An Open Letter to Allegheny County Executive Rich Fitzgerald — It’s Time For a Green New Deal
As a physicist and mathematician (M.S. in both!) that has been studying social ecology for some time, I am greatly concerned about the growing threat of climate change and other ecological crises, and the lack of urgent action by elected officials. We need to be drastically cutting carbon emissions and transitioning rapidly toward renewable energy and green industry, yet many elected officials including County Executive Rich Fitzgerald have in the past given support to oil and gas. This cannot continue; we need a Green New Deal more than ever, and officials like Fitzgerald need to listen to scientists before it is too late. As such I signed on to the following open letter circulated by local activist and physicist Maren Cooke; I include the text of the letter below verbatim to promote wider circulation.
Pennsylvania and adjacent states have long been a sacrifice zone for fossil energy extraction — oil, coal, and natural gas — and now we are being asked, with your backing, to sacrifice our health and environment for the production of plastics, as well. Where will this end?
You have stated that “We believe in science around here.” However, while claiming to be climate-aware, you have done little to address the climate crisis, and you’ve been a longtime cheerleader for fracking and petrochemical development in our region. The science is mounting to demonstrate how damaging these industries are to human health, local economies, and the climate. With the industry spreading through our region, the time is right to change your stance.
Now that the science is clear — details below — we ask that you issue a statement withdrawing your support for the fracking and petrochemical industries; that you endorse the new PA bills HB1353/SB645, HB1354/SB644, and HB1355/HB646 to close the hazardous waste loophole; and when relevant County legislation comes before you (like the ban on fracking in County parks now in Council), that you stand on the side of public health and a sustainable economy with your decision. These are among the facts you can marshall to protect the citizens you have sworn to represent:
- The International Energy Agency has determined that in order to preserve a livable climate, there can be no further investment in fossil energy extraction. The Shell ethane cracker will emit half as much CO2 as the city of Pittsburgh, so just this one plant will undo our laudable climate goals. And with thousands of new gas wells needed to provide ethane for the plant in the coming years, even more climate-disrupting carbon dioxide and methane will be emitted elsewhere — meaning more heat waves, cold snaps, and big storms. In addition to all the present and future impacts of climate change itself, most air pollution is directly linked to fossil fuels. A recent study out of Harvard found that 1 in 5 early deaths worldwide are due to ultrafine particle pollution from fossil fuel combustion. That’s 8 million people a year — of which about 300,000 are people in the U.S. who die prematurely from fossil fuel pollution every year — half as many as we’ve lost to COVID over the past 14 months, but this is year after year after year!
- Shell’s plant in nearby Beaver County will also emit up to 500 tons of VOCs (volatile organic compounds) each year, and 30 tons of hazardous air pollutants, including known carcinogens like benzene, toluene, and formaldehyde. About one in five Pennsylvanians die of cancer, and Allegheny County is already in the top 2% for cancer risk across the nation due to hazardous air pollutants. Similarly, Beaver County residents, living even closer to the plant, are beginning to realize what they’re in for.
- The cracker plant requires the construction of an ethane pipeline system crossing the Ohio River, many other sensitive areas including the headwaters of the Ambridge Reservoir (which serves 30,000 people in 11 municipalities), and regions prone to landslides that can lead to explosions. And if Shell has cut corners during construction of the Falcon Pipeline, this danger is multiplied. Other fracking and pipeline companies engaged in projects that feed these petrochemical plants have come under criminal investigation. If the state Grand Jury Report is too full of legalese, check out the more intimate narrative in Amity and Prosperity: One Family and the Fracturing of America, by Eliza Griswold. And the situation is not improving; pipeline incidents are occurring just about every day.
- Fracking has been shown to contaminate residents’ bodies with endocrine-disrupting chemicals that can affect both birth outcomes and the male reproductive system. Physicians for Social Responsibility’s report speaks out against natural gas, and in collaboration with Concerned Health Professionals of New York, they compile the annual Fracking Science Compendium, now with more than 1700 peer-reviewed studies demonstrating these hazards. And the evidence continues to accumulate; a more recent study from Oklahoma confirms these health impacts. Here in Pennsylvania, Act 13 setbacks have been shown to be drastically insufficient to protect public health.
- Shell and its various subsidiaries have demonstrated disregard for the health of construction workers and the community during the coronavirus pandemic (for instance, transporting groups of workers in shuttle buses). This is not surprising given Shell’s long record of troubled dealings around the world — suppressing science on climate change, leaving environmental messes (in the US, on our shores, off the UK coast, and beyond), participating in exploitative labor practices, fomenting human-rights abuses, and generally being a bad neighbor.
- Again with little regard for the safety of workers or residents, radioactive material from fracking operations has been spread throughout the region.18
- What is this all for? The plant will produce up to 1.6 million tons per year of polyethylene pellets called “nurdles” — much of which will become wasteful single-use plastics. This will escalate the global plastics crisis — by 2050 there will likely be more plastic in the oceans than fish! Long-lasting plastics break up into smaller pieces easily mistaken for food, and harm life all the way up the food chain. Microplastics have been found in every Pennsylvania waterway tested in a recent survey, in drinking water around the world, and even in our bodies.
- You and many others have pointed to jobs as the reason for our region to take on this burden. However, there will be more jobs in a renewables-based economy. And despite huge subsidies at taxpayer expense, economic benefits of the natural gas industry are transient and uneven because of the boom-bust character of resource extraction; promised jobs haven’t materialized and indeed there’s a net decrease! The whole industry is on shaky financial grounds, and its future is uncertain.
- Meanwhile, in Pennsylvania, the influx of out-of-state workers has also led to increased crime; out west it has exacerbated the MMIW crisis (Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women), on top of the health hazards we know all too well.
At least four more ethane cracker plants are under consideration as the industry seeks to turn the tri-state region of Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Ohio into a huge petrochemical hub. The region where this industry has held sway for decades, in Louisiana, is known as “Cancer Alley”! Is this what we want for the Ohio River Valley? Is it what any leader wants for a legacy? We are urging you to do all you can to help in the transition to clean renewable energy and away from single-use plastics.
The undersigned individuals and community groups ask you, Mr. Fitzgerald, to detail your response to the intertwined pollution, climate, and plastics crises — and to publicly withdraw your support from the fracking and petrochemical development of our region.
Thank you,
350 Pittsburgh
Allegheny CleanWays
Allegheny County Clean Air Now (ACCAN)
ATM & RiverCubes
Beaver County Marcellus Awareness Community (BCMAC)
Berks Gas Truth
Better Path Coalition
Breathe Project
Center for Coalfield Justice
Citizens to Protect Oakmont
Clean Air Council
Communities First Sewickley Valley
Concerned Health Professionals of New York
Concerned Ohio River Residents
CREATE Lab
Dickinson For Congress Committee
Extinction Rebellion Pittsburgh
Fireman Creative
FrackFreeMahoning
FracTracker Alliance
FreshWater Accountability Project
Friends For Environmental Justice
Garfield Community Farm
GRANNY PEACE BRIGADE
Green Deeds LLC
Green Party of Butler and Venango
Green Sanctuary Team at First Unitarian Church of Pittsburgh
Group Against Smog & Pollution (GASP)
Heartwood
Henry Family Farm
Indivisible Grassroots Pittsburgh
Institute for Green Science (IGS)
IPAK-EDU
Izaak Walton League of America — Allegheny County
Lawrenceville Clean Air Now
Local Authority Western PA (LAWPA)
Marcellus Outreach Butler
NoPetroPA
Ohio Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival
Ohio Valley Environmental Resistance (OVER)
Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition (OVEC)
Pennsylvania Alliance for Clean Water and Air
Physicians for Social Responsibility Pennsylvania
Pittsburghers Against Single-Use Plastic (PASUP)
Pittsburgh Mennonite Church Sustainability Group
Pittsburgh Vegan Society
Plant-Based Pittsburgh
Project CoffeeHouse
Protect Elizabeth Township
ProtectPT
Putting Down Roots
Quiet Creek Herb Farm & School of Country Living
Rail Pollution Protection Pittsburgh (RP3)
Responsible Drilling Alliance (RDA)
Scenius LLC
Steiner Learning Design
Strollo Sound
Sustainable Monroeville
The Earthling’s Handbook
The FarmersWife
The Thomas Merton Center
Thou Art: The Grounding Lab Art Studio
Three Rivers Waterkeeper
Thrive_At_Life: Working Solutions
Upper Burrell Citizens Against Marcellus Pollution
Westmoreland Marcellus Citizens’ Group
(and many individuals who will be named in the letter; currently ~270 including representatives of the above organizations).
References:
https://pittsburgh.cbslocal.com/2021/01/21/senator-ted-cruz-paris-climate-accord-pittsburgh/
https://www.momscleanairforce.org/ethane-cracker-plants/
https://www.ehn.org/cancer-in-pittsburgh-pollution-hampers-prevention-progress-2628074364.html
https://www.heinz.org/UserFiles/Library/PRETA_HAPS.pdf
https://breatheproject.org/patrolling-our-air/
https://www.fractracker.org/2021/04/2021-pipeline-incidents-update-safety-record-not-improving/
https://us.macmillan.com/books/9780374103118
https://www.ehn.org/fractured-series-on-fracking-pollution-2650624600.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004896972035765X
https://www.ehn.org/health-impacts-of-fracking-2634432607.html
https://www.psr.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/too-dirty-too-dangerous.pdf
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0140988321001286
https://www.hsph.harvard.edu/c-change/news/ungsetbacks/
https://www.fairplanet.org/dossier/eco-crimes-shell-and-the-niger-delta/
https://abcnews.go.com/Health/toxic-oil-found-half-million-dollar-california-homes/story?id=10647662
https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-56041189
https://time.com/4186250/ocean-plastic-fish/
https://www.who.int/water_sanitation_health/publications/microplastics-in-drinking-water/en/
http://www.greenchoices.cornell.edu/publications/
https://newrepublic.com/article/161937/fossil-fuel-companies-job-killers
https://ieefa.org/ieefa-report-financial-risks-loom-for-shells-pennsylvania-petrochemical-complex/
https://www.pennlive.com/midstate/2014/12/fracking_brought_spikes_in_vio.html
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1752928X21000214
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2021/apr/04/navajo-nation-fracking
