Dec 25, 2021
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“Make no mistake: no military on the face of the earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the U.S. military.”
These were the words of Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby after a U.S. drone strike killed Zemari Ahmadi, age 43; his children Zamir (age 20), Faisal (age 16), and Farzad (age 10); his relative Ahmad Naser (age 30); three of his nephews, Benjamin (age 6), Arwin (age 7), and Hayat (age 2); and two girls, Somaya (age 3) and Malika (age 3.)
A family of civilians, and U.S. allies at that, mistaken for Islamic State operatives and murdered by our government for the unforgivable crime of loading bottles of water into their Toyota Corolla, and looking a little bit too much like terrorists hauling bombs from a height of thousands of feet in the air.
Ramin Yousafi, a relative of those murdered, reported that “They are so burned out we cannot identify their bodies, their faces.”
U.S. Central Command went on to lie about “successfully hitting” their target and that it had “no indication” of civilian casualties, and would likely have maintained this line had it not been for in-depth reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post, providing evidence to the contrary.
The Pentagon, in what was surely an impartial investigation of their own mass slaughter of children, later reported that “no violation of law, including the Law of War,” had taken place.
The only inference one can possibly make from this conclusion, that no one at all is to be held accountable for the horrific aerial murder of ten civilians and seven children, is that the war machine is functioning exactly as it should be.
These frequent incidents of mass civilian casualties are not a bug, but a feature.
Just days ago, the New York Times reported that a top-secret U.S. military unit known as “Talon Anvil” repeatedly and knowingly ignored safeguards by striking human population centers in Syria, killing farmers in their fields, children playing in the streets, and civilians attempting to take refuge from the fighting. The unit’s horrific actions were reported to superiors up the chain of command, but were routinely ignored.
Astonishingly, military officials have explicitly said that they refuse to do body counts of civilians killed by our armed forces. Indeed, our government seems far more interested in punishing those who expose the slaughter of innocents than reprimanding those war criminals actually responsible for the carnage.
Air Force veteran Daniel Hale, who leaked classified documents revealing a list of civilian casualties that would constitute multiple war crimes if proven, is currently languishing in a federal prison for revealing the truth. The CIA, meanwhile, actively plotted to assassinate journalist Julian Assange under the Trump administration, for his role in exposing war crimes in Iraq.
In 2022, the United States will spend $768.2 billion on its so-called national defense, more than the next eleven countries combined. With this grotesque sum of money we fund a globe-spanning death squad responsible for the indiscriminate destruction of human life, which answers neither to the taxpayers who fund it, nor seemingly to any actual governing body whatsoever.
It is absolutely infuriating to watch as our planet falls apart due to runaway anthropogenic climate change, and incorrigible corporate hacks like Joe Manchin weep crocodile tears about how we’re spending entirely too much money on trying to keep the human race from extinction. Meanwhile, he and every other politician in the country, save the most outspoken “radical” leftists and the occasional stopped-clock libertarian, are more than happy to continue writing out blank checks to the Pentagon to engage in endless, mindless bloodshed around the world, carrying out their profitable forever wars with absolutely no one holding them accountable for their actions.
Not only does our out-of-control military rob the nation of crucial resources that are desperately needed to combat the climate crisis, but their actions themselves contribute horrendously to global heating.
The Pentagon is among the largest polluters in history, with its emissions surpassing as many as 140 entire countries. If our military were its own nation, it would be the 47th largest emitter in the world based solely on its fuel usage. Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was confronted with these facts by a climate change activist at COP26, over her support for increasing the U.S. military budget.
“National security advisors all tell us that the climate crisis is a national security matter,” Pelosi replied, going on to mention the threat of “migration,” with the implication that our military will be essential in abusing the climate refugees we’re directly responsible for displacing.
The logic on display here is mind-boggling, and tracks perfectly with America’s long, bloody tradition of forever wars. Essentially, the Pentagon pursues its “interests” around the globe and destabilizes region after region, creating a multitude of threats in its wake and then justifying its continued, bloated existence by claiming that it’s necessary in order to combat the very threats it helped to manifest. The playbook here is perfectly identical with regard to climate change, justifying runaway military spending to combat climate threats, even as our military’s actions directly produce those threats by playing an outsized role in the heating of our planet.
It’s been a common refrain among climate change activists that we need a “World War II-sized public response” to adequately counteract the climate crisis.
In today’s dollars, the United States spent about $4.1 trillion in the Second World War. Assuming my back-of-the-envelope math is correct, this means that in the past six years alone, we’ve spent about as much money on our military as we did during all of World War II. The amount being proposed for climate spending in President Biden’s Build Back Better program (which is already laughably small and woefully inadequate) is hardly even a fraction of what we waste on our military over the same period of time, yet lawmakers across the political spectrum treat it like some exorbitant pork spending that will lead us to financial ruin.
We simply cannot go on like this any longer.
In the lasting words of President Eisenhower, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
Our bloodthirsty addiction to war cannot be sustained any longer. If Americans want any kind of decent future for their children on this planet, then they must make a crucial decision in 2022 and the years to come: their war machine, or the world.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Corner: Across the globe
Jan 1, 2022
Linda Eve Seth
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“Global climate change has a profound impact on the survival and development of mankind. It is a major challenge facing all countries.” — Hu Jintao
***
The environmental and economic changes wrought by shifting climate patterns not only affect us here in the United States; they impact countries across the globe. All regions are affected, but not in the same way.
This piece offers a quick look at the impact of climate change already being felt on ecosystems, economic sectors, and people’s health and well-being in Europe, Asia, Australia, the Arctic, and South America.
ASIA-PACIFIC is the most disaster-prone region in the world. While poorer communities of this region contribute the least to greenhouse gas emissions, they are the ones feeling the consequences of climate change the most. With extensive coastlines, low-lying territories, and many small island states, its geography makes it highly susceptible to rising sea levels and weather extremes. Heat waves, floods, and droughts affect every aspect of life, from nutrition and health, to safety and income.
In Bangladesh, nearly 18 million people living in coastal areas will lose their homes if the sea level rises by three feet. Indonesia is already planning to move its heavily populated capital, Jakarta, inland to protect its residents from dangerous flooding.
Ocean acidification and coral bleaching, results of climate change, directly affect the biodiversity of marine ecosystems. As a result, food webs are altered and fish stocks collapse, putting millions of lives and jobs in this region at risk.
AUSTRALIA is particularly vulnerable to the effects of climate change because of its extensive arid and semi-arid areas, an already warm climate, high annual rainfall fluctuations, and existing pressures on water supply.
In recent years fires burnt across most of Australia with an intensity, extent, and duration not previously experienced. The devastating fires caused the burning of 50 million acres, the deaths of 34 people, the destruction of thousands of buildings, and the loss of millions of animals and their habitats.
At the same time, recent sea levels have risen in and around Australia at a faster rate than at any time in the 20th Century. Most of the population lives along the coast. The area is likely to see increased flooding and erosion of low-lying coastal areas. Higher storm surges will affect coastal communities, infrastructure, industries, and the environment.
Severe weather events such as bush fires and droughts, salinization of fresh water supplies, and coastal erosion are all having significant consequences on the natural environment and ecosystems, resulting in a loss of bio-diversity.
EUROPE is being affected by climate change in various ways, depending on the region. Some of the more widespread changes include biodiversity loss, forest fires, decreasing crop yields, and higher temperatures. It is also affecting people’s health; deaths have occurred as a result of flooding, heatwaves, and of hypothermia from blizzards.
Europeans are not only exposed to direct effects from climate change, but also vulnerable to indirect effects from infectious disease, many of which are climate sensitive. Climatic conditions have contributed to a geographic range expansion of tick vectors that transmit Lyme disease and tick-borne encephalitis. Extreme precipitation events have caused waterborne outbreaks and longer summer seasons have contributed to increases in food-borne diseases
In the ARCTIC things are warming faster than the rest of the planet, and in a region where ice and snow are so present, this has deep impacts. Data has made it increasingly clear that the Arctic as we know it is being replaced by a warmer, wetter, and more variable environment.
Reductions in snow cover change the availability of habitat for microorganisms, plants, and animals. Winter thaws and rain-on-snow events can damage vegetation, while refreezing creates a layer of ice over the vegetation that affects the conditions for grazing animals such as caribou, reindeer, and musk ox. The thinning and loss of sea ice has many impacts on Arctic life, including disrupting the feeding platforms and life cycles of seals, polar bears and walruses. And in ANTARCTICA, the Emperor penguins have seen a 53% reduction in their numbers recently.
Meanwhile, in SOUTH AMERICA — From the frigid peaks of Patagonia to the tropical wetlands of Brazil, worsening droughts this year are slamming farmers, shutting down ski slopes, upending transit, and spiking prices for everything from coffee to electricity. The levels of the Paran’ River running through Brazil, Paraguay, and Argentina are so low that some ranchers are herding cattle across dried-up riverbeds previously lined with cargo-toting barges. Raging wildfires in Paraguay have brought acrid smoke to their capital. Earlier this year, the historically rushing cascades of Iguazu Falls on the Brazilian-Argentine frontier have been reduced to a relative drip.
All around the planet, it is expected that mountain areas will experience higher temperatures, forcing the animals and plants to migrate to higher altitudes, endangering their species. Other regions will have more droughts, more forest fires, and fewer rains.
These changes jeopardize human health. Shifting rainfall patterns and higher temperatures affect agricultural productivity and impact food security. Low crop yields and high food prices make it harder and harder for people to feed their families, ALL ACROSS THE GLOBE.
***
Linda Eve Seth, M. Ed, SLP is a mother, grandmother, concerned citizen and member of MOVCA.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: United States military bears responsibility for global woes
Dec 25, 2021
Aaron Dunbar
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
“Make no mistake: no military on the face of the earth works harder to avoid civilian casualties than the U.S. military.”
These were the words of Pentagon Press Secretary John Kirby after a U.S. drone strike killed Zemari Ahmadi, age 43; his children Zamir (age 20), Faisal (age 16), and Farzad (age 10); his relative Ahmad Naser (age 30); three of his nephews, Benjamin (age 6), Arwin (age 7), and Hayat (age 2); and two girls, Somaya (age 3) and Malika (age 3.)
A family of civilians, and U.S. allies at that, mistaken for Islamic State operatives and murdered by our government for the unforgivable crime of loading bottles of water into their Toyota Corolla, and looking a little bit too much like terrorists hauling bombs from a height of thousands of feet in the air.
Ramin Yousafi, a relative of those murdered, reported that “They are so burned out we cannot identify their bodies, their faces.”
U.S. Central Command went on to lie about “successfully hitting” their target and that it had “no indication” of civilian casualties, and would likely have maintained this line had it not been for in-depth reporting from the New York Times and the Washington Post, providing evidence to the contrary.
The Pentagon, in what was surely an impartial investigation of their own mass slaughter of children, later reported that “no violation of law, including the Law of War,” had taken place.
The only inference one can possibly make from this conclusion, that no one at all is to be held accountable for the horrific aerial murder of ten civilians and seven children, is that the war machine is functioning exactly as it should be.
These frequent incidents of mass civilian casualties are not a bug, but a feature.
Just days ago, the New York Times reported that a top-secret U.S. military unit known as “Talon Anvil” repeatedly and knowingly ignored safeguards by striking human population centers in Syria, killing farmers in their fields, children playing in the streets, and civilians attempting to take refuge from the fighting. The unit’s horrific actions were reported to superiors up the chain of command, but were routinely ignored.
Astonishingly, military officials have explicitly said that they refuse to do body counts of civilians killed by our armed forces. Indeed, our government seems far more interested in punishing those who expose the slaughter of innocents than reprimanding those war criminals actually responsible for the carnage.
Air Force veteran Daniel Hale, who leaked classified documents revealing a list of civilian casualties that would constitute multiple war crimes if proven, is currently languishing in a federal prison for revealing the truth. The CIA, meanwhile, actively plotted to assassinate journalist Julian Assange under the Trump administration, for his role in exposing war crimes in Iraq.
In 2022, the United States will spend $768.2 billion on its so-called national defense, more than the next eleven countries combined. With this grotesque sum of money we fund a globe-spanning death squad responsible for the indiscriminate destruction of human life, which answers neither to the taxpayers who fund it, nor seemingly to any actual governing body whatsoever.
It is absolutely infuriating to watch as our planet falls apart due to runaway anthropogenic climate change, and incorrigible corporate hacks like Joe Manchin weep crocodile tears about how we’re spending entirely too much money on trying to keep the human race from extinction. Meanwhile, he and every other politician in the country, save the most outspoken “radical” leftists and the occasional stopped-clock libertarian, are more than happy to continue writing out blank checks to the Pentagon to engage in endless, mindless bloodshed around the world, carrying out their profitable forever wars with absolutely no one holding them accountable for their actions.
Not only does our out-of-control military rob the nation of crucial resources that are desperately needed to combat the climate crisis, but their actions themselves contribute horrendously to global heating.
The Pentagon is among the largest polluters in history, with its emissions surpassing as many as 140 entire countries. If our military were its own nation, it would be the 47th largest emitter in the world based solely on its fuel usage. Last month, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was confronted with these facts by a climate change activist at COP26, over her support for increasing the U.S. military budget.
“National security advisors all tell us that the climate crisis is a national security matter,” Pelosi replied, going on to mention the threat of “migration,” with the implication that our military will be essential in abusing the climate refugees we’re directly responsible for displacing.
The logic on display here is mind-boggling, and tracks perfectly with America’s long, bloody tradition of forever wars. Essentially, the Pentagon pursues its “interests” around the globe and destabilizes region after region, creating a multitude of threats in its wake and then justifying its continued, bloated existence by claiming that it’s necessary in order to combat the very threats it helped to manifest. The playbook here is perfectly identical with regard to climate change, justifying runaway military spending to combat climate threats, even as our military’s actions directly produce those threats by playing an outsized role in the heating of our planet.
It’s been a common refrain among climate change activists that we need a “World War II-sized public response” to adequately counteract the climate crisis.
In today’s dollars, the United States spent about $4.1 trillion in the Second World War. Assuming my back-of-the-envelope math is correct, this means that in the past six years alone, we’ve spent about as much money on our military as we did during all of World War II. The amount being proposed for climate spending in President Biden’s Build Back Better program (which is already laughably small and woefully inadequate) is hardly even a fraction of what we waste on our military over the same period of time, yet lawmakers across the political spectrum treat it like some exorbitant pork spending that will lead us to financial ruin.
We simply cannot go on like this any longer.
In the lasting words of President Eisenhower, “Every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired signifies, in the final sense, a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold and are not clothed.”
Our bloodthirsty addiction to war cannot be sustained any longer. If Americans want any kind of decent future for their children on this planet, then they must make a crucial decision in 2022 and the years to come: their war machine, or the world.
***
Aaron Dunbar is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Hey, Joe — do the right thing
Dec 18, 2021
Giulia Mannarino
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
On Nov. 19, the House of Representatives passed the Build Back Better bill, Biden’s social safety net and climate legislation. This bill includes investments to assist working people and the middle class as well as the care economy; the elderly, disabled, college students and children. It also includes a national strategy to address climate change. It addresses this real and urgent challenge in a way that creates jobs, strengthens the economy, and invests in a healthier, more equitable, more promising future. And the costs will be fully paid by making sure the very wealthiest Americans pay their fair share in taxes. After passage by the House, this bill moved on to the 50-50 Senate where it has been stalled by Republican Alaska Sen. Lisa Murkowski and Democratic West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin.
Manchin used his power as the potentially decisive vote in the Senate to reduce BBB to $1.75 trillion. He also insisted on removing the “clean electricity plan,” which provided powerful incentives to help utility companies switch to renewable energy sources like the wind and sun. And even more cuts may come. Manchin has also objected to a measure in the bill designed to reduce emissions of methane, the main component of natural gas as well as a tax credit for electric cars. When pressed by reporters about whether he has a conflict of interest because his son runs the family coal company, Manchin told them “I have been in a blind trust for 20 years. I have no idea what they’re doing. You got a problem?”
A reporter for the Washington Post did have a problem with Manchin’s irritated response and the result was an article published by the Post on Dec. 13, which provided much of the information for this column. Don Fox, a former general counsel and acting director of the Office of Government Ethics, was asked to examine Manchin’s required annual financial disclosure report for 2020, which was filed in May. Fox states that Manchin’s dismissal of questions about his coal interests because they are in a blind trust is “misleading and at worst it’s just not true.” Manchin’s report shows, on Page 22, that the family coal company, Enersystems, paid him $492,000 in interest, dividends and other income and that his share of the firm is worth between $1 million and $5 million. And, the Joseph Manchin III Qualified Blind Trust shows, on Page 6, earnings of no more than $15,000 last year and is worth between $500,000 and $1 million. According to the article, because Manchin’s coal interests are not in a blind trust, it does call into question his impartiality as Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
A Qualified Blind Trust is a financial arrangement in which a person in public office gives the administration of their private business interests to an independent trust in order to prevent any conflict of interest the investments could create. This differs from a traditional trust in which the owner can be both trustor and trustee. A trustee alone (Huntington Bank in Manchin’s case) manages or invests the assets in a QBT with no communication between the parties. Neither the owner or his/her beneficiaries are to have knowledge of the holdings of the trust and no right to intervene in their handling. This creates a layer of separation between politicians’ personal financial interests and their official political activities and helps eliminate real or perceived conflicts of interest. Also, each year Congressional elected officials sign and swear that the public financial disclosure record filed is true and correct. This record specifically lists all property and assets except those held in a QBT. Only totals are given in disclosure records for those funds since, by design, it’s not possible to know precisely what is in a blind trust.
According to the news article, Manchin helped found and became president of Enersystems, a private coal brokerage firm based in Fairmont, in 1988. After Manchin was elected Secretary of State in 2000, he turned control of Enersystems to his son, Joseph Manchin IV, who still runs it. Enersystems benefits from federal programs to clean up closed coal mines where mining debris, waste-coal has been piled and abandoned. The waste-coal is sold to the Grant Town Power Plant, an electricity generating facility in Marion County. It is the only publicly recorded buyer of Enersystems’ waste coal, or what the industry calls “gob.” Only a handful of gob burning plants still operate nationally as these power plants are dirtier and don’t generate as much electricity. In fact, according to EPA’s most recent data, the Grant Town Power Plant emits more greenhouse gas emissions into the air per megawatt-hour of electricity produced than any other power plant in West Virginia. The Grant Town plant has come close to shutting down at least twice. In 2006, the plant was rescued by the state’s Public Service Commission approval of temporary rate increases which were passed on to customers. Although higher rates were to end in 2017, they were made permanent in 2015 when the plant’s owners came before the Commission once again. According to James Van Norstrand, director of WVU’s law school’s Center for Energy and Sustaninable Development, if the “clean electricity program” had been kept in the BBB plan, the Grant Town plant most likely would eventually have closed.
Although many top executive branch officials are required to divest assets to avoid potential industry conflict, members of Congress are not. It’s legal for Manchin to make millions from his coal interests even as he legislates on matters affecting the fossil fuel industry. Putting personal coal profits before the future of the planet and our grandchildren is certainly not the right thing to do.
Still BBB is the most consequential climate agenda in our country’s history. It needs to be passed as soon as possible and without more deletions. Take a look at the WV Citizen’s Action Group’s “Hey, Joe” Youtube video, a parody of the Beatles “Hey Jude,” filmed all across West Virginia. Then call or email Manchin every day and tell him “Hey, Joe. Do the right thing!”
***
Giulia Mannarino, of Belleville, is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Recent Tornadoes bring climate change to the forefront
Dec 17, 2021
George Banziger
While our immediate attention should be directed at relief efforts for the thousands of people who have lost loved ones, are injured, homeless, and without jobs and their personal possessions, we should still reflect upon the significance of these powerful storms that devastated parts of Arkansas, Illinois, and Kentucky in this month of December.
These storms bring to vivid relief the reality that the effects of climate change are already upon us. On the day before these tornados, as they formed in the Great Plains, temperatures in Arkansas and Kansas reached the 80s.
Warm air holds more moisture than cold air, and the air over the Gulf of Mexico has heated significantly during climate change and feeds air currents that move south to north. In this case the moisture-laden warm air collided with a cold jet stream from the north and created a super-cell event in the form of a string of thunderstorms and tornados. Dr..Michael Mann, a climate scientist at Penn State University, recently noted that debris from this storms reached heights of 30,000 feet and were carried over 200 miles away; winds in these storms exceeded 150 miles per hour.
The jet stream, Dr Mann explains, is getting more “wobbly,” and this is creating deeper high- and low-pressure weather systems–hotter periods producing droughts and wetter periods producing floods. Climate scientists are also noting that “tornado alley” is moving eastward from the Great Plans (Kansas and Oklahoma) to the areas which were most recently struck by tornados. Climate scientists admit that attributing tornados directly to climate change this soon after the event is complicated, and time will be needed to make this attribution certain, but preliminary evidence in this case points to the warming climate.
We witnessed the fringe of this extreme weather system here in the Mid-Ohio Valley on Saturday morning, December 11.
When I was on my regular early-morning run through Devola, I experienced a torrential downpour and high winds that drove me to head home as soon as I could, It is just a matter of time until our area is struck by some form of severe weather, as it was in 2012 by the derecho event. This kind of extreme weather is often described as a “natural disaster.” There is nothing natural about weather events that are generated and exacerbated by human-induced climate change. It is the high level of greenhouse gas emissions caused by human activity–mainly the burning of fossil fuels-that is feeding these extreme weather events.
What can be done to address this problem? Simply stated, Congress needs to pass the Build Back Better Bill with its provisions to address climate change. Senator Joe Manchin of West Virginia is key to this legislative agenda, and his state, with its many hills and hollows, is positioned to suffer some of the greatest hardship from extreme weather. Let him know your concern and his need to act responsibly.
Last Updated: January 9, 2022 by main_y0ke11
MC Global Marketing Students Win MOVCA 2021 PSA Contest
Dec 14, 2021
Photo provided: Students in Marietta College Global Marketing class, with PSA contest winners holding prize checks awarded by MOVCA.
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action awarded prizes to two teams from the Global Marketing class at Marietta College, the winners in the “Climate Change: Change the Future” Public Service Announcement Contest.
The PSA created by MC students Justin Reynolds, Anna Callow, Alexis Scadden, and Garrett French took the top prize of $300. The team of Austin Meese, Keita Saito, Elijah Balek, Cleveland Wilder, Carsy Wilder, Sydney Huffman, and Chelsea Luciano won the runner-up $150 prize. R. Nicole Byrd, Visiting Assistant Professor of Marketing at Marietta College, used the contest as part of the class curriculum.
The contest, “Climate Change: Change the Future,” challenged area high school and college students to create a broadcast quality 25-second public service announcement that would teach the community about climate change — and inspire action for a better future. The target audience for the short videos was high school to college-age young people.
Entries in the contest were given their first public showing December 2, 2021, at MOVCA’s meeting on Zoom, followed by an interactive discussion about young people’s differing views of the climate crisis and how the contest participants used the PSA to reach their peers. Contest judges also discussed their criteria for evaluating the entries.
The winning PSAs will appear on MOVCA’s website and will be aired on local media and may be submitted for airing to other broadcast and cable networks at the discretion of MOVCA.
“Watch for these PSAs, coming soon to your local media!” said Jean Ambrose, who moderated the December 2nd discussion. “We were very pleased with all the entries, and we learned a great deal about what younger folks think we can do to take climate action for a better future.”
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: Industry shills making the public pay more
Dec 11, 2021
Eric Engle
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
We at Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action understand the transition to hybrid and electric vehicles will take time as both the government and private sector move to accommodate the infrastructure needs of EVs and plug-in hybrids and as folks are still tied to financing for their current internal combustion engine vehicles, etc. But we also know that the sooner we can make these transitions, the less things like oil price spikes will impact our personal finances. Let’s take a look at those oil price spikes and who is behind them.
The government watchdog group Accountable.US recently released a report that showed that the largest oil and gas companies made a combined $174 billion in profits for the first nine months of this year, as reported to the public by The Guardian newspaper.
The Guardian reports, “The bumper profit totals, provided exclusively to the Guardian, show that in the third quarter of 2021 alone, 24 top oil and gas companies made more than $74 billion in net income. From January to September, the net income of the group, which includes Exxon, Chevron, Shell and BP, was $174 billion.”
The Guardian reporting continues, “The analysis of major oil companies’ financials shows that 11 of the group gave payouts to shareholders worth more than $36.5 billion collectively this year, while a dozen bought back $8 billion-worth of stock.”
“The oil and gas industry has fought Joe Biden’s attempts to pause new drilling permits on federal land,” the reporting states, “despite its unwillingness to expand operations in order to reap the returns of costlier oil and the fact the industry currently sits on 14 million acres of already leased land that isn’t being used, an area about double the size of Massachusetts.”
“A lot of this has been driven by investor sentiment,” said Helima Croft, head of global commodity strategy at RBC Capital Markets, to The Guardian regarding the current reluctance by oil and gas companies to expand production. “They don’t want them to spoil the party.”
While those of us still driving internal combustion engine vehicles and hybrids are facing the highest gas prices in seven years, these oil and gas companies and their investors are riding high and making sure they don’t do anything to slow their cash flow, like producing more oil on lands they already have leased. I don’t want to stay beholden to a system like this, do you? And, as the reporting from The Guardian concludes, “Aside from its role in the current high gasoline prices, the oil and gas industry is a leading driver of the climate crisis, the reality of which it sought to conceal from the public for decades and is a key instigator of the air pollution that kills nearly 9 million a year, a death toll three times that of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020.”
None of this is to say that electric utilities or those who regulate them are much better to consumers. After all, the West Virginia Public Service Commission did just saddle West Virginia ratepayers who are Appalachian Power and Wheeling Power customers with about $483 million in costs for upgrading three old coal fired power plants to meet air quality standards, keeping them uneconomically running past 2028. And I just saw in the Marietta Times where the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio asked for edits to the draft of a report of an auditor it hired to remove language like “keeping the [coal fired] plants running does not seem to be in the best interests of the ratepayers.” This language was not included in the publicly released report from the auditor.
Unlike with private oil and gas companies, however, at least we have some electoral control over who is appointed to agencies like PUCO and WVPSC. We need to elect Governors who will stop appointing industry shills and cronies to these bodies and will instead appoint people who will look out for us as electricity consumers. Ohio, you’re electing a Governor again this coming year. Choose wisely! And the more affordable that renewable energy at the household level becomes, the easier it will be for more and more of us to go off-grid and pursue true energy independence, including when charging our cars or using our EVs as generators!
So much of our inflationary problems right now are being driven by corporate greed. Gasoline is one area where we don’t have to continue to be beholden to these greedy, selfish inflation profiteers. Ditching internal combustion engines as fast as possible just makes sense and saves cents! Sen. Manchin needs to sign off on the Build Back Better Act, along with all of his fellow Senate Democrats, as soon as possible to help more of us make the transition to EVs and save us money. And the additional tax credits for purchases of EVs made by U.S. union labor needs to remain in the legislation!
***
Eric Engle is chairman of the not-for-profit volunteer organization Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, Board Member for the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, and Co-Chairman of the Sierra Club of West Virginia Chapter’s Executive Committee.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Climate Corner: A bipartisan infrastructure bill
Dec 4, 2021
George Banziger
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
On Nov. 15 President Biden signed into law the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill. In August the U.S. Senate had passed the bill with 19 Republicans voting for it, and on Nov. 6 the House of Representatives passed it with several Republicans offering their support. Among those House Republicans was Rep. David McKinley, R-WV-1. Kudos to Mr. McKinley for his expression of support for the interests of the people of West Virginia above the preference of the majority of his political party.
There are several features of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill that are related to addressing the time-urgent issue of climate change and associated environmental issues which impact the Mid-Ohio Valley: there is $8 billion for prevention of flooding risks — a growing threat when extreme weather events visit the hills and hollows of West Virginia; abandoned mine land clean up and water restoration–a pressing problem as coal diminishes in its value as an affordable source of energy — will receive $2.2 billion; there is $65 billion to expand broadband access, much of which will benefit the rural areas of our region; another $50 billion is allocated to clean water and removing lead from municipal water pipes; there is $27.5 billion designated for bridge repair and replacement, and $1 billion for Great Lakes restoration.
A notable feature of the bill for our region is $4.7 billion allocated for orphaned oil and gas well sites including plugging, remediation, and restoration. It is estimated that it costs $33,000 per abandoned well just to plug and $76,000 for surface restoration (Energy News Network, May 20, 2021). These wells are capable of emitting methane, which produces 84 times the greenhouse gas emissions as carbon dioxide and accounts for 20 percent of the world’s GHG emissions.
The amount allocated to this problem in the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill will in no way solve the entire problem of abandoned wells, but it will take an important step forward in capping 81,000 abandoned wells. In the Ohio Valley region alone, comprised of the states of Kentucky, Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia, it is estimated that it will cost $25 billion-$34 billion to address the entire issue of abandoned wells (Ohio River Valley Institute, 2021). Just in the state of Ohio there are 183,090 abandoned oil and gas wells (ORVI, 2021). There is also a salutary effect on job creation associated with these efforts at plugging oil and gas wells and restoring land and water associated with this equipment; there can be as many as 120.000 jobs created by this enterprise in the U.S. (Forbes, 2020) and over 30,000 just in the Ohio River Valley (ORVI, 2021).
A deeper dive into the details of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill reveals some other features of the bill that can benefit our region. These include the Rural Surface Transportation Grant Program to support projects that enhance tourism and economic development in rural areas and ecosystem restoration in federal lands, which include, in West Virginia, the Appalachian Trail, New River Gorge and Ohio River Islands. Many of the projects supported by the bill that relate to highway and bridge development acknowledge environmental concerns, such as arranging for efficient storm run off in culverts, improving habitat of aquatic species, and facilitating fish passage. Invasive-plant elimination along rights of way is targeted as a way to support native plants species while building much-needed transportation infrastructure.
The bill identifies some specific geographic projects in areas like the Columbia River Basin in the northwest, the Colorado River Basin in the southwest, and the Chesapeake Bay on the east coast. While these regions might need special attention for infrastructure development, we in Appalachia have long been neglected when it comes to major federal investment. As the group ReImagine Appalachia has pointed out, it is well passed time for the Ohio River region, much of which includes Appalachia, to get its fair share of federal dollars so that it can envision a new economy, which is less based on extractive industries and more based on manufacturing and development of renewable energy resources. I urge readers to press our federal legislators to ensure that Appalachia gets its share of the benefits of the Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill and other federal investments in a new economy.
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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
Climate Corner: Volunteers can make a difference
Nov 27, 2021
Reed Byers
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
Appalachia is home to me. It is a place that holds rich history, majestic natural resources, and a deep-rooted culture that is duplicated nowhere else. A beautiful thing about our region is that we are all so closely connected to one another. Our connections come through our commonalities, and I believe we have more in common than apart. One thing we all have in common is that the Mid-Ohio Valley is our environment. The healthier our environment is, the healthier we will be – individually and as a community.
How does one measure the health of their environment? We can sample our local drinking water to determine its safety, detect for radiation, monitor air quality, and track the spread of diseases. We can also simply look around us to make a fair assessment. Observation is a strong skill that requires only the investment of time and attention. I encourage you to join me in the first step of the scientific method: make an observation that describes a problem.
The Mid-Ohio Valley has plenty of them. We also have much to be proud of and limitless potential. As a volunteer for Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action, I want to be part of the solutions. These changes can sometimes seem lofty and grand, but at the heart of it, we are just passionate about the health of the environment we live in. For me, this means bringing our community closer together to take action and beautify the world around us.
So how can we help MOVCA in its efforts? It begins with helping us identify what we want our community to be. What issues and solutions do you see? Is there history we need to know? I want to hear your vision, ideas, and dreams. Let’s share these with MOVCA. I implore you all to share actionable ideas we can work together on to create a healthier, happier, cleaner tomorrow.
Next, let’s start some conversations about how to make these changes. I recall driving through Parkersburg last summer with a friend and he asked me why our streets, sidewalks, and neighborhoods look the way they do? Pensive, he pondered aloud that we could do something about it. I agreed. Our community is the way we allow it to be. If we want it to be different, it is our responsibility to create the community we wish to live in. Since that conversation, I have started making choices to help build the community I want to live in. I carry trash bags with me on my long summer walks and collect trash throughout our neighborhoods. This is a small step toward a vision many others likely see.
While I may not be an environmental scientist, elected official, or city engineer, I am an effective community organizer and believe that a few more of us more regularly cleaning up our neighborhoods can create a positive ripple effect. Every small action matters. Many small steps make big progress.
To conclude, I invite you to join me and others in the community to start the change. Personally, I can offer my time to the community to work on at least one initiative that I know we can succeed in. One day per month I am happy to join a group of you to pick up trash in Parkersburg or Belpre neighborhoods. Reach out and let’s find a time and place to create environmental action here in the Mid-Ohio Valley.
If you would like to join this effort, contact me on my cell phone at 304-812-2884 or email reedbyers18@gmail.com.
Let’s unite and share ideas on ways we can continue to expand and improve positive change in our community.
***
Reed Byers is a member of Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Up to us to move forward
Nov 22, 2021
Charles Pickering
editorial@newsandsentinel.com
As West Virginians, we have a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity before us. The bipartisan infrastructure bill President Biden signed into law includes tens of billions in funding for cleantech investments, and the reconciliation bill, if passed, would further build upon these efforts. Taken together, these actions will have a massive impact on our country’s energy sector and have the potential to diversify and strengthen West Virginia’s economy with growth, job opportunities, and more resilient communities.
Investing in a clean energy economy goes beyond wind and solar energy. It also builds on and improves our existing infrastructure through updates to the power grid, additional grid storage, and a significant new program limiting methane leaks and pollutants from abandoned mines and wells — which stands to spur even more job opportunities. Thanks to Sen. Manchin’s leadership on the Energy and Natural Resources Committee, the infrastructure bill includes investments that will directly benefit West Virginians: $12 billion for carbon capture storage technologies that can be utilized at existing power plants, $84 million for geothermal demonstration projects in regions like Appalachia, and $200 million for wildland restoration around abandoned mine sites. Notably, the infrastructure package also includes funding for legacy coal communities for worker re-training and redevelopment of former coal sites. For decades these communities powered the country — now it’s our turn to strategically reinvest in them.
Without direct action to reduce greenhouse gas emissions, scientists tell us we will see more frequent and intensified deadly weather catastrophes — such as the devastating flooding events our state knows all too well. Through volunteer work with the Red Cross after wildfires in California and hurricanes in Louisiana, I know first-hand the devastation and disruption that natural disasters can reap. The infrastructure bill includes investments to harden the grid and make our roads and bridges more resilient to these extreme weather threats, but we also need to reduce our emissions to mitigate the impacts of a changing climate. The reconciliation bill, as currently funded, would help with $555B in investments in clean energy deployment, in which West Virginia could play a big part.
The clean energy sector is one of the fastest growing labor sectors in the U.S. A recent report by E2 found that 7,704 new jobs per year (www. e2.org) could be added in West Virginia over the next five years through investments in energy efficiency, renewable energy, and grid modernization. This number could be even greater given direct investment from private corporations in new clean energy projects.
Today, the U.S. Energy Employment Report (www.energy.gov) tells us that 12,700 West Virginians work in energy efficiency, renewable energy, alternative fuels, advanced grid technologies, and energy storage. This modest but growing clean energy workforce makes our state ripe for advancing and deploying new technologies.
To be honest, at this moment in time, we have some barriers to aggressively move on these opportunities. Shifting our perspective is one of the biggest challenges. We have years of policies and regulations that tether us to existing paradigms and limit our ability to access and engage with new technologies. It would be a shame to lose this opportunity to other regions that are not limited by these restrictions.
In the last 15 years, I have personally engaged with the solar and renewable energy markets in West Virginia and nearby states. I believe that investing in renewable technologies not only helps the environment but is also a great financial decision. As traditional energy sources are phased out, the new technologies associated with renewable energy generation and improving efficiency will only accelerate.
I believe we have an opportunity to build on the momentum of these wins that Sen. Manchin has already delivered for West Virginia by getting the reconciliation bill across the finish line to open up additional economic opportunities. West Virginia companies and individuals need to lean in on this momentum and be part of the technology development, engineering, and construction of these projects. We can play a foundational role in delivering a new energy future to our country.
West Virginia is uniquely poised to be able to deliver this to the eastern seaboard — we’re already wired for it. We have the land and the natural resources to grasp these opportunities and have our workforce ready and willing to help. It’s up to us and our senators to participate in a big way in the future of power generation going forward, and the Build Back Better bill will help us reach that future faster.
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Charles Pickering of Williamstown is manager of Pickering Energy Solutions.
Last Updated: April 28, 2023 by main_y0ke11
Get the facts correct
Randi Pokladnik
Letters to the editor The Parkersburg News and Sentinel
Nov 20, 2021
A Nov. 13 letter titled “U.S. Weather Bureau Report” was a classic example of unsubstantiated claims. The author refers to the November 1922 edition of the Monthly Weather Review, titled “The Changing Arctic.” The report details the observations of both Norwegian scientist Dr. Hoel and Captain Martin Ingebrigsten. Both noted a dramatic increase in Arctic Sea temperatures around the Spitzbergen region between 1920-39. They also noted a lack of sea ice and disappearing glaciers. The geographic features of the region were “almost unrecognizable” from those of the same area from 1868-1917.
The report provided scientific evidence the region was experiencing the effects of a warming planet. Scientists did NOT claim “in just 18 months the earth will melt away.” However, a simple search of NASA data shows that indeed, glaciers all around the world are melting and this melting directly coincides with the increased burning of carbon-based fuels. Even the United States Geological Survey “climate gurus” report our own Glacier National Park has seen a 60 percent loss of glacier ice since 1966.
I was studying environmental engineering in college during the 1970s and none of my professors claimed “in as little as 3-7 years the oceans would entirely cover all land masses.” I would like to see the source of that statement. Ironically, if we had started to address carbon dioxide emissions in the 1970s our planet would be in a much better position to stave off the worst effects of the climate crisis.
The author goes on to claim that “CO2 spewed out in the eruption of one single volcanic event measures greatly more than humans (and moose and cattle) have collectively emitted since life began.” That is incorrect.
In a 2011 peer reviewed paper, U. S. Geological Survey scientist Terry Gerlach summarized data from previous global volcanic carbon dioxide emissions reaching back to the 1970s. The emissions of carbon dioxide measured about 0.2 billion tons per year on average.
In 2015, between fossil fuel combustion, land deforestation, and cement production, man-made emissions totaled about 40 billion tons of carbon dioxide, 200 times greater than volcanic action. To put our emissions in perspective, eruptions from “Mount St. Helens and Pinatubo released carbon dioxide on a scale similar to human output for about nine hours.”
The “Draconian measures” the writer says we will be subjected to include new jobs in the renewable energy sector, which employs almost twice as many workers as fossil fuels. It also includes new jobs in energy efficiency, electric car manufacturing and green building construction. All beneficial to our wallets and the economy.
American taxpayer dollars, $20 billion annually, are used to prop up the very industry that is the main contributor to climate change. The U.N. Development Program recently calculated the world spends $423 billion each year to subsidize oil, gas and coal — about four times the amount needed to help poor countries address climate change.
Exxon Mobil knew as early as 1977 their products were contributing to climate change, yet they spent decades and millions of dollars refusing to publicly acknowledge climate change and instead promoted climate misinformation.
Those “Godless scientific experts” the letter writer belittles are correct. He, however, is not. Refusal to accept scientific data will not bode well for our children’s futures.
Randi Pokladnik
Uhrichsville
Mid-Ohio Valley Climate Action member
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