Familiar sign in Penna. state forests, unfortunately

Letter of Protest by Ron Evans to Olean Times Herald, August 29, 2020

When Andrew Jackson disagreed with a decision of the Supreme Court’s Chief Justice, he reportedly said, “John Marshall has made his decision. Now let him enforce it.”

All three branches of Commonwealth government are saying the equivalent regarding a ruling the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made in June 2017. The court ruled in favor of the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation (PEDF), which sued the governor for not executing the environmental amendment to the Pennsylvania Constitution.

The amendment states: “The people have a right to clean air, pure water, and to the preservation of the natural, scenic, historic and esthetic values of the environment. Pennsylvania’s public natural resources are the common property of all the people, including generations yet to come. As trustee of these resources, the Commonwealth shall conserve and maintain them for the benefit of all the people.”

PEDF’s lawsuit specifically contended that the governor and legislature were ignoring the amendment in the management of state parks and forests. The state Supreme Court’s decision in PEDF’s case clearly stated that the amendment means state lands and resources are owned by the citizens of the Commonwealth in the form of a public trust. In addition, the trust includes any money gained from the sale of the resources.

The court ruled that the role of government at all levels is to act as a trustee of the public trust, not as proprietors, by conserving and maintaining public lands and resources.

Since the ruling, all three branches of state government have ignored the court. The governor, legislature and the Department of Conservation and Natural Resources (DCNR), the agency charged with conserving and maintain state parks and forests, abdicated their responsibilities as trustees, especially with the rush to drill for natural gas in the Marcellus Shale region of the state.

The governor and legislature have not permanently banned additional drilling on public lands, even though DCNR has stated that any additional drilling will endanger fragile ecologies. In fact, DCNR, in its most recent plan for state forests, determined that oil and gas extraction are legitimate uses of lands owned by the citizens. This is not “conserving and maintaining” public natural resources.

The Pennsylvania Supreme Court, in its ruling, deemed the Oil and Gas Lease Fund can be used only to maintain and conserve public natural resources. Starting with the Rendell administration, approximately $1.2 billion has been taken out of the public trust and diverted to the general fund. Gov. Wolfe and the legislature continue to ignore the court decision by diverting $61 million from the Oil and Gas Lease Fund to the general fund for the 2020-21 budget.

Consequently, PEDF filed another lawsuit specific to the diversion of Oil and Gas Lease Fund money. After a two-year wait, Commonwealth Court has ignored the decision of the state Supreme Court by ruling that some of the Oil and Gas Lease Fund can be used to fund the operation of state departments and agencies. Now all three branches of state government are complicit in ignoring the state Supreme Court decision in the PEDF case.

PEDF’s appeal of the Commonwealth Court’s decision is under review by the Supreme Court.

In 1971, the legislature passed, the governor signed and the citizens ratified a visionary amendment to the Commonwealth’s Constitution. For almost 50 years, state government largely ignored its responsibility to conserve and maintain public lands and resources. In 2017 the Pennsylvania Supreme Court made an unambiguous ruling mandating that government fulfill its trustee responsibilities. However, all three branches continue to ignore the ruling.

As citizens who own the public trust, we cannot allow this undemocratic challenge to a state Supreme Court decision to persist.

>>> Ron Evans is president of the Pennsylvania Environmental Defense Foundation. For more information on PEDF’s legal actions, go to pedf.org or https://www.pedf.org/

Ethics and Extreme Extraction: Local Reflections on Global Issues

By S. Tom Bond, Retired Chemistry Professor & Resident Farmer, Lewis County, WV

Ethics is an increasing issue in unconventional resource extraction.  Taken individually, the issues which have been heard from the beginning have had an ethical component.  The complaints include destruction of aquifers, air pollution, reduction of property values, costs deferred to the public including roads, record room crowding, traffic (including emergency vehicles) held up, mud slides and so on.

These have largely been thought of as individual matters and as a loss to individuals.  They have been shrugged off by business and government, and largely ignored by the general public which feels little involvement and powerless to stop the well funded extraction companies, supported by endless public relations ploys and advertising.

As understanding diffuses (slowly) to the public at large,  and more and more people come to know someone involved, the unifying theme of ethics becomes stronger.  People are not without empathy.

Another slowly dawning awareness was discussed by Professor Garrett Hardin in an article published in Science, the Journal of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, all the way back in 1968.  This article is well worth the readers time if not familiar with the phrase “tragedy of the commons.” It is the perception that in reality much of the physical world belongs to all of us.  All of us in the present, and all who follow.  Life is short, and while we live and die in the present, we are bound, for our descendant’s sake, to plan for the extended future as far as we can see it.   It is gross incompetence in the use of our minds to ignore that responsibility.  It is ethical bankruptcy.  It is properly the stuff of ethics and religion.  It is a threat to civilization.

Not only has the fossil fuel industry continued trading human lives for profit, but, since it is difficult to convince free people to poison their own water sources or blow up their own backyards, it has increasingly killed democracy in order to keep killing people for profit. is part of of an article titled, ” The Church Should Lead, Not Follow on Climate Justice.”  The author spoke at a conference at Harvard Divinity School, “Spiritual and Sustainable: Religion Responds to Climate Change.” And, in June he will join many global thinkers at a process theology conference on climate change in Claremont, California.  Although his emphasis is on climate change brought about in considerable part by burning fossil fuels, much of the argument applies to other aspects of extreme extraction.

This is once religion and science stand shoulder to shoulder. Science takes time, but is coming. Three quarters of the available studies on the impacts of shale gas development were published in the two years 2013 and 2014. The number of peer reviewed studies doubled between 2011 and 2012 and then doubled again between 2012 and 2013 while in 2014 there were at least 154 peer reviewed studies, according to Brian Davey in an unfavorable book review of a poorly written book.

Global warming is well established and there are thousands, perhaps tens of thousands of scientists working on it.  The various kinds of contamination from mountaintop removal and fracking are being studied also, and doubtless they will be attacked by the greedy in the same way as climate change.  But public knowledge is growing.  Private knowledge, I will call it, of the victims, has always been around. And the public has growing understand of these processes.

One of the older groups, headquartered in San Francisco, has this to say: “The Regeneration Project is an interfaith ministry devoted to deepening the connection between ecology and faith. Our goal is to help people of faith recognize and fulfill their responsibility for the stewardship of creation. We do this through educational programs for clergy and congregations that achieve tangible environmental results and impact public policy.  [We are] committed to a process of personal, institutional, and societal transformation starting at the grassroots level. We believe that addressing environmental concerns from a faith perspective merits our attention because the moral authority that religion carries is the necessary ingredient for wide social and political change.

A very active offshoot of this group is Interfaith Power and Light.  They provide Faith-based resources, such as Earthkeeping, including congregational resources and green sermons; information on climate change science and climate change policy.  They also provide tools to calculate home and congregational carbon footprints and examples of energy efficient improvements.  A database of State incentives for renewables and efficiency is made available.

Interfaith Power and Light is trying to develop awareness of the situation among a wide variety of congregations, many different churches are involved.  The Ohio Interfaith Power and Light is located in Columbus. A page containing their activities this month is located here.

The Presbyterians have the Stewardship of Creation Ministry Team in West Virginia. An affinity group of the Presbytery Mission Committee, the members of the team share concerns for caring for God’s creation. Team members serve the presbytery as educators, motivators, and facilitators of action to protect God’s Creation. They provide a specific “theological foundation” here, and provide specific steps for the congregation to protect the environment.

Another important movement is sponsored by the Appalachian Preservation Project, LLC.  Their philosophy statement includes “As a social enterprise, we apply commercial strategies that are intended to maximize improvements for people and the environment.”

It publishes two blogs, the Appalachian Chronicle and The Barrick Report.  The first provides news on land and water problems, how government and industry affect the ecology, public health and safety of the people of Appalachia, and suggests places people can get help.  The Barrick Report focuses on analysis and reports on emergency management and community preparedness.  This provides insight on local, regional, state and national efforts at disaster preparedness.

Appalachian Preservation Project recently held the Earth Day week conference, “Preserving Sacred Appalachia: Gathering, Acting, and Speaking in Unity.” It was held April 20th and 21st at the St. John’s XXIII Pastoral Center in Charleston, WV.  This conference was sponsored by St. Luke’s UMC in Hickory, N.C.  Partners included the Sierra Club – West Virginia chapter and West Virginia Interfaith Power & Light.

Also, there is comic relief if you look for it hard enough.  At least one such article results from philosophers splitting the same hair too many times, and several that one can smell the oil and gas or coal dust on the money that paid for the article. The industry has plenty of money to pay for many such excursions, of course. The energy industry receives half a trillion dollars in subsidies, world wide.  According to a graph in this article, roughly 70% of the half a trillion is for oil and gas.

This may be considered a payment to destabilize climate, if you think about it. It certainly encourages the use of gasoline and natural gas, to say nothing more about coal!

Interstate Pipeline Activities in WV & VA — Meetings & Other Information

From Elise Keaton, Greenbrier River Watershed Association, March 27, 2015

Mountain Valley Pipeline has announced two open houses to address the concerns of citizens along their proposed alternative routes:

Monday, April 6 (5:30-7:30 pm) Union Church of God Fellowship Center, Bud Ridge Road, Union, WV 24983.

Tuesday, April 7 (5:30-7:30 pm) Craig County High School Gymnasium, 25239 Craig’s Creek Road, New Castle, VA 24127

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The Forest Service has re-opened the comment period so people can submit comments about the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s revised application to conduct pipeline surveys in the Jefferson National Forest.

Comment deadline is April 2!

Click here to Comment Online

For more information about the proposal and how to send individual e-mails and letters click here.

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In the News

Area residents speak for, against pipelines at FERC meeting

Bridgeport, WV – Area residents both for and against the proposed 42-inch, 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline shared their thoughts with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) during a scoping meeting at Bridgeport High School’s auditorium Tuesday.

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Upcoming Meetings and Events –  www.mareproject.org

Saturday, March 28 at 1 pm- Community and information meeting at the Buckhannon American Legion 16 S Kanawha St, Buckhannon,WV 26201 (Upshur County) with presentations by the Greenbrier River Watershed Association and Lawyers with Appalachian Mountain Advocates.

Tuesday, March 31 at 6:00 pm – Preserve Monroe Meeting at the Library in Union, WV (Monroe County).

Friday and Saturday, April 3-4 – Join us in Rock Camp, WV (Monroe County) for ” FRACK-tose Intolerant Festival” as we use music and art to fight the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the Atlantic Coast Pipeline, and fracking in the Virginias! This event is FREE to attend, though there is a $10 per person CAMPING FEE for those wishing to camp out on Pinky’s Farm! (Must be 18+ or accompanied by a PARENT/LEGAL GUARDIAN to camp).

Thursday, April 9 at 5:30 pm – Greenbrier County Board of Health public health and safety information gathering forum at Western Greenbrier Middle School (Greenbrier County).

Saturday, April 11 at 10am-4pm – WV-VA Water Quality Monitoring Program at the Linwood Community Library in Slaty Fork, WV (Pocahontas County). Please pre-register for this event by contacting the Eastern Shale Gas Monitoring Coordinator Jake Lemon at 814-779-3965 or jlemon@tu.org by Tuesday April 7.

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If you appreciate the work we are doing, please consider a donation today!

Elise Keaton, elise@greenbrier.org

Greenbrier River Watershed Association, 120 W. Washington Street, Suite #4, Lewisburg, WV 24901

‘Liberated Carbon, It’ll Turn Your Night to Day’

Op-Ed by Andrew Revkin, New York Times, August 16, 2013

Via Climate Nexus and Daniel M.N. Turner, here’s video of my performance of “Liberated Carbon,” my short musical history of humanity’s love affair with fossil fuels, at the ScienceOnline Climate conference in Washington, D.C., yesterday.

Video of my full talk, “Is the Internet Good for the Climate,” is now online. I think you’ll find value in the full suite of sessions (the meeting continues through today). The best way to track the flow is by following the #ScioClimate tag on Twitter.

This morning saw a particularly fascinating discussion of “Credibility, Trust, Goodwill, and Persuasion” (video link) involving Dan Kahan, the Yale scholar focused on the cultural filters that shape people’s responses to scientific findings, the Pennsylvania State University climatologist Michael E. Mann, and Thomas Armstrong, the director of national coordination for the U.S. Global Change Research Program.

For those who missed earlier posts about my carbon song, here are the annotated lyrics:

It took a thousand generations for our species to rise.
But gathering and hunting was no way to get by.
We yearned to burn more than dung and sticks.
Then someone [1] came along and said, “Hey, try lighting this.”
He opened up the ground and showed us coal and oil.
He said, “Come liberate some carbon. It’ll make your blood boil.”

Liberated carbon, it’ll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon it’ll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it’ll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it’s the American way.

Now I got peat swamp fossils running my TV.
BP’s black label burns in my S.U.V.
We can light up the planet like a Christmas tree.
They say that things are getting hot but, hey, we’ve got A.C.

Liberated carbon, it’ll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon it’ll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it’ll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it’s the American way.

Pump those electrons and that gasoline.
No sweat or hurry, just turn on a machine.
We sent an army to the desert to keep this country free,
And to liberate some carbon, baby, for you and me…

Liberated carbon it’ll spin your wheels.
Liberated carbon, it’ll nuke your meals.
Liberated carbon, it’ll turn your night to day.
Come on and liberate some carbon, babe, it’s the American way.

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1 ) When I first wrote the tune, I used “Satan” here. I explained my decision to change it to “someone” in a recent interview with Curtis Brainard at Columbia Journalism Review.

Here’s the full “music video”:  Here.

And here’s a link to some of my other songs on YouTube.

Photo:  Andrew Revkin and legendary Pete Seeger.