Biden administration approves limited development of Alaska's Willow oil project

[BumRushDaShow]

57. Thank you for that link! (again sorry to unload the below as a reply but I use for later reference)

From that article at your link -

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Methane is a colorless, odorless, highly flammable gas. High levels of methane can reduce the amount of oxygen breathed from the air and can result in vision problems, memory loss, nausea, vomiting, facial flushing and headache.

Across much of California, fossil fuel companies are leaving thousands of oil and gas wells unplugged and idle, potentially threatening the health of people living nearby and in many cases handing taxpayers the bill for the environmental cleanup.

From Kern County to Los Angeles, companies haven’t set aside anywhere near enough money to ensure these drilling sites are cleaned up and made safe, according to a 2020 data analysis and investigation by the Los Angeles Times and the Center for Public Integrity.

Of particular concern are about 35,000 wells sitting idle, with production suspended, half of them for more than a decade. Though California recently toughened its regulations to ensure more cleanup funds are available, those measures don’t go far enough, according to a recent state report and the Times/Public Integrity analysis.

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THIS is what needs to be focused on - getting the fossil fuel industry's leftover, unmaintained, and broken infrastructure out of the urban areas.

IMHO instead complaining about drilling in the middle of nowhere in the Alaskan tundra in the Arctic Circle, the environmental movement needs to demand the removal and remediation of the poison wells in the middle of urban minority neighborhoods.

Another example that was akin to what happened in East Palestine, OH after that train derailment and tanker leaks/explosions, but probably hundreds of times worse - was a huge explosion at the now-closed PES refinery down in South Philly (NOT a rural area full of MAGats like East Palestine, OH, but adjacent to dense city neighborhoods) -

PES was the oldest and largest oil refinery on the east coast before that explosion and closure. Most of the refineries here have now all been pretty much shut down and were some of the few that processed sweet oil.



Anyone who grew up in Philly and who either lived in or made the trip down to South Philly to the stadiums/arenas or even to the airport, drove by the huge oil refineries that lined the Delaware River near where the Schuylkill River emptied into it. It was the standard joke that when on the expressway that runs adjacent to the refinery (I-76), you had to roll up your car windows or else gag on the rotten egg (or worse) fumes.

Commodities News
February 16, 2021 6:01 AM Updated 2 years ago
150 years of spills: Philadelphia refinery cleanup highlights toxic legacy of fossil fuels

By Laila Kearney, Valerie Volcovici


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SURPRISES IN A TOXIC SOUP

Oil refining at the Philadelphia site began in 1870, 100 years before the creation of the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Gasoline, once a worthless byproduct of heating oil, was routinely dumped by the refinery into the soil, according to historians and researchers.

Leaks and accidents spewed more toxins. The June 2019 blasts alone released 676,000 pounds of hydrocarbons, PES said at the time. The Philadelphia site is not unique. About half of America’s 450,000 polluted former industrial and commercial sites are contaminated with petroleum, according to the EPA. “That’s one of the reasons that a lot of these refineries have been kept going for such a long time,” said Fred Quivik, a Minnesota-based industrial historian. “They’re so contaminated, it’s hard to figure out what else to do with them.”

Cleanup in Philadelphia will be painstaking. After asbestos abatement comes the demolition and removal of 3,000 tanks and vessels, along with more than 100 buildings and other infrastructure, the company said. Then comes the ground itself. Hilco’s Perez said dirt quality varies widely on the site and will have to be handled differently depending on contamination levels.

Clearing toxins like lead must be done with chemical rinses or other technologies, said Charles Haas, professor of environmental engineering at Drexel University in Philadelphia. The site also has polluted groundwater and giant benzene pools lurking underneath, according to environmental reports Sunoco filed over the years with the federal and state governments.

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https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-energy-refinery-cleanup-insight/150-years-of-spills-philadelphia-refinery-cleanup-highlights-toxic-legacy-of-fossil-fuels-idUSKBN2AG12O

That PES facility (which used to be owned by Sunoco) alone had churned out twice as much as Willow is supposedly expected to produce.

Just found this article too -

Green
How to Tear Down an Oil Refinery in the Middle of Philadelphia

There are some 130 aging oil refineries in the U.S., most of which will need to be decommissioned if the country is to meet its climate goals.

By Josh Saul
September 30, 2021

After part of the Philadelphia Energy Solutions refinery exploded into flames one night in 2019, its owners filed for bankruptcy and put the 1,300-acre site up for sale. Hilco Global, a company with a track record of transforming fossil-fuel infrastructure like coal-fired power plants, bought the South Philadelphia facility out of bankruptcy with a grand new vision that includes logistics facilities and research labs.

But first the company has a daunting task: safely dismantling over 100 buildings, 3,000 tanks and 950 miles of dirty pipeline.

The Problem

Oil refining has taken place on the banks of the Schuylkill River since just after the Civil War. By the time the explosion scattered debris across the site and even over the river, the PES Oil Refinery was turning 330,000 barrels of crude day into gasoline, diesel and other petroleum products such as heating oil and jet fuel.

Right now, some parts of the PES Oil Refinery have the feel of a ghost town. Weeds sprout head-high among the pipelines, Canada geese strut down empty roads and small herds of deer bound past a silent railyard. But other parts are bustling with workers and big, yellow excavators as Hilco enters the second year of taking apart equipment and preparing the site for construction. The first tenants are supposed to move into the site in 2023.

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https://www.bloomberg.com/features/2021-decommissioned-philadelphia-oil-refinery/

Justice
A Vast Refinery Site in Philadelphia Is Being Redeveloped and Called ‘The Bellwether District.’ But for Black Residents Nearby, Justice Awaits

Three years after a fire and explosion shuttered what was once the East Coast’s largest refinery, toxic benzene continued leaking well into the cleanup.

By Victoria St. Martin
July 4, 2022


One minute, the 3-year-old was playing tag in the grass—her braided hair bouncing with each step—while the hulking remains of a 150-year-old oil refinery loomed nearby. Then, suddenly, she couldn’t breathe. Many residents here in the Grays Ferry section of Philadelphia live with asthma and other chronic health conditions that they, advocates and even some medical experts attribute to the close proximity of the former Philadelphia Energy Solutions Refinery, which was destroyed in an explosion in June 2019 and closed shortly afterward.

Now, at a recent gathering of her neighbors and environmentalists in a local park to celebrate the refinery’s closure, the toddler was experiencing an asthma attack. When an inhaler offered no relief, family members rushed her to a nearby hospital where she was treated, released and made a full recovery.

“Look at all the damage that’s been done,” the toddler’s grandmother, Sheryl Russell, 45, said of the health ailments that many residents trace to the refinery. “And it’s, like, where do they pay? They need to pay for that.”

The closure of the 1,300-acre refinery here—once the largest on the East Coast—had been cheered as a major victory for those working at the intersection of equity, social justice and environmentalism. Yet in the three years since the refinery closed, the kind of sustained change sought by residents and environmental activists has proved elusive.

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https://insideclimatenews.org/news/04072022/philadelphia-refinery-health-black-residents/

Again sorry for dumping here but I had to speak my peace.