An actual warm spring could mean bad news for NY fruit crops

Apples orchards have becoming popular in upstate New York

Some warmer spring temperatures have already hit much of New York – and that could be bad for fruit crops.

With some 70 degree days already hitting much of the upstate region, an early spring may not be a good thing, according to Jason Londo, an associate professor of fruit crop physiology at Cornell University. He said with warmer weather, fruit crops may start dropping their defenses.

“We typically get plenty of cold weather in the month of March and even into April,” Londo said. “So the more heat we have now, the less defended our crops are to those types of freeze events that could happen,”

As temperatures increase, many fruit crops lose their resiliency to the cold, making them more susceptible to frost or cold damage. A late freeze last May caused damage to some apple and grape crops across the state. This year, Londo is remaining optimistic.

“I’m nervous, but it just depends, if it calms down and it just kind of goes through the rest of spring very cool, we’re fine,” Londo said. “It’s really if we have more spikes of heat and any oscillations.”

But if a late freeze does come, there is little New York growers can do. New York lacks the infrastructure some southern climate growers have and technology hasn’t moved fast enough to develop a viable solution. Despite a limited number of options to help protect crops, Londo said New York growers are strong.

“We have a resilient industry,” Londo said. “We have to keep that investment going, we have to keep positive, optimistic thoughts about how to mitigate this and work together.”

Londo said this is something the industry may have to get used to. “This sort of weather is going to continue to be unpredictable and it can be scary but I also have a lot of faith in the agriculture industry of this state,” Londo said.

Londo said fruit crops will be stronger if cooler temperatures remain through April.

Abigail Connolly ~ Abigail is a temporary WRVO News Reporter/Producer working on regional and digital news stories. She graduated from SUNY Oswego in 2022 where she studied English and Public Relations. Abigail enjoys reading, writing, exploring CNY and spending time with family and friends. Abigail first joined the WRVO team as a student reporter in June 2022.

Please note that David McMahon is also concerned about old gas wells!

The West Virginia Surface Owners Rights Organization, of which I am a cofounder, stands up for surface owners when the oil and gas drillers show up with bulldozers.

The common law says that if I own the surface, but someone else owns the minerals and leases them to a driller, I get no share of the value of the oil and gas that my surface land is used to produce. Only in the 1980s did surface owners finally even get limited compensation for the damage done to their land — the amount of the existing use such as growing hay was worth to the surface owners, not what use of their land is worth to the driller and mineral owner.

The Legislature has never regulated the deeds severing ownership of the minerals (usually to out-of-state owners) from the ownership of the surface in a way that might have given the surface owners more say over where well pads, pipelines etc. can be built — let alone what share the surface owner might get from the profits of drilling and producing using their land.
The Legislature has also never enacted regulations to protect mineral owners when signing leases to drillers (usually to out-of-state companies).

Almost every lease that I have seen drafted by the driller for the mineral owner to sign contains a “general warranty” clause. That means if the driller’s title work was wrong, the mineral owner has to pay for the driller’s lawyers when the driller gets sued by someone else who thinks the minerals were theirs and did not belong to the person the driller got to sign the lease.

So, if the driller is sued for the money the driller wrongfully paid to the person who the driller asked to signed the lease, then the person who signed the lease has to pay the driller’s attorney fees. I am not making this up. And many of the leases had provisions allowing free use of the surface for pipelines for wells that were not on the leased tract. And many of the leases had provisions that let the lease be held for decades by use for gas storage fields by paying the mineral owners only $1 an acre a year — again not a share of the money the driller made by using the storage field.

The Legislature never stepped in to regulate leasing, it only enacted forced pooling when mineral owners would not sign the drillers’ leases.

Now, finally, surface owners who got no share of the value of their land being used for oil and gas production have the opportunity to get paid for entering into carbon credit agreements that require scientific management of timber cutting. And now the Legislature is considering enacting regulation of transactions with landowners (Senate Bills 618 and 822).

Now, when the surface owner can get paid some money by persons or entities (usually out of state) who want to offset their carbon generation by paying us to manage our timberland in a carbon friendly way, now when we can finally get paid some money for scientifically managing our timber — now the Legislature is considering two bills that will at least inhibit and more likely eliminate West Virginia surface owners from getting this money.

Not everyone agrees that the buying and selling of carbon credits is a good idea.

But the Legislature cannot stop other states from authorizing it or stop private entities from purchasing the credits to enhance their image. All the Legislature can do is pass bills chasing the money out of West Virginia to surrounding states that do not interfere. The Legislature should prove its bona fides as advocating for a free market and less government and private property rights. Prove that West Virginia is not just a big company town. Don’t pass these bills.

David McMahon is a lawyer in Charleston. He is dedicated to the public interest.

NOTE ~ Please join the WV Surface Owners Rights Organization ASAP, that we definitely help!

See the Web Site ~ WVSORO.org. Julie Archer is the Executive Director, and needs your help!

URL: https://www.wvgazettemail.com/opinion/op_ed_commentaries/david-mcmahon-wv-looking-to-rip-off-surface-rights-owners-opinion/article_fdaeff14-8b0a-5b6b-8c77-41006ad17757.html

Our concern is the all lands, for example lot 7 here!

From Randi Pokladnik, Tappan Lake, OHIO, 44683, February 14, 2024

Have you ever noticed that every oil and gas drilling rig has an American flag anchored to the top? For most Americans, that flag represents a symbol of freedom. So, it’s ironic that Ohio’s pro fossil fuel Republicans cater to the oil and gas industry and usurp many of its rights and freedoms from Ohio’s citizens.

Have you ever noticed that every oil and gas drilling rig has an American flag anchored to the top? For most Americans, that flag represents a symbol of freedom. So, it’s ironic that Ohio’s pro fossil fuel Republicans cater to the oil and gas industry and usurp many of its rights and freedoms from Ohio’s citizens.

This industry, however, enjoys several freedoms and rights that many other industries do not. Because of the Haliburton laws, the oil and gas industry is exempt from most federal regulations, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In 1980, the Federal EPA acknowledged that the billions and billions of barrels of produced water from fracking wells is hazardous, but it would be an economic burden for this industry to try to adhere to the laws. Therefore, “The Federal EPA exempted wastes from the federal laws written to protect the public from toxic waste.” In Ohio, these wastes are trucked up and down the roads of our rural communities to be injected into Class II injection wells.

Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have opened the state to fracking; allowing the industry to exploit every drop of oil and every molecule of gas that lies beneath southeast Ohio counties.

Countless laws have been passed to pave the way for fracking while thwarting renewable energy development (HB 52 HB6 and HB483). Additionally, pro fossil fuel laws have attacked our freedoms, limiting free speech and public protests. Ohio citizens, trying to protect their homes and rural communities from the horrendous externalities visited on them, have been essentially gaged by laws like SB 33, passed in 2021.

A prime example of the power that fossil fuels weld over Ohio’s citizens was obvious in 2023, when HB 507 opened up the state’s parks to fracking. The bill was passed during the 2022 General Assembly “lame duck” session, and was quickly signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine. The bill set in motion the ability of out-of-state oil and gas companies to propose leases under state parks.

A “puppet-like” public participation process was carried on throughout the year with public meetings in Columbus. Citizens were prohibited from asking questions or commenting. The public meeting on November 15, 2023 was a sad day for Ohio’s public lands. Democracy was fracked, and leasing was approved for several tracts of land, including all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park.

The five-member Oil and Gas Land Management Commission ignored the nine criteria contained in the statue. They also ignored the vocal disagreement of over 100 informed, angry Ohio citizens and the peer-reviewed health and environmental studies in the over 5000 written comments submitted to them by Ohio citizens.

After that decision, many citizens were devastated and realized that ordinary freedoms we took for granted have been eroded away by an industry that controls the state legislature in Ohio. Southeast Ohio is just a mineral colony open for business, regardless of how that “business” ruins our communities.

Sadly, my family has learned that our precious forested property has been targeted by the industry for a forced pooling or mandatory unitization action. “Ohio Revised Code § 1509.27 provides a mechanism to force Ohio landowners to participate in oil and gas development without their consent.” Once again, this process favors industry profits over private property rights.

Forced pooling is defined as when a “person who has obtained the consent of the owners of at least sixty-five per cent of the land area overlying a pool or a part of a pool submits an application for the operation as a unit of the entire pool or part of the pool to the chief of the division of oil and gas resources management”. If approved, the application will force the remaining thirty-five percent of landowners to become part of the unit.

The best way to describe this is by using a puzzle. Pieces of the puzzle represent various parcels of lands owned by different people. A drilling unit is a long, horizontal tract of land (rectangle drawn on that puzzle). If sixty-five percent of the puzzle pieces in that tract are agreeable to lease their land, then the other thirty-five percent who do not want to lease their land are forced into the process.

There are only three criteria to satisfy in order for the Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas at ODNR to approve a mandatory pooling application (see OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 1509.27). They are: protecting correlative rights (those who have leased); providing for effective development and use; and promoting conservation of oil and gas. Any concerns over environmental harms or health effects are not considered.

Since 2014, we have been repeatedly contacted by oil and gas landmen trying to get us to sign a lease. We have refused for many reasons including health, environmental damage, and climate change. Now we are being forced to do something that goes against everything we believe.

We are learning about this process as we dig deeper into legal documentation. If we do not sign a lease agreement for our land, we are considered a non-consenting owner. There have been many amendments to the original laws written in 1965. In 2010, amendments were added to prevent liability from attaching to nonparticipant owners. “However, these amendments do not address one of the most critical aspects of the laws, the risk-penalty provision. Landowners subject to the order only have the choice between the following: (1) relent and become a participant in the drilling unit or (2) become a nonparticipating owner and pay a penalty of up to 200% of the reasonable costs and expenses of production.” This penalty is a way to encourage non-consenting owners to ultimately lease, and helps the well operators from undergoing additional application fees and paperwork.

In a conversation I had with another landowner who was also “force-pooled”, we discovered that by refusing to sign a lease, we may relinquish the ability to write legal protections for our land. If we sign a lease, we can at least list the various stipulations that limit the drilling company from surface access to our land. This would prohibit pipeline construction, the use of hydrocarbon storage tanks on our land, and the drilling of injection wells to inject waste fluids.
Basically, if we want to protect our property, we have no real options; we are forced to sign a lease. It is a horrible position. We built our eco-log home from salvaged forest-fire-killed trees; we have an 8.4kW solar system on our garage; and we have a new geothermal heating system. We have tried to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible and now our land will be fracked.

In 2018, I was honored by being selected as the “Fractivist of the Year” by the West Virginia Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition. In 2020, that same group gave me another award, the “Passion for Justice award”. Those plaques hang on my wall as a constant reminder of why I keep fighting fossil fuel expansion. Unfortunately, the fight to save our property will not be won. The Muskingum Watershed Conservancy District leased 7300 acres around Tappan Lake to Encino Energy in June of 2022, which led to the mandatory pooling of our land. We recently received the notification that our land is no longer truly ours, but instead is now part of Encino’s Akers HN FRA East Unit.

Make no mistake, I am enraged by the fact that we, as property-owning citizens, have no rights to stop this heinous process. Encino’s monster horizontal laterals will snake under our land and steal our resources. But they cannot steal my resolve to continue speaking out against the harms of fossil fuels and the lack of democracy in Ohio’s government, which is not “of the people, by the people, or for the people.”

This industry, however, enjoys several freedoms and rights that many other industries do not.

Because of the Haliburton laws, the oil and gas industry is exempt from most federal regulations, including the Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act, Resource Conservation and Recovery Act, Safe Drinking Water Act, Clean Water Act, Clean Air Act, National Environmental Policy Act, and the Toxic Release Inventory under the Emergency Planning and Community Right-to-Know Act.

In 1980, the Federal EPA acknowledged that the billions and billions of barrels of produced water from fracking wells is hazardous, but it would be an economic burden for this industry to try to adhere to the laws. Therefore, “The Federal EPA exempted wastes from the federal laws written to protect the public from toxic waste.” In Ohio, these wastes are trucked up and down the roads of our rural communities to be injected into Class II injection wells.

Ohio’s Republican lawmakers have opened the state to fracking; allowing the industry to exploit every drop of oil and every molecule of gas that lies beneath southeast Ohio counties.

Countless laws have been passed to pave the way for fracking while thwarting renewable energy development (HB 52 HB6 and HB483). Additionally, pro fossil fuel laws have attacked our freedoms, limiting free speech and public protests. Ohio citizens, trying to protect their homes and rural communities from the horrendous externalities visited on them, have been essentially gaged by laws like SB 33, passed in 2021.

A prime example of the power that fossil fuels weld over Ohio’s citizens was obvious in 2023, when HB 507 opened up the state’s parks to fracking. The bill was passed during the 2022 General Assembly “lame duck” session, and was quickly signed into law by Governor Mike DeWine. The bill set in motion the ability of out-of-state oil and gas companies to propose leases under state parks.

A “puppet-like” public participation process was carried on throughout the year with public meetings in Columbus. Citizens were prohibited from asking questions or commenting. The public meeting on November 15, 2023 was a sad day for Ohio’s public lands. Democracy was fracked, and leasing was approved for several tracts of land, including all 20,000 acres of Salt Fork State Park.

The five-member Oil and Gas Land Management Commission ignored the nine criteria contained in the statue. They also ignored the vocal disagreement of over 100 informed, angry Ohio citizens and the peer-reviewed health and environmental studies in the over 5000 written comments submitted to them by Ohio citizens.

After that decision, many citizens were devastated and realized that ordinary freedoms we took for granted have been eroded away by an industry that controls the state legislature in Ohio. Southeast Ohio is just a mineral colony open for business, regardless of how that “business” ruins our communities.

Sadly, my family has learned that our precious forested property has been targeted by the industry for a forced pooling or mandatory unitization action. “Ohio Revised Code § 1509.27 provides a mechanism to force Ohio landowners to participate in oil and gas development without their consent.” Once again, this process favors industry profits over private property rights.

Forced pooling is defined as when a “person who has obtained the consent of the owners of at least sixty-five per cent of the land area overlying a pool or a part of a pool submits an application for the operation as a unit of the entire pool or part of the pool to the chief of the division of oil and gas resources management”. If approved, the application will force the remaining thirty-five percent of landowners to become part of the unit.

The best way to describe this is by using a puzzle. Pieces of the puzzle represent various parcels of lands owned by different people. A drilling unit is a long, horizontal tract of land (rectangle drawn on that puzzle). If sixty-five percent of the puzzle pieces in that tract are agreeable to lease their land, then the other thirty-five percent who do not want to lease their land are forced into the process.

There are only three criteria to satisfy in order for the Chief of the Division of Oil and Gas at ODNR to approve a mandatory pooling application (see OHIO REV. CODE ANN. § 1509.27). They are: protecting correlative rights (those who have leased); providing for effective development and use; and promoting conservation of oil and gas. Any concerns over environmental harms or health effects are not considered.

Since 2014, we have been repeatedly contacted by oil and gas landmen trying to get us to sign a lease. We have refused for many reasons including health, environmental damage, and climate change. Now we are being forced to do something that goes against everything we believe.

We are learning about this process as we dig deeper into legal documentation. If we do not sign a lease agreement for our land, we are considered a non-consenting owner. There have been many amendments to the original laws written in 1965. In 2010, amendments were added to prevent liability from attaching to nonparticipant owners. “However, these amendments do not address one of the most critical aspects of the laws, the risk-penalty provision. Landowners subject to the order only have the choice between the following: (1) relent and become a participant in the drilling unit or (2) become a nonparticipating owner and pay a penalty of up to 200% of the reasonable costs and expenses of production.” This penalty is a way to encourage non-consenting owners to ultimately lease, and helps the well operators from undergoing additional application fees and paperwork.

In a conversation I had with another landowner who was also “force-pooled”, we discovered that by refusing to sign a lease, we may relinquish the ability to write legal protections for our land. If we sign a lease, we can at least list the various stipulations that limit the drilling company from surface access to our land. This would prohibit pipeline construction, the use of hydrocarbon storage tanks on our land, and the drilling of injection wells to inject waste fluids.
Basically, if we want to protect our property, we have no real options; we are forced to sign a lease. It is a horrible position. We built our eco-log home from salvaged forest-fire-killed trees; we have an 8.4kW solar system on our garage; and we have a new geothermal heating system. We have tried to reduce our carbon footprint as much as possible and now our land will be fracked.

NOW Join the Grace and Frankie Galentine’s Day Virtual Cast Reunion!

Join us on February 13 at 6PM PT for our Grace and Frankie Virtual Cast Reunion (Galentine’s Edition!) featuring a live table read from some of your favorite Grace and Frankie cast members: Jane Fonda, Lily Tomlin, Martin Sheen, Sam Waterston, and more!

Get ready for an evening sprinkled with laughter, cherished memories, and activism as we raise funds to support the fight against the climate crisis with the Jane Fonda Climate PAC.

To join us, use this form to make a contribution of $24 per person or a donation of any amount on this page. Then check for the link to join the event in your email receipt!

Please note: contributions processed through this portal are political contributions and are subject to the regulations outlined in our disclaimer section. If you are not eligible to donate, please email graceandfrankie@janepac.com for more information on how to participate.

“Jane Fonda Climate PAC — Donate via ActBlue https://secure.actblue.com/donate/galentines-ddc”>JOIN HERE ASAP NOW! ~ We must need this to recover a rational approach to the future!

10 dramatic discoveries about Earth from 2023

Hottest summer on record.

Devastating Maui wildfire.

Return of El Niño.

Possible shutdown of key ocean current system.

Record-low sea ice extent in Antarctica.

Smoke from Canadian wildfires.

Changes to the tilt of Earth’s axis.

A brand-new island.

Source ~ https://www.space.com/planet-earth-from-space-in-2023

Now it’s time to squeeze off these LNG shipments! dgn

From the Appeal of Catharine Collentine, The Sierra Club, January 24, 2024

Yesterday, the New York Times reported that the Biden administration is poised to announce a pause on what would be the largest gas export terminal in the nation, CP2, to evaluate its impacts on our climate.1 This would be a huge victory for our health and future. CP2 alone would cause 20 TIMES as much carbon pollution as the Willow Project in Alaska.

Our advocacy is working, but we need to turn up the heat right now to stop the expansion of gas exports once and for all! We have a real opportunity to protect our future – let’s seize it.

Act Now!

White House Said to Delay Decision on Enormous Natural Gas Export Terminal

Source: The New York Times. For months, the fossil fuel industry has been trying to push through more than 20 liquified “natural” gas (LNG) export projects across the country. If built, they could have the equivalent emissions of more than 550 coal-fired power plants. Further, these facilities will poison the air of communities in the Gulf South and Appalachia with dangerous, cancer-causing chemicals.

Any day now, the Biden admin is expected to act to stop the expansion of gas exports. This is happening because of public pressure — that’s all of us speaking up by sending petitions, posting on social media, talking with friends and family, lobbying elected officials, and more.

Last year, we sent the Biden administration over 400,000 petitions from Sierra Club supporters and our partners protesting CP2, the largest of these gas export projects. If built, this export terminal would emit the greenhouse gas emission equivalent of 50 coal-fired power plants every year.

President Biden and Department of Energy Secretary Granholm are feeling the pressure. Act now to demand they reject expanded gas exports.

The time has come to take this warning seriously!

From an Article by Jessica Corbett for Common Dreams on January 23, 2024

“Ominous trends continue to point the world toward global catastrophe,” The Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists warned Tuesday, explaining why the Doomsday Clock remains at 90 seconds to midnight.

Since its 1947 debut, the Doomsday Clock has represented how close humanity is to destroying the world. While it was initially created in response to nuclear arms risks, in 2024, the climate emergency, biological threats, and disruptive technologies including artificial intelligence (AI) also factor into the clock’s position.

The Bulletin’s new statement says that “the members of the Science and Security Board have been deeply worried about the deteriorating state of the world. That is why we set the Doomsday Clock at two minutes to midnight in 2019 and at 100 seconds to midnight in 2022.”

“Last year, we expressed our heightened concern by moving the clock to 90 seconds to midnight—the closest to global catastrophe it has ever been—in large part because of Russian threats to use nuclear weapons in the war in Ukraine,” the publication continues. “Today, we once again set the Doomsday Clock at 90 seconds to midnight because humanity continues to face an unprecedented level of danger.”

“Our decision should not be taken as a sign that the international security situation has eased,” the statement stresses. “Instead, leaders and citizens around the world should take this statement as a stark warning and respond urgently, as if today were the most dangerous moment in modern history. Because it may well be.”

Nearly two years since the invasion, “a durable end to Russia’s war in Ukraine seems distant, and the use of nuclear weapons by Russia in that conflict remains a serious possibility,” the document states. However, Russia is just one of the world’s nine nuclear-armed nations.

“Spending programs in the three largest nuclear powers — China, Russia, and the United States—threaten to trigger a three-way nuclear arms race as the world’s arms control architecture collapses,” the statement notes. “And the war in Gaza between Israel and Hamas has the potential to escalate into a wider Middle Eastern conflict that could pose unpredictable threats, regionally and globally.”

On the climate front, “the world in 2023 entered uncharted territory as it suffered its hottest year on record and global greenhouse gas emissions continued to rise,” the publication highlights. “Current efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions are grossly insufficient to avoid dangerous human and economic impacts from climate change, which disproportionately affect the poorest people in the world.”

The statement also points out that “the revolution in life sciences and associated technologies continued to expand in scope last year,” and “the convergence of emerging artificial intelligence tools and biological technologies may radically empower individuals to misuse biology.”

Other AI-related concerns include the “great potential to magnify disinformation” as well as military uses. The statement says that “decisions to put AI in control of important physical systems—in particular, nuclear weapons—could indeed pose a direct existential threat to humanity.”

While sounding the alarm about the world’s top threats on Tuesday, the Bulletin also emphasized that it’s possible to turn back the clock.

“For decades, scientists have been warning us of the dangers facing humankind,” said science communicator Bill Nye, who participated in the 2024 Doomsday Clock announcement. “We could be facing catastrophe unless we better manage the technologies we’ve created. It’s time to act.”

The Bulletin’s executive chair, former Democratic California Gov. Jerry Brown, asserted that “only the big powers like China, America, and Russia can pull us back. Despite deep antagonisms, they must cooperate—or we are doomed.”

Outside organizations, including the U.K.-based Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament (CND), also issued calls to action.

“The Doomsday Clock remaining at 90 seconds to midnight must be a wake-up call for the entire world,” said the group’s general secretary, Kate Hudson. “We’re fast approaching the point of no return. CND calls on all those who want peace to prevail to join us in doing everything we can to turn back the clock.”

Our political officials are ignoring our environment at all levels!

From the Article by Michael M. Barrick, The Appalachian Chronicle, December 31, 2023

BIG ISSAC, W.Va. – Our top story from 2023 is the brutal abuse of eminent domain to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP).

This power grab of private property along a 300-mile stretch through West Virginia and Virginia for the benefit of one for-profit company is the most audacious land grab since the landmark Supreme Court decision, Kelo v. New London. That is when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld the right of the city of New London, Conn. to take the land of Susette Kelo and then sell it to private developers.

“Kelo broadened the scope of what could be defined as public use under eminent domain. In simpler terms, the supreme court decision created a legal precedent by which land seized can be deemed as public use even if it is not directly beneficial to the public.”

As Chloe Kauffman wrote for the James Madison Institute, “Kelo broadened the scope of what could be defined as public use under eminent domain. In simpler terms, the supreme court decision created a legal precedent by which land seized can be deemed as public use even if it is not directly beneficial to the public.”

Kauffman predicted, “In a post-Kelo world, the phrase ‘public use’ in the fifth amendment can be applied to anything deemed as economic development.’” The MVP is the poster child of her chilling warning.

It is quite a story. It includes a back-room deal at the highest levels of government. U.S. Senator Joe Manchin (D-W.Va) and President Joe Biden colluded to slip in fast track construction of the MVP in the so-called Inflation Reduction Act. It short-circuited the often effective efforts by MVP opponents in state and federal courts.

It is also a story about Authorities Having Jurisdiction turning a blind eye to MVP violations and damages, despite independent evidence pointing to the MVP as the primary cause of a destructive flood here in September. Families have lost their homes or had them rendered uninhabitable because of the dangers associated with being 500 feet downslope from the MVP Right-of-Way (ROW), within just hundreds of yards from 42” pipelines and with cancer-causing benzene hanging in the air of low-lying valleys.

PHOTO IN ARTICLE ~ Flooding in Big Isaac earlier this year; water is coming from direction of the MVP! This means the destruction of home places. This brutal abuse of eminent domain is beyond concerning; it is a warning that no inalienable, natural right is safe in the United States. If the liberty of keeping your home from being seized by the government is no longer applicable, what other authoritarian practices shall we be forced to tolerate? As you consider that question, take a few minutes to watch “Who Will Watch the Home Place” by Laurie Lewis.

Kelo, as proven by the MVP, has removed one of our most fundamental Constitutional protections; we know voting rights are under assault. What else is next?

It is betrayal at every level of government in multiple jurisdictions. It has impacted thousands, cost billions, violated our rights and impacted vulnerable people and watersheds such as the Karst Topography of Monroe County, W.Va. The MVP is hardly a good neighbor, as it claims.

It is an ecological disaster waiting to happen. That is as predictable as Kauffman’s warning about Kelo – anything goes – with the blessings of the Powers-that-Be.

(NOTE: Sarah and I spent much of the year traveling West Virginia to share stories from my book, “Fractured Sanctuary: A Chronicle of Grassroots Activists Fighting Pipelines of Destruction in Appalachia.” Michael & Sarah Barrick, of West Virginia & North Carolina.)

COP28 was very important to our state of WV, our nation & world!

From the Article by David Beard, Morgantown Dominion Post, December 16, 2023

MORGANTOWN — Delegate Evan Hansen is back from his trip to the United Nations Climate

“On the one hand, it was inspiring to see so many people trying to find ways to work together to solve the climate crisis, ” said Hansen, D-Monongalia. “On the other hand, it also was a pretty stark reminder of how far we are from reducing emissions enough to keep climate change in check.”

Hansen left for the conference — held at Expo City Dubai — on Dec. 4 and participated in panel discussions on Dec. 6 and 8. His hotel was situated on one of the islands off Dubai’s shore and he could see Iran across the Persian Gulf. “It was definitely far from home.”

Occupied with conference business most of his time, he said, he had little time for tourism, but his group did get to ride to the top of the world’s tallest building, the Burj Khalifa. He’s been participating for a couple of years in a series of meetings organized by the Jackson Hole Center for Global Affairs and attended COP28 with some of its leaders.

Delegate Evan Hansen Recounts his Trip to the COP28 Climate Conference in Dubai
The venue at Expo City Dubai was divided into two zones: the Blue Zone where official negotiations occurred, and the Green Zone surrounding it, where everything else went on.

The negotiations, among nearly 200 parties, resulted in the “world’s first ‘global stocktake’ to ratchet up climate action before the end of the decade — with the overarching aim to keep the global temperature limit of 1.5 °C within reach, ” the official conference release said The stocktake, the release said, “calls on parties to take actions toward achieving, at a global scale, a tripling of renewable energy capacity and doubling energy efficiency improvements by 2030. The list also includes accelerating efforts towards the phase-down of unabated coal power, phasing out inefficient fossil fuel subsidies, and other measures that drive the transition away from fossil fuels in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner, with developed countries continuing to take the lead.”

The Green Zone, Hansen said, was a blend of displays, entertainment, trade shows, events and panel discussions organized by different parties. “It’s a little bit like climate change Disneyland.” The trade shows featured companies working on renewable and nuclear energy, banks that would be funding the work and non-governmental organizations, among others.

Along with his two panels, Hansen said he sat in on several other discussions focused on China — to learn more about what’s going on there and its efforts for a just transition as it goes greener His first panel was titled, “The Elephant in the Room: Just and Inclusive Transitions in Fossil Fuel Regions.”

Hansen said the U.S., China, other parts of the world face similar issues: how the transition will affect fossil fuel communities and how to take care of them. “While it has everybody’s attention, there’s no cookie-cutter solutions. It’s a big challenge and especially for countries like the United States that are kind of the first movers, ” he said.

Various countries have different dates for peaking their coal consumption and production, and peaking their carbon emissions to hit net zero, he said China is still mining but aims to peak coal production by 2025.

“I think that will help to address some of the concerns that other legislators have expressed: Why should we be suffering the impacts here if China’s just burning more and more coal.” China aims to reach peak carbon emissions by 2030 and reach net zero by 2060.

China and the U.S., he said, are both exploring ways to use coal as a manufacturing input for products, to keep the industry working while not burning it. “I think that’s something that shows some promise and I think there’s some potential additional sharing and information cooperation between the U.S. and China on that.

The second panel concerned the China-U.S. Track II Dialogue on Climate Finance, and followed on the heels of the mid-November announcement that the United States and China reached new agreements to work together on greenhouse gas emission reductions and the rollout of renewable sources of energy.

Hansen talked with The Dominion Post about ensuring domestic renewable energy projects and domestic manufacturing jobs come to the state. “To the extent that we can capture as many of those as possible in West Virginia and benefit communities that are hit the hardest by the decline of coal, that would be great.”

In Dubai, he said, that China is the world leader in solar and wind installations. While it gets a bad rap for its ongoing building of coal-fired plants, it has three times more wind and solar installations than the U.S. And that will help provide some jobs in other coal regions across the globe.

Here in West Virginia, WVU’s Water Research Institute has been leading the way in extracting rare earth minerals from coal mine runoff. Hansen commented, “I’m excited by some of the prospects of bringing some of the mining and processing of the rare earth elements to the United States. It’s also a national security issue. We don’t want to be dependent on other countries, especially countries that might be hostile to us.

“But we have to do it in a way that’s clean, so we’re not trading one environmental problem for another, ” he said. “The reality though, is that there’s a lot of unknowns.” The transition must be rapid, he said, to address climate change. But it will move in fits and starts, with successes and failures.

And there’s a race going on to see who will dominate the technological fields of the energy future. “And that’s another reason why we have such an incentive to move quickly, because the markets for these types of industries are gigantic — they’ve just begun.”

§ ~ We asked if he brought any take-homes to share with his community and legislative colleagues.

1. One, he said, “It makes me more convinced than ever that we need to be attracting green manufacturing jobs to West Virginia, and state leaders have done a good job at that over the last couple of years.” It’s important to continue that.

2. And two, there are ongoing concerns about a growing proportion of renewables disrupting grid stability. Other countries have far more renewables than our PJM grid, he said, and have remained stable. “I plan to bring that fact up when the debate comes up.”

Our forests are widespread and diverse, but all serve mankind now and for generations

From the Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR), Public Appeal, December 26, 2023

Protect our forests, no carbon dioxide storage there ~ Our national forests should be protected from corporate greed, NOT used as a dumping ground for industrial carbon waste. Write your comment to the US Forest Service today!

Carbon capture and storage is a false solution proposed by the most-polluting industries — one that only prolongs our dependence on fossil fuels. The United States Forest Service has suggested our national forests and grasslands are the right places to inject captured carbon into the earth.

Not only is this dangerous for our environment, climate and health, but it sets a dangerous precedent that opens the door for further exploitation of our natural resources. Our public lands should be protected from corporate greed, NOT used as a dumping ground for climate-damaging industrial carbon.

Write your comment today!