Major environmental-change categories expressed as a percentage relative to intact baseline. Red indicates percentage of category damaged, lost or otherwise affected; blue indicates percentage intact, remaining or unaffected

From an Article by Corey J. A. Bradshaw, Daniel T. Blumstein and Paul Ehrlich, The Conversation, January 13, 2021

Anyone with even a passing interest in the global environment knows all is not well. But just how bad is the situation? Our new paper shows the outlook for life on Earth is more dire than is generally understood.

The research published today reviews more than 150 studies to produce a stark summary of the state of the natural world. We outline the likely future trends in biodiversity decline, mass extinction, climate disruption and planetary toxification. We clarify the gravity of the human predicament and provide a timely snapshot of the crises that must be addressed now.

The problems, all tied to human consumption and population growth, will almost certainly worsen over coming decades. The damage will be felt for centuries and threatens the survival of all species, including our own.

Our paper was authored by 17 leading scientists, including those from Flinders University, Stanford University and the University of California, Los Angeles. Our message might not be popular, and indeed is frightening. But scientists must be candid and accurate if humanity is to understand the enormity of the challenges we face.

First, we reviewed the extent to which experts grasp the scale of the threats to the biosphere and its lifeforms, including humanity. Alarmingly, the research shows future environmental conditions will be far more dangerous than experts currently believe.

This is largely because academics tend to specialize in one discipline, which means they’re in many cases unfamiliar with the complex system in which planetary-scale problems—and their potential solutions—exist.

What’s more, positive change can be impeded by governments rejecting or ignoring scientific advice, and ignorance of human behavior by both technical experts and policymakers.

More broadly, the human optimism bias – thinking bad things are more likely to befall others than yourself—means many people underestimate the environmental crisis.

Our research also reviewed the current state of the global environment. While the problems are too numerous to cover in full here, they include:

>> A halving of vegetation biomass since the agricultural revolution around 11,000 years ago. Overall, humans have altered almost two-thirds of Earth’s land surface

>> About 1,300 documented species extinctions over the past 500 years, with many more unrecorded. More broadly, population sizes of animal species have declined by more than two-thirds over the last 50 years, suggesting more extinctions are imminent

>> About 1 million plant and animal species globally threatened with extinction. The combined mass of wild mammals today is less than one-quarter the mass before humans started colonizing the planet. Insects are also disappearing rapidly in many regions

>> Some 85% of the global wetland area lost in 300 years, and more than 65% of the oceans compromised to some extent by humans

>> A halving of live coral cover on reefs in less than 200 years and a decrease in seagrass extent by 10% per decade over the last century. About 40% of kelp forests have declined in abundance, and the number of large predatory fishes is fewer than 30% of that a century ago.

The human population has reached 7.8 billion – double what it was in 1970—and is set to reach about 10 billion by 2050. More people equals more food insecurity, soil degradation, plastic pollution and biodiversity loss.

High population densities make pandemics more likely. They also drive overcrowding, unemployment, housing shortages and deteriorating infrastructure, and can spark conflicts leading to insurrections, terrorism, and war.

Essentially, humans have created an ecological Ponzi scheme. Consumption, as a percentage of Earth’s capacity to regenerate itself, has grown from 73% in 1960 to more than 170% today.

High-consuming countries like Australia, Canada and the US use multiple units of fossil-fuel energy to produce one energy unit of food. Energy consumption will therefore increase in the near future, especially as the global middle class grows.

Then there’s climate change. Humanity has already exceeded global warming of 1°C this century, and will almost assuredly exceed 1.5 °C between 2030 and 2052. Even if all nations party to the Paris Agreement ratify their commitments, warming would still reach between 2.6°C and 3.1°C by 2100.

Our paper found global policymaking falls far short of addressing these existential threats. Securing Earth’s future requires prudent, long-term decisions. However this is impeded by short-term interests, and an economic system that concentrates wealth among a few individuals.

Right-wing populist leaders with anti-environment agendas are on the rise, and in many countries, environmental protest groups have been labeled “terrorists.” Environmentalism has become weaponised as a political ideology, rather than properly viewed as a universal mode of self-preservation.

Financed disinformation campaigns against climate action and forest protection, for example, protect short-term profits and claim meaningful environmental action is too costly—while ignoring the broader cost of not acting. By and large, it appears unlikely business investments will shift at sufficient scale to avoid environmental catastrophe.

Fundamental change is required to avoid this ghastly future. Specifically, we and many others suggest:

>> Abolishing the goal of perpetual economic growth
>> Revealing the true cost of products and activities by forcing those who damage the environment to pay for its restoration, such as through carbon pricing
>> Rapidly eliminating fossil fuels
>> Regulating markets by curtailing monopolisation and limiting undue corporate influence on policy
>> Reining in corporate lobbying of political representatives
>> Educating and empowering women around the globe, including giving them control over family planning.

Many organizations and individuals are devoted to achieving these aims. However their messages have not sufficiently penetrated the policy, economic, political and academic realms to make much difference.

Failing to acknowledge the magnitude and gravity of problems facing humanity is not just naïve, it’s dangerous. And science has a big role to play here.

Scientists must not sugarcoat the overwhelming challenges ahead. Instead, they should tell it like it is. Anything else is at best misleading, and at worst potentially lethal for the human enterprise.

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See also: What is a ‘mass extinction’ and are we in one now?Frédérik Saltré & Corey Bradshaw, The Conversation, November 12, 2019

For more than 3.5 billion years, living organisms have thrived, multiplied and diversified to occupy every ecosystem on Earth. The flip side to this explosion of new species is that species extinctions have also always been part of the evolutionary life cycle.

But these two processes are not always in step. When the loss of species rapidly outpaces the formation of new species, this balance can be tipped enough to elicit what are known as “mass extinction” events. Five major mass extinctions have been identified in the geological record, and the sixth extinction is now evident.

Plastic refuse is accumulating at an alarming rate

From an Article by Jared Paben, Resource Recycling, October 21, 2020

Three virgin plastics companies recently announced developments in the area of chemical recycling. The following are summaries of the news from Chevron Phillips Chemical, SABIC and BASF.

Commercial-scale milestone: Chevron Phillips Chemical announced that it successfully completed its first U.S. commercial-scale production of polyethylene (PE) derived from chemically recycled mixed plastics.

“We are exceptionally proud to be the first company to announce production of a circular polyethylene on this scale in the U.S.,” Jim Becker, vice president of polymers and sustainability for the company, stated in a press release. “The successful production run marks a huge step for CPChem on our path to being a world leader in producing circular polymers.”

The company is now looking to scale up the use of the pyrolysis technology, as well as achieve certification for the new PE through the International Sustainability and Carbon Certification Plus (ISCC Plus) mass-balance methodology. Upon certification, Chevron Phillips Chemical intends to market the plastic under the trade name Marlex Anew Circular Polyethylene.

Recycled-content tube: Three companies are collaborating to bring chemically recycled plastic into beauty product packaging. Virgin plastics producer SABIC will supply recycled resin derived from post-consumer mixed plastics, part of the company’s TRUCIRCLE portfolio of chemically recycled polyolefins. Albéa will convert the plastic into tubes for Estée Lauder Companies (ELC) products; specifically, the tubes will hold Origins skincare brand products. According to a press release, the package is expected to hit store shelves in 2021.

In August, SABIC announced that its TRUCIRCLE recycled polypropylene (PP), produced via a pyrolysis process, was being used in Magnum brand ice cream tubs. Over 7 million of the recycled-content tubs are slated to be rolled out across Europe this year.

From tires to recycled plastics: BASF’s ChemCycling project has focused on using a pyrolysis technology to process difficult-to-recycle mixed plastics into chemicals for use in new plastics. Now, BASF is supporting the use of pyrolysis on scrap tires.

The global chemical company plans to invest 16 million euros (nearly $19 million) in Pyrum Innovations, a German company using pyrolysis on scrap tires. BASF plans to use the resulting pyrolysis oil to produce recycled-content plastic products for customers, alongside its existing recycled-content offerings derived from scrap plastics.

“With the investment, we have taken another significant step towards establishing a broad supply base for pyrolysis oil and towards offering our customers products based on chemically recycled plastic waste on a commercial scale,” Hartwig Michels, president of BASF’s Petrochemicals division, stated in a press release.

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New plastic pyrolysis capacity planned in the United States

From an Article by Craig Bettenhausen, Chemical & Engineering News, Vol 98, Issue 27, July 10, 2020

Plants by Braven Environmental and Encina May take in a combined 225,000 metric tons of waste plastic per year

Two new plastic pyrolysis plants are in the works in the US that could add a new recycling option for plastic trash and increase the supply of some commodity chemicals.

In pyrolysis, a feedstock such as waste plastic is heated in a low-oxygen environment and, instead of burning, breaks down into a mix of simpler hydrocarbons. Tweaking the reaction conditions—such as temperature, pressure, or use of a catalyst—allows operators to get various product mixtures.

The pyrolysis firm Encina is finishing designs with engineers at Worley for a plant that will take in about 160,000 metric tons (t) of waste plastic per year and yield 90,000 t of BTX, a mixture of benzene, toluene, and xylenes normally produced from oil. The firms say the designs are modular, which will let them add capacity later. This will be Encina’s first plant, and founder David Schwedel says the company has four more in the planning stages globally.

Braven Environmental is planning a plant in central Virginia that will take in 65,000 t of plastic per year and produce 50 million L of a diesel-like hydrocarbon blend, according to Michael Moreno, the company’s chief operating officer. The $32 million plant will also produce syngas, which it will burn to fuel the process. The firm expects to create 52 permanent jobs at the site when it opens in mid-2021.

Environmental advocates debate the merits of pyrolysis, citing concerns about scalability, toxic by-products, and derailment of a transition away from single-use plastics. Promoters of such chemical recycling methods counter that they save energy and help keep plastics out of landfills and waterways.

Eastern shore, the Delmarva Peninsula, east of Chesapeake Bay, is 180 miles of flat farmland

From an Article by Diane Bernard, Maryland Public News Service, July 10, 2020

ANNAPOLIS, Md. – Environmental groups and local residents are speaking out against a proposed fracked-gas pipeline to run through rivers, farms and forests from Delaware to Maryland’s Eastern Shore.

The Hogan administration held a public hearing about Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company’s plan to build more than 20 miles of pipeline to bring fracked gas to the historically black University of Maryland Eastern Shore campus and the rest of Somerset County.

Anthony Field, Maryland campaign coordinator for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, says with the recent setbacks for both the Atlantic Coast Pipeline and Dakota Access pipeline, the project is out of step with the public’s desire to move away from fossil fuels.

“The era of fossil fuels is over,” says Field. “We simply cannot be building new infrastructure for toxic methane gas. Eastern Shore officials should promote the speedy development of clean energy sources like offshore wind instead.”

Eastern Shore Natural Gas Company officials say the pipeline is needed in the area to meet growing market demand. They point out it also would bring gas service to Somerset County, one of only three counties in Maryland without access to natural gas.

But Field says the public must weigh any support for a fossil-fuel energy source with the pipeline’s potential threat to the area’s ecosystems, particularly water supplies. And he notes that once the pipeline is up and running, its emissions would boost greenhouse gases – ultimately affecting air quality in a low-income area already challenged by climate change.

“This is extremely concerning,” says Field. “Especially UMES, for example, is an HBCU, and largely disenfranchised folks – people of color, lower-income individuals – are mostly the ones affected by the changing climate, and the issues that these kind of infrastructure bring to the state and the country.”

Field says his group and others will continue protesting the pipeline. In the meantime, Maryland Gov. Larry Hogan plans to spend more than $100 million to increase fracked-gas pipelines and infrastructure in the state.

Drilling & fracking operations site of EQT in Washington County in southwestern Penna.

From an Article by Peter Eavis, New York Times, March 31, 2020

CARMICHAELS, Pa. — The last time the global economy was in free fall, an economic savior showed up in southwestern Pennsylvania. Energy companies, which had discovered a way to get at the state’s vast natural-gas reserves, invested billions of dollars in the region, cushioning the blow of the Great Recession.

“There were just so many jobs,” Debbie Gideon, a retired community banker, recalls. “It was crazy.”

But 12 years later, as the region braces for the coronavirus recession, natural-gas companies are much more likely to weigh on the local economy than to rescue it. These natural-gas companies operating in Pennsylvania were looking shaky before the coronavirus hit. Local economies are now at risk.

Even before the latest shock, gas operators were reeling from self-inflicted wounds. They had taken on too much debt and drilled so many wells that they had flooded the market with gas, sending its price into a tailspin.

To conserve cash, the firms have been frantically slashing investments, cuts that will pummel local suppliers and contractors. “Every time one of these slowdowns occurs, they beat down every vendor they can,” said Steve Stuck, president of Jacobs Petroleum in Waynesburg, which supplies diesel to the natural-gas operators.

Pennsylvania, home to the United States’ first major oil wells and a large coal producer for decades, has a long history with the fossil fuel industry. That was a reason the state, unlike New York, allowed gas companies to use hydraulic fracturing — or fracking — to extract gas from the Marcellus Shale formation, estimated to be the largest gas field in the United States.

To many businesspeople and residents, the bet has paid off, not least by creating many well-paying jobs in struggling parts of the state. And though the industry, which Pennsylvania has allowed to operate through the coronavirus emergency, goes through ups and downs, they expect it to remain an important part of their economy for years to come.

“I don’t think we’ll ever get to the bust, because we have 40 to 60 years of gas,” says Mike Belding, a former Marine helicopter pilot and now a commissioner for Greene County. “That’s past our lifetimes.”

But there are strong signs that this natural-gas shakeout could grind on longer than others. And if it does turn into a rout that leads to large layoffs and business closures, Pennsylvania may have to reassess its great shale experiment.

“There is not a lot of knowledge of how fragile these companies are,” said Veronica Coptis, executive director of the Center for Coalfield Justice, which has often been critical of the coal and shale industries. “And when the companies start to struggle financially, the people who get hurt the most are the employees.”

Some energy giants have already lost faith in the region. Chevron in December took a multibillion-dollar write-down on its Appalachian shale assets, dominated by gas reserves in Pennsylvania, and said it might sell them. The stocks of two once mighty Marcellus Shale pioneers, Range Resources and EQT, have plummeted, and their bonds are trading at steep discounts, a sign that investors believe they could default on their debts.

The debts of those two companies and Southwestern Energy, another shale business focused on Pennsylvania, have increased by a combined $7 billion since 2008. Their operations generated far too little cash to pay for their investments. In fact, the three companies’ capital spending exceeded operating cash flows by $14 billion in that period.

The frackers now have fewer friends on Wall Street. “All they’ve done is destroy shareholder value,” said Ben Dell, managing partner at Kimmeridge, a private-equity firm that specializes in energy. “For the Marcellus guys, it will all stop with bankruptcy.”

Shale operators, pipeline companies and service companies together employed nearly 32,000 people in Pennsylvania as of June, according to an analysis of data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics, roughly the same as during a previous peak, and about as many as Pennsylvania State University. In the first half of last year, workers in the shale industry and related sectors on average earned $2,128 a week, almost twice the average for private-sector workers in the state.

Larry Allison Jr., a co-owner of a crane company in Williamsport, a town in the center of the state, said his natural-gas-related business was down 30 percent from its peak, but added that the industry still created high-paying jobs: Crane operators earn $35 to $40 an hour. “Everyone’s making $10 per hour more than they were before,” he said. Activity in the natural-gas industry slowed slightly after the coronavirus outbreak began, Mr. Allison added later.

And Mr. Stuck’s fuel business has ballooned in size over the past decade, an expansion that was in part financed by loans from Community Bank in Carmichaels. “We would never have been able to employ local people from local universities for good competitive-wage jobs,” he said, “It’s been unbelievable to see the impact. And we’ve been through three downturns.” He says natural-gas companies’ demand for his services has not yet dropped because of the coronavirus outbreak.

Residents in gas-producing counties have received royalties for allowing shale operators to extract gas from and run pipelines across their land. “A lot of people made money,” said Ms. Gideon, the former banker. “I was happy for them; they had scraped by for years.” And the copiously flowing gas has lowered utility bills.

But now the shale-gas operators are trying to adapt to a harsher environment. They have cut the cost of drilling and fracking, which involves forcing liquids into the ground at extreme pressures to release gas by fracturing rock formations. Moving vast quantities of sand, used to prop open the fractures, has become more efficient, and operators are saving money by sharing water.

There is one big hope for some of the Pennsylvania gas companies. It’s the giant plastics plant that Shell, with the help of large tax breaks, is building in Beaver County in the southwestern part of the state. The plant takes ethane, a natural-gas byproduct, and breaks apart its molecules, which are then used to make plastic. The plant is expected to consume large amounts of gas from local wells, but Shell has not said exactly when it will come on line.

The Pennsylvania gas operators were also hoping that new pipelines would open up big markets. Some capacity has been added, but last month the companies behind the Constitution Pipeline, which would have transported gas to New York and New England, canceled the project, saying it was no longer economical.

One option the operators can try is cutting production to support prices. Pennsylvania’s rig count, a yardstick for new well drilling, is 24, half what it was a year ago, according to Baker Hughes. And natural-gas prices could benefit from the sharp drop in oil prices. That’s because the scaling back of drilling by American shale-oil operators will also reduce the amount of “associated” natural gas that those wells produce along with oil. But the economic downturn is expected to depress demand for the gas overall.

If the gas companies go into a long downturn, many in the community worry that it might become harder to get them to pay for legal settlements, cleanup costs, and wear and tear on local infrastructure.

In clearing ground for a road down to drilling site in 2018, EQT cut down some old Osage orange trees on land owned by Rose Friend. The company was building a road on her land because it had acquired a lease from another energy company.

Ms. Friend, 82, a former teacher who sings in a church group, said she didn’t want the road access to be directly opposite her farmhouse in Marianna, Pa., which has been in her family for 101 years, and tried to stop the company. The access was eventually moved 50 yards down the hill, and Ms. Friend’s daughter, Karen LeBlanc, is still negotiating with EQT over a payment to replace the trees.

“They just came in and took over,” Ms. Friend said. “I don’t do things that way.” The company did not respond to requests for comment.

Some of the oldest roads in the United States are in Washington County, where the gas industry is particularly active. Some residents say that the heavy trucks that cart water and sand cause them to crack and crumble and that the gas companies take too long to fix them. The industry defended its record of paying for road repairs and construction.

One way the companies help cover the costs of infrastructure improvements is through a state impact fee that is distributed to local governments. The fee peaked at $252 million in 2018, but the revenue for 2019, not yet paid out, is expected to decline by 21 percent to $198 million.

Counties and municipalities that have come to rely on the revenue are getting ready to cut or forgo projects. “It is not a crisis,” said Mr. Belding, the Greene County commissioner, “but it is concerning.”

We are eating a nominal 5 grams of plastics each and every week, uugghh!

From an Article by Kevin Loria, Consumer Reports, April 30, 2020

The Menace of Microplastics

Any plastic item—bag or bottle, toy or chair—starts to come apart with use and time, breaking down into tinier and tinier fragments. Most of the plastic produced hasn’t been recycled (see “What’s Gone Wrong With Recycling”). But it’s not just old plastic that has disintegrated into particles that make their way into lakes, rivers, and oceans. Cracking open a brand-new plastic bottle or tearing a wrapper off a sandwich releases fragments of plastic that we might end up ingesting. Household dust can be full of microplastics—and it’s possible that you might kick this up into the air from your carpet and breathe it in. Plastic fibers even wash off clothes into our water supplies.

Fragments of plastic smaller than 5 millimeters in length are known as “microplastics,” and scientists have started to refer to even more microscopic fragments—generally smaller than 1,000 nanometers—as “nanoplastics.” In a 2019 report, the World Health Organization found that we’ve unknowingly ingested microplastics for decades without clear negative consequences, saying that research into potential health effects is needed. While there’s much we don’t yet know, we have learned that micro- and nanoplastics are everywhere. Snow in the Arctic carries substantial amounts of microplastic, according to a 2019 study in the journal Science Advances, and even more has been detected in the Alps. Microplastics can even be found in the seemingly pristine sand of Hawaiian beaches.

Given this, researchers are concerned that these plastics can make their way into the tissues of our bodies, according to Linda Birnbaum, Ph.D., the recently retired director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences (NIEHS) and the National Toxicology Program. “Nanoplastics can easily cross all kinds of barriers, whether it’s the blood-brain barrier or the placental barrier, and get into our tissues,” Birnbaum has said. Breathing in nanoplastics might introduce them into our cardiovascular system and bloodstream, for example.

It’s also possible that nanoplastic particles might create a systemic inflammatory response, according to Phoebe Stapleton, Ph.D., an assistant professor of pharmacology and toxicology at Rutgers University in New Brunswick, N.J. Her research has previously shown that inhaled metal particles can harm the cardiovascular health of a developing fetus. And her animal research has also confirmed that when a mother breathes in nanoplastics, the particles can be found in many places inside the fetus. “We know that after exposure, the plastic particles are everywhere we look,” Stapleton says. “We don’t know yet what those particles are doing once they’re deposited there.” Other researchers, like Myers at Environmental Health Sciences, are concerned that nanoplastics could possibly release harmful chemicals (such as BPA) into our bodies.

Another area of inquiry focuses on the fact that microplastics act like magnets for additional toxins, picking up pollutants such as polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), chemicals now banned from manufacture in the U.S. but still present in the environment. According to Linda Birnbaum, formerly at the NIEHS, if we later ingest or inhale contaminated microplastics, they may release these substances they’ve picked up into our blood or organs, along with whatever chemicals are also in the plastic itself.

See my finger, see these tiny plastics — some are very much smaller still ...

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See also: Environmental toxicologist wants to understand how microplastics affect human health,
Stephanie Wright, Chemical & Engineering News, Volume 98, Issue 15, April 19, 2020

We are studying air particles that are a so-called health-relevant size that can enter the central and distal parts of the human lung. We are also investigating whether we can detect microplastics in human lung tissue and whether we can find any links to health outcomes.

Additionally, we are doing some in vitro studies to examine the toxicology of these particles. The big question is the relative importance of microplastics. Humans are obviously exposed to thousands, if not hundreds of thousands or millions, of particles in a cubic meter of air, so it’s vital to understand the relative proportion of microplastics within those particles and their relative potency.

West Virginia coal has been significantly depleted, alternatives are available

Opinion Editorial by C. Blaine Cecil, Charleston Gazette Mail, April 15, 2017

Over the past couple of years, I have followed claims about the restoration of the coal industry in the Appalachian region. As a native West Virginian and someone who still has a strong allegiance to the state, I feel compelled to offer a different perspective on the future of coal.

I am a retired geologist who has invested most of my professional career to the study of coal geology in Appalachia. These studies included, but were not limited to, geologic controls on the origin of coal and coal-bearing strata; geological and chemical characteristics of coal that effect coal cleaning; and mineral and chemical characteristics of coal and coal-bearing strata that effect mine drainage water quality. These, and other studies, were always related to coal resources (the amount of coal in the ground) and coal reserves (the amount of mineable coal).

As a result of those studies, it became evident many years ago that the amount of coal resources and reserves are finite; reserves will not last forever.

As far back as the mid-1970s, a coal company executive who was responsible for coal exploration in Southern West Virginia told me that mineable coal was getting “dirtier and deeper (and thinner)” meaning that the best coal reserves had already been mined. Since that time, newer mining technologies (such as mountaintop surface mining) have continued to deplete coal reserves. As a result of reserve depletion, it is highly unlikely that coal mining (and jobs) can be restored in a significant and sustainable manner; recovery of remaining reserves will be increasingly difficult and expensive, thereby resulting in a steady and rapid decline in coal production and associated jobs.

Much of the remaining coal resources occur in beds that are thin, discontinuous, often deeply buried and uneconomical to mine, and that will never be included in reserve calculations. If these resources are ever to be recovered, it will most likely be through underground (in situ) gasification rather than conventional mining methods.

Unless some unknown factors intervene, coal production and mining jobs in Appalachia are unlikely to recover because of the following:

>>Reserve depletion. Coal reserves are nearly depleted; increases in coal production will only accelerate reserve depletion and hasten the end of a significant coal mining industry in Appalachia. This is particularly true of southern West Virginia.

>> Electricity demand. The demand for electricity from coal-fired power plants has slowed because many major industrial consumers (e.g., steel, aluminum, and chemical manufacturing) have closed most of their plants in the United States, giving rise to the “rust belt.” The demise of these industries can also be attributed, by in large, to resource/reserve depletion of raw materials.

>> Natural gas replacement. Coal is being replaced by natural gas in the generation of electricity because recently discovered natural gas is now abundant, relatively inexpensive to produce, cleaner to burn and has higher heat content than coal (on a BTU/pound basis). Natural gas-fired power plants are also cheaper to build and operate than coal-fired power plants.

>> Energy transportation. Natural gas is easier, cheaper, and more energy efficient to transport (via pipelines) to power plants located near points of consumption (e.g., large metropolitan areas) relative to transportation of electricity over power lines from mine-mouth power plants to major markets. In addition, gas is cheaper and more energy efficient for home heating than electricity. Simply put, natural gas is currently a cheaper source of energy than coal.

In summary, economic recovery and sustainability in coal-producing regions in Appalachia must refocus economic development on commercially viable activities other than coal production. The nearly total collapse of the coal industry in Great Britain and Germany in the latter part of the 20th century is a stark reminder that coal reserves become depleted.

Readers who wish to further explore the future of coal mining in Appalachia may consult resource and reserve data that are available online from both federal and state agencies.

>>> C. Blaine Cecil, of Rockbridge Baths, Virginia, originally from Moundsville, was an adjunct professor of geology at WVU, a research associate at the Smithsonian Institution and a research geologist emeritus for the U.S. Geologic Survey.

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See also: Longview Power Files Prepackaged Chapter 11 To Facilitate Ownership Change, City Biz, Wash., DC, April 14, 2020

Longview Power LLC has filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection under a prepackaged reorganization plan as a result of substantially lessened demand for electricity due to long term power-pricing pressure caused by cheap natural gas, an unseasonably warm winter, and the COVID-19 pandemic and resulting economic impact, which collectively have severely depressed power prices. The Company will continue to operate in the ordinary course as it quickly restructures its balance sheet.

C & O Canal along Canal Street in Hancock, MD

From an Article by Michael Lewis, Hagerstown Herald Mail, August 20, 2019

BALTIMORE — A federal judge Wednesday upheld Maryland’s denial of an easement for a proposed natural-gas pipeline west of Hancock.

“We are pleased that the court has agreed that a private pipeline company cannot force the state to accept a pipeline under the Western Maryland Rail Trail,” Maryland Attorney General Brian Frosh said in a written statement. “We will continue to defend Maryland’s right to control its public lands against any other efforts by the natural gas industry to move forward with this project.”

The decision Wednesday came from a judge in the U.S. District Court in Baltimore.

Columbia Gas Transmission, a subsidiary of TC Energy, has proposed running the pipeline from existing facilities in Pennsylvania to a new Mountaineer Gas Co. pipeline in West Virginia.

Proponents have said the new pipeline is critical to economic development in West Virginia’s Eastern Panhandle.

“We will be evaluating our options in response to today’s decision,” Tim Wright, a spokesman for TC Energy, wrote in an email Wednesday. “We are committed to moving forward with this project to ensure that we can safely and reliably deliver a vital energy source to help power a region’s homes, businesses and economy.”

Opponents have said the pipeline, which would burrow more than 100 feet under the Potomac River, would threaten the environment and drinking water while bringing little benefit to the state.

“Really, why do we need this pipeline if it doesn’t benefit Maryland?” Brent Walls of the Potomac Riverkeeper Network said in an interview Wednesday.

The pipeline has been the subject of public meetings and debates for more than three years.

The project received permits from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the Maryland Department of the Environment and the Maryland Department of Natural Resources. But protests against it continued in the Tri-State region and elsewhere in Maryland.

In court documents, Columbia Gas Transmission stated it has negotiated “the voluntary acquisition of easements” for 18 of the 22 tracts in the pipeline’s path. But it still needs easements to go under the Western Maryland Rail Trail and three parcels owned by the National Park Service. Those parcels are part of the Chesapeake & Ohio Canal National Historical Park.

Columbia is still awaiting a decision from the park service.

According to the paperwork, Columbia Gas offered the Maryland Department of Natural Resources $5,000 for the easement, which is more than the amount due as determined by an appraisal.

But in January, the state Board of Public Works denied Columbia’s easement application. Gov. Larry Hogan, Comptroller Peter Franchot and Treasurer Nancy Kopp voted unanimously.

At the time, Franchot cited “the compelling testimony of people who came down and said that they don’t think this is the right thing for the state of Maryland to do — that we weren’t gonna subject our state to all the environmental problems of this pipeline and get none of the economic benefits.”

In May, Columbia Gas Transmission sued. It asked the U.S. District Court in Baltimore to condemn about 0.12 acres for a 50-foot-wide and 102-foot-long easement, so the company can tunnel the 8-inch pipeline under the rail trail. Using a directional drilling method, the company would burrow the pipeline about 175 feet under the trail and about 114 feet under the river.

Columbia Gas argued that “time is of the essence” to meet the FERC deadline of July 19, 2020, and its “contractually committed in-service date” of Nov. 1, 2020.

But the state argued that the 11th amendment to the U.S. Constitution prevents a federal court from ordering the state to grant the easement.

Walls, the Upper Potomac riverkeeper, said he was in the courtroom Wednesday when the ruling was handed down. Walls said that, while the pipeline issue is important, another issue also is at stake.

Granting a private company the right of eminent domain over state-owned land would have “major, major implications,” he said.

LNG exports will bleed the US of longterm resources and increase global warming

Essay by S. Tom Bond, Resident Farmer & Retired Chemist, Lewis County, WV

“U. S. Liquefied Natural Gas Hits Record Highs Again” (January 8), seems to hit all the bells and whistles for what is essentially a political movement devoid of practicality. See the recent article post and comments here in FrackCheckWV.net.

It trashes the countryside where it is conducted, due to the Halliburton amendment of Dick Chaney, and will surely destroy the life sustaining capacity of the earth, due to its effluvia (methane, other hydrocarbons, & carbon dioxide). All this to squeeze out the last dregs of natural gas under the earth in the United States, as though none would be needed here in the future.

The author ignores the fact that it is increasingly difficult to get capital for fracking because the companies aren’t making money, many are going broke and there is an active, effective divestment movement which values life more than quick wealth.

LNG export and import facilities are a fat target in an uncertain and increasingly warlike world. Each LNG tanker holds energy equivalent to an atomic bomb! These ships are easily attacked with cheap missiles, too.

Fracking has become the practice due to the exhaustion of “conventional” reserves, still abundant elsewhere, but in nations the U. S. chooses to compete with. The huge quantities of manufactured chemicals and truly vast quantities of water required for the method have two main effects: (1) they make it expensive compared to drilling a well where the petroleum will simply flow to the hole and can be pumped out, and (2) it has gross effects on the countryside where it is conducted.

One effect is contamination of well water and water that flows on the surface, making residence and farming difficult or impossible. Large areas are removed from forests and pastures and converted into roads and drill pads covered deeply with gravel and made incapable of vegetation. Local roads are crowded and destroyed, at public expense and great cost to local residents and local communities.

As long as the banks are willing to loan, and investors can be suckered in, fracking moves great sums of money. More than most can imagine, money is moved to lobbies at state legislatures and congress to obtain legislation permitting this irrational initiative.

I know these things because I live in the Marcellus Field, and I am a chemist. Fracking is a political movement first and foremost. It is not economic or rational.

S. Thomas Bond of Jane Lew, WV

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See also: The U.S. is helping the natural gas industry make a profit | The Texas Tribune

Penn State Fayette Campus on September 5th

Fayette’s Coal and Coke Heritage Center to host book launch on September 5th for ‘Shale Play’ which depicts life in the Marcellus Shale region through stories, images in new book.

LEMONT FURNACE, Pa. — The Coal and Coke Heritage Center at Penn State Fayette, The Eberly Campus, will host the book launch for “Shale Play: Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields,” by Penn State faculty members Julia Kasdorf and Steven Rubin, at 5:30 p.m. on Wednesday, September 5th.

“Shale Play,” published by Penn State Press in 2018, gathers stories and images about working people and everyday life from Appalachian Pennsylvania and the Marcellus Shale region.

“The long sleep of the Appalachians has been dramatically interrupted by the sudden discovery of the Marcellus Shale,” said Bill McKibben, author of “The End of Nature.” “This book helps us see and understand what that has meant for the region. It’s a classic tale, with echoes of the region’s past — and deep implications for the planet’s future.”

Kasdorf, an acclaimed poet and professor of English and women’s, gender, and sexuality studies at Penn State, has published three books of poetry: “Sleeping Preacher,” “Eve’s Striptease,” and “Poetry in America.” Her awards include the Agnes Lynch Starrett Poetry Prize and the Great Lakes College’s Association Award for New Writing, a Pushcart Prize, and a National Endowment for the Arts Fellowship in Poetry.

Rubin worked for more than 20 years as a freelance photojournalist and documentary photographer. His photographs have been published in The New York Times Magazine, National Geographic, Time, Newsweek, and The Village Voice, and internationally in Stern, GEO, Focus, L’Express, and The London Independent Magazine. He is an associate professor of art, specializing in photography, at Penn State.

Kasdorf and Rubin will present and discuss work from the book. Refreshments will be served.This event is free and open to the public. For more information, visit http://www.psupress.org.

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Shale Play — Poems and Photographs from the Fracking Fields

New book by Julia Kasdorf and Steven Rubin, Penn State University, Fall 2018

“The long sleep of the Appalachians has been dramatically interrupted by the sudden discovery of the Marcellus Shale. This book helps us see and understand what that has meant for the region. It’s a classic tale, with echoes of the region’s past—and deep implications for the planet’s future.” — Bill McKibben, author of ‘The End of Nature.’

Impacts of pipelines severe in VA and WV

From an Article by Charles Young, West Virginia News, August 20, 2018

CLARKSBURG — The Mountain Valley Pipeline project has released as much as 50 percent of its construction workforce as a result of the recent court-ordered work stoppage.

The delay will push the project’s proposed completion date to “the last quarter of 2019,” according to Natalie Cox, corporate director of communications for EQT.

“Because of the continued work stoppage order that impacts more than 200 miles of the project’s route, MVP has released as much as 50 percent of its construction workforce,” she said.

The Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project of EQT and several other partners, has a proposed route spanning more than 300 miles from northwestern West Virginia to southern Virginia. The pipeline will be used to supply natural gas from Marcellus and Utica Shale production to markets in the Mid-Atlantic and South Atlantic.

The project’s original in-service completion date was targeted for “late 2018,” according to Cox.

The company was recently ordered to stop all work after the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said EQT and its partners hadn’t obtained rights of way or temporary use permits needed for the pipeline to cross federally owned lands since the 4th Circuit Court of Appeals canceled permits in early August.

FERC issued a modified order Thursday allowing for work to continue on part of the proposed route in West Virginia, Cox said.

“The modification allows construction to restart for approximately 77 miles of the route in West Virginia, with exception of a 7-mile area located in proximity to the Weston Gauley Bridge Turnpike Trail,” she said.

Although work will continue in this area, many of the other workers have been released until FERC gives the green light for full construction to continue, Cox said.

“Despite the construction activities authorized under the modified work order and the FERC-approved stabilization plan, MVP was forced to take immediate measures to address an idled workforce and protect the integrity of the project,” she said.

“MVP is working to mitigate any additional job loss; and we believe we are making progress to receive authorization to resume full construction activities and return the currently released workers back to their jobs.”

In its original work stoppage order, FERC gave indications that the stoppage would not be permanent.

“There is no reason to believe that the Forest Service or the Army Corps of Engineers, as the land managing agencies, or the Bureau of Land Management, as the federal rights of grantor, will not be able to comply with the Court’s instructions and to ultimately issue new right-of-way grants that satisfy the Court’s requirements,” FERC wrote in its order.

The other major pipeline project currently underway in West Virginia, Dominion Energy’s Atlantic Coast Pipeline, was also recently ordered to halt work in most areas.

In the wake of a U.S. Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals ruling that nixed Dominion’s proposed right-of-way crossing of the Blue Ridge Parkway and vacated an Incidental Take Statement issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, FERC ordered a halt to all construction.

Later FERC granted permission for construction to continue on two “critical road bores” — one at Mount Carmel Road in Upshur County and one at U.S. 50 near Bridgeport — as well as certain activities at the Mockingbird Hill Compressor Station in Wetzel County.

The stoppage order has not impacted the Atlantic Coast Pipeline’s workforce, according to spokesman Aaron Ruby.

“We’re encouraging our contractors to stay in the area so they’re ready to resume construction at a moment’s notice,” he said. “We’re confident the agencies can quickly reissue the permits, and we’ll get back to work as soon as possible.”

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ACP Pipeline hoping shutdown is resolved within a matter of weeks

From an Article of the Record Delta, Buckhannon WV, August 25, 2018

BUCKHANNON — Atlantic Coast Pipeline officials told the Upshur County Commission Thursday the company expects work to resume on the natural gas pipeline within a matter of weeks.

“Everybody’s hoping it’s really weeks and nothing more than that,” ACP community liaison Mike Cozad said at the commission’s weekly meeting Thursday. “That’s based on things that have occurred with our pipeline, and the feeling is, it’s going to be weeks, and not a longer issue.”

ACP is a joint venture to build a 42-inch-wide natural gas pipeline that will span 600 miles from Harrison County, West Virginia into Virginia and Robeson County, North Carolina; Dominion Energy is the lead developer and operator of the pipeline.

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission issued a Stop Work Order Friday after the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals vacated two key permits — one of which had been issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service and was designed to protect threatened or endangered species. The second is a right-of-way permit issued by the U.S. National Park Service that would have allowed the pipeline to pass beneath the Blue Ridge Parkway and required boring into a mountain along the scenic highway, he said.

Cozad said the work stoppage shouldn’t affect the pipeline’s impact on the local economy. “You shouldn’t see anything changing as far as the number of people out in town during the day — maybe more so,” he said. “They’ve got time now to do that. The hotels are still full, no one’s going to be leaving.”

Dominion Energy workers and employees of the energy company’s contractors are still being paid, and they have several tasks to complete despite the work stoppage, Cozad added.

“We have some limited things we can do to keep the right-of-way stabilized and that our environmental controls are being maintained and those kinds of things, so nothing gets out of whack in that regard, so there’s a little bit of things that need to be kept up if you will.”

Local environmental activist April Pierson-Keating asked Cozad whether ACP has turned in its stabilization plan, but Cozad said it had not yet been completed.

“It has not been finalized yet,” Cozad said. “Our stabilization plan is what we’re allowed to do to wrap things up that, really, if they’re left undone, it’s worse than going ahead and doing it.”

One example in Upshur County is Mt. Carmel Road, where work was well underway when the SWO was issued.

“The (W.Va. Department of Highways) DOH has requested that we go ahead and finish that bore, get it all stabilized, fill it back in so it’s actually less of a hazard than it is right now when remaining open, so that’s the kinds of thing that the stabilization plan takes into account,” Cozad said. “If you have any clout or anything, please contact anybody you can and tell them to get this thing going. It’s having a big impact on a lot of folks in ways that you couldn’t imagine. All of these things cost money, which ultimately impacts the cost of the gas supplied down the road.”