The Pennsylvania RGGI Veto Means More Greenhouse Gases

From an Article by the WKOK Staff, Harrisburg, PA, June 15, 2021

IMAGE — Pennsylvania’s GHG emissions alone are more than the total of the 9 original RGGI states in the northeast

HARRISBURG, Pa. (AP) — Republicans who control Pennsylvania’s Legislature are reprising a fight from last year, passing legislation Monday to require Gov. Tom Wolf to go through them if he wants to impose a price on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants. The bill passed 35-15 in the Senate, a veto-proof majority for a bill that Wolf’s office said he will veto. Six Democrats joined every Republican in voting for the measure, which has support from blue collar labor unions whose workers maintain power plants, build gas pipelines and mine coal. The bill still must go to the House.

Wolf, a Democrat, last year vetoed a similar bill to prevent him from unilaterally bringing Pennsylvania into the multi-state Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, Wolf’s top priority to fight climate change. The organization sets a price on carbon dioxide emissions that fossil fuel-fired power plants emit. Environmental advocacy organizations and companies with solar, wind and nuclear power interests support Wolf’s plan. Under the bill, legislative approval is required to join the consortium, after six months of public comment and four public hearings on the governor’s proposed legislation.

The sponsor, Sen. Joe Pittman, R-Indiana, said joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative will prematurely force coal-fired power plants in his district to close, throwing people out of work and drying up million of dollars in property taxes that fund schools there. He also warned that it will hurt waste-coal plants, which have been instrumental in cleaning up piles of waste coal that poison rivers with acidic runoff, and send demand for power to neighboring West Virginia and Ohio.

Imposing a price on carbon emissions would raise hundreds of millions of dollars annually for the state. The Wolf administration expects regulatory approval later this year, with carbon pricing to begin next year. With Wolf’s support on Monday, Democratic lawmakers unveiled legislation on how to spend the money, including grants to reduce carbon emissions, improve energy efficiency and aid communities hurt by plant closures.

Pennsylvania’s counties and municipal governments will see the lowest level of annual fee revenue they get from Marcellus Shale gas wells, as drilling slowed and prices sank during the pandemic, the Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission said Monday. Impact fee revenue from Marcellus Shale wells sank to $146 million from drilling activity in 2020, down $54 million from the year before, the commission said.

Lawmakers authorized the fee in 2012, pinning it to new wells and the price of natural gas. But the average price of natural gas in 2020 was $2.08 per million British thermal units, down from $2.63 in 2019. Pennsylvania also saw the fewest number of new wells drilled than in any year since the law was enacted, the commission said.

Most of the money, about $71.5 million, goes to county and municipal governments, while smaller amounts are earmarked for environmental improvement programs, roadway repairs and water and sewer infrastructure upgrades

Plastics are spreading in the environment and in the human body

From a Presentation by Charles Rolsky, American Chemical Society, August 18, 2020

Plastic pollution of land, water and air is a global problem. Even when plastic bags or water bottles break down to the point at which they are no longer an eyesore, tiny fragments can still contaminate the environment. Animals and humans can ingest the particles, with uncertain health consequences. Now, scientists report that they are among the first to examine micro- and nanoplastics in human organs and tissues.

The researchers will present their results today at the American Chemical Society (ACS) Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo. ACS is holding the meeting through Thursday. It features more than 6,000 presentations on a wide range of science topics.

“You can find plastics contaminating the environment at virtually every location on the globe, and in a few short decades, we’ve gone from seeing plastic as a wonderful benefit to considering it a threat,” says Charles Rolsky, who is presenting the work at the meeting. “There’s evidence that plastic is making its way into our bodies, but very few studies have looked for it there. And at this point, we don’t know whether this plastic is just a nuisance or whether it represents a human health hazard.”

Scientists define microplastics as plastic fragments less than 5 mm, or about 0.2 inches, in diameter. Nanoplastics are even smaller, with diameters less than 0.001 mm. Research in wildlife and animal models has linked micro- and nanoplastic exposure to infertility, inflammation and cancer, but health outcomes in people are currently unknown.

Previous studies have shown that plastics can pass through the human gastrointestinal tract, but Rolsky and Varun Kelkar, who is also presenting the research at the meeting, wondered if the tiny particles accumulate in human organs. Rolsky and Kelkar are graduate students in the lab of Rolf Halden, Ph.D., at Arizona State University.

To find out, the researchers collaborated with Diego Mastroeni, Ph.D., to obtain samples from a large repository of brain and body tissues that was established to study neurodegenerative diseases, such as Alzheimer’s. The 47 samples were taken from lungs, liver, spleen and kidneys –– four organs likely to be exposed to, filter or collect microplastics. The team developed a procedure to extract plastics from the samples and analyze them by μ-Raman spectrometry.

The researchers also created a computer program that converted information on plastic particle count into units of mass and surface area. They plan to share the tool online so that other researchers can report their results in a standardized manner. “This shared resource will help build a plastic exposure database so that we can compare exposures in organs and groups of people over time and geographic space,” Halden says.

The method allows the researchers to detect dozens of types of plastic components within human tissues, including polycarbonate (PC), polyethylene terephthalate (PET) and polyethylene (PE). When paired with a previously developed mass spectrometry assay, plastic contamination was detected in every sample. Bisphenol A (BPA), still used in many food containers despite health concerns, was found in all 47 human samples.

To the researchers’ knowledge, their study is the first to examine micro- and nanoplastic occurrence in human organs from individuals with a known history of environmental exposure. “The tissue donors provided detailed information on their lifestyle, diet and occupational exposures,” Halden says. “Because these donors have such well-defined histories, our study provides the first clues on potential micro- and nanoplastic exposure sources and routes.”

Should people be concerned about the high detection frequency of plastic components in human tissues? “We never want to be alarmist, but it is concerning that these non-biodegradable materials that are present everywhere can enter and accumulate in human tissues, and we don’t know the possible health effects,” Kelkar says. “Once we get a better idea of what’s in the tissues, we can conduct epidemiological studies to assess human health outcomes. That way, we can start to understand the potential health risks, if any.”

Reference: Presented at the American Chemical Society Fall 2020 Virtual Meeting & Expo, Aug. 17, 2020

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See also: Study finds pieces of plastic in every sample of popular seafood | KYR News, Lorena Steele, August 18, 2020

A recent Australian study found plastic in all samples of popularly consumed seafood. The study recently published in Environmental Science & Technology discussed how small pieces of plastic contribute to pollution all over the planet, including the sea, where these microplastics are eaten by marine creatures and then entered into human diets through seafood consumption, according to the study’s news release.

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See also: Microplastics are in the sea, the rain, and in the atmosphere | World Economic Forum, Sean Fleming, July 31, 2020

Microplastics have been found on the seabed and in Arctic sea ice. They are in rivers and lakes, on top of mountains, in desert sand dunes, and maybe even in the food chain. In 2019, researchers found fibres and microplastics on eight Spanish beaches that have special protection status under the EU Habitats Directive and Birds Directive.