G2. Local Greens

The National Climate Assessment shines a light on the city’s plans to curb flooding based on projections for heavier, climate-amplified precipitation.

The post Pittsburgh lauded for its ‘innovative’ rules to curb climate-fueled flooding appeared first on The Allegheny Front.

Campaigners challenging well testing in the West Sussex village of Balcombe believe their case has been helped by a minister’s recent admission on production from new oil fields.

Oil drilling at Balcombe in 2013. Photo: David Burr

A junior energy minister, Amanda Solloway, suggested that most of the oil extracted from new UK fields would be sold on the international market, rather than to UK consumers.

In a written answer to a parliamentary question, she said:

“It is not desirable to force private companies to ‘allocate’ oil and gas produced in the North Sea for domestic use.”

She was responding to a question by Lloyd Russell-Moyle, Labour MP for Brighton Kemptown, who asked whether new gas and oil produced in the North Sea would be allocated for domestic use.

The issue of national energy security is central to the challenge against oil operations at Balcombe.

Frack Free Balcombe Residents’ Association (FFBRA) is seeking to overturn planning permission for a well test that would confirm whether the Balcombe well was commercially viable.

A planning inspector ruled in February 2023 that national need for oil outweighed harm to the surrounding protected High Weald Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty (AONB).   

A FFBRA spokesperson said:

“We in Balcombe have been told that national energy security requires us to sacrifice our countryside and our health for as little as 50 barrels of oil a day.

“Yet in parliament we heard that 500 million barrels won’t help national energy security or reduce domestic oil prices. 

“The reason the planning inspector gave to overrule the protection of the High Weald AONB is now acknowledged to be completely incorrect.

“The madness of onshore shale oil development has been exposed and needs to stop.”

The Balcombe well test was classed as a major development in the AONB. Under planning law, it should be approved only in exceptional circumstances and where it was in the national interest. The inspector ruled that national need for oil justified the development.

FFBRA failed at the High Court last year to overturn the inspector’s decision. The group is now seeking permission to take its challenge to the Court of Appeal.

In a separate case, a planning inspector ruled that the national need for oil outweighed the impact of oil production at Biscathorpe on the Lincolnshire Wolds AONB. Campaigners have submitted papers to the High Court to challenge this decision.

The government has repeatedly claimed that new oil and gas licences would deliver energy security.

But analysis, published today by the Energy and Climate Intelligence Unit, found that opening more than 100 new fields in the North Sea and to the west of Shetland would supply only around 1% of fuel to UK refineries for domestic use.

MPs will vote today on the Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill, that would require annual licensing rounds for the North Sea. A former energy minister, Chris Skidmore, resigned on Friday, saying he could not support the bill.

Contra Costa County has released review drafts of its new Climate Action Plan (its strategic plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions in unincorporated Contra Costa) and its 2045 General Plan (the master document for all land use and infrastructure-related decisions in unincorporated county).  The documents are available for community review and input here.  Just … Read more

Tritium-at-Nuclear-Power-PlantsDownload

Tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope that is found in the upper reaches of the
atmosphere and rarely occurs naturally on the surface of the Earth. It is produced as a
byproduct of the normal operations of nuclear reactors and is found in the fuel pools of reactors
where the highly radioactive rods are stored at many reactor sites once they can no longer be
used to produce energy.

Tritium has a half-life of 12 years. That means that half of it will decay in 12 years and the half
left will still be fully active.

https://g.co/kgs/gPTJbu.

Tritium is a beta emitter. The weak radioactive emissions from tritium can be blocked by the
skin. However, if it is inhaled or ingested its emissions disrupt cell functions during the ten days
it takes to be excreted from the body. Gordon Edwards, a noted Canadian scientist explains it
this way:

“Each radioactive particle is like a tiny time bomb that will eventually “explode” (the industry
uses the word “disintegrate”). When an atom disintegrates, it gives off projectiles that can
damage living cells, causing them to develop into cancers later.”

Reactors require regular and routine releases to the air and water to continue to operate.Tritium,
along with other radioactive contaminants, has been released into the body of water wherever
the plant is situated since nuclear power plants have been operating.

The NRC has regulations that were adopted in the 70’s that govern standards for these
releases. The standards are based on the limited knowledge available at the time – at least 50
years ago. The EPA also set standards but did not rely on any health studies since there were
none at the time. Instead, the EPA back-calculated acceptable levels of tritium in water from the
radiation exposure delivered by existing radionuclides from nuclear weapons testing in surface
waters.

New scientific research now paints a different picture of this radioactive isotope.This new
evaluation is likely to prove challenging, as tritium is difficult to evaluate because of its relatively
short life span compared to other radioactive isotopes. On the one hand, there is evidence that the risk from tritium is negligible and current standards are more than precautionary. On the
other, there is also evidence that tritium could be more harmful than originally thought.
As health physicist, David Kocher, from the Oak Ridge Center for Risk Analysis, who has
studied tritium for 30 years observes,

“It’s not a health-based standard, it’s based on what was easily achievable.”
There is ongoing research on this topic. Some say that the practice of dumping radioactive
isotopes into the waters where the reactors are located has been going on for decades and has
never done any harm. The unanswered question is, how do we know that no harm has been
done? A health study that will be done at the Pilgrim reactor site before any more radioactive
isotopes can be dumped is seeking an answer to this question.

There are other options to dumping.

The water can be evaporated, which takes a lot of electricity and releases tritium to the air.
It can be shipped off-site which means a lot of truck traffic and creates environmental justice
issues that come with contaminating another community.

It can be stored on site and allowed to naturally decay along with other radioactive waste
already stored there. Japan has held large tanks of irradiated water on site at Fukushima, so it
can be done.

The cumulative results of this kind of contamination have not been considered. Only recently
has the EPA released a Cumulative Research Impacts study that talks about the necessity of
“co-exposure to determinants of health” for communities. It now suggests that individual acts of
pollution need to be taken in a larger context and community voices listened too. This is what
happened at Indian Point when a massive public outcry initiated a law which prohibited the
dumping of the last batch of spent fuel water into the Hudson River, much to the dismay of
Holtec, the corporation decommissioning the reactors.

Cumulative Impacts Research (Final Report_FINAL-EPA 600-R-22-014a.pdf. p.8, 20, 27).
Communities may differ in their approach to the best way to solve the problem of tritium
disposal, which is usually commingled with other radionuclides, during the life of the reactor and
also during decommissioning. Given all of the questions surrounding the disposal of this

radioactive waste, the least harmful and most prudent way forward is a program of storage on
site along with the high level radioactive fuel rods until the tritium can decay or new scientific
treatments are discovered.

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds is a renowned expert on this topic. He will make a presentation
to the New York Decommissioning Oversight Board on February 29th at 6 PM in person.The
meeting will be held at Cortlandt Town Hall, 1 Heady Street, Cortlandt, New York. This is a
hybrid meeting, so people can watch it on Zoom. Go to New York Decommissioning Oversight
Board closer to the meeting date for the link to register.

In the meantime, here is a video of Arnie making a presentation about tritium at:

https://youtu.be/pegnC60e0cQ

Marilyn Elie
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
www.ipsecinfo.org
914-954-6739

The post Tritium at Nuclear Power Plants appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Tritium-at-Nuclear-Power-PlantsDownload

Tritium is a naturally occurring radioactive isotope that is found in the upper reaches of the
atmosphere and rarely occurs naturally on the surface of the Earth. It is produced as a
byproduct of the normal operations of nuclear reactors and is found in the fuel pools of reactors
where the highly radioactive rods are stored at many reactor sites once they can no longer be
used to produce energy.

Tritium has a half-life of 12 years. That means that half of it will decay in 12 years and the half
left will still be fully active.

https://g.co/kgs/gPTJbu.

Tritium is a beta emitter. The weak radioactive emissions from tritium can be blocked by the
skin. However, if it is inhaled or ingested its emissions disrupt cell functions during the ten days
it takes to be excreted from the body. Gordon Edwards, a noted Canadian scientist explains it
this way:

“Each radioactive particle is like a tiny time bomb that will eventually “explode” (the industry
uses the word “disintegrate”). When an atom disintegrates, it gives off projectiles that can
damage living cells, causing them to develop into cancers later.”

Reactors require regular and routine releases to the air and water to continue to operate.Tritium,
along with other radioactive contaminants, has been released into the body of water wherever
the plant is situated since nuclear power plants have been operating.

The NRC has regulations that were adopted in the 70’s that govern standards for these
releases. The standards are based on the limited knowledge available at the time – at least 50
years ago. The EPA also set standards but did not rely on any health studies since there were
none at the time. Instead, the EPA back-calculated acceptable levels of tritium in water from the
radiation exposure delivered by existing radionuclides from nuclear weapons testing in surface
waters.

New scientific research now paints a different picture of this radioactive isotope.This new
evaluation is likely to prove challenging, as tritium is difficult to evaluate because of its relatively
short life span compared to other radioactive isotopes. On the one hand, there is evidence that the risk from tritium is negligible and current standards are more than precautionary. On the
other, there is also evidence that tritium could be more harmful than originally thought.
As health physicist, David Kocher, from the Oak Ridge Center for Risk Analysis, who has
studied tritium for 30 years observes,

“It’s not a health-based standard, it’s based on what was easily achievable.”
There is ongoing research on this topic. Some say that the practice of dumping radioactive
isotopes into the waters where the reactors are located has been going on for decades and has
never done any harm. The unanswered question is, how do we know that no harm has been
done? A health study that will be done at the Pilgrim reactor site before any more radioactive
isotopes can be dumped is seeking an answer to this question.

There are other options to dumping.

The water can be evaporated, which takes a lot of electricity and releases tritium to the air.
It can be shipped off-site which means a lot of truck traffic and creates environmental justice
issues that come with contaminating another community.

It can be stored on site and allowed to naturally decay along with other radioactive waste
already stored there. Japan has held large tanks of irradiated water on site at Fukushima, so it
can be done.

The cumulative results of this kind of contamination have not been considered. Only recently
has the EPA released a Cumulative Research Impacts study that talks about the necessity of
“co-exposure to determinants of health” for communities. It now suggests that individual acts of
pollution need to be taken in a larger context and community voices listened too. This is what
happened at Indian Point when a massive public outcry initiated a law which prohibited the
dumping of the last batch of spent fuel water into the Hudson River, much to the dismay of
Holtec, the corporation decommissioning the reactors.

Cumulative Impacts Research (Final Report_FINAL-EPA 600-R-22-014a.pdf. p.8, 20, 27).
Communities may differ in their approach to the best way to solve the problem of tritium
disposal, which is usually commingled with other radionuclides, during the life of the reactor and
also during decommissioning. Given all of the questions surrounding the disposal of this

radioactive waste, the least harmful and most prudent way forward is a program of storage on
site along with the high level radioactive fuel rods until the tritium can decay or new scientific
treatments are discovered.

Arnie Gundersen of Fairewinds is a renowned expert on this topic. He will make a presentation
to the New York Decommissioning Oversight Board on February 29th at 6 PM in person.The
meeting will be held at Cortlandt Town Hall, 1 Heady Street, Cortlandt, New York. This is a
hybrid meeting, so people can watch it on Zoom. Go to New York Decommissioning Oversight
Board closer to the meeting date for the link to register.

In the meantime, here is a video of Arnie making a presentation about tritium at:

https://youtu.be/pegnC60e0cQ

Marilyn Elie
Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition
www.ipsecinfo.org
914-954-6739

The post Tritium at Nuclear Power Plants appeared first on Indian Point Safe Energy Coalition.

Delta Conveyance Project approved by the Department of Water Resources while salmon fishermen prepare for the second consecutive year without a season– Western Outdoor News 1/4/24
SACRAMENTO – While Bay/Delta species continue to decline, leading to the 2023 closure of the ocean and river commercial and recreational salmon season along with emergency regulation changes for white sturgeon, the Delta Conveyance Project, aka ‘The Tunnel’ was approved by Governor Gavin Newsom’s administration when the project’s Notice of Determination was published on December 21. This came after the lead agency, the Department of Water Resources (DWR), released the Final Environmental Impact (EIR) report on December 8, leaving only 30 days for the public to file litigation against the project and its EIR under the California Environmental Quality Act (CEQA).

…Although the project is touted as a savior for California’s water infrastructure and supply, fishery and environmental organizations along with tribes strongly oppose the project as the final gasp for salmon and other fish species in addition to burdening domestic water users with unmanageable costs.

…The words delivered ten years ago by the late Bill Jennings of the California Sport Fishing Protection Alliance are particularly prescient today. An excerpt from his December 2013 speech regarding the then Bay Delta Conservation Plan is as follows, “They proposed to build the tunnels now and decide how to operate ‘em later. That’s not restoration. That’s a death sentence for one of the world’s greatest estuaries. Well, you won’t find any ideas or answers as to how much water the Delta needs, how much water will be exported. Nor will you find responses to the federal agencies and independent scientists who have scathingly criticized the draft versions as the scheme as biased, flawed, unsupported, and highly speculative. That it will lead to species extinction….”

Delta Levees Investment Strategy becomes California state law – Contra Costa Herald 1/4/24
SACRAMENTO – The new year has brought new flood protections for the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta. The Delta Stewardship Council has successfully amended the Delta Levees Investment Strategy (DLIS), a tool the state uses to prioritize investments in Delta levee operations, maintenance and improvements, thus reducing the likelihood and consequences of levee failures.

The amendment assigns very high, high, or other priority to islands or tracts within the Delta and Suisun Marsh and directs the California Department of Water Resources (DWR) to fund levee improvement projects by order of priority. Additionally, it requires the DWR to submit an annual report to the Council describing Delta levee investments relative to the established priorities. The amended regulation took effect on January 1, 2024.

“Delta flood risk is one of the most urgent threats to California and will continue to worsen in the future with changes in sea levels and storm patterns,” says the Council’s Executive Officer Jessica R. Pearson. “Limited funding to address that risk demands clear priorities. The product of nearly a decade of public input and collaboration, the strategy represents one of the Council’s greatest milestone achievements.”

Is flood control losing priority in the state’s climate change agenda? Money matters – Sacramento Bee 1/3/24
…As the price tag of flood protection goes up, it is anything but clear just how high this is in the agenda of the Newsom administration or the California Legislature. Flood protection’s share of a proposed climate change bond, for example, is about half the slice that it has gotten in bonds approved earlier this century.

Why? Climate change means more than preparing for the occasional massive flood. Climate change is also threatening watersheds and water supplies. There is a small army of water interests fighting over supplies. The much smaller flood control community runs the risk of being the financial orphan in California’s climate change priorities.

 …Both Stork and Mount worry about Central Valley communities like Stockton and Lathrop with huge flood exposure that remains unaddressed. Also in the cross-hairs of climate change is the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta, the 1,100 square-mile estuary where the rivers merge before heading to San Francisco Bay, with 1,100 miles of levees.

The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed closing a particularly shocking loophole that allows oil and gas companies to avoid penalties when they violate air-pollution limits due to operation breakdowns.  The exemption effectively lets polluters off the hook for poor maintenance, careless operations and disregard for human health.

Drilling and fracking are huge sources of cancer-causing … Read more

Reviewed by KAY MATTHEWS

Naomi Klein is a well know author and social critic whose books include No Logo, The Shock Doctrine, and This Changes Everything. Her newest book, Doppelganger: A Trip Into The Mirror World, was inspired by a weird situation she found herself in: over a decade ago people began confusing her with another Naomi, Naomi Wolf, former feminist writer and academic who descended into the dark side of Steve Bannon and conspiracy theories, a world completely alien to Klein’s exposés of corporate corruption and climate profiteering.

How did this happen? It’s not exactly clear, but as Klein delves down into the doppelganger world she and Wolf now inhabit—in a book she didn’t plan to write— it becomes an exploration of how Wolf, Bannon, and other conspiracy theorists have been so successful at spreading misinformation and disinformation that have pulled many people, even those who see themselves as leftists, into what Klein calls a “mirror” world, or a warped reflection who they are.

Wolf was acclaimed for her book The Beauty Myth, published in 1991, but her reputation as a third wave feminist was damaged when errors were revealed in subsequent books, particularly Outrages, whose publication in the U.S. was cancelled. Klein follows Wolf’s descent into the conspiracy world of the deep state, authoritarianism, and the Covid pandemic that pushed her, as it did many others, into full-fledged vaccine paranoia. Even before the onset of Covid 19, vaccine skepticism was alive and well in this country. Klein, whose son has autism, explores the myth that vaccines cause autism, (claimed today by Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., who’s running for president) and the “wellness” and physical training community that objects to “foreign material” being put in their bodies.

For Klein, the Covid conspiracies reveal the contested terrain between the failure of the left to bring more attention to the failures of government’s response to it, the pharmaceutical industry’s profiting from it, and the right’s appropriation of these failures into conspiracy theories of government takeover and supremacist validation (only the weak die from Covid). The right takes the failures of the left and escalates the rhetoric to appeal to the disenfranchised, the ones who’ve been abandoned by the state—which then becomes the dark state—and the individualized health care nuts whose bodies must remain free of pollution. Sound familiar? Klein makes the Nazi connection, which I will discuss in a moment, but this failure of the left extends far beyond just Covid: “It’s entirely possible that Bannon and Wolf’s war on reality is just what happens when so many of the big lies that built the modern world crumble. As the house collapses, some people choose to take flight into full-blown fantasy, sure—but that doesn’t mean that the rest of us who were also born and raised in that house are guardians of the truth.”

As for the Nazi connection, Klein explores the idea that the Holocaust was also a doppelganger story, not “without historical precedents or antecedents.” Nazi ideology was actually “an intensified and compacted expression of the very same violent colonial ideology that ravaged other continents at other times”—including the American genocide of Native Americans. Klein writes: “Certainly defeating Hitler and freeing the camps, however belatedly, was the most righteous victory of the modern age. Complicating this story is the fact that Hitler spoke and wrote extensively about the many ways in which he drew inspiration for his genocidal regime from British colonialism and from the various structures of racial hierarchy pioneered inside north America.”

A subsequent doppelganger is what is happening right now in Israel and Palestine. Klein provides a detailed accounting of what it has historically meant to be a Jew and how to answer the “Jewish Question” related to emancipation and anti-Semitism, cultural assimilation, and Zionism in her chapter “The Unshakable Ethnic Double.” Before the Holocaust, various factions of the Jewish community—socialists like the Russian Bund, intellectuals, and revolutionaries like Trotsky and Rosa Luxemburg, failed to reach consensus. After the Holocaust, when the most of the debaters had been exterminated by totalitarianism, only Zionism was left to answer the Jewish Question: “Israel as a territorial homeland for the Jews, a nation that could be armed and protected from all possible threats, positioned itself as the only option left . . . rather than trying to defeat anti-Semitism we will hold a gun at its head and force it into submission.” (I was intrigued by Klein’s references to Philip Roth’s book Operation Shylock in the context of his doppelganger character who believes the creation of the state of Israel was a grave mistake.)

Klein’s book was published before October 7, 2023, but her doppelganger explanation of Israel as both victim and perpetrator has been confirmed in the past three months’ genocide In Gaza.  

She references Caroline Rooney, professor of African and Middle Eastern Studies at the University of Kent, who describes Israel this way: “First, it is a doppelganger of the forms of chauvinistic European nationalism that turned Jews into pariahs on the continent since well before the Inquisition. That was Zionism’s win-win pitch to anti-Semitic European powers: you get rid of your ‘Jewish problem’ (i.e., Jews, who will leave your countries and migrate to Palestine) and Jews get a state of their own to mimic/twin the very forms of militant nationalism that had oppressed them for centuries.” (Settler colonialism.)

All of this brings Klein back to Wolf, who, in the 2014 Israeli attack of Gaza wrote outspokenly about Israeli war crimes and actually called the assault on Gaza genocide. In doing so she was castigated by the press and forced out of her teaching position at Barnard. By 2022, however, Wolf was instead posting pictures on the reactionary website Gettr of her new gun with this statement: “Maybe every writer and dissident critic should have a bipod at home in such times as these. The pen may be mightier than the sword, but perhaps these days, with the Ministry of Truth about to take aim at us, writers need both the pen and the (defensive) sword.” The same day she wrote this a white supremacist in Buffalo, New York murdered ten people at a supermarket.

Klein cleverly uses Naomi Wolf and her doppelganger problem as a metaphor for the blurred line between truth and lies, the left and the right, victim and perpetrator, and liberal democracies and authoritarianism. What I’ve provided in this review represents only a smattering of the rabbit holes she descends in her quest to reveal the dangers inherent in our modern world—including how the failure to analyze capitalism leads to “hero narratives that flip into villain narratives.” It’s an engaging read, combining the personal with the political in a way that is always intellectually grounded.

Come see the bees present

• their newly-released 10 Year Anniversary edition of MesoAmerica Resiste!
• their new book, The True Cost of Coal, and even
• a peak into their work-in-progress about California: The Callegory.

The Beehive Collective is on tour with their massive, collaboratively produced, and intricately detailed murals, packed with nature metaphors and peoples’ … Read more

Two documents—a draft Environmental Impact Report and an class VI well permit—would allow a Carbon Capture and Storage project in Kern County to dump 48 million tons of CO2 underground in the Elk Hills oil field.

Kern County has released a draft Environmental Impact Report (EIR) for the project, with a comment deadline of February

… Read more

The former energy minister, Chris Skidmore, has resigned over new legislation to offer more offshore oil and gas licences, prompting another by-election.

Chris Skidmore signing the net zero strategy into law. Photo: UK government

In a statement released tonight on X, formerly Twitter, Mr Skidmore said:

“I cannot vote for a bill that clearly promotes the production of new oil and gas.”

The Offshore Petroleum Licensing Bill will be debated in the House of Commons on Monday (8 January 2024). It requires the industry regulator to invite oil and gas companies to apply for oil and gas licences every year.

In an attack on UK fossil fuel policy, Mr Skidmore said:

 “This bill would in effect allow more frequent new oil and gas licences and the increased production of new fossil fuels in the North Sea.”

“I cannot vote for the bill next week. The future will judge harshly those that do.”

He said he was resigning the party whip and would be “standing down from parliament as soon as possible”.

Mr Skidmore, who signed into law the UK’s commitment to reach net zero carbon emissions by 2050, said:

“I can also no longer condone nor continue to support a government that is committed to a course of action that I know is wrong and will cause future harm. To fail to act, rather than merely speak out, is to tolerate the status quo that cannot be sustained.”

He said it was a “tragedy” that the “UK has been allowed to lose its climate leadership”:

“The bill that will be debated next week achieves nothing apart from to send a global signal that the UK is rowing ever further back from its climate commitments.

“We cannot expect other countries to phase out their fossil fuels when at the same time we continue to issue new licences or to open new oil fields.”

The government announced plans for annual licensing offers in November 2023 and legislation was included in the King’s Speech two days later.

Mr Skidmore, who carried out a review of the UK government’s net zero policy, said:

“At a time when we should be committing to more climate action, we simply do not have any more time to waste promoting the future production of fossil fuels that is the ultimate cause of the environmental crisis that we are facing.”

There was no case, he said, for increasing fossil fuel production “at a time when investment should be made elsewhere, in the industries and businesses of the future, and not of the past.”

He said the International Energy Agency, the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change and the UK’s Climate Change Committee had all said there must be no new additional oil and gas production beyond current commitments if we are to reach net zero by 2050 and limit temperature rise to 1.5C.

He added:

“As fossil fuels become more obsolete, expanding new oil and gas licences or opening new oil fields will only create stranded assets of the future, harming local and regional communities that should instead by supported to transition their skills and expertise to renewable and clean energy.”

Mr Skidmore’s resignation means Rishi Sunak faces another by-election. It will be at least the eighth in 12 months.

Of the by-elections held so far, the Conservatives retained one seat, Labour gained four and the Lib Dems gained one.

Mr Skidmore has held the constituency of Kingswood, in south Gloucestershire, since 2010, taking the seat from Labour. He had a majority of more than 11,000 at the 2019 general election.

Kingswood will disappear in upcoming boundary changes and Mr Skidmore had already said he did not plan to stand at the general election.

File:  20240102 DRN Op-Ed - Green Hydrogen is not clean or green.pdfOngoing Issues: Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub

File:  20231025 OCED Mid Atlantic Regional H2Hub Community Briefing.pdfOngoing Issues: Mid-Atlantic Hydrogen Hub

New federal rules for hydrogen projects aim to ensure tax credits go to clean hydrogen production, but some Pennsylvania lawmakers aren't happy. We'll also hear about how railway workers and safety advocates are pushing for new solutions to prevent derailments like the one in East Palestine, Ohio. Plus, to help injured birds recover, a sanctuary is building natural habitats with plant waste from a nearby botanical garden. We have news about a Pennsylvania bill to increase the renewable energy standard, new federal methane rules, low natural gas impact fees and tick studies.

The post Episode for January 5, 2024 appeared first on The Allegheny Front.

The article below is tough news on a vitally important topic. Our challenge to Save NC Solar is now 3.5 years old and still roiling. NC WARN and allies have a very strong case at the Court of Appeals – we intend to reverse the regulators’ rotten, pro-Duke ruling.

NC WARN is redoubling our call for Gov. Cooper and Atty General Stein to Save NC Solar. Neither of them have ever responded since 68 solar companies and advocates begged for their help last May. Now, our 3-year warning is coming true.

Cooper and Stein need to hear that letting Duke Energy wreck our solar industry is disastrous in an era of climate crisis.

The News & Observer (also in The Charlotte Observer)

A troubling drop in rooftop solar power is coming to North Carolina | Opinion

By Ned Barnett, January 5, 2024

Consumer advocates feel like Duke Energy tends to go into rate negotiations asking for the moon, but even they were surprised when the N.C. Utilities Commission instead gave the utility the sun.

That may be the effect of a commission decision to let Duke cut the credits it gives homeowners who send electricity from their rooftop solar panels back to the grid, a process called net metering. The changes could stymie growth in rooftop solar energy production in the state and increase Duke’s ability to dominate the solar energy market with industrial-scale solar farms.

How cutting payments narrows the sources of solar power is on vivid display in California. The nation’s top solar power producer has 1.8 million solar power systems on the roofs of California businesses and homes, thanks in part to an incentive program that encouraged the private generation of solar power. But since reductions in credits took effect last year, rooftop solar sales in California have dropped as much as 85%.

In an editorial, The Los Angeles Times called for the state to restore rooftop solar power incentives.

“It’s not a surprise that eviscerating the financial incentives for consumers to invest in solar power would cause sales to plummet. But it’s still incredibly disappointing to see the outcome of state regulators’ wrecking-ball approach play out so predictably,” the newspaper said.

In North Carolina, some solar power installers say sales have dropped as much as 80 percent since the credit reductions took effect. “They have killed solar in California. Now they have done it in North Carolina,” one installer told me.

The credit reduction will be phased in, with a limited number of customers able to lock in a “bridge rate.” But the full cut will take effect starting in 2027. Given retail rate hikes already approved, compensation for selling power back to the grid in 2027 will be reduced by more than 50 percent.

Duke has an incentive to keep solar power from expanding too broadly. An abundance of cheap renewal energy would reduce the need for new gas plants and nuclear technology, capital investments that support higher electricity rates.

Duke spokesman Randy Wheeless said the net metering change is about being fair. He said the utility worked with solar installers to find a way that didn’t “benefit the solar customer at the expense of non-solar customers,” but left enough of a payment to make it still worthwhile to install a solar power system.

“The future going forward is still pretty bright for solar in North Carolina,” Wheeless said. “We have a system that has certainty so customers know what net metering is going to be about going into the future and we’ll have some programs that make it attractive for customers that want to go in that direction.”

Duke, repeating an argument used by utilities around the nation, says rooftop solar customers benefit from the grid without paying for its upkeep. The new net metering rate structure in North Carolina sets a mandatory monthly bill for solar customers.

But advocates for rooftop solar say the cost shift claim is unfounded. The environmental advocacy group NC WARN and others have a case before the N.C. Court of Appeals that seeks a court order that the assessment be performed.

“Let’s get the numbers on the table and see if (Duke’s claim) is actually true,” said Jim Warren of NC WARN.

One benefit of encouraging more rooftop solar is that it could reduce the need for natural gas-fueled power plants that Duke plans to build to meet peak demand.

See the full article here.

The post BREAKING: Duke’s Destruction of Rooftop Solar — NC WARN News Release / N&O Article appeared first on NC WARN.

A company that wants to delay restoration of an oil well to explore using geothermal heat for tea growing has been accused of “clutching at tea leaves”.

Protests outside UKOG site at Broadford Bridge in West Sussex. Photo: Broadford Bridge Action Group

UK Oil & Gas plc (UKOG) is seeking to extend the life of the Broadford Bridge site, near Billinghurst, in West Sussex, for a fifth time.

It said it wants two more years to explore the potential for generating geothermal heat for commercial agriculture, including tea growing.

The application has been opposed by the Broadford Bridge Action Group, which regularly gathered outside the site to drink tea and eat cake in protest at UKOG’s operations.

Cake at the Gate protest at the Broadford Bridge oil exploration site in West Sussex. Photo: Broadford Bridge Action Group

A spokesperson for the group said today:

“This company is clutching at tea leaves to try to avoid coughing up the money needed to restore this site as per their original licence.

“It’s ironic that UKOG objected to environmental campaigners having tea and cake mornings outside their gates to raise awareness of the risk of onshore energy production and are now claiming our need for a cuppa should allow them to delay their work on site further.

“Let’s hope WSCC councillors don’t buy it.”

A spokesperson for the Weald Action Group, a network of campaign groups in southern England, said:

“This appears to be yet another attempt by this small company UKOG to delay spending the money needed to plug and restore the well at Broadford Bridge as required by their initial exploration licence. Their last extension expires on March 31st.

“West Sussex County Council should not let UKOG avoid their responsibilities again and risk the cost falling on the taxpayer or landowners should UKOG have financial difficulties down the line. They need to focus on their promises to restore the environment around sites.

“Any potential for geothermal energy needs to be assessed separately across our area.”

No work has been carried out at Broadford Bridge since March 2018. The well pad would remain suspended if UKOG’s application were successful.

UKOG said the future of Broadford Bridge as a hydrocarbon site depends on data from oil wells at Horse Hill and a potential gas site at Loxley near Dunsfold. Both sites are the subject of legal challenges.

A public consultation on UKOG’s proposals is underway and runs until Thursday 25 January. The application is online at: https://westsussex.planning-register.co.uk/Planning/Display/WSCC/046/23

Delta tunnel project clears important hurdle with release of final environmental impact report – Bay City News 12/15/23
…Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director of the group Restore the Delta, said the state agencies’ argument that the tunnel is a climate project was built on incomplete data and faulty analysis. She also raised social justice issues associated with its construction near urban communities and called for an investment in resilience projects that reduce reliance on water exports from the Delta.

“The big pipe engineering solutions of the last century are no longer the way forward in California water’s climate-changed reality,” Barrigan-Parrilla said. “We need more underground storage in agricultural regions and more regional stormwater collection and water recycling in our cities. … The plan still largely ignores the project’s impacts on Delta urban environmental justice communities and how construction will ruin small Delta farming towns.”

In regard to underground storage, Crowfoot said it’s an “and not an or” situation, saying this project will help diversify the state’s water supplies, which includes recharging groundwater during wet years. He further noted that the redesign of the project includes investments to address impacts to urban communities like Stockton to protect their drinking water.

Restore the Delta’s Policy Analyst Cintia Cortez in response to Secretary Crowfoot’s comments: As a lifelong Delta resident in Stockton, I am saddened by Governor Newsom’s continued efforts to build a tunnel and Secretary Crowfoot’s continued support to dismiss the SF Bay-Delta as a climate sacrifice zone. Climate change is coming, and California’s Governor has decided to ignore the science and is married to the idea of building a tunnel to divert water from the Delta that will impact drinking water reservoirs, impede recreation, threaten public health for disadvantaged communities, wipe away endemic fish species, and preclude tribes from traditional ceremonies and cultural practices.

In short, the Delta tunnel is a band aid over a gunshot wound. The Delta tunnel will allow for excessive diversion of water flow which will impact the health and wellbeing of the Bay-Delta ecosystem and its communities. Secretary Crowfoot’s promise to invest in communities whose drinking water will be augmented by the construction of the tunnel will only continue the falsehood that the Delta tunnel is a climate project. Contrary to Crowfoot’s statement, the tunnel would deplete the river watersheds of needed flows for groundwater recharge. He has pitted the desires, not drinking water needs, as determined by the leaders of the State Water Contractors against the needs of other environmental justice communities throughout the Delta watershed and in the San Joaquin Valley. He aims to solely protect big agriculture, and new developments in Southern CA, and not the Delta. Unlike Secretary Crowfoot, we are advocating for the protection of drinking water, vulnerable communities, fisheries, tribes, and access to safe recreation for all California water users.

Climate change solutions should promote equity. California needs a sustainable water management plan that allows for adequate flow to protect communities, tribes, and fisheries, not the Delta tunnel.

State certifies Delta tunnel EIR Solano calls ‘inadequate’ – Daily Republic 12/23/23

The state on Thursday [December 21, 2023] certified the Delta Conveyance Project Environmental Impact Report.

The county, in comments sent to the state, argued that the report “is inadequate” in its mitigation of potential impacts.

Supervisor Mitch Mashburn in an earlier interview noted that nothing has changed about the state’s intent, and said the plan will destroy Delta communities, harm fish and wildlife habitats, and gives no regard to Native American cultural protections.

“In this EIR, they have made it clear they will not be able to mitigate all the impacts this project will cause,” Mashburn said.

He has gone so far as to say the project “threatens national security” due to increased traffic in Solano and its possible impacts on Travis Air Force Base.


A look back at Stockton’s 2023 – Stocktonia 12/27/23

As for the Delta tunnel — the Godzilla to the Sacramento-San Joaquin Delta’s Tokyo — its approval by the California Department of Water Resources is procrustean, a tragic disregard of environmentalism backed by sound biological science. It is merely a government of the moneyed, by the moneyed, for the moneyed.

Diverting 6,000 cubic feet a second of water from the Sacramento River through a 45-mile underground tunnel — if the exporters stop at that much, which they never do — will, by the state’s own account, scar the Delta with construction, further harm dying salmon and Delta smelt fisheries, and hurt regional farming. As if we need our weak economy to be gob-smacked for the benefit of Beverly Hills.

“We and our broad coalition of partners will engage in all necessary processes, and when necessary, litigation, to stop the Delta Conveyance Project once and for all,” vowed Barbara Barrigan-Parrilla, executive director for Restore the Delta.

California Climate 2024 edition – Politico 1/2/24

…And finally, the state’s zombiest of zombie water projects, the controversial tunnel to pipe more water from Northern to Southern California through the Delta, is clawing its way back to life after the Newsom administration released a final environmental review in the waning days of 2023. What it needs now is financial support, which big players like the Metropolitan Water District of Southern California are set to consider this year.

California Congressman John Garamendi Statement on Gavin Newsom Administration Advancing Delta tunnel ‘Boondoggle’ Say, “I Urge The Governor To Reconsider This Deeply Misguided Project” – Sierra Sun Times 1/3/24

“As I told the six previous Governors and now Governor Newsom, this tunnel will never be built. The state should not continue spending hundreds of millions of tax-payer dollars in pursuit of a multibillion-dollar boondoggle. Tunneling under the Delta to export more water to Southern California risks collapsing the Delta’s earthen levees and inundating this iconic working landscape with saltwater. While I share the Governor’s enthusiasm for modernizing California’s water supply infrastructure, forcing a tunnel on Delta residents ignores better ways to meet our state’s future water needs. I urge the Governor to reconsider this deeply misguided project,” said Congressman John Garamendi (D-CA).

Last August, Feet First Philly launched its 4th annual Public Space Enhancement Mini-Grant Program and received over 40 applications for transformative projects across Philadelphia. Today, in partnership with Philadelphia’s Department of Public Health Division of Chronic Disease and Injury Prevention, we are excited to announce funding for 21 projects that will improve Philadelphia’s public spaces, and make communities more walkable all over the city. These grants range from $500 up to $2,000 for resident-led projects that will make public spaces safer and more accessible. This is the largest number of projects FFP has ever funded in one round, making 53 the total number of projects funded since 2020.

Feet First Philly is proud to support these mini-grant projects and feels privileged to help them become a reality. Congratulations to these organizations and community groups for their amazing projects that will improve the pedestrian experience and make a difference in the walkability of their communities.

These projects fall under the following categories: Greening projects, Infrastructure and Cleaning, Programming and Public Art, and Lighting and Security. Some projects comprise a mixture of these categories.

Greening Projects all aim to improve green space and add plants, flowers, and various amenities to community green spaces.

Cobbs Creek Ambassador Park Clean Up

Community Alliance for Development will enhance a community green space by adding benches, planter boxes, flowers, signage, and tools for maintenance. This space will also be used for various community programming.

Disney-Nichols AME Church will enhance a community green space and can be utilized for different events such as flea markets, awareness programs, and workshops.

Do Moore Good will beautify a community garden and provide programming to educate residents about the process of growing food and environmental stewardship. This project will also create a safe space for community members to gather.

Greater Philadelphia Asian Social Service Center will improve community garden spaces in North Philadelphia and encourage community engagement.

Klean Kensington aims to clean and beautify abandoned lots to provide clean and beautiful spaces for neighbors to congregate and participate in community activities such as gardening.

Nicetown-Tioga Improvement Team RCO will transform overgrown abandoned lots into sacred art parks to create functional community green spaces.

58th Street Neighbors will install benches and lighting at a community garden space for residents and visitors to relax and enjoy.

Infrastructure and Cleaning projects will improve mobility by making pedestrian spaces more accessible and appealing.

34th Street Planter – Bulbs Not Bullets

Asociación Puertorriqueños en Marcha will install planters at a proposed crosswalk, solar street lights, and yard signs to help calm traffic and connect two major community resources, the Rainbow de Colores Playground and Angel Community Garden in Northeast Philadelphia.

Belmont Alliance Civic Association CDC will install the first phase of the entry sidewalk to the Belmont Commons Cultural Activities Park which is located on North Preston Street.

Exhibit A Art Design will install a mural to serve as a means of engagement and advocacy for a safe and healthy community while promoting historical awareness.

Germantown Residents for Economic Alternatives Together has a project that falls into a few categories such as greening, infrastructure, and lighting. It will improve a community gathering space by installing lighting and a shaded structure along with pruning trees and shrubs.

Hunting Park Neighborhood Advisory Committee will receive funding to support the organization’s ongoing urban blight removal project. They will focus on the removal of trash, short dumping, and the cleaning of vacant lots in the Hunting Park neighborhood.

Mantua Civic Association will add to the 34th Street Planter project that was installed last year. This project will add 10 planters along the sidewalk on Mantua Ave. It will help to beautify the corridor along with adding extra protection for pedestrians.

Wynnefield Heights Community Association will make improvements to Woodside Park. This project will install a mini-library for kids and families, and dog waste stations, along with cleaning the park space and planting flowers and trees.

Programming and Public Art projects aim to activate community spaces and provide programs and activities for residents, including murals and other types of art.

Centennial East Parkside CDC Black Men Conference

Frankford Community Development Corporation will make pedestrian improvements to Church Street Gateway using the themes ‘Thrive, Connect, and Renew’. Funding will help to facilitate community engagement to improve the gateway, which includes public art installation.

Hunting Park Green will construct and install 20 positive message boards to encourage community members. The message boards will be placed in heavily industrialized areas.

Original American Foundation aims to use a community garden to provide workshops that will teach gardening skills and other workshops to promote self-sustainability to low-income BIPOC residents in Southwest Philadelphia.

Susquehanna Clean Up/Pick Up Inc. will educate residents about illegal parking and implement ways to prevent illegal parking.

Tacony Community Development Corporation will use art to activate Torresdale Avenue through a series of collaborative community painting events.

Lighting and Security projects will install lights in community spaces to improve accessibility at night.

Spring Garden CDC Lighting Project

Friends of Campbell Square will install cafe-style lighting along the southern portion of Campbell Square to better engage residents as they enter the space from Allegheny Avenue. This aims to improve the safety of residents walking during the night.

Friends of Carrol Park will install a security door on a park shed to protect tools, beverages, equipment, decorations, and other items from theft. Protection of these items will allow the Friends group to better activate the park with various programs and events.

The Department of Treasury’s new proposed rules for tax credits for "clean hydrogen" could be a boon for boosting the nascent clean energy industry. But some say they are too strict.

The post Proposed federal hydrogen tax credit rules could be worth billions for projects, including those in Pa. appeared first on The Allegheny Front.

File:  20231229 - DRN Comment USACE re Ivy Castle Warehouse.pdfOngoing Issues: Warehouses