The Governor should issue a ban on open burning, but has not so far ….

From an Article by Chris Lawrence, WV Metro News, November 6, 2023

CHARLESTON, W.Va. — The low humidity, warmer temperatures, and the steady wind in recent days has turned the West Virginia forest and the new leaf litter on the forest floor into a potential tinder box.

As of Monday, the West Virginia Division of Forestry reported more than 100 forest fires in the state and Deputy State Forester Tony Evans believed the number was well beyond.

“Over the weekend we’ve had so many fires that have popped up, we definitively know we have more than that,” said Evans. Some of the fires were large in scale.

“We have several big fires. One down in McDowell County is several hundred acres. Raleigh County’s got a big fire Kanawha has a couple. Boone County has several fires that are going to be several hundred acres, same thing with Mingo County,” he explained.

According to Evans, the Southern West Virginia topography lends itself well to a wildfire and they tend to get out of control faster in the steep hills of the coalfields than in other parts of the state. The terrain also makes them more difficult to put out.

The fires are so widespread, Evans said they are asking people to stop calling 911 with just reports of seeing or smelling smoke. Since those kind of reports are too vague to help pinpoint a fire. “Unless they see an actual fire or a big column of smoke coming up from a specific place, don’t call 911 just if they are seeing or smelling smoke in the air,” he explained..

The Kanawha County Commission penned a letter to the Division of Forestry asking for a total burning ban until some measurable rainfall comes. Evans said that decision would have to come from the Governor’s office.

The fall forest fire rules are in effect, meaning that any outdoor burning must be done between 5 p.m. and 7 a.m. However, under the present conditions, Evans said use common sense.

“You know if it’s dry and windy, wait until we get some moisture. It doesn’t take very much for the wind to pick up an ember and put it out into the woods or dry grass and we have a forest fire,” he said.

An Article, an Audio CD Set, and a best selling Book by Elizabeth Kolbert

Scientific Article by Giavonni Strona & Corey Bradshaw, Science Magazine, Dec. 16, 2022

ABSTRACT ~ Although theory identifies coextinctions as a main driver of biodiversity loss, their role at the planetary scale has yet to be estimated. We subjected a global model of interconnected terrestrial vertebrate food webs to future (2020–2100) climate and land-use changes. We predict a 17.6% (± 0.16% SE) average reduction of local vertebrate diversity globally by 2100, with coextinctions increasing the effect of primary extinctions by 184.2% (± 10.9% SE) on average under an intermediate emissions scenario. Communities will lose up to a half of ecological interactions, thus reducing trophic complexity, network connectance, and community resilience. The model reveals that the extreme toll of global change for vertebrate diversity might be of secondary importance compared to the damages to ecological network structure.

INTRODUCTION ~ The planet has entered the sixth mass extinction (1–5). There are multiple causes underlying the rapid increase in observed and modeled extinction rates in recent times, of which land-use change, overharvesting, pollution, climate change, and biological invasions figure as dominant processes (6). However, assessing the relative importance and the realistic impact of such drivers at the global scale remains a challenge. Another aspect rendering assessment difficult are the synergies between drivers — a species might go extinct for multiple, simultaneous reasons, and in such contexts, ecological interactions play a fundamental role in predicting its fate (7). Growing recognition of the importance of species interactions in promoting the emergence of biodiversity in complex natural communities implies that an additional, fundamental component of biodiversity loss is represented by the amplification of primary extinctions across ecological networks. Coextinction — the loss of species caused by direct or indirect effects stemming from other extinctions — is now recognized as a major contributor to global biodiversity loss, strongly amplifying the effect of primary (e.g., climate-driven) extinctions (8–11).

Networks of ecological interactions are central to global patterns of diversity loss not only because coextinctions can be triggered by other extinction drivers, but also because network structure and dynamics might modulate several processes that can either reduce or increase extinction rate. For example, it is intuitive that a species’ success in colonizing a new area depends strongly on its ability to exploit local resources while simultaneously escaping enemies (predators and parasites). The addition of the new species might also initiate substantial changes to and have important cascading effects in the local network. Ignoring the structure of ecological networks and how they reconfigure as their constituent diversity changes therefore gives a possibly misleading view of the future of global diversity.

Previous attempts to predict the future of global diversity in the face of climate change and habitat modification have only considered the direct effects of these drivers on species (typically on single taxonomic groups), without explicitly accounting for ecological interactions. For instance, Thomas et al. (12) used projections of species’ distributions and species-area relationships to predict extinction rates for 20% of Earth’s surface, and Malcolm et al. (13) applied both species-area and endemic-area relationships to predictions of biome shift under climate change in Biodiversity Hotspots. van Vuuren et al. (14) also applied species-area relationships to vascular plants to project extinctions under different land-use and climate-change scenarios within the Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, and Jetz et al. (15) used a similar approach for birds. Others have applied analogous techniques to many other taxa, including lizards (16), crop wild relatives (17), chelonians (18), bird, amphibians, and corals (19). Later, Warren et al. (20) applied point-process and global circulation models to predict climate change–induced shifts in species’ distributions, and Urban (21) did a meta-analysis (including many of the studies cited above) to predict extinction rates of various taxa under several climate-change scenarios. Despite this extensive research foundation, future inferences of biodiversity’s fate over the coming century are likely to underestimate extinctions arising from global change (11).

Apart from the obvious modeling and computational challenges to incorporate interactions among species, the main reason why there are few studies accounting for interactions is that obtaining sufficient data in most communities is intractable. Therefore, global-scale modeling of entire ecosystems appears to be the only viable solution, even if a challenging one (11, 22). Recent developments in network approaches have shown that potential ecological interactions can be derived by applying different techniques (e.g., machine learning) to available datasets on species distribution and ecology (23, 24). In previous work (11), we built on that idea to generate global-scale models of biodiversity by including species interactions using virtual species constructed to follow real-world archetypes. In such synthetic approaches, a virtual species is a plausible ecological entity that has a combination of ecological traits consistent with real-world species despite not corresponding exactly to them.

There are several advantages in using virtual species in this manner. The first is that once the rules have been set to generate virtual species, current gaps and biases in biodiversity sampling cease to be a limitation; we can use virtual species to populate the entire Earth and generate plausible ecological communities, even in areas where data on local diversity are scarce or missing. Second, virtual species avoid preconceptions (and biases) about current biodiversity patterns, permitting instead a focus on the processes involved in change. Here, we can populate an entire virtual planet with species, let them develop communities based on a modest set of realistic ecological rules and assumptions, and then explore the emerging patterns. With such an approach, real-world data serve as a template for generating the virtual species and for identifying the basic ecological rules controlling community dynamics and as a benchmark with which to validate the realism of modeled predictions.

We previously demonstrated how coextinctions increase the pace of annihilation of life on Earth by up to 10 times relative to primary extinctions, but only in the face of catastrophic, no-return environmental change modeled as either extreme planetary heating or cooling (11). Although an instructive proof of concept, that model contained many simplifications and was applied to (hopefully) unrealistic scenarios of global change. Building on that original approach, here we developed a more complex, and ecologically realistic dynamic model to represent all terrestrial vertebrate communities with which we project future biodiversity trends. By accounting for both primary extinctions and their resulting coextinctions, the model predicts the cumulative toll on global biodiversity of different climate and land-use change projections up to 2100 at a spatial scale of 1° × 1° and at a monthly temporal resolution. In addition to providing estimates of potential global diversity loss, the model quantifies the relative contribution of the different extinction drivers at the global scale for the first time.

This Article continues in Science Magazine.

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See also: The Sixth Extinction? | Elizabeth Kolbert, The New Yorker Magazine, May 18, 2009

Residual Waste is toxic brine, as with the diesel truck exhaust gases

From an Article by Michael Barrick, Appalachian Chronicle, September 18, 2022
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WESTON, W.Va. – We read in Ecclesiastes that there is a season for everything, including a time to be silent and a time to speak. By now, I had hoped to be silent. As a pensioner, I was hoping to hang out with my family, do some hiking, and to travel a bit. In short, I’m just trying to live a peaceful life. The only problem is that corruption and violence are so rampant that they can’t be ignored.

Silence in the face of violence is compliance with it. (To hear a beautiful take on that notion, listen to “Medicine” by the Americana band Rising Appalachia). So my season of silence is over.

For nearly a decade, before I tried to step back a few months ago, I had written more than 100 articles about the public health, safety and environmental dangers of fracking and related pipeline development. I’ve also written about Mountaintop Removal and efforts by environmental activists to protect the pristine Appalachian Mountains. What West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin and his fossil fuel cronies have inflicted upon the people and land of West Virginia and Virginia in attempting to build the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) is nothing short of a violent assault upon the people and land.

In building the now-abandoned Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) and the MVP, energy companies EQT, Duke Energy and Dominion and their subcontractors have been ruthless, as the articles below reveal. (Note: some links within articles may no longer be valid). This collective chronicle of the gas industry’s tactics reveal deceit, threats and destruction. The MVP remains uncompleted only because of the people in its path. A coalition of individuals and groups have stalled it primarily through successful legal and regulatory challenges, not to mention dogged determination.

These articles – the first published Aug. 4 2014 – demonstrate what a roller-coaster ride of emotions and betrayal landowners and environmentals have experienced. They succeeded in shutting down the ACP and had the MVP on the ropes. Investors were nervous.

However, it appeared that all of that work against the MVP may have been undone in a behind-closed-doors deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and Joe Manchin to get Manchin’s essential vote to pass the Inflation Reduction Act. That deal was supposed to streamline the permitting process for the MVP.

However, E&E News Energy Wire is reporting that may not be enough to salvage the beleaguered and long-delayed project. According to the article, a primary obstacle may be legislation announced and sponsored by West Virginia’s other Senator, Republican Shelley Moore Capito. The Republican proposal is picking up bi-partisan support. The E&E News article details how legal and regulatory challenges could still derail the MVP should the proposal pass, as it would not allow the MVP to bypass judicial review.

Though this is hopeful news, this fight is far from over. There is simply too much money changing hands. So, keep up with this story and support any effort to thwart the shady dealings of Schumer and Manchin.

These articles would not have been possible without the cooperation of my family and the subjects of the articles. They are the brave souls willing to share their stories, allowing me insight, facts and documents to support my enterprise and investigative reporting; additionally, contributions from other writers have served to enrich our reporting.

So, while it may take you a while, please read through our past articles. You will see that the fossil fuel industry hasn’t changed tactics in over a century. Only this time, instead of using Baldwin-Felt thugs to do their dirty work as they did during the West Virginia Mine Wars in the early 1920s, today’s energy executives hatch their plots on Manchin’s “Almost Heaven” yacht moored on the Potomac River.

The hydrogen storage challenges are substantial .....

From an Explainer Article by Quinn Glabicki, Public Source, 8/8/22

Nature’s simplest element is at the center of a new energy strategy that has won the support of much of the Pittsburgh region’s leadership, while drawing scorn from sustainability advocates who say it would actually entrench the carbon economy.

As proponents tout the potential of so-called blue hydrogen to shepherd our region to a sustainable future, climate scientists and financial analysts question the viability — technologically, economically and ideologically — of developing a hydrogen hub reliant on natural gas and carbon capture in Western Pennsylvania.

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law passed last November contained $8 billion appropriated for four “clean hydrogen hubs” nationwide. In May, Gov. Tom Wolf announced that his administration would pursue the federal funds for Pennsylvania, and the state’s bipartisan congressional delegation threw its weight behind the effort in June. Even before that, a group of local industrial titans including Shell, EQT and U.S. Steel issued a joint press release pledging support for the idea.

With the process still firmly in the beginning stages, questions remain about how a hydrogen hub would be implemented, who gets a say in that process and whether it advances climate goals.

PublicSource spoke with climate scientists, financial analysts, critics and industry stakeholders in an effort to better understand the status and viability of the proposed hydrogen hub. Here are some of the questions and emerging answers.

What does hydrogen have to do with energy? When hydrogen burns, it produces heat and the only byproduct is water. The most abundant element in the universe, however, is itself not a source of energy.

“Hydrogen is another form of energy storage, like batteries,” said Neil Donahue, a climate scientist and professor of chemical engineering at Carnegie Mellon University [CMU]. “Batteries are not a form of energy, nor is hydrogen.” The question, says Donahue: Where does the energy needed to produce hydrogen come from?

Renewables, fossil fuels and nuclear power are all potential energy sources for hydrogen production. Each occupies a corresponding space on a figurative color wheel often used in discussions of hydrogen power.

>> Green hydrogen is made using renewables like solar and wind energy through electrolysis to isolate the element.

>> Blue hydrogen is produced using natural gas, and the carbon emissions are captured and stored underground using carbon capture, utilization and sequestration technology.

>> When hydrogen is produced using fossil fuels but the carbon is released into the atmosphere, it’s known as gray hydrogen.

>> Nuclear power can also be used to create hydrogen in a process known as pink hydrogen.

>> Regardless of the energy input, the hydrogen produced is identical.

Experts say that hydrogen, when produced cleanly, has significant potential to reduce global carbon emissions, particularly among heavy industries like steel and concrete manufacturing, in large-scale transportation like trucking and aviation, and as a vehicle for energy storage in fuel cells. The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s [IPCC] climate mitigation report released earlier this year listed hydrogen as a viable pathway to net-zero carbon emissions.

What is a hydrogen hub?

The Bipartisan Infrastructure Law describes a regional clean hydrogen hub as “a network of clean hydrogen producers, potential clean hydrogen consumers and connective infrastructure located in close proximity.” The bill dictates that two of the four envisioned hubs are destined for areas “with the greatest natural gas resources.”

Because of abundant natural gas resources and infrastructure in Western Pennsylvania, southeastern Ohio and West Virginia, a hydrogen hub in this region would in all likelihood be blue — that is, it would source the energy needed to produce hydrogen from natural gas, at least to start.

….. see this extensive Article from the ‘Public Source’ …

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Public Power Officials Play Key Roles With Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association

Douglas County PUD General Manager Gary Ivory and Tacoma Power Director Jackie Flowers are playing key roles with the Pacific Northwest Hydrogen Association (PNWH2), serving as the association’s secretary and treasurer, respectively.

PNWH2 recently completed its formation with election of Washington Commerce Director Lisa Brown as chair and Oregon Department of Energy Director Janine Benner as vice chair of the board.

The group is a non-profit, public-private partnership leading a regional effort to land a share of the U.S. Department of Energy’s $8 billion investment in a nationwide network of clean hydrogen hubs under the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act.

Formed at the direction of the Washington State Legislature, PNWH2 is currently preparing a final call for projects for consideration in its proposal to DOE.

A final request for information for individual project proposals is opening in early September. The RFI will be posted on Washington’s Electronic Business Solutions (WEBS) portal. More Information is available on the PNWH2 website and by emailing info@pnwh2.com.

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Build Back Better Lives Again, Now With Green Hydrogen

President Biden’s signature Build Back Better bill fell into the dustbin of history last summer, but apparently the US Department of Commerce did not get the memo. The agency has just put up $50 million for a green hydrogen hub in the New Orleans region under a new program called the Build Back Better Regional Challenge (BBBRC). That’s going to be a tough row to hoe, considering the grip of fossil fuel stakeholders on the Pelican State. However, Build Back Better is all about transformation, right?

Follow The Money To Green Hydrogen ~ In an interesting twist, South Louisiana’s BBBRC grant dovetails with the U.S. Energy Department’s $8 billion plan to create a network of regional “Clean Hydrogen Hubs” throughout the US. The plan is funded through last year’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law.

The new grant could give H2theFuture a leg up on the sustainable H2 competition. They’ll need all they help they can get. Also competing for a share of the $8 billion pot is a powerful alliance of six northeast coastal states that are primed and ready to tap into their offshore wind resources. That group initially launched with Massachusetts, Connecticut, New York, and New Jersey. Maine and Rhode Island have also hopped on board.

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Didado Electric to Partner with Newpoint Gas on Advanced Hydrogen Generation and Carbon Sequestration Project in Ohio

Didado Electric announced today that it has signed a teaming agreement with Newpoint Gas to serve as a design assist and installation partner and provide electrical and grid services work on the redevelopment of the former U.S. Department of Energy’s Portsmouth Gaseous Diffusion Plant (PORTS) into an advanced hydrogen generation, decarbonization and combustion clean energy manufacturing facility near Piketon, Ohio.

The centerpiece of the h2Trillium Energy and Manufacturing (h2TEAM) Complex, the $1.5 billion project will be an integrated energy system – closed loop manufacturing facility powered by clean hydrogen, with carbon sequestration. At peak, in the construction phase, it will provide approximately 2,900 jobs and, when finished, will produce clean silicon, ammonia, and power.

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Governor Hochul Announces $16.6 Million in Awards for Five Long Duration Energy Storage Projects To Help Harness Renewable Energy and Provide Stored Energy to New York’s Electric Grid

Governor Kathy Hochul today announced $16.6 million in awards for five long duration energy storage projects that will help harness renewable energy and provide stored energy to New York’s electric grid. Governor Hochul also announced an additional $17 million in competitive funding available for projects that advance development and demonstration of scalable innovative long duration energy storage technologies, including hydrogen. The projects will support the current Climate Leadership and Community Protection Act goal to install 3,000 megawatts of energy storage by 2030 while facilitating further development to 6,000 megawatts.

Governor Hochul made today’s announcement at the 2022 Advanced Energy Conference in New York City. These awards and new funding are being made available through the Renewable Optimization and Energy Storage Innovation Program administered by the New York State Energy Research and Development Authority (NYSERDA). The awards and funding will advance renewable energy integration and reduce harmful emissions from reliance on fossil fuels. The $16.6 million in awards will support the following projects:

>>> Borrego Solar Systems, Inc. – $2.7 million – To develop, design and construct two stand-alone energy storage systems and perform field demonstrations of a six-hour zinc hybrid cathode energy storage system in New York City to help demonstrate that zinc hybrid technology is economically competitive with lithium-ion.

>>> JC Solutions, LLC dba RCAM Technologies – $1.2 million – To develop a 3D concrete printed marine pumped hydroelectric storage system that integrates directly with offshore wind development in support of grid resiliency and reduced reliance on fossil fuel plants to meet periods of peak electric demand.

>>> Nine Mile Point Nuclear Station, LLC- $12.5 million – To demonstrate nuclear-hydrogen fueled peak power generation paired with a long duration hydrogen energy storage unit to help reduce emissions from the New York Independent System Operator electric grid.

>>> Power to Hydrogen – $100,000 – To develop a Reversible Fuel Cell System for Hydrogen Production and Energy Storage called the Clean Energy Bridge and to help facilitate the system’s readiness for demonstration and commercial adoption.

>>> ROCCERA, LLC – $100,000 – To evaluate and demonstrate a novel commercially viable Solid Oxide Electrolyzer Cell prototype for clean hydrogen production together with a corresponding scalable, more efficient manufacturing process.

Overlooking reality will not help us limit the climate impacts

From an Article by Bill McKibben, Shana Gallagher, and Joseline Garcia, Common Dreams, September 2, 2022

We’re on a slippery slope of complete democratic collapse—and corresponding planetary collapse due to inaction on climate change—if we don’t act fast.

Young people — as revealed in poll after poll and conversation after conversation — despair of our democracy. Older people share some of that despair; until it happened, it was impossible for many of us to imagine American citizens trying to stage a coup. And yet, despite months of inaction, legislative packages now passing through Congress give those of us in college a glimmer of hope for a Washington that works for change, one that we’ve rarely seen in our lifetimes.

We older people have a gift to provide: the memory of a far more responsive political system, one we must rebuild again. When we were young, 20 million people marched on the first Earth Day in 1970—and the next year the Clean Air Act was passed and the Environmental Protection Agency formed. This is how politics is supposed to work, and it can again. It should not take catastrophic wildfires, fatal floods, and increasingly dire reports from scientists about the gravity of the climate crisis for legislation like the Inflation Reduction Act to pass. But a truly responsive and representative democracy will not be reborn without both corporations and politicians acting with courage, and without voters demanding that their representatives proactively work to fix our broken system rather than just maintaining the dysfunctional status quo.

The climate crisis and its ever abundant reality demonstrate this point in devastating and depressing ways. Our politicians have known about the reality of man-made climate change since the 1950s—but fossil fuel corporations have been working hard to deny this reality and spread misinformation for almost as long. Crucially, that hard work has involved cumulatively billions of dollars in spending on our politicians to block the will to pass climate policy. The result? A federal government that has gone the past 50 years without passing any federal climate policy despite America’s unparalleled contribution to carbon emissions and corresponding responsibility for action.

Even older Americans who still believe strongly in the promise of democracy would agree that dysfunction in our political system has gotten worse in our lifetimes. The multi-headed monster attacking our democracy—exorbitantly expensive campaign cycles, insufficient regulation on political spending and lobbying, partisan gerrymandering, and voter suppression—has grown several powerful teeth since 2010 with the demise of Citizens United. This decision by the Supreme Court to equate money with speech and remove limits to PAC and Super PAC spending was a major blow to the will of the people winning out over corporate influence.

The consequences have been drastic: in 2008, the election cycle prior to Citizens United being overturned, the financial activity for all Senate candidates came in at $499,354,330, and $1,741,970,535 for all Presidential candidates. Twelve years later, in 2020, financial activity for all Senate candidates was a whopping $2,005,771,999, and $3,977,441,987 for all presidential candidates. These 400% and 230% increases respectively have corresponded in equally dramatic disillusionment and loss of faith in the system by American voters, especially by young voters. Federal lobbying numbers have followed a similarly unsettling but unsurprising trend.

Dysfunction in our democracy creates a dangerous feedback cycle: young people increasingly don’t believe in or care about democracy as a political system, leading to less and less engagement, which further allows the corporate special interests and lobbying forces hard at work in DC and state legislatures across the country to erode public trust. We’re on a slippery slope of complete democratic collapse—and corresponding planetary collapse due to inaction on climate change — if we don’t act fast.

And yet, at the final hour before the midterm election season is fully upon us, there are reasons to be hopeful. Congress very recently passed a bill that would include the most ambitious climate change legislation that America has considered in decades. Is it enough to reduce emissions to our pledged 50% by 2030 and keep global warming below the international goal of 2°C by 2050? Not quite. But is it an important step forward, and an indication that where there’s a will, our democracy does have a way of passing policies that will improve the lives of millions and help save the planet of billions? Yes.

If we are to pave the way to sufficient action on climate change, action on all the other issues we care about, and prevent another January 6th-like event and the collapse of American democracy, however, several more important steps forward must be taken, and soon:

1. First and foremost, entrenched interests benefit and celebrate when we don’t vote — especially us young people — and we should disappoint them every chance we get. Those of us with the means and motivation to vote in the midterms should do so, and encourage our friends and family to do the same.

2. Second, if there’s anti-democratic legislation under consideration in your state, make sure to do your part to vote out the irresponsible legislators who are endeavoring to subvert our democracy for their own corrupt political gains. Instead, vote for candidates who have democracy reform in their platforms, especially campaign finance and lobbying reform, and reward politicians who vote to get rid of gerrymandering and dark money. You can find a list of candidates who have pledged not to accept any corporate PAC or Super PAC money here.

3. Third, keep your eye on the horizon for federal democracy reform like the Freedom To Vote Act, which almost passed earlier this year, and which could still pass Congress if sufficient political will existed. Fourth, companies, universities, and all institutions with lobbying clout should be using that clout to support pro-democracy bills at the federal and state levels.

4. And finally, get involved with organizations like Un-PAC (for young people) and Third Act (for older folks) as we strive to create a truly representative and functional democracy!

Our democratic house is on fire (probably caused by a wildfire worsened by climate change!) and it is incumbent on all of us to help put it out. The system has been broken, but it worked better in recent history, and can work again. The fate of young Americans, and of the entire planet, depends on us refinding our path and salvaging the promise of the world’s greatest democracy.

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Virginia environmental groups call for a declaration of climate emergency & protest the Mountain Valley Pipeline in Richmond (8/2/22)

From an Article by Sarah Vogelsong, Virginia Mercury, August 2, 2022

A deal between Democratic congressional leadership and West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin III over sweeping federal climate legislation could force the completion of Mountain Valley Pipeline, according to a one-page summary of the agreement’s provisions obtained by The Washington Post.

The final item on the summary reads: “Complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”

Since the surprise 11th-hour deal between Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and the Democratic Manchin resurrected President Joe Biden’s climate change agenda last week, Virginia environmental groups and many landowners in the state’s southwestern region have been waiting uneasily to learn the agreement’s terms.

Numerous national news outlets reported that Manchin’s support was linked to promises by Democratic leaders to pass separate legislation smoothing the fraught federal permitting process for fossil fuel pipelines such as Mountain Valley, a 303-mile-long conduit planned to carry gas from the Marcellus shale fields of West Virginia into Virginia.

The summary released Monday, which a Manchin spokesperson confirmed Tuesday reflects the provisions the senator is seeking, offers the clearest look yet at what those promises are. For Mountain Valley, the asks are twofold: First, require federal agencies “to take all necessary actions to permit the construction and operation” of the pipeline. Second, transfer jurisdiction over legal cases concerning the pipeline from the Richmond-based 4th Circuit Court of Appeals to the D.C. Circuit.

Lee Williams, director of Green New Deal Virginia and advocacy chair of the Richmond-area Falls of the James chapter of the Sierra Club, reacted to the proposal with dismay. Environmental groups “want everything” that’s in the federal climate bill known as the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, she said. “We’ve been asking for it for the last decade. Unfortunately, to get Sen. Manchin to vote for it, they literally threw Southwest Virginia under the bus.”

Exactly what Democratic leaders promised Manchin, however, remains unclear. Despite the one-page summary that has been released, Virginia Sen. Tim Kaine (D) said during a Tuesday teleconference that “there is no connection between voting on the Inflation Reduction Act and then having to vote for the Mountain Valley Pipeline or a permitting bill.” Also, “The deal was (that) in exchange for getting an agreement on the Inflation Reduction Act, we will have the opportunity to debate and vote on permitting improvements, but no one’s made commitments about how they’re going to vote, and I’m certainly not going to make a commitment until I see what that bill is,” he said.

Valeria Rivadeneira, a spokesperson for Virginia Sen. Mark Warner (D), said the senator would review the proposal “once the full legislative text is made available.”

Originally expected to be completed by 2018, Mountain Valley Pipeline has been hampered by staunch opposition in both Virginia and West Virginia, hundreds of environmental violations and a string of successful legal challenges in the 4th Circuit that have repeatedly stripped the project of necessary federal permits. Construction has proved especially halting along a Southwest Virginia corridor that crosses through part of the Jefferson National Forest in Giles, Craig and Montgomery counties.

This summer, with few immediate breakthroughs evident, the developers sought permission from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which has authority over pipeline construction, to extend its deadline another four years.

With delays and costs mounting, investors have become increasingly skeptical that the pipeline will ever be completed. In a February filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission, project investor NextEra Energy wrote that “continued legal and regulatory challenges have resulted in a very low probability of pipeline completion.”

The deal with Manchin could change all that. Amid news of the agreement, shares in lead pipeline developer Equitrans Midstream soared to a three-month high Tuesday.

“MVP is being recognized as a critical infrastructure project that is essential for our nation’s energy security, energy reliability, and ability to effectively transition to a lower-carbon future,” Equitrans spokesperson Natalie Cox wrote in an email.

More than 300,000 miles of natural gas pipelines exist in the U.S., she noted in a lengthy statement. “None of these existing pipelines have undergone the extensive level of environmental research, analysis and review that has been performed on the MVP project.”

The reforms to the federal energy permitting process outlined in the summary document, which would include timelines for permitting reviews and a statute of limitations for court challenges, leave Virginia environmental groups in a tight spot. Organizations that last week hailed the sudden reappearance of federal climate action are now left scrambling to decide whether they can swallow a deal that includes Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project many have spent years opposing.

“We’re not going to sit by and roll over and let Southwest Virginia be a sacrifice zone,” Williams told the Mercury Tuesday after leading a demonstration in downtown Richmond calling on Biden to declare a climate emergency, one of many organized by activists nationwide. “But we don’t want to blow up the deal. It’s a fine line.”

We don’t want to blow up the deal. It’s a fine line. Some groups have already come out in opposition.

“We firmly oppose any approach by Congress that sacrifices frontline communities as part of a political bargain,” said Jessica Sims, Virginia field coordinator for environmental and economic development nonprofit Appalachian Voices, in a statement. The group’s North Carolina field coordinator, Ridge Graham, called any legislation requiring completion of Mountain Valley “unacceptable.”

But others were reluctant to speak on the record, indicating they are still sorting out their stances in a rapidly evolving situation.

Regardless of the Manchin deal, Kaine on Tuesday emphasized the need for reforms to federal pipeline permitting, saying he thought FERC’s initial review of Mountain Valley had been “shoddy.” Also, “I view many of the controversies that are connected with the Mountain Valley Pipeline as having been sort of stoked by an inadequate federal permitting process through FERC,” he said, citing “in particular the unwillingness or inability of FERC to get information out to the public and appropriately take public comment and then take that into account in terms of deciding (a) whether a pipeline was necessary and (b) whether the proposed route was the right route.”

A spokesperson later said that Sen. Kaine believes improving permitting “is preferable to having members of Congress decide outcomes on individual energy infrastructure projects.”

Both Kaine and Warner, as well as Virginia Rep. Morgan Griffith, R-Salem, have previously proposed federal legislation to change the federal review process for proposals and clarify when eminent domain can be exercised. Those bills were crafted in response to not only Mountain Valley Pipeline but the Dominion Energy and Duke Energy-backed Atlantic Coast Pipeline, which would have stretched from West Virginia to North Carolina via Virginia but was canceled in July 2020.

Senator Joe Manchin gets more messages, does he listen?

Press Release from Gary Zuckett, WV Citizen Action & Morgan King, WV Rivers Coalition, July 15, 2022

Charleston, W.Va.– Senator Joe Manchin announced that he wants to delay a plan to use the money that wealthy corporations owe to pay for desperately needed projects to help our climate and workers.

In response, the West Virginia Climate Alliance submitted a letter to Senator Manchin. When the letter was sent, the Alliance requested an in person meeting with Senator Manchin, noting they had not been able to meet with the Senator in over a year to discuss grassroots concerns about climate impacts in the state.

“Every day that we delay taking action on the climate crisis makes our weather more extreme and the implementation of solutions even more challenging. The country, and indeed the planet, need Senator Manchin to negotiate in good faith on a bill addressing the climate crisis with the goal of keeping global warming below an increase of 1.5 degrees Celsius. Passage of this bill should not be contingent on a one month inflation report,” said Perry Bryant, founder of the WV Climate Alliance.

Manchin’s move comes just one day after more than 100 homes, roads and bridges in McDowell County, WV were damaged from climate-related flooding. The Climate Alliance representing dozens of regional groups underscores the urgency of the climate crisis; and, a rally at Manchin office took place on Monday, July 18th.

The Rev. Jeffrey Allen, executive director of the West Virginia Council of Churches, stated, “Climate change is a crisis of today. It’s flooding in West Virginia and Virginia; fires in the West; and drought here and abroad. There is an enormous cost that we already bear due to our lack of action and it’s a cost being borne by our neighbors. Passing climate change legislation is as local as it gets. This legislation is not only for our neighbors, but for all of those people who we care deeply about. For their sake, we cannot afford to delay any longer.”

Karan May, Sr. Campaign Representative, Sierra Club: “Folks in Appalachia are among the hardest hit by the effects of climate change. West Virginians are paying the price for poor health outcomes from pollution; here and in Kentucky and Southwest Virginia, year after year, we are paying the enormous price for catastrophic flooding. Senator Manchin has the opportunity to facilitate meaningful change for his constituents and, yet, is choosing to walk away from legislation that could help alleviate this suffering. We will continue to fight for policy that will address the climate crisis, while also putting money back into our communities with investments in clean energy and sustainable economic development.”

Linda Frame, President of the WV Environmental Council, said “After a year of good-faith discussions with Senator Manchin and his team it’s hard not to be deflated by this latest delay. We continue to urge Senator Manchin to seize this opportunity to do the right thing for our state, our country, and our planet because the alternative is unthinkable.”

Eve Marcum-Atkinson, Comms. Coord. For WV Citizen Action Group said that “The overall cost of building climate change resilient infrastructure, as well as the transition to a clean energy economy, can be paid for now. Tax minimums for millionaires and the elimination of zero-tax-paying loopholes for corporations are how we do this. They have financially benefited from our people’s labor, our nation’s infrastructure, and our economy. We need them to pay their fair share to help us all, as we continue to struggle with the effects of rising prices, increases in dangerous storms, record temperatures, drought, flooding, and more. We need Senator Manchin to fully embrace this now, as climate change is a now issue, a global issue. It’s not going away.”

Dana Kuhnline, Campaign Manager for ReImagine Appalachia said that “No matter our race or income, we want to live and raise our families in healthy and safe communities. Done right, the reconciliation bill is an opportunity to create bridges across our differences rather than making them deeper. Appalachia has been hit hard both by climate change impacts and global energy shifts – with Black and brown communities seeing disproportionate impacts. At the same time, we have an incredible opportunity to mitigate the climate crisis by investing in the communities hardest hit. Appalachian communities need action from Congress, this delay on key climate provisions not only hurts communities struggling with flooding and job loss due to the downturn of the coal industry, it pushes back other urgent actions we need to see from Congress.”

Morgan King, climate campaign coordinator of WV Rivers Coalition said that “Promoting good energy legislation is part of Senator Manchin’s role as chair of the Energy and Natural Resources Committee. We call on him to not further delay action on the issues he proclaims to champion. It’s past time to listen to the science that shows a transformational clean energy transition will mitigate climate change while saving lives and creating new jobs.”

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FOUNDED in 2020, the WEST VIRGINIA CLIMATE ALLIANCE is a broad-based coalition of almost 20 environmental organizations, faith-based, civil rights and civic organizations, and other groups with a focus on climate change. Members of the Alliance work together to provide science-based education on climate change to West Virginia citizens and policymakers.

FOR MORE ON THE CLIMATE ALLIANCE, VISIT: WVClimateAlliance.org

John Harte has written and spoken extensively to get the message details out to all of us (select video below)

From an Article by Douglas Fischer, Environmental Health News, June 22, 2022

How do you cut through the fog around climate change and get to a solution? Noted ecologist John Harte offers a fresh take on the dire topic of the climate crisis.

John Harte, a physicist-turned-ecologist at the University of California, Berkeley, looks first to the mountains, then to the oceans and the ice, and then finally to the optimism that underpins so much political thought and action in the United States.

Speaking before the Humanist Science Committee in tiny Salida, Colorado, earlier this month, Harte used one slide to “demolish” deniers, one slide to show the real stakes—collapse of civilization—and the remainder of his chat to describe impacts he’s seen from a lifetime of research in the Rocky Mountains and where he sees hope.

“There is no question that the course we have been on for the last 60 years will lead to a crash,” he said. “But the alternative future is the careful transition to what we call a soft landing … where we need less than one Earth to support what we do on Earth.”

Global warming: Bad news ~ But first, bad news: Global warming is going to be worse than we thought, Harte said. Various feedbacks related to a warming planet—from increasing wildfires to hotter oceans to thawing permafrost—are not understood well enough to factor into predictive models.

“This is scary. These models are likely significantly underestimating the rise in atmospheric temperature that will likely occur from our current levels of climate-changing pollution.”

Harte, a senior researcher at UC Berkeley’s famed Energy and Resources Group, has spent a lifetime connecting dots — studying flowers in high mountain meadows for evidence of increasing fossil fuel emissions, looking at the “smoke and mirrors” behind geo-engineering and carbon sequestration.

Climate change solutions ~ Solutions, he says, are more politically achievable than most would consider given today’s polarized political environment:

1). Improve efficiency, including upping car mileage standards to 60 miles per gallon of gasoline, up from 35 mpg today, 2.) Expand clean, safe renewable energy, particularly home rooftop solar, 3.) Change personal consumption practices, 4.) Stop destroying forests, and 5.) Support reproductive freedom.

“Who are going to be the economic winners 50 years from now? They’re going to be the countries that made the greatest advances in solar energy and battery storage, in the technology needed to achieve a future without climate change,” Harte said.

“Selfishly, for the sake of our grandchildren and the economy they live under, we should be doing these things.”

The talk clocks in at just over an hour. But it’s a refreshing overview of a problem increasingly staring us all in the face. See the Vimeo video here.

https://vimeo.com/719687216

WV Interfaith Power & Light is part of a national campaign for bold action

Dear WVIPL Friends and Supporters,

We wanted to make sure you know about an upcoming event for which we are co-sponsors, along with Citizens’ Climate Lobby of West Virginia, WV Rivers Coalition, ReImagine Appalachia, WV Citizen Action Education Fund, Chesapeake Climate Action Network, and the First Presbyterian Church of Charleston.

This Conference on Climate will take place at Charleston’s First Presbyterian Church (16 Leon Sullivan Way, Charleston, WV 25301) on Saturday, June 4, from 10am-3pm.

Featured speakers at the conference will include the following:

** — Bill Myers, Pastor, First Presbyterian Church, Charleston, WV

** — Rev. Jeff Allen, United Methodist Pastor and Executive Director of WV Council of Churches

** — Rev. Mitch Hescox, President, The Evangelical Environmental Network

** — Rev. Ron English, Restorative Justice Facilitator with American Friends Service Committee; ordained into the ministry by Drs. Martin Luther King Jr. and Sr. at Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta, GA

** — Robin Blakeman, Ordained Minister, Presbyterian Church of the USA, with validated ministry in environmental stewardship; Steering Committee, WV Interfaith Power & Light

** — Bishop Marcia Dinkins, Founder and Executive Director of Black Women Rising

All are welcome, and we encourage you to share this information widely with your networks! If you are on Facebook, there is also a shareable event there. This conference is free of charge to attend, and you can register and/or find more information at: https://tinyurl.com/wvaclimate.

We look forward to seeing you there! Sincerely,

>>>> WVIPL Staff and Steering Committee

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See Also: California Interfaith Power and Light’s Allis Druffel on CNN HLN Local Edition – YouTube

Allis Druffel is the Southern California Outreach Director for California Interfaith Power & Light, and recently appeared on CNN Headline News Local Edition alongside David Mowry of Unitarian Universalist Church of Riverside, a member congregation of CIPL

Over ten thousand evacuated & ca. 600 homes gone

From an Article by Jake Johnson, Common Dreams, December 31, 2021

Tens of thousands of Coloradans were forced to flee their homes Thursday as two fast-moving wildfires—whipped up by wind gusts reaching 110 mph—tore through communities just outside of Denver, engulfing entire neighborhoods in flames and destroying hundreds of buildings.

Colorado Gov. Jared Polis has declared a state of emergency to help aid the disaster response as officials characterized the late-December fire event as among the worst in the state’s history. “None of this is normal,” said Colorado state Rep. Leslie Herod (D-8). “We are not OK.”

Experts said the combination of months of unusually dry conditions, warm winter temperatures, and ferocious winds set the stage for the devastating blazes, which meteorologist Eric Holthaus viewed as further evidence that “we are in a climate emergency.”

The Colorado branch of the Sunrise Movement agreed, writing on social media that the fires were “fueled by the climate crisis.” A growing body of evidence has detailed the extent to which human-caused climate change is driving more frequent and intense wildfires in the U.S. and across the globe.

“People are losing their homes and running for their lives from a fire that started December fucking 30th,” Sunrise Colorado tweeted before turning its attention to Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and the Big Oil-friendly infrastructure law he helped craft. “Sen. Manchin, your Exxon highway bill isn’t going to save our homes or our lives,” the group said. “Your greed and corruption is not only torching our future. It’s burning our communities and destroying lives tonight.” Manchin, a close ally of the fossil fuel industry, is currently blocking progress on Democrats’ Build Back Better Act, a $1.75 trillion reconciliation package containing hundreds of billions of dollars in climate-related investments.

Officially known as the Marshall and Middle Fork fires, the blazes have thus far torched nearly 600 homes and 1,600 acres in the Boulder County area. Avista Adventist Hospital, a 114-bed facility in Louisville, was forced to evacuate its intensive care units. No deaths and several injuries had been reported as of late Thursday as firefighters worked to contain the damage, an effort they hope will be assisted by a forecasted New Year’s Eve snowstorm.

Colorado Public Radio observed that while the exact cause of the destructive blazes is not yet clear, “early evidence suggests a sparking power line could have ignited the fires.”

“Late-December wildfires aren’t unheard of in Colorado, but the colder fall and winter months used to mean a break from the state’s peak fire season,” the outlet noted. “Scientists and fire ecologists say climate change, fueled by human-made carbon emissions, has added 78 days to the fire season since the 1970s.”

Environmentalist Bill McKibben likened the horrific images emerging from Colorado to “when the comet hits in ‘Don’t Look Up,’” a globally popular new film satirizing climate denial. “So look. Long and hard,” McKibben said. “And then get to work breaking the power of the fossil fuel industry.”