MVCAC July 2020

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What Mask ... ? Very sad commentary!
by Duane Nichols 19 Jul '20

19 Jul '20

THOUGHT FOR THE DAY – 19 JULY 2020 “Yield to temptation. It may not pass your way again.” Robert A. Heinlein KABLER — CORONA-12JulyY2K20 CHARLESTON GAZETTE 12 JULY 2020 Statehouse Beat: West Virginia needs to wake up to pandemic's threat By Phil Kabler Staff writer, Charleston Gazette, Jul 11, 2020 Leave it to West Virginia to turn a pandemic into a pandumbic. With its isolated location, lack of major metropolitan areas and nonexistent international travel, West Virginia had every advantage to ride through the pandemic relatively unscathed but blew it all in recent days by flouting the basics of controlling the spread of COVID-19, particularly through social distancing and wearing facemasks. After pleading for weeks for residents to voluntarily wear face coverings, Gov. Jim Justice on Monday ordered masks worn in public indoor settings and spent the remainder of the week pleading with people to actually follow the executive order. As noted here, West Virginians have been hardheaded before when it came to public health issues, such as mandatory seatbelts and indoor smoking bans. While there might have been some partisanship in both issues, it was nothing like the blatant partisan politics of today’s anti-maskers.

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Toxic Metal Air Pollution Nanoparticles Found Inside the "Powerhouses" of Heart Cells of City Dwellers
by Duane Nichols 07 Jul '20

07 Jul '20

https://www.technologynetworks.com/cell-science/news/toxic-metal-air-pollut… Toxic Metal Air Pollution Nanoparticles Found Inside the "Powerhouses" of Heart Cells of City Dwellers Reference: Maher, B., González-Maciel, A., Reynoso-Robles, R., Torres-Jardón, R., & Calderón-Garcidueñas, L. (2020). Iron-rich air pollution nanoparticles: An unrecognised environmental risk factor for myocardial mitochondrial dysfunction and cardiac oxidative stress. Environmental Research, 188, 109816. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.109816 Toxic metallic air pollution nanoparticles are getting inside the crucial, energy-producing structures within the hearts of people living in polluted cities, causing cardiac stress – a new study confirms. Using state-of-the-art electron microscopy, scientists are now able to show for the first time that tiny metal nanoparticles are getting inside the mitochondria of heart tissue – damaging these crucial ‘powerhouses’ that provide energy for the heart to pump. The research team, led by Professors Barbara Maher of Lancaster University and Lilian Calderón-Garcidueñas of The University of Montana and the Universidad del Valle de Mexico, found the metallic nanoparticles, which included iron-rich nanoparticles and other pollution-derived metals such as titanium, inside the damaged heart cells of a 26-year-old and even a three-year-old toddler. The hearts had belonged to people who had died in accidents and who had lived in highly-polluted Mexico City. The findings shed new light on how air pollution can cause the development of heart disease, as the iron-rich particles were associated with damage to the cells, and increased cardiac oxidative stress, even in these very young hearts. The repeated inhalation of these iron-rich nanoparticles, and their circulation by the bloodstream to the heart, may account for the well-established associations between exposure to particulate air pollution and increased cardiovascular disease, including heart attacks. The study indicates that heart disease can start in very early age, before progressing to full-blown cardiovascular illness later in life. This type of air pollution may thus be responsible for the ‘silent epidemic’ of heart disease, internationally. By causing pre-existing heart conditions, it may also account for some of the increased death rates from Covid-19 seen in areas with high levels of particulate air pollution. Professor Maher said: “It’s been known for a long time that people with high exposure to particulate air pollution experience increased levels and severity of heart disease. Our new work shows that iron-rich nanoparticles from air pollution can get right inside the millions of mitochondria inside our hearts…the structures which generate the energy needed for our hearts to pump properly. “That we found these metal particles inside the heart of even a three-year old indicates that we’re setting heart disease in train right from the earliest days, but only seeing its full, clinical effects in later life. It’s really urgent to reduce emissions of ultrafine particles from our vehicles and from industry, before we give heart disease to the next generation too.” The researchers, using high-resolution transmission electron microscopy and energy-dispersive X-ray analysis, found that the mitochondria containing the iron-rich nanoparticles appeared to be damaged, with some cells showing deformities and others with ruptured membranes. Professor Calderón-Garcidueñas stated that increased levels of markers of cardiac oxidative stress are present in the very young cases examined. The iron-rich nanoparticles found inside the heart cells are identical in size, shape and composition to those emitted from sources such as the exhausts, tyres and brakes of vehicles. These air pollution nanoparticles are also emitted by industrial sources as well as open fires in homes. Some of the iron-rich nanoparticles are also strongly magnetic. This raises concerns about what might happen when people with millions of these nanoparticles in their hearts are using appliances with associated magnetic fields, such as hair dryers and mobile phones. People who work in industries that mean they are exposed to magnetic fields such as welders and power line engineers may also be at risk. This kind of exposure could potentially lead to heart electrical dysfunction and cell damage. The findings builds on the researchers’ previous findings that show that the hearts of city dwellers contain billions of these nanoparticles and can be up to ten times more polluted than the hearts of people living in less polluted places. The researchers say their study underlines the need for governments across the world to tackle ultrafine particulate pollution in their cities. Professor Calderón-Garcidueñas said: “Exposure to such air pollution is a modifiable risk factor for cardiovascular disease, on a global scale, reinforcing the urgent need for individual and government actions not just to reduce PM2.5 but to monitor, regulate and reduce emissions of these specific, ultrafine components of the urban air pollution ‘cocktail’.” Reference: Maher, B., González-Maciel, A., Reynoso-Robles, R., Torres-Jardón, R., & Calderón-Garcidueñas, L. (2020). Iron-rich air pollution nanoparticles: An unrecognised environmental risk factor for myocardial mitochondrial dysfunction and cardiac oxidative stress. Environmental Research, 188, 109816. doi:10.1016/j.envres.2020.109816

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US utilities are skipping the gas ‘bridge’ in transition from coal to renewables | RenewEconomy
by Duane Nichols 06 Jul '20

06 Jul '20

https://reneweconomy.com.au/us-utilities-are-skipping-the-gas-bridge-in-tra… US utilities are skipping the gas ‘bridge’ in transition from coal to renewables Last week was a momentous one in the U.S. utility sector’s transition from fossil fuels to renewable power generation. Utilities in three states announced plans to close one or more of their coal plants and build new renewables—without adding any new gas-fired generation to serve as a “bridge.” Two of the three proposals, from Tucson Electric Power (TEP), in Arizona, and Colorado Springs Utilities (CSU), are part of comprehensive resource plans that outline the two companies’ intentions to transition to lower-carbon generation resources. Such plans have become increasingly common across the U.S. utility sector, but the TEP and CSU proposals are markedly different as they do not rely on the construction of new gas-fired generation to support the transition. The third proposal, an agreement between JEA, the municipal utility serving Jacksonville, Fla., and Florida Power & Light, will rely on existing gas and new solar to enable the companies to retire the 860 megawatt (MW) Unit 4 at Plant Scherer, which is the largest coal-fired power plant in the U.S. with a combined operating capacity of 3,440MW. TEP’s proposal, included in its 2020 integrated resource plan, calls for the closure of all its coal-fired generation by 2031, which will result in the shuttering of Units 1 and 2 at the Springerville Generating Station. TEP owns 100% of those units, which have a combined summer generation capacity of 793MW; it also serves as the operator of the entire four-unit plant. Unit 3 is owned by Tri-State Generation and Transmission Association, and Unit 4 is owned by the Salt River Project. TEP also owns portions of the San Juan Generating Station and the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico, both of which already had announced closure dates of 2022 and 2031, respectively. To replace this capacity, TEP said, it will add 2,457MW of new wind and solar generation, including 457MW within the coming year. It will also add 1,400MW of battery storage to its portfoliio to firm its new renewable generation resources and provide system-wide reliability. What the company is decidedly not proposing is any new gas-fired generation: “Even with the future planned retirement of 1,073MW of coal capacity and 225MW of natural gas capacity, TEP’s Preferred Portfolio does not inlcude the addition of any new fossil-fuel resources,” the company wrote. Figure 1- TEP’s Plan: Plenty of Renewables and Storage, No New Fossil Fuels It is worth noting that Springerville is not an old coal station. TEP’s two Springerville units came online in 1985 and 1990, and have been strong performers. Unit 1’s capacity factor over the past seven years has averaged 67.9% while Unit 2 has been even higher at 73.4%—both well above the national average of 54.4%. Still, as TEP acknowledged in its IRP, “the economics of coal-fired generation have shifted…they are no longer the lowest cost resources for energy supply.” Up until recently, the easy option for utilities would have been to propose using gas to replace coal. But not any longer: Rising concerns about climate change and continuing reductions in wind, solar and battery storage costs coupled with improved performance have altered the playing field. TEP’s plan charts a new path, promising to cut its carbon dioxide emissions by 80 percent by 2035 while keeping costs low and supply reliable through its planned renewable energy buildout. Reductions in the cost of wind, solar and batteries have altered the playing field “We’re accelerating our transition to cleaner energy resources through a cost-effective plan that supports reliable and affordable service from increasingly sustainable resources,” Tuscon Electric Power CEO David Hutchens said when the plan was released. “We’ll be reducing carbon emissions at a pace that places us at the forefront of global efforts to combat climate change.” The plan put forward by Colorado Springs Utilities follows a similar approach. There, the utility board approved plans to exit coal-fired generation entirely by 2030, helping to achieve an 80 percent reduction in its carbon emissions in the coming decade. Under the plan, CSU will close the 208MW Martin Drake Power Plant no later than 2023 and the similarly sized Ray Nixon plant in 2030. As with TEP, Colorado Springs will replace the lost coal capacity with renewable energy resources. Specifically, the utility’s plan calls for the construction of 500MW of new wind generation, 150MW of solar and more than 400MW of battery storage capacity. To enable the early retirement of the Drake plant, the utility acknowledged that it will install temporary natural gas generators at the site “to ensure system reliability.” But those units will be removed as new transmission projects are completed in the years ahead. The agreement struck between FPL, a subsidiary of NextEra Energy, and JEA is an outgrowth of the Florida utility’s long-term goal to exit coal-fired generation. FPL owns 76.4% of Scherer Unit 4 while JEA owns the remainder. FPL told Florida regulators in its 10-year site plan filed in April that it intended to retire its share of the 31-year-old unit by January 2022, essentially forcing JEA to act. JEA could have sought out a new partner for the unit, and according to published reports there was some interest among financiers. But that option did not appeal to JEA’s leadership, as JEA Vice Chairman Robert Stein pointed out when the retirement deal was announced: “We would be a minority partner with a hedge fund, and their interestes were not in line with us.” Probably more important is that Scherer simply is no longer economic, as JEA acting CEO Paul McElroy noted in materials presented to the utility’s board of directors. “While the Scherer units have long been low-cost generating units, changes in the natural gas market now make Scherer the highest-cost dispatch unit in JEA’s fleet.” To replace JEA’s 198MW share of the unit’s output, the two utilities signed a long-term, fixed price power purchase agreement under which FPL will sell electricity to JEA from one of its existing gas-fired generation units. The agreement includes an option at the 10-year mark for JEA to switch to solar power. FPL has removed a large new combined-cycle plant that had been planned for completion in 2026 As with the TEP and CSU announcements, this agreement does not depend on any new gas-fired generation being built—either by FPL or JEA—despite the sizable amount of generation being taken offline. Much of the reason for that, in turn, is the roughly 7,300MW of new solar capacity FPL is planning to build in its service territory through 2029. The utility has several gas plant upgrades planned for the years ahead, but a large new combined-cycle plant that had been in previous 10-year plans for completion in 2026 has been removed from the 2020 submission. Finally, a plan put forth last week by staff at the New Mexico Public Regulation Commission regarding the future capacity needs of the Public Service Company of New Mexico recommends a similar gas-free transition. The plan is different from the ones in Arizona, Colorado, and Florida in that it is being promoted by regulators rather than utility companies, but it stands to have the same effect. It is meant to ensure the utility has sufficient capacity resources following its planned retirement of the remaining two units at the San Juan Generating Station in 2022. PNM owns 560MW of the plant’s 847MW capacity. To cover lost capacity, staff backed a plan that would have PNM build 650MW of new solar and 300MW of battery storage. PNM had already backed a plan that would have included 280MW of new gas-fired capacity. The issue now heads to the full commission for a decision. While the PNM decision remains unresolved, what is clear is that transitioning from coal to renewables can be done now, cost effectively and reliably, without an interim shift to gas. Source: IEEFA. Reproduced with permission.

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Mask up and keep your distance ......across WV and beyond ....
by Duane Nichols 06 Jul '20

06 Jul '20

Update from Delegate Barbara Evans Fleischauer, Monongalia County, July 6, 2020 WV GOVERNOR JUST ORDERED MANDATORY MASK IN CONFINED SPACES. CHILDREN UNDER 9 EXCEPTED. TAKES EFFECT THIS EVENING AT MIDNITE. According to Gov. Justice, positive cases have shot up, and because West Virginia has more vulnerable people than any other state, we will "be in a world of hurt if we don't do this now." Dr. Clay Marsh said we have the seventh-highest R2 rate in the country, and a 234% increase in positive cases. Justice said is not the popular thing to do, but in his mind "it's the only thing" under the circumstances .....

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Air Pollutants, PFAS Increase Coronavirus Deaths
by Duane Nichols 02 Jul '20

02 Jul '20

https://theintercept.com/2020/06/26/coronavirus-toxic-chemicals-pfas-bpa/?u… Scientists Pin Blame for Some Coronavirus Deaths on Air Pollution, PFAS, and Other Chemicals Sharon Lerner June 26 2020, 12:27 p.m. Almost six months into the coronavirus pandemic, it’s already clear that environmental pollution is responsible for some portion of the hundreds of thousands of Covid-19 deaths around the world. Now scientists are trying to pinpoint how exactly industrial chemicals make people more susceptible to the coronavirus and how much of the blame for the devastation wrought by the new coronavirus should be laid at the feet of the industry that produces those chemicals. The link between Covid-19 and air pollution is particularly strong. A study set to publish in July linked six air pollutants in 120 Chinese cities with cases of the viral disease. Researchers in Italy have also shown that long-term exposure to air pollution is “significantly correlated with cases of Covid-19” in up to 71 provinces in that country. And a study that used data from California, set to publish in Environmental Research in August, showed that the air pollutants PM2.5, PM 10, nitrogen dioxide, carbon monoxide, and sulfur dioxide were associated with coronavirus infections. The authors of that study concluded that reducing exposure to these pollutants “will contribute to defeating COVID-19.” Scientists have even managed to measure the precise harm that a single microgram/cubic meter increase in air pollution has on a population, which, according to researchers from the Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health, is “an 8% increase in mortality from COVID-19.” While alarming, these findings aren’t surprising, according to Linda Birnbaum, the former director of the National Institutes for Environmental Health Sciences and the National Toxicology Program, who stepped down last year. “Everything in our health is determined by our environment,” she said. In addition to air pollutants, Birnbaum pointed to the potential for endocrine-disrupting chemicals to make people more vulnerable to Covid-19. Among them are BPA and its replacements; phthalates, which are found in makeup, nail polish, and plastics, particularly food packaging; and PFAS, a class of industrial contaminants most famously used to make Teflon and other nonstick products. Exposure to even very small amounts of these chemicals has been linked with conditions that have been shown to make Covid-19 worse. Phthalates are associated with damage to lungs and obesity, as well as to diabetes, the second most common underlying condition in people who die of Covid-19, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. BPA, which is often added to food packaging and drink bottles, is also linked to obesity, as well as asthma and diabetes. PFAS, which also interferes with the functioning of the endocrine system, has been shown to cause several underlying conditions that leave people more vulnerable to Covid-19. People with higher levels of PFAS in their bodies are more likely to gain weight and have a harder time losing it. The chemicals not only increase obesity risk in those exposed, but also in the granddaughters of women who were exposed. And PFAS is associated with asthma and hypertension, two other conditions that appear to worsen people’s chances of surviving Covid-19. PFAS causes kidney disease and elevates levels of cholesterol and other fats in the blood, which also increase the chances that people with Covid-19 will be hospitalized or need intensive care. Read Our Complete CoverageThe Coronavirus Crisis The vast majority of people who die of Covid-19 had at least one other illness before they got sick from the virus. Compared to people who didn’t have underlying conditions, patients who had kidney disease, diabetes, lung disease, and heart disease, among other conditions, are six times as likely to be hospitalized with Covid-19 and 12 times as likely to die, according to the most recent data from the CDC. In addition to causing medical problems that make people more vulnerable to the coronavirus, several environmental contaminants, including PFAS, also directly weaken the body’s immune response. Studies have shown that in both adults and children higher levels of certain PFAS chemicals were associated with weaker responses to vaccines. The Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry, a division of the CDC, recognized this evidence in an announcement it recently posted to its website on the “potential intersection between PFAS exposure and Covid-19.” With the pre-pandemic knowledge of the effects of individual chemicals and the maps showing that Covid-19 is ravaging polluted areas, the next step for researchers is to address how exactly chemicals make individual people more susceptible to Covid-19. “We now know pollution is associated with increased infections and more hospitalizations,” said Birnbaum. “So it has a role. The question is how much of a role and how do you show that an individual is getting sick is because they have higher levels?” Read our complete coverageBad Chemistry Philippe Grandjean, a Danish scientist who was the first to show that children with relatively high PFAS levels had immune deficits and were more likely to get respiratory infections, has already begun to try to answer this question. Grandjean is in the process of collecting blood samples of people who were hospitalized with Covid-19 — “just a few drops of the serum from leftover blood samples that hadn’t been used” — analyzing them for PFAS levels, and comparing them with PFAS levels from the blood of people who were infected with the coronavirus but not hospitalized. “We really need to understand the connection between exposures at the individual level and Covid-19 severity,” Grandjean said. While noting that several environmental contaminants likely increase the risk of the disease, Grandjean expressed particular concern about PFAS compounds because they can remain in the body for years and some of them tend to concentrate in the lungs. Grandjean, who is conducting the research in Denmark, hopes to have results of the study within the year. Others are using animal experiments to explore how chemical exposure affects the impact of the coronavirus. Paige Lawrence, a professor of environmental medicine at the University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry, plans to infect mice with a mouse-adapted human coronavirus that was built from the 2003 SARS pandemic and study how exposure to PFAS alters the course of the viral infection. “We need to understand at a cellular level what’s changed” by chemical exposure, she said. “We can’t improve health if we don’t know what we’re trying to fix.” Lawrence’s past research has shown that the environmental contaminants dioxin and PCBs change the immune system by binding to receptor cells — an effect that, in the case of dioxin, lasts for generations. While the research is underway, many of the people in highly polluted communities worry about the greater risk they may face during the pandemic. “I think about it a lot,” said Hope Grosse, a resident of Warminster, Pennsylvania, who developed stage 4 cancer while drinking water that had been contaminated with PFAS from firefighting foam used at a nearby naval base. “My immune system was definitely impacted.” Grosse, who had 25 lymph nodes removed during her cancer treatment, resumed her work as a realtor last month and wears gloves and a mask when she shows houses. “I’m as careful as I can be, but I still worry,” she said. Whatever we learn from the research now in the pipeline, some scientists say there is already enough evidence to lay blame for at least a portion of the toll of the virus on chemicals — and their manufacturers. “Endocrine-disrupting chemicals are clearly involved in driving the comorbidities and are heightening mortality risk from Covid-19,” said Pete Myers, founder and chief scientist of Environmental Health Sciences. “You can’t hide from that truth.” Myers is one of several environmental scientists who have been pushing for more than a decade — with little success — for government to limit the use of these chemicals. “The American Chemistry Council has impeded our ability to develop meaningful regulations,” said Myers, referring to a powerful chemical industry trade group. “And the result of that is that these comorbidities have become epidemic over the last three decades. And now more people are dying than would have.”

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Should Greenhouse Gas (GHG) Pipelines Cross National Forests & Appalachian Trail
by Duane Nichols 01 Jul '20

01 Jul '20

From the Friends of Nelson in Nelson County, Virginia, where Skyline Drive and the Blue Ridge Parkway cross Interstate 64 at the Appalachian Trail. From Allegheny-Blue Ridge Alliance's ABRA Update #282, June 25, 2020 The U.S. Forest Service has been cautioned that it should not depend upon the reliability of the Final Environmental Impact Statement (FEIS) for the Atlantic Coast Pipeline (ACP) developed in 2017 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) as the agency develops a Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement (SEIS) for the project. The Forest Service announced on June 11 that it was developing a SEIS in response to the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals’ vacating of the Forest Service permit for the ACP. While one portion of that opinion (e.g. authority to grant the ACP the right to cross the Appalachian Trail) was overturned on June 15 by the U.S. Supreme Court, several deficiencies in the permit for the ACP are required to be remedied by the Forest Service before it can issue the ACP a new permit. The Southern Environmental Law Center (SELC) stated in a June 22 letter to the Forest Service: The Forest Service cannot continue to rely on FERC’s obsolete FEIS. The original analyses of potential alternatives to the project and the environmental consequences of its risky and costly preferred route are in question. Significant, new and relevant information related to endangered and threatened species, water quality, landslides and slope failures, environmental justice communities, and climate change demonstrates the original analysis is stale and incapable of allowing effective review of the environmental consequences of the project. Meanwhile, the energy landscape of the region the ACP purports to serve also has transformed dramatically, the costs of the project have ballooned, and its timeline has been pushed back. A motion was filed with FERC on May 30 by SELC, Appalachian Mountain Advocates and the Chesapeake Bay Foundation asking that FERC conduct an SEIS for the ACP to address significant new information bearing on the project’s environmental impacts. Read more here: https://www.abralliance.org/2020/06/05/ferc-is-asked-to-conduct-supplementa…

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MVCAC July 2020