 |
|
|
|||||
Two compressor stations along Transcos natural gas pipeline in North Carolina would emit more than 935,000 tons of planet-warming greenhouse gases each year, state records show. The expansion would also contaminate nearby communities with harmful air pollutants up to 350% over current levels. Transco, a division of the Houston-based group Williams, plans to increase the horsepower at the existing compressor stations in Lexington, in Davidson County, and in Mooresville, in Iredell County. The stations would accommodate the companys Southeast Supply Enhancement Project (SSEP), a pipeline expansion that traverses five states: Virginia, North Carolina, South Carolina, Georgia, and Alabama. A view of Station 155, one of Transcos several compressor stations along the Southeast Supply Enhancement Project pipeline route, in a residential neighborhood of Lexington, N.C. [Photo: Lisa Sorg/Inside Climate News] Compressor stations use high pressure to force gas through a pipeline; they are located every 50 to 60 miles along a route. They routinely leak methane, a powerful greenhouse gas, and other pollutants through valves, flanges and other connectors. The gas is also sometimes intentionally released directly into the atmosphere, a practice called venting, and sometimes the gas is flared, or burned off, during maintenance, shutdowns and startups. Venting is worse for the climate, while flaring produces more harmful air pollution. Each compressor station would be powered by natural gas, according to Transcos recent air permit applications to the N.C. Division of Air Quality. Division officials are reviewing the applications and will accept public comment after the evaluations are complete. Meanwhile, environmental advocates are asking local government officials to oppose Transcos entire natural gas expansion. Transco did not respond to an email requesting comment on the air permit applications. With increased horsepower comes increased pollution. At the Lexington station, concentrations of carbon monoxide, volatile organic compounds, sulfur dioxide and hazardous air pollutants, such as cancer-causing formaldehyde, would increase over current levels, by between 175% and 350%, state records show. Residents in Lexington and Mooresville are already burdened by decades of air pollution from existing Transco infrastructure and deserve to breathe clean air, said Juhi Modi, North Carolina field coordinator at Appalachian Voices. NCDEQ has the power to defend against Transcos proposal to emit more health-compromising pollution into our communities. EPA data show Davidson County is already afflicted by six types of air pollutants regulated under National Ambient Air Quality Standards. Davidson County is in compliance with the air quality standards, according to state officials, but they apply to large areas, like a county, and arent necessarily going to be reflective of the reality on the ground for the people who live around these compressor stations, said Deirdre Dlugoleski, a former associate attorney with the Southern Environmental Law Center, now with Defenders of Wildlife. Compliance with the NAAQS isnt enough to ensure that environmental justice communities close to these sites wont be harmed. [Image: Inside Climate News] Neighborhoods within a mile radius of the Lexington compressor station rank among the highest in the state in terms of exposure to very fine particulate matter (known as PM 2.5), ozone, and toxic releases to the air, according to the EPAs EJ Screen. Nearly half of the 800 residents in the affected area are low-income. The potential risks to public safety and the environment prompted the Midway Town Council, by a 4-1 vote, to formally oppose SSEP and the compressor station in Lexington, about 10 miles south of Midway. Davidson County already has 176 miles of natural gas and liquid petroleum pipelines within its boundaries. Midway officials cited the negative impacts on air and water quality, residents health and property values, in their May 5 resolution, filed with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC. Town officials asked FERC to consider a no-build option and, in the event the pipeline is expanded, to require the compressor stations to use the best available control technology to reduce emissions. At the Mooresville station, Transcos air permit application shows the increases would range from 20% to 37% over current emissions levels, depending on the pollutant. Like their Lexington counterparts, people living within a mile of the station are exposed to some of the highest levels of PM 2.5, ozone, toxic air releases and diesel pollution. These neighborhoods also flank Interstate 77, one of the main arteries into Charlotte. [Image: Paul Horn/Inside Climate News] Both stations would emit toxic air pollutants acrolein, benzene, and formaldehyde at high rates. In Lexington, benzene exceeds federal hourly emission rates by 100 times; in Mooresville, the figure is 61 times. Thee rates trigger a requirement for the company to conduct air dispersion modeling to measure contaminant levels, if they move off site and how far. This proposed massive methane gas project would add more pollution and health risks to North Carolina communities already struggling with poor air quality, compared to the rest of the state, said Caroline Hansley, campaign organizing strategist at Sierra Club. NCDEQ must exercise its authority to protect North Carolinians and deny the permit for this unneeded, dirty, and dangerous project. More Demand From Data Centers In North Carolina, the SSEP includes the Eden Loop, 4.4 miles in Rockingham County, where the pipeline enters the state from Virginia. The Salem Loop, also part of SSEP, is longer, running roughly 24 miles through Guilford, Forsyth, and Davidson counties. The SSEP is one of three major pipeline projects in North Carolina. MVP Southgate is proposed for Rockingham County, where it would tie into the T-15, a pipeline which would run east to Duke Energys new natural gas plants in Person County. All of these projects are estimated to begin operating within the next three to five years, although they often run behind schedule because of permitting issues, litigation or construction delays. There is still a vacancy on the FERC commission, which could also cause backlogs. Transco officials say the project is necessary to accommodate increased energy demand from data centers. Some energy analysts, like Tyler Norris of Duke University, though, counter that load flexibility could preclude the need for more generation and transmission. Environmental advocates argue that energy companies are financially incentivized to build pipelines. From 2018 to 2023, Transcos average return on equityearningswas 17%, according to the National Gas Supply Association. Earlier this spring, Transco updated its project filings with FERC, which reflected minor adjustments to the proposed route. Maps show hundreds of homes and businesses, schools, day cares, even parks and recreational centers within the pipelines 1,114-foot high consequence area. Also known as the blast zone, these areas are where the force of an explosion could kill or injure people, as well as damage or destroy property. The zone is based on the diameter of the pipelineSSEP is 42 inchesand its maximum allowable pressure. Within these areas, there are different classifications of risk, depending on population density and the number of vulnerable people who couldnt quickly evacuate. Some homes lie as close as 20 feet from the center of the pipeline, according to Transcos filings with FERC. The pipeline skirts churches; the Oak Ridge Weekday School; a child care center in Guilford County; the VA Medical Center in Kernersville; and U.S. Highway 52, a major thoroughfare. It would burrow under three acres of Triad Park, a 6,000-acre recreational area that straddles Guilford and Forsyth counties. Farther south in Davidson County, Wallburg Elementary School enrolls more than 720 students in pre-K through Grade 5. It is less than a quarter mile from the pipeline and within the blast zone, as is the Wallburg Recreational Center across the street. In a recent presentation to Guilford County Commissioners, Transco officials emphasized that safety is the highest priority. The company continuously monitors its pipelines and frequently inspects them, officials said, and uses pressure and temperature sensors to warn of potential problems. Previous studies of pipeline accidents in Kentucky, Virginia, and New Mexico have shown that blast zones extend farther than originally calculated, according to the Pipeline Safety Trust, a nonprofit based in Washington state. The trust raised safety concerns about the SSEP in its recent comments to FERC. The SSEP route already contains up to four other pipelines of different types, and FERC should calculate the blast to reflect those co-locations, wrote Erin Sutherland, the trusts policy and program director, and attorney. This is a serious environmental and public health danger that FERC should consider. Even routine construction will affect communities along the route. Theres a huge gap that is going to fall on local municipalities, Hansley said. Peoples wells could be blasted and impacted in Oak Ridge and other places. The roads could see massive traffic increases from heavy loads, get damaged and then who would end up paying for it? Lisa Sorg, Inside Climate News This article originally appeared on Inside Climate News. It is republished with permission. Sign up for its newsletter here.
Category:
E-Commerce
John Hoke, a 33-year Nike veteran who served as the company’s chief innovation officer, is retiring. The news comes during a difficult time for the company. While its still the largest sportswear manufacturer with $51 billion in revenue a year, it has lost street cred and running market share under former CEO John Donahoe. Wall Street believes it’s not growing fast enough. Beloved Nike veteran Elliott Hill replaced Donahoe as CEO last year, who rightly warned the turnaround would not happen overnight. Hill informed the Nike staff that Hoke was leaving in a memo sent around the company this week. Ive spoken to Hoke several times over the years, most recently in 2024 for our profile on the companys Olympic strategy under John Donahoe. Hokes enthusiasm was that of a kid in a candy store, as he was eager to show off the companys new partnership with Hyperice and its use of AI tools to make some of the wildest Nikes Ive ever seen. Hoke believed deeply in the technological innovations behind sport, which made him a good fit for shifting to the job of chief innovation officer in 2022 from his role as chief design officer for 15 years. And while some of the products launched in his timelike self-tying Adapt BB sneakerswere never articulated enough to scale, his long-view vision of Nike was always inspiring. He imagined our clothing becoming empathetic, symbiotic, and even biologicalliterally feeling our pain to be ever-changing to our needs moment to moment. Hoke has long viewed his own time at Nike as destiny. At age 12, he imagined the performance benefits of sticking his inflatable pool raft to the bottom of a shoe. That led him to discover Phil Knight and write him a letter. Knight responded, inviting him to come work at the company when he was older. After graduating from studies in industrial design and architecture and giving a presentation where he discussed Nike Town, Hoke was invited to Nike for a job interview. I brought that letter in the back of my portfolio. I pulled the letter out, and I said, I’m here to redeem the coupon you sent me in the late ’70s, Hoke recalled. The person he said that to? Mark Parker, who ended up taking over the company as its most beloved designer-CEO. I pinch myself, like I’ve been . . . loving this brand, and thinking about sneakers, and how to make sneakers perform better, and how to make sneakers more magnetic more powerful, for most of my life. Phil McCartney, EVP and chief innovation, design & product officer at Nike, will be taking over Hoke’s duties. Meanwhile, Hoke will be at Nike through October wrapping up projects. He did not immediately respond for comment.
Category:
E-Commerce
Google will return to federal court Friday to fend off the U.S. Justice Department’s attempt to topple its internet empire at the same time it’s navigating a pivotal shift to artificial intelligence that could undercut its power.The legal and technological threats facing Google are among the key issues that will be dissected during the closing arguments of a legal proceeding that will determine the changes imposed upon the company in the wake of its dominant search engine being declared as an illegal monopoly by U.S. District Judge Amit Mehta last year.Brandishing evidence presented during a recent three-week stretch of hearings, Justice Department lawyers will attempt to persuade Mehta to order a radical shake-up that includes a ban on Google paying to lock its search engine in as the default on smart devices and an order requiring the company to sell its Chrome browser.Google lawyers are expected to assert only minor concessions are needed, especially as the upheaval triggered by advances in artificial intelligence already are reshaping the search landscape, as alternative, conversational search options are rolling out from AI startups that are hoping to use the Department of Justice’s four-and-half-year-old case to gain the upper hand in the next technological frontier.“Over weeks of testimony, we heard from a series of well-funded companies eager to gain access to Google’s technology so they don’t have to innovate themselves,” Lee-Anne Mulholland, Google’s vice president of regulatory affairs, wrote in a blog post earlier this month. “What we didn’t hear was how DOJ’s extreme proposals would benefit consumers.”After the day-long closing arguments, Mehta will spend much of the summer mulling a decision that he plans to issue before Labor Day. Google has already vowed to appeal the ruling that branded its search engine as a monopoly, a step it can’t take until the judge orders a remedy.While both sides of this showdown agree that AI is an inflection point for the industry’s future, they have disparate views on how the shift will affect Google.The Justice Department contends that AI technology by itself won’t rein in Google’s power, arguing additional legal restraints must be slapped on a search engine that’s the main reason its parent company, Alphabet Inc., is valued at $2 trillion.Google has already been deploying AI to transform its search engine into an answer engine, an effort that has so far helped maintain its perch as the internet’s main gateway despite inroads being made by alternatives from the likes of OpenAI and Perplexity.The Justice Department contends a divestiture of the Chrome browser that Google CEO Sundar Pichai helped build nearly 20 years ago would be among the most effective countermeasures against Google continuing to amass massive volumes of browser traffic and personal data that could be leveraged to retain its dominance in the AI era. Executives from both OpenAi and Perplexity testified last month that they would be eager bidders for the Chrome browser if Mehta orders its sale.The debate over Google’s fate also has pulled in opinions from Apple, mobile app developers, legal scholars and startups.Apple, which collects more than $20 billion annually to make Google the default search engine on the iPhone and its other devices, filed briefs arguing against the Justice Department’s proposed 10-year ban on such lucrative lock-in agreements. Apple told the judge that prohibiting the contracts would deprive the company of money that it funnels into its own research, and that the ban might even make Google even more powerful because the company would be able to hold onto its money while consumers would end up choosing its search engine anyway. The Cupertino, California, company also told the judge a ban wouldn’t compel it to build its own search engine to compete against Google.In other filings, a group of legal scholars said the Justice Department’s proposed divestiture of Chrome would be an improper penalty that would inject unwarranted government interference in a company’s business. Meanwhile, former Federal Trade Commission officials James Cooper and Andrew Stivers warned that another proposal that would require Google to share its data with rival search engines “does not account for the expectations users have developed over time regarding the privacy, security, and stewardship” of their personal information.The App Association, a group that represents mostly small software developers, also advised Mehta not to adopt the Justice Department’s proposed changes because of the ripple effects they would have across the tech industry.Hobbling Google in the way the Justice Department envisions would make it more difficult for startups to realize their goal of being acquired, the App Association wrote. “Developers will be overcome by uncertainty” if Google is torn apart, the group argues.Buy Y Combinator, an incubator that has helped create hundreds of startups collectively worth about $800 billion filed documents pushing for the dramatic overhaul of Google, whose immense power has discouraged venture capitalists from investing in areas that are considered to be part of the company’s “kill zone.”Startups “also need to be able to get their products into the hands of users, free from restrictive dealing and self-preferencing that locks up important distribution channels. As things stand, Google has locked up the most critical distribution channels, freezing the general search and search text advertising markets into static competition for more than a decade,” Y Combinator told Mehta. Michael Liedtke, AP Technology Writer
Category:
E-Commerce
All news |
||||||||||||||||||
|
||||||||||||||||||