More than two dozen citizen, environmental and faith groups want the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to revoke Ohio's authority to regulate fracking waste.

In a new petition, the groups say the Ohio Department of Natural Resources hasn't complied with federal Safe Drinking Water Act requirements, or its environmental-justice obligations.

Billions of gallons of oil-and-gas waste have been injected into Ohio's Class II injection wells, including waste from other states.

Sierra Club Environmental Law Program Associate Attorney Ankit Jain argued that Ohio's poor regulatory program doesn't hold oil-and-gas companies accountable for violations.

"If you compare Ohio really across the rest of the country, it's one of the worst programs," said Jain. "Their regulation itself, the rules that the operators have to follow, are extremely lax. And then, the enforcement for violating the lax rules is almost nonexistent. It's not just that they could do better - it's really one of the worst of the worst."

Ohio has more than 220 injection wells. Jain explained that the brine, which is toxic and radioactive, is spread on roads as a deicer and dust suppressant.

ODNR counters that Ohio "operates an effective regulatory program that meets federal standards and protects public health."

Ashtabula County resident Julie Boetger is a member of the Ohio Brine Task Force and Ashtabula County Water Watch, both among the petitioners.

She said tests run by ONDR, as well as independent researchers, have revealed the brine in Ohio exceeds federal and state limits for radioactivity.

"This is contaminating our air, our water," said Boetger. "This is contaminating things that we can't see. So, it's very important that we pay attention to what's going on in our own backyard, and what exactly they're doing with fracking and brine."

The petition notes that injection wells are disproportionately located in low-income communities in Appalachia.

Jill Hunkler - director of Ohio Valley Allies - is from Belmont County, one of the most heavily fracked in the state. She said people have voiced their concerns to federal and state officials.

"Based on our mutual respect, I believe that we can work together to solve these issues, hopefully immediately," said Hunkler. "I feel like it's life or death for us here in Appalachia, Ohio, because we've been failed by regulating agencies - and certainly the industry."

Researchers mapped American croplands that have fallen out of production in hopes of inspiring new uses for them, such as renewable energy.

Roughly 30 million acres of croplands in the United States have been abandoned since the 1980s, including 1.5 million in South Dakota, according to a recent paper.

Tyler Lark, research scientist at the University of Wisconsin-Madison and one of the report's co-authors, said some lands have been restored to natural ecosystems. Others, those perhaps currently populated by invasive species, could be the answer to big questions the country is facing about where to house increasing renewable-energy development.

"We ideally want to avoid our best and most productive ag lands but we also don't want to encroach on pristine or native ecosystems," Lark explained. "Formerly cropped lands might hit that sweet spot in the middle."

Lark pointed out those acres could be used for biofuel, wind or solar production. Legislators have written bills to promote renewable-energy development without threatening the country's richest soils. One example is the Protecting Future Farmland Act, introduced last September by Sen. Tammy Baldwin, D-Wis., and Sen. Chuck Grassley, R-Iowa, which would facilitate what advocates call a "smarter solar buildout."

The American Farmland Trust estimated about 83% of new solar projects are built on farmlands and a majority of those on what's considered "prime" agricultural lands. Lark hopes research can help avoid conflicts over land use.

"At the local land-use planning level, where you have potential competition between different land uses, this data could potentially help facilitate that conversation and guide some of those investments," Lark contended.

Some renewable energy projects can coexist with agriculture. According to research from the U.S. Department of Agriculture, farmlands where wind turbines were installed between 2009 and 2020 typically stayed in farm production, while about 15% of farmlands where solar power was added shifted out of agriculture.


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This article was produced by Resource Rural.
Broadcast version by Nadia Ramlagan for Kentucky News Connection reporting for the Resource Rural-Public News Service Collaboration

At Long’s Pic Pac in Pineville, Kentucky, Mike Long is finding an innovative way to cut down on electricity costs. Solar panels cover the roof of the small-town grocery. A 60KWh battery allows Long’s Pic Pac to store solar energy, vastly reducing the peak demand charges that make up more than half the store’s monthly power bill.

Long is the general manager of the grocery business started in 1964, when his father Arthur “Ray” Long got a $3,500 loan co-signed by an appliance store owner who knew Ray from watching him play football. Mike was only a few years old when his father’s grocery store opened. He grew up with the business.

Today, he’s determined to keep Long’s Pic Pac the grocery store of choice for Pineville, a town of about 1,630 people in Southeastern Kentucky. “There’s only one cell tower,” Long said of Pineville. “You can run around the whole town in about three miles.”

Long thinks Pic Pac might be the first grocery store in Kentucky to install solar with battery capacity to lower the high demand charges of refrigeration, deli ovens and fryers. A Rural Energy for America Program (REAP) grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture funded 40% of the project.

The business is also eligible for a 30% federal tax credit on the 143kW solar array, with a longer depreciation because Pineville is a low-income community. The median household income in Pineville was $27,159 in 2022, according to the U.S. Census Bureau.

In the Appalachian region of Kentucky, more than 20 percent of the population regularly experiences hunger, and keeping the lights on in rural grocery stores helps reduce food insecurity. Long projects an estimated cost savings from the solar array and battery storage of at least $15,000 per year. That savings could be used for staffing in the perishable departments and offset added field costs in delivery.

Grocery stores run on a razor-thin 2.2% profit margin, making them among the least profitable industries in the U.S .“Tight margins are one of the reasons why many rural places have seen full service stores struggle to keep their doors open,” said Long.

Long learned about the REAP grant through the Mountain Association, a nonprofit that works to help Eastern Kentucky transition to a more diverse, equitable, sustainable and resilient economy. Solar Energy Solutions installed the array.

Long expects to be able to pay back the cost of the project in four years. At the grocery store, power can cost as much as $78,000 annually. On a monthly bill, the power charges might be $2,600, while the store might pay $3,900 for the “demand charge,” based on the highest amount of power used.

Around 2017, Long’s Pic Pac upgraded the refrigerated cases in the produce meat and deli departments with motion-detector lighting and doors to conserve energy and freshness, using a then-20% REAP grant. The store will be replacing freezers and an older refrigeration motor room later this year with a REAP grant. Long said that competition for energy savings grants is increasing as more people hear success stories.

He aims to be a small-town store ahead of the curve. “None of the chains have solar,” he said, adding that he doesn’t know of any chains using solar like Long’s Pic Pac. “We’ve got more green, newer stuff than any of them.”

As with the grocery store, “people take pride in the town,” he said. Long’s Pic Pac also draws on customers from surrounding communities and unincorporated areas, despite the presence of larger stores within a 15-minute drive. Several thousand customers a week walk through the doors at Long’s Pic Pac.

“Our sales floor is only 11,500 square feet,” Long said. “We’re small here, but everybody feels like it’s a small thing that we make the most out of,” he said.


This article was produced by Resource Rural.


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Virginia's Dominion Energy has won a lease to continue growing its offshore wind portfolio near Virginia's coast.

The move is expected to grow the Commonwealth's utility industry and help it reach its clean energy goals. The lease is for more than 175,000 acres about 35 miles from the Chesapeake Bay. The federal government said the site could potentially produce 4 gigawatts, enough to power about 1.4 million homes.

Eileen Woll, offshore energy program director for the Virginia chapter of the Sierra Club, said the announcement shows the scale of the opportunity presented by renewables.

"If we play our cards right, I mean, that's literally tens of thousands of jobs for all kinds of folks in our community," Woll pointed out. "It is a brand-new industry and that's why you see so much interest across the board."

This new lease is right next to another massive offshore wind project expected to go online in 2026. Other nearby leases include a site near the Outer Banks and an area off the Eastern Shore of Maryland and Delaware. Woll argued the region should invest in apprenticeship programs for engineers, welders and other skilled workers who can help manufacture and build wind farms.

Virginia lawmakers passed a law in 2020 seeking to decarbonize the Commonwealth's electric grid by midcentury.

Julia Pendleton, managing director of the Southeast Wind Coalition, said the announcement puts the power sector on track to reach the goals, even with a growing population and data center industry.

"Local leaders here really understand how it can help us both meet that rising energy demand, meet those legislatively mandated clean energy goals and create economic opportunity in the Commonwealth," Pendleton asserted.

Once built, the wind farms will be difficult to see from the shoreline on a clear day. The federal government also said they have reviewed potential impacts to marine life and added regulations to mitigate any adverse effects. The Interior Department said it will hold more lease sales in the Central Atlantic in 2026.