On July 20, the Clean Air Board and the Clean Air Council submitted joint comments to DEP on its 2026 Air Monitoring Network Plan. The comments noted that there were no DEP monitoring stations located downwind of new data centers and requested DEP include in its plans measures to monitor for pollutants, including PM2.5, NO2, VOCs, and HAPs from these hyperscale data centers, Read the full comments.
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New York Times, July 24, 2024
Research showed truck-related releases of nitrogen dioxide, which can cause asthma, concentrated around some 150,000 warehouses nationwide. Read more …
Warehouses As an Environmental Justice Issue
August 29, 2017
by Quan Yuan
When we think of locally undesirable land uses, we often think of large power plants, puffing single plumes of pollution. But many plumes of pollution from trucks traveling to and from warehouses can have equally large impacts on health. Read more …
Warehouses worsen local air pollution
Truck traffic associated with the facilities increases NO2 by 20%, study finds
August 7, 2024
Warehouses in the US worsen local air pollution, according to a new study. Using satellite data to study the air quality around nearly 150,000 warehouses, researchers found that nitrogen dioxide levels were 20% higher near warehouses, on average, compared to upwind locations mainly because of the trucks that frequent and idle at these facilities (Nat. Commun. 2024, DOI: 10.1038/s41467-024-50000-0). Read more . . ,
The Commonwealth Court just dealt a blow to Pennsylvania’s plan of joining the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a cap-and-invest program that would reduce climate pollution and invest in local communities.
Given that Pennsylvania is the nation’s fourth largest emitter of carbon dioxide, joining RGGI would help reduce climate-warming emissions and support climate change initiatives.
It’s imperative that Governor Shapiro act quickly and appeal this decision to the state Supreme Court. Send a message to the Governor to voice your support for RGGI and urge him to appeal the decision.
RGGI would require regulated fossil fuel power plants to purchase allowances for the carbon emissions they produce. These funds can then go towards projects like renewable energy development, clean energy job programs, and more energy efficient buildings.
RGGI currently includes 11 participating states and has a proven track record of reducing emissions while jumpstarting climate change initiatives. Although Pennsylvania officially entered into RGGI in April 2022, multiple lawsuits and proposed anti-RGGI legislation have caused Pennsylvania to miss out on over 1.5 billion dollars in RGGI proceeds.
This recent Commonwealth Court ruling found RGGI allowances to be a tax, thereby making the implementation of RGGI unconstitutional unless it is done through the legislative process. Nevertheless, as the Governor’s RGGI Working Group memo concluded, RGGI still remains the best option for creating jobs, tackling climate change, and ensuring affordable energy. Governor Shapiro has 30 days to appeal to the state Supreme Court.
Tell Governor Shapiro that Pennsylvanians want RGGI. The Governor must act now and continue supporting RGGI as the best way forward in reducing climate-warming emissions and investing in Pennsylvania.
For every thousand people alive on earth, 973 are regularly inhaling toxins. Only 27 are not. Which means, almost certainly, you are too.
Last fall, the World Health Organization lowered its global air quality standard from 10 micrograms of particulate matter per cubic meter to five. Those terms and standards can feel abstract, which makes their meaning a bit hard to fathom. Read more . . .
U.S. pollution regulations meant to protect people from dirty air are also saving North America’s birds, according to a new study. Improved air quality under a federal program to reduce ozone pollution may have averted the loss of 1.5 billion birds during the past 40 years, the study found. That’s nearly 20% of bird life in the United States today. Read more.
Washington Post, July 14, 2020. By Dino Grandino. More than a dozen states are teaming up to boost sales of pickup trucks, school buses and big rigs that run entirely on electricity and do not pump climate-warming pollution into the air. Leaders from Massachusetts, New Jersey, New York, North Carolina, Pennsylvania and 10 other states, […]
June 24, 2020 – The Clean Air Board testified at an Environmental Quality Board hearing on DEP’s proposed rules to reduce hydrocarbons and methane leaks from existing oil and gas operations. CAB asked that certain exemptions be removed from the proposed rules. Read CAB’s methane rule comments
