Respiratory diseases result from particulates in the air we breathe

Essay by Juan Cole, Common Dreams, April 12, 2020

Air pollution, producing medical conditions such as asthma and other lung problems as well as heart disease, is responsible for some of the thousands of coronavirus deaths in the United States. This, according to a just-published Harvard study, which is well summarized by Matthew Yglesias of Vox. Yglesias notes that Trump’s response to the pandemic has been to abolish clean air regulation, which is exactly the opposite of what we should be doing.

City-dwellers around the world are astonished to see how clean their air suddenly became once people stopped burning so many fossil fuels by driving gasoline vehicles for hours a day and powering stores with coal.

Clean air is not just a beautiful thing. It is necessary for our health. A study published last November in an open-access journal issued by the American Medical Association found that breathing polluted air full of small particulate matter kills some 200,000 people a year in the U.S. even where the level of pollution is below the limits set by the Environmental Protection Agency standards.

Particles or droplets less than 2.5 microns across, or thirty times smaller than a strand of hair, are implicated in a range of health disorders and even in declining intelligence in highly polluted environments.

In fact, the Guardian headline from 2018 was Air pollution causes ‘huge’ reduction in intelligence, study reveals. Damian Carrington and Lily Kuo wrote that breathing in polluted air so interferes with brain function that doing it regularly is like losing a year of education. I know people sometimes blow off their last semester of college, but apparently they lose both semesters if they live in a city with heavy air pollution. And that’s not counting full-blown dementia, in which dirty air caused by burning gasoline and coal is also implicated.

Rosie McCall at Newsweek pointed out that the JAMA Network study found that air pollution causes death from heart disease, obstructive pulmonary disease, lung cancer, pneumonia, and type 2 diabetes, as well as brain damage caused by damaged blood vessels closing off oxygen to the brain. These six fatal diseases were known to be the result of breathing polluted air. But in addition, they were able to show that breathing in micro-particles over time also causes dementia, high blood pressure, and chronic kidney disease, all of which are also killing people.

Coal companies and Big Oil like ExxonMobil and all those fracking companies are thus killing off a million Americans every five years. For the past 20 years Americans have been freaking out about terrorism that might kill less than a hundred people a year, but they’ve been happy to have a fifth of a million of their fellow citizens polished off by the burning of fossil fuels annually.

The situation is, of course, much worse than this study shows. Because not only does driving gasoline cars and heating your home with coal make you stupid and sick, it is also wrecking the planet by spewing powerful greenhouse gases into the atmosphere, where they trap the sun’s energy and won’t let it radiate back out into space, heating up the earth.

Global heating causes wildfires (which also throw up particulates into the air), drought, more severe hurricanes, and deadly sea rise and storm surges. Carbon dioxide is absorbed up to a certain limit by the sea, at the cost of making the sea acidic and threatening a huge kill-off of the fish on which 10% of humankind live.

The Scientific American reports that researchers estimate that some 150,000 people are being killed annually by the climate emergency around the world. The number is expected to double by 2030.

Proportionally speaking, the US is 4.2% of the world’s population, so a little over 6,000 Americans are already being killed annually by global heating. That number will mount exponentially through the 21st century.

The burden of all this disease and death is falling disproportionately on the poor and in the US on African-Americans, who are shunted by discrimination into the most polluted and least desirable housing. Who lives near a coal plant?

As huge numbers of new lines of affordable electric cars come online over the next five years, everyone who can afford one should go electric. As we green the electricity grid and phase out coal, the EVs will save the lives of literally hundreds of thousands of Americans a year, not to mention flattening the climate emergency curve for the next generation.

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See also: Exposure to air pollution and COVID-19 mortality in the United States (Updated April 5, 2020)

Xiao Wu MS, Rachel C. Nethery PhD, M. Benjamin Sabath MA, Danielle Braun PhD, Francesca Dominici PhD, Department of Biostatistics, Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, Boston, MA, 02115, USA

Background: United States government scientists estimate that COVID-19 may kill between 100,000 and 240,000 Americans. The majority of the pre-existing conditions that increase the risk of death for COVID-19 are the same diseases that are affected by long-term exposure to air pollution. We investigate whether long-term average exposure to fine particulate matter (PM2.5) increases the risk of COVID-19 deaths in the United States.

Conclusions: A small increase in long-term exposure to PM2.5 leads to a large increase in COVID-19 death rate, with the magnitude of increase 20 times that observed for PM2.5 and all-cause mortality. The study results underscore the importance of continuing to enforce existing air pollution regulations to protect human health both during and after the COVID-19 crisis.

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See also: Fine particulate air pollution and human mortality: 25+ years of cohort studies – ScienceDirect by CA Pope III, Nov 14, 2019 ·

Much of the key epidemiological evidence that long-term exposure to fine particulate matter air pollution (PM2.5) contributes to increased risk of mortality comes from survival studies of cohorts of individuals.

Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) is under high pressure and very low temperature

From an Article by Marissa Luck, Houston Chronicle, December 17, 2018

PHOTO— A Liberian-flagged tanker named the Maria Energy left Cheniere Energy’s recently completed Port of Corpus Christi facility with the first shipment of liquefied natural gas on the morning of Thursday, December 11, 2018. The shipment marked the first LNG export from Texas.

The world’s biggest buyers of liquefied natural gas will quadruple their uncontracted demand for LNG, and more buyers will be on the hunt for additional LNG soon, too, a report from Wood Mackenzie suggests.

That’s good news for Texas, which is transforming into an LNG export hub as companies tap into cheap natural gas supplies.

By 2030, the seven major LNG buyers are expected to gobble up 80 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas over and above their existing contracts, according to Wood Mackenzie.

Total demand from those buyers, including purchasing LNG on contract and off contract, will grow to 180 million metric tons, up from 150 million metric tons today, the research firm said.

“As China pushes on toward a lower-emission economy, its demand for gas and LNG has grown significantly and we expect the trend to continue in the longer term,” said Wood Mackenzie research director, Nicholas Browne in a statement.

The major seven LNG buyers are clustered in Asia, including China National Offshore Oil Corp., PetroChina, Sinopec, Tokyo Gas, Jera Co. and CPC Corp. Together they account for more than 50 percent of the global LNG market.

“Other traditional major buyers, on the other hand, are facing legacy contract expires and will be on the hunt for a mix of contracts to lower average costs and security in supply sources,” Browne added.

Next year could be a record year for new liquefied natural gas projects too – collectively suppliers could give the green light on LNG investments totaling 220 million metric tons per a year of capacity.

To put that in perspective, nearly 300 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas was traded globally last year — a jump from 100 million metric tons at the start of the century, according to an outlook from Shell.

Several projects are expected to get the green light next year, including the $27 billion Arctic LNG-2 in Russia, at least one project in Mozambique and at least three the U.S. Expansion projects in Australia and Papua New Guinea will also be in the running.

A new report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration earlier this week said the U.S. could more than double its export capacity in the next year to become the third largest LNG exporter behind Australia and Qatar.

In Texas, Cheniere Energy sent out the first LNG export tanker from the state earlier this week. Cheniere’s initial customers for the Corpus Christi facility hold long-term supply contracts from Europe, Asia and Australia.

Cheniere started exporting LNG from the U.S. in 2016, when it sent LNG from its Sabine Pass complex in Louisiana. Dominion Energy of Richmond, Va., also is exporting LNG from Cove Point in the United States, and others are expected to follow in the coming months, including two Houston firms, Kinder Morgan, which is completing an export terminal in Georgia, and Freeport LNG, which will operate a Gulf Coast terminal at Quintana Island.

Companies behind another four export projects on the Gulf Coast —Magnolia LNG, Delfin LNG, Lake Charles and Golden Pass— have federal approvals and are expected to make final investment decisions in the coming months, according to the Energy Information Administration.

Several other companies, including Sempra Energy of San Diego, NextDecade of Houston and Tellurian of Houston, are working on projects expected to start up in the coming years. This week NextDecade scored state permits for its Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville. And the federal government just released an environmental study on another Brownsville project, Annova LNG, an important milestone in the permitting process.

Browne said 2019 will be “the biggest year ever” in terms of LNG projects advancing and receiving final investment decisions.

“Asia’s major buyers will be at the forefront in ensuring this next generation of LNG supply is brought to market,” he added.

Climate Change necessitates reducing fossil fuels EVERY day!

Join us Saturday September 8, at 10 a.m. at Heritage Station in Huntington.

Details here. Bring your friends and family. Bring a water bottle. Bring your commitment to a renewable future!

News: Coalition of environmental groups to host River Rising event

Co-sponsors are: OVEC, MU Native American Student Organization, Fourpole Creek Watershed Association, Tri-State Indivisible, Citizens Climate Lobby of Huntington, Solar Holler.

Real climate leadership rises from the grassroots up! Join us in Huntington for one of thousands of rallies in cities and towns around the world to demand that our local leaders commit to building a fossil free world that works for all of us, that puts people and justice before profits. No more stalling, no more delays: it’s time for 100% renewable energy for all. These rallies take place during the time of the Global Climate Action Summit in California.

The Ohio River is endangered by the proposed, benignly named Appalachian Storage Hub (ASH). This proposed petrochemical mega-project would spur second and third waves of fracking, all for manufacturing toxic plastics manufacturing, despite the burgeoning worldwide movement to ban single-use plastics, and the growing research into less toxic alternatives to other forms of plastics.

Come learn more about why you should get involved in opposing ASH and promoting a better vision for our region. Come learn more about climate change impacts in our region and ways we can band together to create a better future for our region.

Join us as we let out local leaders know we don’t want a petrochemical future and hold them to account and demand that they walk the talk on climate action.

>>> The Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition
PO Box 6753
Huntington, WV 25773-6753
info@ohvec.org 304-522-0246

Proposed ethane pipeline (Kinder Morgan)

EIA: Ethane Production to Keep Growing

From an Article by Casey Junkins, Wheeling Intelligencer, April 3, 2016

Wheeling, WV –There may just be plenty of ethane for pipeline projects to keep pumping it out of the Marcellus and Utica shale regions, yet still supply the planned $5.7 billion PTT Global Chemical cracker complex in Belmont County, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.

On Friday, the administration announced U.S. ethane production should grow from 1.1 million barrels per day in 2015 to 1.4 million barrels daily in 2017, an increase of 300,000 barrels daily.

For the last five years, the amount of ethane produced has exceeded the capacity to consume or export it, according to the administration. This has left many producers to employ “ethane rejection,” which is an industry term for mixing the liquid with the the dry methane for marketing as natural gas.

Along with propane, butane, isobutane and pentanes, ethane is one of the liquid forms of natural gas prevalent in the Marcellus and Utica formations. Presently, companies operating in the region have three options for their ethane: Reject it for blending with methane, flare it off to eliminate it or place it in a pipeline for transportation for use elsewhere.

The administration projects U.S. ethane consumption will jump by 50,000 barrels per day this year – and then by another 80,000 barrels per day in 2017. There are six ethane crackers under construction in the U.S. that could process some of this once they are operational: the Sasol ethane cracker complex at Westlake, La.; the Occidental Chemical/Mexichem ethane cracker at Ingleside, Texas; the Formosa Plastics ethane cracker at Point Comfort, Texas; the Dow Chemical ethane cracker at Freeport, Texas; the Exxon Mobil Chemical ethane cracker at Baytown, Texas; and the Chevron Phillips Chemical ethane cracker at Baytown, Texas.

The competition for ethane derived in Ohio, West Virginia and Pennsylvania remains fierce. Officials with Thailand-based PTT are scheduled to make a final decision on whether to build their massive Belmont County plant by the end of the year, but a projected four-year construction period likely means the facility would not actually crack ethane until at least 2020.

Officials believe such a facility could spur the development of additional plants that would use the material from the cracker. Moreover, officials with Royal Dutch Shell continue working on a potential ethane cracker near Monaca, Pa., while some West Virginia officials still hope for the Odebrecht project in Wood County.

However, some producers are signing deals to send ethane out of the region for cracking aboard pipelines such as the Mariner East and Mariner West operations, the ATEX Express and the Utopia Pipeline. In fact, Sunoco Logistics and Kinder Morgan collectively plan to spend about $3.5 billion to move ethane elsewhere for processing.

Last month, the first ethane tanker departed Sunoco’s Marcus Hook Industrial Complex for its trans-Atlantic journey to deliver the product to an Ineos cracker in Norway. Up to 70,000 barrels of ethane per day now cross Pennsylvania via Sunoco’s Mariner East 1 pipeline on the journey to Marcus Hook. Sunoco is now working on the Mariner East 2 pipeline, which the company plans to have carry additional ethane, propane, butane and other natural gas liquids through Pennsylvania by next year. The company estimates the total cost of its Mariner East project at $3 billion.

Simultaneously, Kinder Morgan is working on the $500 million Utopia Pipeline, which would send the ethane from MarkWest’s Harrison County fractionator across Ohio to a connection with existing company infrastructure in Michigan.

Still another outlet for Marcellus and Utica ethane could be for electricity generation, as developers of the planned $615 million Moundsville Power facility have said they would burn ethane at their plant.

See also: www.FrackCheckWV.net

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Helen Slottje Wins Goldman Prize: $175,000

Central New York State: anti-fracking activist wins world’s largest environmental prize

From an Article by Scott Waldman, Albany Capital Report, April 28, 2014

ALBANY—The world’s largest environmental prize has been awarded to an Ithaca-based lawyer who has helped organize fracking bans in dozens of New York communities. For winning the Goldman Prize, the lawyer, Helen Slottje, will receive $175,000 award and an unprecedented level of international attention.

Slottje, a despised figure among gas industry officials, has helped enact fracking bans in 172 communities across New York in the last five years. Even if the state’s five-year moratorium on hydraulic hydrofracking were to be lifted tomorrow, Slottje’s work could cause a major issue for energy companies here.

In an interview, Slottje said she’ll use the prestige and money that comes with the award to raise global awareness of her campaign. “Fracking is a symptom of a much larger problem in our society, an oligarchy, a complete separation of people making decision and those whose lives they affect,” she said.

Slottje, 46, also plans to take the California bar exam, since anti-fracking activists have gained ground in that state, in preparation for taking on a greater role there. A ban this week in Beverly Hills clearly borrowed directly from Slottje’s work, even though she was not contacted for that case.

And she says she’ll put more of her legal work online so that communities can use her local control argument in their own legal battles.

Slottje waded into the fracking battle almost by accident. She and her husband David, with whom she does much of her work, were corporate lawyers when they moved from Boston to Ithaca. She attended a community meeting where activists described the risks of fracking and was so shocked by the images and by the proliferation of leases across New York that she turned it into a call to arms. She was soon traveling the state, to town halls and demonstrations, to volunteer her legal services.

Her opponents say she has turned community members against each other, and that she has encouraged outsiders to exercise influence on small towns across New York that need jobs and tax revenue. Slottje said she’s done the opposite, by giving communities more of a say than multi-billion dollar energy companies. ”We’re going to do whatever we think is going to help the voice of the people,” she said.

In June, the legality of all of the local fracking bans in New York will essentially be tested when two of the earliest ones are defended in the state’s highest court.

The two cases—one in Dryden, outside of Ithaca, and the other in Ostego County’s Middlefield—are now before the state Court of Appeals, the state’s highest court. Oral arguments have been scheduled for June and a decision could come later this year. The outcome of those cases will likely have significant implications for moratoriums enacted throughout New York because they deal with the right of towns to override state law. Oral arguments are scheduled for June and a decision is expected in the fall.

The fracking opposition in Dryden received funding from the Park Foundation, which has given millions to support anti-fracking efforts. Opponents dropped a prominent legal case for a ban in Binghamton after the newly elected mayor expressed his support for expansion of the energy industry, a shift from the former mayor, who welcomed a ban.

Gov. Andrew Cuomo has not indicated when or whether the state will lift the nearly six-year moratorium on high-volume hydraulic hydrofracking, or whether the state will even provide any indications on the matter before Election Day.