Lois Bower-Bjornson: We all want clean air

I grew up along the Monongahela River in the once thriving coal town of Fredericktown, where coal barges, orange water and mine drainage were the norm. Eighteen years ago my husband and I moved back to Washington County to raise our four children, despite it being the most heavily fracked county in Pennsylvania.

It was a difficult decision. We all want the best for our children, and I can’t express the guilt that I feel for raising my children in an environment that’s not safe for them and has the potential to cause lifelong health consequences.

All of my children have experienced health impacts such as rashes, chronic nosebleeds and Lyme disease due to the warming of our climate from the fossil-fuel industry. We are exposed to diesel truck traffic, hauling hazardous waste, along with compressor stations, fracking pads, pipelines, processing plants, cryogenic plants and impoundments.

Ewing sarcoma cases are the highest in the country in Washington County. There are rare cancers in every school district in Southwestern Pennsylvania. Yale recently released a study that was compiled in Washington County stating children living close to oil and gas facilities have a three times higher rate of developing leukemia.

There is no escaping the industry. Whether my kids attend a local or alternate school, fracking and its stream of pollution are everywhere. All of my children attend an alternate school a few miles from the largest petrochemical hub in North America.

This is why I started the frackland tours. I invite anyone to come and get a firsthand account of what it is like to live and grow up in the shale fields of Southwestern Pennsylvania, where my family, friends and neighbors are negatively impacted by the natural gas infrastructure that surrounds us.

We all want clean air so that our kids don’t get asthma or cancer. And all Pennsylvanians have the right to clean air and water, according to the commonwealth’s Constitution. But now the same oil and gas billionaires polluting our air and water are being rewarded yet again.

Right before an important election, Pennsylvania lawmakers made a last-minute closed-door deal to make the biggest fossil-fuel giveaway in the commonwealth’s history. The tax incentives would funnel billions of dollars in taxpayer money to perpetuate the oil and gas industry, including $50 million a year to build a hydrogen hub and miles and miles of pipelines underground that can explode.

Oil and gas companies are misleading the public and our elected officials by promising a fair exchange of massive public spending for hypothetical jobs. The fossil-fuel industry has a history of exaggerating its potential impact on jobs and local economies, and is using the lure of jobs to manipulate us.

I’m tired of hearing about “clean hydrogen,” because it’s an oxymoron. Here in the Marcellus Shale region, the type of hydrogen produced would come right from methane. That’s just more dirty fracking called by a different name.

Ohio River Valley Institute research shows that despite the industry’s claims, hydrogen technology isn’t even feasible. It’s unproven, ridiculously expensive, won’t create jobs and would lock us into a future where we continue to depend on fossil fuels.

Disadvantaged coal communities like mine could desperately use this money to invest in the people who actually live here. We need jobs that are reliable and pay enough to take care of our families. We need better education. We need cleaner air and water, and more health resources.

Those who have been historically left behind and suffered the brunt of environmental disaster and climate damage should be the ones who make decisions about what a worldwide energy infrastructure should look like. In this region, the people have been clear: We want a clean energy future that powers our lives at home and work, where working families and small businesses have the opportunities and tools they need to build a good life and contribute to the economy, freed from the outdated fuels that pollute our air and water and damage our climate.

All the oil and gas industry cares about is money. Not people. Promising jobs is not the same thing as caring about working people. We can have both a healthy economy and a healthy climate. We just need leaders to stop negotiating with the fossil-fuel industry behind closed doors, and start working toward truly clean energy solutions that are good for workers, good for families and good for our climate.

Lois Bower-Bjornson is the Southwestern Pennsylvania field organizer with the Clean Air Council.