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A Roadmap for Industrial Decarbonization in Pennsylvania

Across the United States, progress is accelerating toward economy-wide decarbonization. The establishment of federal emissions reduction targets, coupled with the passage of major pieces of legislation to advance decarbonization, mark historic steps toward addressing climate change. Still, significant hurdles remain to meeting both near-term and mid-century climate goals. These obstacles are particularly acute in the industrial sector. Compared to other economic sectors, such as power or buildings, industry is conventionally considered “difficult to decarbonize,” and progress toward decarbonization has been accordingly slower. The challenges in decarbonizing the industrial sector stem from a range of factors, including the diversity of industrial processes, the need for high temperature heat to drive many processes, greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions released as byproducts of industrial processes, and growing demand for many industrial products.

In Pennsylvania, the industrial sector has been a central economic driver for more than a century, producing critical goods, including steel, cement, and glass, that helped build and grow the modern U.S. economy. Today, manufacturing contributes more than $113 billion in state domestic product and provides 11% of the commonwealth’s jobs. This significant manufacturing footprint means that industry is responsible for one-third of Pennsylvania’s GHG emissions, the largest-emitting sector in the commonwealth’s economy. While state policies, research and demonstration projects, and other ongoing efforts will help move Pennsylvania toward its goal of reducing economy-wide GHG emissions 80% below 2005 levels by 2050, emissions from the industrial sector are still projected to increase in the future, absent further actions.

PA Greenhouse Gas Inventory Report 2023

In this inventory, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) provides data on greenhouse gas
(GHG) emissions in the state from 2005 to 2020 and tracks progress toward the GHG emission-reduction targets. The
data provided in this report were primarily obtained from the United States Environmental Protection Agency (U.S. EPA)
State Inventory Tool (SIT) and the U.S. EPA’s Inventory of U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions and Sinks by State report,
which disaggregates the national inventory emissions to the state level. Preliminary data for 2021 from United States
Energy Information Administration (U.S. EIA) estimates have also been included.

Addressing Methane Emissions in Appalachia – How Many Jobs Will It Take

New methane reduction regulations outlined by the US Environmental Protection Agency will require the creation of up to 15,530 jobs to plug leaky oil and gas wells across Ohio, Pennsylvania, West Virginia, and Kentucky.

Methane leaks from oil and gas wells comprise a significant share of climate-warming methane emissions in the four-state region, which is home to an estimated 816,000 total wells. Decommissioning orphaned and abandoned wells can significantly reduce the region’s methane emissions, improving public health outcomes and even increasing crop yields.

Using data from recent well decommissioning contracts in Pennsylvania, this report estimates the total number of direct methane abatement jobs needed to deal with EPA’s new methane mitigation requirements, the number of job-years that will be created across the four states by IIJA and MERP funding, and the number of job-years that would be required to decommission the region’s total inventory of orphaned, abandoned, undocumented, and active wells.

The report outlines policy recommendations to ensure decommissioning jobs are safe, well-paying and union, including enacting tax credits that incentivize skilled worker training, incentivizing union contracts, and ensuring prevailing wages. Each of the four states have above-average union coverage across sectors, including among well commissioning jobs in the construction sector. The recommendations have the added benefit of ensuring taxpayers get the biggest bang for their buck with high quality work, and that federal grants funds stay in local communities and help increase the number of skilled workers.

 

Potential Energy – Global Messaging on Climate Change
Better Alternatives: A Case Study on Bioplastics and Packaging

As the world recognizes the need to transition away from fossil fuel-
based plastic products and packaging, promising research continues to
emerge around novel biomaterials, offering a potential solution to the
environmental harm caused by plastics.

However, biomaterials are far from uniform in their characteristics,
environmental fate, and impact. Due to a lack of vetting, scientific
research (in realistic environmental scenarios), and challenges
surrounding end-of-life management, many have observed confusion
and disagreements over the role biomaterials should play. In this
study, we aim to provide greater transparency, providing details on
emerging materials, their real-world behavior in the environment, and
considerations that should be made before the widespread adoption
of bioplastics in all sectors of society. Through five chapters, we aim
to provide greater clarity, context, and scientific results to help inform
decision making:

The Aluminum Paradox: Vital for clean energy, but also a major source of greenhouse gases, air and water pollution

As climate change accelerates, aluminum has taken a lead position in the race for a lower-
carbon, less polluting industrial future. Lightweight and durable, the metal is a key
component in solar panels and wind turbines, more efficient cars and planes, and long-
lasting construction materials. Given this, global aluminum demand is projected to be 40
percent higher in 2030 than in 2020.

Yet the aluminum industry accounted for 1.2 billion tons of global greenhouse gases in 2021, the
same amount as the energy used by over 150 million U.S. homes—and its contribution to climate
change is only set to grow alongside demand.

The aluminum industry in the United States is not ready to jump on the decarbonization
bandwagon. While there is a potential for the industry’s expansion, U.S. operators clearly need to
make financial investments and compliance commitments to participate in a lower-carbon, less-
polluting, and more economically robust aluminum industry—or be left behind.

 

Blue hydrogen: Not clean, not low carbon, not a solution

Blue hydrogen hype has spread across the U.S., spurred by the billions of dollars of government funding and incentives included in the 2021 Bipartisan Infrastructure Law (BIL) and the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). The fossil fuel industry promises that blue hydrogen, produced from methane or coal, can be manufactured cleanly and contribute to climate change mitigation measures. As we demonstrate in this report, the reality is that blue hydrogen is neither clean nor low-carbon. In addition, pursuing it will waste substantial time that is in short supply and money that could be more wisely spent on other, more effective investments for reducing greenhouse gas emissions in the immediate future.

In short, fossil fuel-based “blue” hydrogen is a bad idea.

Oil and Gas Production Health Concerns In SWPA

Results of University of Pittsburgh School of Public Health scientists studies exploring health impacts of human exposure to environmental risk factors, including unconventional natural gas development activities, in an eight-county region in Southwest Pennsylvania.

Advocates Guide to Effective Participation in Environmental Permit for Petrochemical Facilities

Compared to some other types of petrochemical facilities, emissions directly from plastic resin manufacturing units can seem relatively low, often less than 100 tons per year for individual criteria pollutants. But these units are typically co-located within a petrochemical complex that includes many larger sources of emissions that support the plastic resin manufacturing process. For instance, most complexes will include boilers and combustion turbines, i.e., gas-fired power plants, that provide heat, steam, and power to the entire complex. It is therefore difficult to ascertain the exact level of emissions that a given unit, say a polyethylene unit, might ultimately emit, but these complexes can be massive sources of emissions. For instance, Formosa’s proposed St. James Parish complex, which would include polyethylene and polypropylene units in addition to cracking and other units, would emit 4,500 tons of carbon monoxide, 2,000 tons of VOCs, and 1,200 tons of nitrogen oxides, in addition to many other pollutants.34 The facility would also emit a whopping 10.8 million tons of greenhouse gas, the equivalent of 25 new natural gas-fired power plants.35

Impacts of Air Pollution Across the Life Course – Evidence Highlight Note
Peer-reviewed

The evidence that air pollution harms our health throughout our lives, from conception to old age, was summarised in the Royal College of Physicians (RCP) report Every breath we take: the lifelong impact of air pollution, in 2016(2) Since this time the evidence has continued to accumulate. This new evidence summary builds on the RCP report by addressing the impacts of air pollution across the life course, reviewing key studies published in the interim period on the links between air pollution and ill health. The note is divided into sections focusing on different stages of life, including evidence regarding the impact of air pollution from pre-foetal development until early adulthood. It aims to summarise key evidence, drawing on recent authoritative academic reviews and research studies, with an emphasis on those carried out in the United Kingdom, London, or cities with similar air pollution climates.

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