“The worry is that, along the way, we are going to waste huge amounts of money on the wrong use cases for hydrogen and the wrong infrastructure in the wrong places. Worse than wasting money, we will also be wasting time – and that is the one thing we don’t have.”

—Michael Liebreich

Oil and gas production is one of the largest emitters of methane, a potent greenhouse gas and a significant contributor of air pollution emissions. While research on methane emissions from oil and gas production has grown rapidly, there is comparatively limited information on the distribution of impacts of this sector on air quality and associated health impacts. Understanding the contribution of air quality and health impacts of oil and gas can be useful for designing mitigation strategies.

Spikes in air pollution increase the risk of cardiac arrhythmias, a large study has found.

The research, based on nearly 200,000 hospital admissions in China, found a significant increase in risk of arrhythmias in the first few hours after an increase in air pollution levels. Heart arrhythmias can increase the risk of heart disease and sudden cardiac death.

This new report reveals that the production of PVC plastic releases hundreds of thousands of pounds of carcinogenic vinyl chloride into the air every year in the U.S. Vinyl chloride factories produce billions of pounds of vinyl chloride to make PVC plastics often in low-income communities and communities of color. We also found that vinyl chloride and PVC factories report transferring millions of pounds of hazardous chlorinated waste to incinerators, cement kilns, and landfills in the south-central U.S. Incinerators, cement kilns, and landfills are well-known sources of dioxin pollution.[7] Vinyl chloride and PVC factories also transferred dioxins to incinerators and landfills.

Shifting to fossil fuel-free steelmaking could reduce greenhouse gas emissions, boost jobs, and grow the region’s economy. Fossil fuel-free DRI-EAF (direct reduced iron-electric arc furnace) steelmaking uses green hydrogen—created with wind and solar energy—to make steel with nearly zero climate-warming emissions.

Investing in fossil fuel-free steelmaking is a win for the climate and the economy. This report looks at Mon Valley Works, a steelmaking facility in southwestern Pennsylvania, as a model for transitioning from carbon-intensive BF-BOF steelmaking to fossil fuel-free DRI-EAF steelmaking.

In the United States, people of color breathe more particulate air pollution on average, a finding that holds across income levels and regions of the US, according to a study by researchers at the EPA-funded Center for Air, Climate, and Energy Solutions. The findings expand a body of evidence showing that African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, and other people of color are disproportionately exposed to a regulated air pollutant called fine particulate matter (PM_2.5).

Transportation is one of Pennsylvania’s leading sources of the air pollution that harms our health and contributes to global warming. One-quarter of Pennsylvania’s greenhouse gas emissions come from transportation and more than a third of the nitrogen oxide emissions that contribute to harmful ozone smog come from highway vehicles.

This survey explores municipal governments and their authorities with respect to the zoning and approval of oil and gas uses in Pennsylvania. While there is a good deal of understanding as to the federal and state authorities that apply to oil and gas uses and facilities, there is much less understanding with respect to the municipal governments. This is unfortunate, as municipal governments are the ones on the “front lines” of oil and gas development in Pennsylvania, and their decision making will most directly affect the lives of citizens. By the same token, the average Pennsylvanian has a much greater chance of achieving improvements to local zoning ordinances than to state or federal regulations, and residents will feel such improvements immediately.

Pennsylvania’s clean energy economy is growing rapidly across the Commonwealth–revitalizing its job market and boosting it into a position of national leadership.

Growing by over 30 percent since the height of the COVID-19 economic crisis in 2020–clean energy jobs in Pennsylvania have proved their resilience. With one of the fastest growing clean energy sectors in the nation, Pennsylvania became one of the top ten of states with the most clean energy jobs in 2021 and is poised to have national influence on economic growth and combating climate change.

People with a disease characterized by lung scarring that has no obvious cause are more likely to die if they live in areas with higher levels of air pollution composed of chemicals associated with industrial sources and vehicular traffic, according to new research led by University of Pittsburgh scientists.