By: Julia Weil, Organizing Intern
Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, we have increasingly seen many social, economic, and environmental injustices in our society highlighted. One injustice that encapsulates all three is being demonstrated by the increasing pattern of oil and gas companies, struggling as the demand for their product decreases, paying out their executives just before filing for bankruptcy, making the rich richer, and exposing at-risk populations to higher quantities of dangerous chemicals than ever.
This practice of paying executives vast sums of money before going bankrupt is known as a “golden parachute.” One of these companies is Chesapeake, one of the first companies to popularize hydrofracking. Just before filing for bankruptcy, $25 million was given to 21 employees that ranked high in the company’s hierarchy in the form of “retention payments,” though typically this type of payment is intended to keep employees at the company for a designated amount of time.
Other recent examples of this practice have occurred with Whiting Petroleum, a shale drilling company that was able to secure $15 million for its top executives days before the bankruptcy filing, and Diamond offshore drilling, a company that was granted $9.1 million through a COVID-19 stimulus check, and that filed for bankruptcy just one month later.
This is not only an economic injustice, but, as they are frequently closely associated, it is also blatant environmental injustice. The workers are left out of the equation, and when the majority of the remaining money is funneled directly into the pockets of the most powerful company members, the financial planning frequently doesn’t account for the cost of well-closing — money isn’t left over to properly seal the wells.
When this happens, the already harmful fracking wells will leak greater quantities of methane and contaminated water. This is the case for MDC energy, who also paid their executives $8.5 million before filing for bankruptcy. One estimate showed that cleaning up, closing the wells and halting the consistent methane leakage for this particular company would cost $40 million; an amount which, after paying the executives, did not remain.
Though all of the instances discussed here happened more recently, in 2016, there was an estimation of 3.2 million orphaned (or inactive) oil and gas wells in the US, and over 2 million of these were not properly sealed. Although hydrofracking wells also leak while in operation, when they’re out of use and not monitored, they release even greater amounts of the toxic chemicals. Contaminated water from hydrofracking can contain benzene, toluene, arsenic, manganese, barium and strontium, many of which are carcinogenic.
Methane leakage is additionally dangerous because of its warming capabilities – it is an especially potent greenhouse gas; though it doesn’t last as long as carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, it is 25 times stronger of a warming agent. Additionally, atmospheric methane concentrations have more than doubled in the last couple centuries – the orphaned fracking wells will significantly accelerate this problem.
Since this bankruptcy boom is expected to continue – one estimate expects 250 oil and gas companies to file for bankruptcy protection before the end of next year – this puts more and more communities at an increased risk of the effects associated with methane and other toxic chemicals. Waste from gas and oil companies already disproportionately impacts Black and low income communities; this phenomenon further worsens this instance of environmental racism and injustice, while those who should be held responsible profit.
Day: December 2, 2020
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Thursday finalized a rule that could reclassify many “major” sources of pollution as minor ones, allowing facilities to abide by less-stringent emissions standards for dangerous substances such as mercury, lead and arsenic.
The reclassification changes a 1995 rule that for decades has held major emitters to tighter standards even if their operators have taken actions to reduce their pollution – a policy known as “once in, always in.”
Read more…
Photo credit: Getty Images
You care about the planet, and would like to avoid bottles and other goods made of single-use plastic. But it’s complicated.
Choosing products with packaging that claims to be “biodegradable” or “compostable” might mean that they degrade only under special conditions, and could complicate recycling efforts, said Jason Locklin, the director of the New Materials Institute at the University of Georgia. “It’s tremendously confusing, not just to the consumer, but even to many scientists,” he said.
Photo credit: Big Green Smile
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The Life of an Intern at CHEJ
By Sophie Weinberg, CHEJ Science Intern, Summer 2020.
This summer was unusual to say the least. Despite living through a pandemic, people around the world innovated their lives to create a new normal. One of these changes included working remotely. This posed a unique challenge to the entire workforce, but particularly to interns. This summer, interns were put into the difficult position of entering a new job while fully remote. Interns did not have the ability to get to know their employers as easily, so it was ultimately up to the organization to welcome interns. CHEJ excelled at this.
This summer, I worked as a science and technical intern at CHEJ. Despite the obvious disadvantages that COVID-19 posed, I felt very connected to both the organization and the work that I was doing. Due to the small staff size, I was able to get to know each staff member through multiple weekly meetings and various projects. We were not only expected to discuss our work, but also encouraged to catch up on a more personal level in order to foster a positive work environment. Instead of water cooler talk, we would Zoom as interns to get to know one another. More often than not, we all found similarities in our passions, goals, and personalities.
Beyond the work environment at CHEJ, my projects were all very meaningful. As a science intern I did not work directly with many communities, but I did have an opportunity to learn a lot about the issues impacting so many people across the US. I did not have expansive knowledge of environmental justice before joining this organization, but I have learned so much this summer and become very passionate about these issues. The work I did as an intern was applicable to helping communities fight environmental threats. Specifically, a large majority of my work was taking scientific concepts and converting them to a more understandable format for the use of community leaders. My supervisor always made sure to connect my work back to the relevant issues to make me aware of the impact of my internship. I completed this internship with a sense of appreciation for what I was able to contribute and what I learned.
Working for CHEJ this summer was an extremely valuable experience, and I would recommend it to other students who are looking for an internship in environmental justice. I was able to apply a large range of skills, and learned many more in the process.
The City Council of Arlington, Texas has taken a historic stand by refusing to expand a fracking complex located next to a preschool that serves primarily Black and Latino children. Ranjana Bhandari, founder of the environmental advocacy group Liveable Arlington, joins Host Steve Curwood to talk about the city council’s groundbreaking decision. Read more.
Photo from Tammie Carson
A new report released by Earthjustice, the Shriver Center on Poverty Law, and faculty at the University of Chicago’s Abrams Environmental Law Clinic and Columbia University’s Health Justice Advocacy Clinic estimated that 77,000 people living in federally assisted housing in the US are at risk of being poisoned by toxic contamination. The report, Poisonous Homes: The Fight for Environmental Justice in Federally Assisted Housing comes as the Trump administration continues rolling back many environmental regulations involving the environmental impact analysis of large-scale industrial projects. Read More
Photo by: Scott Olson, Getty Images
Since the beginning of the Trump administration, there have been many environmental rollbacks on policy and as a result a reversal of federal environmental progress as a whole, especially since the onset of Covid-19. However, the reversal of environmental progress is beginning to occur more and more at the state level as seen in current events in Hartford, CT. Thirteen years ago, the Materials Innovation and Recycling Authority (MIRA) of Connecticut identified and began planning for the redevelopment of an old trash incineration plant into a regional recycling and trash-to-energy plant in Hartford, CT. Lack of state funding is now forcing the MIRA to abandon this plan, forcing an average of over 640,000 tons of garbage a year to be trucked to landfills in other states. Not only is trucking Connecticut’s garbage not sustainable, but it is a step backwards in the environmental progress of the state. Read More
The Environmental Protection Agency has released its FY 2019 Progress Report for the Federal Interagency Working Group on Environmental Justice (EJ IWG). The EJ IWG was established to provide a platform for Federal agencies to work together for the advancement of environmental justice principles.
View the 2019 report here.
View more information on the EJ IWG here.
Blog by Sharon Franklin
DaLyah Jones a staff writer for Texas Observer covering the environment reported on March 25, 2020 that COVID-19 Could Be a Double Whammy for Those in Pollution Hotspots.
Ms. Jones reports that air pollution across the globe has sharply dropped, an unintended silver lining of COVID-19, as the coronavirus continues to spread. However, Texas environmental advocates are bracing for impacts that can’t be reversed by a few weeks of reduced industrial production and air travel. Why is this? Because Texans living in polluted areas who breathe polluted air are more likely to have preexisting health issues, and are also at a higher risk of getting seriously ill from the virus. Currently, there have not been any large-scale studies of how air pollution can complicate COVID-19. However, experts say that lung damage caused by poor air quality or smoking could poses a “double-whammy effect”, to these individuals because it can only be exacerbated by pollution hotspots and COVID-19, as noted by Elena Craft, of the Environmental Defense Fund.
Researchers at Environment Texas utilizing 2016 data found that roughly 20 metropolitan and rural areas in Texas had elevated levels of particulate matter and smog. In the Houston metro area there are many hotspots (Brazoria, Chambers, Galveston, Fort Bend, Harris, Liberty, Montgomery, and Waller counties) that currently don’t meet the national air-quality standards. Additionally, Dr. Brett Perkison, MD, Professor of Occupational Medicine, University of Texas School of Public Health says that those much-needed defenses are further taxed “by exposure day after day, year after year, to high levels of ozone and nitric oxide.”
According to a study conducted by the NAACP and the Clean Air Task Force, some of the nation’s largest African American populations are at risk for childhood asthma are in the cities of Dallas and Houston. Researchers also found that Texas was one of three states to have the most African Americans living within a half-mile of an oil or natural gas facility. Dr. Perkison further says “Low-socioeconomic communities that occur near manufacturing or industrial sites are at more risk for acute and chronic disease, and we need to take it seriously to allocate resources adequately.” Dr. Perkison encourages at-risk residents to take even more precautions, especially when concentrations of ground-level ozone are high, which includes limiting their time outdoors, monitoring their breathing, or only going outside in the morning, before ozone forms.
Researchers have already begun looking at neighborhoods that face elevated risks. A team at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston mapped the potential risk of severe COVID-19 in Harris County by identifying residents who are 60 and older that have one or more chronic conditions. The study found that the East Little York, Deer Park, Channelview, and East End neighborhoods saw the highest concentration of people over 60 or with a chronic disease.
Reverend James Caldwell, a founder of Coalition of Community Organizations, says the virus has increased a “myriad of issues” for communities like Houston’s Fifth Ward that are located near Superfund sites and has seen elevated cases of respiratory and cardiovascular diseases. Reverend Caldwell notes, many residents with preexisting conditions are also uninsured. He asks “Why does it cost out of pocket to just stay alive?”
Photo: Elizabeth Conley/Houston Chronicle Via AP
Schools in New Hanover and Brunswick counties in North Carolina have set plans in motion to install a new water filtration system to protect school drinking water from industrial contamination. The plan comes after Brunswick county was determined to have the highest levels of PFAS water contamination in the country. Actor Mark Ruffalo, among others, spoke at a press conference at the North Carolina Legislative Building in Raleigh explaining that more needed to be done to address the water contamination problem and the health of children in schools. Read More.