MVP has been of citizen concern for years now

From an Announcement of West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Charleston, WV, April 26, 2021

The Mountain Valley Pipeline continues to threaten the 500 remaining streams they have yet to cross! You can be the eyes on the ground to defend these streams. We’re hosting a free webinar on May 4 to share how you can identify, document and report pollution from the pipeline. Register here.

West Virginia Rivers Coalition and Trout Unlimited are hosting an online event to train citizens on how to monitor streams in the path of Mountain Valley Pipeline. During the live webinar, you’ll learn about the different methods Mountain Valley Pipeline will use to cross streams. We’ll provide you with detailed information to identify, document, and report sediment and erosion control deficiencies to keep Mountain Valley’s mud out of our streams.

What: Pipeline Stream Crossing Training

When: May 4th at 7:00 pm

How: Register for the webinar here

WEST VIRGINIA RIVERS COALITION
3501 MacCorkle Ave SE #129
Charleston, West Virginia 25304
304-637-7201 | wvrivers@wvrivers.org

Residents of Dryden (NY) After Fracking Ban

Court Rules That New York Towns Can Ban Fracking

From an Article by Ecowatch, June 30, 2014

In a precedent-setting case decided today by the New York Court of Appeals, local communities have triumphed over the fracking industry. The court ruled that the towns of Dryden and Middlefield can use local zoning laws to ban heavy industry, including oil and gas production within municipal borders.

Helen Slottje and Deborah Goldberg represented the NY towns (townships) before the Court of Appeals in Albany including oral arguments.

“Today the Court stood with the people of Dryden and the people of New York to protect their right to self determination. It is clear that people, not corporations, have the right to decide how their community develops,” said Dryden Deputy Supervisor Jason Leifer. “This would not have been possible without the hard work of many of my friends and neighbors and our lawyers Deborah Goldberg of Earthjustice and Mahlon Perkins. Today’s ruling shows all of America that a committed group of citizens and public officials can stand together against fearful odds and successfully defend their homes, their way of life and the environment against those who would harm them all in the name of profit.”

“This decision by the Court of Appeals has settled the matter once and for all across New York State and has sent a firm message to the oil and gas industry,” said Earthjustice Managing Attorney Deborah Goldberg. “For too long the oil and gas industry has intimidated and abused people, expecting to get away with it. That behavior is finally coming back to haunt them, as communities across the country stand up and say ‘no more.’ Earthjustice is proud to have stood with, and fought on behalf of, one such community.”

Many other cities and towns in New York have been waiting for today’s decision to establish bans or moratoriums of their own. The victory also gives legal authority to themore than 170 New York municipalities that have passed measures against fracking in their communities. Today’s decision will also serve as inspiration for a growing number of localities in Colorado, Ohio, Texas, Pennsylvania and California that are hoping to stop the controversial drilling practice.

“Town by town, New Yorkers have taken a stand against fracking. Today’s victory confirms that each of these towns is on firm legal ground,” said Helen Slottje, an Ithaca-based attorney whose legal research inspired New York’s local fracking ban groundswell and who was honored with the 2014 Goldman Environmental Prize. “The oil and gas industry tried to take away a fundamental right that pre-dates even the Declaration of Independence: the right of municipalities to regulate local land use. But they failed. The anti-fracking measures passed by Dryden, Middlefield and dozens of other New York municipalities are fully enforceable.”

In response to the court’s 5-2 decision, John Armstrong of Frack Action and New Yorkers Against Fracking said, ”We applaud the court for once again affirming the right of New Yorkers to ban fracking and its toxic effects from their communities. As Chief Judge Lippman said, you don’t bulldoze over the voice of the people. But water and air contamination don’t stop at local boundaries, and Governor Cuomo must ban fracking statewide to protect our health and homes from the arrogant and inherently harmful fracking industry.”

The case in Dryden has attracted nation wide attention and taken on special significance. More than 20,000 people from across the country and globe sent messages to the town board, expressing support for the town through the course of its nearly three-year legal battle. AnEarthjustice video depicting the town’s fight has garnered more than 80,000 views.

“We did it! This victory is for everyone who loves their town and will fight to the end to protect it,” said Dryden resident Deborah Cipolla-Dennis. “I’m proud of my town and I’m proud of the people in Fort Collins, CO; Denton, TX; Santa Cruz, CA; and all the others who are standing up to the oil and gas industry.”

Trees & Soil Capture Greenhouse Gases

Doing Nothing Isn’t an Option: How to Avoid the Worst of Climate Change

From an Article by Dr. David Suzuki and Ian Hanington, EcoWatch.com, April 23, 2014

It’s fitting that the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report was released during Earth Month. After all, the third chapter of its Fifth Assessment focuses on ways to keep our planet healthy and livable by warding off extreme climatic shifts and weather events caused by escalating atmospheric carbon.

Doing so will require substantially reducing greenhouse gas emissions–40 to 70 percent by 2050 and to near-zero by the end of the century. We must also protect carbon “sinks” such as forests and wetlands and find ways to store or bury carbon. The good news is that weaning ourselves off fossil fuels, conserving energy and shifting to cleaner sources comes with economic and quality-of-life benefits.

“There is a clear message from science: To avoid dangerous interference with the climate system, we need to move away from business as usual,” said economist Ottmar Edenhofer, co-chair of Working Group III, which produced the chapter.

Doing nothing isn’t an option. That would lead to a significant increase in global average temperatures and extreme weather-related events such as storms, droughts and floods, wreaking havoc on our food systems, communities and the natural environment we depend on for our health and survival. Technological measures and behavioral change could limit global mean temperatures to less than 2 C above pre-industrial levels, but only with “major institutional and technological change.”

Because we’ve stalled so long, thanks largely to deceptive campaigns run by a small but powerful group of entrenched fossil fuel industry interests and the intransigence of some short-sighted governments, we must also consider ways to adapt to climate change that’s already occurring and that we can’t stop.

Although carbon emissions are rising faster than efforts to curtail them, there are glimmers of hope. A growing number of networks–including cities, states, regions and even markets–are working together to implement climate plans. And costs of renewable energy, such as solar and wind, are falling so quickly that large-scale deployment is practical. Putting a price on greenhouse gas emissions through carbon taxes or other methods is one critical way to shift investment from fossil fuels to renewables.

Carbon-intensive fossil fuel economies will suffer as renewable energy technologies mature–especially those relying heavily on coal and unconventional oil such as bitumen from tar sands. Canada’s choice: take advantage of the growing worldwide demand for clean energy technology, transit infrastructure and sustainable building techniques or continue to focus on selling our non-renewable resources at bargain-basement prices until climate and food-system destabilization swamps global markets and the world rejects Canada’s high-carbon fuels.

The IPCC found responsibly addressing climate change by pricing carbon and making needed investments is affordable: ambitious mitigation would reduce economic growth by just .06 percent a year. That’s not taking into account the many economic benefits of reducing climate change–from less spending on health and disease to reduced traffic congestion and increased activity in the clean-energy sector. Considering the costs and losses climate change and extreme weather impose on our cities, communities and food systems, we can’t afford not to act.

A clean energy revolution is already underway and, as the world comes to grips with the need to change, it will inevitably spread. As Canadians, we can choose to join or remain stuck in the past. Tackling global warming will require all nations to get on board. That’s because greenhouse gases accumulate and spill over national boundaries. And, according to the IPCC, “International cooperation can play a constructive role in the development, diffusion and transfer of knowledge and environmentally sound technologies.”

As a policy-neutral scientific and socioeconomic organization, the IPCC doesn’t make specific recommendations, but it reviews the available science and spells out in clear, albeit technical, terms that if we fail to act, the costs and losses to our homes, food systems and human security will only get worse.

It’s been seven years since the fourth assessment report in 2007. We can’t wait another seven to resolve this crisis. As nations gear up to for the twenty-first climate summit in Paris in late 2015, where the world’s governments have pledged to reach a universal legal climate agreement, international co-operation is needed more than ever. Let’s urge our government to play a constructive role in this critical process.

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See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

Celebrating Our Small Blue Planet

Geoengineering is Not the Answer to Climate Change

Survey Says Mayors Actively Curbing Climate Change in Their Cities

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From the New Year’s message of Mike Tidwell, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

Greetings for the New Year 2013:

In the New Year please consider supporting a group Bill McKibben calls “the best regional global warming organization in the world!” That’s high praise from America’s best-known writer and organizer on climate change. How did CCAN earn this praise in 2012? By fighting coal companies, promoting wind power, standing up to “fracked” natural gas, and creating thousands of “solar” roofs all across Maryland, Virginia, and D.C.

CCAN achieved a lot in 2012. From a week-long picket in Richmond to circling the statehouse in Annapolis, we turned hundreds of people out for bold, creative actions that demonstrated the incredible, growing power of our region-wide movement for clean energy. We also played a key role in preventing construction of the main leg of the Keystone XL tar sands pipeline by pressuring President Obama and marching on the White House in November.

But there’s so much more to do. When I founded CCAN ten years ago, scientists believed humankind had 100 years to get off of fossil fuels and save the climate. Now, just a decade later, many leading scientists admit they were wrong. We’re crossing disastrous climate thresholds now: Vanishing Arctic ice. Runaway wildfires. Bigger storms like Sandy.

We’re excited about the coming year. We have a three-point plan for major climate victories in 2013 across Maryland, Virginia and DC and it begins with…

Wind power. In 2013, with your help, the Maryland General Assembly will finally pass a bill incentivizing offshore wind power. This will spark other states to follow, including Virginia, where historic offshore wind leases will be granted very soon. This will also include standing up to Dominion Power’s dirty energy agenda at every step.

Then, there’s fracking. No group is fighting harder than CCAN to prevent the well-known ills of hydraulic fracking for natural gas in our region. We are leading the fight for a moratorium in Maryland and to resist Dominion Power’s effort to export gas from Virginia.

Finally, there’s divestment. As part of a national campaign launched by Bill McKibben and 350.org, CCAN is working with a dozen student groups across the region to push their universities to divest from fossil fuels now. Remember this tactic during the 1980s South Africa apartheid protests? Local students are successfully applying it to climate change — with help from people like you.

Humankind faces no greater crisis than global climate change. Please give now to a group with a proven record of success in bringing new wind and solar power to our region and in stopping offshore oil drilling and the construction of new coal plants.

I know you’ll help. Many thanks.

Sincerely, Mike Tidwell, Director, Chesapeake Climate Action Network

P.S. We urge you to reserve the Presidents Day weekend, February 16-17, for the biggest climate demonstration yet in the U.S. The Sierra Club, 350.org, CCAN and other groups will be bringing tens of thousands of people to DC. We will call for bold and immediate climate leadership, beginning with a shut-down of the climate-killing Keystone XL pipeline once and for all. You can sign up and find out more at http://act.350.org/signup/presidentsday.

The Citizens Guide to Marcellus Shale Drilling – and the Need for Action

Source:   www.PennFUTURE.org

The natural gas deep in the Marcellus Shale and other formations provides both tremendous opportunities and tremendous risks. We must manage both to have a sustainable future.

Pennsylvania’s history is marked by ill-conceived use and misuse of our natural resources, with the people of the state left with environmental devastation and massive cleanup. We saw our forests stripped bare, our streams and rivers turned orange from abandoned mines, and invasive species allowed to destroy native plants and animals.

We cannot allow our past to dictate our future. And we must not allow the deep natural gas drillers that are working in the Marcellus and Utica Shale formations to destroy Penn’s Woods.

PennFUTURE is leading the charge to protect our water, our air, our land, and our public health from drilling. Join us to help monitor deep natural gas drilling, and to advocate for world-class protections, reinvestment in our natural resources, and oversight of drilling by our state and local governments and agencies.

>>> The complete Citizens Guide to Marcellus Shale Drilling from the PennFUTURE organization can be found here.