Neville Island polluters can’t keep their pollution from wafting into whiter areas

benfell

Pittsburgh

Pollution

Neville Island is yet another example of environmental racism in the Pittsburgh area. It is located in the Ohio River, adjacent on the south side to Coraopolis, Stowe Township, and McKees Rocks; and, on the north side, Emsworth, Ben Avon, Avalon, and Bellevue. The trouble here is that the communities on the north side of the river include many white people, where the communities on the south side (at least until you get into the hills above Coraopolis and into Moon Township) are populated largely by Black people with that wide, wide Pittsburgh-area intersection of race and class. So what we’re really looking at here is the failure of Neville Island polluters to keep their air pollution to the poor Black-populated areas.[1]

WTAE, “Enforcement order issued after strong odor reported in some Pittsburgh communities,” October 5, 2021, https://www.wtae.com/article/strong-odor-in-pittsburgh-neville-chemical-company/37872848

Ryan Deto, “Proposed natural-gas power plant near Pittsburgh cancels plans,” Pittsburgh City Paper, October 6, 2021, https://www.pghcitypaper.com/pittsburgh/proposed-natural-gas-power-plant-near-pittsburgh-cancels-plans/Content?oid=20323716

Kristina Marusic, “Pittsburgh’s air was unhealthy to breathe for 57 days in 2020,” Daily Climate, October 6, 2021, https://www.dailyclimate.org/pittsburgh-air-pollution-2655223412.html

Kristina Marusic, “Should oil and gas companies be exempt from Pennsylvania’s hazardous waste laws?” Environmental Health News, October 7, 2021, https://www.ehn.org/radioactive-waste-oil-and-gas-2655217995.html

Abortion

In case you’re like me and a little slow on the uptake, Max Kennerly, “Popehat” (likely Ken White but we can’t be sure), and many others who replied all seem to suspect that those courts are indeed stacked with dishonest partisans. One, whose reply I failed to find because it’s now so deeply buried, explicitly offered a counterexample of guns: Would the Supreme Court indeed have ruled the way it did on the Texas law had the intent been gun control rather than restricting abortion?

On the matter of Supreme Court partisan dishonesty, I have previously noted,

According to the U.S. Supreme Court, banning contributions of snacks and waters to voters (often of color) waiting in long lines at polling places (that are often harder to locate and that often have disproportionately fewer voting machines[2]) is just fine,[3] but to require contributions of vast sums of money to political action committees be de-anonymized has an unconstitutional “chilling effect” because the First Amendment mysteriously protects “privacy.”[4][5]

If the Court indeed wishes to appear apolitical,[6] it would do well to start ruling that way.

A huge problem is that “[i]f the injunction is reversed, lawsuits can still be filed up to four years after the abortion at issue is performed.”[7] While Linda Greenhouse may not quite be able to bring herself to say what people increasingly think about judicial partisanship,[8] we should remember that Republicans have been appointing judges with an eye to overturning Roe v. Wade for decades, this temporary injunction[9] really isn’t the victory that some might make of it, and there is still a case pending which explicitly offers the Supreme Court the opportunity to overturn Roe.[10]

Ann E. Marimow, “Federal judge blocks enforcement of Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Washington Post, October 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html

Ryan Foley, “Pennsylvania lawmaker’s bill aims to force men to get vasectomy by 40th birthday,” Christian Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.christianpost.com/news/proposed-pennsylvania-law-would-force-men-to-have-vasectomies.html

Linda Greenhouse, “The Supreme Court’s Pain — and Our Anger,” New York Times, October 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/supreme-court-polls-abortion-bush-gore.html

Ann E. Marimow and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, “Federal judge blocks enforcement of Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html

Alexandra Hunt

Haley Weiss, “She was a stripper during college. Now she’s running for Congress and sharing her story,” Lily, October 4, 2021, https://www.thelily.com/she-was-a-stripper-during-college-now-shes-running-for-congress-and-sharing-her-story/

Pandemic

(Inter)national

Jamie Gumbrecht, “Pfizer seeks FDA authorization of Covid-19 vaccine for children ages 5 to 11,” CNN, October 7, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/10/07/health/hfr-pfizer-covid-vaccine-fda-eua/index.html

Infrastructure

Republicans over the past nine months have turned [the debt limit increase] into a political cudgel as they labor to fight back against Biden’s economic initiatives. The crux of the GOP opposition is a still-forming proposal [the reconciliation package] to overhaul federal education, health care, immigration and climate laws, while raising taxes on wealthy Americans and corporations. Even though Democrats say the package is financed in full, Republicans argue it would add to the deficit even beyond the 10-year scope of the plan — prompting them to withhold their support for an increase to the debt ceiling.[11]

About that package, still refusing to get specific about what he would support and still not “budging from an overall price tag of $1.5 trillion over 10 years for the Build Back Better bill,” Joe Manchin claims to oppose what he calls “an entitlement society.” Olivier Knox, writing in the Washington Post’s “Daily 202” newsletter,[12] suggests,

(One possible test to determine how many lawmakers actually oppose an “entitlement society” might be to introduce legislation banning annual subsidies for agriculture, fossil fuels and major manufacturers, while telling states they can only get as much federal spending as they pay in federal taxes. But I digress.)[13]

Touché. Manchin, of course, would oppose this because the West Virginia fossil fuel industry makes his lavish lifestyle possible[14] and because West Virginia receives more in federal aid than it contributes in federal taxes.[15]

Burgess Everett, Marianne Levine, and Caitlin Emma, “Dems take GOP’s short-term debt fix offer, kicking deadline to December,” Politico, October 6, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/10/06/republicans-filibuster-debt-limit-515355

Olivier Knox, “It’s Bernie vs Manchin as spending breakthrough remains elusive,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/07/its-bernie-vs-manchin-spending-breakthrough-remains-elusive/

Tony Romm, “Senate leaders announce short-term deal to raise debt ceiling $480 billion into December,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/10/07/senate-deal-debt-ceiling/

  1. [1]Oliver Morrison and Jamie Wiggan, “A thousand little cuts: Locals say a fire on Neville Island shows the pollution didn’t stop after Shenango Coke Works closed,” Public Source, June 23, 2021, https://www.publicsource.org/pittsburgh-allegheny-neville-air-pollution-metalico-accan-shenango/; WTAE, “Enforcement order issued after strong odor reported in some Pittsburgh communities,” October 5, 2021, https://www.wtae.com/article/strong-odor-in-pittsburgh-neville-chemical-company/37872848↩
  2. [2]Sarina Vij, “Why Minority Voters Have a Lower Voter Turnout: An Analysis of Current Restrictions,” American Bar Association, June 26, 2020, https://www.americanbar.org/groups/crsj/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/voting-in-2020/why-minority-voters-have-a-lower-voter-turnout/↩
  3. [3]Marjorie Cohn, “Supreme Court Drives a Stake Through the Heart of the Voting Rights Act,” Truthout, July 2, 2021, https://truthout.org/articles/supreme-court-drives-a-stake-through-the-heart-of-the-voting-rights-act/↩
  4. [4]Josh Gerstein and Zach Montellaro, “Supreme Court nixes California disclosure law in blow to dark-money opponents,” Politico, July 1, 2021, https://www.politico.com/news/2021/07/01/supreme-court-california-disclosure-law-donors-497554↩
  5. [5]David Benfell, “U.S. Supreme Court says the First Amendment protects privacy,” Irregular Bullshit, July 4, 2021, https://disunitedstates.com/2021/07/04/u-s-supreme-court-says-the-first-amendment-protects-privacy/↩
  6. [6]Linda Greenhouse, “The Supreme Court’s Pain — and Our Anger,” New York Times, October 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/supreme-court-polls-abortion-bush-gore.html↩
  7. [7]Ann E. Marimow, “Federal judge blocks enforcement of Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Washington Post, October 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html↩
  8. [8]Linda Greenhouse, “The Supreme Court’s Pain — and Our Anger,” New York Times, October 7, 2021, https://www.nytimes.com/2021/10/07/opinion/supreme-court-polls-abortion-bush-gore.html↩
  9. [9]Ann E. Marimow, “Federal judge blocks enforcement of Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Washington Post, October 6, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html; Ann E. Marimow and Emily Wax-Thibodeaux, “Federal judge blocks enforcement of Texas law banning abortion as early as six weeks,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/courts_law/texas-abortion-lawsuit-decision/2021/10/06/ae70d946-22e7-11ec-9309-b743b79abc59_story.html↩
  10. [10]Ed Kilgore, “Is Roe v. Wade Now Doomed?” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/is-roe-v-wade-now-doomed.html; Nia Prater, “Supreme Court to Hear Case That Threatens Roe v. Wade,” New York, May 17, 2021, https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2021/05/supreme-court-to-hear-case-that-threatens-roe-v-wade.html; David G. Savage, “Supreme Court agrees to hear major abortion case challenging Roe vs. Wade,” Los Angeles Times, May 17, 2021, https://www.latimes.com/politics/story/2021-05-17/supreme-court-agrees-to-hear-abortion-case; Ariane de Vogue, “Mississippi asks US Supreme Court to overturn Roe v. Wade,” CNN, July 22, 2021, https://www.cnn.com/2021/07/22/politics/mississippi-roe-v-wade-abortion/index.html↩
  11. [11]Tony Romm, “Senate leaders announce short-term deal to raise debt ceiling $480 billion into December,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/us-policy/2021/10/07/senate-deal-debt-ceiling/↩
  12. [12]Olivier Knox, “It’s Bernie vs Manchin as spending breakthrough remains elusive,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/07/its-bernie-vs-manchin-spending-breakthrough-remains-elusive/↩
  13. [13]Olivier Knox, “It’s Bernie vs Manchin as spending breakthrough remains elusive,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/07/its-bernie-vs-manchin-spending-breakthrough-remains-elusive/↩
  14. [14]Daniel Boguslaw, “Joe Manchin’s Dirty Empire,” Intercept, September 3, 2021, https://theintercept.com/2021/09/03/joe-manchin-coal-fossil-fuels-pollution/; Geoff Dembicki, “Joe Manchin Makes $500K a Year From One of the Dirtiest Coal Plants in West Virginia,” Vice, July 28, 2021, https://www.vice.com/en/article/z3x8bw/joe-manchin-senator-millions-coal-grant-town-west-virginia; David Moore, “Manchin Bailed Out a Power Plant That Helps His Family Profit From Coal Waste,” Truthout, August 7, 2021, https://truthout.org/articles/manchin-bailed-out-a-power-plant-that-helps-his-family-profit-from-coal-waste/↩
  15. [15]Olivier Knox, “It’s Bernie vs Manchin as spending breakthrough remains elusive,” Washington Post, October 7, 2021, https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/07/its-bernie-vs-manchin-spending-breakthrough-remains-elusive/↩

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