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Top Social Security official exits after clash with Musk's DOGE over data NYers brace for effects of higher bank fees, dismantling CFPB; Top Russian and US officials discuss improving ties and ending the Ukraine war without Kyiv; Closure of EPA branch predicted to affect MS environment; CT paraeducators organize to get a living wage.

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On a Middle East visit, Sen. Richard Blumenthal rejects a Gaza takeover. President's Day protests erupt around the country against White House moves, and another aviation accident draws attention to recent FAA cuts.

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Rural America struggles with opioids and homelessness in unexpected ways, Colorado's Lariat Ditch could help spur local recreation, and book deliveries revive rural communities hit by Hurricane Helene.

Should Huge Petrochemical Project Get Federal Clean-Energy Funds?

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Monday, August 12, 2019   

CHARLESTON, W.Va. – West Virginia conservation groups are fighting a plan to use U.S. Department of Energy clean power funds for a huge petrochemical project.

The state's congressional delegation is pushing for the Appalachian Storage Hub to get $1.9 billion in loan guarantees designated for clean energy development.

But Dustin White, project coordinator for the Ohio Valley Environmental Coalition, says it's not even an energy project, much less a clean one.

"There is nothing about this that is going to be 'clean,'” he states. “From cradle to grave, from the moment these natural gas liquids are fracked, to the plastic pollution, it is not clean in any way."

U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin of W.Va. says without federal help, the plan to store and distribute chemical feed stocks, such as ethane and butane that come as byproducts of natural gas, probably couldn't happen.

Supporters argue the $10 billion project would be a key to dramatically increasing the size of the chemical and plastics industry in the northern Ohio Valley.

They say without it, West Virginia would just continue to export natural resources, such as the feedstocks extracted from the state's so-called "wet" natural gas.

But White points out that the Ohio River is the drinking water source for 5 million people. And he notes the petrochemical industry is already polluting other areas, like what's known as "cancer alley" in Louisiana.

"That's all taxpayer money, that should be allocated for other things – especially clean energy products that will actually help people – rather than single-use plastics," he states.

The U.S. House has passed an amendment to stop the use of those loan guarantees from going to any project that doesn't reduce greenhouse gas pollution.

That legislation could block the funding for this mammoth underground storage facility, but the bill's future in the Senate is very much in doubt.


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