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PROTESTING OIL AND GAS LINE DEVELOPMENT HARMS MENTAL HEALTH AND CREATES DISTRUST
IN GOVERNMENT: STUDY

PITTSBURGH — Engaging in public participation during permitting for oil and gas
pipelines often harms mental health and creates distrust in government,
according to a new study.



Numerous studies have examined physical health effects associated with living
near oil and gas pipelines, but there’s little research on the mental health
impacts associated with these projects.

The study, published in Energy Research & Social Science, was conducted through
surveys and interviews with more than 1,000 people living near proposed natural
gas pipelines in Virginia, West Virginia, Oregon and Pennsylvania. It documented
a long list of mental health symptoms associated with living near pipeline
routes, including anxiety, depression, Complex post-Traumatic Stress Disorder
(CPTSD) and suicidality.

“I live in Blacksburg, Virginia, which is one of the places the Mountain Valley
Pipeline goes through,” Shannon Bell, a professor of sociology at Virginia Tech
and lead author of the study, told Environmental Health News (EHN). “In
conversations with community members who are affected by the pipeline, it became
very clear there were some pretty significant traumas going on.”



By using screening tools to measure the severity of mental health symptoms, the
researchers also determined that the more people engaged with public
participation processes related to the pipelines, the worse their mental health
impacts were.

“Having a pipeline built through your land is incredibly stressful for many
people, but we were surprised to learn that the people who were the most engaged
in public participation processes related to the pipeline had significantly
greater mental health impacts than people who didn’t engage at all, regardless
of whether the pipeline was actually being constructed through their land,” Bell
said.

Karen Feridun, an activist who lives in eastern Pennsylvania, has fought two
pipeline projects, the PennEast and Commonwealth pipelines, both of which were
canceled following community resistance. She’s proud of those wins, but they
were difficult for her and the community.

“The PennEast fight went on for seven years,” Feridun told EHN. “People were so
dedicated. It was like they made fighting the pipeline their second full time
job. Many people expressed how stressed this made them feel, the pain of seeing
their property devalued and their beautiful community disrupted, and how
unending it all was. It was a lot to endure.” stories like that.”

Credit: Pipelines and power: Psychological distress, political alienation, and
the breakdown of environmental justice in government agencies' public
participation processes.

When the Commonwealth and PennEast pipelines were canceled, Feridun said, there
was a lot of relief. “The state of everybody’s mental health improved to the
extent that this was over and they could move on with their lives,” she said.
However, many of the Pennsylvanians involved in those fights were soon faced
with additional oil and gas-related projects in their communities, like fracking
wells or related infrastructure, pulling many of them right back into fight
mode.

“There’s this constant pressure and feeling of powerlessness that comes with not
knowing what’s about to happen,” Feridun said. “For some people it just starts
to feel like a never-ending nightmare.”

Bell’s study found that pipeline development and related public participation
processes were associated with a long list of physical symptoms including
insomnia, high blood pressure, heart problems, teeth grinding, headaches,
tremors, irregular heartbeat, shingles, heart problems, chest pain, strokes and
brain hemorrhages. At least one person said they were so physically sickened by
the stress they felt about the pipeline and the public participation process
that they had to move.

“The number of stress-activated health conditions people reported was quite
staggering,” Bell said. “It was devastating to read some of the things people
had gone through.”

Feridun shared a story about a community member who protested a FERC meeting and
had a stroke afterwards. “The family’s feeling was that the pressure she was
under contributed to her having a stroke at a very young age,” she said. “There
were lots of stories like that.”


PERFORMATIVE PUBLIC PARTICIPATION CREATES HARM

Bell researched the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), passed in 1969,
which heightened the public involvement requirements for federal agencies'
decision-making on actions that could significantly affect the environment.

She found previous research that suggested NEPA’s public participation
requirements are only intended to diffuse public outrage since government
agencies don’t have standardized ways to incorporate public input into
decision-making or permitting.

She also learned that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the
agency responsible for regulating pipelines, approved 99% of eminent domain
cases between 1999 and 2020, allowing pipelines to be built through privately
owned land despite widespread public opposition to many of these projects.


"MANY PEOPLE EXPRESSED HOW STRESSED THIS MADE THEM FEEL, THE PAIN OF SEEING
THEIR PROPERTY DEVALUED AND THEIR BEAUTIFUL COMMUNITY DISRUPTED, AND HOW
UNENDING IT ALL WAS. IT WAS A LOT TO ENDURE.” - KAREN FERIDUN, AN ACTIVIST WHO
LIVES IN EASTERN PENNSYLVANIA

Other researchers had highlighted the flaws in NEPA’s public participation
requirements and FERC’s apparent bias against landowners, but no one had
measured how participating in performative public participation processes
impacts residents’ mental health.

Bell and colleagues found that people who participated in these processes felt
their input was dismissed, that their concerns were not addressed and did not
have any impact on decision-making about the pipelines.These feelings created
disillusionment and distrust. The more people participated in public feedback
processes, the stronger their feelings of disillusionment were.

“Many people talked about feeling betrayed by their government,” Bell said. “A
number of our respondents stated that up until this point, they had believed
government agencies existed to protect residents. But after spending tremendous
amounts of time engaging in public input opportunities, many of our respondents
came to believe that these government agencies were actually just there to
facilitate the construction of pipelines.”

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission approved 99% of eminent domain cases
between 1999 and 2020.

Credit: Karen Feridun

“The PennEast fight went on for seven years. It was like they made fighting the
pipeline their second full time job," said Karen Feridun.

Credit: Tara Zrinksi

Feridun has seen this firsthand.

“In all my years fighting pipelines and fracking,” she said, “I’ve heard so many
people say: ‘I thought the government was here to protect me,’ and it comes as
this terrible blow to learn they’re actually representing someone else’s best
interest, not yours.”

Bell’s research focused on natural gas pipelines, but she said these findings
are relevant to any scenario where government agencies invite public
participation during the permitting process for industrial projects. For
example, permitting for fracking wells and petrochemical plants are often
contentious and generally overseen by state regulatory agencies that may invite
public input but also typically lack any ways to incorporate it into permitting
decisions.

“People aren’t stupid — they realize when their comments aren’t making a bit of
difference,” Bell said. “It’s incredibly disempowering when people spend hours
and days writing public comments and attending public meetings, just to be
ignored.”

“I don’t want to beat up on regulators because this is an institutional
problem,” she added, “but wasting people's time and energy by asking for public
input without providing a mechanism to act on most of their concerns not only
brings substantial harm to these individuals' mental and physical health, but it
also violates core aspects of environmental justice."

Feridun said that although she tells people joining pipeline fights that public
participation is “just theater and a box regulators have to check,” there are
important reasons to participate anyway.

The first is that pipeline route often travel through rural areas where impacted
landowners feel isolated and alone in their discomfort about the pipeline, and
joining with others who are in the same situation creates strong community bonds
and fosters empowerment. During the PennEast fight, for example, municipalities
all along the proposed pipeline route passed resolutions stating their
opposition to the pipeline. Those could be ignored by FERC, but they made it
clear in writing that many communities along the pipeline route were prepared to
fight the project in court if needed.

The second reason Feridun encourages people to participate in the permitting
process is that even if FERC won’t do anything with public comments, it’s
critical to put them in the public record so that a judge can consider them in
subsequent lawsuits, which can be a powerful tool in winning pipeline fights.

“That’s part of how we won against PennEast,” she said. “People put so many
comments on that docket, they were relentless … and gave lots of ammunition to
judges who might one day have to consider those lawsuits.”


NO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE WITHOUT REAL PUBLIC INPUT

Under guidance from the Biden presidential administration, federal and state
governmental agencies are working to improve environmental justice.

Many states, including Pennsylvania, are developing new environmental justice
plans that include additional community input related to permitting for
polluting industries, but Bell said few of these plans create ways for
environmental justice communities to influence permitting decisions (though
there are some indications that this is beginning to shift).

Traditionally, governmental environmental justice efforts in the U.S. tend to
focus on “distributive justice” — ensuring equity in the allocation of burdens
and benefits. But the principles of environmental justice also include
recognition justice, which entails valuing the perspectives of historically
marginalized groups; procedural justice, which involves providing these
communities with equitable access and opportunities to influence
decision-making; and reparative justice, which requires acknowledging past harms
against these communities and working to repair them.

Environmental justice communities can’t achieve procedural justice or
restorative justice until they’re actually empowered to decide whether new
pipelines or polluting facilities should be built in their neighborhoods,
according to Bell.

“Environmental justice is not possible if public participation is performative,”
Bell said. “If we’re serious about environmental justice, there need to be
consistent [ways] for public input to be incorporated into agencies'
decision-making processes. It needs to be possible for public input to actually
influence agency decisions."

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AMID LNG’S GULF COAST EXPANSION, COMMUNITY HOPES TO STAND IN ITS WAY

This 2-part series was co-produced by Environmental Health News and the
journalism non-profit Economic Hardship Reporting Project. See part 1 here.Este
ensayo también está disponible en español


CAMERON PARISH, La. — Late into the night, John Allaire watches the facility
next to his home shoot 300-foot flares from stacks.


He lives within eyesight of southwest Louisiana’s salty shores, where, for
decades, he’s witnessed nearly 200 feet of land between it and his property line
disappear into the sea. Two-thirds of the land was rebuilt to aid the oil and
gas industry’s LNG expansion. LNG — shorthand for liquified natural gas – is
natural gas that's cooled to liquid form for easier storage or transport; it
equates to 1/600th the volume of natural gas in a gaseous state. It’s used to
generate electricity, or fuel stove tops and home heaters, and in industrial
processes like manufacturing fertilizer.

In the U.S., at least 30 new LNG terminal facilities have been constructed or
proposed since 2016, according to the Oil and Gas Watch project. Louisiana and
Texas’ Gulf Coast, where five facilities are already operating, will host
roughly two-thirds of the new LNG terminals – meaning at least 22 Gulf Coast LNG
facilities are currently under construction, were recently approved to break
ground or are under further regulatory review.



Although the U.S. didn’t ship LNG until 2016, when a freight tanker left, a few
miles from where Cameron Parish’s LNG plants are today, last year the country
became the global leader in LNG production and export volume, leapfrogging
exporters like Qatar and Australia. The EIA’s most recent annual outlook
estimated that between the current year and 2050, U.S. LNG exports will increase
by 152%.

And it’s changed local economic estimates: last year, retired Louisiana State
University professor Loren Scott’s economic forecast last year predicted an
additional $36 billion in oil and gas industry spending will boost local
employment by 7% over just two years.

Allaire, 68, watches how saltwater collects where rainwater once fed the area’s
diminishing coastal wetlands. “We still come down here with the kids and set out
the fishing rods. It's not as nice as it used to be,” he told Environmental
Health News (EHN).

That intimacy with nature drew Allaire to the area when he purchased 311 acres
in 1998. An environmental engineer and 30-year oil and gas industry veteran, he
helped lead environmental assessments and manage clean-ups, and although
retired, he still works part-time as an environmental consultant with major
petroleum companies. With a lifetime of oil and gas industry expertise, he’s
watched the industry's footprint spread across Louisiana and the Gulf of
Mexico’s fragile shores and beyond. Now that the footprints are at the edge of
his backyard, Allaire is among a cohort of organizers, residents and fisher-folk
in the region mobilizing to stop LNG facility construction. For him, the
industry’s expansion usurps the right-or-wrong ethics he carried across his
consulting career. For anglers, oil and gas infrastructure has destroyed fishing
grounds and prevented smaller vessels from accessing the seafood-rich waters of
the Calcasieu River.

From the view of Allaire’s white pickup truck as he drives across his property
to the ocean’s shore, he points to where a new LNG facility will replace
marshlands. Commonwealth LNG intends to clear the land of trees and then
backfill the remaining low-lying field.


“You see what’s happening with the environment,” Allaire said. “When the facts
change, I got to change my mind about what we’re doing.”


COMMUNITY BANDS TOGETHER 

John Allaire, left, purchased 311 acres in Cameron Parish in 1998, and has
watched the oil and gas industry's footprint spread to his property.

Credit: John Allaire

During an Earth Day rally in April, community members gathered in the urban
center of Lake Charles to demand local oil and gas industries help deliver a
safer, healthier future for all. In between live acts by artists performing
south Louisiana’s quintessential zydeco musical style, speakers like James
Hiatt, a Calcasieu Parish native with ties to Cameron Parish and a Healthy Gulf
organizer, and RISE St. James organizer Sharon Lavigne, who’s fighting against
LNG development in rural Plaquemines Parish near the city of New Orleans, asked
the nearly 100 in attendance to imagine a day in which the skyline isn’t dotted
by oil and gas infrastructure.

Not long ago, it was hard to imagine an Earth Day rally in southwest Louisiana
at all. For decades, the area has been decorated with fossil fuel
infrastructure. Sunsets on some days are highlighted by the chemicals in the
air; at night, thousands of facilities’ lights dot the dark sky.

“It takes a lot of balls for people to start speaking up,” Shreyas Vasudevan, a
campaign researcher with the Louisiana Bucket Brigade, told EHN in the days
after the rally. In a region with its history and economy intertwined with oil
and gas production, “you can get a lot of social criticism – or ostracization,
as well – even threats to your life.”

Many are involved in local, regional and national advocacy groups, including the
Louisiana Bucket Brigade, Healthy Gulf, the Sierra Club, the Natural Resources
Defense Council, the Turtle Island Restoration Network, the Center for
Biological Diversity and the National Audubon Society.


“YOU SEE WHAT’S HAPPENING WITH THE ENVIRONMENT,” ALLAIRE SAID. “WHEN THE FACTS
CHANGE, I GOT TO CHANGE MY MIND ABOUT WHAT WE’RE DOING.” - JOHN ALLAIRE,
ENVIRONMENTAL ENGINEER AND 30-YEAR OIL AND GAS INDUSTRY VETERAN

But environmental organizers are fighting a multi-billion-dollar industry with
federal and state winds at its back. And LNG’s federal support is coupled with
existing state initiatives.

Under outgoing Louisiana Gov. John Bel Edwards — a term-limited Democrat — the
state pledged a goal of reaching net-zero greenhouse emissions by 2050. Natural
gas, which the LNG industry markets as a cleaner-burning alternative, is cited
as one of the state’s solutions. Louisiana is the only state that produces a
majority of its carbon emissions through fossil fuels refining industries, like
LNG, rather than energy production or transportation. Governor Edwards’ office
did not return EHN’s request for comment.

This accommodating attitude towards oil and gas industries has resulted in a
workforce that’s trained to work in LNG refining facilities across much of the
rural Gulf region, said Steven Miles, a lawyer at Baker Botts LLP and a fellow
at the Baker Institute’s Center on Energy Studies. Simultaneously,
anti-industrialization pushback is lacking. It’s good news for industries like
LNG.

“The bad news,” Miles added. “[LNG facilities] are all being jammed in the same
areas.”

One rallying cry for opponents is local health. The Environmental Integrity
Project found that LNG export terminals emit chemicals like carbon monoxide
–potentially deadly– and sulfur dioxide, of which the American Lung Association
says long-term exposure can lead to heart disease, cancer, and damage to
internal or female reproductive organs.

An analysis of emissions monitoring reports by the advocacy group the Louisiana
Bucket Brigade found that Venture Global’s existing Calcasieu Pass facility had
more than 2,000 permit violations.That includes exceeding the permit’s
authorized air emissions limit to release nitrogen oxides, carbon monoxide,
particulate matter and volatile organic compounds 286 out of its first 343 days
of operation.

The Marvel Crane, the first liquid natural gas carrier to transport natural gas
from the Southwest Louisiana LNG facility, transits a channel in Hackberry,
Louisiana, May 28, 2019.

Credit: Coast Guard News

Rather than amend its infrastructure to meet regulatory standards, Venture
Global is asking the state to raise its facility’s air emissions permit limits
to release an additional 833% of greenhouses gasses each year, according to the
Louisiana Bucket Brigade’s January report. If approved, permitted emissions
would rise to roughly 4.65 million tons, making the facility the state’s
fifth-largest emitter), according to a 2021 statewide greenhouse data inventory
compiled by Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy Studies.

“This is just one facility,” at a time when three more facilities have been
proposed in the region and state, Vasudevan said. Venture Global’s operational
LNG facility — also known as Calcasieu Pass — “is much smaller than the other
facility they’ve proposed.”

In an area that experienced 18 feet of storm surge during Hurricane Laura in
2020 — and just weeks later, struck by Hurricane Delta — Venture Global is
planning to build a second export terminal Known as “CP2,” it’s the largest of
the roughly two dozen proposed Gulf LNG export terminals, and a key focal point
for the region’s local organizing effort.

Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990
back,” Hiatt told EHN of locals’ nostalgia for a community before storms like
Rita in 2005 brought up to 15 feet of storm surge, only for Laura to repeat the
damage in 2020. Throughout that time, the parish’s population dipped from
roughly 10,000 to 5,000. “But the wolf knocking at the door is LNG. Folks in
Cameron think that's going to bring back community, bring back the schools,
bring back this time before we had all these storms — when Cameron was pretty
prosperous.”

“Clearly,” for the oil and gas industry, “the idea is to transform what was once
the center of commercial fishing in Louisiana to gas exports,” Cindy Robertson,
an environmental activist in southwest Louisiana, told EHN.

Helping fishers’ impacted by LNG is about “actual survival of this unique
culture,” Cooke said.

In a measure of organizers’ success, she pointed to a recent permit hearing for
Venture Global’s CP2 proposal. Regionally, it’s the only project that’s received
an environmental permit, but not its export permit, which remains under federal
review. At the meeting, some spoke on the company’s behalf. As an organizer, it
was a moment of clarity, Cooke explained. Venture Global officials “had
obviously done a lot of coaching and organizing and getting people together in
Cameron to speak out on their behalf,” Cooke said. “So, in a way, that was bad.
But in another way, it shows that we really had an impact.”

“It also shows that we have a lot to do,” Cooke added.

Environmental organizers like Alyssa Portaro describe a sense of fortitude among
activists — she and her husband to the region’s nearby town of Vinton near the
Texas-Louisiana border. Since the families’ relocation to their farm, Portaro
has worked with Cameron Parish fisher-folk.

“I’ve not witnessed ‘community’ anywhere like there is in Louisiana,” Portaro
told EHN. But a New Jersey native, she understands the toll environmental
pollution has on low-income communities. “This environment, it’s so at risk —
and it’s currently getting sacrificed to big industries.”

“People don’t know what we’d do without oil and gas. It comes at a big price,”
she added.

Southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish is one of the state’s most rural
localities. Marine economies were the area’s economic drivers until natural
disasters and LNG facilities began pushing locals out, commercial fishers claim.

Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News

Residents “don’t really want LNG as much as they want Cameron [Parish] from 1990
back,” James Hiatt , a Healthy Gulf organizer, told EHN. "But the wolf knocking
at the door is LNG."

Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News

For the most part, Cameron Parish’s life and economy has historically taken
place at sea. As new LNG facilities are operational or in planning locally,
locals claim the community they once knew is nearly unrecognizable.

Credit: Xander Peters for Environmental Health News


A DISAPPEARING PARISH 

The stakes are seemingly higher for a region like southwest Louisiana, which is
the epicenter of climate change impacts.

In nearly a century, the state has lost roughly 2,000 square miles of land to
coastal erosion. In part driving the state’s erosion crisis is the compounding
impacts of Mississippi River infrastructure and oil and gas industry activity,
such as dredging canals for shipping purposes, according to a March study
published in the journal Nature Sustainability. Louisiana’s Coastal Protection
and Restoration Authority said Cameron Parish could lose more land than other
coastal parishes over the next 50 years. A recent Climate Central report says
the parish will be underwater within that time frame.

On top of erosion and sea level rise impacts, in August, 2023, marshland across
southwest Louisiana’s Cameron Parish burned. The fires were among at least 600
across the Bayou State this year. Statewide, roughly 60,000 acres burned — a
more than six-fold increase of the state’s average acres burned per year in the
past decade alone.

But while the blaze avoided coastal Louisiana communities like Cameron Parish,
the fires represented a warning coming from a growing chorus of locals across
the region — one that’s echoes by the local commercial fishing population, who
claimed to have experienced unusually low yields during the same time, according
to a statement from a local environmental group. At the site of the Cameron
Parish fires are locations for two proposed LNG expansion projects.


"THE IDEA IS TO TRANSFORM WHAT WAS ONCE THE CENTER OF COMMERCIAL FISHING IN
LOUISIANA TO GAS EXPORTS.” - CINDY ROBERTSON, AN ENVIRONMENTAL ACTIVIST IN
SOUTHWEST LOUISIANA

It was an unusual occurrence for an area that’s more often itself underwater
this time of year due to a storm surge from powerful storms. For LNG expansion’s
local opposition, it was a red flag.

As the Louisiana Bucket Brigade has noted prior, the confluence of climate
change’s raising of sea levels and the construction of LNG export terminals —
some are proposed at the size of nearly 700 football fields — are wiping away
the marshland folks like Allaire watched wither. Among their fears is that the
future facilities won’t be able to withstand the power of another storm like
Laura and its storm surge, which wiped away entire communities in 2020.

Amidst these regional climate impacts, LNG infrastructure has shown potential to
exacerbate the accumulation of greenhouse gasses that cause global warming. For
the most part, LNG is made up of methane — a greenhouse gas that’s more than 80
times more potent than carbon dioxide in the atmosphere. Among the 22 current
LNG facility proposals, the advocacy group Sierra Club described a combined
climate pollution output that would roughly equal to that of about 440 coal
plants.

The climate impacts prompt some of the LNG industry’s uncertainty going forward.
It isn’t clear if Asian countries, key importers of U.S. LNG, will “embrace
these energy transition issues,” said David Dismuke, an energy consultant and
the former executive director of Louisiana State University’s Center for Energy
Studies. Likewise, European nations remain skeptical of embracing LNG as a
future staple fuel source.

“They really don't want to have to pull the trigger,” Dismukes added, referring
to Europe’s hesitation to commit more resources to exporting LNG from the
American market. “They don't want to go down that road.”

While there will be a tapering down of natural gas supply, Miles explained,
“we’re going to need natural gas for a long time,” as larger battery storage for
renewables is still unavailable.

“I'm not one of these futurists that can tell you where we're going to be, but I
just don't see everything being extreme,” Dismukes said. “I don't see what we've
already built getting stranded and going away, either.”

For now, LNG seems here to stay. From 2012 to 2022,U.S. natural gas demand — the
sum of both domestic consumption and gross exports — rose by a whopping 43%,
reported the U.S. Energy Information Administration, or EIA. Meanwhile, in oil
and gas hotbeds like Louisiana and Texas, natural gas demand grew by 116%.

Throughout 25 years, Allaire has witnessed southwest Louisiana’s land slowly
fade, in part driven by the same industrial spread regionally. Near where the
front door of his travel trailer sits underneath the aluminum awning, he points
to a chenier ridge located near the end of the property. It’s disappearing, he
said.

“See the sand washing over, in here?” Allaire says, as he points towards the
stretches of his property. “This pond used to go down for a half mile. This is
all that's left of it on this side.”

Read Part 1: LNG production comes with a price, Gulf Coast communities warn

Some funding for this reporting was also provided by the Wake Forest University
Environmental and Epistemic Justice Initiative.






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SENATOR WHITEHOUSE PUTS CLIMATE CHANGE ON BUDGET COMMITTEE’S AGENDA

For more than a decade, Senator Sheldon Whitehouse gave daily warnings about the
mounting threat of climate change. Now he has a powerful new perch.
20h


US BANKS' NUANCED STANCE ON FUNDING COAL PROJECTS WITH EMISSIONS ABATEMENT

Many U.S. banks continue to finance coal plants that adopt emissions abatement
technologies, despite a global trend towards divesting from coal.

Meg Duff reports for Capital & Main.



In short:


 * The U.S. has joined the Powering Past Coal Alliance, but with a caveat for
   plants implementing emissions abatement technologies.
 * Critics argue that carbon capture and storage (CCS), a favored abatement
   method, may not effectively reduce emissions and could extend the lifespan of
   coal plants.
 * Despite the increasing financial risk, four major U.S. banks have policies
   allowing funding for coal plants employing CCS, contrasting with global
   divestment trends.

Key quote:

"The big risk is that carbon capture and storage might be used as an excuse to
prolong the lives of coal plants that should be closed very soon now."

— Yann Louvel, policy analyst for Reclaim Finance

Why this matters:

The reliance on unproven carbon capture technology by major banks poses a
challenge to achieving climate goals, potentially undermining efforts to reduce
dependency on coal. In spite of abundant damning evidence attesting to the
negative planetary health impacts of every aspect of coal production; coal
mining, coal processing and coal burning continues to attract financing.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.ehn.org

21h


ENVIRONMENTAL HEALTH SCIENCES, IN COLLABORATION WITH ALTAVOZ LAB, WELCOME THEIR
2023-2024 ENVIRONMENTAL FELLOWS

Environmental Health Sciences, which publishes EHN.org, and ALTAVOZ LAB proudly
introduce Alejandra Martinez and Wendy Selene Pérez as the 2023-2024
Environmental Fellows.



For the past 9 months, the two journalists have investigated how fenceline
residents near the Houston Ship Channel are affected by pollution from the
massive petrochemical buildout in the region. This spring they’ll undertake an
innovative, on-the-ground outreach effort to ensure impacted communities have
access to their reporting and to foster dialogue around solutions.

Alejandra Martinez is The Texas Tribune’s Fort Worth-based environmental
reporter. She joined the Tribune in the fall of 2022. Alejandra was previously
an accountability reporter at KERA, where she began as a Report for America
corps member and then covered Dallas City Hall. Before that, she worked as an
associate producer at WLRN, South Florida’s public radio station. Alejandra
studied journalism at the University of Texas at Austin, and interned at KUT and
NPR’s Latino USA. She’s a native of the Aldine area of Harris County and speaks
fluent Spanish.

Wendy Selene Pérez is a freelance journalist with a two-decade career spanning
various media outlets in Mexico, Argentina, and the United States. Her work
focuses on social justice, victims of violence, government accountability,
transparency, and immigration. Wendy’s articles have been featured in El País,
Gatopardo, Proceso, The Baffler, Vice, and Al Día Dallas/The Dallas Morning
News. She has held positions such as bureau chief of CNN Mexico, editor of
Domingo magazine (El Universal), and multimedia editor of Clarin.com.
Previously, she served as the chief multimedia editor of the newspaper Mural
(Grupo Reforma).

Wendy holds a Master’s Degree in Journalism from Diario Clarín-Universidad de
San Andrés-Columbia University, with her thesis titled “La Tierra de las Fosas,”
a data-driven journalistic investigation. She has been honored with the National
Journalism Awards in Mexico (2019, 2022), the Walter Reuter German Journalism
Award (2020), the Breach-Valdez Human Rights Award (2022, 2023), the Texas APME
2021 News Spanish-Language award, the ICFJ’s COVID-19 reporting story contest,
and received an honorable mention in the Latin American Investigative Journalism
Award (COLPIN, 2022).

Perla Trevizo is a reporter for the ProPublica-Texas Tribune Investigative
Initiative. Trevizo is a Mexican-American reporter born in Ciudad Juárez and
raised across the border in El Paso, Texas, where she began her journalism
career. Trevizo spent more than 10 years covering immigration and border issues
in Tennessee and Arizona before joining the Houston Chronicle as an
environmental reporter. Her work has earned her national and state awards
including the Dori J. Maynard Award for Diversity in Journalism, French-American
Foundation Immigration Journalism Award, and a national Edward R. Murrow for a
story done in collaboration with Arizona Public Media. She was also honored as
the 2019 Arizona Journalist of the Year by the Arizona Newspaper Association

ALTAVOZ LAB is a mentorship organization designed to produce collaborative
projects to strengthen reporters at community outlets that serve Black,
Indigenous, immigrant and other communities of color in the U.S. with the goal
of publishing stories that will enable local audiences to participate fully in
democracy.

"We want to invest in journalists who tell stories not only about but for
marginalized communities in innovative ways, fostering collaborations between
local publications and Spanish-speaking outlets to deliver information where it
can have the greatest impact,” said Valeria Fernández, founder and executive
director of ALTAVOZ LAB which started in 2022." This collaboration between
Alejandra Martinez and Wendy Selene Pérez is a powerful example of what's
possible when we center our journalism on those most impacted by public
policies, striving to serve them."

The fellows will bolster community networks and bring information about the
health and environmental consequences of the expansion of petrochemical projects
in Texas to audiences who normally do not have access to such information. Their
work will be published in both English and Spanish

Support of the ALTAVOZ LAB environmental fellowship is a crucial component of
Environmental Health Sciences’ commitment to increasing access to environmental
health and justice reporting in Spanish through our EHN en Español initiative.

Stay tuned for our upcoming reporting projects.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.ehn.org

21h


BIDEN'S NEW BUDGET INCLUDES FUNDS FOR CLIMATE CHANGE INITIATIVES

President Joe Biden has proposed significant funding toward the United Nations
Green Climate Fund in his latest budget plan.


Timothy Cama reports for E&E News.



In short:

 * Biden's fiscal 2025 budget aims to fulfill a pledge to the United Nations by
   proposing $500 million for the Green Climate Fund, with gradual increases up
   to $1 billion by 2028.
 * The proposal includes making these funds mandatory to ensure they are
   shielded from political fluctuations, highlighting the administration's
   commitment to international climate finance.
 * The plan is part of the President’s Emergency Plan for Adaptation and
   Resilience, targeting over half a billion people in developing countries to
   adapt to climate change impacts.

Key quote:

"This funding will unlock private capital that will enhance energy security by
diversifying energy sources, help countries to reduce their emissions, enable
the most vulnerable to adapt to climate change, and strengthen the resilience of
their economies and critical infrastructure.”

— U.S. State Department

Why this matters:

President Biden's budgetary commitment underscores a significant U.S.
re-engagement with global climate finance, signaling a shift toward more
sustainable energy sources and resilience against climate change.

In 2021, Kartik Amaranth argued that methods of investing, lending, and risk
assessment must change to prioritize equity.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.eenews.net

21h


NEW ENGLAND BATTERED BY FOURTH STORM SINCE DECEMBER

An intense storm caused significant flooding along New England's coastline,
marking the fourth such event since December.


Ian Livingston reports for The Washington Post.



In short:


 * Coastal New Hampshire and southern Maine faced significant flooding due to
   high ocean surges, with areas like Hampton and Portland heavily impacted.
 * The storm caused widespread coastal flooding from Massachusetts to Georgia,
   with damage extending as far south as Charleston, S.C., and included heavy
   rains and snow in the interior Northeast.
 * This series of storms, intensified by climate change, heralds an increasing
   frequency of coastal flooding in the region.

Key fact:

The sea level has risen more than a foot in the Northeast United States since
1900 and is rising faster there than the global average.

Why this matters:

The repetitive and severe weather events in New England highlight the tangible
consequences of climate change, emphasizing the urgency for environmental
awareness and policy action to mitigate impacts on health, safety, and
infrastructure. Will our shared misery help to bring us together on climate
action?

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.ehn.org

21h


CANADA AND THE US TACKLE MINE POLLUTION WITH AN INTERNATIONAL STUDY

After years of advocacy by the Ktunaxa Nation, Canada and the U.S. have agreed
to an International Joint Commission inquiry into pollution from southeast
B.C.'s Elk Valley coal mines.

Ainslie Cruickshank reports for The Narwhal.



In short:


 * The inquiry aims to address contamination affecting the Elk and Kootenay
   rivers, with a focus on selenium's risk to aquatic life.
 * Efforts include forming a governance body and a two-year study to develop
   action plans and understand the pollution's impact.
 * Teck, the mining company, has invested over $1.4 billion in pollution
   mitigation, but selenium levels remain a concern.

Key quote:

“I am glad to see that the U.S. and Canada are finally taking their commitments
to Indigenous Peoples, the environment and the international Boundary Waters
Treaty seriously.”

— Gary Aitken Jr., vice chairman of the Kootenai Tribe of Idaho

Why this matters:

The initiative represents an important step toward addressing a century-long
pollution issue in southeast B.C., focusing on health outcomes and the
environment. Coal extraction and coal burning pollutes the planet and threatens
ecosystems in myriad insidious ways.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.ehn.org

21h


ELECTION OUTCOMES WON'T SHIFT CLIMATE GOALS, COP29 LEADER SAYS

At the upcoming UN climate summit, Cop29, the newly elected leaders around the
world will be expected to uphold the same stringent climate commitments as their
predecessors, emphasizing the universal urgency of addressing global warming.


Fiona Harvey reports for The Guardian.



In short:

 * Cop29, slated for November in Azerbaijan, comes after a pivotal election year
   globally, stressing the continuity of climate obligations regardless of
   political changes.
 * Mukhtar Babayev, the incoming president of Cop29, remains optimistic about
   maintaining progress on climate objectives, urging for global cooperation and
   commitment.
 * Amidst increasing global temperatures, the summit aims to keep the focus on
   the crucial 1.5C goal, highlighting the role of both public and private
   sectors in achieving a green transition.

Key quote:

“I don’t think that any election will change the policy of any countries to move
forward the consolidation of these issues [on the climate].”

— Mukhtar Babayev, incoming president of Cop29

Why this matters:

The insistence on holding newly elected governments to their climate commitments
reflects the global consensus on the imperative to combat climate change. This
stance, especially in a year marked by significant elections and potential
political shifts, emphasizes the continuous effort required to achieve and
sustain global environmental goals, directly impacting health outcomes by
mitigating the effects of climate change.

Be sure to check out EHN’s audio diaries from COP28: Part 1 and Part 2.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.theguardian.com

21h


Q&A WITH BARBARA SATTLER: CHAMPIONING THE FIGHT AGAINST CLIMATE CHANGE AS A
HEALTH CRISIS

Nurse Barbara Sattler pioneers a crucial shift in health care, addressing
climate change as an urgent medical crisis that demands innovative solutions.

Liza Gross reports for Inside Climate News.



In short:

 * Sattler emphasizes the critical need for health professionals to understand
   and communicate the health impacts of climate change effectively.
 * She uses simple analogies to explain complex issues, like comparing the
   earth's warming to the rapid heating of a car in the sun, to make the science
   accessible.
 * Sattler advocates for community resilience and stresses the importance of
   preparing health professionals to address the health risks associated with a
   changing climate.

Key quote:

“Go up just a couple of degrees, we start to feel crappy. One or two more
degrees after that we start to have physiological changes. If we stay at 104 for
a while, we’re in real trouble.”

— Dr. Barbara Sattler, founding member of the Alliance of Nurses for Healthy
Environments

Why this matters:

Understanding the intersection of climate change and health is essential for
mitigating its impacts on our well-being. Sattler's work illuminates how health
professionals can play a pivotal role in this effort, signaling the need for a
broader societal shift toward sustainability and resilience in the face of
ongoing environmental challenges.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on insideclimatenews.org

21h


EXPLORING THE POTENTIAL OF AZOLLA AS A FUTURE FOOD SOURCE

A versatile fern called azolla could revolutionize food production by offering a
sustainable source of nutrition and aiding in carbon capture, according to
recent research.

Matt Simon reports for Wired.



In short:


 * Azolla, a rapidly growing fern, holds potential as food, fertilizer, and
   biofuel, but requires further research to ensure it's safe and nutritious.
 * Carolina azolla, a specific species, has lower levels of polyphenols, making
   it a better candidate for human consumption after processing.
 * Beyond nutrition, azolla's ability to fix nitrogen and capture carbon could
   significantly benefit agriculture and the environment.

Key quote:

"I’m not out here saying everybody should go eat this stuff right away, but boy,
it’s got so much potential."

— Daniel Winstead, research technologist at Penn State.

Why this matters:

Azolla's rapid growth and environmental benefits could provide a crucial
alternative in times of food scarcity and play a role in sustainable
agriculture. In this 2017 essay, Robyn Alders and Richard Kock argue that it’s
time to rethink our food system and acknowledge our responsibilities to renewal
of resources and the rights of existence for all life forms on Earth.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.ehn.org

21h


NATIVE ACTIVIST HIGHLIGHTS TREATY OVERSIGHT IN PIPELINE TRIAL

In a recent trial about the Dakota Access Pipeline, a Native American activist
emphasizes the overlooked treaty rights amidst legal proceedings, as tensions
between tribal sovereignty and federal actions come to light.

Mary Steurer reports for the North Dakota Monitor.



In short:

 * Chase Iron Eyes, an attorney and Indigenous rights advocate, testified that
   the U.S. justice system fails to recognize treaty law, underlying the Dakota
   Access Pipeline protests.
 * The trial focuses on the federal government's handling of protests, with
   North Dakota alleging that federal actions intensified the situation, costing
   the state millions.
 * Key issues include the legitimacy of the land occupation based on an 1851
   treaty, with Iron Eyes advocating for the recognition of tribal sovereignty.

Key quote:

"We signed a treaty with the Americans and we didn’t forget. Some people act
like it’s ancient history, but we didn’t forget."

— Chase Iron Eyes, director of the Lakota People’s Law Project

Why this matters:

The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, whose reservation is downstream from the
pipeline's crossing under the Missouri River, argue that DAPL poses a grave
threat to their water supply, sacred lands, and treaty rights. The pipeline's
route, which was rerouted from upstream of Bismarck, North Dakota, to closer
proximity to the Standing Rock reservation, underscored for many a history of
imposing environmental risks on Indigenous and marginalized communities.

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on northdakotamonitor.com

21h


NUCLEAR ENERGY'S RESURGENCE IN US POLICY SPOTLIGHT

In Washington, a revitalized push for nuclear energy is gaining bipartisan
support, offering a fresh direction for an industry plagued by past setbacks.


James Bikales and Catherine Morehouse report for Politico.



In short:

 * New legislation and Biden administration policies are breathing life into the
   nuclear power sector, marking a significant shift toward embracing it as a
   key carbon-free energy source.
 * Billions of dollars are being funneled into advancing nuclear technology and
   domestic uranium production, indicating strong bipartisan agreement on its
   importance for America's energy future.
 * Regulatory changes aim to streamline the licensing process for advanced
   reactors, promising to expedite the development of cleaner, more efficient
   nuclear energy.

Key quote:

"There’s a feeling of optimism within the industry, that things are finally
lining up."

— Lesley Jantarasami, managing director of the energy program at the Bipartisan
Policy Center

Why this matters:

Advocates argue that nuclear energy can provide a reliable, steady supply of
electricity, unlike some renewable sources such as wind and solar, which are
intermittent and depend on weather conditions. This reliability makes nuclear a
potentially critical player in achieving a balanced, sustainable energy mix
capable of meeting global energy demands while significantly reducing carbon
emissions.

What a difference six years makes: “Far from the fire and fury of
headline-grabbing Trump dramas, the apparent slow death of nuclear power plays
on.”

Keep reading...Show less
Read the Full Article on www.politico.com



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