For far too long, families across this country living near coal ash sites have been living under a cloud of fear, worrying that their children were at risk because they played outside breathing in coal ash dust or made pitchers of lemonade with water from the tap. Hopefully, that's all about to change.
If you haven't watched the 60 Minutes story, you should check it out online. Through interviews with the CEO of Duke Energy, the governor of North Carolina and environmental advocates, the piece makes it starkly clear why the status quo has failed us when it comes to protecting our drinking water from toxic coal ash. Leaving coal ash management up to the states has had tragic consequences for millions of Americans, from North Carolina to Tennessee.
However, 60 Minutes did leave out one big part of the story—just how widespread the coal ash problem is across the U.S. As you can see in our interactive map here, there are more than 1,400 coal ash disposal sites across the country. More than 500 of those are ponds and other wet storage facilities, long recognized as the worst possible way to dispose of coal ash, contain a witches' brew of toxic substances like mercury, lead and arsenic.
Our fellow Americans living near these coal ash sites are frightened for the safety of their drinking water and the air they breathe. That's why a half million people weighed in with the EPA to support strong coal ash safeguards, why thousands turned out to the EPA hearings on the protections and hundreds have taken time out of there lives to come to Washington DC to ask for strong protections since first proposed back in 2010.
If you want to see just how long we've been working toward this final standard, check out this photo of me and my then-newborn daughter at the Charlotte coal ash hearing back in 2010. She's now a preschooler with a full head of hair and a major princesses/fairy/ballerina obsession!
At long last, the eve of the final standard is here, and the big question is whether or not it will be strong enough to safeguard our health. We don’t know what the final standard will look like, but when we review it, here are some of the questions we’ll be asking:
- Are lined and covered landfills required for coal ash storage?
- Does the standard require cleanup of existing coal ash sites, or are they grandfathered in and exempt from the standard?
- What are the standards for processing coal ash at power plants?
- Will there be monitoring of coal ash sites?
- Is the standard federally enforceable?
It's crazy, but it's true—the banana peel you throw away is, once taken to the landfill, subject to better safeguards than the toxic waste that comes from the boilers of coal-fired power plants. Enough is enough. This week, we're looking to EPA and the Obama Administration to close that loophole once and for all, and ensure our air and water are safe.
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"Now that we are spending more time at home, we are noticing the large number of delivery vans and lorries driving through cities," said Netherlands environment minister Stientje van Veldhoven, announcing plans to ban all but zero-emission deliveries in 14 cities.
"The agreements we are setting down will ensure that it will be a matter of course that within a few years, supermarket shelves will be stocked, waste will be collected, and packages will arrive on time, yet without any exhaust fumes and CO2 emissions," she added.
She expects 30 cities to announce zero emission urban logistics by this summer. City councils must give four years' notice before imposing bans as part of government plans for emission-free road traffic by 2050. The city bans aim to save 1 megaton of CO2 each year by 2030.
Help to Change
To encourage transport organizations to go carbon-free, the government is offering grants of more than US$5,900 to help businesses buy or lease electric vehicles. There will be additional measures to help small businesses make the change.
The Netherlands claims it is the first country in the world to give its cities the freedom to implement zero-emission zones. Amsterdam, Rotterdam and Utrecht already have "milieuzones" where some types of vehicles are banned.
Tilburg, one of the first wave of cities imposing the Dutch ban, will not allow fossil-fuelled vehicles on streets within its outer ring road and plans to roll out a network of city-wide electric vehicle charging stations before the ban comes into effect in 2025.
"Such initiatives are imperative to improve air quality. The transport of the future must be emission-free, sustainable, and clean," said Tilburg city alderman Oscar Dusschooten.
Europe Takes Action
Research by Renault shows that many other European cities are heading in the same direction as the Netherlands, starting with Low Emission Zones of which Germany's "Umweltzone" were pioneers. More than 100 communes in Italy have introduced "Zonas a traffico limitato."
Madrid's "zona de baja emisión" bans diesel vehicles built before 2006 and petrol vehicles from before 2000 from central areas of the city. Barcelona has similar restrictions and the law will require all towns of more than 50,000 inhabitants to follow suit.
Perhaps the most stringent restrictions apply in London's Ultra Low Emission Zone (ULEZ), which charges trucks and large vehicles up to US$137 a day to enter the central area if they do not comply with Euro 6 emissions standards. From October, the ULEZ is being expanded.
Cities are responsible for around 75% of CO2 emissions from global final energy use, according to the green thinktank REN21 - and much of these come from transport. Globally, transport accounts for 24% of world CO2 emissions.
The Rise of Online Shopping
Part of the reason for traffic in urban areas is the increase in delivery vehicles, as online shopping continues to grow. Retailer ecommerce sales are expected to pass $5billion in 2022, according to eMarketer.
The World Economic Forum's report The Future of the Last-Mile Ecosystem, published in January 2020, estimates that e-commerce will increase the number of delivery vehicles on the roads of the world's 100 largest cities by 36% by 2030.
If all those vehicles burn fossil fuels, the report says emissions will increase by 32%. But switching to all-electric delivery vehicles would cut emissions by 30% from current levels as well as reducing costs by 25%, the report says.
Other solutions explored in the report include introducing goods trams to handle deliveries alongside their passenger-carrying counterparts and increased use of parcel lockers to reduce the number of doorstep deliveries.
Reposted with permission from the World Economic Forum.