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NONPROFIT U.S. POSTAGE PAID PHILADELPHIA, PA PERMIT NO. 6602 Since 1967, Protecting Everyones Right to Breathe Clean Air
Philadelphia Office
135 S. 19th Street, Suite 300 Philadelphia, PA 19103 215.567.4004
Executive Director
Joseph Otis Minott, Esq.

News and Information for Members of Clean Air Council

Staff
Thurm Brendlinger Mike Brown, Esq. Nadav Carmel Eric Cheung, Esq. Anthony DiSorbo Jay Duffy, Esq. Katie Edwards Katie Feeney Mariko Franz Martin Hage John Lee Abby Poses David Presley Matt Walker

Volunteers, Interns & Part-time Staff

Ruchita Acharya Peter Barnard Norm Feldman Hillary Gordon Joe Granato Merv Kline Sean McCormick Chris Mizes Chelsea Perkins Phuc Pham Matt Stern Dennis Winters Lauren Zapata

Harrisburg Office
107 N. Front Street, Suite 113 Harrisburg, PA 17101 717.230.8806

Fall 2011

Wilmington Office
100 W. 10th Street, Suite 607 Wilmington, DE 19801 302.691.0112 For four decades, members of Clean Air Council have made a difference in Pennsylvania and Delaware, helping everyone to breathe a little easier. Members receive quarterly issues of Fresh Air, action alerts, and invitations to special events and the annual 5K Run. Please send your comments to Joe Minott, Executive Director. Thinking about a bequest? Consider leaving a gift to Clean Air Council in your will. Learn more by calling 215.567.4004, ext. 116.

Philly Loves Greenfest!

In this issue:

Canvass Staff
Sean Barrett Kamali Busch Sophia Cifonelli Will Fraser David Gibson Rose Michnya Heather Parker Steve Ross Brett Thiffault Jim Woodend

Board of Directors
Jeff Aldi, Treasurer Russ Allen, President JJ Biel-Goebel Patrick Feeley, Vice President Renee Gilinger, Secretary Louise Giugliano Jessica Krow, Vice President Josh Meyers David Mindel Evan Pappas Herbert Patrick, MD Laren Pitcairn, President Emeritus Carrie Sargeant Laura Stein Jay Tarler

Greenfest Philly Philly Loves Greenfest! Community-Based Air Monitoring in Port Richmond Old City Coffee Signs Off on MAP

Scan with a QR reader to go directly to our web page www.cleanair.org

Member Spotlight: Jay Butera One Million Calls for Clean Energy Experts Meet at Roundtable to Discuss Recommendations for Cleaning Up Philadelphias Air Clean Air Council and Community Leaders Organize Workshop on Clean Air in Susquehanna County Clean Air Council Launches FRACK ATTACK Good Movement on Goods Movement No Smoking at Philadelphia Recreation Centers

Thanks to everyone who attended, sponsored, exhibited at,

and volunteered at this years Greenfest Philly! Though in its sixth year, this was the first time Clean Air Council presented the festival, which took place on a sunny September 10 at historic Headhouse Square in Center City Philadelphia. Thousands of people turned out to learn about how to lead a more sustainable life, hear live music, and eat local, organic food. Included among the 100 exhibitors were the Humane League, who touted the environmental benefits of choosing a vegan diet; Chevy, who offered test drives in their new electric car, the Volt; and E-Waste Experts, Inc., who collected an entire truckload of electronics that otherwise would have ended up in a landfill. Others exhibitors included alternative energy companies and solar panel installers, used clothing sellers, and many more. This years top sponsors included CBS Radio and SCA. CBS Radio provided promotional support and sent their stations WIP, KYW, WOGL, and WPHT to cover the event; SCA is a global hygiene and paper company that develops and produces personal care products, tissues, packaging solutions, publication papers, and solid-wood products and is deeply committed to sustainability. One new and exciting feature of this years festival was the SCA Green Innovator Award. Congratulations to inaugural winners Chariots of Philly, a local pedicab company, who competed against other green innovators, including BarioNeal Jewelry, Buttonwood Barrels, Auto-Port Vehicle to Grid Project, Common Market, Native Return, Philly Cowshare, and Sustainable 19125. Its not always easy being green, but Chariots of Philly makes sustainable transportation fun. Pedicabssmall bicycle-powered passenger vehiclesare a great alternative to traditional taxis, especially in cities where trips tend to be short. Chariots of Philly promises to both transport and entertain, or transportain, a message that resonated with the many Greenfest Philly attendees who voted for the company. After the success of this years festival, we cant wait to start putting our ideas together for next year! We are already open for suggestions on how to make it bigger and better. For suggestions or information contact Martin Hage at mhage@cleanair.com or at 215-567-4004 x118.

JOES CORNER

Update to the Cobbs Creek Connector

The Cobbs Creek Trail is part of the TinicumFort Mifflin trail network and a segment of the Maine-to-Key-West East Coast Greenway. The Cobbs Creek Connector conceptual design study continues to move forward. Members of the project steering committee, including the Urban Engineers consulting team, recently toured the proposed corridor. The team went from the current Cobbs Creek Trail terminus at 70th Street and the Cobbs Creek Parkway south to the John Heinz National Wildlife Refuge at Tinicum. The purpose of this field work was to investigate various trail extension routing alternatives. Having a better picture of realistic paths for the trail, the next step will be for the steering committee to consider what the consultants have come up with in mid-September and then share the results of that meeting with the public in October. The conceptual study is slated to be wrapped up by June of 2012. Clean Air Council is the lead advocate for the trail. For more information on the Councils trail work contact Nick Rogers at nrogers@cleanair.org or at 215-567-4004 x110.

Some in Congress have declared war on environmental protection. They have revived the old environmental
protection versus jobs argument and would have the public believe that if we simply did away with environmental and health protections the economy would recover. In these desperate economic times they are finding new audiences for their snake oil economic cures. Even the President has started to buy into their argument. According to a number of reports, this is the most anti-environmental House of Representatives in history. Since the start of the new Congress the House has passed 150 bills that weaken environmental protection. What is totally lost in the debate is why Congress passed environmental laws such as the Clean Air Act in the first place: to protect public health. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), the environmental community, the public health community, and even most of the regulated industries understand that there are heavy health and welfare costs to air and water pollution. The anti-environmental argument simply looks at the cost to one particular industry of complying with new rules, while steadfastly ignoring any economic benefits such as job creation or investment in new technologies. But most troubling is that the argument ignores the deaths, illnesses, medical costs, and lost work and school days that these regulations will prevent. Furthermore, multiple studies have found that EPA regulations provide long-term economic benefits and create highly skilled, high paying American jobs through infrastructure and technology investments. The most egregious of the anti-environmental votes is the Houses support for the TRAIN Act (HR 2401), which would undermine the basic underpinning of the Clean Air Act that requires EPA to set national air quality health standards based on what science shows is needed to protect public health. Under the Clean Air Act, the costs of attaining those standards can already be considered in developing the programs and technologies needed to attain them. However, the TRAIN Act would create a special committee of Congress to oversee EPAs rulemaking and require EPA to consider the economic impacts on polluting industries when the agency sets national air quality health standards a process that should be based only on scientific and medical considerations. The TRAIN Act would also block standards that would limit mercury from coal burning power plants and EPAs recent rule that would limit pollution that crosses state lines. President Obama has also started to allow politics to get in the way of sound governance. The President recently pressured EPA to abandon its proposed tightening of the health standard for ozone (smog). Ozone reduces lung function and aggravates many respiratory conditions and is particularly dangerous to asthmatics. In early 2010, EPA proposed major revisions to the National Ambient Air Quality Standards (NAAQS) for ozone, based on the recommendations of its scientific advisory panel. Despite massive industry opposition, EPA Chief Lisa Jackson concluded that the science compelled her to tighten the health standards. However, after a group of business leaders and executives from major manufacturing, power, chemical, and oil companies appealed directly to the White House not to strengthen this health safeguard, President Obama gave in and retreated from updating the standards. By putting off the updating of these important health standards, President Obama prioritized pressure from corporate polluters over the needs of the American people. By EPAs own estimate, its proposed new standard for smog would have prevented up to 12,000 premature deaths, 5,300 heart attacks, and tens of thousands of cases of asthma and other serious respiratory illnesses each and every year. Harming public health and damaging ecosystems will not help the economy, will not help America become more competitive, and will not create jobs.

Update to the Cobbs Creek Connector Joes Corner

Community-Based Air Monitoring in Port Richmond

lean Air Council is working with Dr. Michelle Kondo of the University of Pennsylvania on a pilot project to monitor particulate matter exposure in the Port Richmond neighborhood of Philadelphia. The partnership aims to foster a collaborative and community-based research effort to document community exposure to hazards associated with transportation and goods movement in this lowincome, port-adjacent area. Personal air monitoring devices developed by Harvard University are being provided to community members in order to collect data on resident air pollution exposure and to develop protocols on data collection by local residents. Ultimately, the data will be used to advocate for improved emission reductions from port-related activities; to provide input into Philadelphias upcoming comprehensive plan and zoning code revision efforts; and as a model for participatory health assessments. The exposure monitors are worn with a backpack or fanny pack and include a small intake and filtering device that is attached near the wearers breathing space. For more information on this project contact John Lee at jlee@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x105.

Old City Coffee Signs Off on MAP

Clean Air Council works with the Delaware Valley Regional Planning
Commission to encourage business owners and their employees to take advantage of Philadelphias Mobility Alternatives Program (MAP). MAP highlights alternatives to driving alone to work such as walking, bicycling, and using public transit. The most popular MAP program is TransitChek, which enables commuters to save money by allowing them to pay for transit fares pre-tax, saving money for both employers and employees. Old City Coffee is the most recent business to adopt TransitChek at all three of its locations in Center City Philadelphia. Providing TransitChek as a financial incentive to use public transit allows Old City Coffee to become more sustainable while rewarding employees who choose to green their commute. For more information on Clean Air Councils Mobile Alternative Program and switching to a sustainable commute option contact Will Fraser at wfraser@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x110.

Joe Minott is the Executive Director of Clean Air Council

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Member Spotlight: Jay Butera

One Million Calls for Clean Energy
From its inception in 1967, Clean Air Council has always been a membership
organization, so with this issue of Fresh Air, we will take a closer look at one of our many accomplished members. The first member profile is of Jay Butera, the founder of One Million Calls for Clean Energy, whose website has generated more than 15,000 clean energy messages to Congress from concerned citizens across the country. Butera believes that Americas shift to clean energy will accelerate when citizens begin to demand real change. I want you to imagine for just a minute what would happen if a million Americans called Congress and demanded clean energy and demanded bold solutions to the climate crisis, Butera asks. And thats exactly what were doing mobilizing a million calls, messages, and emailsIt takes about one minute to click through, sign the petition, click off some emails to your senators, and then pass it on One minute. Its not a lot of time given whats at stake here. Every message matters, every call counts, and one million calls could change the world. Butera has made many trips to Washington, DC to meet with elected officials to express his concern for the environment, the climate, and the future of clean energy. I think that one persons voice can have real impact on Capitol Hill, Butera says. I speak to them as a concerned citizen, as a father of four children who will be inheriting this planet, and as the spokesperson for One Million Calls for Clean Energy. Butera says that his membership in the Clean Air Council is essential for keeping me involved, inspired, and informed about the issues that matter most. He has also worked in coalitions with Council staffers and others on creating a greener, healthier world. To learn more about Jay and the great work he is doing visit his website, www.onemillioncalls.org.

Clean Air Council Launches

At the end of September, three attorneys from the Clean Air Council testified
before the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) in Pittsburgh on important proposed emissions standards, which will reduce air pollution from natural gas operations. The Council stressed that while the proposed rules are a good first step, oil and gas operations in Pennsylvania and across the country continue to threaten public health and air quality. The time has come for EPA to become more engaged in protecting public health and welfare from pollution from gas exploration, extraction, and processing. These proposed regulations were prompted by a 2009 lawsuit brought by the WildEarth Guardians against EPA for failing to review and update two sets of clean air regulations and to issue a third set of regulations related to oil and gas drilling, in violation of the Clean Air Act. It is particularly important for EPA to take the lead because the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) certainly is not. Since the beginning of the year, the Council has submitted over twenty comments and letters to DEP about shortcomings in the states regulations, permit exemptions, and air monitoring, and is currently in litigation with DEP over the issuance of an inadequate permit for the MarkWest Houston Processing Plant in Washington County. However, DEP continues to be unresponsive, and the agency continues to point to limited air monitoring studies as proof that emissions from Marcellus Shale activities are safe, ignoring the health impacts being reported across the Commonwealth by citizens. The DEP has made it clear that they are not interested in proper regulation of the air pollution associated with gas operations in Pennsylvania, and the Council has made it clear that DEPs authority to forsake protecting public health and welfare from gas operations lies on shaky ground. The Council has no choice but to take its case to the next level. This fall the Council and WildEarth Guardians have launched a legal blitz called FrackAttack. The blitz will focus on forcing EPA engagement on the critical air pollution and public health issues associated with natural gas operations and on forcing full compliance with the Clean Air Act from the natural gas industry nationwide. In Pennsylvania, the Council will focus on ensuring that the existing air pollution associated with natural gas operations is added to the States emission inventory, repealing major exemptions for the natural gas industry from permitting requirements, and assuring proper permitting and meaningful air monitoring. For more information on the Councils Marcellus Shale work contact Jay Duffy at jduffy@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x109.

Good Movement on Goods Movement

Getting that banana, TV, or article of clothing from its point of origin to you
carries with it considerable health and environmental impacts. Goods movement refers to the movement of consumer and commercial goods by ship, rail, truck, or plane. The Council has long been involved in working to reduce pollution from ports and related goods movement industry in Greater Philadelphia. Philadelphia area ports are iconic reminders of the great history of shipping in the region, and serve as a nexus of freight movement activities like truck, rail, and intermodal facilities. These facilities provide much needed jobs and revenue, but at the same time, their activities result in major emissions. Nine of the top 50 freight gateways are in New York, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, or Washington, D.C., together producing $522 billion of commerce a year. In addition, interstate highway corridors and rail lines traverse the most densely populated areas of the nation, impacting the health of nearby residents. And each year ports, rail yards, and truck traffic expand to accommodate even greater cargo volumes, further encroaching on their residential neighbors. Currently there are voluntary as well as mandatory air quality measures that have been implemented at goods movement facilities in some parts of the country. While some facilities in the Northeast and Mid-Atlantic have recently implemented air pollution mitigation strategies, they still lag far behind the West Coast and Europe in terms of cost-effective, comprehensive solutions. There is a lack of awareness among regulators, public policy officials, and others in the Mid-Atlantic region of what goods movement is and how it impacts public health. On September 23, the Council put on a Healthy People Global Goods conference, which brought together public health professionals, elected officials, community organizations, planners, academics, and environmental health advocates to learn about the latest research on the connection between goods movement and public health, goods movement industry trends in the Northeast, and the implications for nearby low-income neighborhoods. There were also presentations on how to promote collaboration and capacity-building to develop cost-effective solutions to reduce air pollution from goods movement. The Council looks forward to synthesizing all the information and coming up with next steps. For more information on goods movement or the conference contact John Lee at jlee@cleanair.org or at 215-567-4004 x105.

Experts Meet at Roundtable to Discuss Recommendations for Cleaning Up Philadelphias Air

n September 16, 2011, Clean Air Council and the Academy of Natural Sciences convened the Philadelphia Air Quality Policy Roundtable. The goal of the Roundtable was to develop policy recommendations for the City of Philadelphia to support air quality enhancement initiatives. Eighteen stakeholders participated, including employees of the City of Philadelphia, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection, Delaware Valley Regional Planning Commission, a trucking company, a large utility company, a public interest environmental attorney, an environmental consultant, an air quality scientist, various health professionals, and Clean Air Council Executive Director Joseph O. Minott, Esq. Individuals at the Roundtable offered their own personal ideas and were not speaking on behalf of their employers. Minott began the Roundtable discussion by categorizing air pollution into four main groups in Philadelphia: stationary sources (e.g., power plants, oil refineries), mobile sources (e.g., cars, trucks, buses), area sources (e.g., dry cleaners, nail salons), and consumer goods (e.g., leaf blowers, lawn mowers). Among the four main sources of air emissions, mobile sources accounted for 65% of all air pollution in Philadelphia and stationary sources 25%. With so many different perspectives in the room, a number of different policies were discussed, including the possibility of establishing a Task Force to investigate air pollution from the Port of Philadelphia and ways to address that pollution, and the possibility of developing a set of tax incentives to encourage homeowners to upgrade their homes with energy efficiency improvements. A white paper detailing the ideas that came out of the Roundtable, including the formal set of recommendations to the City, will be published later this year. For more information on the Air Quality Roundtable contact Eric Cheung at echeung@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x114.

Clean Air Council and Community Leaders Organize Workshop on Clean Air in Susquehanna County
he Clean Air Council held a community workshop on Saturday, September 24 at Mountain View High School in Susquehanna County. The interactive presentation explored the potential health impacts from the expanding natural gas industry and tools that the public could use to protect everyones right to breathe clean air. The gas industry impacts air quality by emitting VOCs, nitrogen oxide, particulates, and other hazardous air pollutants. The types of pollutants from these operations have been linked to asthma, cancer, and neurological issues. If there is a problem with your water the gas companies will truck in water, pointed out Lynn Senick, resident of Susquehanna County. They cannot do that with your air. The Council worked with community leaders to organize the workshop and it was endorsed by local grassroots groups and organizations. The workshop covered topics ranging from regulations, air quality, and health impacts to public commenting, air monitoring, and mapping of natural gas operations. Matt Walker, Community Outreach Associate with the Clean Air Council and organizer of the workshop, asked questions and made sure the audience participated throughout the entire presentation by contributing their own experiences and voicing their opinions on the issues. Participants asked questions about the next steps they could take to address a new compressor station permit application, and the Council is already working with residents to help them send in comments and request a public hearing. I never thought public commenting could be so user-friendly, said resident Rebecca Roter. Im thankful that the Clean Air Council came out to help empower us to save our air and health from shale gas activities. For more information on the Councils community outreach around Marcellus Shale contact Matt Walker at mwalker@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x121.

M E M B E R S H I P
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F O R M

No Smoking at Philadelphia Recreation Centers

For the last several years, the Council has been
a strong advocate of protecting workers and the public from the dangers of secondhand smoke. Clean Air Council recently helped the Philadelphia Department of Health to implement a new initiative creating smoke-free zones around city-owned recreation centers. Thanks to an executive order by Mayor Michael Nutter, smoking is no longer allowed on recreation center property either indoors or outdoors, including playgrounds, fields, lawns, pool areas, courts, and parking lots. According to the National Cancer Institute, secondhand smoke is estimated to result in 38,000 deaths per year in the United States and over one million cases of childhood illness. The U.S. Surgeon General has stated that there are no safe levels of secondhand smoke. Clean Air Council has been working to educate the recreation center staff and the public about the dangers of secondhand smoke and the specifics of the new regulations. If you have any questions about the new initiative contact Katie Edwards at kedwards@cleanair.org or 215-567-4004 x102.

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