Landscaping – Energy – Environment
Fracking photos of shale gas production in 3 states during 2012 We logged eleven flights in 2012 to capture aerial images of Marcellus Shale gas production in Pennsylvania, Ohio and West Virginia. To see dozens of these photos, CLICK HERE or watch the video… Continue Reading “EXCLUSIVE VIDEO: What would Rachel Carson say?”
Pennsylvania Solar Center, Generation180 Outline Benefits to Schools Switching to Solar Energy – Saving Money, Avoiding Costly Price Spikes By David E. Hess | PA Environment Blog | August 22, 2022 Photo: Midd-West School District solar energy installation, Middleburg, Snyder County, Pennsylvania) On August… Continue Reading “Benefits to Schools Switching to Solar Energy”
‘We never had cancer or anything like that before, and in one year, we had over 13 people diagnosed with cancer… all within a mile of my house’ Those were the headlines written by reporter Shauna Corr in an August 8, 2022 story and… Continue Reading “Pennsylvania man whose life was destroyed by fracking urges Irish Government to block Shannon LNG“
New study finds that children born within 1.24 miles (2 kilometers) of an active well site were 2 to 3 times more likely to be diagnosed with acute lymphoblastic leukemia between the ages of 2 and 7. Researchers at the Yale School of Public… Continue Reading “More leukemia in young children living near Pennsylvania fracking sites”
August 22-25, 2022 at the David L. Lawrence Convention Center (Google map) The 2022 National Ambient Air Monitoring Conference, sponsored by EPA in conjunction with the Association of Air Pollution Control Agencies (AAPCA) and the National Association of Clean Air Agencies (NACAA) is a… Continue Reading “2022 National Ambient Air Monitoring Conference in Pittsburgh, PA sponsored by the EPA”
GUEST POST: Republicans on House Committee Disapprove Final Reg. To Reduce VOC/Methane Emissions from Unconventional Oil & Gas Facilities Risking $500 Million In Federal Highway Funds By David E. Hess / PA Environment Digest / August 2, 2022 On August 2, Republicans on the… Continue Reading “PA Republicans Risk Losing $500 Million in Federal Highway Funds”
Hickory and Mt. Pleasant Township were ground zero when Marcellus Shale fracking began in Pennsylvania back in 2004. As with many communities, gas development became an extremely divisive issue among neighbors. Today’s story by Mike Jones in the Observer-Reporter, DEP investigating mysterious odor emitted… Continue Reading “What’s That Smell?”
Due to all the oil and gas drilling violations in Pennsylvania, someone once said, “If they’re drilling they’re spilling.” This latest report from the former head of the Pennsylvania DEP, David E. Hess, brings us up to date: 16 Oil & Gas Facility Spill,… Continue Reading “Thrills & Spills”
Homeowners have faced a steady stream of rising energy costs from fossil fuels as global situations have devolved. Meantime, our utility bills have been dropping. Americans have come to find that just because we sit on large reserves of coal and natural gas, that… Continue Reading “‘Paying it Forward’ with Solar Energy”
*This post originally appeared on The PediaBlog on July 22, 2021. “Cancers ravage people in Southwestern Pennsylvania. As community leaders, parents and caregivers, health care providers, business owners, researchers, advocates—we all want to do everything we can to support them and prevent others from having to face a… Continue Reading “GUEST POST – Cancer and the Environment”
Imagine if you didn’t have to buy anywhere near the level of car insurance needed to protect yourself and others. Then, following a wreck, taxpayers paid for the repairs. In a sense, that’s what was just recently passed by Pennsylvania lawmakers, for their buddies… Continue Reading “Another PA Taxpayer Giveaway”
Western Pennsylvania is like ‘Swiss Cheese’ when you consider all the coal mines and oil/gas wells drilled over past centuries. Unfortunately, thousands of wells were never properly plugged, providing open conduits to the surface when newer Marcellus Shale wells are hydraulically fractured (fracked) under… Continue Reading “Frac Out in Greene County PA”
Judge Michael H. Wojcik of Pennsylvania’s Commonwealth Court has blocked the full implementation of ‘Reggie’ (RGGI or Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative). It’s another step backwards for Pennsylvania and efforts to address climate change in a timely manner. Reporter Laura Legere added these additional details:… Continue Reading “Two Steps Forward, One Step Back”
There was a May 23, 2022 story in Louisiana’s ‘Natchitoches Times’ with a headline that really caught my eye: “Pipeline Compressor Station to Bring Major Revenue” “An example of a similar facility is a gathering station near Robeline that has an assessed value of… Continue Reading “Pennsylvania’s ‘Giveaway’ Tax Rate for Gas Processors”
The June 8, 2022 explosion and fire at the FREEPORT LNG export terminal in Quintana, Texas, dropped the Henry Hub commodity price for natural gas, from $9.34 two days before the incident to $7.26 a week later, a huge 23% price drop. Conversely, LNG… Continue Reading “LNG Export Outage Helping US Prices”
Yesterday, Pennsylvania Senators Katie Muth and Jim Brewster hosted a public hearing in Monroeville, PA: “Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom: How Policy Decisions Failed to Protect Public Health and What We Can Do to Correct It.” Watch the 2 hour and 44 minute hearing video… Continue Reading “Fracking Public Health and Policy in Pennsylvania”
It was only a matter of time before plastic nurdles began polluting Pittsburgh’s Three Rivers, but we didn’t think it would happen prior to the grand opening of Shell’s Pennsylvania Petrochemicals Complex in Monaca, Beaver County, PA, where they will make trillions of nurdles… Continue Reading “Pittsburgh Meets Nurdles Following Train Derailment”
The 2022 Memorial Day Ceremony at the National Cemetery of the Alleghenies began at 11:00 AM on Sunday May 29, 2022 and lasted one hour. There was a large crowd in attendance, under mostly sunny skies, with a light breeze. Below is a video… Continue Reading “Memorial Day Ceremony 2022 – National Cemetery of the Alleghenies”
The Environmental Health Project has just released its White Paper, “Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom: How Policy Decisions Failed to Protect Public Health and What We Can Do to Correct It“ The Environmental Health Project recently presented its white paper at the Pennsylvania State Capitol… Continue Reading “Pennsylvania’s Shale Gas Boom – How Policy Decisions Failed”
Yesterday’s Zoom presentation by that same title was quite alarming, especially for those of us living in Pennsylvania, where Diversified Energy now owns over 22,000 oil and gas wells. Diversified actually owns more wells in the United States than Exxon, or any other oil… Continue Reading ““DIVERSIFIED ENERGY: Business Model Built to Fail Appalachia””
One of the beauties of driving an electric vehicle (EV) is driving past gas stations without stopping, and filling up with electricity at home! Since I just got my Energy Efficiency report from MyChevy on our 2019 Bolt, I thought it would be a… Continue Reading “Goodbye Gas Stations!”
The huge Pennsylvania Petrochemicals plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania (Beaver County) is due to begin production of plastic nurdles this year. This December 8, 2021 webinar video features several speakers who describe what this plastic production plant will mean to the local area, with the… Continue Reading “SHELL Cracker Plant”
The invasion of Ukraine, a dastardly war which has caused 2 million Ukrainians to leave their homeland, and brings heart wrenching news of residential areas –even a maternity hospital yesterday– being bombed and shelled by Russia, is a clarion call to break our addiction… Continue Reading “Clarion call for renewables NOW”
Solar energy provided 44% of our home electricity AND car charging needs during the month of November 2021. TESLA APP SCREEN SHOTS – SOLAR PANEL PRODUCTION FROM 8.97kW SYSTEM(left) 5.67kW solar system on Front roof (right) 3.3kW solar system on Back roof Home solar energy… Continue Reading “Home Solar Energy Update”
Winter cold will reduce an EV’s maximum charge level, on a lithium-ion battery, by as much as 15-percent. Screen shots above: BOLT FULL CHARGE LEVELS(left) Warmer December 22, 2021 232 miles vs. (right) Colder January 12, 2022 199 miles Lessons Learned driving an electric… Continue Reading “All Charged Up”
At the end of an article about the increased use of coal yesterday, I noticed a comment from a familiar and anonymous name… a troll who has continually spewed lies and misinformation in multiple newspapers over the years, making feeble attempts to support fossil… Continue Reading “Sunny Outlook for Solar”
I got tired of messing around with gasoline, petrol as they call it outside the U.S., so it was time to convert our lawn and garden landscaping equipment to rechargeable units. It began with the snowthrower and has proceeded nicely from there! What I… Continue Reading “Ditching Gasoline for Rechargeables”
A recent story in the New York Times created a new hubbub over Callery Pears, specifically the popular ornamental Bradford Pear. The Bradford Pear was one of the trees we avoided planting in home landscapes, primarily due to its weak branching structure — those… Continue Reading “Whack That Bradford Pear”
A new threat to Pennsylvania is the SPOTTED LANTERNFLY (Lycorma delicatula) which is a one-inch-long, red, black and white planthopper that’s native to Southeast Asia and was first identified in Berks County, PA in 2014. What’s at stake with Spotted Lanternfly (SLF)? Your Maple… Continue Reading “Fear This Insect Pennsylvania!”
Fall weather has both extended the life of potted flowers on our deck and muted a colorful fall foliage season. Yin and yang. As darkening days remind us that winter is just around the corner, it’s lovely to still see colorful and full-grown potted… Continue Reading “Green to Halloween”
After years of observing the weather in our Pittsburgh area, October 10th became the average date for our first frost, marking the end of the growing season for frost-sensitive plants. It also marks the date to bring houseplants indoors. Recently, when I mentioned this… Continue Reading “First Frost”
The Pennsylvania Supreme Court declared earlier this year that “all proceeds from the sale of our public natural resources are part of the corpus of our environmental public trust” and that the environmental trustee obligations described in the state constitution apply to ALL levels and… Continue Reading “Public Parks as Cash Cows (no more)”
Imagine going into an art museum full of old masterpieces and laying waste to them with a chainsaw. Unthinkable, right? Now imagine those same masterpieces are living, breathing things, the last stalwarts standing tall against climate change. Yesterday’s story in the Seattle Times, B.C.… Continue Reading “Old Growth Forest Destruction”
One important job in the home landscape should never wait. Over the years, I’ve seen whitetail deer cause severe, life threatening damage to young trees. Damage to the main trunk of a tree occurs during deer mating season, which is commonly known as “the… Continue Reading “O Deer!”
In a hard-fought bid to make Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state to adopt a carbon pricing policy, Governor Tom Wolf’s plan to fight climate change passed its last regulatory hurdle yesterday with the IRRC (Independent Regulatory Review Commission). The 3-2 party-line vote… Continue Reading “One Step Forward”
In my battle against a yellowjacket nest that was dangerously close to our front sidewalk, a skunk (or raccoon) intervened to help clean-out the nest. I waited until well after dark the first night to spray the area under this ‘Little Gem’ Spruce with… Continue Reading “Skunk Assist”
When we added the first eleven solar panels to our roof three years ago, we also added a Tesla Powerwall 2 (lithium- ion) backup battery (rated at 14 kWh) to the mix. The greatest advantage to me, is the ability of our house to… Continue Reading “Household Battery Backup”
Along with Independence Day, Lightning Bugs, and the heat and humidity in western Pennsylvania, July brings back the Beetles! Not the singing type, more the chewing type. These buggers are primarily known for the lawn damage they cause, which seems especially noticeable on lawns… Continue Reading “Its the Beetles!”
It’s hard to believe that you can get a sunburn on a cloudy day, even though it’s true. Even harder to believe, is that you can produce solar energy on a rainy morning, but that’s also true! That’s right, even though it rained all… Continue Reading “Solar Energy In The Rain”
When we first landscaped our house, nearly 40 years ago, we made sure to plant a large growing Maple on the west side. That planting location came very close to the concept of planting a large deciduous tree on the southwest side of a… Continue Reading “Going Solar With Large Trees”