Tag: letter

Letter supporting a full fracking ban to the Delaware River Basin Commission

Sign on to this Action Network letter here!

To: DRBC Commissioners –

You adopted a permanent ban on fracking throughout the Delaware River Watershed last year, a historic and righteous decision by the DRBC. The public has been clamoring since then for you to complete the job and prohibit the pollution and depletion caused by fracking taking place elsewhere by revising the pending fracking regulations and voting for a full ban.

This will protect both the Watershed’s communities – human and nonhuman – and its irreplaceable water supplies for up to 17 million people by prohibiting the fracking industry’s effort to dump its toxic and radioactive wastewater in the Basin and preventing their use of Delaware River water for water-intense, wasteful and destructive fracking processes. In 2018, the fracking industry produced 2.9 billion gallons of wastewater[1] in Pennsylvania alone, and the longer well bores being drilled since 2018 mean even higher volumes of both water use and resulting toxic wastewater.[2] The industry is searching for new places to exploit, which is why they are knocking on the Delaware River Basin’s door.

A full ban will also ensure that the DRBC’s regulations do not enable the industry to emit considerable greenhouse gasses by continuing to frack without restraint. DRBC must do its part to restrain the polluting fracking industry and the spewing of methane, the most powerful of greenhouse gasses on the all-important 10- and 20-year time scale.[3] In other words, we need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions today! And this is part of DRBC’s mission.

The climate crisis appears unrelenting as we face record-breaking heat waves, storms, fires, droughts and flooding, nationwide and globally. People are demanding an all-out offensive by leaders and all branches of government to fight climate change. To reach goals that scientists say we need – like 50% reduction of GHG by 2030 – decisive action at the regional and state level is more important than ever to move us away from polluting fossil fuels and towards clean renewables.

This is where you come in, Commissioners. The DRBC has recognized that climate change is directly affecting its water resources program.[4] Climate change impacts on the basin’s water resources include changes in precipitation and runoff that increase flooding and drought, impairment of habitats and water quality (including salt water intrusion to Delaware Estuary water supplies) and sea level rise.[5]

Reports covering the specific impacts of climate change on the Delaware River, Estuary and Bay back up this conclusion. A 2019 report from Rhodium Group ranks Salem and Cape May counties among the 3 NJ counties that are expected to experience the highest increase in average annual damage costs due to changes in sea level and hurricane activity since the 1980s.[6] A Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission report found that sea level rise would result in rising water levels in the Delaware Estuary, causing permanent change to the landscape and new flooding.[7] In an earlier DVRPC report, the study concluded that sea level rise over the next 100 years will inundate almost all of Pennsylvania’s 1,500 acres of tidal wetlands along the Delaware, the salt line in the Delaware River will migrate further upstream (threatening Philadelphia and South Jersey’s drinking water supplies), and pollutants in contaminated sites could be released into estuary waters.[8]

Will DRBC allow the fracking industry to take advantage of the Delaware River watershed to get rid of its polluting wastewater and deplete our water by fracking, all the while emitting climate-killing methane? Or will DRBC do the right thing by prohibiting this abuse?

Here in the Delaware River Watershed, our future hangs in the balance as you decide on final regulations regarding fracking wastewater and water operations in the Basin. We, the undersigned, ask you, the voting members of the DRBC, to revise the draft regulations to completely ban imports of fracking wastewater and exports of water for fracking, to protect the public, water supplies, the watershed’s ecosystems, and to help alleviate the climate crisis.

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[1] https://www.fractracker.org/2019/10/want-not-waste-not-fracking-wastewater/

[2] The supersized gas wells being drilled today in the Marcellus and Utica shale formations use 10-20 million gallons of water per well. According to FracFocus data, the average well in Pennsylvania’s Marcellus Shale used 11.4 million gallons in 2017, up from 4.3 million gallons reported by agencies in 2011. This means not only more water is needed to fracture the extended horizontal well bores but also means there are greater volumes of wastewater produced by these wells – between 1-1.5 million gallons of wastewater (for 10 M gallons of water used in fracking a well), increasing the volumes many times over the amount typically produced previously in Pennsylvania. FracTracker Alliance Issue Paper, “Potential Impacts of Unconventional Oil and Gas on the Delaware River Basin”, March 20, 2018. Main Author: Matt Kelso. https://www.delawareriverkeeper.org/sites/default/files/FT-WhitePaper-DRB-2018%20%28003%29.pdf

[3] Natural gas is primarily methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more efficient at warming the atmosphere than carbon over a 20-year time frame (Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC). 2013. Climate Change 2013: The Physical Science Basis. Contribution of Working Group I to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change) and its effects persist for hundreds of years (http://www.pnas.org/content/early/2017/01/03/1612066114.full) The well documented vented and fugitive losses from natural gas systems contribute to atmospheric warming; current technology and practices have not controlled these releases.

[4] https://www.nj.gov/drbc/library/documents/Res2019-08_EstablishesACCC.pdf

[5] https://www.epa.gov/climate-impacts/climate-impacts-water-resources

[6] RHODIUM GROUP, “NEW JERSEY’S RISING COASTAL RISK”, October 2019. p. 2 https://rhg.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/10/Rhodium_NJCoastalRisk_Oct2019final.pdf

[7] DVRPC, Coastal Effects of Climate Change in Southeastern PA, Introduction and Project Background, November 5, 2019. https://www.arcgis.com/apps/MapSeries/index.html?appid=8080c91a101d460a9a0246b90d4b4610

[8] DVRPC, “Sea Level Rise Impacts in the Delaware Estuary of Pennsylvania”, Product No.: 04037, 6/2004, Abstract. https://www.dvrpc.org/Products/04037/

Solutions for Pollution

An Open Letter to President Biden

As we kick off the Solutions for Pollution campaign, we call on President Biden to urge him to carry out his responsibilities under our nation’s bedrock environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, by advancing approximately 20 protections across federal agencies that could cut climate pollution in half by 2030, advance vital public health and environmental justice goals, accelerate the transition to clean energy, and create new economic opportunity.

Read the letter below and then sign on here.

To: President Joe Biden
From: [Your Name]

Dear President Biden:

​When you were campaigning for and then elected President, you laid out the most ambitious climate plan in American history, including a pledge to cut climate pollution in the United States in half by 2030 to take the urgent action on the climate crisis that science demands. You rightly committed to fighting environmental injustices and setting strong standards to protect our health and the environment.

To keep your climate promise and protect our health and our communities – especially those that have traditionally been overburdened with pollution – we need action NOW. That is why, together, we are launching the Solutions for Pollution campaign to urge you to carry out your responsibilities under our nation’s bedrock environmental laws, such as the Clean Air Act, by advancing approximately 20 protections across federal agencies that could cut climate pollution in half by 2030, advance vital public health and environmental justice goals, accelerate the transition to clean energy, and create new economic opportunity. We are calling on you to ensure that the Environmental Protection Agency, the Department of Energy, and other federal agencies set the strongest possible standards to clean up power plants, transportation, industrial sources, and other pollution–and that they move swiftly as the science demands.

While we have numerous priorities and perspectives, one thing we all agree on is that adopting strong solutions for pollution will protect our health and environment, advance environmental justice in traditionally overburdened communities, and accelerate the transition to clean energy like wind, solar, and other renewables to power America into the future.

Our communities desperately need clean air and a healthy climate. By implementing the Solutions for Pollution Action Plan, your administration will reduce the pollution driving climate change and aggravating chronic diseases like heart disease, asthma attacks, and other respiratory issues that disproportionately harm vulnerable populations, including traditionally overburdened communities, children, outdoor workers, and the elderly.

Time is running out. The longer we delay, the higher the cost of inaction is to Americans in lives, dollars, and harm to the environment. We need your administration to implement the Solutions for Pollution Action Plan now to ensure clean air, clean water, and healthy communities across the country. Climate can’t wait. Neither can we.

Respectfully,
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Coalition Letter Supporting 100% Renewable Energy

PA IPL has signed on to the below Coalition Letter calling on Pennsylvania officials to support a to transition to 100% renewable energy on the heels of the recent SCOTUS ruling in the WV v EPA Case:

On behalf of the organizations signed below, we are writing to ask you to do everything in your power to move Pennsylvania to 100% renewable energy.

On the heels of the recent U.S. Supreme Court decision in West Virginia v EPA severely limiting the EPA’s authority to regulate climate pollution from power plants, it’s more urgent than ever that states like Pennsylvania lead in the fight to rein in climate pollution, and achieve the solutions called for by the scientific community: move towards 100% renewable energy.

There is growing consensus in the scientific community that if we are to avoid the worst effects of climate change and leave a safer planet for our children and future generations, we must eliminate our emission of global warming pollution by 2050.

The stakes are incredibly high given the threat of more extreme weather events, the spread of exotic viruses and diseases, and health threats like increased cases of asthma and other respiratory ailments, and all the financial costs associated with addressing these challenges.

And the recent SCOTUS decision to hamstring the authority of the EPA only makes the need for state action more urgent.

The good news is that we have the tools at our fingertips to achieve these goals and solve the climate crisis. Multiple studies have laid out paths for Pennsylvania to achieve 100% renewable energy by 2050, and to date, at least ten states have passed laws requiring that their own states achieve this goal.Setting a 100% requirement will ensure that the Commonwealth is doing its part to fight climate change and set a strong example for other states across the nation. Given the new hurdles put in place for federal solutions, leadership from states like Pennsylvania will be more crucial than ever.

So, I hope you will join us advocating aggressively for climate solutions in the wake of the U.S. Supreme Court’s decision, and support efforts to transition Pennsylvania to 100% renewable energy by 2050.

Thank you in advance for your consideration and support.

Fracking Ban in Allegheny County Parks

June 16, 2022

As an Allegheny County resident, past Sustainability Manager with Allegheny County, Chairperson of the Mt. Lebanon Environmental Team and, particularly, as Development Associate with Pennsylvania Interfaith Power & Light (PA IPL), I am writing to request that you vote yes in support of the bill proposed by Councilpersons Olivia Bennett, Jack Betkowski, Bethany Hallam, Michelle Naccarati Chapkis, and Anita Prizio to protect Allegheny County’s parks from new fracking and industrial development, Bill No. 12162-22.

I was born in Allegheny County in 1960, and have seen significant changes in air & water quality over my lifetime. When I fished in the North Park Lake and the Allegheny River with my father in the 1960s, we caught fish that had tumors in their bodies & ulcers on their skin, and we caught frogs & salamanders that had more than four legs and two tails. As a science teacher, my father explained that these conditions were caused by air & water pollution. He enforced a strict catch and release policy for fish because he did not want his family to ingest pollutants that were concentrated in the fish’s bodies.

Then, we witnessed air & water quality and riparian health improvement after the passage of the Clean Air & Clean Water Acts in the 1960s & 1970s. The improvement went so far as to draw sport fish back to Pittsburgh, permitting sport fishing tournaments, such as the Bassmaster Classic, at Point State Park in 2005, and others.

After living out of state for 15 years, I returned in 1998 to raise my family the way that I had been raised, with a strong connection to our beautiful environment in SW PA. We recreated in Allegheny County and other parks & recreational areas for twenty-four years. My children have grown up and moved away, but, now that my husband and I are empty nesters, we still visit North Park, South Park, and Settler’s Cabin Park to listen to music, hike, bike, walk our dog, and kayak. Please vote yes to protect our parks for people of all ages and interests.  

Our Allegheny County parks are our treasures, connected by beltways similar to the Boston Emerald Necklace of parks. We know that unconventional shale gas drilling, or fracking, has been linked to dangerous airborne radiation, toxic air pollution (like benzene), and harmful water pollution. Let’s continue the improvement of air & water quality. Let’s not go backwards. Let’s protect all of our green spaces in order to improve human & environmental health, by not permitting unconventional shale gas drilling, and other forms of industry, in our parks and recreational areas. Please vote yes to protect ourselves and other plant & animal species.

Many of our Allegheny County Councilpersons and employees are people of faith. PA IPL is a nonprofit, nonpartisan organization that inspires and mobilizes people of faith to take bold and just action on climate change. As Development Associate with PA IPL, I urge you to reach inside your hearts. Please vote yes to protect our parks as your faith dictates.

Respectfully Submitted,

Kathleen A. Hrabovsky
Development Associate
PA Interfaith Power & Light

Support for Bill No. 12162-22

Ban Fracking from Allegheny County Public Lands

June 9, 2022

PA IPL would like to share Dr. Patricia DeMarco’s letter in support of Bill No. 12162-22, to ban from Allegheny County public lands all slick-water hydraulic fracturing (fracking) operations and other industrial activities noted in the proposal.

Dr. DeMarco, a PA IPL board member, is the Vice President of the Forest Hills Borough Council. She advocates for this ban on fracking on behalf of the citizens of the Borough of Forest Hills, and for the children present and future who have no voice in these matters.

You can read Dr. DeMarco’s full letter here.

Additionally, you can find Dr. DeMarco’s Appendix A. Fracking Exemptions from Federal Laws here.

Reconciliation Package Must include Strong Manufacturing Measures

Great news! Pennsylvania Interfaith Power and Light has joined other organization across the state for a sign on regarding the passing of a bold reconciliation package that will help rebuild our manufacturing sector in ways that will deeply reduce emissions while building domestic supply chains and creating and protecting good union jobs for workers and disadvantaged communities.

Serious action is required to address climate change and strengthen the U.S. economy for all. The following provisions must be included in any negotiations around budget reconciliation as well as future climate infrastructure packages to ensure that the Appalachian region can create a thriving manufacturing renaissance in the region.  We deserve it.

Appalachia can and should be a leader in the global economic race to modernize domestic manufacturing.

Several provisions key to building this future include:

  • Key investments to reduce climate pollution in emissions-intensive industries—such as cement, steel, and aluminum. We can reduce these emissions at scale by funding industrial efficiency measures and emissions reduction technology as well as broader supply chain programs.
  • Spurring domestic clean technology manufacturing through measures such as $25 billion in funding for 48C together along with new supply chain production tax credits that expand clean energy and technology manufacturing and onshore key supply chains.
  • Strong funding to strengthen the domestic automotive supply chain, protect workers and communities, and build the electric vehicle (EV) fleet of the future in Appalachia. This includes new funding for the Advanced Technology Vehicles Manufacturing (ATVM) loan program and manufacturing conversion grants—together enabling over $20B in investments to retool automotive manufacturing to build the EV technology of the future in existing plants and communities.
  • Support Manufacturing Supply Chains and Manufacturing-Centered Economic Development. In addition to investments that support clean technology manufacturing expansion and retooling directly, it is also critical to ensure that we expand and fund the broader programs that provide the economic, technical, and workforce infrastructure and support to strengthen advanced manufacturing ecosystems and communities.
  • Ensure that clean energy deployment tax credits include labor and domestic content standards and support the retention and growth of domestic manufacturing and high-quality jobs.

These provisions would make a historic investment in the expansion and retooling of domestic clean energy, vehicle and component manufacturing, the transformation of our industrial sector to reduce emissions and enhance competitiveness, as well as the necessary efforts to build out robust supply chains for critical clean technologies—all while building family sustaining careers and investing in the communities that need it most.

Any reconciliation package should advance a sustainable economic vision for a 21st century Appalachia—one that is good for working people, communities, the environment and our health. Our communities have many assets, but a sustainable economic future can’t be achieved without significant public investment, strong policies, and responsible economic development approaches designed to maximize the benefit to the community as a whole.

You can read more and sign on here.

UPDATE ON JUNE 6, 2022:

You can see the final letter here.