March 2023 - News - lists.frackcheckwv.net

Federal & State Legal Proceedings for Mountain Valley Pipeline Continue Month After Month
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 31 Mar '23

31 Mar '23

# [Federal & State Legal Proceedings for Mountain Valley Pipeline Continue Month After Month](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/31/federal-state- legal-proceedings-for-mountain-valley-pipeline-continue-month-after-month/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/DD0FD160-DC8D-4F9C-957A-4CEA023C0F5C-223x300.png)](… content/uploads/2023/03/DD0FD160-DC8D-4F9C-957A-4CEA023C0F5C.png) Mountain Valley Pipeline Traverses Incredibly Rough Terrain Crossing Rivers & Streams **Court Upholds Virginia’s MVP Water Permit, But Ruling Forthcoming on West Virginia Approval** From an [Article by Jeremiah Shelor, Natural Gas Intelligence](https://www.naturalgasintel.com/court-upholds-virginias-mvp- water-permit-but-ruling-forthcoming-on-west-virginia-approval/), March 30, 2023 . . **The U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit has upheld a crucial water quality permit issued to the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) by Virginia state regulators, keeping the project on track to potentially resume and complete construction later this year. However, a forthcoming ruling on a water quality permit issued by the state of West Virginia could bring fresh setbacks for the embattled 300-mile, 2 million Dth/d Appalachian natural gas export pipeline, according to analysts.** In a ruling published Wednesday, the Fourth Circuit denied a petition to review the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality’s decision to approve MVP under state water quality standards. In rebuffing the petition, filed by a coalition of opposition groups, the Fourth Circuit concluded, in part, that Virginia regulators had “considered a variety of factors in determining that the construction and operation of the pipeline would comply” with state water quality standards. Still, the state-level water quality permit issued to MVP by neighboring West Virginia may also have to withstand judicial scrutiny in order to keep the project on track. **The Fourth Circuit heard oral argument in a case challenging the West Virginia water quality permit back in October “but has yet to issue a ruling,” analysts at ClearView Energy Partners LLC said in a note to clients. “We explained then that we thought it is likely that the court would return the permit to West Virginia for additional work, but that the real question is whether the court remands it without vacating it, too.”** Whether or not the court vacates the West Virginia permit could prove critical for the timeline of the pending Army Corps of Engineers Clean Water Act Section 404 permit, which requires the state water-quality approvals to be in place, the ClearView analysts said. Information posted to MVP’s federal permitting dashboard indicates the Army Corps plans to issue the Section 404 permit by late April. “If a court believes that the agency can resolve the shortcomings in a permit and would likely arrive at the same decision (in this case approval), the court can remand the permit” but preserve its legal validity, the ClearView analysts said. “Most of MVP’s schedule delays have arisen from judicial challenges that resulted in permits being vacated.” MVP is a joint venture of EQM Midstream Partners LP; NextEra Capital Holdings Inc.; Con Edison Transmission Inc.; WGL Midstream; and RGC Midstream LLC. Project backers have said work on the pipeline is roughly 94% complete and that they plan to bring the pipeline into service in the second half of 2023. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/31/federal-state-legal-proceedings- for-mountain-valley-pipeline-continue-month-after-month/>

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Drilling & Fracking Threatens Our Allegheny Plateau and Its Biodiversity
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 29 Mar '23

29 Mar '23

# [Drilling & Fracking Threatens Our Allegheny Plateau and Its Biodiversity](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/29/drilling-fracking- threatens-our-allegheny-plateau-and-its-biodiversity/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/2EF1F57C-EBEE-46C0-A13A-00B9CB0B2759.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/2EF1F57C-EBEE-46C0-A13A-00B9CB0B2759.jpeg) Fracking waste disposal in Guernsey County, OH. (These activities are known risks of creating earthquakes.) **Protect This Place: Fracking Threatens the Allegheny Plateau in PA, N.W. WV & S.E. OH** [Environmental Essay by Lisa C. Lieb, Revelator Voices](https://therevelator.org/fracking-allegheny-biodiversity/), March 27, 2023 **Let’s Protect This Place: A region historically plagued by industrial pollution is overwhelmed with unconventional oil and gas development. The Allegheny Plateau is a lower-lying portion of the Appalachian Mountain Range that extends from southern and central New York to northern and western Pennsylvania, eastern Ohio, northern and western West Virginia, and eastern Kentucky.** **Why it matters:** The plateau consists of areas of gently sloping hills in the north and west of the region as well as rugged valleys in the south and east. It overlies the Marcellus Shale and Utica Shale, sedimentary rock formations. The region is rich in natural resources, including hardwoods, iron ore, silica, coal, oil and natural gas. The abundance of these resources supported development in the region and were integral to the local steel, glass, rail and extraction industries. Prior to widespread logging between 1890 and 1920, the area hosted old-growth forests containing red spruce, eastern white pine, eastern hemlock, sugar maple, black oak, white oak, yellow birch and American beech. But the forest’s makeup is now different, favoring oaks, maples, hickories, American beech and yellow birch. Though fragmented and much less mature than the old-growth forests, today’s forests continue to play a vital role in ecosystems, serving as habitats for the federally endangered Indiana bat as well as locally endangered or at-risk species such as little brown bats, northern flying squirrels and blackpoll warblers. The region hosts the Ohio River watershed and confluence, the Allegheny National Forest in New York and Pennsylvania, and the Wayne National Forest in Ohio. **The threat:** Unconventional oil and gas development has boomed in the region over the past decade. The U.S. Geological Survey estimates that the Marcellus and Utica shale plays contain approximately 214 trillion cubic feet of recoverable natural gas, making the Allegheny Plateau a lucrative location for hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking.” Already more than 13,000 unconventional wells have been drilled in Pennsylvania. Fracking itself is a resource intense process, requiring between 2 and 20 million gallons of water per well. A 2014 study estimated that in Pennsylvania, 80% of the water used for fracking comes from streams, rivers, and lakes, thus potentially altering water temperature and levels of dissolved oxygen. This water is combined with sand and a mixture of hazardous chemicals, which may include methanol, ethylene glycol and propargyl alcohol. Between 20-25% of the water that is injected into the well returns to the surface. This flowback water often has higher salinity and has been known to contain barium, arsenic, benzene and radium. While recycling of flowback is becoming more common, other methods of disposal include underground injection, application to road surfaces, treatment at public waste facilities, and discharging it onto rivers, streams and lakes. Near fracking sites in West Virginia, elevated levels of barium and strontium were found in feathers of Louisiana waterthrushes, native songbirds who make their home in brooks and wooded swamps. In northwestern Pennsylvania, crayfish and brook trout living in fracked streams were found to have increased levels of mercury. Fish diversity is also reduced in streams that have been fracked. Fracking consumes land, too. Each fracking well requires 3-7 acres. In Pennsylvania over 700,000 acres of state forest land are leased or available for gas production. Well pads, pipelines and other fracking infrastructure fragment forests, alter their ecology, and reduce biodiversity. Appalachian azure butterflies and federally threatened northern wild monkshood — purple- flowering herbaceous perennials found in New York and Ohio — are both sensitive to forest fragmentation. In addition to the direct impacts of fracking, the availability of natural gas in the Marcellus and Utica shale plays attracts petrochemical development to the region. Shell Polymers Monaca initiated operations in November 2022 at a newly constructed 386-acre petrochemical complex in southwestern Pennsylvania, along the Ohio River. The plant manufactures virgin polyethylene pellets, which will be largely be used for production of single-use plastic products. In addition to releasing hazardous air pollutants, volatile organic compounds and particulate matter, this ethane “cracker” plant will emit 2.2 million tons of carbon dioxide per year. The plant’s existence will also fuel fracking in the region; it is anticipated that it will require between 100 and 200 new wells each year in order to supply natural gas for its productions. Other petrochemical companies, including Exxon, PTT Global and Odebrecht, have reportedly been considering building similar complexes in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. **My place in this place:** I was born and raised in the area, and my family’s roots in southwestern Pennsylvania go back several generations. Some of my most cherished memories involve Pennsylvania’s forests, rivers and streams. As a child I loved my family’s summer pilgrimages to our cabin, a rustic building that had been converted from a one-room schoolhouse in the Pennsylvania Wilds. At “camp” we fished for yellow perch, smallmouth bass and walleye in the Sinnemahoning Creek and caught crayfish by hand. We sunned ourselves on the rocks along the river bank when the water was warm. In the evenings we walked on quiet, narrow roads in hopes of spotting an eastern elk in a grassy field. I now live in Beaver County, Pennsylvania, one mile from the Shell cracker plant. I can observe the plant’s flaring from my kitchen window, which often creates an ominous orange glow in the night sky. To me the plant doesn’t symbolize job creation or a rebounding local economy, despite the assertions of local and state politicians. I see the plant as the perpetuation of a hopeless dependence on fossil fuels and corporate profit at the expense of ecological integrity. I worry that fracking and an associated petrochemical buildout will destroy already fragile ecosystems throughout my home in the Allegheny Plateau. **Who’s protecting it now:** There are a variety of environmental groups located in the region. No Petro PA is an organization that resists fracking and pipeline development in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. More locally the Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community in western Pennsylvania opposes fracking and seeks to protect local community members from its harmful effects. With the rise of the Shell cracker plant, the group also formed Eyes on Shell, a community organization that aims to hold Shell accountable for its activity and advocates for the surrounding communities’ health and safety. These are just three of the many grassroots organizations working to protect the air, soil, water, wildlife and communities in the region. The national organization, FracTracker, also provides extensive data on oil and natural gas wells, pipelines, legislation and environmental health. **What this place needs:** Ideally Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia will follow in the footsteps of New York and institute a ban on fracking in light of the environmental and health risks associated with unconventional gas and oil development. However, given their strong ties to the fossil fuel industry, it is unlikely that this will occur. Banning fracking on public land in the region, such as in state forests and county parks, in a practical first step in combatting forest fragmentation and pollution. At a regional level, regulations should be put in place to protect the water quality of the Ohio River. The Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission, a multistate organization working with the federal government, could ban fracking in the Ohio River Basin in order to protect the river and its watershed. The Delaware River Basin Commission has successfully prohibited fracking within the Delaware River Basin; the rules developed by the commission could be adapted for use by the Ohio River Valley Water Sanitation Commission. Additional government oversight would help to protect water quality in the region. Presently fracking is exempt from the Safe Water Drinking Act and therefore isn’t regulated by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Ending this exemption could increase water quality and safety within the Allegheny Plateau. Increased transparency from oil and gas companies is also required to protect the region’s water. As of July 2022, California is the only state in the country that requires full public disclosure of all chemicals used in fracking. Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio must implement policies that require full public disclosure of chemicals used in all phases of the fracking process. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/29/drilling-fracking-threatens-our- allegheny-plateau-and-its-biodiversity/>

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WV Public Service Commission Should Serve the Public Interest
by Frack Check WV: admin 28 Mar '23

28 Mar '23

# [WV Public Service Commission Should Serve the Public Interest](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/28/wv-public-service- commission-should-serve-the-public-interest/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/8CED8432-1407-45ED-A88C-16018318915F.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/8CED8432-1407-45ED-A88C-16018318915F.jpeg) “Climate, Jobs & Justice” are the Three Pillars of the WV Climate Alliance **The choice and the burden of energy in West Virginia** From the [Letter to Editor of Perry Bryant, Charleston Gazette](https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/perry- bryant-the-choice-and-the-burden-of-energy-in-wv- opinion/article_e748f9d9-9db3-5c93-aeef-41be6cb16cf9.html), March 28, 2023 **Last year, Charlotte Lane, chairwoman of the West Virginia Public Service Commission, wrote an op-ed claiming that burning coal is cheaper than installing renewables, such as wind and solar. That really depends on what costs are included, and Lane failed to include the harm that burning coal causes — costs that renewables don’t incur. Plus, a lot has happened since she wrote her op-ed.** Lane’s basic argument is that solar and wind are intermittent sources of energy while coal is available all the time. The myth of coal’s super reliability was pierced recently when Standard & Poor’s reported that one of three coal-fired units at Harrison Power plant and two of three coal-fired units at John Amos were shut down during part or all of the frigid polar vortex in West Virginia last December — just when we needed their energy the most. Lane also dismissed battery storage as too expensive for storing solar and wind energy when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing. However, battery storage technology is rapidly evolving. Form Energy, for example, recently announced that it is opening a battery manufacturing facility in Weirton to make batteries that can store, and then discharge, power for 100 hours at a cost of one-tenth of lithium-ion batteries, the type of batteries utilities currently use. If Form Energy can deliver on its claims, it will make renewables very reliable at a very reasonable price. I do agree with Lane that we should consider the cost of battery storage when comparing the cost of renewables versus the cost of coal. But we also should consider the cost of the harm that occurs from burning coal. **These costs are substantial. The West Virginia University College of Law’s Center on Energy and Sustainable Development found that almost 100 deaths can be avoided in West Virginia in 2035 by adopting renewable sources of energy, instead of relying on burning coal for our electricity.** What’s the cost of these avoidable deaths? And what are the additional costs associated with global warming caused primarily by burning coal and other fossil fuels — including increased severity of flooding, longer lasting and more extreme heat waves, more intense hurricanes, etc.? **The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that the social cost of carbon — that is the total amount of damages from emitting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — is $190 per ton of carbon dioxide.** The five coal-fired power plants under the jurisdiction of the PSC emitted 38 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2021 according to the Energy Information Administration, and caused $7.2 billion in damage using the social cost of carbon. The John Amos plant in Putnam County alone emitted 11 million tons of carbon dioxide in 2021 causing $2.1 billion in damages. **The social cost and resulting damages from emissions from solar and wind? Zero. ~ It’s a lot easier to claim that coal is cheaper than wind, solar and battery storage when you don’t include $7 billion in annual damages that coal- fired power plants cause with their emissions.** To be fair to Lane, neither the emergence of Form Energy’s breakthrough on new battery development nor the EPA’s proposed social cost of carbon was available when she wrote her op-ed last year. **West Virginia is at a crossroads.** We can double down on burning coal, with all its adverse effects, or we can transition to clean energy. For the next 10 years, the federal government will provide tax incentives to partially offset the cost of utility companies installing solar, wind, geothermal and other carbon-free sources of energy. This window of opportunity shuts in 2032. After that, West Virginia utility customers will be stuck with the entire bill for developing new sources of electricity. To avoid huge cost increases to consumers, we need leadership from Lane and West Virginia’s utilities. The choice is theirs. But the cost savings from adopting clean energy or the true cost of burning coal will be ours. >>> [Perry Bryant lives in Charleston. He is a co-founder and leader of the West Virginia Climate Alliance.](https://www.wvclimatealliance.org/) #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **SEE ALSO:** [PSC orders audit of Mon Power, Potomac Edison lobbying expenses](https://www.wvgazettemail.com/news/energy_and_environment/psc- orders-audit-of-mon-power-potomac-edison-lobbying- expenses/article_e30e9673-5fa1-5b65-94b8-5752c2fa9c3d.html), Mike Tony, Charleston Gazette, March 28, 2023 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/28/wv-public-service-commission- should-serve-the-public-interest/>

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Pennsylvania Now Has Crypto Mining Problems Including Sustained Noise & GHG Emissions
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 27 Mar '23

27 Mar '23

# [Pennsylvania Now Has Crypto Mining Problems Including Sustained Noise & GHG Emissions](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/27/pennsylvania-now-has- crypto-mining-problems-including-sustained-noise-ghg-emissions/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/7F294E9A-638F-466C-81E3-FBF86FCC6A85.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/7F294E9A-638F-466C-81E3-FBF86FCC6A85.jpeg) Consuming excess natural gas to run banks of computers, noise from cooling fans and GHG emissions **Crypto Mining at Gas Wells Sparks Regulatory Headaches, Outcry in Northwestern Pennsylvania** From an [Article by Audrey Carleton, Capital & Main News](https://capitalandmain.com/crypto-mining-at-gas-wells-sparks-regulato… headaches-outcry-in-northwestern-pennsylvania), March 22, 2023 . . **Before obtaining the required permits, Diversified Energy began installing cryptocurrency mining infrastructure on one of its thousands of well pads.** **Longhorn Pad C** is located about half a mile south of a small cemetery and a little over a mile north of a Methodist church in **Elk County, in northwestern Pennsylvania**. With a population of around 30,000, this county sits squarely in the center of the path the Marcellus Shale formation takes as it curves through the commonwealth. The lonely well pad houses four natural gas wells that records show were initially drilled in 2011 but sat inactive for years after that. Now, it also houses infrastructure designed to mine cryptocurrency, which, according to a comment filed by the surrounding township’s Board of Supervisors, hums loudly enough to have solicited numerous noise complaints from residents. Though it has applied for them, the company behind this operation has yet to receive the permits it is required by law to construct or operate the engines to power a cryptocurrency mine. **“After a recent inspection, the [Department of Environmental Protection] PA- DEP has determined that Diversified was in violation,” said Tom Decker, community relations coordinator at the PA-DEP’s Northwest Regional Office, “as it had installed equipment for its cryptocurrency operations prior to the issuance of a plan approval issued by the Department. “The company is required by law to obtain a plan approval from PA-DEP prior to installation and operation of the air contamination sources,” Decker said. “Installation of the equipment without a plan approval could lead to enforcement action by the PA-DEP.”** The pad is owned by a fossil fuel operator that’s come under fire in recent years for purchasing tens of thousands of low-producing oil and gas wells without a clear business motive and for making unrealistic budget projections that minimize the true cost of plugging, critics say. In doing so, it has amassed the largest portfolio of old, low-producing wells in Appalachia. That operator is **Diversified Energy Company PLC** , the parent company to Diversified Production LLC, which recently applied for a permit with the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PA-DEP) to add five natural gas-powered engines and one generator to the well pad with the intention of mining cryptocurrency. What the operator’s permit application does not disclose is that Diversified would go on to prematurely install cryptocurrency infrastructure on the pad, and while the PA-DEP reported that it was not operational on the day of a March 1 site visit, the department confirmed that the operator had installed one engine and two trailers holding cryptocurrency mining computers in violation of environmental law. According to the township that houses the site, it’s already showing signs of running. **“We are aware that Diversified Production has installed small engines on the gas well sites to generate cryptocurrency,” Jay Township’s Board of Supervisors wrote in a comment to the PA-DEP in January. “We have received many complaints on the noise disturbance of these engines.”** The engines will power what’s called wellhead mining, in which a cryptocurrency data center is powered directly by an oil or gas well. This pad appears to be the first of its kind in Pennsylvania to go through a formal permitting process for the practice, which is gaining prominence throughout the Keystone State, home to hundreds of thousands of abandoned wells and rich methane stores. It is not clear when Diversified installed cryptocurrency equipment on the pad without a permit. A PA-DEP inspection report from June 2022 notes that “the operator is installing equipment to resume cryptocurrency mining operations using the production from four producing Marcellus shale wells on the pad.” Another one filed in August 2022 includes photos of large trailers that, according to the PA-DEP, currently house cryptocurrency equipment. A PA-DEP representative told Capital & Main that the department did not learn that the equipment was installed until mid-February. **“Given Diversified’s history, this is not a surprise,” said Charles McPhedran, a senior attorney with Earthjustice and co-author of a comment opposing Diversified’s cryptocurrency permit application to the DEP. “The question is whether PA-DEP can make a forceful response to rogue crypto operators.** ” This new use for old wells, which has in recent years proliferated in other major oil and gas states including Texas, could extend fossil fuel production in Pennsylvania — and threaten to stall progress toward its climate goals, including an aim to reduce the commonwealth’s greenhouse gas emissions by 26% below 2005 levels by 2025. The emissions intensity of Bitcoin, which is “mined” via data centers that can plug into the electrical grid or directly into energy sources, as Diversified proposes, is larger than that of some countries. As states grapple with the need to transition from fossil fuels, environmentalists fear that attaching new cryptocurrency operations to untapped or otherwise dying energy sources will only extend their life. Longhorn Pad C appears to be a perfect example, per Capital & Main’s review of public records relating to the pad. A handful of environmental groups in Pennsylvania first took note of Diversified’s proposal in December, when the PA-DEP announced in the state bulletin its intention to approve the operator’s request, soliciting public comments on the matter. In January, staff from the Clean Air Council, Earthjustice and PennFuture filed a comment arguing against issuing the permit entirely — in part because of discrepancies on the permit application; in part because of the noise pollution that such data centers are known to cause; in part because the emissions intensity of cryptocurrency data mining is threatening to set back decades of climate progress; but primarily because, by the operator’s own admission, it has unresolved environmental violations at 19 other oil and gas sites. What the commenters didn’t know at the time was that the operator had jumped the gun and installed cryptocurrency infrastructure while awaiting the proper permits. The pad also appears to follow the exact trend environmentalists fear when it comes to the use of stranded fossil fuel assets for cryptocurrency: It sat inactive for years before Diversified bought it, saw low production volumes once online and was primed for cryptocurrency a few months into its productive life. **According to the PA-DEP, Diversified acquired Longhorn Pad C in September of 2021 from another prominent Marcellus operator, EQT, with which the company has been accused of “playing hot potato” with abandoned oil and gas wells.** EQT was initially permitted for the well pad in 2010, DEP records show. But it was unproductive for nearly 10 years after being spud (in which the initial drillings for an oil or gas well are made) in 2011, according to records reviewed by Capital & Main but compiled by the Capitol Forum, an investigative news and analysis organization. Per the PA-DEP, the well pad was placed on “inactive status” for that duration. After it sat undrilled for all that time, the well pad came online in December of 2021, according to the PA-DEP, after Diversified acquired it three months earlier, and was active for about six months before its new owner applied for permits that would give it a second life as a cryptocurrency mine in May of 2022. The well pad’s production volumes have remained relatively low since Diversified began drilling from it, totalling less than 90,000 cubic feet of natural gas for all four wells over all of 2022, Capitol Forum’s records show. The Internal Revenue Service defines a marginal, or low-producing, natural gas well to be one that generates less than 90,000 cubic feet per day. The timing of Diversified’s permit application, coupled with the well pad’s years of inactivity and recent meager production volumes, could indicate that it might have otherwise been a good candidate for decommissioning — and has since been thrown a lifeline. **“That is Diversified’s business model. They acquire underperforming assets and try to squeeze as much value out of them as possible,” said Daniel Sherwood, an editor at the Capitol Forum whose meticulously compiled database of production and financial records on the fossil fuel industry has also informed several critical reports by the nonprofit environmental think tank the Ohio River Valley Institute arguing that Diversified is employing questionable, potentially climate-threatening business practices.** “[Diversified] describes its strategy as ‘acquiring low-cost, long-life, low- decline’ oil and gas wells that previous owners found uneconomic,” an April 2022 report from the Ohio River Valley Institute reads. Should the company find itself unable to plug these wells, “Taxpayers could be left with a massive bill for cleaning up the wells that Diversified leaves behind, as well as an ongoing discharge of climate-warming greenhouse gases.” Diversified’s installation of a cryptocurrency mine comes as the commonwealth reckons with its abandoned well crisis. Environmental groups have warned that the practices of companies like this one, which is buying stranded and low- producing assets and assuming liability for plugging them based on questionable calculations, will do little to lessen this crisis. In other parts of the state, cryptocurrency miners are plugging directly into natural gas wellheads, old coal mines and former steel plants — could orphaned or low- producing wells offer Bitcoin a new frontier? The cryptocurrency industry appears to be positioning itself to solve the abandoned well crisis by assuming liability for low-producing wells and their plugging costs — only after using them to mine cryptocurrency via the proof- of-work (POW) algorithm for the rest of their productive lives. Via the POW algorithm, application-specific integrated circuit (ASIC) miners mint new “coins” by competing with brute force guessing to solve a mathematical equation. This process is extremely energy intensive and, critics argue, wasteful by design. A small nonprofit lobbying group called the Satoshi Action Fund believes Bitcoin could, in fact, be an “environmental cleanup machine” for states with swaths of abandoned wells; by hooking up to wells that are already leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas, to power a revenue-generating task, places like Pennsylvania can begin to take small bites out of their orphaned well numbers, founder Dennis Porter told Capital & Main. The organization has drafted sample legislation for states endeavoring to streamline the process for doing so. Dubbed the Orphaned Well Bitcoin Mining Partnership Program, the bill — which can be tweaked between states — mandates that state departments of environmental protection create programs that partner with Bitcoin miners to offer them liability for the state’s abandoned wells, as well as federal funds from well-plugging initiatives created by the 2021 Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act (IIJA). The bill has already been introduced in Oklahoma, Mississippi and Texas. Environmentalists caution that going this route will only extend the lifeline of fossil fuel assets that are in desperate need of retirement. In the long term, they argue, adding cryptocurrency facilities to dying oil wells will further entrench us in fossil fuel dependency by creating newfound demand for oil and gas. “Crypto has the specter of restarting fossil [fuel] in Pennsylvania,” McPhedran said. “We’re a state that has seen a lot of harmful effects from coal and gas, and we don’t need a new way to use fossil fuels.” A Diversified spokesperson told Capital & Main that the company endeavors to “minimize” its “environmental footprint” while “providing clean energy” to communities. The company told Capital & Main it believes it is in compliance with environmental law. “Diversified takes pride in the responsible stewardship model we have built, where we focus on improving and managing producing natural gas and oil wells from acquisition through retirement,” Diversified’s spokesperson said. **Robert Routh, public policy and regulatory attorney at Clean Air Council, who co-authored the comment with McPhedran and Rob Altenburg, senior director for energy and climate at PennFuture, notes that the true volume of cryptocurrency mining across Pennsylvania has proven difficult to track, because some miners avert the permitting process entirely, attaching data centers to wells in remote areas for varying lengths of time without regulators ever taking note. Perhaps the most famous local instance of this took place in Clearfield County, Pennsylvania, in January 2022, when a DEP inspector stopped by a natural gas well site owned by Big Dog Energy only to find that the company had installed data centers and accompanying generators on it without authorization.** “The mobility and the remoteness of some of these operations occurring at well sites in Pennsylvania makes them and their pollution extremely difficult to quantify,” Routh says. But local communities around these sites are beginning to notice. Just 14 miles from Longhorn Pad C, the township of St. Mary’s recently adopted a zoning ordinance for future cryptocurrency projects that requires all future mines to be set at least 100 feet from a street or property boundary, to stay within a maximum sound level and to produce evidence that they won’t adversely affect the city’s electrical grid or Wi-Fi connections. A zoning officer with the city told Capital & Main that the City Council was prompted to pass the ordinance in part in response to Diversified’s cryptocurrency permit application. **And in Jay Township, the Board of Supervisors is urging the PA-DEP to account for noise limitations as it considers permits for Longhorn Pad C. “What efforts are being made to reduce the unreasonable noise beyond the property line?” they wrote in their comment.** The PA-DEP has yet to issue a permit for the well, but if it does, that would be against the law, argue the comment authors, who believe the operator’s unaddressed environmental violations would render it ineligible for new permits under the state’s Air Pollution Control Act. The PA-DEP’s Decker did not comment on how Diversified’s premature installation of equipment would affect its pending permit application. “We can only say that it is a violation and PA-DEP could take enforcement action in cases where it becomes known,” he said. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/27/pennsylvania-now-has-crypto- mining-problems-including-sustained-noise-ghg-emissions/>

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IPCC Says Fossil Fuels Must Be Closed Down ASAP To Avoid Catastrophic Events
by Frack Check WV: Diana Gooding 26 Mar '23

26 Mar '23

# [IPCC Says Fossil Fuels Must Be Closed Down ASAP To Avoid Catastrophic Events](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/26/ipcc-says-fossil-fuels-must- be-closed-down-asap-to-avoid-catastrophic-events/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/FBF90FE8-3B44-4060-83A1-426E8EF4C13E-300x273.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/FBF90FE8-3B44-4060-83A1-426E8EF4C13E.jpeg) “Keep It In The Ground” where Mother Nature Put It! **TEN (10) POLICIES FOR LIMITING G.H.G. AND MEETING CLIMATE GOALS** From an [Article by Joseph Winters, Grist Magazine](https://grist.org/economics/the-ipcc-says-we-need-to-phase-down- fossil-fuels-fast-heres-how-the-us-could-do-it/), March 24, 2023 **The IPCC says we need to phase down fossil fuels, fast. Here’s how the US could do it. A new report lists 10 policies to constrain polluting infrastructure and achieve key climate goals.** On Monday, a panel of the world’s top climate scientists released a grave warning: Current policies are not enough to stave off the most devastating consequences of climate change. According to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, or IPCC, climate pollution from the world’s existing coal, oil, and gas projects is already enough to launch the planet past 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) of warming, and world leaders must abandon up to $4 trillion in fossil fuels and related infrastructure by midcentury if they want to keep within safe temperature limits. Instead, rich countries like the United States are going in the opposite direction. Just last week, President Joe Biden approved ConocoPhillips’ Willow Project, a so-called “carbon bomb” that could add some 239 million metric tons of carbon emissions to the atmosphere, about as much as the annual emissions from 64 coal-fired power plants. A new report released this week, “An Economist’s Case for Restrictive Supply- Side Policies,” argues that bans, moratoria, and similar measures are sorely needed to keep the United States from extracting more fossil fuels. It highlights 10 policies that can complement clean energy investments to help the country achieve the goals of the IPCC while also prioritizing the health and economic security of America’s most vulnerable communities. “The IPCC shows that restrictive supply-side measures have to be part of the policy mix,” said Mark Paul, a Rutgers University professor and a coauthor of the report. “We actually need to stop extracting and burning fossil fuels, there’s just no way around it.” Until quite recently, most American economists and policymakers have focused on demand-side solutions to climate change — primarily a carbon price that would leave curbing greenhouse gas emissions up to market forces. Supply-side policies, on the other hand, are concerned with suppressing the amount of fossil fuels available for purchase. They come in two flavors: supportive and restrictive. Supportive supply-side policies include some of the tax credits and subsidies in the Inflation Reduction Act, the climate spending law that Biden signed last year, which support renewable energy to displace fossil fuels. Restrictive policies more actively seek to constrain fossil fuel development. Some of the most aggressive policies recommended in the new report would use congressional authority to stop new fossil fuel projects, whether by banning new leases for extraction on federal lands and in federal waters or by outlawing all new pipelines, export terminals, gas stations, and other infrastructure nationwide. Other measures would use economic levers to restrict fossil fuel development. For example, taxing the fossil fuel industry’s windfall profits could curtail supply by making oil and gas production less profitable. Requiring publicly traded companies to disclose their climate-related financial risks could also accelerate decarbonization by making polluters without credible transition plans unattractive to investors. The benefit of these policies, Paul said, is that they can directly constrain carbon-intensive activities and therefore more certainly guarantee a reduction in climate pollution. That’s not the case with demand-side policies, where lawmakers have to hope that consumers’ behavior will lead to less fossil fuel being produced and burned. (The Inflation Reduction Act included some of these policies, like consumer subsidies for electric vehicles and other low- emissions technologies.) Restrictive supply-side policies in the U.S. can also support international decarbonization. If the U.S. were to only reduce domestic demand for fossil fuels while keeping supply high, it could reduce the price of oil, gas, and coal abroad — incentivizing other countries to use more of those fuels. That said, not all restrictive supply-side policies are an easy sell. Some, like nationalizing the fossil fuel industry — which would effectively neutralize the sector’s outsize political influence and allow it to be dismantled in an orderly fashion — have not yet entered the political mainstream. Others, however, are closer to reality, and five have previously been introduced in congressional bills. The Keep It in the Ground Act, for example, introduced in 2021 by Democratic Senator Jeff Merkley, from Oregon, sought to prevent public lands and waters from being leased for fossil fuel extraction. The 2021 Block All New Oil Exports Act, sponsored by Democratic Senator Ed Markey, from Massachusetts, proposed reinstating a ban on exporting U.S. crude oil and natural gas, which was in place for 40 years before Congress lifted it in 2015. Philipe Le Billon, a geography professor at the University of British Columbia who runs a database on restrictive supply-side policies to curtail fossil fuels around the world, said ending federal subsidies to the fossil fuel industry is the policy most likely to garner bipartisan political support. “It would be so easy to say, ‘Come on, you made $200 billion last year, so no more subsidies,’” he told Grist. The End Polluter Welfare Act, introduced in 2021 by Democratic Senator Bernie Sanders, from Vermont, and Democratic Representative Ilhan Omar, from Minnesota, sought to do just that, in addition to stopping public funds from being used for fossil fuel research and development. The fossil fuel industry gets somewhere between $10 and $50 billion in U.S. subsidies every year. Paul said it’s hard to imagine any of the policies being enacted while the House of Representatives is under Republican leadership, but he highlighted the climate-related financial risk disclosure policy as a candidate for bipartisan support, since it seeks to inform action from investors. “Even the staunchest capitalist should be on board with this,” he said. Outside of Congress, the Securities and Exchange Commission, an independent federal agency that protects investors from financial fraud and manipulation, has proposed such a policy. Subnational “fossil-free zones” — areas that are off-limits to some or all types of fossil fuel development, like oil and gas drilling, gas stations, or export terminals — could be promising too; they’ve already been declared in many communities, and they demonstrate how combined demand- and supply-side interventions could play a role in a more comprehensive fossil fuel phaseout. To gain momentum for restrictive supply-side policies, Paul said it’s crucial to educate policymakers about “the actual math” behind U.S. and international climate goals. Investments in clean energy are a good start, Paul said, but they’re just “the first bite out of the apple. We need many more bites to limit emissions and preserve some semblance of a habitable planet.” ### URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/26/ipcc-says-fossil-fuels-must-be- closed-down-asap-to-avoid-catastrophic-events/>

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CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOW A CRISIS ~ “Time is Running Out” ~ Let’s Admit It!
by Frack Check WV: S. Tom Bond 25 Mar '23

25 Mar '23

# [CLIMATE CHANGE IS NOW A CRISIS ~ “Time is Running Out” ~ Let’s Admit It!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/25/climate-change-is-now-a- crisis-%e2%80%9ctime-is-running-out%e2%80%9d-let%e2%80%99s-admit-it/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/F8803F69-0E91-4FF0-9248-3793F51A3863.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/F8803F69-0E91-4FF0-9248-3793F51A3863.jpeg) Keeling Curve showing how carbon dioxide is accumulating in the atmosphere **' Time is Running Out,' American Petroleum Institute Chief Said in 1965 Speech on Climate** From an [Article by Sharon Kelly, DeSmog Blog](https://www.desmog.com/2018/11/20/american-petroleum- institute-1965-speech-climate-change-oil-gas/), November 20, 2018 The warning is clear and dire — and the source unexpected. “This report unquestionably will fan emotions, raise fears, and bring demand for action,” the president of the American Petroleum Institute (API) told an oil industry conference, as he described research into climate change caused by fossil fuels. **“The substance of the report is that there is still time to save the world’s peoples from the catastrophic consequence of pollution, but time is running out.”** ~~~ The speaker wasn’t Mike Sommers, who was named to helm API this past May. Nor was it Jack Gerard, who served as API’s president for roughly a decade starting in 2008. **The API president speaking those words was named Frank Ikard — and the year was 1965, over a half-century ago.** It was the same year that Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. led a civil rights march from Selma to Montgomery, Muhammad Ali felled Sonny Liston in the first round, and Malcom X was fatally shot in New York. The first American ground combat troops arrived in Vietnam and President Lyndon B. Johnson signed the law establishing Medicaid and Medicare. It would be another four years before American astronaut Neil Armstrong first set foot on the moon — and another decade before the phrase “global warming” would appear for the first time in a peer-reviewed study. And 1965, according to a letter by Stanford historian Benjamin Franta published this week in the peer-reviewed journal Nature, was the year that President Johnson’s Science Advisory Committee published a report titled “Restoring the Quality of Our Environment,” whose findings Ikard described at that year’s annual API meeting. “One of the most important predictions of the report is that carbon dioxide is being added to the Earth’s atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas at such a rate that by the year 2000 the heat balance will be so modified as possibly to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts,” Ikard presciently added, according to excerpts from his speech published in Nature. **Text of a speech by American Petroleum Institute leadership on climate change** ~~~ _“This report unquestionably will fan emotions, raise fears, and bring demands for action. The substance of the report is that there is still time to save the world 's peoples from the catastrophic consequence of pollution, but time is running out. “One of the most important predictions of the report is that carbon dioxide is being added to the earth's atmosphere by the burning of coal, oil, and natural gas at such a rate that by the year 2000 the heat balance will be so modified as possibly to cause marked changes in climate beyond local or even national efforts. “The report further states, and I quote: "..the pollution from internal combustion engines is so serious, and is growing so fast, that an alternative nonpolluting means of powering automobiles, buses, and trucks is likely to become a national necessity.”_ —- Exerpt of API President Frank Ikard’s 1965 speech on climate change and fossil fuels. **API Funded Early Research Linking CO2 and Fossil Fuels** That prediction was based in part on information that was known to the oil industry trade group for over a decade — including research that was directly funded by the API, according to Nature. In 1954, a California Institute of Technology geochemist sent the API a research proposal in which they reported that fossil fuels had already caused carbon dioxide (CO2) levels to rise roughly five percent since 1854 — a finding that Nature notes has since proved to be accurate. API accepted the proposal and funded that Caltech research, giving the program the name Project 53. Project 53 collected thousands of CO2 measurements — but the results were never published. Meanwhile, other researchers were reaching similar conclusions. Nuclear physicist Edward Teller became known in 1951 as the “father of the hydrogen bomb” for designing a thermonuclear bomb that was even more powerful than the atomic bombs dropped in Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Teller warned the oil and gas industry in 1959 about global warming and sea level rise in a talk titled “Energy Patterns of the Future.” “Carbon dioxide has a strange property,” Teller said in excerpts published earlier this year by The Guardian. “It transmits visible light but it absorbs the infrared radiation which is emitted from the earth. Its presence in the atmosphere causes a greenhouse effect.” A researcher at Humble Oil Co. (now known as ExxonMobil) checked results from a study of carbon isotopes in tree rings against the unpublished Caltech results, and found that the two separate methods essentially **And in 1960, Charles Keeling first published the measurements that became the famous “Keeling curve” — establishing one of the bedrock findings connecting climate change to fossil fuels. The CO2 measurements taken by Keeling back in the late 1950s showed levels of roughly 315 parts per million (ppm) at the Mauna Loa Observatory in Hawaii and rising.** **Those CO2 levels have since climbed upwards to 410.13 (ppm) on the day that the Nature letter was published — CO2 levels that scientists knew both then and now would be dangerously high, as carbon levels in the Earth’s atmosphere have not been over 410 ppm in millions of years.** **What the Oil Industry Knew, Then and Now (2018)** In his 1965 talk, the API’s Ikard described the role of oil and gasoline specifically in causing climate change. “The report further states, and I quote: ‘… the pollution from internal combustion engines is so serious, and is growing so fast,’” he told the API conference, “‘that an alternative nonpolluting means of powering automobiles, buses, and trucks is likely to become a national necessity.’” Three decades later, the API urged a different approach to climate science. “It’s not known for sure whether (a) climate change actually is occurring, or (b) if it is, whether humans really have any influence on it,” the API wrote in a 1998 draft memo titled “Global Climate Science Communications Plan,” which was subsequently leaked. It’s worth noting that since 1965, the science connecting climate change to fossil fuels has grown stronger and more robust. A scientific consensus around the hazards of climate change and the role that fossil fuels play in causing it has formed. “Rigorous analysis of all data and lines of evidence shows that most of the observed global warming over the past 50 years or so cannot be explained by natural causes and instead requires a significant role for the influence of human activities,” the Royal Society explains. **Today, the API continues to call for further research on climate change — and expanding the use of fossil fuels in the meantime.** “It is clear that climate change is a serious issue that requires research for solutions and effective policies that allow us to meet our energy needs while protecting the environment: that’s why oil and gas companies are working to reduce their greenhouse gas emissions,” the API’s webpage on climate change states. **“Yet archival documents show that even before Keeling published his measurements,” Franta’s letter published by Nature says, “oil industry leaders were aware that their products were causing CO2 pollution to accumulate in the planet’s atmosphere, in a potentially dangerous fashion.”** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/25/climate-change-is-now-a- crisis-%e2%80%9ctime-is-running-out%e2%80%9d-let%e2%80%99s-admit-it/>

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Major Event on the “IRA” @ Public Library in Wheeling, WV
by Frack Check WV: admin 24 Mar '23

24 Mar '23

# [Major Event on the “IRA” @ Public Library in Wheeling, WV](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/24/major-event-on- the-%e2%80%9cira%e2%80%9d-public-library-in-wheeling-wv/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/38322C17-C1B4-41FB- BE3A-BB0D9B1744DA-300x118.jpg)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/38322C17-C1B4-41FB-BE3A-BB0D9B1744DA.jpeg) West Virginia is in the Spotlight of transition already (Click on this image to magnify it) **To All Local Citizens & Residents Able to Attend** From the Coalition of Regional Organizations, CCAN, SUN, WV Rivers, CAG, New Jobs & WV-EE **How can the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) help YOU save money?** [Join our FREE event on Saturday, March 25th in Wheeling, WV](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ira-roadshow-wheeling-tickets-590196582867). For nearly two years, we endured the many bumps and roadblocks traversing the long and winding road that led us to the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). Now this historic climate legislation has the potential to deeply impact our lives and the world around us by investing in clean energy, energy efficiency and community development initiatives. But you might wonder… [How will the IRA actually impact YOUR life? Let us tell you!](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ira-roadshow-wheeling-tickets-5901965828… **Join us Saturday, March 25, at 12:30 PM in Wheeling for an exciting FREE in- person presentation on how the Inflation Reduction Act can benefit YOU and your community!** The IRA is full of unprecedented investments and ambitious climate policies that can cut climate pollution 40 percent by 2030 and 50 percent by 2035 while creating hundreds of thousands of family sustaining jobs while advancing racial, economic and environmental justice. _Are you in?_ Join us March 25 in Wheeling to learn how to sort through this enormous bill and find out how you can personally save money, make energy efficient updates to your home, uplift your community and much, much more! **CCAN will be joining forces with Leah Barbor from Solar United Neighbors, Morgan King from West Virginia Rivers, Dani Parent from West Virginia Citizen Action Group, Brandi Reece from WV New Jobs Coalition and Morgan Fowler from West Virginians for Energy Efficiency to show how individuals, municipalities, and organizations can benefit from millions of dollars of investments contained in the Inflation Reduction Act.** [Click here to RSVP for March 25 and learn how you and your community can benefit from these investments.](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ira-roadshow- wheeling-tickets-590196582867) **If you want to learn more but can’t make it to Wheeling** , rest assured! We have many more IRA Roadshows planned for the upcoming months. [Click this link to learn more about our next stops in Morgantown and Huntington](https://www.eventbrite.com/e/ira-roadshow-wheeling- tickets-590196582867). **Invite everyone you know and we 'll see you there!** >>> Prepared by Holly Bradley, Federal Team, Chesapeake Climate Action Network URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/24/major-event-on- the-%e2%80%9cira%e2%80%9d-public-library-in-wheeling-wv/>

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EXXON knew quite accurately ~ some 45 years ago ~ about the Climate Crisis!
by Frack Check WV: admin 23 Mar '23

23 Mar '23

# [EXXON knew quite accurately ~ some 45 years ago ~ about the Climate Crisis!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/23/exxon-knew-quite-accuratel… some-45-years-ago-about-the-climate-crisis/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/9F67D019-1B1B-43C8-8F41-5E46C00041B4-300x265.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/9F67D019-1B1B-43C8-8F41-5E46C00041B4.jpeg) EXXON knew more and pretended not …. **Exxon disputed climate findings for years & Its scientists knew better** From an [Article by Alice McCarthy, Harvard Gazette](https://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2023/01/harvard-led-analysi… finds-exxonmobil-internal-research-accurately-predicted-climate-change/), January 12, 2023 **Research shows that EXXON modeled and predicted global warming with 'shocking skill and accuracy' starting in the 1970s** GRAPH CITATION ~ Summary of all global warming projections reported by ExxonMobil scientists in internal documents between 1977 and 2003 (gray lines), superimposed on historically observed temperature change (red). Solid gray lines indicate global warming projections modeled by ExxonMobil scientists themselves; dashed gray lines indicate projections internally reproduced by ExxonMobil scientists from third-party sources. Shades of gray scale with model start dates, from earliest (1977: lightest) to latest (2003: darkest). Projections created internally by ExxonMobil starting in the late 1970s on the impact of fossil fuels on climate change were very accurate, even surpassing those of some academic and governmental scientists, according to an analysis published in Science by a team of Harvard-led researchers. Despite those forecasts, team leaders say, the multinational energy giant continued to sow doubt about the gathering crisis. In “ **Assessing ExxonMobil’s Global Warming Projections** ,” researchers from Harvard and the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research show for the first time the accuracy of previously unreported forecasts created by company scientists from 1977 through 2003. The Harvard team discovered that Exxon researchers created a series of remarkably reliable models and analyses projecting global warming from carbon dioxide emissions over the coming decades. Specifically, Exxon projected that fossil fuel emissions would lead to 0.20 degrees Celsius of global warming per decade, with a margin of error of 0.04 degrees — a trend that has been proven largely accurate. **“This paper is the first ever systematic assessment of a fossil fuel company’s climate projections, the first time we’ve been able to put a number on what they knew,” said Geoffrey Supran, lead author and former research fellow in the History of Science at Harvard. “What we found is that between 1977 and 2003, excellent scientists within Exxon modeled and predicted global warming with, frankly, shocking skill and accuracy only for the company to then spend the next couple of decades denying that very climate science.”** “We thought this was a unique opportunity to understand what Exxon knew about this issue and what level of scientific understanding they had at the time,” added co-author Naomi Oreskes, Henry Charles Lea Professor of the History of Science whose work looks at the causes and effects of climate change denial. “We found that not only were their forecasts extremely skillful, but they were also often more skillful than forecasts made by independent academic and government scientists at the exact same time.” Allegations that oil company executives sought to mislead the public about the industry’s role in climate change have drawn increasing scrutiny in recent years, including lawsuits by several states and cities and a recent high profile U.S. House committee investigation. Harvard’s scientists used established Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) statistical techniques to test the performance of Exxon’s models. They found that, depending on the metric used, 63-83 percent of the global warming projections reported by Exxon scientists were consistent with actual temperatures over time. Moreover, the corporation’s own projections had an average “skill score” of 72 percent, plus or minus 6 percent, with the highest scoring 99 percent. A skill score relates to how well a forecast compares to what happens in real life. For comparison, NASA scientist James Hansen’s global warming predictions presented to the U.S. Congress in 1988 had scores from 38 to 66 percent. **The researchers report that Exxon scientists correctly dismissed the possibility of a coming ice age, accurately predicted that human-caused global warming would first be detectable in the year 2000, plus or minus five years, and reasonably estimated how much CO2 would lead to dangerous warming.** The current debate about when Exxon knew about the impact on climate change carbon emissions began in 2015 following news reports of internal company documents describing the multinational’s early knowledge of climate science. Exxon disagreed with the reports, even providing a link to internal studies and memos from their own scientists and suggesting that interested parties should read them and make up their own minds. “That’s exactly what we did,” said Supran, who is now at the University of Miami. Together, he and Oreskes spent a year researching those documents and in 2017 published a series of three papers analyzing Exxon’s 40-year history of climate communications. They were able to show there was a systematic discrepancy between what Exxon was saying internally and in academic circles versus what they were telling the public. “That led us to conclude that they had quantifiably misled the public, by essentially contributing quietly to climate science and yet loudly promoting doubt about that science,” said Supran. In 2021, the team published a new study in One Earth using algorithmic techniques to identify ways in which ExxonMobil used increasingly subtle but systematic language to shape the way the public talks and thinks about climate change — often in misleading ways. These findings were hardly a surprise to Oreskes, given her long history of studying climate communications from fossil fuel companies, work that drew national attention with her 2010 bestseller, “Merchants of Doubt.” In it she and co-author, Caltech researcher Erik Conway, argued that Exxon was aware of the threat of carbon emissions on climate change yet waged a disinformation campaign about the problem. Despite the book’s popularity and the peer- reviewed papers with Supran, however, some continued to wonder whether she could prove the effect these campaigns had, if they indeed made a difference. “I think this new study is the smoking gun, the proof, because it shows the degree of understanding … this really deep, really sophisticated, really skillful understanding that was obscured by what came next,” Oreskes said. “It proves a point I’ve argued for years that ExxonMobil scientists knew about this problem to a shockingly fine degree as far back as the 1980s, but company spokesmen denied, challenged, and obscured this science, starting in the late 1980s/early 1990s.” **Added Supran: “Our analysis here I think seals the deal on that matter. We now have totally unimpeachable evidence that Exxon accurately predicted global warming years before it turned around and publicly attacked climate science and scientists.”** >>> The authors of this research were supported by a Rockefeller Family Fund grant and Harvard University Faculty Development funds. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/23/exxon-knew-quite-accurately- some-45-years-ago-about-the-climate-crisis/>

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EXXONMOBIL Completes Major Refinery Expansion in East Texas
by Frack Check WV: admin 22 Mar '23

22 Mar '23

# [EXXONMOBIL Completes Major Refinery Expansion in East Texas](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/22/exxonmobil-completes-major- refinery-expansion-in-east-texas/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/59C0A05F-3120-4E36-BDA4-676BBBD4CA60.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/59C0A05F-3120-4E36-BDA4-676BBBD4CA60.jpeg) Beaumont, Orange and Port Arthur form the Golden Triangle, the nickname of the 3 towns being the economic powers of East Texas. **ExxonMobil commissions Beaumont refinery expansion** . . From an [Article by Robert Brelsford, Oil & Gas Journal](https://www.ogj.com/refining- processing/refining/article/14291142/exxonmobil-commissions-beaumont-refinery- expansion), March 16, 2023 . . ExxonMobil Corp. has started up its long-planned project to expand light crude oil processing capacity by 250,000 b/d at ExxonMobil Product Solutions Co.’s integrated refining and petrochemicals complex along the US Gulf Coast in Beaumont, Tex. **Officially in operation as of Mar. 16, the $2-billion Beaumont expansion — completed on time and within budget despite difficulties posed by outbreak of the global pandemic following start of project construction in 2019 — increases the refinery’s overall crude processing capacity to more than 630,000 b/d, the operator said.** Proposed in 2018 and formally approved in early 2019, the expansion added a third crude unit and hydrotreaters to accommodate the operator’s growing Permian light crude production, to which the refinery is linked via pipeline. ExxonMobil said the Beaumont refinery’s new crude unit also will be well- positioned to further capitalize on segregated crude from the Permian’s Delaware basin. Delaware production will be delivered via the ExxonMobil Pipeline Co.-operated 650-mile, 36-in.Wink-to-Webster (W2W) pipeline that delivers to Webster, Baytown, and the Enterprise Crude Houston Oil terminal, in addition to providing connectivity to Texas City and Beaumont. An ExxonMobil spokesperson told OGJ the Beaumont refinery also has completed connecting pipeline additions at the site to accommodate the expansion’s increased intake and offtake of crude and finished products, respectively. “ExxonMobil maintained its commitment to the Beaumont expansion even through the lows of the pandemic, knowing consumer demand would return and new capacity would be critical in the post-pandemic economic recovery,” said Karen McKee, president of ExxonMobil Product Solutions. “The new crude unit enables us to produce even more transportation fuels at a time when demand is surging,” McKee said, noting the recent expansion adds the equivalent capacity of a medium-sized refinery. Technip Energies (formerly TechipFMC PLC) provided engineering, procurement, and construction (EPC) of four units added as part of the expansion—including an atmospheric pipe still, kerosine hydrotreater, diesel hydrotreater, and benzene recovery unit—while KBR Inc. delivered EPC services for the project offsites and interconnecting units. **Permian oil-field growth continues** In its earnings presentation for fourth-quarter 2022 and preliminary results for yearend 2022, ExxonMobil said it increased year-over-year net production from the Permian by about 90,000 boe/d to about 550,000-560,000 boe/d, with overall production from its regional operations anticipated to reach more than 600,000 boe/d during 2023. By 2027, the operator said it plans to grow Permian output to about 1 million boe/d amid ongoing improvements in capital efficiency, lower costs, higher resource recovery, and better environmental performance. **ExxonMobil confirmed that by the end of fourth-quarter 2022 it had eliminated routine flaring from its Permian operations by 100% as part of the company’s efforts to achieve net-zero Scope 1 and 2 greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from the region by 2030.** #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **SEE ALSO:** [Willow Oil Project in Alaska Faces Legal Challenges, Economic Doubts,](https://www.theenergymix.com/2023/03/19/willow-oil-project-in-alas… faces-legal-challenges-economic-doubts/) Gaye Taylor, The Energy Mix, March 19, 2023 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/22/exxonmobil-completes-major- refinery-expansion-in-east-texas/>

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Local Emergency Planning was Inadequate at East Palestine, OH
by Frack Check WV: admin 21 Mar '23

21 Mar '23

# [Local Emergency Planning was Inadequate at East Palestine, OH](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/21/local-emergency-planning-was- inadequate-at-east-palestine-oh/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/CE12BAE3-402A-4F62-82A6-8553D18249CA.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/CE12BAE3-402A-4F62-82A6-8553D18249CA.jpeg) Norfolk Southern Railroad train wreck involved the release of highly toxic chemicals **Ohio Train Derailment Raises Questions about Local Disaster Planning Across the USA** From the [Author ~ Michael Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle,](https://appalachianchronicle.com/2023/03/12/ohio-train-derailme… raises-questions-about-local-disaster-preparedness/) March 12, 2023 EAST PALESTINE, OHIO – As the people of East Palestine attempt to put their lives back together following the crash of a Norfolk Southern freight train full of hazardous chemicals in their tiny community on Feb. 3, 2023, politicians have expressed outrage. Lacking initiative, though, little if nothing will result from the faux anger of the politicians owned by corporate interests. So, it’s up to the local citizens to start asking some tough questions if they hope to have their community recover from this tragedy. In short, the last people needed in East Palestine are politicians. They are simply in the way of rescue and recovery efforts. What the citizens do need is greater awareness of how prepared local emergency response officials were for this predictable event. They are in the best position to know the community’s hazards and how response and recovery should unfold for them. Or are they? If, like far too many other communities across the nation, they have put emergency planning on the back burner, then they, too, have culpability in a disastrous incident. So, the people of East Palestine – and any community in the United States – need to first understand how community preparedness and response is supposed to work. Then, they need to start asking questions of their county leaders to see if their community is aligned with best practices. **All Disasters Begin and End Locally** It is a maxim among emergency preparedness officials that “all disasters begin and end locally.” Whether it is literally a local disaster because it impacts only a local community or segment of it, so it is also true with massive natural and man-made disasters. One never knows when or where the horribly unexpected – a tornado, a school shooting, or a train derailment – will happen in their own backyard. The recent disaster in East Palestine is the ultimate example of this principle. While there has been understandable community anger with Norfolk Southern officials, there are others who are also responsible for the response that happened when those cars left the track – local emergency officials. That is because, as we see from this disaster, it does not matter where the train originated or where it was headed. When it crashed, it impacted a local community. Indeed, as the news cycle moves on, the eventual final phase of the disaster management process – recovery – will be lead and done by local people. That community should have response plans in place for just such a potential disaster. As of this writing, I am not familiar enough to know exactly how well local emergency officials in East Palestine prepared, practiced and ultimately responded to the train derailment. Whatever the case there, it certainly raises a number of issues and questions for local citizens to be asking of their own community leaders. Those questions are beyond legitimate; they are essential. **Local Emergency Planning Committee** The first question to ask is, “Does our county have a Local Emergency Planning Committee (LEPC)? If the answer is “Yes,” then that leads to several follow-up questions (below); if the answer is “No,” then your community definitely has a problem. The lack of an LEPC calls into question why and how any decisions regarding emergency community preparedness (not to mention disaster response) are made. But it is one that can be solved by asking the right questions, ensuring that federal and state laws are being followed, and then working collaboratively to set up the structure and mechanisms to establish a functional and active LEPC. And, even if your community has an LEPC, it has a requirement to encourage citizen involvement, allowing for independent community input and probing questions to ensure that the safety of the citizens is being seriously considered and addressed by local emergency preparedness officials. **LEPC History** Initially LEPCs were set up to monitor one specific hazard in their communities – hazardous materials. In 1986, the U.S. Congress passed the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA). “Under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act (EPCRA), Local or Tribal Emergency Planning Committees (LEPCs or TEPCs) must develop an emergency response plan, review the plan at least annually, and provide information about chemicals in the community (emphasis added) to citizens. Plans are developed by these emergency planning committees with stakeholder participation.” Membership is to include elected state, local, and tribal officials; police, fire, civil defense, and public health professionals; environment, transportation, and hospital officials; facility representatives; and, representatives from community groups and the media. **The National Incident Management System (NIMS)** For 15 years, monitoring and developing emergency response and evacuation plans to hazardous materials incidents remained the only responsibility of LEPCs. All of that changed after September 11, 2001. In response to the terrorist attacks that day, President George W. Bush directed the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS) to establish the National Incident Management System (NIMS). On March 1, 2004, DHS rolled out NIMS. The establishment of NIMS dramatically expanded the roles and responsibilities of LEPCs. After years of focusing on only one community hazard, they were now charged with considering every potential hazard their community faces. They are now charged with utilizing an “all hazards” approach. To accomplish that, the LEPC develops a Hazard Vulnerability Analysis. **Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA)** From the HVA, an Emergency Operations Plan (EOP) is developed. It is the document guiding all planning, exercises, responses and recovery by local officials, often in collaboration with regional, state and national partners. According to the Office of the Assistant Secretary for Preparedness and Response, an agency of the U.S. Department of Health & Human Service, a “Hazard Vulnerability Analysis (HVA) is a systematic approach to identifying all hazards that may affect an organization, assessing the risk (probability of hazard occurrence and the consequence for the organization) associated with each hazard and analyzing findings to create a prioritized comparison of hazard vulnerabilities. The consequence, or vulnerability, is related to both the impact on organizational function and the likely service demands created by hazard impact.” For instance, potential hazards could be identified as human-related events, naturally-occurring events, technological/industrial events, and hazardous materials events. Together, emergency response officials from the county, first responders, hospitals, utility companies, police, fire and public health will collaborate, considering their community’s hazards. Some questions considered when compiling an HVA include: What is the probability an event will happen and what is its severity? What will be its magnitude? How it will impact human health and lives, the land, property and businesses? What capabilities does the community have to respond to these possibilities? Are there Mutual Aid Agreements in place to assist when a logistical need can’t be met locally? Evidence of a Functional and Active LEPC Without a functioning and active LEPC, your community is at greater risk than it should be when disaster strikes. It is also out of compliance with federal law. So, citizens interested in ensuring that their LEPC is up to its task need to find out the status of their LEPC. Start by asking if your county has an LEPC. If the answer is no, that needs to be addressed immediately. Offer to work with the commissioners to rectify the problem, but do not hesitate to reach out to state and federal authorities to see that the county commission establishes a functional and active LEPC. If the answer is yes, there will be evidence to support it. There will be minutes proving that it meets regularly, a list of members aligned with federal membership guidelines, a written HVA, and a written Emergency Operations Plan (EOP). Ask to see copies of them. The EOP should include (at least): How to activate the plan, including identifying who has authority to do so; Guidelines for establishing an Incident Management Team (IMT) / Emergency Operations Center (EOC) with proper FEMA certifications; Guidelines for establishing Safety & Security measures A Crisis Communications plan; Staff Roles & Credentialing (One’s daily work may change quite dramatically during a disaster); Resources & Assets Evacuation Plans; Guidelines for Monitoring Vulnerable Populations; An Exercise & Evaluation program that includes a full range of community drills and exercises regularly; Mutual Aid Agreements & Memorandums of Understanding; Beware of Obstacles While you have the right to expect cooperation from county commissioners and Authorities Having Jurisdiction, you may, upon the rare occasion, find a person reluctant to honor their obligation to be transparent. In that event, ask the person what statute supports their decision to withhold information from you. Lacking one, you are entitled to the information gathered by the LEPC. Additionally, it is not uncommon for corporate interests to exercise a quiet but out-sized influence upon the decisions made by the LEPC. Remember that anything presented at an LEPC meeting is part of the public record, so to ensure that the voice of grassroots citizens are heard, ask the county commission to appoint you to the LEPC. © Michael M. Barrick, 2023. Barrick holds a post-graduate Certificate in Community Preparedness and Disaster Management from the University of North Carolina Gillings School of Global Public Health. He also has experience as an EMT/Paramedic and served as the Emergency Preparedness Coordinator and Safety Officer in two hospitals. An experienced teacher, Barrick provides training in developing, implementing, assessing and maintaining Emergency Operations Plans for community, emergency response agencies, hospitals, nonprofits and corporations. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/21/local-emergency-planning-was- inadequate-at-east-palestine-oh/>

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‘SYNTHESIS REPORT’ on Climate Crisis Coming Today from UNITED NATIONS
by Frack Check WV: Diana Gooding 20 Mar '23

20 Mar '23

# [‘SYNTHESIS REPORT’ on Climate Crisis Coming Today from UNITED NATIONS](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/20/%e2%80%98synthesis- report%e2%80%99-on-climate-crisis-coming-today-from-united-nations/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/4A10F360-84B6-437E-8718-5357178C8005.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/4A10F360-84B6-437E-8718-5357178C8005.jpeg) The all-important ‘synthesis report’ will be the primary working document for the next 10 years **Nations approve key UN science report on climate change** News from Article by [Frank Jordans, ABC News](https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireStory/fight-science-holds-key- climate-report-97971652), March 19, 2023 **ASSOCIATED PRESS -- Governments gave their blessing on Sunday to a major new U.N. report on climate change, after approval was held up by a battle between rich and developing countries over emissions targets and financial aid to vulnerable nations.** **The report by hundreds of the world’s top scientists was supposed to be approved by government delegations on Friday at the end of a weeklong meeting in the Swiss town of Interlaken.** The closing gavel was repeatedly pushed back as officials from big nations such as China, Brazil, Saudi Arabia, the United States and the European Union haggled through the weekend over the wording of key phrases in the text. The report by the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change caps a series that digests vast amounts of research on global warming compiled since the Paris climate accord was agreed in 2015. **A summary of the report was approved early Sunday but agreement on the main text dragged on for several more hours** , with some observers fearing it might need to be postponed. The unusual process of having countries sign off on a scientific report is intended to ensure that governments accept its findings as authoritative advice on which to base their actions. At the start of the meeting, U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres called on delegates to provide “ cold, hard facts ” to drive home the message that there's little time left for the world to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 Fahrenheit) compared with preindustrial times. While average global temperatures have already increased by 1.1 Celsius since the 19th century, Guterrres insisted that the 1.5-degree target limit remains possible "with rapid and deep emissions reductions across all sectors of the global economy.” Observers said the IPCC meetings have increasingly become politicized as the stakes for curbing global warming increase, mirroring the annual U.N. climate talks that usually take place at the end of the year. Among the thorniest issues at the current meeting were how to define which nations count as vulnerable developing countries, making them eligible for cash from a “loss and damage” fund agreed on at the last U.N. climate talks in Egypt. Delegates have also battled over figures stating how much greenhouse gas emissions need to be cut by over the coming years, and how to include artificial or natural carbon removal efforts in the equations. As the country that has released the biggest amount of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere since industrialization, the United States has pushed back strongly against the notion of historic responsibility for climate change. **The U.N. plans to publish the report at a news conference early Monday afternoon, March 20th.** ___ **SEE ALSO:** [What is the IPCC AR6 synthesis report and why does it matter?](https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2023/mar/19/what-is-the-ip… ar6-synthesis-report-and-why-does-it-matter) ~ Fiona Harvey, The Guardian UK, March 19, 2023 **Summary report by world’s leading climate scientists sets out actions to stave off climate breakdown** The fourth and final installment of the sixth assessment report (AR6) by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, the body of the world’s leading climate scientists, is the synthesis report, so called because it draws together the key findings of the preceding three main sections. Together, they make a comprehensive review of global knowledge of the climate. The first three sections covered the physical science of the climate crisis, including observations and projections of global heating, the impacts of the climate crisis and how to adapt to them, and ways of reducing greenhouse gas emissions. They were published in August 2021, February and April 2022 respectively. The synthesis report also includes three other shorter IPCC reports published since 2018, on the impacts of global heating of more than 1.5C above pre- industrial levels, climate change and land, and climate change and the oceans and cryosphere (the ice caps and glaciers). URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/20/%e2%80%98synthesis- report%e2%80%99-on-climate-crisis-coming-today-from-united-nations/>

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Chevron Seeks to Produce Safe Fuels from Plastics, But … (not so fast)
by Frack Check WV: admin 19 Mar '23

19 Mar '23

# [Chevron Seeks to Produce Safe Fuels from Plastics, But … (not so fast)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/19/chevron-seeks-to-produce-saf… fuels-from-plastics-but-%e2%80%a6-not-so-fast/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/867C24F8-D8E2-4432-AC7B-CD81E061271B.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/867C24F8-D8E2-4432-AC7B-CD81E061271B.jpeg) Fuels derived from plastics are generally toxic or worse! **This “Climate-Friendly” Fuel Comes With an Astronomical Cancer Risk** From an [Article by Sharon Lerner, ProPublica](https://www.propublica.org/article/chevron-pascagoula-pollution- future-cancer-risk), February 23, 2023 **The Environmental Protection Agency recently gave a Chevron refinery the green light to create fuel from discarded plastics as part of a “climate- friendly” initiative to boost alternatives to petroleum. But, according to agency records, the production of one of the fuels could emit air pollution that is so toxic, 1 out of 4 people exposed to it over a lifetime could get cancer.** **“That kind of risk is obscene,”** said Linda Birnbaum, former head of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t let that get out.” That risk is 250,000 times greater than the level usually considered acceptable by the EPA division that approves new chemicals. Chevron hasn’t started making this jet fuel yet, the EPA said. When the company does, the cancer burden will disproportionately fall on people who have low incomes and are Black because of the population that lives within 3 miles of the refinery in Pascagoula, Mississippi. ProPublica asked Maria Doa, a scientist who worked at the EPA for 30 years, to review the document laying out the risk. Doa, who once ran the division that managed the risks posed by chemicals, was so alarmed by the cancer threat that she initially assumed it was a typographical error. **“EPA should not allow these risks in Pascagoula or anywhere,” said Doa, who now is the senior director of chemical policy at Environmental Defense Fund.** In response to questions, an EPA spokesperson wrote that the agency’s lifetime cancer risk calculation is “a very conservative estimate with ‘high uncertainty,’” meaning the government erred on the side of caution in calculating such a high risk. Under federal law, the EPA can’t approve new chemicals with serious health or environmental risks unless it comes up with ways to minimize the dangers. And if the EPA is unsure, the law allows the agency to order lab testing that would clarify the potential health and environmental harms. In the case of these new plastic-based fuels, the agency didn’t do either of those things. In approving the jet fuel, the EPA didn’t require any lab tests, air monitoring or controls that would reduce the release of the cancer-causing pollutants or people’s exposure to them. **In January 2022, the EPA announced the initiative to streamline the approval of petroleum alternatives in what a press release called “part of the Biden- Harris Administration’s actions to confront the climate crisis.” While the program cleared new fuels made from plants, it also signed off on fuels made from plastics even though they themselves are petroleum-based and contribute to the release of planet-warming greenhouse gases. ** Although there’s no mention of discarded plastics in the press release or on the EPA website’s description of the program, an agency spokesperson said that it allows them because the initiative also covers fuels made from waste. The spokesperson said that 16 of the 34 fuels the program approved so far are made from waste. She would not say how many of those are made from plastic and stated that such information was confidential. All of the waste-based fuels are the subject of consent orders, documents the EPA issues when it finds that new chemicals or mixtures may pose an “unreasonable risk” to human health or the environment. The documents specify those risks and the agency’s instructions for mitigating them. But the agency won’t turn over these records or reveal information about the waste-based fuels, even their names and chemical structures. Without those basic details, it’s nearly impossible to determine which of the thousands of consent orders on the EPA website apply to this program. In keeping this information secret, the EPA cited a legal provision that allows companies to claim as confidential any information that would give their competitors an advantage in the marketplace. Nevertheless, one consent order covers a dozen Chevron fuels made from plastics that were reviewed under the program. Although the EPA had blacked out sections, including the chemicals’ names, that document showed that the fuels that Chevron plans to make at its Pascagoula refinery present serious health risks, including developmental problems in children and cancer and harm to the nervous system, reproductive system, liver, kidney, blood and spleen. **Aside from the chemical that carries a 25% lifetime risk of cancer from smokestack emissions, another of the Chevron fuels ushered in through the program is expected to cause 1.2 cancers in 10,000 people — also far higher than the agency allows for the general population. The EPA division that screens new chemicals typically limits cancer risk from a single air pollutant to 1 case of cancer in a million people. The agency also calculated that air pollution from one of the fuels is expected to cause 7.1 cancers in every 1,000 workers — more than 70 times the level EPA’s new chemicals division usually considers acceptable for workers.** In addition to the chemicals released through the creation of fuels from plastics, the people living near the Chevron refinery are exposed to an array of other cancer-causing pollutants, as reported in 2021. In that series, which mapped excess cancer risk from lifetime exposure to air pollution across the U.S., the highest chance was 1 cancer in 53 people, in Port Arthur, Texas. **The 1-in-4 lifetime cancer risk from breathing the emissions from the Chevron jet fuel is higher even than the lifetime risk of lung cancer for current smokers.** In an email, Chevron spokesperson Ross Allen wrote: “It is incorrect to say there is a 1-in-4 cancer risk from smokestack emissions. I urge you avoid suggesting otherwise.” Asked to clarify what exactly was wrong, Allen wrote that Chevron disagrees with the “characterization of language in the EPA Consent Order.” That document, signed by a Chevron manager at its refinery in Pascagoula, quantified the lifetime cancer risk from the inhalation of smokestack air as 2.5 cancers in 10 people, which can also be stated as 1 in 4. In a subsequent phone call, Allen said: “We do take care of our communities, our workers and the environment generally. This is job one for Chevron.” In a separate written statement, Chevron said it followed the EPA’s process under the Toxic Substances Control Act: “The TSCA process is an important first step to identify risks and if EPA identifies unreasonable risk, it can limit or prohibit manufacture, processing or distribution in commerce during applicable review period.” The Chevron statement also said: “Other environmental regulations and permitting processes govern air, water and handling hazardous materials. Regulations under the Clean Water, Clean Air and Resource Conservation and Recovery Acts also apply and protect the environment and the health and safety of our communities and workers.” Similarly, the EPA said that other federal laws and requirements might reduce the risk posed by the pollution, including Occupational Safety and Health Administration’s regulations for worker protection, the Clean Water Act, the Clean Air Act and rules that apply to refineries. But OSHA has warned the public not to rely on its outdated chemical standards. The refinery rule calls for air monitoring only for one pollutant: benzene. The Clean Water Act does not address air pollution. And the new fuels are not regulated under the Clean Air Act, which applies to a specific list of pollutants. Nor can states monitor for the carcinogenic new fuels without knowing their names and chemical structures. We asked Scott Throwe, an air pollution specialist who worked at the EPA for 30 years, how existing regulations could protect people in this instance. Now an independent environmental consultant, Throwe said the existing testing and monitoring requirements for refineries couldn’t capture the pollution from these new plastic-based fuels because the rules were written before these chemicals existed. There is a chance that equipment designed to limit the release of other pollutants may incidentally capture some of the emissions from the new fuels, he said. But there’s no way to know whether that is happening. Under federal law, companies have to apply to the EPA for permission to introduce new chemicals or mixtures. But manufacturers don’t have to supply any data showing their products are safe. So the EPA usually relies on studies of similar chemicals to anticipate health effects. In this case, the EPA used a mixture of chemicals made from crude oil to gauge the risks posed by the new plastic-based fuels. Chevron told the EPA the chemical components of its new fuel but didn’t give the precise proportions. So the EPA had to make some assumptions, for instance that people absorb 100% of the pollution emitted. Asked why it didn’t require tests to clarify the risks, a spokesperson wrote that the “EPA does not believe these additional test results would change the risks identified nor the unreasonable risks finding.” In her three decades at the EPA, Doa had never seen a chemical with that high a cancer risk that the agency allowed to be released into a community without restrictions. “The only requirement seems to be just to use the chemicals as fuel and have the workers wear gloves,” she said. While companies have made fuels from discarded plastics before, this EPA program gives them the same administrative break that renewable fuels receive: a dedicated EPA team that combines the usual six regulatory assessments into a single report. The irony is that Congress created the Renewable Fuel Standard Program, which this initiative was meant to support, to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and boost the production of renewable fuels. Truly renewable energy sources can be regenerated in a short period of time, such as plants or algae. While there is significant debate about whether ethanol, which is made from corn, and other plant-based renewable fuels are really better for the environment than fossil fuels, there is no question that plastics are not renewable and that their production and conversion into fuel releases climate-harming pollution. Under the EPA’s Renewable Fuel Standard, biobased fuels must meet specific criteria related to their biological origin as well as the amount they reduce greenhouse gas emissions compared with petroleum-based fuels. But under this new approach, fuels made from waste don’t have to meet those targets, the agency said. In its written statement, Chevron said that “plastics are an essential part of modern life and plastic waste should not end up in unintended places in the environment. We are taking steps to address plastic waste and support a circular economy in which post-use plastic is recycled, reused or repurposed.” **But environmentalists say such claims are just greenwashing.** Whatever you call it, the creation of fuel from plastic is in some ways worse for the climate than simply making it directly from fossil fuels. Over 99% of all plastic is derived from fossil fuels, including coal, oil and gas. To produce fuel from plastics, additional fossil fuels are used to generate the heat that converts them into petrochemicals that can be used as fuel. “It adds an extra step,” said Veena Singla, a senior scientist at NRDC. “They have to burn a lot of stuff to power the process that transforms the plastic.” Less than 6% of plastic waste is recycled in the U.S. Scientists estimate that more than a million tons of that unrecycled plastic ends up in the environment each year, killing marine mammals and polluting the world. Plastic does not fully decompose; instead it eventually breaks down into tiny bits, some of which wind up inside our bodies. As the public’s awareness of the health and environmental harm grows, the plastics industry has found itself under increasing pressure to find a use for the waste. The idea of creating fuel from plastic offers the comforting sense that plastics are sustainable. But the release of cancer-causing pollution is just one of several significant problems that have plagued attempts to convert discarded plastic into new things. One recent study by scientists from the Department of Energy found that the economic and environmental costs of turning old plastic into new using a process called pyrolysis were 10 to 100 times higher than those of making new plastics from fossil fuels. The lead author said similar issues plague the use of this process to create fuels from plastics. **Chevron buys oil that another company extracts from discarded plastics through pyrolysis. Though the parts of the consent order that aren’t blacked out don’t mention that this oil came from waste plastics, a related EPA record makes this clear. The cancer risks come from the pollution emitted from Chevron’s smokestacks when the company turns that oil into fuel.** The EPA attributed its decision to embark on the streamlined program in part to its budget, which it says has been “essentially flat for the last six years.” The EPA spokesperson said that the agency “has been working to streamline its new chemicals work wherever possible.” **The New Chemicals Division, which houses the program, has been under particular pressure because updates to the chemicals law gave it additional responsibilities and faster timetables. That division of the agency is also the subject of an ongoing EPA Inspector General investigation into whistleblowers’ allegations of corruption and industry influence over the chemical approval process.** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/19/chevron-seeks-to-produce-safe- fuels-from-plastics-but-%e2%80%a6-not-so-fast/>

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West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light is worthy of support!
by Frack Check WV: admin 18 Mar '23

18 Mar '23

# [West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light is worthy of support!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/18/west-virginia-interfaith- power-light-is-worthy-of-support/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/C847BBB3-F755-46BA- BA88-F3FDCAF79F3B-300x169.png)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/C847BBB3-F755-46BA-BA88-F3FDCAF79F3B.png) WVIPL has performed important work here in WV over the past 20 years **[Dear Friends and Supporters](https://wvipl.org/),** **We are writing to you today with important information from the[West Virginia Interfaith Power and Light](https://wvipl.org/) (WVIPL).** **Faith Climate Action Week is coming up and Interfaith Power and Light has released some great planning materials. You can find them here:** <https://www.faithclimateactionweek.org/> The theme for this year is **" Living the Golden Rule: Just Transition to a Clean Energy Economy."** We hope you will check these resources out and utilize them in your faith community. The **WVIPL is on the verge of gaining independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit status**. We will be developing a Board of Directors with officers. If you have the time and interest in helping out, please contact Robin Blakeman at _rbrobinjh(a)gmail.com_ , and include “ **WVIPL leadership** ” in the subject line of your email. With spring just around the corner, a time of rebirth and rejuvenation, we thank you for your support and extend an ongoing invitation to be involved in the important work of caring for our common home. **Sincerely** , _[[WVIPL Steering Committee and Staff](https://wvipl.org/)](https://wvipl.org/)_ URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/18/west-virginia-interfaith-power- light-is-worthy-of-support/>

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American Conservation Film Festival was March 10 – 12 in Shepherdstown & Elsewhere
by Frack Check WV: admin 17 Mar '23

17 Mar '23

# [American Conservation Film Festival was March 10 – 12 in Shepherdstown & Elsewhere](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/17/american-conservation-fi… festival-was-march-10-12-in-shepherdstown-elsewhere/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/564B615D-9705-415D-9E03-616827D10C3E-205x300.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/564B615D-9705-415D-9E03-616827D10C3E.jpeg) Mary Anne Hitt was the Main Speaker on March 12th ……. (Click this image to read it) **@[American Conservation Film Festival 2023](https://conservationfilmfest.org/) @** **Evolve Shepherdstown** (106 W. German Street) is the festival’s pop-up headquarters, a place for guests to pop in and meet representatives from conservation groups like **Solar Holler, Sky Truth, Trout Unlimited, WV Rivers, Garden Stewards, and Oak Springs Garden Foundation.** Film stars and filmmakers were popping in throughout the weekend, including the on-screen personalities from Hellbent and Little Stream, Big Magic, and filmmaker Neil Losin of sym•bee•o•sis. At 1pm on Sunday afternoon, Shepherdstown resident **Mary Anne Hitt** , international climate advocate and activist, read an excerpt from her essay included in **”All We Can Save: Truth, Courage and Solutions for the Climate Crisis”**. At 2pm, we learned more about West Virginia’s native brook trout and star of the film, “ **Little Stream, Big Magic** ” from **Than Hitt** , research biologist. Did you miss the art installation “ **School of Trout** ” created by fourth grade students at Shepherdstown Elementary School. Over 50 beautifully collaged trout greeted visitors to Evolve all weekend. Admission was free. Evolve was open Sat & Sun 11AM to 5PM. #######+++++++#######+++++++######## **The[American Conservation Film Festival](https://conservationfilmfest.org/action-opportunities/) 2023** If you value exceptional filmmaking on stories that literally change lives and an organization devoted to the curation and presentation of those stories, please consider a donation to ACFF. We so appreciate your support and look forward to fulfilling our mission for years to come. And we send each of you our wishes for your well-being and continued engagement with the things that bring you joy and solace. **ACFF Environmental Efforts Throughout the Year** Whenever possible, our staff works from home offices in order to reduce fuel demand and pollution. To reduce environmental impacts, staff has reduced their intake of meat and dairy and some are vegetarian. Some of our staff has invested in zero emission, hybrid vehicles and walk to the office, weather permitting. For long distance business trips, carpooling or public transportation is utilized as much as possible. Meetings are often conducted using video conferencing with Zoom or via conference call to cut down on driving. There is more …. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/17/american-conservation-film- festival-was-march-10-12-in-shepherdstown-elsewhere/>

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Activities Underway in West Virginia to Address the PFAS Issues ~ Traces are Toxic
by Frack Check WV: admin 16 Mar '23

16 Mar '23

# [Activities Underway in West Virginia to Address the PFAS Issues ~ Traces are Toxic](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/16/activities-underway-in- west-virginia-to-address-the-pfas-issues-traces-are-toxic/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/8371E544-6E6F-47DA-A0CD-A616331F0876.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/8371E544-6E6F-47DA-A0CD-A616331F0876.jpeg) Delegate Evan Hansen provides leadership on this PFAS legislation **State will get $18 million in federal funds to deal with PFAS chemicals in drinking water** From the [Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post (Yahoo! News)](https://news.yahoo.com/state-18-million-federal-funds-023100710.html), March 15, 2023 **MORGANTOWN — West Virginia will receive more than $18 million in federal funds to address the presence of potentially toxic PFAS chemicals in drinking water.** State Health Officer Matthew Christiansen shared that news during Gov. Jim Justice's Wednesday administration update press briefing. Justice was reviewing legislation completed during the recent session, and HB 3189 — the PFAS bill — is awaiting his signature. **Christiansen reminded listeners that the U.S. EPA recently set maximum contaminant levels for two members of the PFAS family — PFOA and PFOS — at 4 parts per trillion. EPA also recommended calculations for four other PFAS compounds.** Expecting that to happen, the Department of Health and Human Resources and the Department of Environmental Protection formed a working group to help local water systems develop plans to treat drinking water for PFAS. Christiansen's bureau is part of DHHR and he said, "The Bureau for Public Health is committed to ensuring safe water for the citizens of West Virginia." **The EPA announced that the $18 million will come to the state, Christiansen said. The money can be used for a wide variety of actions, including research, testing treatment, source water control, restructuring, consolidation and technical assistance.** The working group will offer support and avenues for communication, and help local systems with best practices and mitigation, he said. **HB 3189 is the PFAS Protection Act, targeting PFAS in drinking water. It follows on the heels of a Department of Environmental Protection Study ordered in 2020, performed by the U.S. Geological Survey. Under prior EPA drinking water advisory numbers, 37 of the state's 279 raw water intakes had PFAS levels above those set by EPA. Under the new thresholds, 100 more sites exceeded the level, for a total of 137.** **Now, DEP will go back, resample the finished (treated) water from those sites and try to determine the sources. Industries that use PFAS chemicals must report their usage to the DEP. And DEP will, to the extent data is available, consider ways to address the sources and mitigate the impacts on public water systems.** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/16/activities-underway-in-west- virginia-to-address-the-pfas-issues-traces-are-toxic/>

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BLOOMBERG LAW: Limiting P.P.T. PFAS Quite Challenging But Necessary
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 15 Mar '23

15 Mar '23

# [BLOOMBERG LAW: Limiting P.P.T. PFAS Quite Challenging But Necessary](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/15/bloomberg-law-limiting-p… t-pfas-quite-challenging-but-necessary/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/94B7B706-9D41-4187-A635-186781E2C8A0.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/94B7B706-9D41-4187-A635-186781E2C8A0.jpeg) PFAS are very stable organic chemicals, lasting “forever” … **US Plan to Limit PFAS in Water Draws Concern Over Cost, Science** From a [Review by Pat Rizzuto, Bloomberg Law](https://news.bloomberglaw.com/environment-and-energy/us-plan-to-limit- pfas-in-water-draws-concern-over-cost-science), March 15, 2023 The first-ever national drinking water limits for PFAS the EPA proposed Tuesday are raising concerns about the costs to utilities and ratepayers, questions from industry about the science the agency used, and predictions of more litigation over the health effects of the chemicals. The proposal also should spur controls on upstream sources of the chemicals, according to both a key lawmaker and the Southern Environmental Law Center, a nonprofit environmental legal advocacy organization. The Environmental Protection Agency proposed a 4 parts per trillion (ppt) enforceable limit on the amount of either perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) or perfluorooctane sulfonic acid (PFOS) that could be in drinking water. It also proposed a strategy to limit four additional per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) in drinking water. VIDEO: PFAS: The ‘Forever Chemicals’ Water utilities would be required to monitor the PFAS, reduce levels exceeding the proposed limits, and notify their customers if the PFAS levels were above the EPA’s limits. The proposed limits, the lowest level many laboratories can reliably detect, are tighter than any states have proposed. Also known as forever chemicals, some PFAS persist in the environment for years and have been linked to an increase in the risk of various diseases including cancer. The plans “signal a more aggressive stance on the EPA on regulating these chemicals,” said Stephanie Feingold, a partner at law firm Morgan Lewis specializing in environmental regulations and litigation. Additional PFAS rules the agency is pursuing include designating two or more PFAS as hazardous substances under the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, or Superfund law; limiting industrial effluents of the chemicals; and collecting extensive information on PFAS that have been in commerce for more than a decade. The Association of Metropolitan Water Agencies (AMWA) has serious concerns about the cost of this rulemaking, particularly as those costs will potentially fall to ratepayers, said association spokesman Brian Redder. **Cost Concerns** ~ The EPA offered treatment options to address the presence of PFAS in drinking water. Granular activated carbon (GAC), anion exchange, high-pressure membrane technologies, reverse osmosis (RO), and nanofiltration can remove the PFAS, the agency’s proposed rule said. The EPA’s estimated costs for water utilities to comply with its proposal range from $772 million to $1.2 billion, while its estimated benefits range from $908 million to $1.2 billion. Yet treatment expenditures utilities already have incurred suggest the costs could exceed the agency’s estimate, AMWA CEO Tom Dobbins said in a statement. “For comparison, AMWA member Cape Fear Public Utility Authority’s estimated capital cost for its treatment was $43 million, and its annual operating cost was $3-5 million,” Dobbins said. “If about 16 utilities of similar size to Cape Fear nationwide had to implement comparable treatment techniques, the total cost would exceed EPA’s estimate,” of $772 million, he said. The 2021 infrastructure law provided $10 billion to address emerging contaminants including PFAS in drinking water. “But the costs of meeting the proposed standards will far exceed the additional funding, said the American Water Works Association (AWWA). More than an estimated 5,000 water systems will have to develop new water sources or install and operate advanced treatment; another 2,500 water systems in states with existing standards will need to adjust existing PFAS treatment systems, it said. A recent study requested by AWWA estimated the national cost for water systems to install treatment to remove PFOA and PFOS to levels required by the EPA’s proposal exceeds $3.8 billion annually, that association said. “The vast majority of these treatment costs will be borne by communities and ratepayers, who are also facing increased costs to address other needs, such as replacing lead service lines, upgrading cybersecurity, replacing aging infrastructure and assuring sustainable water supplies,” AWWA said. Both water associations stressed the need to make sure the EPA used sound science to underpin its proposed limits. “I think there will be litigation,” even before a final rule would be finalized, on both the science underpinning the EPA’s proposal and its strategy to limit the four PFAS, said Jessie Rosell, an environmental attorney with Lathrop GPM’s PFAS practice. **Litigation Outlook** ~ Rosell and Feingold described the “hazard index” strategy the agency proposed to use to regulate four PFAS as an unusual approach to limiting drinking water contaminants. The index, a mathematical calculation of whether people’s exposure to contaminants is close to levels that might cause health problems, is more often used as a tool for deciding whether some kind of cleanup or other regulatory action is needed, Feingold said. Rosell predicted there will be legal challenges to the EPA’s proposal similar to those chemical manufacturers mounted after the agency last June set interim and final health advisories for PFOA, PFOS, and hexafluoropropylene oxide (HFPO) dimer acid and its ammonium salt, referred to as the “GenX chemicals” due to the technology that produces them. The US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit dismissed for lack of standing the challenge the American Chemistry Council brought against the agency’s interim health advisories for PFOA and PFOS. But the Chemours Co.'s challenge to the agency’s final GenX health advisory is proceeding in the US Circuit Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit. Issues raised in those lawsuits are likely to be raised again, Rosell said. “We have serious concerns with the underlying science” that the EPA used to develop its proposals, ACC said in a statement. It pointed to draft guidance the World Health Organization issued that proposed much higher limits than did the EPA—100 ppt on PFOA and PFOS . The agency also has not completed its health assessment of two of the six PFAS, the chemistry council said. Those two are perfluorohexane sulfonate (PFHxS) and perfluorononanoic acid (PFNA). The agency’s research office expects it will take until next year for the agency to complete its analysis and then have independent scientists critique it. “The maximum contaminant levels (MCLs) the EPA sets will become target cleanup levels at Superfund sites and de facto cleanup levels at other sites, which is another reason it’s so important to get the science right,” said Tom Flanagin, an ACC spokesman. Meanwhile, both Rosell and Feingold said attorneys representing individuals in toxic tort cases could use the science and standards in the EPA’s proposal to bolster their cases, as they’ve already been using the interim and final health advisories the agency set last June. Plaintiffs in a multidistrict case relating to PFAS in firefighting foam and the Department of Justice on Tuesday alerted the U.S. District Court for the District of South Carolina about the EPA’s proposal. “EPA determined PFOA and PFOS are likely carcinogens (i.e., cancer causing) and that there is no level of these contaminants that is without a risk of adverse health effects,” according to the filing. “Given that there is no higher regulatory authority than EPA, no prudent water provider can ignore this important safety information even prior to it becoming legally enforceable.” **Disposal, Upstream Releases** ~ The EPA’s proposal raises many questions including how drinking water utilities will dispose of spent filters and other equipment they use to remove the PFAS, Feingold said. The technologies the EPA named concentrate the PFAS they remove from drinking water, but then move them into other media, she said. Rep. Chris Pappas (D-N.H.) said he plans to reintroduce his Clean Water Standards for PFAS Act this year to limit industrial discharges of PFAS into rivers, groundwater and other drinking water supplies. “States must act now using existing law to protect people and their drinking water,” said Geoff Gisler, a senior attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center. Michigan has required pretreatment for 59 industrial and other facilities that release PFAS into sewers, according to information the Michigan Department of Environment, Great Lakes, and Energy previously provided Bloomberg Law. Colorado, Michigan, and North Carolina have taken some actions to reduce industrial sources of PFOS and some other PFAS, but not nearly as much as they should, Gisler said. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/15/bloomberg-law-limiting-p-p-t- pfas-quite-challenging-but-necessary/>

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The Hydrogen Boondoggle is an Enormous Slush Fund
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 14 Mar '23

14 Mar '23

# [The Hydrogen Boondoggle is an Enormous Slush Fund](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/14/the-hydrogen-boondoggle-is-an- enormous-slush-fund/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/A2E68673-9F5E-4C1F-9959-B25E3C12F627.png)](https://… content/uploads/2023/03/A2E68673-9F5E-4C1F-9959-B25E3C12F627.png) The Ohio River Valley Institute has studied these half-baked ideas! **Hydrogen Slush Fund Means More Dollars Wasted On The Green Energy Boondoggle** From a [Letter to Editor by Frank Lasee, Former Wisconsin State Senator](http://www.truthinenergyandclimate.com), February 25, 2023 Nearly 50 years ago in 1976, the US Congress authorized the Hydrogen Program managed by the National Science Foundation. Then in 1983, Bush and Congress threw more money at hydrogen as an alternative energy source. Last year Congress and Biden, in their infrastructure bill, created a $9.5 billion dollar hydrogen slush fund. The Europeans have also authorized $5.2 billion euros for their hydrogen slush fund. Since 1839, scientists have been working on hydrogen for energy and storage with little to show for it. The future of green hydrogen is just as dull. Brown and grey hydrogen, made from coal or natural gas (CH4), makes more reasonably priced hydrogen now. Hydrogen is not a fuel. It must be created and is only a way of storing and transporting energy. All of which are difficult, expensive and there is no infrastructure to support it. This $9.5 billion slush fund is a breeding ground for multiple Solyndras. (Solyndra was 1/3 of the 1.5 billion-dollar taxpayer loss on Obama’s solar revolution.) The Biden administration has authorized a half billion loan guarantee for a green hydrogen hub in Delta, Utah. Never mind that green hydrogen requires huge volumes of water and Delta is on the edge of the desert, and the entire southwest is chronically short of water. Or that Utah today only gets 4% of its electricity from wind and solar. There is no “excess” wind and solar to create green hydrogen in Utah. Building a green hydrogen hub in a very dry place with very little “renewable” energy is not wise; some would even call it stupid. The Biden administration needs a talking point to fix the recently admitted unreliability problem of wind and solar. So common sense and fiscal responsibility are unnecessary. Our electric grids need full-time demand matching electricity, or we have blackouts. There is a dawning realization by the climate religion, there isn’t enough lithium in the world, over the next few decades, to build tens of millions of electric vehicles and industrial scale grid batteries too. In addition, lithium batteries cannot store the abundant solar power California has in the sunny mild winter for use in hot July. The energy will have left those batteries long before July rolls around. Hence, the expensive talking point of green hydrogen was born. Making green hydrogen takes a lot of energy. About 35% more energy than the created hydrogen stores. Then you lose another 30% when you transport and use it. Hydrogen yields only 35% of the energy input. It is a real energy loser. Making green hydrogen requires 13 times more water, sea water has to be desalinated first, and additional water for cooling. Then heat the water to 2,000 degrees and electrocute it, freeing oxygen into the air and hydrogen into the factory. Then super chill to near-absolute zero. Then compress it to 10,000 psi, which is three times the psi of an average scuba tank. Super cold liquid hydrogen is born. It can be used for fuel cells and burned in electric producing power plants instead of natural gas. We get far more bang for our buck with natural gas rather than create electricity to make green hydrogen, only to burn it again, to make electricity using a process that costs 65% of the energy. The whole concept of using wind and solar to produce green hydrogen has an elephant-in-the-room type problem. The Industrial Four Step process of making hydrogen isn’t something that can be started on sunny mornings and stopped in the late afternoon. Or fired up when the wind starts blowing and then shut down when the wind stops. What will keep the hydrogen process flowing on dark windless nights? Does a green dreamer care to answer that? Do the facts matter? Heck, it is only federal borrowed money anyway. Hydrogen is just another form of political greenwashing at the American people’s expense. We need to stop the wasteful spending of taxpayer money — money we don’t have — on green boondoggles before it is too late. Before the communist Chinese, who use more than half of the 8 billion tons of coal as their primary fuel source (60% of total energy), eat our lunch and rule the world, Americans need to wake up to the dangerous threats of the green energy nightmare and the rising threat of the Red Chinese Dragon before it is too late! >>> Frank Lasee is a former Wisconsin state senator. The district he represented had two nuclear power plants, a biomass plant and numerous wind towers. He has experience with energy, the environment, and the climate. You can read more energy and climate information at www.truthinenergyandclimate.com which Frank leads. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/14/the-hydrogen-boondoggle-is-an- enormous-slush-fund/>

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German Natural Gas Grid Adding 30% Hydrogen For Regional Gas Network
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 13 Mar '23

13 Mar '23

# [German Natural Gas Grid Adding 30% Hydrogen For Regional Gas Network](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/13/german-natural-gas-grid- adding-30-hydrogen-for-regional-gas-network/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/0536C1E3-93ED-44C8-B755-84E1BD51938C.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/0536C1E3-93ED-44C8-B755-84E1BD51938C.jpeg) Research and planning bringing modern innovations **The Hydrogen Stream: German grid operator increases hydrogen blend in regional gas network** From the [Articles of Sergio Matalucci, PV Magazine](https://www.pv- magazine.com/2023/03/10/the-hydrogen-stream-german-grid-operator-increases- hydrogen-blending-in-regional-gas-network/), March 10, 2023 **German grid operator Netze BW, a unit of energy company EnBW Group, said it will increase the amount of hydrogen in its regional gas network in Oehringen, in the southwest of Germany, from 20% to 25%.** “In three weeks, we will reach 30% of hydrogen in the local gas grid,” Heike Grüner, project leader, told pv magazine. Netze BW will keep a 30% hydrogen blend for some months to generate better data on home heating in detached family homes. “In the following phase of the project, we will introduce oscillations from 0 to 30% hydrogen. Volatile mixtures will simulate real-life volatility typical of energy systems with an increase in renewable energies.” Netze BW, which operates the distribution grid in large parts of Baden- Württemberg region, said that 100% hydrogen in the grid in the future would be possible. The company will share the data coming from the Oehringen “hydrogen island” with all the European grid operators to show that gas grids can be used in the clean energy transition. Netze BW started to use a hydrogen blend for the company's appliances in November 2021, introducing a hydrogen-gas blend for customers in 2022. Last year, the company also tested all the appliances in the Oehringen network with a blend of up to 35% hydrogen. #######+++++++#######+++++++######## **Toyota‘s new electrolysis equipment using the fuel cell stack and other technology from the Mirai vehicle will be put into operation this March at a Denso Fukushima Corporation plant.** “It will serve as a technology implementation venue to promote its widespread use going forward,” said the Japanese car manufacturer. Toyota added it would accelerate its efforts to build a model for the local consumption of locally produced hydrogen, using electrolysis equipment to produce clean hydrogen and combust it in one of the plant's gas furnaces. The **Climate Change Committee said that hydrogen is related to three of the ten priorities** to deliver a reliable decarbonized power system in the UK. The UK's independent adviser on tackling climate change underlined that the government should identify priority hydrogen investments by 2024, finalize by the end of the year ad-hoc funding mechanisms to support the development of 10 GW of low-carbon hydrogen production, and fast-track the development of new business models for hydrogen transportation. The report sees a limited role of hydrogen in heating. Researchers at **Australia 's Monash University have isolated an enzyme** that can convert minute concentrations of hydrogen in the atmosphere to produce a sustained electrical current, paving the way toward a future where devices are literally powered out of thin air. The research team, led by Rhys Grinter, Ashleigh Kropp, and Chris Greening from the Monash University Biomedicine Discovery Institute in Melbourne, isolated and analyzed the genetic code of an enzyme that enables a common soil bacteria to consume hydrogen and extract energy from it. The **Atlantic Council said that green hydrogen could spur development in Sub- Saharan Africa** , especially in South Africa, Namibia, and Kenya. “Following the hydrogen valley model, the Southern Corridor Development Initiative is a partnership between the Namibian Green Hydrogen Council and the German firm Hyphen Hydrogen Energy. The project is expected to produce 300,000 tons of green hydrogen by 2030 from 5 GW to 6 GW of installed renewable energy capacity,” said the Atlantic Council. According to the report, the export potential depends on finding a solution to local energy poverty, inequities between nations, and energy networks within the region. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/13/german-natural-gas-grid- adding-30-hydrogen-for-regional-gas-network/>

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‘Farmers for Climate Action’ Program Searches for Solutions
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 12 Mar '23

12 Mar '23

# [‘Farmers for Climate Action’ Program Searches for Solutions](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/12/%e2%80%98farmers-for- climate-action%e2%80%99-program-searches-for-solutions/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/95195216-0C9C-4064-A7FF-026D2AD5F42A.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/95195216-0C9C-4064-A7FF-026D2AD5F42A.jpeg) Climate activists march to the U.S. Capitol after the ‘Farmers for Climate Action’: “Rally for Resilience” in Freedom Plaza on March 7, 2023 in Washington, DC. **Farmer Activists ‘Keep Slugging’ at ‘Farmers for Climate Action’ Rally in D.C.** From an [Article by Thom Duffy, Billboard Magazine](https://www.billboard.com/music/music-news/john-mellencamp-perfor… farmers-climate-change-rally-washington-dc-1235281452/), March 7, 2023 America’s farmers came to Washington, D.C., more than 40 years ago to save their farms. On Tuesday (March 7), a new generation of farmers, ranchers, farmworkers and activists came to the nation’s capital to save the planet. John Mellencamp, co-founder of Farm Aid, sang Tuesday for those gathered before they marched up Pennsylvania Avenue to the U.S. Capitol building, calling for Congress to take action on climate change in the forthcoming Farm Bill. “Here’s all I can say – keep slugging,” said Mellencamp, recalling how he and Willie Nelson and Neil Young formed Farm Aid in 1985 to support family farmers — a commitment they have sustained for four decades, joined by Farm Aid board members Dave Matthews and Margo Price. “We’ve been slugging since 1985 and let’s keep slugging,” said Mellencamp. “Let’s try to improve the quality of the food that we eat, the air that we breathe and the people that we are.” Taking the stage midday at Freedom Park, Mellencamp looked at the crowd before him and remarked: “The faces are much younger than they used to be. And I think that’s great that there are younger people trying to improve the planet and the food that we eat. So it’s up to you guys to lead the way.” **With that, Mellencamp played a spare, acoustic rendition of “Rain on the Scarecrow,” his harrowing 1985 song about the farm foreclosure crisis that led to the creation of Farm Aid.** **_Rain on the scarecrow / blood on the plow This land fed a nation / this land made me proud And son, I’m just sorry there’s no legacy for you now_** Farm Aid’s own legacy is the rising awareness, since the mid-1980s, of the importance of a national system of agriculture that values family farmers, good food, soil and water, and strong communities. **In recent years, there also has been an increasing awareness that industrial agriculture practiced on large corporate farms is contributing to the climate crisis. In a report in August 2021, the National Resources Defense Council stated that industrial agriculture is a “significant source” of carbon in the atmosphere.** The farmers and activists in D.C. championed what is known as regenerative farming, agriculture methods that can hold carbon in the soil, enhance biodiversity and help mitigate climate change. Farm Aid, with its annual concerts each September, may be the highest-profile organization drawing attention to the state of American agriculture — and Willie Nelson is certainly the nation’s best-known champion of family farmers. But this week’s gathering dramatically demonstrated that the breadth and scope of the nation’s farm movement transcends Farm Aid. The “Rally for Resistance: Farmers for Climate Action” was organized under the umbrella of the **National Sustainable Agriculture Coalition** and involved some two dozen activist organizations and more than 30 delegations of farmers from across the country who converged on Washington to make their voices heard. Plans for this rally were revealed at the Farm Aid festival in Raleigh, N.C., in September and exclusively reported by Billboard. The spark for the gathering is the current debate over the contents of the Farm Bill, the multi- part, multibillion-dollar legislation that is passed by Congress about every five years and has a massive influence on how the nation’s food is grown. **The most recent Farm Bill was passed in 2018 and expires this year.** **In September, Farm Aid joined more than 150 organizations in co-signing a letter asking President Biden “to weigh in on the next Farm Bill and demand that Congress build even further on the administration’s actions to date to reduce economic inequality; bridge the nation’s racial divides; end hunger; confront the climate crisis; improve nutrition and food safety; and protect and support farmers, workers, and communities,” wrote Farm Aid communications director Jennifer Fahy.** The evening before Mellencamp’s performance, supporters gathered at Luther Place Memorial Church on Logan Circle, a site of social activism since it was built in 1873. Philip Barker, a Black farmer and longtime activist from North Carolina, summed up the focus of the days of action: farmer-led climate solutions, racial justice in the Farm Bill, and “communities over corporations.” Sessions during the rally began with land acknowledgements, statements recognizing that the land upon which the nation’s capital was built was taken from indigenous people. Other speakers addressed the particular hardships that BIPOC farmers have experienced through decades of U.S. farm policy. And still others called for immigration reform as a way to address the chronic shortage of labor on America’s farms. Throughout, the voices and crowd chants in Spanish testified to the changing demographics of the nation’s farms. This gathering in Washington had particular resonance for David Senter, founder of the American Agriculture Movement. In 1979, Senter was one of the organizers of the Tractorcade protest that drew thousands of farmers to the capital. They traveled by tractor, traveling across the U.S. at 15 miles an hour — ”we came in on every East/West interstate, 100 miles a day,” recalls Senter — to lobby Congress for a new Farm Bill to increase crop prices and to have greater influence in agriculture policy. (One farmer at Tuesday’s rally returned with the tractor he’d driven to D.C. in 1979). Senter then returned to Washington in 1987 to accompany Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp when the two artists testified before the Senate Agriculture Committee about the family farm foreclosure crisis. **Senter was one of the featured speakers Tuesday at the rally in Freedom Park.** Since his earlier trips, have the stakes become higher? “We continue to lose family farmers and the farms become larger and larger,” replied Senter. “But we have to figure out how to make place for the next generation of farmers, the young farmers that want to grow food for this country and the world, so that they can survive.” That “absolutely does” include addressing the climate issue, said Senter. “Because we live in an extreme climate situation. I mean, you have floods, tornadoes, wildfires, droughts. It’s just unbelievable the climate extremes we’re experiencing and, of course, farmers, they deal with that every day, trying to produce food. So it’s very important that we get involved with that.” When Willie Nelson and his fellow artists formed Farm Aid in 1985, he recruited Carolyn Mugar to run the organization. “The earliest Farm Aid files are all stained with spaghetti sauce since I did that work at my kitchen table,” she recalled Tuesday. Then she set off across the country, speaking to farmers at their kitchen tables. (Mugar was recognized for her work on Billboard’s Women in Music list in 2020, the 35th anniversary of Farm Aid). “What in the Farm Bill can people get behind? Really, the very bottom line of everything is farm viability,” said Mugar. “A farmer cannot really even start getting into regenerative agriculture [to address climate change] if that farm is not financially viable. “And that means that we’ve really got to look at how farming should be taking place in this country. And do we really want to continue corporate concentrated farming, where the land is toxic and ruined, into the future? Or do we want to support farmers who are trying to keep, maintain and build the soil?” In dealing with the nation’s lawmakers, said Mugar, “we’ve got to get smarter about what we demand.” URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/12/%e2%80%98farmers-for-climate- action%e2%80%99-program-searches-for-solutions/>

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Chemical Leaks, PFAS & Local Train Derailments Recently
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 11 Mar '23

11 Mar '23

# [Chemical Leaks, PFAS & Local Train Derailments Recently](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/11/chemical-leaks-pfas-local- train-derailments-recently/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/226C87B9-E5EB-4F5A-A4D4-6E6D58327CF7-300x173.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/226C87B9-E5EB-4F5A-A4D4-6E6D58327CF7.jpeg) Empty coal train derailment in the New River Canyon of West Virginia **CSX Train Derails In New River Gorge, Injuring 3 Railroad Workers** From an [Article by Curtis Tate, WV public Broadcasting](https://wvpublic.org/2-csx-workers-injured-in-new-river-gorge- derailment-released-from-hospital/), March 10, 2023 In a statement, CSX said an empty coal train struck a rock slide before 5 a.m. near Sandstone. [Sandstone is on the New River and WV Route 20 in Summers County, just South of the local interchange of I-64.] The train’s four locomotives derailed and one caught fire. Two of the three CSX workers injured in a Wednesday derailment in the New River Gorge have been released from the hospital, the railroad said Friday. Another injured worker continues to receive treatment. An engineer, conductor and engineer trainee were operating the westbound 109-car empty coal train early Wednesday when it struck large pieces of rock on the track near Sandstone. **All four locomotives and 22 cars derailed.** One locomotive came to rest in the river, and leaking diesel fuel caught fire. By Friday, CSX said the derailed locomotives and cars had been removed from the site. The railroad said it expected to resume rail service on Saturday. Amtrak’s Cardinal, which shares the affected track with CSX, was canceled in both directions for the remainder of the week. As part of its restoration effort, CSX said it would excavate any soil or rock that came in contact with diesel fuel and replace it with clean material. #######+++++++#######+++++++ **SEE ALSO:** [Confusion Reigned After Ohio Derailment, Hazmat Chief Testifies,](https://wvpublic.org/confusion-reigned-after-ohio-derailment- hazmat-chief-testifies/) Energy & Environment WVPB Staff, March 9, 2023 Eric Brewer, director of emergency services for Beaver County, Pennsylvania, said the decision to detonate five tank cars full of flammable vinyl chloride was poorly communicated. [~~ Continue Reading](https://wvpublic.org/confusion-reigned-after-ohio- derailment-hazmat-chief-testifies/) #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **SEE ALSO:** [A Look At Chemical Leaks, Train Derailments And PFAS On This West Virginia Morning](https://wvpublic.org/a-look-at-chemical-leaks-train- derailments-and-pfas-on-this-west-virginia-morning/), Energy & Environment WVPB Staff, Feb. 27, 2023 A serious train derailment and chemical release in Ohio has dominated the headlines for the past few weeks. West Virginia has seen its own share of disasters with hazardous materials, including an oil train derailment and fire in 2015. Energy & Environment Reporter Curtis Tate spoke with Jesse Richardson of the West Virginia University Land Use and Sustainable Development Law Clinic about those events. ~ ~ [Continue Reading](https://wvpublic.org/a-look-at-chemical-leaks-train- derailments-and-pfas-on-this-west-virginia-morning/) URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/11/chemical-leaks-pfas-local-train- derailments-recently/>

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PETITION ALERT ~ L.N.G. by Rail is Way Too Dangerous, Tell President Biden and the PHMSA
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 10 Mar '23

10 Mar '23

# [PETITION ALERT ~ L.N.G. by Rail is Way Too Dangerous, Tell President Biden and the PHMSA](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/10/petition-alert-l-n-g- by-rail-is-way-too-dangerous-tell-president-biden-and-the-phmsa/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/C1A9F04E-010D-4D21-A33C-57B655679B9A.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/C1A9F04E-010D-4D21-A33C-57B655679B9A.jpeg) You can help to prevent LNG accidents, fires and injuries … [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/D14A8541-7B32-4A38-ADC1-52D18D8BB68E-300x24.png)](h… content/uploads/2023/03/D14A8541-7B32-4A38-ADC1-52D18D8BB68E.png) **Stop Liquified Natural Gas by Rail in Your Community!** **MEMO** :[ To Regional Residents & Concerned Citizens, Mid-Atlantic States](https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/bombtrains_copy1?wvpId=3ba821…, March 9, 2023 **We are asking for your support to[sign a petition asking President Biden and the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) to take action to protect communities from the transport of dangerous liquified natural gas (LNG) by rail. LNG is natural gas that is chilled to -260°F.](https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/lngrailpetition/index.html?eType=EmailBlastContent&eId=4760a265-1fd8-4eeb-8434-8d4fd0a8f4ce) It is highly flammable and explosive when exposed to air and can burn the skin if it makes contact.** PHMSA is a federal agency under the Department of Transportation that is responsible for regulating the nation’s pipeline infrastructure. In July 2020, PHMSA issued a rule that lifted a long-standing ban on transporting liquified natural gas (LNG) by rail. PHMSA also issued a special permit to specifically allow the transport of LNG by rail from a liquefaction plant in Wyalusing, PA to an export terminal in Gibbstown, NJ by a company called New Energy Solutions. This LNG would then be shipped overseas. **The proposed rail route for this project would expose almost 2 million people to the risks of LNG, many of whom are low-income and already overburdened by environmental injustice. The special permit allows the transport of LNG using rail cars that were not designed for LNG transport, adding to the potential for a catastrophic incident. And as LNG is made from methane gas, it’s a highly potent greenhouse gas, further exacerbating the climate crisis.** **[Urge PHMSA to suspend the rule that authorizes LNG to be transported by rail, to deny the renewal of the special permit for Energy Transport Solutions, and to permanently ban the transport of LNG by rail.](https://cleanaircouncil.salsalabs.org/lngrailpetition/index.html?eTy… Thank you for taking this important action. >>> _Sincerely, Joseph Otis Minott, Esq., Executive Director and Chief Counsel_ CLEAN AIR COUNCIL, 200 FIRST AVE, SUITE 200, PITTSBURGH, PA 15222 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/10/petition-alert-l-n-g-by-rail-is- way-too-dangerous-tell-president-biden-and-the-phmsa/>

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Traditional Values Under Threat in U.S. Congress: E.S.G. Plans Under Attack!
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 09 Mar '23

09 Mar '23

# [Traditional Values Under Threat in U.S. Congress: E.S.G. Plans Under Attack!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/09/traditional-values-under- threat-in-u-s-congress-e-s-g-plans-under-attack/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/9E048C83-2E2F-4BD9-9264-6C42462F244D.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/9E048C83-2E2F-4BD9-9264-6C42462F244D.jpeg) Many investors say “ESG Is Here To Stay” **Conservative values cast aside, Congress wages war on ‘woke’** [Opinion Editorial of the Morgantown Dominion Post](https://www.dominionpost.com/2023/03/08/conservative-values-cast-asid… congress-wages-war-on-woke/), March 9, 2023 While we’ve been largely focused on what’s been happening in Charleston lately, we’ve also had our eye on Washington, D.C., and the culture war backlash happening there. **Last week, Congress passed a joint resolution “disapproving” a Department of Labor rule that allows investment firms to take into consideration environmental, social and governance (ESG) factors. The resolution, if signed into law, would reverse the rule and forbid investment firms from using non-monetary factors when crafting portfolios for investors — even if it’s what investors want.** **The House of Representatives passed the resolution on a party-line vote. In the Senate, Sens. Joe Manchin and John Tester (D-Mont.) joined with Republicans to approve the disapproval.** (In an interview with Fox News about his support of the resolution, Manchin said, “E.S.G.s by itself could just kill our economy.” We assume he means the fossil fuel industry, from which he personally benefits.) **The resolution will go to President Joe Biden, who will have to decide whether or not to veto the bill. We hope he does. Because when it comes to ESG investing, also called sustainable investing, Congress has crossed the line with its resolution.** There are certainly cases where government interference in the market is warranted — like when monopolies kill competition and drive up prices, or when companies shirk their responsibilities to protect consumers. **The Department of Labor rule does not mandate that investment firms offer ESG, nor does it give any government-funded incentive for doing so — it merely gives financial institutions the ability to offer something that consumers increasingly want.** **Even within investment firms, not every client has to participate.** The vast majority — including big-name firms like Charles Schwab and Fisher Investments — offer optional ESG portfolios, traditional portfolios that give zero consideration to ESG or the ability to select a combination of ESG and regular investments. **In other words, Congress’ resolution is actually limiting the free market.** Individual investors increasingly want to know that their money is doing “good” and supporting companies that reflect their own personal values. Congress is essentially taking away investors’ say in what’s being done with their dollars, because conservatives view ESG as a form of “woke-ism” forcing progressive values onto Wall Street, rather than the market responding to consumer demand. **It boggles the mind how quickly conservatives abandon their small-government, free-market values in their endless pursuit of culture wars.** **If the government were to step in, it should only be to standardize the definition of ESG. What factors and benchmarks are considered ESG vary widely. In general, though, ESG considers things like companies’ environmental impact or green initiatives; diversity policies or human rights records; and political contributions or history of lawsuits. Some critics have raised the issue of “greenwashing” — companies claiming to be environmentally friendly or socially responsible — that make companies look more attractive for ESG investing than they actually are.** _[Sometimes government regulation of the financial industry is necessary — but this is not one of those times.](https://www.dominionpost.com/2023/03/08/conservative-values-cast- aside-congress-wages-war-on-woke/)_ URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/09/traditional-values-under-threat- in-u-s-congress-e-s-g-plans-under-attack/>

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Absolutely No Real Necessity to Build & Operate Nuclear Reactors
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 08 Mar '23

08 Mar '23

# [Absolutely No Real Necessity to Build & Operate Nuclear Reactors](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/08/absolutely-no-real- necessity-to-build-operate-nuclear-reactors/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/EBFB9A52-9CE8-4B27-9DC6-A269711BB14A.jpeg)](https:/… content/uploads/2023/03/EBFB9A52-9CE8-4B27-9DC6-A269711BB14A.jpeg) Modular nuclear reactors will be incredibly expensive, quite dangerous when operating and generate high level radioactive waste **[Action Alert from the WV Environmental Council](https://wvecouncil.org/), March 8, 2023** At any time, **the Senate Finance Committee is set to consider HB 2896, which aims to** **designate West Virginia as an agreement state with the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (US NRC). However, this move could result in a financial burden of at least 9 million dollars for our State over the next 4-8 years. (As per the US NRC 's estimation, becoming an agreement state takes around 4-8 years.)** **The financial impact of HB 2896 cannot be ignored. This amount of money is substantial, especially considering the current funding shortages faced by the WV Department of Environmental Protection (WV DEP), which is already struggling to fulfill its regulatory obligations towards existing industries.** **Please contact Senate Finance Committee members and tell them you do not want West Virginia to take on the financial burden of HB 2896! Calls are most effective:** Senator Eric Tarr (Chair): (304) 357-7901 Senator Rupie Phillips (Vice Chair): (304) 357-7857 Senator Jason Barrett: (304) 357-7933 Senator Donna J. Boley: (304) 357-7905 Senator Charles H. Clements: (304) 357-7827 Senator Glenn Jeffries: (304) 357-7866 Senator Mike Maroney: (304) 357-7902 Senator Eric Nelson: (304) 357-7854 Senator Mike Oliverio: (304) 357-7919 Senator Robert H. Plymale: (304) 357-7937 Senator Ben Queen: (304) 357-7904 Senator Rollan A. Roberts: (304) 357-7831 Senator Randy Smith: (304) 357-7995 Senator Chandler Swope: (304) 357-7843 Senator Jack Woodrum: (304) 357-7849 >>> _[West Virginia Environmental Council](https://wvecouncil.org/), P.O. Box 1007, Charleston, WV 25324_ info(a)wvecouncil.org (304) 414-0143 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/08/absolutely-no-real-necessity-to- build-operate-nuclear-reactors/>

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SOLAR UNITED NEIGHBORS (SUN) issues their impressive Annual Report
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 07 Mar '23

07 Mar '23

# [SOLAR UNITED NEIGHBORS (SUN) issues their impressive Annual Report](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/07/solar-united-neighbors-issu… their-impressive-annual-report/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/9EAC5299-1403-404E-886B-B5D5070009F7-300x168.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/9EAC5299-1403-404E-886B-B5D5070009F7.jpeg) SOLAR UNITED NEIGHBORS are very active! **To: Everyone Interested & Concerned About Energy Supply and the Environment** From the [Solar United Neighbors, Washington, DC,](https://go.solarunitedneighbors.org/webmail/941793/251695294/638e32be6… March 6, 2023 I’m thrilled to share our [2022 Annual Report](https://www.solarunitedneighbors.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Sol… United-Neighbors-Annual-Report-2022.pdf) with you. In it, you’ll find just a sampling of all of the incredible work our team accomplished last year. [Here’s a few highlights:](https://go.solarunitedneighbors.org/webmail/941793/251695294/6… A. Helped pass the largest federal solar policy in a generation (the Inflation Reduction Act). B. Rallied hundreds of solar supporters to successfully defend net metering against a utility-sponsored bill in Florida. C. Launched a new program in Puerto Rico. D. Helped more than 1,300 households go solar (our biggest year yet!), including 40 low- and-moderate income families. E. Hosted 379 community events to educate, organize, and celebrate solar! Thank you for being a part of the solar community. Together, we’re building a new energy system with rooftop solar at the cornerstone. >> _Best wishes, Anya Schoolman, Executive Director, Solar United Neighbors_ **P.S. Like what you see?** [Support our work and spread the SUN even further by giving today!](https://secure.givelively.org/donate/solar-united- neighbors/donate-now-and-support-solar-06385778-212c-4f22-95bd-3f32649c8ba0/) **NOTE** ~ [You can read the 2022 Annual Report here.](https://www.solarunitedneighbors.org/wp-content/uploads/2023/02/Sola… United-Neighbors-Annual-Report-2022.pdf) URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/07/solar-united-neighbors-issues- their-impressive-annual-report/>

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CONSIDER West Virginians for Energy Freedom (WV4EF)
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 06 Mar '23

06 Mar '23

# [CONSIDER West Virginians for Energy Freedom (WV4EF)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/06/consider-west-virginians-fo… energy-freedom-wv4ef/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/17D28643-9250-4DD3-A12B-A07369A21732-300x300.png)](… content/uploads/2023/03/17D28643-9250-4DD3-A12B-A07369A21732.png)**Community solar projects enable individuals, businesses, or organizations to purchase or subscribe to a “share” in a community solar project. Community solar participants receive a credit on their electric bill each month for the energy produced by their share.** URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/06/consider-west-virginians-for- energy-freedom-wv4ef/>

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TRAIN DISASTER in East Palestine Pollutes Eastern Ohio & Ohio River
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 05 Mar '23

05 Mar '23

# [TRAIN DISASTER in East Palestine Pollutes Eastern Ohio & Ohio River](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/05/train-disaster-in-east- palestine-pollutes-eastern-ohio-ohio-river/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/FEDCD3F5-C5F1-4158-ABFA-B46AD3EBF48C-300x168.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/FEDCD3F5-C5F1-4158-ABFA-B46AD3EBF48C.jpeg) Chemical pollution toxic to land, to fish, to animals and people. (Click image to enlarge it) **Environmental Disaster from East Palestine, OH Train Derailment** From the [Article by Leigh Martinez, PennFuture Blog](https://www.pennfuture.org/Blog-Item-2023-East-Palestine-Ohio-Train- Disaster), February 23, 2023 The East Palestine, Ohio train derailment disaster is shocking in its scale and potential effects. Unfortunately, we may not know this disaster's long- term health and environmental impacts for months or even years. The gradual release and burn of these chemicals increased the risk that they spread beyond the crash site. With butyl acrylate found in local surface water, testing the groundwater supply and subsoil is crucial. We encourage anyone concerned about pollution and the safety of their community to document their observations and request soil and well water testing from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). The residents of East Palestine and neighboring communities deserve transparency around the EPA's plan for continued air quality monitoring and the data of air tests. Regardless of location and as a regular practice, residents should report any unusual odor or changes in environmental conditions to the appropriate state environmental agency. We encourage residents to do their best to document the changes they've observed so environmental threats can be tracked and mitigated. PennFuture continues to closely track developments and information coming from both locals and government agencies. **What We Know of the Accident** ~ On Friday, February 3, at 8:54 p.m. ET, a Norfolk Southern freight train heading to Conway, Pennsylvania, derailed in East Palestine, Ohio, approximately 1.2 miles from the Pennsylvania state line. Thirty-eight rail cars went off the tracks and caught fire. According to the National Transportation and Safety Board (NTSB), the investigating agency, a resident's home surveillance video showed what appears to be a wheel bearing in the final stage of overheating failure moments before the derailment. The fear of a possible explosion forced the evacuation of 1,500 to 2,000 residents in a town of only 4,900. **An Explanation of the Environmental Disaster ~** The train towed 20 cars with hazardous material—11 of which derailed. Five overturned cars contained vinyl chloride, a chemical used to make PVC plastic and vinyl products. According to the National Cancer Institute, it is a flammable gas and cancer- causing. Norfolk Southern said some cars carrying vinyl chloride were at risk of exploding. Ohio Governor Mike DeWine authorized a controlled burn of the chemicals on Monday, February 6. This burn resulted in a massive smoke plume. **Vinyl Chloride ~** When burned, vinyl chloride breaks down into two chemicals: hydrogen chloride and phosgene. Phosgene is highly poisonous—used in chemical warfare during World War I and responsible for many deaths, according to the CDC. While long-term exposure to higher concentrations of the gas can be deadly, the gas released by Norfolk did not result in reports of injuries or fatalities. **Hydrogen Chloride ~** This strong acid gas can cause eye, skin, and respiratory irritation and pain. **Other Chemicals Onboard ~** In addition to vinyl chloride, the EPA listed the following chemicals as also on the train: 3. Butyl acrylate — a liquid used for making paint, adhesives, and sealants, 4. Ethylhexyl acrylate — a liquid used for making paint, printing inks, and plastics, is toxic to the lungs and nervous system, 5. Ethylene glycol monobutyl ether — an industrial solvent that can be absorbed through the skin and is toxic to the liver and kidneys, 6. Isobutylene — a gas used in antioxidants, packaging, plastics, and high-octane plane fuel. **It 's currently known that the derailment caused the release of butyl acrylate and ethylhexyl acrylate, which leaked into the ground, nearby streams, and storm drains.** Another major cause for alarm is the areas of contaminated soil and free liquids that, according to the EPA, "were observed and potentially covered and/or filled during reconstruction of the rail line including portions of the trench /burn pit that was used for the open burn off of vinyl chloride." Having multiple chemicals released adds to the complexity of the situation. On Tuesday, February 21, EPA Administrator Michael Regan ordered Norfolk Southern Railway to pay for the contaminated soil and water cleanup and reimburse the EPA for the private cleanup of residential homes and businesses. This order enables the EPA to force Norfolk Southern to adhere to a plan set and managed by the EPA. **Health Impacts ~** The EPA monitored the air quality and tested East Palestine's municipal drinking water well. Private well water testing is ongoing and residents with wells are told to still use bottled water. The EPA did not yet release the data from air monitor testing. **Drinking Water ~** Ohio Gov. DeWine said on Wednesday, February 16, that the water in East Palestine's municipal system is safe to drink based on the Ohio Environmental Protection Agency's results, however: 1. The Ohio EPA recommends people using private wells for drinking water schedule an appointment for well water testing. 2. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) will conduct independent water sampling to monitor water contamination risks related to the train derailment closely. **Air Monitoring ~** Air quality monitors are a tool to measure exposure to air contaminants, but the technology has limitations. While the EPA has come out to say the air quality in and around East Palestine is safe for residents to return home, officials have not provided any data from the air tests. Depending on which types of air monitors the EPA is utilizing, they may not be providing the exact chemical breakdown and measurements in the air. How a healthy first responder reacts to a particular air quality measurement differs from an older adult or a child. The EPA needs to be transparent with community members on the technology used to test air quality, the limitations of the equipment, the chemical specificity found, and the measurements. **Environmental Impacts ~** The Norfolk Southern train carried 20 cars with hazardous materials. After the spill, chemicals—including an entire load of butyl acrylates—were seen running into storm drains and water sources. As of Tuesday, February 21—two weeks after the train derailment—Norfolk Southern reported the chemical spill contaminated at least 15,000 pounds of soil and 1.1 million gallons of water. Locals documented images of dead fish and an oily sheen along Ohio River tributaries days after the spill. Those streams are reintroduction sites for the hellbender salamander. Water pollution puts endangered amphibian species at risk. An official with the Ohio Department of Natural Resources told WKBN that it would take time to know the effects on the hellbender. The federal government's Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry opened an investigation tracking the chemical exposure. **Water Contamination ~** According to the Ohio EPA, the Sulphur Run stream was the body of water most impacted by the derailment because of an "impoundment" on February 8 when officials rerouted the water with the damming and pumps. Environmental teams dammed a portion of Sulphur Run and rerouted it to protect water downstream. Teams will treat contaminated water with booms, aeration, and carbon filtration units. **What Are Dioxins?** Dioxins are highly toxic, persistent organic pollutants that take a long time to break down once in the environment. They are a contaminant formed during the production of some chlorinated organic compounds, released through waste incineration or burning fuels. Dioxins can travel long distances in the air or water; when they settle into the soil, it will take several years to break down. Once in the environment, they can accumulate in the food chain—primarily in animal fat, fish, and shellfish. Dioxins can cause cancer, disrupt hormones, lead to reproductive and developmental problems, and damage the immune system. In July 1976, a chemical plant explosion near Seveso, Italy exposed locals to the highest known levels of dioxin. Ohio's senators Sherrod Brown (D) and J.D. Vance (R) sent a joint letter requesting the state and federal EPAs to test the air for dioxins. [Follow EPA updates on the environmental impact of the Norfolk Southern train derailment disaster.](https://response.epa.gov/site/site_profile.aspx?site_id=15933) **What Pennsylvania Leaders Say About Railroad Safety ~** **On Tuesday, February 21, Pennsylvania Governor Josh Shapiro said his office made a criminal referral against Norfolk Southern to the acting Pennsylvania attorney general for review. At a press conference with Ohio Governor Mike DeWine, Shapiro said: "The combination of Norfolk Southern's corporate greed, incompetence, and lack of care for our residents is absolutely unacceptable."** Shapiro previously said publicly and in a letter to Norfolk Southern's CEO: "You can be assured that Pennsylvania will hold Norfolk Southern accountable for any and all impacts to our Commonwealth." **Gov. Shapiro listed three critical things Norfolk Southern did wrong after the derailment:** 1\. Norfolk Southern made its own plan and did not implement a unified command which confused first responders and emergency management. As a result, state and local agencies had to react versus work in tandem. 2\. Norfolk Southern gave inaccurate information and conflicting modeling about the impact of the controlled release of chemicals. 3\. Norfolk Southern was unwilling to explore an alternative to burning chemicals and released and burned the chemicals without warning government agencies. **Pennsylvania 's senators Bob Casey (D) and John Fetterman (D) sent a joint letter with the Ohio senators requesting the EPA continue its monitoring of the land, air, and water in East Palestine, Darlington Township in Beaver County, and other impacted communities "until the long-term effects of the exposure are fully understood."** **Questions and Actions Post-Emergency Operations** [PennFuture believes environmental disasters are long-term public health disasters.](https://www.pennfuture.org/Blog-Item-2023-East-Palestine-Ohio- Train-Disaster) We should ask the following questions of Norfolk Southern Railway Company and Pennsylvania and Ohio leaders: 1\. What is the current plan for continued community engagement? How frequently will residents in East Palestine and the surrounding areas receive updates? Are there opportunities to comment on cleanup plans? 2. How is ambient air being monitored? What are those measurements? 3. Where are air samples being collected? 4. How frequently is the air quality being tested? 5. Do experts know how far the toxic plume traveled? 6. Which bodies of water are scientists sampling, and for which chemical constituents? 7. Are officials advising children and dogs not to play in streams? 8. Were surface wipes used on residents' homes and vehicles? If so, what were the results? 9. Where are soil samples being collected, and how deep are those samples? 10. What is the plan for dioxin testing? 11. What is the plan to notify the community of dioxin contamination? 12. Was the controlled release and burn the best way to control the chemicals? 13. What are the reasoning and safety around transporting various chemicals near one another? 14. Was the train adequately inspected? Are there plans to improve the inspections in the future? 15. How can the community engage with testing and ongoing monitoring? 16. Are we investing enough in environmental agencies' personnel and equipment to ensure the fastest and best response to the next disaster? **Notable Environmental Organizations to Follow ~ Ohio Environmental Council & Clean Air Council** The longer people go without answers and action, anxiety and fear grow in the community. We need to limit pollution's impact on the ecosystem and mental health. East Palestine and Beaver County residents deserve transparency in testing and cleanup and a clear plan for long-term environmental monitoring. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/05/train-disaster-in-east- palestine-pollutes-eastern-ohio-ohio-river/>

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Community Solar Petition Available Now ~ You Can Sign & Be Helpful!
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 04 Mar '23

04 Mar '23

# [Community Solar Petition Available Now ~ You Can Sign & Be Helpful!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/04/community-solar-petition- available-now-you-can-sign-be-helpful/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/08167427-555A-43ED-893C-7CD8F306D0F2-300x46.jpg)](h… content/uploads/2023/03/08167427-555A-43ED-893C-7CD8F306D0F2.jpeg) Strength & progress result when our various groups work together **Sign the petition: Show your support for community solar ASAP** From the [Coalition Named “West Virginians for Energy Freedom”](https://www.energyfreedomwv.org/community-solar) You can join with fellow West Virginians in support of allowing community solar in our State of West Virginia. Community solar will rein in energy costs, create jobs, and promote energy freedom. [Community solar projects](https://www.energyfreedomwv.org/community-solar) enable individuals, businesses, or organizations to purchase or subscribe to a “share” in a community solar project. Community solar participants receive a credit on their electric bill each month for the energy produced by their share. And, community solar ensures we have the right to choose where our electricity comes from. Also, **community solar** has the power to save West Virginia families millions of dollars per year through lower electric bills. It does so while encouraging local economic development throughout the State. This creates good jobs and attracts more employers to invest in West Virginia. **Let’s face it, community solar is a free-market way to generate electricity. Let’s secure energy freedom for West Virginia families now, i. e., as soon as possible.** #######+++++++#######+++++++######## **SEE ALSO:** “[Advocates Pitch Community Solar To State Lawmakers. Some Say No](https://wvpublic.org/advocates-pitch-community-solar-to-state-lawmakers- some-say-no/),” Curtis Tate, WV Public Broadcasting, January 10, 2023 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/04/community-solar-petition- available-now-you-can-sign-be-helpful/>

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PLEASE HELP OUT! ~ The WV Legislative Session End on March 11th!
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 03 Mar '23

03 Mar '23

# [PLEASE HELP OUT! ~ The WV Legislative Session End on March 11th!](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/03/please-help-out-the-wv- legislative-session-end-on-march-11th/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/38558B61-2C00-4EF1-96C9-24C72A504525-300x94.png)](h… content/uploads/2023/03/38558B61-2C00-4EF1-96C9-24C72A504525.png) WV Rivers Coalition is a not-for-profit organization in the public interest **[One Week to Go!](http://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bulletin_Board/calendar/calendar_2023.cfm) What Policy Priorities Are Still in Play in the WV Legislature? ** . . . From the [West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Charleston, WV](https://wvrivers.salsalabs.org/marchenews?wvpId=1484761a-9d09-4d6b-911f…, March 3, 2023 **HB 3189, the PFAS Protection Act** , passed the House in a vote of 82-9. It’s now referenced to Government Organization Committee in the Senate. Contact your Senators and urge them to pass the PFAS Protection Act! [Learn more about the PFAS problem here](https://wvrivers.org/pfas/). [Contact Your Senator on PFAS](https://wvrivers.salsalabs.org/senatepfas/index.html?eType=EmailBlast… #####+++++#####+++++##### **HB 3110, which increases funding for inspectors with the WVDEP Office of Oil and Gas (OOG)** , passed the House unanimously. Unfortunately the bill that passed was weakened, leaving the state with less than 20 inspectors to oversee more than 75,000 wells. The Charleston Gazette-Mail has carried a discussion of the importance of this bill. It is now referenced to the Finance Committee in the Senate. Contact your Senators and encourage them to fully fund the WVDEP Office of Oil and Gas! [Read our fact sheet here.](https://fdfad2.a2cdn1.secureserver.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/02/OOG2.3.2023.pdf/) [Contact Your Senator on Office of Oil & Gas (OOG) Inspectors](https://wvrivers.salsalabs.org/oogfundingsenate/index.html?eTyp… #####+++++######+++++####### **SB 468, which permanently reauthorizes off-road vehicles in Cabwaylingo State Park** , passed the Senate on a vote of 29-4. A proposed amendment to open additional public lands to off-road vehicles was defeated in committee. [However, the amended bill does allow connector trails from public lands to private lands. It now goes over to the House.](https://www.wvlegislature.gov/Bill_Status/bills_text.cfm?billdoc=sb… #######+++++++#######+++++++####### **See Also:** [GREEN Newsletter, Volume 33, Number 8, West Virginia Environmental Council](https://wvecouncil.org/), March 3, 2023 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/03/please-help-out-the-wv- legislative-session-end-on-march-11th/>

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Small Modular Nuclear Reactors ~ Bad Deal or Terrible Deal
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 02 Mar '23

02 Mar '23

# [Small Modular Nuclear Reactors ~ Bad Deal or Terrible Deal](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/02/small-modular-nuclear-reactor… bad-deal-or-terrible-deal/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/57B4AAB5-38E6-43BF- BA8A-5652F07CDB8F-232x300.jpg)](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/57B4AAB5-38E6-43BF-BA8A-5652F07CDB8F.jpeg) Small Modular Nuclear Reactors studied by Union of Concerned Scientists **Small modular nuclear reactors: A bad deal for Southwest Virginia! And all of us!** From the [Letter by Rees Shearer, Virginia Mercury,](https://www.virginiamercury.com/2023/02/16/small-modular-nuclear- reactors-a-good-deal-for-southwest-virginia/) February 16, 2023 **In announcing his 2022 Virginia Energy Plan, Gov. Youngkin said, “A growing Virginia must have reliable, affordable and clean energy for Virginia’s families and businesses.” The Governor’s plan to promote and subsidize Small Modular nuclear Reactors (SMnRs) in Southwest Virginia fails all three of the Governor’s own criteria:** >>> SMnRs can’t be reliable when they cannot reliably be built and brought on line in a predictable and timely fashion. >>> SMnRs can’t be affordable because nuclear power is close to the costliest of all forms of electric power generation. >>> SMnRs can’t be clean since they produce extremely toxic high and low-level nuclear waste, which has no safe storage or disposal solution. **Appalachia has long served as a sacrifice zone for rapacious energy ambitions of other regions.** Southwest Virginians have had reason to hope that would change as opportunities for low-cost solar development emerged in recent years. Instead, politicians like Youngkin are making too-good-to-be- true promises about SMnRs, sidelining opportunities to promote solar, which can produce power in a matter of weeks, not decades. Imposing SMnRs on Southwest Virginia is disturbing. My father worked for the Atomic Energy Commission in the 1950s. The promise the nuclear industry and the government touted then – “electricity, too cheap to meter” – never has been realized. TVA and other utilities abandoned nuclear plants under construction, leaving costly monuments to that folly and sticking electricity customers with the bill. **COSTS** : It’s not at all clear that SMnR technology will succeed, or when. Levelized cost charts of electric power generation rate nuclear as among the very most expensive means to generate electric power at utility scale. If nuclear waste management, insurance, and decommissioning costs are counted, actual costs are far higher. (Some of these costs are already socialized for nuclear power – e.g. insurance in the Price-Anderson Act.) The first commercial SMnR is not expected to be completed until 2029, but already its developers have raised the target price of its power by 53%. This is not a surprise; nuclear power construction history documents an extremely strong correlation between new designs and cost increases and project delays. Indeed, the Lazard research shows that nuclear is the ONLY grid-wide generation source to increase in price, 2009-2021. The increase was 36%! **NUCLEAR WASTE, TRANSPORT, AND REPROCESSING** : Nuclear waste and reprocessing are also serious concerns. Make no mistake, unreprocessed nuclear waste, for all practicable purposes, is FOREVER. The fact that we have become accustomed to risk does not, by any means, reduce risk. Nor will SMnRs generate less waste than their larger forebears. Indeed, a recent Stanford University study concluded that “small modular reactors may produce a disproportionately larger amount of nuclear waste than bigger nuclear plants.” Safeguarding this waste is already costing taxpayers and utility customers tens of billions of dollars. With the failure of the U.S. to designate a central storage facility, nuclear power plants are forced to continue to store the waste in pools on site. Yet nuclear waste recycling, known as reprocessing, is no panacea. In November, the Governor spoke in Bristol in support of recycling nuclear waste from SMnRs: “I think the big steps out of the box are the technical capability to deploy in the next 10 years and on top of that to press forward to recycling opportunities for fuel.” He may have had in mind BWX Technologies of Lynchburg, which is beginning reprocessing of uranium at its Nuclear Fuel Services (NFS) plant just south of the Virginia border in Erwin, Tennessee, for nuclear weapons. It took over a decade, but in 1984, Congress finally killed the last proposal to reprocess nuclear waste into nuclear fuel. The reprocessing would have taken place at the Clinch River Breeder Reactor, also south of the Virginia border, near Oak Ridge, TN. The concern then was the potential for accidental highly toxic “spills” of nuclear wastes or purposeful diversion of plutonium into the international weapons market. I recall this clearly because I spoke at a public hearing in Abingdon about the transportation of nuclear waste that would be bound for the Clinch River plant. Transportation of SMnR nuclear wastes along Virginia mountain roads or railroads across the border to Erwin presents further risk of accident and contamination. Longstanding concerns about transportation and security of nuclear wastes have never been adequately addressed. In addition, Princeton University physicist, Frank N. von Hippel reported in the Bulletin of Atomic Scientists that the Nuclear Regulatory Commission, charged with protecting U.S. citizens from reactor disasters such as Three Mile Island, Chernobyl, or Fukushima, has moved toward offering greater flexibility for a nuclear industry plagued by cost overruns and calls for safety improvements, rather than hewing to its primary responsibility for maintaining safety of nuclear generating facilities and the American people. The Bulletin also reports that, because of longstanding financial troubles experienced by the commercial nuclear power industry, state legislatures are increasingly being asked and are feeling compelled to subsidize nuclear power. Gov. Youngkin’s state energy plan would take Virginia down that road, a road that could be very long. **URANIUM MINING in VIRGINIA?** Because of toxic pollution risks, mining uranium in Virginia is currently prohibited under a moratorium enacted by the General Assembly. Coles Hill in Pittsylvania County contains the largest deposit of uranium in the U.S. Just a month ago, Consolidated Uranium, a Canadian company, announced its purchase of Virginia Energy Resources, which owns Coles Hill. It sounds like those executives think that another run at overturning the mining moratorium might be successful. That this purchase announcement comes so shortly after Youngkin’s announcement of SMnRs in his Virginia Energy Plan feels like more than coincidence. Uranium mining in a wet, eastern location would present a far higher opportunity for contamination than mining that has for years had problems affecting water and public health in the West. We Appalachians know the social and environmental costs of an extractive economy. We should not support any enterprise that forces that kind of exploitation upon our neighbors, especially mining with known, pervasive health, safety and environmental risks. **CORPORATE CRONYISM and POLITICAL BOONDOGGERY** : BWX Technologies of Lynchburg (formerly Babcock and Wilcox) is the nuclear contractor we can anticipate would be charged with Gov. Youngkin’s wish to reprocess nuclear waste into fuel. BWX has been on the ropes for years, since nuclear became so unpopular with utilities in the wake of the Three Mile Island accident. It has managed to stay afloat with military contracts and wants to develop the reactors it builds for subs and aircraft carriers for commercial power production. The SMnRs are its ticket, and Gov. Youngkin is playing both their salesman and the state’s purchasing agent. Some General Assembly members are angling to help their localities and favored industries cash in. #######+++++++#######+++++++######### **SEE ALSO ~** [INFOGRAPHIC: Small Modular Reactors | Department of Energy, 2018](https://www.energy.gov/ne/articles/infographic-small-modular-reactors) #######+++++++#######+++++++######### **" Advanced" Isn't Always Better ~ Assessing the Safety, Security, and Environmental Impacts of Non-Light-Water Nuclear Reactors**, Edwin Lyman, March 18, 2021 If nuclear power is to play an expanded role in helping address climate change, newly built reactors must be demonstrably safer and more secure than current generation reactors. Unfortunately, most "advanced" nuclear reactors are anything but. The [Union of Concerned Scientists undertook a comprehensive analysis](https://www.ucsusa.org/resources/advanced-isnt-always-better) of the most prominent and well-funded non-light-water reactor (NLWR) designs. We asked: §- What are the benefits and risks of NLWRs and their fuel cycles ? §- Do the likely overall benefits of NLWRs outweigh the risks and justify the substantial public and private investments needed to commercialize them? §- Can NLWRs be safely and securely commercialized in time to contribute significantly to averting the climate crisis? Based on the available evidence, we found that the NLWR designs we analyzed are not likely to be significantly safer than today’s nuclear plants. In fact, certain alternative reactor designs pose even more safety, proliferation, and environmental risks than the current fleet. URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/02/small-modular-nuclear-reactors- bad-deal-or-terrible-deal/>

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EYES ON THE SHELL ETHANE CRACKER FACILITY IN S.W. PA ~ Zoom 3/1/23
by Frack Check WV: Duane Nichols 01 Mar '23

01 Mar '23

# [EYES ON THE SHELL ETHANE CRACKER FACILITY IN S.W. PA ~ Zoom 3/1/23](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/01/eyes-on-the-shell-ethane- cracker-facility-in-s-w-pa-zoom-3123/) [![](https://www.frackcheckwv.net/wp- content/uploads/2023/03/DCA61B84-F5D4-4F35-B3AD-A12BBD9DA24E-300x206.jpg)](… content/uploads/2023/03/DCA61B84-F5D4-4F35-B3AD-A12BBD9DA24E.jpeg) The Shell Ethane Cracker Facility appears to have challenging performance due to complex startup activities **Eyes on Shell Monthly Meeting, Beaver County, Pennsylvania. March 1, 2023** From the [Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community, Ambridge, PA](https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdeGprj8qH9b1ZZrasEDVuwnYVxWpGtX8), 3/1/23 **All of us, no matter where we come from or what we look like, want to live in a safe, healthy environment where our families can thrive. But fossil fuel lobbyists and the politicians they pay for are once again sacrificing our health for their profits. We are coming together as a community to protect our families and hold Shell accountable for the damage they will do to our environment.** Connect with **Eyes On Shell** , and learn more about: -monitoring processes, -expected air contaminants, -water pollution, -health impacts …. Join us to learn about steps you can take to protect yourself, and your loved ones from harm. You can be part of the Eyes on Shell watchdog team. If you see, smell, or hear something that doesn’t seem right, let us know. eyesonshell(a)gmail.com ……. (724) 923-3244 Note: By registering for this event you give permission for the organizers to send related emails to you. **Time** ~ [You can choose to attend the following session](https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdeGprj8qH9b1ZZrasEDVuwnYVxWpGtX8). ~ Mar 1, 2023 07:30 PM <https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0pdeGprj8qH9b1ZZrasEDVuwnYVxWpGt…> **Our mailing address is:** Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community P.O. Box 31, Ambridge, PA 15003 URL: <https://www.frackcheckwv.net/2023/03/01/eyes-on-the-shell-ethane- cracker-facility-in-s-w-pa-zoom-3123/>

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