Not a good year for Mother Earth

As I look back on my columns from this year, I wish I could say we won some of the battles. Unfortunately I cannot say that. Instead, I am hoping things will be better in the future for the state of Ohio, the country and the world.

Only people can push positive agendas forward; do not depend on elected leaders or regulatory agencies to look out for your health and well-being or the environment.

The very toxic compounds, (perfluorooctanoic acid) PFOAs, are once again in the news. These are the compounds used in making Teflon-coated surfaces.

This month the movie “Dark Waters” was released. This film is based on the true story of lawyer Robert Bilott, who took on the DuPont Company. The film illustrates how a multi-national corporation knowingly and willingly allowed thousands of citizens in the Parkersburg, West Virginia region to be poisoned by these compounds.

PFOAs are now so ubiquitous in our environment that every living organism tested has been found to contain some amount of this man-made compound in their body or blood.

PFOA is a known carcinogen and has caused birth defects in women exposed to the compound while working at the companies where it was manufactured. Known as “forever chemicals” because they fail to break down, these compounds have now been found in rainwater all over the U.S.

Recently provisions to address PFOAs were stripped out of the National Defense Authorization Act.

House Bill 6, the bill referred to as the worst energy bill of the 21st century, was passed and signed into law. The bill was basically another bailout for First Energy Solutions, a subsidiary of Akron-based First Energy. Ohio’s taxpayers will pay over $200 million to rescue two aging nuclear power plants and two coal-fired plants: one in Ohio and one in Indiana.

This bill also will roll back the state’s clean-energy regulations.

First Energy has, according to an article in the Cleveland Scene, “contributed extensively to political campaigns including $62,000 to Gov. DeWine.”

The company also spent $2.7 million in 2018 on PR firms and lobbying state officials to support HB 6. Generation Now, a secretive political money group, spent an additional $4.6 million on ads to support the bill’s passage.

The notorious anti-protest bill, SB 33, also known as the Critical Infrastructure Protection Act, is still winding its way through the legislature with a possible vote in the house by early 2020.

The bill, like many others being passed across the nation, aims to block free speech. The American Legislative Exchange Council and Ohio’s Republican legislators are engaged with the goal of passing this bill.

ALEC is an organization funded by sources including corporations, corporate trade groups and corporate foundations whose goal is the advancement of their corporate interests.

The Center for Media and Democracy said of ALEC, “Bills pushed by ALEC corporations work to undermine environmental protections, limit the ability of local government to manage land use and protect corporate polluters.”

A recent article published in PR Watch pointed to the “cozy connection” 41 of Ohio’s GOP legislative members have with ALEC. One of the bill’s sponsors and my state senator, 30th District Frank Hoagland, is a member of ALEC.

There are two bills, HB 242 and HB 222, that seek to stop communities from banning the use of plastic grocery bags and other single-use plastic items. HB 242 was passed last week. The bill and its companion HB 222 would pre-empt “municipal home rule related to the taxation of single-use plastic bags and auxiliary containers.”

The Ohio Constitution “grants local governments home rule to pass local laws and regulations.” My representative, Don Jones of District 95, was one of the bill’s sponsors. I suspect the possible construction of a plastic-making cracker plant in Belmont County has something to do with these bills “banning bag bans.”

Last winter the Ohio House of Representatives passed legislation that allows radioactive fracking waste produced from vertical wells to be used in road de-icing materials across the state. This waste contains Radium-226 and Radium-228, water-soluble isotopes that are known human carcinogens.

A recent Columbus Dispatch article said, “Samples tested showed the amount of radiation in picocuries ranged from 66-9,602.” Ohio law allows no more than “0.005 picocuries of radium per liter of oil and gas wastes placed in landfills.”

The waste also is being used in a de-icing product available in local hardware stores. It is called AquaSalina and is described as being “produced from ancient seas.” The half-life for these radioactive isotopes is 1,600 years.

The Falcon pipeline, which will supply Shell’s plastic-making cracker plant in Monaca, Pennsylvania with ethane gas from Harrison, Carroll and Jefferson counties, is currently being constructed.

The decision on whether or not an additional plastic cracker plant will be built in Belmont County is still pending. However, Gov. DeWine met with the officials and potential investors from PTT Global last week. He has not replied to repeated requests to meet with members of Concerned Ohio River Residents.

It has not been a good year for Mother Earth or human health. One positive event that occurred this year was Greta Thunberg being named as Time Magazine’s Person of the Year for 2019. The editor cited her ability to call attention to climate change and galvanize the youth movement with Fridays for a Future as major reasons for her selection.

Ironically the current leader of U.S. saw fit to mock the award and attempted to denigrate this brave 16-year-old woman. He also has started the process of withdrawing the United States from the Paris Agreement.

We do not need a piece of paper to do what we know is right when it comes to the planet and our children’s futures.

Join me next year by putting pressure on our leaders and speaking truth to power.

Happy New Year.