Energy Justice Network

Victory for Monitoring Toxic Incinerator Pollution!

Mike — Thu, 22 Jun 2023 20:34:36 +0000

Victory for Monitoring Toxic Incinerator Pollution! Mike Thu, 06/22/2023 - 16:34

Beyond Incineration: Best Waste Management Strategies for Montgomery County, Maryland

Mike — Thu, 11 Mar 2021 15:13:48 +0000

Beyond Incineration: Best Waste Management Strategies for Montgomery County, Maryland Mike Thu, 03/11/2021 - 10:13

What Planet of the Humans got Right, Wrong, and Missed

Mike — Sat, 09 May 2020 04:43:03 +0000

What Planet of the Humans got Right, Wrong, and Missed Mike Sat, 05/09/2020 - 00:43

Baltimore Passes Local Clean Air Act!

Admin — Wed, 28 Nov 2018 00:50:56 +0000

Baltimore Passes Local Clean Air Act! Admin Tue, 11/27/2018 - 19:50

Will New Hampshire Ratepayers be Forced to Pay More for Dirty Energy?

Admin — Tue, 04 Sep 2018 15:35:38 +0000

Will New Hampshire Ratepayers be Forced to Pay More for Dirty Energy? Admin Tue, 09/04/2018 - 11:35

Connecticut: Don't replace incineration with more burning!

Mike — Thu, 21 Dec 2017 19:45:15 +0000

Connecticut: Don't replace incineration with more burning! Mike Thu, 12/21/2017 - 14:45

Crayola: Burning Plastic Markers is NOT Recycling!

Mike — Mon, 28 Aug 2017 19:35:15 +0000

Crayola: Burning Plastic Markers is NOT Recycling! Mike Mon, 08/28/2017 - 15:35

Our first victory of 2017! Hazardous waste incinerator defeated in the heart of gasland.

Mike — Sat, 08 Apr 2017 18:41:32 +0000

Our first victory of 2017! Hazardous waste incinerator defeated in the heart of gasland.

On March 29th, 2017, a rural township in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania, passed a local clean air law based on one we drafted for them in June 2016. It may be the first in the country to contain a "citizen suit" provision, allowing any Township resident or taxpayer to sue to enforce the ordinance if the government isn't doing its job.

On January 10th, Tyler Corners LP nixed their plans for a hazardous waste incinerator in New Milford Township, Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania due in part to a "cold public reception."

In 2014, we helped defeat a related hazardous waste incinerator proposal by "Route 13 Bristol Partners LP" for Bristol Township, Bucks County, PA. Right after that, the same players started working to relocate in Susquehanna County, the heavily fracked rural community in northeastern Pennsylvania from where the Gasland film came. In this latest effort, they were joined by businessman Louis DeNaples, well known as a powerful organized crime figure in the region and owner of a landfill near Scranton.

The proposal only became known to the community in mid-2016, after two years of behind-the-scenes development work. Local residents connected with Energy Justice Network, and brought us in to speak in June 2016. We drafted and shared a Clean Air Ordinance that the township could use to set more protective standards than the state and federal minimums. Such ordinances have always scared away any potential polluters.

While the community is very divided over fracking and gas infrastructure issues, people came together in force to oppose this incinerator. We helped residents form the Susquehanna Clean Air Network (SCAN). SCAN members did massive outreach, and turned people out for local meetings and kept the pressure on.

We met with Township and County officials to move the Clean Air Ordinance forward. Unfortunately, the Township solicitor decided to hire a law firm that usually works for polluters, and an environmental consulting outfit that has always encouraged local governments to be less protective than we ask them to be in our local ordinances. The Township paid around $30,000 to their solicitor and these outfits to develop their own ordinance based on ours.

Despite mounting opposition, Tyler Corners filed pre-application documents with the state in late October, then asked the state to put those plans on hold two weeks later. On January 10, they announced that they're canceling the project -- just two days before the Township held a hearing and meeting on their proposed ordinance... and was poised to adopt it if not for extensive comments we wrote exposing how badly the Township's lawyers and consultants screwed it up.

After seeing our comments, the Township's attorneys decided not to adopt their ordinance in January and spent two months addressing comments and revising the ordinance -- mostly to address issues we raised.

The ordinance should still be a deterrent to any waste incinerator trying to locate in the Township. However, the Township weakened our proposal and introduced many loopholes, such as allowing many waste-burning industries to escape the ordinance altogether if they burn so-called "biomass" or get their waste redefined as a "fuel." While we do not recommend this as a model ordinance for other communities, the ordinance effort succeeded at stopping a hazardous waste incinerator while setting a precedent on local citizen suit provisions that can be used as a model elsewhere.

Tyler Corners has stated that they're not giving up, and that they'll be exploring other locations, perhaps in the same county. However, we find it hard to believe that they'd be foolish enough to try to build anywhere in a county that is mobilized to stop them... which will become true of any other county they may move to once they realize Susquehanna County will not welcome them.

See news coverage of this victory in the Scranton Times.

Don't try this at home... without our help.

We'd love to work with other communities to get protective local ordinances passed to stop proposed or potential polluters, or to even set stricter requirements for existing facilities where possible. Local action is where the people power is! Please be in touch if you'd like to work together on this approach in your community. Do not simply copy ordinances we've had passed elsewhere. Every community is different, so feel free to check out the resources we have on stopping polluters with local ordinances, but contact us to help develop a strategy that makes sense for your situation. Thanks!

Mike Sat, 04/08/2017 - 14:41

Pennsylvania College Students Tell Wolf: No New Pipelines, Green Jobs Now

Anonymous — Mon, 13 Mar 2017 17:53:41 +0000

Pennsylvania College Students Tell Wolf: No New Pipelines, Green Jobs Now

On Monday, students from 19 Pennsylvania colleges and universities delivered a statement to Governor Tom Wolf's Capitol office demanding no new natural gas pipelines and immediate investment in green jobs.

The students are attending Pennsylvania Student Power Spring Break near Harrisburg, an alternative spring break program for students working on social, economic, and environmental justice issues across the state.

The statement delivery at the governor's office was led by 23 year-old Ashley Funk, the lead plaintiff in Funk vs Wolf, a lawsuit against the governor by citizens alleging that Pennsylvania has failed to meet its obligation to act on climate change.

Ms. Funk, a Westmoreland County resident and environmental engineering student at Wellesly College and Olin College of Engineering said, "I grew up playing in a waste coal dump behind my house and in a community impacted by what the coal industry left behind. My science education has made me deeply concerned that Marcellus Shale drilling and pipelines to support it are going to lead us down the same dark path. We are here to tell Tom Wolf that our young minds can answer the question of what's next for clean energy and green jobs to bring economic opportunity to our communities. We don't want our livelihoods to continue to be disrupted by unsafe water and an unstable climate."

Funk, whose lawsuit is now under consideration of the PA Supreme Court, added, "If he doesn't agree, young people will take notice, and there will be political consequences."

Jeremy Griffin, a 20 year-old from Philadelphia, said, "I study environmental science at Kutztown University to become more respected in the field and I feel as if this is a great issue fornWolf.to show everyone in Pennsylvania that he understands the science behind climate change and will take action."

Currently, the final permitting and construction of five major controversial natural gas transmission pipelines meant to ship gas out of the state is underway. All five are seeking the use of "quick take" eminent domain to seize property from resistant landowners without compensation until after the project is finished. All five fall under Governor Wolf's jurisdiction for water and air permits and are meeting local opposition.

The Mariner East 2 pipeline would stretch from Washington County near Pittsburgh east to Philadelphia, where gas liquids already arriving via Mariner East 1 are loaded onto boats to be shipped to Norway for plastics manufacturing. PA DEP has issued water permits for waterbody crossings, but that has been appealed by environmental groups to the Environmental Hearing Board.

The Northern Access Pipeline would begin in McKean County and deliver gas to Canada and western New York. The New York Department of Environmental Protection has yet to issue final water and air permits, but PA DEP has issued theirs.

The Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline is proposed to run from Susquehanna County, where shale gas drilling is the most dense in the state, to Lancaster County, ultimately shipping gas to southern states and also to be exported from Lusby, Maryland to Japan via the Cove Point Liquefied Natural Gas Terminal. PA DEP has issued their water permit, but that has been appealed by environmental groups to the Environmental Hearing Board.

The Rover Pipeline would leave Washington County and stretch west through Ohio and into Michigan.

The Orion Upgrade of the existing Tennessee Pipeline in Pike and Wayne Counties is proposed to ship even more gas to the New York metropolitan area.

The spring break program is sponsored by Pennsylvania Student Power Network, Energy Justice Network, and Powershift Network with a grant by the Heinz Foundation.

Governor Wolf,

We are members of the Pennsylvania Student Power Network, a growing network of youth who are committed to fighting for social, economic, and environmental justice across the Commonwealth. We come from community colleges, state system universities, private colleges, and state related universities. This past week, 50 students from 19 different schools participated in an alternative spring break program to hone our skills and learn from each other about the many issues we face on our campuses and in our communities. The culmination of our experience is this statement we are delivering to you to support our peers working across Pennsylvania.

We Support Environmental Justice

As of 2017, Pennsylvania has drilled over 10,000 shale gas wells in just over ten years. In that time, the PA DEP has issued 284 determination letters notifying landowners that drilling or fracking activity has caused the contamination of their drinking water.

The glut of gas has driven a demand for new pipelines and the use of eminent domain to seize easements from resistant property owners. Hundreds of compressor stations have been built without using adequate emission reduction technologies, putting rural residents’ health at serious risk due to air pollution. Most importantly, mega natural gas power plants and the buildout of Philadelphia’s gas hub have been proposed and are under construction, against the will of local residents who don’t wish to live in the shadow of smoke stacks.

It’s time for Pennsylvania to make the transition to clean energy. We are calling for a commonwealth economy that hires workers into the implementation of solar, wind, geothermal, green construction standards. We call for zero waste goals for trash and recycling, and weatherizing homes and businesses. We call for direct investment in coalfield and shalefield communities to replace water supplies, retrain workers, and develop a resilient rural economy that doesn’t rely on dirty energy.

Most urgently, we demand an immediate stop to construction of new transmission pipelines to ship gas out of Pennsylvania including the Mariner East Pipeline, Atlantic Sunrise Pipeline, expansion of the Tennessee Pipeline, the Rover Pipeline, and Northern Access Pipeline. These projects are just another historic abuse by big industry of working families in Pennsylvania and of our environment.

Article 1 Section 27 of the Pennsylvania Constitution reads, “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.”

We are your constituents, and it is your responsibility to uphold the Constitution on our behalves. We remind you that it is in your power to permit or deny the building of pipelines in the commonwealth. Your decision on this matter will affect your political legacy, and determine whether you receive the support of students statewide in the upcoming election cycle.

As students who will inherit the world you leave behind, we demand no new pipelines!

Anonymous (not verified) Mon, 03/13/2017 - 13:53

Environmental Justice and Your Block

Admin — Thu, 29 Dec 2016 19:55:39 +0000

Environmental Justice and Your Block

I wanted to create a visualization that shows how income varies by block to facilitate community environmental justice organizing. In some neighborhoods there are major differences between blocks, and these differences are used by corporations to decide what blocks to target with toxic facilities.

So I recently finished a highly experimental layer that estimates median household income by block. This could be used as an Environmental Justice Index. It is comparable to the EPA's EJScreen's EJ index. Both are estimates, but this block income index has a higher geographical resolution, and may also be more accurate (as the block group data that they use has very large confidence intervals). In the US there are 6 million populated blocks and 200,000 block groups.

(Image of my West Philly neighborhood. The two blocks with the highest estimated income are likely correct.)

The Census Bureau does an annual survey, the American Community Survey, which is less accurate than the decennial census as it only samples 1% of the population. So for income data the best resolution you can get is the census tract -- or typically 4000 people. And for that resolution, due to the small sample, the 90% confidence interval is often very substantial - often plus or minus 20%. So most high resolution maps of median household income will use census tracts.

However, the Census collects race data from everyone and that is available at the census block resolution! Census blocks typically have 1 to 200 people.

So I created a visualization that combines the census tract income with the racial demographics of each block. I then apply a smoothing algorithm to it. So each block is influenced by the surrounding blocks.

The result is highly experimental. It should be seen as more of a visual tool than an estimation. It has error from the census tract income confidence interval, using the latest census block race data from 2010 (US population is up 5% since 2010), assumptions regarding the median household income by race, and the smoothing algorithm. However, I'm estimating that this is more accurate than other measures and that people will often want to visualize block by block differences.

How accurate does this look for your neighborhood?

Email Webmaster with your comments!

Admin Thu, 12/29/2016 - 14:55