THE PROJECT

"As airborne methane surveys of oil and gas systems continue to discover large emissions that are missing from official estimates1,2,3,4, the true scope of methane emissions from energy production has yet to be quantified. We integrate approximately one million aerial site measurements into regional emissions inventories for six regions in the USA, comprising 52% of onshore oil and 29% of gas production over 15 aerial campaigns."

ENVIRONMENTAL PROTECTION AGENCY PRINCIPAL AIR POLLUTANTS - CRITERIA POLLUTANTS: Carbon Monoxide (CO), Lead (Pb), Nitrogen Dioxide(NO2), Ozone (O3) {ground}, Particulate Matter (PM), and Sulfur Dioxide (SO2)

Stratospheric Ozone is ozone that is Earth protection. For all animals, including humans, it acts as protective layer between us and the sun.

FAMILY OF CHEMICALS: Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbon (PAH) emissions

* Dioxin and Furan emissions
* Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) - from gasoline use (vehicles, lawnmowers, and other lawn machines....)
* Perchloroethylene Emissions - from dry-cleaning use

Household Emissions

Maryland: 19 miles southeast of Washington, D.C., at the Brandywine landfill in Prince George’s County, ash from three NRG coal plants has contaminated groundwater with unsafe levels of at least eight pollutants, including lithium at more than 200 times above safe levels, and molybdenum (which can damage the kidney and liver) at more than 100 times higher than safe levels. The contaminated groundwater at this site is now feeding into and polluting local streams. ....

The researchers of this report could not determine the safety of drinking water near the coal ash dumps analyzed in this study because power companies are not required to test private drinking water wells. However, the report contains examples of several well-documented instances of residential tap water contaminated by coal ash. For example: ....
At a coal ash landfill in Gambrills, Maryland, ash dumped in an old sand and gravel quarry caused unsafe levels of arsenic, beryllium, lithium, and other pollutants in multiple residential wells. Constellation Energy settled a lawsuit with impacted residents for $54 million.
Additional examples of contamination of residential drinking water outlined in the report are in Indiana, Illinois, Maryland, Pennsylvania, Tennessee and Wisconsin and North Carolina.

Though in USA approximately 1%, greenhouse gas emissions from Fluorinated Gases are potent: substitutes for ozone-depleting substances such as refrigerants (hydrocarbons), transmit electricity through power grid (sulfur hexafluoride) and main industrial processes of aluminum, magnesium, and semiconductor manufacturing, they have extremely higher global warming potentials (GWPs) relative to other greenhouse gases. Their small atmospheric concentrations can nevertheless have major effects on global temperatures, especially in the entire manufacturing, during use (aluminum for building materials and food, and disposal (one use).

Unfortunately, with the rise of semi-conductor chip industry and building manufacturing facilities in the United States, the rise of Fluorinated Gases are on the rise, and so this man-made greenhouse gas emission is here to continue to ruin lives.

AIR POLLUTION EMISSIONS & GREENHOUSE GAS EMISSIONS

The difference between air pollution and greenhouse gases is easy to understand: Air Pollution refers to the presence of substances in the atmosphere that have a detrimental effect on humans and other living organisms. Greenhouse Gases are gases that have the ability to absorb and trap heat.

Lower carbon emissions helps, but the rise in temperature of the Earth is accumulative. This is why, "No emissions" is imperative. Through Geothermal, countries like Iceland have and continue to achieve undetectable carbon emissions.

HIGH CARBON EMISSIONS = UNBEARABLE HIGHER TEMPERATURES
LOWER CARBON EMISSIONS = UNBEARABLE HIGHER TEMPERATURES

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Developed-country governments must provide large-scale public financing to support the much-needed transformation in the developing world. To succeed, the transition must be just and ensure the rights of workers, peasants, women, migrants and indigenous peoples. Here, public and community ownership is crucial.

Social movements in the Global South are already providing models of this approach. For example, La Via Campesina – an international movement comprising peasants, smallholder farmers, agricultural workers, rural women, youth, indigenous people and others – has shown how peasant agriculture and agroecology can cool the planet, feed its inhabitants, nurture its soil, support its forests, safeguard seed diversity and protect water basins.

Moreover, community forest management helps to safeguard the forests, protecting the livelihoods of those who depend on them and preserving biodiversity. As it stands, only eight percent of the world’s forests are in the hands of communities." -

European Polycyclic Aromatic Hydrocarbons Emission Totals (2021):

"Majority of individual countries report that PAH emissions have decreased since 1990, five countries, Bulgaria, Denmark, Finland, Malta and Romania have reported an increase in PAH emissions. One cause of these increased emissions is the introduction of policy measures that have encouraged the burning of renewable materials (e.g. wood by Danish households). Wood burning produces emissions of PAHs and hence, in this instance, policies that have been implemented to address one environmental issue (climate change) have had unintended consequences on another (air pollution). In absolute terms, the emissions of PAHs from these countries are relatively low compared with other countries, but the effect on local populations and environmental quality may, nevertheless, be notable. Of the EEA-33 countries, Portugal and Germany reported the highest PAH emissions."

Eight-hour Ozone Standard
The Baltimore region is designated as “moderate” nonattainment for the 2015 8-hour ozone standard. The standard is 0.070 parts per million (ppm). This designation became effective November 7, 2022. The region failed to attain the marginal nonattainment standard by the attainment date of August 3, 2021, so was reclassified as moderate nonattainment. The new attainment date is August 3, 2024, but attainment must be demonstrated by the last full ozone season prior to the attainment date, which is August 2023. The region has one year to perform a conformity determination for this NAAQS.

"For the Baltimore region, the Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB) established the Interagency Consultation Group (ICG) to carry out the consultation process and provide recommendations on air quality topics. .... The ICG meets formally to discuss and recommend appropriate procedures for determining conformity of the Plan and TIP. These meetings are critical to the findings reported in this document, as well as to the development of the consultation procedures that will govern future conformity determinations. ICG meetings provide an additional forum for public participation and input to the process, including comments on technical methodologies. Meetings are advertised on the BMC website. Agendas, meeting minutes, and necessary materials are emailed to interested parties and are also on the BMC website.

BALTIMORE REGION, according to Baltimore Regional Council and Baltimore Regional Transportation Board (BRTB): Baltimore City, Anne Arundel County, Baltimore County, Carroll County, Harford County, Howard County, and Queen Anne's County

"The Baltimore Metropolitan Council maintains an Activity Based Model (ABM), known locally as Initiative to Simulate Individual Travel Events (InSITE), for the Baltimore ozone non-attainment .... The InSITE ABM is composed of three
major inputs: 1) synthetic household and population database, 2) transportation networks, and 3) person daily activity pattern tour and trip roster."