Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 6PM to 7:15PM Online Webinar/ Informational Session presented by Ohio River Valley Institute, WVU Law Center for Energy and Sustainable Development , West Virginia Rivers WV Climate Alliance…
Sandra Steingraber’s Jan. 12, 2022 comment on Facebook: Cases of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) rose significantly after 2010 simultaneous to fracking increasing 10-fold in north central West Virginia.
This new study by scientists at West Virginia University School of Medicine is behind a paywall, but you can read the abstract and see the graphic, and we will watch for more shareable information.
Available on NASA EARTHDATA:
January 25, 2022 Article by Emily Cassidy, NASA ESDA Science Writer
“Mapping Methane Emissions from Fossil Fuel Exploitation”
A few days ago, I learned that an acquaintance of mine, a whip-smart environmental scientist and educator, would no longer be publishing her long-standing weekly column in a small-town Ohio newspaper. To quote her directly on the matter: “I was told advertisers and management were not pleased with my columns.”
The topic of so many of her controversial pieces, which she cites as “the most important issue of our lives,” is climate change.
A few days before this, another friend of mine said he was asked to resign from the board of an environmental organization he’d been on for four years, for writing publicly about the fossil fuel corruption of a powerful political figure. This figure allegedly had a “major problem” with the individual’s involvement with the organization in question, thus leading to his involuntary resignation.
Bear in mind, neither of these two said they were penalized for saying anything whatsoever that was false or misleading in any way, shape or form. In fact, I have the utmost confidence that neither of them would have lost their respective positions had they simply been lying their backsides off every week, as long as what they were saying was pleasing to the ear of those in positions of power.
Their mistake, you see, was daring to speak the truth about the climate crisis. About how the overwhelming consensus among scientists is that we now have fewer than ten years before the damages of industrial greenhouse gas emissions to our biosphere become irreversible. About how we are witnessing a mass extinction event in real-time — and not only witnessing it, but actively driving it — leading to the eventual collapse of our civilization.
And their biggest mistake of all? Daring to accuse those merchants of death most responsible for this catastrophe right to their faces. For having the audacity to say an unkind word about the politicians raking in millions of dollars from fossil fuel lobbyists while shooting down climate legislation, the oil executives lying for decades about global warming while raking in billions or the fracking PR goons paid to spew lies about the natural gas industry.
To all those poor, sensitive powers-that-be who would prefer us to keep our mouths shut about their mass destruction of life on this planet, I have one thing to say to you: Too bad.
You can censor us, de-platform us and do everything in your power to try and shut us up, and it’s only going to make us louder. We refuse to be silent about what is perhaps the greatest threat ever faced by our species, about how we got to this point and about who is directly responsible for getting us here.
We are going to keep speaking out, and you are going to be held accountable. Live with it, the way we’re forced to live with the desecrated shambles of a planet you’ve created for us.
In a recent edition of The Charleston Gazette-Mail, President of the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association Rebecca McPhail, stated “People outside our great state are entitled to their own opinions, but here in West Virginia we know Joe Manchin and we’re grateful for him.” How very presumptuous of Ms. McPhail to speak for all West Virginians. And how very thoughtful of her (sarcasm intended) to declare that the rest of the country are entitled to their own opinions about a Senator whose egotistical obstruction of extremely popular and crucial legislation directly and negatively impacts their lives.
The audacity of the fossil fuels and chemical industries in West Virginia and their lobbyists and representatives in our state legislature never ceases to amaze me. No price is too high for energy consumers to pay to keep burning coal. Cleaning up after coal, oil and gas is the taxpayer’s responsibility in West Virginia, not the responsibility of these profitable industries. Make utilities compete in open markets? Not in West Virginia. Pursue environmental justice initiatives for low-income communities and communities of color disproportionally harmed by pollution like ethylene oxide? Maybe the state Department of Environmental Protection will get around to it, but they’ll probably just hold more meetings where folks can share their trauma from this exposure and then go back to giving polluting industry whatever it wants and occasionally issuing fines that polluting industry considers the cost of doing business. Regulatory capture in this state is a given.
If these folks are not “married to the mineral,” as so many of them like to say, and they just care about miners and power plant workers and local tax revenues, how about they pass policy, create regulations and make investments that will make a tangible difference in the lives of the people of this state given the inevitable decline of finite fossils? Not only must we dramatically reduce CO2 and equivalent greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade to preserve the most stable global climate system we possibly can, but fossil fuels cannot compete with renewable energy and storage indefinitely without massive amounts of public subsidy and favorable treatment.
A study by the International Monetary Fund found that $5.2 trillion was spent globally on fossil fuel subsidies in 2017, and an analysis by Simon Buckle, the head of the climate change, biodiversity and water division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, found that the $649 billion the U.S. spent on fossil fuels subsidies in 2015 was more than the country’s defense budget and 10 times the federal spending for education.
Another example of how ridiculous our legislature can be when it comes to the fossil fuels industry can be found in the current legislative session. The West Virginia State Senate wants to set up a private, nonstock mining mutual insurance company funded by $50 million from Department of Environmental Protection-specified funds meant to ensure that state mine cleanup funds don’t become more insolvent. The DEP, however, has testified that it has no idea where that $50 million is going to come from. A recent piece on this proposed legislation by Charleston Gazette reporter Mike Tony quotes Sierra Club Senior Attorney Peter Morgan as saying, “It’s hard for me to see that as anything other than a way to lose $50 million of West Virginia’s money because given what’s happening with the coal mining industry, anyone who issues those sorts of bonds is going to have to pay out the full value of those bonds, and that’s going to quickly deplete the $50 million and any additional money the state might put into that.”
No, Ms. McPhail, not all of us West Virginians are grateful for Sen. Joe Manchin III–a man who has placed the profits he makes from the coal brokerage he founded, held in a not-so-blind trust run by his son, over the well-being of the Mountain State. Thousands of us have begged and pleaded with Joe to care more about the people of this state than about his yacht in the Potomac and his Maserati, but he doesn’t want to hear it. The corporate and industry largesse pouring into his future campaign coffers and the attention he’s getting to feed his narcissistic megalomania is just too good for those dopamine receptors in his brain. Maybe one day West Virginia will be able to thrive in a 21st Century economy, but not until the insatiable appetite for destruction of the industries of the past has been either forcefully curbed or sated.
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Often referred to in terms of the wildlife needs of shelter, water, food, and space, habitat also applies to humans. In ecological terms habitat is often defined as an assemblage of animals and plants that live in a particular environment.
Without proper habitat we will cease to exist, and one irreplaceable component of our habitat is water. Humans have an advantage over the assemblage of animals and plants that coexist and make it possible for us to live. We can normally take contaminated water that would make us extremely ill and filter it and treat it and render it harmless and even make it life sustaining.
I say normally because we usually start out with water that is relatively clean. But the fate of our water supply is constantly under attack from threats from contamination and usually those threats are unforeseen and accidental. We take clean drinking water for granted whereas many parts of the world would be thankful to have our water supply.
To paraphrase a great adage, “With great gifts comes great responsibility” and we are not taking the precautions needed to protect our water. Of the many threats out there, we as humans allow ourselves to remove millions of gallons of perfectly good water from the environment and contaminate it by pumping it under ground through rock fissures (fracking) where it picks up radiation and multitudes of harmful compounds. When this water comes back to the surface it is a biohazard, although the petroleum industry has used its power to avoid that label and instead refers to it as “brine”.
Humans are great at problem solving, but when there is financial incentive, it seems that solutions often impact those that are unaware or without the wherewithal to protect themselves. Certainly, the other part of our habitat, the assemblage of animals and plants are powerless to defend themselves.
Apparently the cheapest and easiest disposal method is to inject the “brine” down wells. This disposal method is fraught with potential for environmental harm, most troubling is the threat of water contamination. These injection wells are drilled to depths well below our drinking water sources, but there are many pathways where the brine can find its way into the water supply. Trucks carrying the “brine” can wreck and spill, pipelines that carry “brine” to the well site can rupture and spill as happened near Marietta last year, injection wells can leak, injection wells under pressure can force “brine” through fissures to unplanned places, etc.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is authorized to provide oversight on these injection wells and delegates that role to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management (ODNR). ODNR has regularly failed to complete inspections as required by USEPA and penalties for violations are rare or absent. Inspection authority should be taken away from ODNR, who receives payment for each barrel of injected “brine”. Secondly, if we have not learned anything from the mining industry it’s that we should have plenty of revenue set aside for reclamation. Currently, there is no surcharge or tax per barrel of “brine” disposed to go into a fund set aside for when something goes wrong. Perhaps the counties should impose a fee or tax to collect funds for reclamation, although this is a Genie that will be very hard to put back in the bottle.
I hope that we all can continue to take for granted the abundant clean water that we enjoy and the full compliment of animals and plants that come with it. Vigilance will be required to ensure that these benefits are protected.
There are certain demographic and economic trends that have been evident for decades in this region of Appalachia and that can be addressed given the opportunities presented by the investment of federal funds now available. Included in these problems are:
* The continued inexorable pattern of population decline and aging (due to many young people leaving the area)
* Relative to the U.S., the region’s high poverty rate, high unemployment, and low wages
* Corporations headquartered elsewhere, draining wealth from the region
* Coal companies having left their mark
* The region’s high opioid abuse and addiction problems
* Limited broadband access in rural parts of the county.
People in the Mid-Ohio Valley have accepted on faith that the oil and gas industry contributes to the health of the economy in the region. For many years there has been an unfulfilled promise that fossil fuels, particularly shale gas, would enhance the economy of the region and provide jobs. Hydraulic fracturing of natural gas has established well pads, pipelines, processing facilities, and other infrastructure. According to a study by the Ohio River Valley Institute (2021), the shale gas region comprises about 22 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia; these counties produce about 90% of the gas of the region yet the region trails the nation on key measures of economic prosperity. For example, jobs increased by just 1.6% in the region compared to 8% nationally; the region lost approximately 37,000 residents, while the U.S population grew by 18% in the past decade. Little of the profit from oil and gas has entered the local economy; trained workers and service providers are generally from outside the area. Royalties for local families with mineral rights have declined with lower natural gas prices. The oil and gas industry is capital intensive, not labor intensive, and the revenue from local natural resources is not returning to the Mid-Ohio Valley. Oil and gas companies should at least be contributing to the local economy through severance taxes, impact fees, and other revenue-generating opportunities that will stay here, benefiting our region.
The fossil-fuel industry has enjoyed a myriad of federal subsidies, which has given it an unfair advantage in the energy market. Evangelical climate scientist, Dr Katherine Hayhoe, in her recent book, “Saving Us,” has written that these subsidies amount to $600 billion per year and include tax breaks, direct production subsidies, and leases on public lands that are far below market rates. It is time for the federal government to support renewable energy, which is safer, better for the environment, and more supportive of sustainable job growth and economic development than fossil fuels.
Many individuals and organizations have seen the handwriting on the wall and are divesting their interests in fossil fuels. Dr. Hayhoe, has cited these facts related to divestment: over 1,300 organizations and 60,000 individuals representing about $14 trillion of assets have made the decision to divest in fossil fuels. These organizations include pension funds and insurance companies, which are reluctant to support an industry that is the direct cause of global warming and extreme weather that results in damage and loss claims in the billions. Banks and investment companies are joining this movement; Goldman Sachs announced recently that it is no longer going to invest in Arctic oil exploration.
An alternative to continued reliance on the oil and gas industry for economic development is to reimagine this region and seek growth opportunities of the 21st Century. A study by UMass-Amherst has reported that good jobs in renewable energy could employ 250,000 in the region in the next 10 years! These opportunities are numerous and include the following:
* Repairing the damage done by extractive industries, e.g., plugging orphaned oil and gas wells, repairing leaks, repairing dams and levies
* Modernizing the electric grid
* Developing new locally based manufacturing of solar-panel and wind-turbine parts
* Expanding manufacturing with energy-efficient facilities, e.g., repurposing coal-fired power plants
* Building sustainable transportation, e.g., railways and electric vehicle infrastructure
* Re-establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps (first created by FDR in the 1930s) for projects that might include carbon farming, and expanding forests and wetlands, which could in turn create job opportunities for recovering opioid addicts.
The American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), which have both been passed by Congress can provide resources for this re-imagining of Appalachia–if local officials will make the asks. The Build Back Better plan, if it is finally passed in some different form from its current version or in separated packages, can provide even more resources for this purpose.
There are 21,000 fewer jobs in the fossil fuel industry –half need re-training and re-employment. These are challenges that can be addressed by educational institutions and employee-training programs in the region.
***
George Banziger, Ph..D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. Now retired, he is a volunteer for the Mid-Ohio Valley Interfaith, and Harvest of Hope. He is a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
Seven years ago this month, I started writing columns for the Bargain Hunter. My very first column was about the chemicals in foods.
For the past seven years I’ve tried to make each column an informative fact-based piece with topics that are important to readers. It often takes several days to get a column ready. I access peer reviewed data and seek out sources and quotes for most of the columns. As a scientist, I deal in facts, not fluff.
During these many years I have had positive feedback from readers and have made many new friends. As much as I have educated my audience, you have educated me.
I remember getting two phone calls from readers about the use of leg-hold traps for bobcats. After investigating, I wrote about the issue and testified at the public hearing in Columbus. The hearing was heavily attended and thankfully the use of these horrendous traps was denied.
As a former teacher, the column became a way for me to educate readers about issues that are very significant in their lives. My students have often told me my knack of simplifying complex scientific topics was my best asset.
I am a nerd, I love science. Sadly, I see our nation becoming less and less science literate, and I worry how the next generation will deal with complex issues that require science literacy.
Some of the many topics discussed during the years include: the value of hemp, the dangers of PFAS (Teflon component), the risks of sun exposure, my trip to see the total eclipse, renewable energy, the benefits of forests, organic farming, and the health benefits of berries.
I have tackled other topics, some local and some national, many that involve legislation. I find the lack of public participation in the political realm of our nation disturbing. By discussing some of these laws, especially those targeting science-related topics, I hoped to encourage more public participation.
I’ve been an environmentalist most of my life. From the time I first read “Silent Spring” and saw the Cuyahoga River catch fire, I knew this was my path in life.
I make no apologies for my columns. I continue to believe the climate crisis is the most crucial issue of our lives. Afterall, it we don’t have a livable planet what does it matter if we have a designer handbag or a new SUV?
But the human race is good at lying. We lie to ourselves that humans aren’t the problem. We lie to ourselves that we don’t really need to change our unsustainable lifestyles to save the planet. We lie to ourselves that technology will save us. We lie to ourselves that we’d do anything for our kids; anything except address the climate crisis. And of course, our media lies to us all by omission.
Avoiding the topic of climate change will not make the carbon dioxide levels drop. However, an email statement forwarded to me this week, written by senior management of the Bargain Hunter said, “Our management and advertising partners would like to see our publications avoid politics (especially state/national), environmental commentary, abortion, and other hot topics – which in the end doesn’t translate well to Randi’s typical content.”
In essence, the very topic that is by far the most important in the history of the planet, the topic that we can no longer afford to ignore, is now to be “avoided.” Why is climate change a disturbing topic for the “management and advertising”?
I am not a fan of censorship, so sadly this will be my last column. I will continue to speak truth to power on other platforms of social media. I will miss the opportunity to reach out to my readers and share the research on these timely topics.
Remember, we can all make a difference in the world, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Last month, these became the final words sent by warehouse worker Larry Virden to his girlfriend Cherie Jones, when a monster tornado collapsed an Amazon warehouse facility in Edwardsville, Ill.
“I know it’s the weekend and Amazon was busy blasting Michael Strahan and other wealthy people into space but can we get any kind of statement about the ‘mass casualty incident’ in Illinois,” an Amazon employee is reported by The Intercept to have complained on a “Voice of Associates” message board shortly thereafter.
“I have been here six and a half years and have never once been involved in a tornado safety drill on my shift,” wrote another employee, “as well as have not taken part in a fire safety drill in about two years,”
A number of Amazon workers have since reported that they are unaware of what they should do in the event of an emergency, while others have stated that Amazon outright discourages them from fleeing natural disasters altogether.
Though to call such storms as the ones that ripped through the Midwest last December “natural” may not be entirely accurate.
“Make no mistake,” said renowned climatologist Michael Mann shortly after the tragic storms in question, “we have been seeing an increase in these massive tornado outbreaks that can be attributed to the warming of the planet.”
Amazon founder and space cowboy Jeff Bezos had made headlines only a month previously following the ascent of his Blue Origin not-actual-spacecraft, which he claimed opened his eyes to the seriousness and enormity of the climate crisis.
During a late July flight, Bezos was noted for thanking “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this.” His workforce do indeed seem to be paying for it with their health, safety, and lives, and if his commitment to the betterment of the planet is at all comparable to the gratitude he extends to his employees, one might reasonably suppose that we’d be better off without it.
Some time ago I came across a definition of capitalism that framed it not merely as a system of economics, but as its own form of religion, and I’ve come to realize how well that explains the present state of our crumbling empire.
Capitalism is treated not as a narrative we’ve created for ourselves, but as a system of indisputable laws about how the world should and must work. And when the facts don’t conform to the narrative we’ve established for ourselves, we decide that the problem must be with the reality we perceive, and not with the structure into which we’ve tried and failed to place it.
This religious understanding of capitalism may also help us to understand our obsession with seeking messianic figures from among the billionaire class- those individuals who have essentially “won” capitalism and now rise above us all to save humanity- despite the fact that such figures are almost invariably agents of the destruction they claim to be saving us from.
In February 2021, Bill Gates published “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” There was much chatter about this book among the environmentalist community, with some considering Gates to be one of the “good billionaires” who could help lead the charge on fixing the climate crisis.
Suffice it to say, I was far from persuaded.
I will admit the possibility that it was stubbornness on my part as much as anything, but I refused to read Gates’ book out of principle. The Microsoft billionaire is in no way qualified to be the expert on the climate crisis that the gushing press had tried to make him out to be – the only actual qualifications he has in playing such an outsized role in deciding the fate of our planet is his grotesque amount of wealth, which really isn’t a qualification at all.
I felt rather vindicated in my distrust of Gates after it was made public he’d befriended then-convicted child sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein in the hopes of securing a Nobel Peace Prize; and even more so when he began publicly denouncing the easing of patent protections on the COVID-19 vaccine for poorer nations, ensuring more mass death and suffering around the world for the sake of big pharma profits.
Interestingly for someone who claims to want to save the planet, The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation held almost a billion and a half dollars in fossil fuel investments up through 2015. Gates has shot down the practice of fossil fuel divestment as being pointless, while incidentally having had massive sums of his own money invested in heavily polluting industries, at least up until very recently.
Gates has, furthermore, been nothing but complimentary toward the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, who’s spent decades now obliterating climate policy and corrupting our democracy into something unrecognizable; in addition to being a proponent of (and funding) very dangerous, very inadvisable geoengineering technology such as sun-dimming aerosols.
So okay. Maybe Bill Gates is no climate messiah after all, but something of a false prophet, as it were.
But what about other so-called “good billionaires,” such as Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett?
Last May, Buffett rejected a shareholder resolution that would push his conglomerate to inform investors about climate risks. When asked whether he thought fossil fuel companies should be held responsible for destroying the planet, Buffett’s response was “Believe me, Chevron is not an evil company.”
I would like to point out here that human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been hopping between house arrest and prison since 2019 for his role in helping the Indigenous people of Ecuador win a $9.5 billion settlement from Chevron over the toxic devastation of the Lago Agrio oil field- an amount which Chevron has outright refused to pay.
And then of course there’s Elon Musk, the future God Emperor of Mars, who gives lip service to the urgency of the climate crisis while donating massive amounts of money to Republican politicians, opposing increased taxes on billionaires such as himself that would help pay for crucial climate programs, and telling people not to “worry too much about methane,” despite it being 25 times as strong as carbon dioxide at trapping heat, and making up 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
At the end of the day, we desperately need to face the fact that no benevolent billionaire is going to save us from the climate crisis. Capitalism’s gold medalists have gotten where they are by mastering a system that is explicitly designed to exploit and destroy the very planet they now want to play-act at saving. They are obsessed with the notion of infinite growth on a finite planet with a limited carrying capacity, and cannot fathom a way forward beyond doing exactly what it was that got us here in the first place, but with an “eco-friendly” label slapped haphazardly onto the surface.
The fate of all human civilization should not fall into the hands of a half-dozen Silicon Valley tech bros to decide. This world belongs to all of us (although I could frankly care less what Musk and his colony of starving indentured servants decide to do with the frozen hellscape of Mars), and it’s well past time for everyday people to reclaim their future from the greedy, grabbing hands of these corrupt, self-aggrandizing oligarchs.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Appearing on-line in The Bargain Hunter(Weekly news magazine serving Ohio Counties: Holmes, Tuscarawas, Wayne, and the surrounding area. Stark, Medina, Summit and Cuyahoga):
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 11AM Press Conference – Learn More about the 48C Manufacturing Tax Credit
“Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits in the West Virginia Coalfields”
Join Downstream Strategies, ReImagine Appalachia, Appalachian Voices, and the Blue Green Alliance for a press conference to hear more about the potential impacts from the 48C Manufacturing Tax Credit. Speakers: Evan Hansen, Tim Cronin, Zoe Lipman, Dana Kuhnline
Nov. 16, 2021 Book, MISEDUCATION: How Climate Change is Taught in America by Katie Worth is published. Announcement article appeared Oct. 19, 2021
“FRONTLINE(PBS) and The GroundTruth Project Announce Launch of First Book Project, Exposing the Red-Blue Divide on Climate Education in America’s Public Schools”
November 15, 2021 FRONTLINE (in partnership with Columbia Global Reports and The GroundTruth Project presented Virtual roundtable discussion. Registration link announced Nov. 2
“Miseducation: A Roundtable Discussion on How climate Change is Taught in America”
December 22, 2021 Article in The Morning newsletter by David Leonhardt
“Decoding Joe Manchin”
Available on The Nation:
December 23, 2021 Article by John Nichols
“West Virginians Give Manchin a Lump of Coal for Christmas” Manchin claims his constituents are happy with his abandonment of Build Back better. Miners and other residents say that just isn’t so. (Eric Engle is quoted.)
(MOVCA among the groups signing on to open letter)
IMPORTANT READ:
Available on Global Reporting Centre in partnership with NBC NEWS:
November 14, 2021 Part I of an ongoing reporting partnership between NBC News and the Global Reporting Centre on global supply chains. News Feature by Hannah Rappleye
“The new steel? Hope and fear as a new plastics factory rises in Appalachia”
December 13, 2021 Amy Goodman interviews Michael Mann, Professor and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. Text and Video.
“This Isn’t a Natural Disaster”: Climate Scientist Michael Man on Deadly Tornadoes in 8 States”
Letters to the Editor Marietta Times Jan 10, 2022 Maggie Meyer
I am a life-long resident of Appalachia. I grew up in West Virginia and for twenty years I have lived in beautiful Marietta, enjoying the local parks and walking them. That love of nature has been threatened by the fracking industry. For the past few years, every time I travel Third Street, I have encountered more and more tanker trucks. That got me to start asking questions and doing research, which became very troubling.
As I am sure most of you know, all those trucks are carrying waste from the fracking industry, called brine. Fracking is “a process that injects liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. What is most disturbing about this waste is that most is not only radioactive but also contains lead, arsenic, formaldehyde and mercury. Even though that’s only one percent of this in fracking waste, that’s one percent of, for example, the 1.9 million barrels of brine waste injected into waste wells in Washington County in 2011. Even more troubling, in 2019, Washington County had the second highest level of injection well activity in the state.
One dangerous effect is the threat brine poses to our drinking water. According to Consumer Reports (December 3, 2020), brine “can contaminate [water] supplies when waste spills from trucks or pipelines moving it or when waste leaks from unlined disposal pits.” In fact, there was a spill of brine waste just outside of Marietta in January of 2021 at a pipeline owned by Deep Rock Disposal.
Making matters even worse, the Ohio Legislature passed two bills which now allow for 333 times the radioactive brine waste recommended by health experts. Given this threat not only to our environment but to our health, it is imperative that we as residents of this county strongly urge the Ohio Department of Natural Resources at least to stop issuing permits in Washington County until injection wells are better monitored and until our drinking water can be guaranteed to be safe from these contaminants.
When President Biden revoked the permit of the Keystone XL Pipeline in January 2021, he stated, “permitting the pipeline would undermine U.S. climate leadership by undercutting the credibility and influence of the United States in urging other countries to take ambitious climate action.” The 1,700-mile pipeline would have carried roughly 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast, with the potential to pollute ecosystems, negatively impact health, and become a major contributor to climate change. It would also pose a major threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest aquifers.
However, in October 2021, the Biden administration shocked the environmental community by giving a green light to the Enbridge 3 pipeline. This pipeline, like the Keystone KL pipeline, will carry about a million barrels a day of the dirty fuel. As it travels from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisc., it will cross 227 lakes, rivers and streams, including the Mississippi River. It bisects the state of Minnesota and cuts across treaty land.
I have many fond memories of times spent in Minnesota with my husband’s family. Both his mother and father were born in the state and we frequently visited the small towns of Brainard, Little Falls, and Foley, all located just south of the Enbridge 3 pipeline. Now the region has become a hotbed of controversy as indigenous people clash with a Canadian company determined to transport tar sands oil across the state.
The pipeline violates the land treaty rights of the Anishinaabe peoples, threatens the culturally significant wild rice, and contributes more to climate change than the entire economy of Minnesota. It is expected to add 50 coal power plants’ worth of carbon to the atmosphere each year.
Among the nearly 1,000 water protectors arrested in the past year are three grandmothers from the Athens, Ohio, area. Peaceful indigenous protestors were blasted with sand, harassed by pipeline workers, and confronted by police outfitted in riot gear; $2 million worth purchased by the Enbridge company.
What exactly are “tar sands oils?” They are a mixture of sand, clay, water and a thick tar-like substance called bitumen. The bitumen is made up of hydrocarbon molecules, which can be used to make fuels and other petroleum-based products. The world’s largest deposits of tar sands are found in Alberta, Canada, near Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River. There are two ways in which the tar-like bitumen can be extracted from the mixture; open-pit mining and in-situ drilling.
In order to open-pit mine, the forested land must be cleared. Top soil and shale strata are then removed (to depths of up to 300 feet) to reach the tar sand. The tar sand mixture is then removed and hauled to facilities where it is thinned out by combining it with large amounts of water. This slurry is then taken to facilities to extract the bitumen. Less than 20% of the tar sands reserves can be open-pit mined, which employs massive machines to dig up soil and load it into dump trucks the size of houses. For every barrel of oil produced, four tons of earth are excavated.
In an in-situ drilling operation, multiple wells are drilled and steam is pumped underground to liquify the bitumen for pumping and transport. In-situ mining is less damaging to the environment according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum and 80% of the tar sands can be accessed in this manner. But in 2011, in-situ tar sand companies used 370 million cubic meters of fresh water from the Athabasca River alone, more water than the city of Toronto, Canada, used that year.
Regardless of the technique used, it takes large quantities of energy to access tar sands oil. Approximately 14-25% of the energy obtained from tar sands is lost through processing compared to 4% for conventional oil drilling processes.
Like any fossil fuel, tar sands oil destroys air, water, and land, as it is extracted and refined for use. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than conventional oil. This means that pipelines carrying it are more likely to corrode and leak oil. Since 2010, the original TransCanada Keystone pipeline has leaked over a dozen times and in 2019, spilled 378,000 gallons of tar sands oil in North Dakota. An internal study by TC Energy revealed that pipe stored outside for long periods of time causes anti-corrosion coatings to fail.
Other problems occur when tar sands oil spills out of pipelines as it did in July 2010, when the Enbridge-owned pipeline leaked bitumen into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Because the oil contains heavier elements, it sinks to the bottom of water, which makes it more difficult to recover it from the environment.
Tar sands oil is extremely capital intensive and today, many investors are questioning dumping billions into tar sands development when much of the world is turning away from fossil fuels and toward more sustainable, less carbon-intensive fuel sources as a way to address the climate crisis. If we continue to expand this dirty fuel source in Canada and other areas of the world, it is highly likely that the earth will see a 6C rise in average global temperatures rather than the 1.5C suggested by the Paris Climate Accord. The economic and social impacts of 6C will be catastrophic.
Additionally, the removal of millions of acres of boreal forests in Canada will only exacerbate the climate crisis. Indigenous people in the region liken the removal of these forests to “skinning the earth alive.” Photographs of the region testify to the moonscapes left behind after valuable, diverse forests are stripped away.
Some of the pollutants that are released as a result of tar sands mining are naphthalene acids, mercury, arsenic salts, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. These are found in sediments of watersheds around tar sands and are toxic to invertebrate species. According to a report by Environmental Defense, “The Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Canada is experiencing disturbing impacts from the pollution as twice as many girls are being born as boys. Moore Township next to the reserve is also experiencing a lower male birth rate, and scientists have found evidence of “feminized” turtles in the St. Clair River that runs through the area.”
The U.S. is planning to invest an estimated $379 billion in Canadian tar sands through the year 2025. We will be fueling the climate crisis with this carbon intensive fuel that generates 3-5 times more emissions than conventional oil. Some refineries of tar sands oil in the Midwestern USA include PBF in Toledo, Ohio and Husky Energy in Lima, Ohio. Husky Energy is owned by the Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing. In 2019, the plant increased its capacity to refine tar sands oil to 40,000 barrels a day. PBF refinery in Toledo refines 170,000 barrels of oil a day.
When it comes to tar sands oil, the best stance to take is “keep it in the ground.”
***
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.
Find Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action on the following social media:
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Suggested Readings for February 2022
MOVCA January 2022 Selected Media Postings
Compiled by Cindy Taylor
Appearing in The Marietta Times:
Sunday, January 2, 2022 West Virginia News article
“West Virginia grants key permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline”
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/wire/?category=5465&ID=154915
Appearing on-line in the Charleston Gazette-Mail:
January 28, 2022 Op-Ed by Janet Keating, retired executive director of the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
“Janet Keating: WV needs to think before allowing nuclear power”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/janet-keating-wv-needs-to-think-before-allowing-nuclear-power-opinion/article_3c2b7225-93a9-56f9-99b7-8fadd3fa9472.html
January 28, 2022 Environment and Energy Article by Mike Tony
“Public hearing reveals unusual alignments on whether to lift restrictions on nuclear power plant construction”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/public-hearing-reveals-unusual-alignments-on-whether-to-lift-restrictions-on-nuclear-power-plant-construction/article_f45f0216-33b0-5c09-b7cd-9d77c86511df.html
January 27, 2022 Environment and Energy Article by Mike Tony
“WV Senate passes bill that would restrict state banking contracts with fossil fuel-divesting companies”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/legislative_session/wv-senate-passes-bill-that-would-restrict-state-banking-contracts-with-fossil-fuel-divesting-companies/article_1bcb06ed-a904-5863-b77e-3946177f7240.html
January 22, 2022 Environment and Energy Article by Mike Tony
“Environmental justice concerns loom over Kanawha County ethylene oxide cancer risk reassessment”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/environmental-justice-concerns-loom-over-kanawha-county-ethylene-oxide-cancer-risk-reassessment/article_049f70c5-bef2-56c9-a943-d41c31afe2c4.html
January 20, 2022 Op-Ed by Eric Engle
“Eric Engle: Manchin makes it clear that he is not listening”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/eric-engle-manchin-makes-it-clear-that-he-is-not-listening-opinion/article_8a889f3d-3ca5-54d5-a92a-7d06a988d162.html
January 13, 2022 Op-Ed by Eric Engle
“Eric Engle: If Manchin’s all for explaining, it’s time he did”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/eric-engle-if-manchins-all-for-explaining-its-time-he-did-opinion/article_9524028b-6fa2-5e27-908a-a49ab720a6e1.html
January 6, 2022 Op-Ed by Eric Engle
“Eric Engle: WV leaders risk financial ruin clinging to coal”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/eric-engle-wv-leaders-risk-financial-ruin-clinging-to-coal-opinion/article_56d5b3ce-952f-5758-9c9a-eeda2278d8ad.html
Appearing in The Bargain Hunter.com
January 12, 2022 Column by Dr. Randi Pokladnik, PhD
Why are our youth leaving?”
https://thebargainhunter.com/news/col-randi-pokladnik/why-are-our-youth-leaving
Appearing in The Mountain State Spotlight, non-profit newsroom:
Updated January 24, 2022 Article by Lucas Manfield, Mountain State spotlight
“West Virginia’s 2022 Capitol Tracker”
https://capitoltracker.mountainstatespotlight.org
Appearing on WVMETRONEWS.com :
January 12, 2022 Article by Brad McElhinny
“Zero-emission, all-electric school buses to be manufactured in West Virginia”
related article Appearing on WTRF.com:
January 12, 2022 Article by John Lynch
“West Virginia to manufacture zero-emission, all-electric school buses”
related announcement on TOP News USA.com:
Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org :
January 27, 2022 Article by Sean O’Leary, senior researcher, energy and petrochemicals
“Should DOE’s Vision of Ohio Valley CO2 Hub be DOA?” ORVI responds to a DOE request for information about carbon capture deployment.
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/should-does-vision-of-an-ohio-valley-co2-hub-be-doa/
January 20, 2022 Article by Ben Hunkler
“Despite “Winning” GDP Gains, Ohio’s Fracking Counties Lost Big in 2020
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/ohio-fracking-counties-2020/
January 11, 2022 Feature by Ben Hunkler
“OVRI Insider #30: The Rise of ‘Frackaging’”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/orvi-insider-30-the-rise-of-frackaging/
Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or NPR:
January 28, 2022 Report by Nathan Rott. Text and audio. (Heard on Morning Edition)
“A federal judge canceled major oil and gas leases over climate change”
https://www.npr.org/2022/01/28/1076281662/federal-judge-canceled-gulf-oil-and-gas-leases-climate-change
Available from West Virginia Rivers:
Tuesday, January 18th, 2022 6PM to 7:15PM Online Webinar/ Informational Session presented by Ohio River Valley Institute, WVU Law Center for Energy and Sustainable Development , West Virginia Rivers WV Climate Alliance…
“Feasibility of Advanced Nuclear in West Virginia” Recording available on WV Rivers’ You Tube site: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7fGrD6aNYmo&t=18s
January 5, 2022 Article by Autumn Crowe, WV Rivers Staff Scientist
“Mountain Valley Pipeline Faces Legal Challenge to Water Permit in West Virginia”
Free Public event promoted by West Virginia Climate Alliance:
Tuesday February 1, 2022, 1PM Scholars Lecture Hosted by Harvard T.H. Chan, school of public health
“The quest for Environmental and Climate Justice: 2nd Annual Donald Hopkins Scholars Lecture”
Keynote by Dr. Robert Bullard. Register at link below
https://harvard.az1.qualtrics.com/jfe/form/SV_1XfYwOMNrUlWY1E
NATIONAL ATTENTION & Relevant to our region:
Appearing on The Hill.com:
January 3, 2022 Article by Jordain Carney
“60 groups urge Senate Democrats to reform filibuster for voting rights”
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/587961-60-groups-urge-senate-dems-to-reform-filibuster-for-voting-rights
MOVCA was a signatory on this letter
Appearing on Rollingstone.com:
January 10, 2022 Article by Jeff Goodell
“Manchin’s Coal Corruption Is So Much Worse Than You Knew”
Available on The Guardian.com:
January 26, 2022 News Article by Oliver Milman
“ ‘He’s a villain’: Joe Manchin attracts global anger over climate crisis”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2022/jan/26/joe-manchin-climate-crisis-global-villain
Available on Common Dreams:
January 26 , 2022 Article by Julia Conley
“Manchin Internationally Reviled Over Climate Obstruction”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/01/26/manchin-internationally-reviled-over-climate-obstruction
January 18, 2022 Article by Kenny Stancil
“Rising US Renewables Expected to Spur Decline in Fracked Gas”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2022/01/18/rising-us-renewables-expected-spur-decline-fracked-gas
Sean O’Leary (ORVI) cited
Available on NONPROFITQUARTERLY.com (omitted from December listing)
December 22, 2021 Article by Andrew Crosson in Non Profit News/ Nonprofit Quarterly
“Countering Rural Disinvestment: Appalachia’s Ecosystem-Based Approach”
https://nonprofitquarterly.org/countering-rural-disinvestment-appalachias-ecosystem-based-approach/
RESOURCES, RESEARCH, and SOLUTIONS :
Available on The Guardian.com:
January 27, 2022 Article by Nina Lakhani, Climate justice reporter
“Living near fracking sites raises risk of premature death for elderly, US study finds”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/27/people-living-closer-us-oil-and-gas-wells-higher-risk-dying-prematurely-study
Referring to study by Li , L., Dominici, F., Blomberg, A.J. et al. published January 27, 2022 in Nature Energy
“Exposure to unconventional oil and gas development and all-cause mortality in Medicare beneficiaries”
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41560-021-00970-y
January 18, 2022 Article by Damian Carrington, Environmental editor
“Chemical pollution has passed safe limit for humanity, say scientists”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2022/jan/18/chemical-pollution-has-passed-safe-limit-for-humanity-say-scientists
Study calls for cap on production and release as pollution threatens global ecosystems upon which life depends.
Refers to study published in the journal Environmental Science & Technology (ACS Publications)
Appearing in Journal of Nephrology:
January 6, 2022 Research article by Devan Makati, James Akers, Mahammad Aljuhani, Bethany Pellegrino, Rebecca Schmidt, Khaled Shawwa & Dinesh Kannabhiram
“Prevalence of ANCA-associated vasculitis amid natural gas drilling sites in West Virginia”
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s40620-021-01243-3
Sandra Steingraber’s Jan. 12, 2022 comment on Facebook: Cases of ANCA-associated vasculitis (AAV) rose significantly after 2010 simultaneous to fracking increasing 10-fold in north central West Virginia.
This new study by scientists at West Virginia University School of Medicine is behind a paywall, but you can read the abstract and see the graphic, and we will watch for more shareable information.
Available on NASA EARTHDATA:
January 25, 2022 Article by Emily Cassidy, NASA ESDA Science Writer
“Mapping Methane Emissions from Fossil Fuel Exploitation”
https://earthdata.nasa.gov/learn/articles/methane-fossil-fuel-exploitation
Available from Earthobservatory.NASA.gov Use link below for imaging
January 25, 2022 Article by Emily Cassidy, NASA ESDA Science Writer
“Mapping Methane Emissions from Fossil Fuel Exploitation”
https://earthobservatory.nasa.gov/images/149374/mapping-methane-emissions-from-fossil-fuel-exploitation
Available from U.S. Energy Information Administration:
January 18, 2022 Today in Energy Article, Principal contributor is Tyler Hodge
“New renewable power plants are reducing U.S. electricity generation from natural gas”
https://www.eia.gov/todayinenergy/detail.php?id=50918
Available on The Solutions Prioject.org:
“Our 100% Renewable Energy Vision”
Interactive map to see what 100% renewable energy could look like where you live in the year 2050
Available on Inside Clean Energy:
January 27, 2022 Article by Dan Gearino
“Inside Clean Energy: As Efficiency Rises, Solar Power Needs Fewer Acres to Pack the Same Punch”
Available from Ad Fontes Media:
“The Media Bias Chart,” Version 9.0 January 2022 Edition – Combined Web, Podcast, and TV
https://adfontesmedia.com
NEW BOOK by Ugandan climate justice activist, Vanessa Nakate (Published Nov.2021 by Mariner Books)
A Bigger Picture: My Fight to Bring a New African Voice to the Climate Crisis
See reviews: https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/56817598-a-bigger-picture
https://www.harvard.com/book/a_bigger_picture/
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate advocates won’t be silenced
Marietta Times
Jan 31, 2022
Aaron Dunbar
A few days ago, I learned that an acquaintance of mine, a whip-smart environmental scientist and educator, would no longer be publishing her long-standing weekly column in a small-town Ohio newspaper. To quote her directly on the matter: “I was told advertisers and management were not pleased with my columns.”
The topic of so many of her controversial pieces, which she cites as “the most important issue of our lives,” is climate change.
A few days before this, another friend of mine said he was asked to resign from the board of an environmental organization he’d been on for four years, for writing publicly about the fossil fuel corruption of a powerful political figure. This figure allegedly had a “major problem” with the individual’s involvement with the organization in question, thus leading to his involuntary resignation.
Bear in mind, neither of these two said they were penalized for saying anything whatsoever that was false or misleading in any way, shape or form. In fact, I have the utmost confidence that neither of them would have lost their respective positions had they simply been lying their backsides off every week, as long as what they were saying was pleasing to the ear of those in positions of power.
Their mistake, you see, was daring to speak the truth about the climate crisis. About how the overwhelming consensus among scientists is that we now have fewer than ten years before the damages of industrial greenhouse gas emissions to our biosphere become irreversible. About how we are witnessing a mass extinction event in real-time — and not only witnessing it, but actively driving it — leading to the eventual collapse of our civilization.
And their biggest mistake of all? Daring to accuse those merchants of death most responsible for this catastrophe right to their faces. For having the audacity to say an unkind word about the politicians raking in millions of dollars from fossil fuel lobbyists while shooting down climate legislation, the oil executives lying for decades about global warming while raking in billions or the fracking PR goons paid to spew lies about the natural gas industry.
To all those poor, sensitive powers-that-be who would prefer us to keep our mouths shut about their mass destruction of life on this planet, I have one thing to say to you: Too bad.
You can censor us, de-platform us and do everything in your power to try and shut us up, and it’s only going to make us louder. We refuse to be silent about what is perhaps the greatest threat ever faced by our species, about how we got to this point and about who is directly responsible for getting us here.
We are going to keep speaking out, and you are going to be held accountable. Live with it, the way we’re forced to live with the desecrated shambles of a planet you’ve created for us.
Lowell
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Not all West Virginians are Manchin fans
Jan 29, 2022
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
In a recent edition of The Charleston Gazette-Mail, President of the West Virginia Manufacturer’s Association Rebecca McPhail, stated “People outside our great state are entitled to their own opinions, but here in West Virginia we know Joe Manchin and we’re grateful for him.” How very presumptuous of Ms. McPhail to speak for all West Virginians. And how very thoughtful of her (sarcasm intended) to declare that the rest of the country are entitled to their own opinions about a Senator whose egotistical obstruction of extremely popular and crucial legislation directly and negatively impacts their lives.
The audacity of the fossil fuels and chemical industries in West Virginia and their lobbyists and representatives in our state legislature never ceases to amaze me. No price is too high for energy consumers to pay to keep burning coal. Cleaning up after coal, oil and gas is the taxpayer’s responsibility in West Virginia, not the responsibility of these profitable industries. Make utilities compete in open markets? Not in West Virginia. Pursue environmental justice initiatives for low-income communities and communities of color disproportionally harmed by pollution like ethylene oxide? Maybe the state Department of Environmental Protection will get around to it, but they’ll probably just hold more meetings where folks can share their trauma from this exposure and then go back to giving polluting industry whatever it wants and occasionally issuing fines that polluting industry considers the cost of doing business. Regulatory capture in this state is a given.
If these folks are not “married to the mineral,” as so many of them like to say, and they just care about miners and power plant workers and local tax revenues, how about they pass policy, create regulations and make investments that will make a tangible difference in the lives of the people of this state given the inevitable decline of finite fossils? Not only must we dramatically reduce CO2 and equivalent greenhouse gas emissions in the next decade to preserve the most stable global climate system we possibly can, but fossil fuels cannot compete with renewable energy and storage indefinitely without massive amounts of public subsidy and favorable treatment.
A study by the International Monetary Fund found that $5.2 trillion was spent globally on fossil fuel subsidies in 2017, and an analysis by Simon Buckle, the head of the climate change, biodiversity and water division at the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development, found that the $649 billion the U.S. spent on fossil fuels subsidies in 2015 was more than the country’s defense budget and 10 times the federal spending for education.
Another example of how ridiculous our legislature can be when it comes to the fossil fuels industry can be found in the current legislative session. The West Virginia State Senate wants to set up a private, nonstock mining mutual insurance company funded by $50 million from Department of Environmental Protection-specified funds meant to ensure that state mine cleanup funds don’t become more insolvent. The DEP, however, has testified that it has no idea where that $50 million is going to come from. A recent piece on this proposed legislation by Charleston Gazette reporter Mike Tony quotes Sierra Club Senior Attorney Peter Morgan as saying, “It’s hard for me to see that as anything other than a way to lose $50 million of West Virginia’s money because given what’s happening with the coal mining industry, anyone who issues those sorts of bonds is going to have to pay out the full value of those bonds, and that’s going to quickly deplete the $50 million and any additional money the state might put into that.”
No, Ms. McPhail, not all of us West Virginians are grateful for Sen. Joe Manchin III–a man who has placed the profits he makes from the coal brokerage he founded, held in a not-so-blind trust run by his son, over the well-being of the Mountain State. Thousands of us have begged and pleaded with Joe to care more about the people of this state than about his yacht in the Potomac and his Maserati, but he doesn’t want to hear it. The corporate and industry largesse pouring into his future campaign coffers and the attention he’s getting to feed his narcissistic megalomania is just too good for those dopamine receptors in his brain. Maybe one day West Virginia will be able to thrive in a 21st Century economy, but not until the insatiable appetite for destruction of the industries of the past has been either forcefully curbed or sated.
***
Eric Engle is chairman of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Habitat
Jan 31, 2022
Vic Elam
Letter to the Editor Marietta Times
Often referred to in terms of the wildlife needs of shelter, water, food, and space, habitat also applies to humans. In ecological terms habitat is often defined as an assemblage of animals and plants that live in a particular environment.
Without proper habitat we will cease to exist, and one irreplaceable component of our habitat is water. Humans have an advantage over the assemblage of animals and plants that coexist and make it possible for us to live. We can normally take contaminated water that would make us extremely ill and filter it and treat it and render it harmless and even make it life sustaining.
I say normally because we usually start out with water that is relatively clean. But the fate of our water supply is constantly under attack from threats from contamination and usually those threats are unforeseen and accidental. We take clean drinking water for granted whereas many parts of the world would be thankful to have our water supply.
To paraphrase a great adage, “With great gifts comes great responsibility” and we are not taking the precautions needed to protect our water. Of the many threats out there, we as humans allow ourselves to remove millions of gallons of perfectly good water from the environment and contaminate it by pumping it under ground through rock fissures (fracking) where it picks up radiation and multitudes of harmful compounds. When this water comes back to the surface it is a biohazard, although the petroleum industry has used its power to avoid that label and instead refers to it as “brine”.
Humans are great at problem solving, but when there is financial incentive, it seems that solutions often impact those that are unaware or without the wherewithal to protect themselves. Certainly, the other part of our habitat, the assemblage of animals and plants are powerless to defend themselves.
Apparently the cheapest and easiest disposal method is to inject the “brine” down wells. This disposal method is fraught with potential for environmental harm, most troubling is the threat of water contamination. These injection wells are drilled to depths well below our drinking water sources, but there are many pathways where the brine can find its way into the water supply. Trucks carrying the “brine” can wreck and spill, pipelines that carry “brine” to the well site can rupture and spill as happened near Marietta last year, injection wells can leak, injection wells under pressure can force “brine” through fissures to unplanned places, etc.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency is authorized to provide oversight on these injection wells and delegates that role to the Ohio Department of Natural Resources Division of Oil and Gas Resources Management (ODNR). ODNR has regularly failed to complete inspections as required by USEPA and penalties for violations are rare or absent. Inspection authority should be taken away from ODNR, who receives payment for each barrel of injected “brine”. Secondly, if we have not learned anything from the mining industry it’s that we should have plenty of revenue set aside for reclamation. Currently, there is no surcharge or tax per barrel of “brine” disposed to go into a fund set aside for when something goes wrong. Perhaps the counties should impose a fee or tax to collect funds for reclamation, although this is a Genie that will be very hard to put back in the bottle.
I hope that we all can continue to take for granted the abundant clean water that we enjoy and the full compliment of animals and plants that come with it. Vigilance will be required to ensure that these benefits are protected.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Economics, energy and employment
Jan 22, 2022
George Banziger
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
There are certain demographic and economic trends that have been evident for decades in this region of Appalachia and that can be addressed given the opportunities presented by the investment of federal funds now available. Included in these problems are:
* The continued inexorable pattern of population decline and aging (due to many young people leaving the area)
* Relative to the U.S., the region’s high poverty rate, high unemployment, and low wages
* Corporations headquartered elsewhere, draining wealth from the region
* Coal companies having left their mark
* The region’s high opioid abuse and addiction problems
* Limited broadband access in rural parts of the county.
People in the Mid-Ohio Valley have accepted on faith that the oil and gas industry contributes to the health of the economy in the region. For many years there has been an unfulfilled promise that fossil fuels, particularly shale gas, would enhance the economy of the region and provide jobs. Hydraulic fracturing of natural gas has established well pads, pipelines, processing facilities, and other infrastructure. According to a study by the Ohio River Valley Institute (2021), the shale gas region comprises about 22 counties in Pennsylvania, Ohio, and West Virginia; these counties produce about 90% of the gas of the region yet the region trails the nation on key measures of economic prosperity. For example, jobs increased by just 1.6% in the region compared to 8% nationally; the region lost approximately 37,000 residents, while the U.S population grew by 18% in the past decade. Little of the profit from oil and gas has entered the local economy; trained workers and service providers are generally from outside the area. Royalties for local families with mineral rights have declined with lower natural gas prices. The oil and gas industry is capital intensive, not labor intensive, and the revenue from local natural resources is not returning to the Mid-Ohio Valley. Oil and gas companies should at least be contributing to the local economy through severance taxes, impact fees, and other revenue-generating opportunities that will stay here, benefiting our region.
The fossil-fuel industry has enjoyed a myriad of federal subsidies, which has given it an unfair advantage in the energy market. Evangelical climate scientist, Dr Katherine Hayhoe, in her recent book, “Saving Us,” has written that these subsidies amount to $600 billion per year and include tax breaks, direct production subsidies, and leases on public lands that are far below market rates. It is time for the federal government to support renewable energy, which is safer, better for the environment, and more supportive of sustainable job growth and economic development than fossil fuels.
Many individuals and organizations have seen the handwriting on the wall and are divesting their interests in fossil fuels. Dr. Hayhoe, has cited these facts related to divestment: over 1,300 organizations and 60,000 individuals representing about $14 trillion of assets have made the decision to divest in fossil fuels. These organizations include pension funds and insurance companies, which are reluctant to support an industry that is the direct cause of global warming and extreme weather that results in damage and loss claims in the billions. Banks and investment companies are joining this movement; Goldman Sachs announced recently that it is no longer going to invest in Arctic oil exploration.
An alternative to continued reliance on the oil and gas industry for economic development is to reimagine this region and seek growth opportunities of the 21st Century. A study by UMass-Amherst has reported that good jobs in renewable energy could employ 250,000 in the region in the next 10 years! These opportunities are numerous and include the following:
* Repairing the damage done by extractive industries, e.g., plugging orphaned oil and gas wells, repairing leaks, repairing dams and levies
* Modernizing the electric grid
* Developing new locally based manufacturing of solar-panel and wind-turbine parts
* Expanding manufacturing with energy-efficient facilities, e.g., repurposing coal-fired power plants
* Building sustainable transportation, e.g., railways and electric vehicle infrastructure
* Re-establishing the Civilian Conservation Corps (first created by FDR in the 1930s) for projects that might include carbon farming, and expanding forests and wetlands, which could in turn create job opportunities for recovering opioid addicts.
The American Rescue Plan and the Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal (Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act), which have both been passed by Congress can provide resources for this re-imagining of Appalachia–if local officials will make the asks. The Build Back Better plan, if it is finally passed in some different form from its current version or in separated packages, can provide even more resources for this purpose.
There are 21,000 fewer jobs in the fossil fuel industry –half need re-training and re-employment. These are challenges that can be addressed by educational institutions and employee-training programs in the region.
***
George Banziger, Ph..D., was a faculty member at Marietta College and an academic dean at three other colleges. Now retired, he is a volunteer for the Mid-Ohio Valley Interfaith, and Harvest of Hope. He is a member of the Green Sanctuary Committee of the First Unitarian Universalist Society of Marietta, Citizens Climate Lobby, and of the Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action team.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
We can all make a difference in the world
Jan 19, 2022
In the Bargain Hunter
Dr. Randi Pokladnik
Seven years ago this month, I started writing columns for the Bargain Hunter. My very first column was about the chemicals in foods.
For the past seven years I’ve tried to make each column an informative fact-based piece with topics that are important to readers. It often takes several days to get a column ready. I access peer reviewed data and seek out sources and quotes for most of the columns. As a scientist, I deal in facts, not fluff.
During these many years I have had positive feedback from readers and have made many new friends. As much as I have educated my audience, you have educated me.
I remember getting two phone calls from readers about the use of leg-hold traps for bobcats. After investigating, I wrote about the issue and testified at the public hearing in Columbus. The hearing was heavily attended and thankfully the use of these horrendous traps was denied.
As a former teacher, the column became a way for me to educate readers about issues that are very significant in their lives. My students have often told me my knack of simplifying complex scientific topics was my best asset.
I am a nerd, I love science. Sadly, I see our nation becoming less and less science literate, and I worry how the next generation will deal with complex issues that require science literacy.
Some of the many topics discussed during the years include: the value of hemp, the dangers of PFAS (Teflon component), the risks of sun exposure, my trip to see the total eclipse, renewable energy, the benefits of forests, organic farming, and the health benefits of berries.
I have tackled other topics, some local and some national, many that involve legislation. I find the lack of public participation in the political realm of our nation disturbing. By discussing some of these laws, especially those targeting science-related topics, I hoped to encourage more public participation.
I’ve been an environmentalist most of my life. From the time I first read “Silent Spring” and saw the Cuyahoga River catch fire, I knew this was my path in life.
I make no apologies for my columns. I continue to believe the climate crisis is the most crucial issue of our lives. Afterall, it we don’t have a livable planet what does it matter if we have a designer handbag or a new SUV?
But the human race is good at lying. We lie to ourselves that humans aren’t the problem. We lie to ourselves that we don’t really need to change our unsustainable lifestyles to save the planet. We lie to ourselves that technology will save us. We lie to ourselves that we’d do anything for our kids; anything except address the climate crisis. And of course, our media lies to us all by omission.
Avoiding the topic of climate change will not make the carbon dioxide levels drop. However, an email statement forwarded to me this week, written by senior management of the Bargain Hunter said, “Our management and advertising partners would like to see our publications avoid politics (especially state/national), environmental commentary, abortion, and other hot topics – which in the end doesn’t translate well to Randi’s typical content.”
In essence, the very topic that is by far the most important in the history of the planet, the topic that we can no longer afford to ignore, is now to be “avoided.” Why is climate change a disturbing topic for the “management and advertising”?
I am not a fan of censorship, so sadly this will be my last column. I will continue to speak truth to power on other platforms of social media. I will miss the opportunity to reach out to my readers and share the research on these timely topics.
Remember, we can all make a difference in the world, don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. As Margaret Mead said, “Never doubt that a small group of thoughtful committed individuals can change the world. In fact, it’s the only thing that ever has.”
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Billionaires won’t save us
Jan 15, 2022
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“Amazon won’t let us leave”
Last month, these became the final words sent by warehouse worker Larry Virden to his girlfriend Cherie Jones, when a monster tornado collapsed an Amazon warehouse facility in Edwardsville, Ill.
“I know it’s the weekend and Amazon was busy blasting Michael Strahan and other wealthy people into space but can we get any kind of statement about the ‘mass casualty incident’ in Illinois,” an Amazon employee is reported by The Intercept to have complained on a “Voice of Associates” message board shortly thereafter.
“I have been here six and a half years and have never once been involved in a tornado safety drill on my shift,” wrote another employee, “as well as have not taken part in a fire safety drill in about two years,”
A number of Amazon workers have since reported that they are unaware of what they should do in the event of an emergency, while others have stated that Amazon outright discourages them from fleeing natural disasters altogether.
Though to call such storms as the ones that ripped through the Midwest last December “natural” may not be entirely accurate.
“Make no mistake,” said renowned climatologist Michael Mann shortly after the tragic storms in question, “we have been seeing an increase in these massive tornado outbreaks that can be attributed to the warming of the planet.”
Amazon founder and space cowboy Jeff Bezos had made headlines only a month previously following the ascent of his Blue Origin not-actual-spacecraft, which he claimed opened his eyes to the seriousness and enormity of the climate crisis.
During a late July flight, Bezos was noted for thanking “every Amazon employee and every Amazon customer, because you guys paid for all this.” His workforce do indeed seem to be paying for it with their health, safety, and lives, and if his commitment to the betterment of the planet is at all comparable to the gratitude he extends to his employees, one might reasonably suppose that we’d be better off without it.
Some time ago I came across a definition of capitalism that framed it not merely as a system of economics, but as its own form of religion, and I’ve come to realize how well that explains the present state of our crumbling empire.
Capitalism is treated not as a narrative we’ve created for ourselves, but as a system of indisputable laws about how the world should and must work. And when the facts don’t conform to the narrative we’ve established for ourselves, we decide that the problem must be with the reality we perceive, and not with the structure into which we’ve tried and failed to place it.
This religious understanding of capitalism may also help us to understand our obsession with seeking messianic figures from among the billionaire class- those individuals who have essentially “won” capitalism and now rise above us all to save humanity- despite the fact that such figures are almost invariably agents of the destruction they claim to be saving us from.
In February 2021, Bill Gates published “How to Avoid a Climate Disaster.” There was much chatter about this book among the environmentalist community, with some considering Gates to be one of the “good billionaires” who could help lead the charge on fixing the climate crisis.
Suffice it to say, I was far from persuaded.
I will admit the possibility that it was stubbornness on my part as much as anything, but I refused to read Gates’ book out of principle. The Microsoft billionaire is in no way qualified to be the expert on the climate crisis that the gushing press had tried to make him out to be – the only actual qualifications he has in playing such an outsized role in deciding the fate of our planet is his grotesque amount of wealth, which really isn’t a qualification at all.
I felt rather vindicated in my distrust of Gates after it was made public he’d befriended then-convicted child sex trafficker Jeffery Epstein in the hopes of securing a Nobel Peace Prize; and even more so when he began publicly denouncing the easing of patent protections on the COVID-19 vaccine for poorer nations, ensuring more mass death and suffering around the world for the sake of big pharma profits.
Interestingly for someone who claims to want to save the planet, The Bill and Melinda Gates foundation held almost a billion and a half dollars in fossil fuel investments up through 2015. Gates has shot down the practice of fossil fuel divestment as being pointless, while incidentally having had massive sums of his own money invested in heavily polluting industries, at least up until very recently.
Gates has, furthermore, been nothing but complimentary toward the rightwing billionaire Charles Koch, who’s spent decades now obliterating climate policy and corrupting our democracy into something unrecognizable; in addition to being a proponent of (and funding) very dangerous, very inadvisable geoengineering technology such as sun-dimming aerosols.
So okay. Maybe Bill Gates is no climate messiah after all, but something of a false prophet, as it were.
But what about other so-called “good billionaires,” such as Berkshire Hathaway CEO Warren Buffett?
Last May, Buffett rejected a shareholder resolution that would push his conglomerate to inform investors about climate risks. When asked whether he thought fossil fuel companies should be held responsible for destroying the planet, Buffett’s response was “Believe me, Chevron is not an evil company.”
I would like to point out here that human rights lawyer Steven Donziger has been hopping between house arrest and prison since 2019 for his role in helping the Indigenous people of Ecuador win a $9.5 billion settlement from Chevron over the toxic devastation of the Lago Agrio oil field- an amount which Chevron has outright refused to pay.
And then of course there’s Elon Musk, the future God Emperor of Mars, who gives lip service to the urgency of the climate crisis while donating massive amounts of money to Republican politicians, opposing increased taxes on billionaires such as himself that would help pay for crucial climate programs, and telling people not to “worry too much about methane,” despite it being 25 times as strong as carbon dioxide at trapping heat, and making up 20% of global greenhouse gas emissions.
At the end of the day, we desperately need to face the fact that no benevolent billionaire is going to save us from the climate crisis. Capitalism’s gold medalists have gotten where they are by mastering a system that is explicitly designed to exploit and destroy the very planet they now want to play-act at saving. They are obsessed with the notion of infinite growth on a finite planet with a limited carrying capacity, and cannot fathom a way forward beyond doing exactly what it was that got us here in the first place, but with an “eco-friendly” label slapped haphazardly onto the surface.
The fate of all human civilization should not fall into the hands of a half-dozen Silicon Valley tech bros to decide. This world belongs to all of us (although I could frankly care less what Musk and his colony of starving indentured servants decide to do with the frozen hellscape of Mars), and it’s well past time for everyday people to reclaim their future from the greedy, grabbing hands of these corrupt, self-aggrandizing oligarchs.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 30, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Suggested Readings for January 2022
November – December 2021 MOVCA Selected Media Postings
Compiled by Cindy Taylor
Appearing online in The Parkersburg News and Sentinel:
November, 8, 2021 Opinion by Thomas Minney and Beth Wheatley, The Nature Conservancy in West Virginia
“Op-ed: Climate solution is economic opportunity for West Virginia”
https://www.newsandsentinel.com/opinion/local-columns/2021/11/op-ed-climate-solution-is-economic-opportunity-for-west-virginia/
Appearing on-line in the Charleston Gazette-Mail:
December 22, 2021 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“Federal audit finds Department of Energy at risk of wasting funds on carbon capture and storage projects”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/federal-audit-finds-department-of-energy-at-risk-of-wasting-funds-on-carbon-capture-and/article_c33d7977-d771-584b-9100-ee6030b0b7ca.html
December 20, 2021 Op-Ed by Eric Engle
“ Eric Engle: Manchin is in it for the money and attention”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/eric-engle-manchin-is-in-it-for-the-money-and-attention-opinion/article_5cb07175-95fe-5463-8cbe-d9bcc7b8653b.html
December 13, 2021 Op-Ed by Gary Zuckett, executive director of the West Virginia Citizen Action Group
“Gary Zuckett: We need to build back bolder”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/gary-zuckett-we-need-to-build-back-bolder-opinion/article_e9fb314e-a0ab-595a-afcb-22402ec80a92.html
December 13, 2021 Op-Ed by Eric Engle
“Eric Engle: The space between what’s legal and what’s ethical”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/eric-engle-the-space-between-whats-legal-and-whats-ethical-opinion/article_d4839748-a9df-5a90-8bdf-1e5e075b0c6a.html
December 8, 2021 Op-Ed by Perry Bryant, one of the founders of West Virginia Climate Alliance
“Perry Bryant: Why methane fee in Build Back Better is vital”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/perry-bryant-why-a-methane-fee-in-build-back-better-is-vital-opinion/article_2064a14d-a1b9-5541-8dc0-e0f7e7ef2018.html
December 7, 2021 Energy and Environment article by Mike Tony
“State officials want to learn more about forest carbon offsets set up through California carbon cap-and-trade program”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/state-officials-want-to-learn-more-about-forest-carbon-offsets-set-up-through-california-carbon/article_ac9c4c52-22f1-53c4-ac22-922931b4b7a4.html
December 2, 2021 Energy and Environment News article by Mike Tony
“Proponent: Build Back Better bill designed to incentivize clean energy transition and jobs as WV lags behind”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/politics/proponent-build-back-better-bill-designed-to-incentivize-clean-energy-transition-and-jobs-as-wv/article_7c7034d5-499d-50fc-9a3b-804caf09228d.html
November 30, 2021 Column by Autumn Long, project manager for the Appalachian Solar Finance Fund
“Autumn Long: WV is going solar, but we can do more”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/autumn-long-wv-is-going-solar-but-can-do-more-opinion/article_b9916af4-8361-57a8-92f4-f2ed5434eb71.html
November 23 , 2021 Op-Ed by Jim Probst, Hamlin, WV, state coordinator of WV Citizens’ Climate Lobby
“Jim Probst: Manchin must live by his words”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/jim-probst-manchin-must-live-by-his-words-opinion/article_916314c4-e8df-52ec-991f-68e825823a1d.html
November 23, 2021 Energy and Environment Article by Mike Tony
“FirstEnergy subsidiaries seek approval to build five utility-scale solar projects in West Virginia
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/firstenergy-subsidiaries-seek-approval-to-build-five-utility-scale-solar-projects-in-west-virginia/article_46671974-8a10-5298-8988-3f63e328bc34.html
November 18, 2021 Energy and Environment Article by Mike Tony
“Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition board votes to dissolve organization amid stalled negotiations with union”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/ohio-valley-environmental-coalition-board-votes-to-dissolve-organization-amid-stalled-negotiations-with-union/article_2c86a2ac-e718-5c07-af53-7f99e6746889.html
November 14, 2021 Distributed by The Associated Press. First appeared in The Houston Chronicle
“Guest editorial: The young bear an unfair burden on climate”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/editorial/guest-editorial-the-young-bear-an-unfair-burden-on-climate/article_59b40a94-0e60-57e3-a86c-325ca0a75091.html
November 12, 2021 Energy and Environment Article by Mike Tony
“West Virginia-led challenge to EPA authority to regulate power plant emissions threatens climate policy, administrative agencies”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/west-virginia-led-challenge-to-epa-authority-to-regulate-power-plant-emissions-threatens-climate-policy/article_68d112bc-a161-57bf-83b3-93a492f2f469.html
November 8, 2021 Energy and Environment Article by Mike Tony
“New solar finance fund available for central Appalachia”
https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/new-solar-finance-fund-available-for-central-appalachia/article_917de53e-1fa8-5671-b34e-708e4b88bc13.html
Available online at Appalachian Solar Finance Fund:
Application for The Appalachian Solar Finance Fund (SFF) : https://solarfinancefund.org
News and Updates (with link to Nov. 4, 2021 webinar) https://solarfinancefund.org/index.php/news/
Appearing in The Dominion Post (Morgantown):
November 22, 2021 Article by David Beard
“Mon Power/Potomac Edison plan five solar plants to produce 50 mw of power; largest would be Mon County”
Appearing on-line in The Bargain Hunter (Weekly news magazine serving Ohio Counties: Holmes, Tuscarawas, Wayne, and the surrounding area. Stark, Medina, Summit and Cuyahoga):
December 29, 2021 Column by Randi Pokladnik
“Fracking affects the Muskingum Watershed”
https://thebargainhunter.com/news/col-randi-pokladnik/fracking-affects-the-muskingum-watershed
November 16, 2021 Column by Randi Pokladnik
“Toxic compounds we should avoid”
https://thebargainhunter.com/news/col-randi-pokladnik/toxic-compounds-we-should-avoid
Available from West Virginia Rivers:
December 2021 Article by Morgan King, WV Rivers Climate Campaign Coordinator
“Building Power through Grassroot Climate Activism”
Available from ReImagine Appalachia https://reimagineappalachia.org :
December 16, 2021 Article by Stephen Herzenberg
“Appalachia Needs Build Back Better, the Climate Infrastructure, Jobs and Workforce Support Package”
November 8, 2021 Article by Stephen Herzenberg and Jessica Arriens
“To Realize Our ReImagined Appalachia, We MUST Pass the Build Back Better Act – Here’s Why-“
November 6, 2021 ReImagine Appalachia press release by Annie Regan
“Appalachia Poised to Benefit from Bipartisan Infrastructure Deal”
Thursday, November 4, 2021, 11AM Press Conference – Learn More about the 48C Manufacturing Tax Credit
“Advanced Energy Manufacturing Tax Credits in the West Virginia Coalfields”
Join Downstream Strategies, ReImagine Appalachia, Appalachian Voices, and the Blue Green Alliance for a press conference to hear more about the potential impacts from the 48C Manufacturing Tax Credit. Speakers: Evan Hansen, Tim Cronin, Zoe Lipman, Dana Kuhnline
https://www.facebook.com/ReImagineAppalachia/videos/1247380355742260/
Appearing on-line on Ohio River Valley Institute https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org :
December 21, 2021 Article by Joanne Kilgour and Eric de Place
“Plans for Hydrogen and Carbon Capture Development in Appalachia”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/plans-for-hydrogen-and-carbon-capture-development-in-appalachia/
December 16, 2021 Article about REPORT by Ted Boettner
“Stayin’ Alive: The Last Days of Stripper Wells in the Ohio River Valley”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/stayin-alive/
November 30. 2021Article about new REPORT by Eric de Place and Molly Kiick
“A Cautionary Tale of Petrochemicals from Pennsylvania”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/a-cautionary-tale-of-petrochemicals-from-pennsylvania/
Link to full report:
Click to access Beaver-County-Brief-FINAL-11-30.pdf
November 10, 2021 Article about new ORVI REPORT by Kathy Hipple and Anne Keller
“Poor Economics for Virgin Plastics: Petrochemicals Will Not Provide Sustainable Business Opportunities in Appalachia”
https://ohiorivervalleyinstitute.org/poor-economics-for-virgin-plastics/
links to REPORT summary and full report.
Available from Fractracker Alliance:
December 1, 2021 Article by Dr. Randi Pokladnik, Guest Author
“US Army CORPS Muskingum Watershed Plan”
Available on Appalachian Voices:
December 3, 2021 Press Release
“Air Board Denies Key Permit for Mountain Valley Pipeline, Dealing Critical Blow to Beleaguered Fracked Gas Project”
Available on Allegheny Front.org:
December 21, 2021 Article by Reid Frazier w/link to ACS (American Chemical Society) Research published
“Pitt study: World plastics trade accounts for 350 metric tons of CO2 – Allegheny Front”
Appearing on-line on WV Public Broadcasting or WOUB (PBS) or NPR:
December 20, 2021 Climate Article by Lauren Sommer
“What losing Build Back Better means for climate change”
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/20/1065695953/build-back-better-climate-change
December 19, 2021 Climate Article by Jennifer Ludden
“Manchin says Build Back Better’s climate measures are risky. That’s not true”
https://www.npr.org/2021/12/19/1065665886/manchin-says-build-back-betters-climate-measures-are-risky-thats-not-true
Nov. 16, 2021 Book, MISEDUCATION: How Climate Change is Taught in America by Katie Worth is published. Announcement article appeared Oct. 19, 2021
“FRONTLINE(PBS) and The GroundTruth Project Announce Launch of First Book Project, Exposing the Red-Blue Divide on Climate Education in America’s Public Schools”
November 15, 2021 FRONTLINE (in partnership with Columbia Global Reports and The GroundTruth Project presented Virtual roundtable discussion. Registration link announced Nov. 2
“Miseducation: A Roundtable Discussion on How climate Change is Taught in America”
NATIONAL ATTENTION:
Available on The New York Times:
December 22, 2021 Article in The Morning newsletter by David Leonhardt
“Decoding Joe Manchin”
Available on The Nation:
December 23, 2021 Article by John Nichols
“West Virginians Give Manchin a Lump of Coal for Christmas” Manchin claims his constituents are happy with his abandonment of Build Back better. Miners and other residents say that just isn’t so. (Eric Engle is quoted.)
https://www.thenation.com/article/politics/wva-miners-manchin/
Available on Common Dreams:
December 20, 2021 Article by Brett Wilkins
“As World Burns, Climate Campaigners Denounce Manchin as ‘Fossil-Fueled Sociopath’”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/12/20/world-burns-climate-campaigners-denounce-manchin-fossil-fueled-sociopath
Available online on Public Citizen:
November 8, 2021 News Article
“Over 50 Groups Warn 2022 Election Results Could Be ‘Ignored’ Without Swift Action”
A Hyper-Partisan and Coordinated Disinformation Campaign Threatens Free and Fair Elections, Advocates Tell Congress
(MOVCA among the groups signing on to open letter)
IMPORTANT READ:
Available on Global Reporting Centre in partnership with NBC NEWS:
November 14, 2021 Part I of an ongoing reporting partnership between NBC News and the Global Reporting Centre on global supply chains. News Feature by Hannah Rappleye
“The new steel? Hope and fear as a new plastics factory rises in Appalachia”
https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/new-steel-hope-fear-new-plastics-factory-rises-appalachia-n1283830
November 14, 2021 Part II of an ongoing reporting partnership between NBC News and the Global Reporting Centre on global supply chains
“The House that Plastic Built” Plastic is an industry made of other industries. Public subsidies help hold it all up.”
https://globalreportingcentre.org/plastics/
INTERESTING READS or LISTENS:
Available on Common Dreams:
November 9, 2021 Article by Kenny Stancil
“ ‘This Must Not Happen’: If Unhalted, Permian Basin Fracking Will Unleash 40 Billion Tons of CO2 by 2050”
https://www.commondreams.org/news/2021/11/09/must-not-happen-if-unhalted-permian-basin-fracking-will-unleash-40-billion-tons-co2
Available on The Guardian:
November 4, 2021 Fossil fuels article by Jonathon Watts. Ashley Kirk, Niamh McIntyre, Pablo Gutlierrez and Niko Kommenda
“Half world’s Fossil Fuel assets could become worthless by 2036 in net Zero transition”
https://www.theguardian.com/environment/ng-interactive/2021/nov/04/fossil-fuel-assets-worthless-2036-net-zero-transition
November 3, 2021 Opinion feature by George Monbiot
“Cop26 has to be about keeping fossil fuels in the ground. All else is distraction”
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2021/nov/03/cop26-fossil-fuels
“World urged to slash gas use by a third to avoid climate disaster”
Available on Inside Climate News:
December 12, 2021 Fossil Fuels Article by James Bruggers
“Coal Powered the Industrial Revolution. It left Behind an ‘Absolutely Massive’ Environmental Catastrophe”
Available on Democracy Now!:
December 13, 2021 Amy Goodman interviews Michael Mann, Professor and director of the Earth System Science Center at Penn State University. Text and Video.
“This Isn’t a Natural Disaster”: Climate Scientist Michael Man on Deadly Tornadoes in 8 States”
https://www.democracynow.org/2021/12/13/michael_mann_on_climate_crisis_tornadoes
Available from Stanford:
October 22, 2021 Article by Mark Z. Jacobson, Stanford U.
“A Solution to Global Warming, Air Pollution, and Energy Insecurity for the United States”
Click to access 21-WWS-USA.pdf
Plan for transitioning the U.S. to 80% wind, water, and solar by 2030 and 100% by 2050.
Available on CurrentAffairs.org:
November 15, 2021 Article by Jason Hickel
“What Would It Look Like If We Treated Climate Change as an Actual Emergency?”
https://www.currentaffairs.org/2021/11/what-would-it-look-like-if-we-treated-climate-change-as-an-actual-emergency
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Stop issuing fracking permits
Letters to the Editor Marietta Times
Jan 10, 2022
Maggie Meyer
I am a life-long resident of Appalachia. I grew up in West Virginia and for twenty years I have lived in beautiful Marietta, enjoying the local parks and walking them. That love of nature has been threatened by the fracking industry. For the past few years, every time I travel Third Street, I have encountered more and more tanker trucks. That got me to start asking questions and doing research, which became very troubling.
As I am sure most of you know, all those trucks are carrying waste from the fracking industry, called brine. Fracking is “a process that injects liquid at high pressure into subterranean rocks, boreholes, etc. so as to force open existing fissures and extract oil or gas,” according to the Oxford Dictionary. What is most disturbing about this waste is that most is not only radioactive but also contains lead, arsenic, formaldehyde and mercury. Even though that’s only one percent of this in fracking waste, that’s one percent of, for example, the 1.9 million barrels of brine waste injected into waste wells in Washington County in 2011. Even more troubling, in 2019, Washington County had the second highest level of injection well activity in the state.
One dangerous effect is the threat brine poses to our drinking water. According to Consumer Reports (December 3, 2020), brine “can contaminate [water] supplies when waste spills from trucks or pipelines moving it or when waste leaks from unlined disposal pits.” In fact, there was a spill of brine waste just outside of Marietta in January of 2021 at a pipeline owned by Deep Rock Disposal.
Making matters even worse, the Ohio Legislature passed two bills which now allow for 333 times the radioactive brine waste recommended by health experts. Given this threat not only to our environment but to our health, it is imperative that we as residents of this county strongly urge the Ohio Department of Natural Resources at least to stop issuing permits in Washington County until injection wells are better monitored and until our drinking water can be guaranteed to be safe from these contaminants.
Margaret Meyer
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Tar Sands oil extraction continues to threaten climate
Jan 8, 2022
Randi Pokladnik
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
When President Biden revoked the permit of the Keystone XL Pipeline in January 2021, he stated, “permitting the pipeline would undermine U.S. climate leadership by undercutting the credibility and influence of the United States in urging other countries to take ambitious climate action.” The 1,700-mile pipeline would have carried roughly 800,000 barrels of tar sands oil a day from Alberta, Canada, to the Texas Gulf Coast, with the potential to pollute ecosystems, negatively impact health, and become a major contributor to climate change. It would also pose a major threat to the Ogallala Aquifer, one of the world’s largest aquifers.
However, in October 2021, the Biden administration shocked the environmental community by giving a green light to the Enbridge 3 pipeline. This pipeline, like the Keystone KL pipeline, will carry about a million barrels a day of the dirty fuel. As it travels from Alberta, Canada, to Superior, Wisc., it will cross 227 lakes, rivers and streams, including the Mississippi River. It bisects the state of Minnesota and cuts across treaty land.
I have many fond memories of times spent in Minnesota with my husband’s family. Both his mother and father were born in the state and we frequently visited the small towns of Brainard, Little Falls, and Foley, all located just south of the Enbridge 3 pipeline. Now the region has become a hotbed of controversy as indigenous people clash with a Canadian company determined to transport tar sands oil across the state.
The pipeline violates the land treaty rights of the Anishinaabe peoples, threatens the culturally significant wild rice, and contributes more to climate change than the entire economy of Minnesota. It is expected to add 50 coal power plants’ worth of carbon to the atmosphere each year.
Among the nearly 1,000 water protectors arrested in the past year are three grandmothers from the Athens, Ohio, area. Peaceful indigenous protestors were blasted with sand, harassed by pipeline workers, and confronted by police outfitted in riot gear; $2 million worth purchased by the Enbridge company.
What exactly are “tar sands oils?” They are a mixture of sand, clay, water and a thick tar-like substance called bitumen. The bitumen is made up of hydrocarbon molecules, which can be used to make fuels and other petroleum-based products. The world’s largest deposits of tar sands are found in Alberta, Canada, near Athabasca, Cold Lake, and Peace River. There are two ways in which the tar-like bitumen can be extracted from the mixture; open-pit mining and in-situ drilling.
In order to open-pit mine, the forested land must be cleared. Top soil and shale strata are then removed (to depths of up to 300 feet) to reach the tar sand. The tar sand mixture is then removed and hauled to facilities where it is thinned out by combining it with large amounts of water. This slurry is then taken to facilities to extract the bitumen. Less than 20% of the tar sands reserves can be open-pit mined, which employs massive machines to dig up soil and load it into dump trucks the size of houses. For every barrel of oil produced, four tons of earth are excavated.
In an in-situ drilling operation, multiple wells are drilled and steam is pumped underground to liquify the bitumen for pumping and transport. In-situ mining is less damaging to the environment according to the Canadian Association of Petroleum and 80% of the tar sands can be accessed in this manner. But in 2011, in-situ tar sand companies used 370 million cubic meters of fresh water from the Athabasca River alone, more water than the city of Toronto, Canada, used that year.
Regardless of the technique used, it takes large quantities of energy to access tar sands oil. Approximately 14-25% of the energy obtained from tar sands is lost through processing compared to 4% for conventional oil drilling processes.
Like any fossil fuel, tar sands oil destroys air, water, and land, as it is extracted and refined for use. Tar sands oil is thicker, more acidic, and more corrosive than conventional oil. This means that pipelines carrying it are more likely to corrode and leak oil. Since 2010, the original TransCanada Keystone pipeline has leaked over a dozen times and in 2019, spilled 378,000 gallons of tar sands oil in North Dakota. An internal study by TC Energy revealed that pipe stored outside for long periods of time causes anti-corrosion coatings to fail.
Other problems occur when tar sands oil spills out of pipelines as it did in July 2010, when the Enbridge-owned pipeline leaked bitumen into the Kalamazoo River in Michigan. Because the oil contains heavier elements, it sinks to the bottom of water, which makes it more difficult to recover it from the environment.
Tar sands oil is extremely capital intensive and today, many investors are questioning dumping billions into tar sands development when much of the world is turning away from fossil fuels and toward more sustainable, less carbon-intensive fuel sources as a way to address the climate crisis. If we continue to expand this dirty fuel source in Canada and other areas of the world, it is highly likely that the earth will see a 6C rise in average global temperatures rather than the 1.5C suggested by the Paris Climate Accord. The economic and social impacts of 6C will be catastrophic.
Additionally, the removal of millions of acres of boreal forests in Canada will only exacerbate the climate crisis. Indigenous people in the region liken the removal of these forests to “skinning the earth alive.” Photographs of the region testify to the moonscapes left behind after valuable, diverse forests are stripped away.
Some of the pollutants that are released as a result of tar sands mining are naphthalene acids, mercury, arsenic salts, and polyaromatic hydrocarbons. These are found in sediments of watersheds around tar sands and are toxic to invertebrate species. According to a report by Environmental Defense, “The Aamjiwnaang First Nation in Canada is experiencing disturbing impacts from the pollution as twice as many girls are being born as boys. Moore Township next to the reserve is also experiencing a lower male birth rate, and scientists have found evidence of “feminized” turtles in the St. Clair River that runs through the area.”
The U.S. is planning to invest an estimated $379 billion in Canadian tar sands through the year 2025. We will be fueling the climate crisis with this carbon intensive fuel that generates 3-5 times more emissions than conventional oil. Some refineries of tar sands oil in the Midwestern USA include PBF in Toledo, Ohio and Husky Energy in Lima, Ohio. Husky Energy is owned by the Chinese billionaire Li Ka-Shing. In 2019, the plant increased its capacity to refine tar sands oil to 40,000 barrels a day. PBF refinery in Toledo refines 170,000 barrels of oil a day.
When it comes to tar sands oil, the best stance to take is “keep it in the ground.”
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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.
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