Could it really be true that our creature comforts, our “American way of life” and our well-being, must necessitate these rivers of blood, these mass exterminations of human life, and the complete destabilization of Earth’s systems, upon which 8 billion of us depend? And if that is the case, what right have we to pursue such a way of life at the expense of all others?
We cannot keep doing this to ourselves.
How many of our loved ones need to be chewed up and spat out through the gears of the war machine? How long will we allow military recruiters into schools and shopping malls to prey on the vulnerable, turning our children into ruthless destroyers of life, and sending them home in pine boxes and body bags?
How many more children must feel fear when they look up at the sky? Fear of the American-made bombs raining down onto their heads, or fear of once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes tearing their little worlds to pieces?
How many nightmares must the world endure for the American dream to survive?
How long will we let this go on in our names?
How long can we turn a blind eye to the corporate fascism that consumes us, and to the military industrial complex as it scourges the earth?
As our world overheats, as we plunge into tribal hatred and the tyranny of the surveillance state, as our borders are militarized in order to prevent the arrival of the refugees we create, and as protestors and journalists are murdered with impunity, when will we finally step back and ask ourselves why?
What will we do when the carnage we’ve sown inevitably arrives right back at our doorstep?
When do we stand up and say enough is enough?
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: December 9, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Stubborn optimism
Dec 9, 2023
Rebecca Phillips
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
As I write this column, the first week in December, the COP28 conference is underway in Dubai. This event is, in part, a follow-up to a treaty that the U.S. and 194 other nations signed in 2015, the Paris Climate Accords.
Unfortunately, recent climate news is not good. The 2023 State of the Climate Report, issued by the National Climatic Data Center with input from fifty other countries, warns of a “climate collapse” brought on by the failure to meet the goals agreed to in 2015. The report’s detailing of emissions, losses, and disasters makes for depressing reading, and its photos are devastating. Given the fact that emissions this year reached a record high after the pandemic-induced reduction, is there any reason to hope that the situation can improve?
It happens that I had begun reading “The Future We Choose: Surviving the Climate Crisis” by Paris Accord architects Christiana Figueres and Tom Rivett-Carnac a few days before the conference began. The book calls for “stubborn optimism,” a refusal to believe that humans are helpless in the face of even existential challenges. In it, the authors remind us of progress that has already been achieved.
As they note, the U.K., birthplace of the industrial revolution, gets 50% of its power from clean sources. Figueres’ native Costa Rica has achieved 100% clean energy. The cost of solar panels and electric vehicles has dropped, as has the price of electric vehicles. Since the book’s publication, in the U.S. the Inflation Reduction Act is accelerating clean energy development and making it easier to purchase efficient appliances and vehicles. While much remains to be done in terms of strengthening our nation’s electricity transmission grid, renewable energy development is increasing.
COP 28 has the potential for many positives, and despite the inevitable problems that arise when dealing with groups of humans and the determination of fossil fuel lobbyists to prevent a phase-down of such fuels, the first days of the conference have brought some good news. On Nov. 30, participating countries created — and donated to — a climate fund to help low-income nations recover from the climate disasters that are occurring with greater frequency. On the second day, international development banks introduced a plan to reduce poor nations’ debts in exchange for protecting the natural areas that serve as carbon sinks. Such exchanges have already been successfully implemented in Belize and the Galapagos Islands and look to be a win-win.
Individual countries are bringing forth their own proposals and pledges. Indonesia will be closing its first coal-fired power plant. Brazil’s president has pledged to use that country’s oil revenues to fund green energy development, and last week Brazil’s national development bank launched an effort to restore 23,160 square miles of land — an area larger than Croatia, Costa Rica, or Switzerland — in the Amazon rainforest by 2030. Since the Amazon region is sometimes called “the lungs of the planet,” this is good news indeed.
Methane is the most potent greenhouse gas, remaining in the atmosphere far longer than CO2. Last week, the U.S. EPA announced a plan to reduce methane emissions from gas and oil development by 80% over the next 15 years, equivalent to the annual GHG emissions of 300 million cars. China, the world’s largest emitter, last month issued its first methane control plan. With livestock responsible for around 30% of global methane, six of the world’s largest dairy companies have joined a global alliance to reduce methane emissions from their industry. In many places, regenerative agriculture is becoming more widely practiced. Again, more good news.
People being what they are, we have no guarantee that any of these pledged actions will be carried out, and given the urgency of the problem, no guarantee that they are enough to solve the climate crisis. Still, combined with all the small individual actions that so many of us take, these pledges demonstrate that we can make a better world for future generations, especially if we hold our officials accountable.
As Figueres and Rivett-Carnac write: “We still have a choice about our future … [W]e are capable of making the right decisions about our own destiny. We are not doomed to a devastating future … if we act.”
***
Rebecca Phillips is a WVU Parkersburg retiree and a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action and the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta.
Posted: December 2, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Gifting for the planet made easy
Dec 2, 2023
Jean Ambrose
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
I don’t know about you, but for many years I had anxiety attacks on Black Friday because I knew there were only three weeks left to purchase gifts for Christmas. My stress level skyrocketed. Too often I would run out of time and grab something I wasn’t happy about that was probably discarded soon after it was opened.
Since I became involved in the climate movement as a member of MOV Climate Action, a new world of gifting possibilities has opened. I can share my passion about reducing waste, especially single use plastic. I can share products and practices that might encourage the recipients to change habits that contribute to the climate crisis, to those that don’t.
I’ve done some research to help you step on this new path. Let’s think about the whole gift giving experience to give you some benchmarks to make decisions: How can we green the whole process of shopping, wrapping, and disposal?
Shopping: Make sure you minimize your own waste and take reusable shopping bags and your water bottle. Avoid overly packaged products; those wrappings typically can’t be recycled.
Keep it local; you’ll reduce your use of CO2 for shipping and also provide much-needed support for local artisans and businesses.
The website Done Good (donegood.co) has vetted more than 100 businesses and makes it easy and affordable to use your purchasing power for good. They list companies that are committed to creating high quality products that are good for the people who make them and good for the planet.
Reused (or pre-loved!) gifts can come from your own household, thrift stores, or even online resellers that specialize in vintage and secondhand goods. Places to start: thredUP, Poshmark, VarageSale, and of course eBay
Wrapping: That shiny paper can’t be recycled, so think about recycled or reusable options. Repurpose what you have around the house–newspapers and magazines, pillowcases, napkins, recycled paper decorated by your kids. Or make the wrapping part of the gift, such as a reusable shopping bag or gift bag, a scarf, or mason jar. Use natural decorations such as pine cones and branches, dried flowers, or leaves.
Less is More: Everything we buy is a choice that can contribute to a healthy future for our planet and our grandchildren. Avoid last minute plastic trinkets or gag gifts that will end up in the trash. Homemade gifts and long lasting quality items will be meaningful and not forgotten, especially if they demonstrate your knowledge of the recipients and their interests.
Share Your concern for the Planet through your gifts. There are small companies specializing in rethinking everyday products to be as close to zero waste as possible. A gift pack of zero waste laundry detergent, soaps, cleaning supplies, and personal care items with subscription refills will support new habits. Companies like Net Zero, BlueLand, and Free the Ocean provide alternatives to heavy plastic packaging. Think about the small changes you have made in your own life — cloth napkins, reusable shopping bags, bamboo plates and tableware — and help your loved ones take that step to more aware consumption habits.
If you have people who garden on your list, share a bag of homemade compost along with directions on how you fit composting into your own lifestyle.
Some people are replacing gifts with contributions to non-profit organizations made in honor of the person you are gifting. Heifer International makes grants of livestock to low-income families to increase their self-sufficiency. A child could help pick the gift of rabbits, chickens, goats, or lambs to be made in their name. If you plan to make this change to charitable contributions instead of gifts, let your recipients know ahead of time with an early card or message so they will know you’re not giving personal gifts this year.
Help move the people you love off fossil fuels by buying them electric tools and appliances. Check out the Electric Gift Guide put out by Rewiring America for ideas to electrify all aspects of our households. (Companies like Home Depot are making a major shift to all-electric lawn care equipment.)
Let’s make this the year we refuse to succumb to the holiday consumer mania, and spend with the people we love, our planet and our community in mind!
***
Jean Ambrose is trying not to be a criminal ancestor.
Posted: November 25, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: ‘Blue’ hydrogen is not the answer
Nov 25, 2023
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
I’m writing this weekend’s Climate Corner column in response to a column from last weekend’s edition of the Parkersburg News and Sentinel regarding the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen (ARCH2) hub proposed for the Ohio River Valley. Before I directly address ARCH2, though, I’d like to make a few things clear.
I myself am a union steward and a recruiter/membership coordinator for my union chapter. My maternal grandfather was a union member who worked for Pennzoil in the oil fields of Calhoun County. My father was a union member at an area plastics plant from which he retired. I had numerous family members and loved ones who were union members at the Ames plant in Davisville before it closed down.
Speaking not only for myself but for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action as an organization, we stand unwaveringly with organized labor and want union contracts and collective bargaining rights to be economy-wide. We deeply admire what the United Auto Workers, SAG-AFTRA and numerous other unions across the country have accomplished this year with a record number of strikes and labor actions.
When it comes to ARCH2, unfortunately, it’s just not the promising initiative last week’s writer suggested. This is not because hydrogen production itself is a bad idea or negative thing; hydrogen shows immense promise in decarbonizing hard-to-decarbonize sectors like steel and cement-making, international shipping and aviation. The problem here is with what is referred to as “blue” hydrogen, which is hydrogen derived from methane gas by splitting off the carbon atoms and utilizing carbon capture and storage technology to address the resulting carbon dioxide emissions.
First of all, blue hydrogen production will increase the demand for methane gas obtained by hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays in our region. Fracking is extraordinarily polluting, dangerous and destructive from start to finish. For a deep dive into the huge array of harms from fracking, please check out the Compendium of Scientific, Medical, and Media Findings Demonstrating Risks and Harms of Fracking and Associated Gas and Oil Infrastructure, ninth edition, at concernedhealthny.org. The compendium is published annually by Concerned Health Professionals of New York, a program of the Science and Environmental Health Network, and Physicians for Social Responsibility.
Secondly, in large part because of fracking, but also because of unaddressed methane emissions, a 2021 study by Robert W. Howarth of Cornell University and Mark Jacobson of Stanford University found that blue hydrogen has a 20% greater greenhouse gas footprint than burning natural gas or coal directly for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat. This study even assumed that carbon dioxide can be stored indefinitely, which the authors described as “an optimistic and unproven assumption.”
“Unproven” is a word you’ll hear a lot regarding carbon capture and storage technologies and processes. A more apt word, after decades of research and years of federal subsidies, would be “disproven.” Carbon capture and storage has not been shown to successfully capture and store even a fraction of the CO2 necessary to make any difference in reaching the emissions reduction goals of any nation. For a deeper dive into the dangers, immense costs and lack of viability of carbon capture and storage, please visit carboncapturefacts.org, a website created and administered by the Science and Environmental Health Network.
What’s happening at other proposed hydrogen hubs across the country and allegedly for parts of ARCH2 is the production of what is referred to as “green” hydrogen. Green hydrogen is derived from separation of water molecules using an electrolysis process powered by renewable energies like solar and wind. This should be the only method of hydrogen production utilized by the ARCH2 project. Institutional Shareholder Services, an international shareholder advisory firm, cited estimates that green hydrogen will be more cost effective than blue hydrogen by or before 2030 in its finding that there is “significant risk of stranded assets for blue hydrogen investments” in a 2022 analysis.
Producing green hydrogen can still create good-paying, union jobs in the Ohio River Valley, but the economic potential doesn’t stop there. A report for the Ohio River Valley Institute (ORVI) titled “Green Steel in the Ohio River Valley” found that switching to fossil fuel-free direct reduced iron-electric arc furnace (DRI-EAF) steelmaking fueled by green hydrogen would boost total steelmaking jobs by 27% to 43% by 2031 with nearly zero climate-warming emissions.
Hydrogen isn’t all that shows true, clean economic promise. A study titled “A Bigger Bang Approach to Economic Development” by the Ohio State University Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy found that “A new economic development model centering on high-multiplier investments in energy efficiency, weatherization, distributed generation, and education could help struggling Appalachian communities spark job, population, and income growth.” You can read the complete studies referenced above at ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org.
The answers to our economic woes are not to be found in shale gas and oil. To quote from the ORVI website, “Since the beginning of the shale gas boom in 2008, the largest gas-producing counties in Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia have lost more than 10,000 net jobs and nearly 47,000 residents.” The ORVI information continues, “Efforts to spark a petrochemical renaissance with the region’s abundant natural gas reserves have similarly produced poor economic outcomes.”
Some $169 million is being made available under the Defense Production Act by the Department of Energy’s Office of Manufacturing and Energy Supply Chains to build 15 heat pump manufacturing facilities across the U.S., including Ohio and Pennsylvania. Heat pump units both heat and cool homes very efficiently and effectively and can make great replacements for gas utilities as the price of the units continues to fall and point-of-purchase subsidies are provided for households under the Inflation Reduction Act.
ARCH2 isn’t a done deal. More community engagement is being planned, and changes can be made. Blue hydrogen, though, isn’t the answer.
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: January 4, 2024 by main_y0ke11
Put an end to sacrilegious treatment of public lands
Nov 25, 2023
George Banzinger
In its Nov. 16 edition, The Marietta Times carried a story with the headline, “Ohio commission approves fracking in state parks.” I attended this event at the headquarters of the Ohio Department of Natural Resources in Columbus, where this meeting of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission was held. I shared in the disappointment, anger and frustration which was expressed by many members of the Save Ohio Parks group.
There are many reasons that this plan to impose a sacrilege on our state parks and public lands is an outrage. First, the Ohio Legislature drew up a poultry bill, HB 507, and inserted some unrelated “stuffing” language offering public lands of Ohio–including state parks–for oil and gas drilling. The hidden language in this poultry bill allowed the legislature to avoid any public hearings about this controversial proposal to drill for fossil fuels. Adding to this reason for outrage — this legislation declared methane to be green!
A second outrage is that Gov. Michael DeWine signed this legislation and appointed the members of the Oil and Gas Land Management Commission, who represent real estate, oil and gas interests, and lawyers but no true representatives of environmental interests. The commission then sent out information to oil and gas companies inviting “nominations” for parcels immediately adjacent to state parks and other public lands (in signing the bill the governor promised that there would be no surface drilling on public lands — we shall see if that is enforced). Another outrage is that the names of these companies which submitted nominations were not made public. It is likely that most all of these companies are from out of state, based on preliminary inquiries made to property owners on these sites. The public was invited to comment on these nominations, and more than 5,000 comments from those opposing high-pressure hydraulic fracturing (aka fracking) near these public lands were received by the commission. Comments referred to increased truck traffic (hauling in sand, water, and chemicals and hauling out radioactive and toxic brine waste), increased noise and air pollution, and risks to health and the environment, which has been documented in scientific studies. Yet another outrage occurred when over 1,100 comments from those in support of fracking on public lands came in from people whose identities had been stolen and who had no idea until they were contacted that a message in support of fracking on public lands was sent in their names and with their contact information. The latter information came out due to some investigative reporting by reporters from the Cleveland Plain Dealer and other press outlets. Attorney General David Yost promised to conduct an investigation of this issue, but at this point his office has not provided any update. Further exasperating opponents of fracking on public lands is that the commission on Nov. 15 went ahead and approved these nominations before any information about the attorney general’s investigation is made public (it is possible that one of the companies that submitted a nomination was behind this deceptive effort). A further cause for outrage, the commission prohibited any comments from the public at the Nov. 15 meeting.
The next step in this process is that the commission will request bids for the various parcels.
If bids come in as expected, Salt Fork State Park, the state’s largest, will be completely surrounded by well pads and oil and gas rigs. The last hope to set any limits or to stop this process is to contact the governor and urge him to do what his predecessor, then-Gov. John Kasich, did and end this sacrilege on our public lands.
Riffe Center, 30th Floor, 77 South High Street, Columbus, OH 43215-6117. (614) 644-4357.
Posted: November 18, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Investigating your environment
Nov 18, 2023
Callie Lyons
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Every time I consider Diane Cotter’s story, I am encouraged. Diane is the person who identified the turnout gear used by firefighters as a major source of exposure to toxic chemicals — and one with far reaching health implications for the fire service. When her husband was battling cancer, she set out to discover the cause. Her questions, persistence, and alliances with world class experts resulted in a new understanding of these exposure issues and their serious capacity for causing harm. Diane’s story is told in a new documentary titled “Burned.”
Diane had no prior training or experience to guide her actions. She was driven by a love of family and the courage of her convictions. And, so it was that a determined woman with a hairdresser’s license cracked the chemical secret so many scientists overlooked.
The journey began with a burning question. What caused her husband’s cancer? Kitchen table environmental investigations often begin when a family member is suffering from a health problem for which the origin is a mystery.
In that spirit, here are some recommendations for anyone who finds themselves investigating their own environmental situation. While there are endless situations to be explored by dedicated citizens, the good news lies in the availability of information and tools for embarking on such an investigation
Finally, don’t be afraid to look into an issue that may be critical to your life. If you wait for the government via regulatory agencies to step in and fix things, you are going to be disappointed every time. The pace of science bogged down by politics and systems is far too slow to bring about meaningful change — particularly in the face of a crisis. Look no further than the calamity at East Palestine as an example of these failures. Agencies established in the interest of the herd are not about saving your family or your loved one. But, you are. Thus, you are uniquely positioned to be the change that your world needs.
Sometimes information leads to simple solutions — a water filter that will reduce or remove the problem, an air filtration system that will bolster the health of your household. These solutions are discovered through investigation.
It’s not a one-size-fits-all environment. Vulnerable populations, allergies, and an endless number of unknowns can complicate your situation and potential outcomes. The key is to find the answers that will fit your needs and improve the health and environment for the ones you love.
***
Callie Lyons is the author of the 2007 book, “Stain-Resistant, Nonstick, Waterproof and Lethal: The Hidden Dangers of C8,” which chronicles the discovery of PFAS or highly fluorinated compounds in Mid-Ohio Valley water supplies and beyond. She is a journalist and researcher for FITSNews and the FITSFiles true crime and corruption podcast.
Last Updated: November 13, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Save solar energy in West Virginia
Nov 11, 2023
Giulia Mannarino
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Solar energy is one of the best ways West Virginians can save money on energy bills and dramatically reduce carbon emissions. It’s a chance to invest in clean homegrown energy that supports the local economy. It’s an opportunity for households and businesses to take control of their energy future. Installing solar allows West Virginians to generate electricity on their own roof tops or property. Over three thousand West Virginians have already chosen to install solar. That number should grow in the coming years. The solar industry supports nearly 400 local jobs. These jobs help strengthen communities and support families. Unfortunately, all of that is at risk as solar is under attack in West Virginia. Out of state utility FirstEnergy wants to turn off the lights on West Virginians’ energy choices and stop the growth of solar.
FirstEnergy has filed a proposal with the West Virginia Public Utility Commission to slash the value of solar for customers in MonPower and Potomac Edison territories. This would make it much harder for households, businesses, and organizations in that territory to choose solar. It would slow the solar growth enjoyed over the last decade and potentially take jobs away from West Virginia communities. It would hamper West Virginians ability to reduce carbon emissions to fight climate change. It would strand millions of dollars already invested in solar energy and discourage further investment. In the same proposal, FirstEnergy is also asking to force yet another significant rate increase on their customers. They want to keep all West Virginians tied to their ever-increasing rates and take away their freedom of energy choices.
Solar customers tied to the grid enroll in a program called net metering. When the sun is shining, solar users use the power they make in their home or business. If they make more than what they need, the excess power flows to their neighbors — wherever it can be used. When the sun isn’t shining, they buy the power they need from the utility. Solar customers pay the same rate for electricity that their neighbors do. They also receive a credit for the power they provided at the same rate. It’s a fair 1:1 transaction that appropriately values the benefits of solar energy. The current rate for power is around 11.5 cents per kWh. FirstEnergy wants to slash the solar credit to just 6.5 cents per kWh – and increase the rate for power to over 12 cents per kWh. Solar customers would be unjustly subsidizing utilities who are making billions of dollars. It would make it nearly impossible for customers to go solar and discourage further investment.
Solar energy benefits everyone and slowing solar is the wrong choice for all West Virginians. Studies have been done that show the economic and environmental benefits net metered solar provides to the broader grid exceeds the retail cost of energy. For example, when a home or business produces solar, it’s immediately used by that home or business or its neighbors. Using power right where it’s made means less strain on the system that carries power across the state. Since solar owners do not use the grid as often, they do not put much wear and tear on it making it last longer. Transmission and distribution systems are very costly to upgrade and those upgrades contribute to rate increases. Avoiding them by investing in local generation like solar helps keep costs down for all customers. We are not powerless. Even though FirstEnergy wants to take away West Virginians’ solar choice, we can say “No!”. Their unfair proposal is in front of the West Virginia Public Service Commission. The Commission will decide on the proposal in early 2024. Now is the time to make your voice heard. The Commission is accepting comments on the proposal. Add your voice to hundreds of fellow West Virginians’ who have spoken out against this unfair proposal. Contact your legislators. Tell them to stand with West Virginians and tell the Commission to reject FirstEnergy’s anti-solar proposal. Websites WV4EF, SolarUnitedNeighbors and WVLovesSolar have more information as well as actions you can easily take in opposition to the proposed changes.
***
Giulia Mannarino, of Belleville, is a grandmother concerned for her granddaughter’s future, and vice president of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Posted: November 8, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Guest column/Fracking, hunting don’t mix — lease should be denied
Nov 4, 2023 Herald Star
RANDI POKLADNIK
Many hunters are entering wooded areas in Ohio in search of deer, turkey and pheasants. Among the most popular places to hunt are Ohio’s public lands, especially parks and wildlife areas in the southeastern portion of the state.
Among the top 10 counties for deer harvests in the 2022-23 season were: Coshocton (7,590), Tuscarawas (7,028), Muskingum (5,982), Guernsey (5,073) and Carroll (4,251). The Ohio Department of Natural Resources reported that “hunters from all 50 U.S. states purchased deer permits in Ohio for use in the 2022-23 seasons with Pennsylvania hunters topping the list, buying 9,365 permits.”
The hunting community adds significant amounts of money to Ohio’s economy each year, spending nearly $866 million on food, equipment, lodging, fuel and other merchandise. A report by the Sportsmen’s Alliance Foundation estimates that close to half a million hunters participate in recreational hunting each year in Ohio, which translates to “15,500 jobs, $68 million in state and local taxes, and $753 million of the state’s GDP.”
Why would Ohio’s Oil and Gas Land Management Commission want to jeopardize an activity that provides so much revenue for the state, and enjoyment for Ohio and out-of-state residents? Why would this commission even consider fracking excellent hunting areas like Guernsey County’s Salt Fork State Park or Carroll County’s Valley Run Wildlife Area?
These areas located above Marcellus and Utica shale deposits provide habitat for hundreds of species of mammals, birds, fish, reptiles and amphibians.
The most obvious effects of gas extraction are fragmentation and loss of habitat. Fracking requires the complete clearing of land for well pads, infrastructure, pipelines and roads. This means acres of forested lands are lost as they become asphalted over, clear-cut or covered in gravel. In order to restore areas to the original forests, they must be regraded, topsoil needs to be added and native species should be replanted. But this type of reclamation is expensive and not regulated, and often the only reclamation that is done is reseeding areas with non-native grass species.
Forest fragmentation from endless pipelines and access roads leads to the introduction of invasive species, the disruption of predator-prey relationships, drops in migratory bird species and a reduction of core-forest habitat. We also know that fracking fluid and waste releases can be toxic to fish and wildlife, as noted by the spill that occurred in 2007 at Acorn Fork Creek in Kentucky, which killed numerous fish species including the “protected” blackside dace. Additionally, surface waters, including local streams, are impacted by water withdraws that lower water volume, create temperature increases, change pH,and amplify water pollutants.
A hunter described hunting this way: “It offers an understanding and appreciation of wildlife and their ecosystems like no other outdoor activity. Hunting affords the exploration of wild places, and provides delicious, nutritious protein for a meal at a time where much of our food is processed or modified.”
How will hunters feel about hunting at Salt Fork State Park when fracking brings light pollution, noise pollution, water pollution and air pollution to a place that was once wild? Tell the commission to deny the leases for Ohio Parks. Their e-mail is commission.clerk@oglmc.ohio.gov.
(Pokladnik, a resident of Uhrichsville, holds a bachelor’s degree in chemistry, master’s and doctorates in environmental studies and is certified in hazardous materials regulations.)
Posted: November 4, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: How much is enough?
Nov 4, 2023
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
How many genocides? How many extinctions?
How many wars must we wage? How many lives must we destroy? How many lands must we make uninhabitable?
How many thousands of Palestinian children must be exterminated for the sake of America’s imperialist interests? Is it merely a coincidence that the occupied territories of Gaza and the West Bank sit atop nearly half a trillion dollars in oil and gas reserves? Is there no level of depravity to which the client state of Israel may sink before its American benefactors develop any semblance of a conscience?
How many babies need to be blown apart by rockets? How many civilians must be scorched to their bones by white phosphorus? How many more bombs will we supply to Israel to drop on hospitals and refugee camps?
From Israel to Ukraine, how many more proxy wars will we finance? How many more blank checks will we sign to brazen war criminals?
All this, we say, is for the sake of American interests. No amount of human and environmental destruction is too great for the most heavily militarized superpower in the history of the world. In his book “Endless Holocausts,” David Michael Smith estimates the American empire is responsible for nearly 300 million deaths throughout its history. Is that enough?
The U.S. is historically responsible for nearly 25% of the greenhouse gas emissions destroying our planet. The Department of Defense is the single largest institutional emitter of greenhouse gasses in the world. Billions of innocent lives not directly destroyed by the sociopaths at the Pentagon through illegal acts of war will instead be subject to the horrors of the climate crisis it’s creating.
And still it isn’t enough.
Every year the war machine needs more. More innocent blood. More money — trillions spent over decades — more than any other nation on the planet, more than 144 other nations combined.
Politicians and an indoctrinated public squabble and hand-wring over the cost of climate legislation, a woefully inadequate $369 billion in the Inflation Reduction Act that is nevertheless our largest ever investment in mitigating a world-ending existential threat. We spend twice this amount every year on slaughter and bloodshed, on escalating tensions with nuclear superpowers, on a mind-boggling 750 military bases in 80 countries poisoning the water around them, on $100 million fighter jets that somehow go missing, and on developing nuclear bombs 24 times more powerful than the one dropped on Hiroshima.
We endlessly finance these horrors without giving them a second thought. We hiss and we snarl at the homeless and at welfare recipients, we allow our infrastructure to crumble, and we sleepwalk into a climate apocalypse that could rob us of everything. Yet we bow at the feet of mass murderers as they bleed us dry, enriching weapons manufacturers and war profiteers, demons in designer suits who will never have to look into the eyes of the innocents they massacre.
When will it be enough?
How long must the needs of the many be sacrificed for the insatiable bloodlust and gluttony of the few?
This is simply how things work, we’re told — the way they must be in order for the system to function.
And if that is the case, I say, then maybe the system has never been functional. And maybe it’s near time for us to find another system.
Could it really be true that our creature comforts, our “American way of life” and our well-being, must necessitate these rivers of blood, these mass exterminations of human life, and the complete destabilization of Earth’s systems, upon which 8 billion of us depend? And if that is the case, what right have we to pursue such a way of life at the expense of all others?
We cannot keep doing this to ourselves.
How many of our loved ones need to be chewed up and spat out through the gears of the war machine? How long will we allow military recruiters into schools and shopping malls to prey on the vulnerable, turning our children into ruthless destroyers of life, and sending them home in pine boxes and body bags?
How many more children must feel fear when they look up at the sky? Fear of the American-made bombs raining down onto their heads, or fear of once-in-a-lifetime hurricanes tearing their little worlds to pieces?
How many nightmares must the world endure for the American dream to survive?
How long will we let this go on in our names?
How long can we turn a blind eye to the corporate fascism that consumes us, and to the military industrial complex as it scourges the earth?
As our world overheats, as we plunge into tribal hatred and the tyranny of the surveillance state, as our borders are militarized in order to prevent the arrival of the refugees we create, and as protestors and journalists are murdered with impunity, when will we finally step back and ask ourselves why?
What will we do when the carnage we’ve sown inevitably arrives right back at our doorstep?
When do we stand up and say enough is enough?
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: January 4, 2024 by main_y0ke11
Hydrogen hub isn’t the ‘clean’ energy Manchin portrays (Opinion)
By Eric Engle
Nov 1, 2023
Sen. Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., recently wrote a very positive op-ed piece published in the Gazette-Mail regarding the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub (ARCH2).
In glowing terms, Manchin spoke of the opportunities bestowed upon West Virginia from this network of hydrogen production and use that the U.S. Department of Energy and other governmental and private partners are working to bring to the Central Appalachian states of West Virginia, Ohio, Pennsylvania and Kentucky, centered largely around the Ohio River Valley.
But the rosy picture painted by Manchin is not based in reality.
ARCH2 hydrogen production is to be fueled by what is called methane steam reforming, which separates hydrogen atoms from carbon atoms in molecules of methane (aka “natural”) gas. This process is part of obtaining what has been labeled “blue” hydrogen, with the carbon dioxide (CO2) released from the process then captured and stored in underground wells. In the case of West Virginia, the plan is to store the CO2 beneath wilderness areas, state-owned forests and other natural and scenic areas in pore space leased out by the state Division of Natural Resources, which falls under the West Virginia Department of Commerce.
Manchin conveniently ignores several problematic aspects of the ARCH2 project. For starters, a study released in 2021 by Robert W. Howarth of the Department of Ecology & Evolutionary Biology at Cornell University and Mark Jacobson of the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering at Stanford University, titled “How Green is Blue Hydrogen?” found that “Perhaps surprisingly, the greenhouse gas footprint of blue hydrogen is more than 20% greater than burning natural gas or coal for heat and some 60% greater than burning diesel oil for heat.” This analysis even assumed that captured CO2 could be stored indefinitely, which the authors called “an optimistic and unproven assumption.”
Next, let’s look at carbon capture and storage (CCS). This technology is not just unproven at scale; it’s essentially been disproven at anywhere near scale. After decades of effort and at least 15 years of federal tax subsidies in one form or another, CCS isn’t able to successfully capture and store more than fractions of the amount of CO2 necessary to make continued exploitation of fossil fuels compliant with Paris Climate Accords goals of limiting global warming to 1.5 degrees celsius over preindustrial levels. In fact, the process wouldn’t even hit less aspirational temperature goals in the Accords.
CCS is also dangerous. The network of pipelines and storage sites necessary for successful CO2 storage on the scale needed can leak or burst or explode just as easily as pipelines or storage sites used for any other purpose. CO2 is an asphyxiant that displaces oxygen in the air. If it leaks at high pressures in pipelines or in copious amounts from underground storage sites, it will literally stop vehicle engines and, far more seriously, stop people within a certain radius from being able to breathe.
Now let’s talk fracking. Shawn Bennett, Energy and Resilience Division Manager at Batelle, one of the industry partners on the ARCH2 project, recently told attendees of a virtual presentation by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations that he saw no reason to believe that the ARCH2 project would increase fracking (hydraulic fracturing) in the region. That statement left me a bit speechless as one of the presentation attendees. As I told Gazette-Mail energy and environment reporter, Mike Tony, if you’re creating demand for methane gas, you’re creating demand for expanded fracking.
Fracked wells get tapped fast and more and more have to be drilled to keep up. Expansion is the entire business model of the fracking industry, which routinely operates in the red because of the costs of having to constantly expand regardless of market price signals for natural gas and oil. And fracking, in case you haven’t heard, is an environmental and public health nightmare.
There is definitely an important niche for hydrogen in a 21st Century clean energy economy, especially for hard-to-decarbonize sectors of the global economy like aviation and international shipping, it’s just that blue is the wrong color. We need to focus on green hydrogen. Green hydrogen is produced when renewable energy (i.e. solar) is used to power an electrolysis process that separates hydrogen atoms from the oxygen atom in water molecules. As Tony reported in a piece on ARCH2, “The U.S. Department of Energy … has projected a time frame of seven to 12.5 years for projects to ramp up operations. That projected time frame would push ARCH2’s launch past the date when analysts have said green hydrogen will sink below blue hydrogen in price.”
Fortunately, the USDOE Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations is working hard to allow for public feedback and input. You can start by emailing AppalachianH2Hub@hq.doe.gov for more information and/or to provide comments. ARCH2 is far from being a done deal and the people of our state and region must say no to blue hydrogen.
Eric Engle, of Parkersburg, is board chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: October 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Can’t get genie back in bottle
Oct 28, 2023
Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Vic Elam
The industrial age has served us well and the oil, gas, and coal industries have served us well to provide the energy needed to become the world power we are, provide a comfortable living standard, and be the ultimate destination for hordes of emigrants looking for a better life. But, as history has shown, we often must adapt or perish, and that time has come. Humans are naturally averse to change and that, coupled with a huge industry that is fighting for its life, change is proving to be exceedingly difficult. Even though we are inextricably linked to the natural world around us, and the damage we are inflicting is ever-present, we have become so isolated from it, we have become unaware of it. Worse yet, many of those in positions of power inflict harm to the natural world and even directly to many of us in search of riches for themselves.
The latest demonstration of this is the Appalachian hydrogen hub project (ARCH2) recently selected for funding through the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL). Congress mandated that some of the hydrogen hubs eligible for BIL funding use natural gas as the hydrogen source, so there was some political wrangling involved in this funding. Some people refer to hydrogen as the Swiss Army knife of the renewable energy world because it can be used in many ways. I applaud the idea of producing hydrogen to offset carbon intensive energy uses, it’s the proposed way of going about it that I take exception to. Some of the hydrogen projects funded by the BIL are producing green hydrogen, meaning that the energy used to produce the hydrogen is from renewable sources such as solar. Conversely, the ARCH2 project will primarily be using natural gas to produce blue hydrogen and will store the carbon byproduct underground. The problem with using natural gas with carbon capture and storage (CCS) is that there are so many opportunities for things to go wrong. Start with the gas extraction, fracking wells that now go for miles and require millions of gallons of fresh water that is now removed from the water cycle and deprives streams of their natural flow.
There’s the surface damage from well sites, and roads required for access. Then the brine waste that is a byproduct of the gas wells that must be properly disposed of, and because of the harmful chemicals, heavy metals, and radioactivity associated with the brine, makes it hard to dispose of and puts people and their water supplies at risk. There is risk of methane escape throughout all aspects of this from the well installation and production to transport and at the facility that produces the hydrogen. Then the carbon disposal effort has many potential pitfalls from the damage from pipeline construction to move the carbon to a suitable injection site and the ever-present pipeline failures, to the concerns over the viability of the underground storage. And this is just some of the problem areas.
The currently used technology for green hydrogen is a process known as electrolysis and it has its own challenges. For it to be labeled as green hydrogen the energy used to produce it must come from renewable sources. If the electricity used to conduct the hydrolysis is coming from the grid; proving that the electricity used for that hydrolysis is from renewable sources can be problematic and it begs the question of might that renewable electricity be better used in other ways.
Hydrogen has been identified as an excellent energy source for steel and cement manufacturing, due to the intense heat that can be generated from it, and hydrogen is an excellent reducer for steel. However, hydrogen is not part of the answer at the new steel mill being constructed in Mason County that is being sold as a clean energy plant.
The federal government can try throwing some candy in the form of incentives through efforts like BIL and the Inflation Reduction Act, to try to entice the genie back into the bottle, but it appears that the corporate elite have the genie hog tied. Incentives appear to be working to some extent, but until we all get on board with fighting Climate Change and breaking these chains that are allowing the gap between the wealthy and everyone else to widen; I fear that we are doomed to the fate prescribed by the elite, and they are not concerned that this fate may consume us all.
***
Vic Elam is a Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action member, an avid outdoorsman, and contributor to organizations that share his concern for our environment and the children we borrow it from.
Find Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action on the following social media:
Check out our Facebook group and join a conversation
Recent Posts
Recent Comments
Archives
Categories
Meta