Cartwright, M Rep
<p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><b><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">lcv 96/96%</font></b></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="line-height: 22.8px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">http://scorecard.lcv.org/moc/matt-cartwright</span></font></p><div class="details" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><em style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px;">24 Apr 2012 </em><br class="clear" style="float: none; clear: both; line-height: 1px;" /></font></div><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">WASHINGTON – League of Conservation Voters (LCV) President Gene Karpinski issued the following statement in response to Matt Cartwright’s victory over Rep. Tim Holden in today’s Democratic primary in Pennsylvania’s 17th congressional district:</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“LCV targeted Representative Tim Holden for defeat explicitly because he has opposed policies that will curb harmful global warming pollution and build a clean energy economy. Tim Holden is the first candidate this cycle to lose because he is out of the mainstream on global warming and clean energy, but he won't be the last.”</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">LCV ran the largest independent expenditure campaign in this race, which included naming Holden to its ‘Dirty Dozen’ list. The centerpiece of the LCV campaign was a <a href="http://www.lcv.org/media/press-releases/LCV-Launches-230-000-TV-Ad-Campaign-to-Defeat-Rep-Tim-Holden.html" title="LCV Launches $230,000 TV Ad Campaign to Defeat Rep. Tim Holden" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-decoration: none;">$230,000 television ad buy</a> on broadcast and cable networks in the Scranton media market. The ad criticized Holden for opposing President Obama’s clean energy plan. (View the ad here:<a href="http://youtu.be/-HaKhXOQN3A" target="blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-decoration: none;">http://youtu.be/-HaKhXOQN3A</a>) Additionally, LCV conducted over 20,000 live phone calls to likely primary voters in the district.</font></p><p style="margin: 0px 0px 20px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; line-height: 16.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A <a href="http://www.politicspa.com/cartwright-poll-cartwright-leads-holden-42-36/33790/" target="_blank" style="margin: 0px; padding: 0px; border: 0px; text-decoration: none;">poll</a> released shortly before LCV’s ad campaign began showed Cartwright leading Holden by 6 points (42%-36%), with 22% undecided. Cartwright is now poised to defeat Holden by a significant margin.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">=</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">
</font></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/theyre-crooks-coal-industry-aims-to-exploit-coronavirus-crisis-to-cut-payments-to-miners-with-black-lung" style="text-decoration-line: none; font-weight: bold; color: rgb(0, 51, 153); outline: none;">https://www.alternet.org/2020/04/theyre-crooks-coal-industry-aims-to-exploit-coronavirus-crisis-to-cut-payments-to-miners-with-black-lung</a></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="font-size: small;"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style="" /><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4" style=""><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4"><font face="Times New Roman" size="4">no lnx omg</font></font></font></font></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>‘They’re crooks’: Coal industry aims to exploit coronavirus crisis to cut payments to miners with black lung</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Written by Jake Johnson / Common Dreams April 12, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Some of the largest coal companies in the United States are using the coronavirus crisis to pressure Congress to slash the tax that finances the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, a lifeline for more than 20,000 miners whose lung disease makes them more vulnerable to COVID-19.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">
</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The Washington Post reported this week that the <b>National Mining Association (NMA), a trade group that represents the biggest U.S. coal operators still standing, </b>“asked Congress last month for a 55 percent cut in the excise tax for the trust fund, and a suspension of another fee that pays to clean up abandoned mines. Altogether the operators say they could save about $220 million.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“While the level of taxation to back the fund has fluctuated sharply over the past two years,” the Post noted, “it currently stands at $1.10 for every ton of coal mined underground and 55 cents for surface coal.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Harold Sturgill, a 60-year-old retired miner who was diagnosed with black lung in 1998, said in an interview with the Post that coal companies are “going to try to use this virus thing to stop paying benefits.”</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“They’re crooks,” Sturgill said</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><b>Sierra Club</b></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">@SierraClub</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The burden should be on the coal operators,” Bounds said. “They come in our state, they mine our coal, they fill their pockets up, they declare bankruptcy. They leave with all the cash, and there’s no money to pay the miners.” https://www.washingtonpost.com/business/2020/04/08/coal-black-lung-coronavirus/ … #blacklungkills #covid19</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
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</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As covid-19 hits, coal companies aim to cut the tax they pay to support black lung miners</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The nation’s coal companies, citing the economic impact of the covid-19 pandemic, want to roll back their payments to the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund. That would leave the federal government to...</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">washingtonpost.com</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">30</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">10:29 AM - Apr 9, 2020</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Twitter Ads info and privacy</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">31 people are talking about this</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">The NMA explicitly pointed to the coronavirus crisis in its tax cut request to Congress (pdf)—which was not included in the stimulus package that Congress passed last month—and labeled the coal industry “essential” to energy production in the United States. A group of Republican senators is currently pressuring the Federal Reserve to allow coal companies to benefit from the multi-trillion-dollar CARES Act.</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“As the country faces this unique and mounting challenge around the COVID-19 pandemic, U.S. coal miners continue to work to provide the resources necessary to power America while bracing for the severe financial distress facing all sectors across the nation,” NMA wrote to congressional leaders. “To minimize the impact of this crisis on the coal industry, Congress should ensure all businesses have the financial resources necessary to ride out the pandemic.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The group, according to the Post, intends to keep pushing for the tax cut in future stimulus legislation.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">As EcoWatch reported earlier this week, “in some states like West Virginia, coal mines have been classified as essential services and are staying open during the COVID-19 pandemic, even though the close quarters miners work in and the known risks to respiratory health put miners in harm’s way during the spread of the coronavirus.”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Nobody knows what this virus is going to do when it gets to this area,” Jimmy Moore, a 74-year-old black lung patient in Shelby Gap, Kentucky, told HuffPost. “It’s probably just going to wipe us out.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Miners and advocates have long warned about the financial health of the Black Lung Disability Trust Fund, which is deeply in debt, and repeatedly asked lawmakers to act to ensure that the program is sustainable over the long term. Last July, as Common Dreams reported, a group of around 120 retired miners traveled to Washington, D.C. to demand congressional action to secure the fund’s finances, only to be brushed aside by Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell, a Kentucky Republican.</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Lynda Glagola, chairwoman of the National Coalition of Black Lung and Respiratory Disease Clinics, told the Post that if Congress grants the coal industry its desired tax cut, “the fund will spiral deeper and deeper into debt causing it to become a red financial flag.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Especially at this time, as the economy is collapsing right before our eyes,” Glagola warned, “lawmakers will soon be looking for programs to cut to save money and reduce the national debt and deficit.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style=""><b style=""><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In response to NMA’s request, Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.)—chairman of the House Natural Resources Committee—and </span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 204, 102);">Rep. Matthew Cartwright (D-Pa.)</span><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> wrote a letter (pdf) to congressional leaders last month urging them to reject the coal industry’s “wish-list” and “focus federal resources on the workers, families, and communities that are being hardest hit by this crisis.</span></b><span style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">”</span></div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“The coal industry is taking advantage of the country’s current circumstances to advocate for policies that are completely unrelated to the current crisis, policies that would in fact set back efforts to improve the health and lives of people across the country,” the lawmakers wrote. “At a time when the country is facing a pandemic due to a respiratory illness, it is particularly egregious for the coal industry to advocate reducing the Black Lung Excise Tax.”</div><div style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</div></div><div style="font-size: small; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><p style="margin-top: 8px; margin-bottom: 8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">=</font></p></div><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A trio of House Democrats is asking the Department of Justice to investigate Royal Dutch Shell’s “deception” on climate change science.</font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Reps. Ted Lieu (Calif.), <span class="rollover-people" style="position: relative;"><a class="rollover-people-link" data-nid="188028" href="http://thehill.com/people/peter-welch" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none; font-weight: bold;">Peter Welch</a></span> (Vt.) and </font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 102);">Matt Cartwright</font><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> (Pa.) cited reports in the Los Angeles Times and InsideClimate News to accuse Shell of working with Exxon Mobil Corp. to lie to the public about climate change and the impact from fossil fuels.</font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;" /><div id="dfp-ad-mosad_1-wrapper" class="dfp-tag-wrapper wrapper" style="position: relative; line-height: 18px;"><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><span style="line-height: 18px; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman">“The alleged behavior by multiple actors suggests there was a conspiracy between Shell, ExxonMobil and potentially other companies in the fossil fuel industry,” the lawmakers wrote in a letter to Attorney General Loretta Lynch.</font></span></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We request the DOJ investigate whether Shell violated, or conspired to violate, Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act (RICO), consumer protection, truth in advertising, public health, or other laws,” they said.</font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The letter represents an escalation of the Democrats’ fight against Exxon, which started last year with previous reports by the Times and InsideClimate.</font></p><p style="margin: 15px 0px; line-height: 18px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The publications reported that Exxon had a good grasp of climate science as early as the 1970s and was at the cutting edge of research. But it later downplayed the dangers and sowed doubt about climate change as part of its efforts to fight numerous policies to cut carbon emissions.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><span id="docs-internal-guid-daa3cc78-a08d-610a-4052-40d32a9e5c11" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span style="font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Kaitlin (NLT) </span><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">- Rick Nolan (MN), Mark Pocan (WI), Matthew Cartwright (PA), Jared Huffman (CA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), Keith Ellison (MN). 5/15 bill</span></font></span></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16.26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Congressman Rick Nolan of Minnesota spoke at the press conference, telling attendees that “Good and successful movements in this country have always started with ordinary people who commit to accomplishing great things. And so it was with ending slavery, with child labor laws, environmental laws, women’s suffrage, civil rights, the progressive income tax, Social Security, Medicare, rights for the disabled – you name it – this movement transcends labels, it transcends political parties, it transcends regions and it transcends generations.”</font></p><p style="margin: 1em 0px; padding: 0px; line-height: 16.26px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Nolan added that “America’s future and American democracy is dependent upon the success of this movement.” In addition to Nolan, co-sponsors of the bill include Mark Pocan (WI), Matthew <b>Cartwright (PA)</b>, Jared Huffman (CA), Raul Grijalva (AZ), and Keith Ellison (MN).</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A crew of Democratic House members are calling on the EPA to do its damned job — specifically, to investigate potential links between pollution and fracking in three states where groundwater has been mysteriously poisoned.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Rep. Matt Cartwright’s (D-Pa.) letter, <a href="http://cartwright.house.gov/sites/cartwright.house.gov/files/Rep%20Cartwright%20EPA%20Investigations%20Letter.pdf" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">sent Tuesday to EPA Administrator Gina McCarthy</a> with signatures from seven other lawmakers, follows the agency’s disturbing decisions to drop three investigations into possible connections between fracking and water contamination.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In mid-2012, the EPA dropped an investigation into water pollution in Dimock, Pa., <a href="http://grist.org/news/leaked-epa-document-raises-questions-about-fracking-pollution/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">despite internal warnings</a> from one of the agency’s scientists that methane levels jumped in aquifers following drilling — “perhaps as a result of fracking.” In early 2013, the agency dropped its investigation into water pollution in Parker County, Texas — <a href="http://grist.org/news/tests-show-texas-well-water-polluted-by-fracking-despite-epa-assurances/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">despite lacking confidence</a> in the quality of water tests conducted by the frackers themselves. And in the middle of last year, the <a href="http://grist.org/news/epa-abandons-investigation-into-fracking-pollution/" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; text-decoration: none; max-width: 100%;">EPA dropped its investigation</a> into water contamination around Pavilion, Wyo. — despite findings in a draft report that fracking chemicals were likely to blame.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman"><span id="more-235574" style="border: 0px; margin: 0px; padding: 0px; font-style: inherit; font-weight: inherit; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);" /></font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“Each community was grateful when when the EPA stepped in to help deal with their water contamination issues, and disheartened when the EPA dropped their investigations, leaving them with polluted water and little explanation,” the lawmakers wrote in their letter.</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">“We are writing to urge you to take any and all steps within your power to help these communities. … Members of these communities currently do not have safe, clean drinking water and need EPA’s help to address the ongoing water contamination issues in their homes and get EPA assurance once their water is clean and safe.”</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">
</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">=</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">2/15</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"> Pennsylvania congressman wanted to know how his state and two neighboring states oversee the disposal of the often toxic waste generated by fracking oil-and-gas wells.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Now, Matthew Cartwright has some answers, and he finds them late–and lacking.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cartwright, a Democrat from eastern Pennsylvania, launched the investigation in his state last October. A month later, he expanded his inquiry to Ohio and West Virginia. </font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Responses from two states failed to provide substantive, detailed information to the congressman while one state has ignored the request.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Among the issues Cartwright raised:</font></p><ul><li><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">How each state inspects oil-and-gas waste facilities.</font></p></li><li><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">What information the states require to pinpoint what's in the waste.</font></p></li><li><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An explanation of the process for handling complaints regarding fracking waste disposal.</font></p></li></ul><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Answers to those questions are important for both residents and the environment in regions that are disposing of huge quantities of fracking waste, Cartwright said in an email interview.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"States continually argue that this is a state's issue and they can best handle it," Cartwright said. "We are simply asking states to please provide a little more insight into how they handle this issue and more importantly, how they enforce their own regulations.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"We believe that these states may not be adequately disposing of potentially hazardous waste."</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A representative of the <a href="http://www.epa.state.oh.us/" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Ohio Environmental Protection Agency</a> did not respond to InsideClimate News calls and questions about why the agency has failed to reply to Cartwright. The agency was given a Dec. 3 deadline.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"><a href="http://www.dep.wv.gov/Pages/default.aspx" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">West Virginia</a> officials recently assured Cartwright they are properly monitoring oil-and-gas waste. <a href="http://www.depweb.state.pa.us/portal/server.pt/community/about_dep/13464" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">Pennsylvania</a> administrators met the deadline but provided only broad answers.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1657944-wva-letter-to-cartwright.html" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">two-page letter</a> to Cartwright sent after InsideClimate News inquired about why a Dec. 3 deadline was missed, a West Virginia official told the congressman that the waste ends up in properly regulated facilities.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Randy C. Huffman, cabinet secretary for the state's EPA, did not specifically address Cartwright’s questions or provide data sought by the congressman.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"West Virginia has several regulations in place to address proper disposal of the waste associated with oil and gas operations," Huffman told Cartwright.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In the letter, Huffman briefly explained to Cartwright that drilling waste must be disposed of in landfill cells specifically constructed for oil-and-gas waste, and the agency has established limits on the amount of toxins allowed in the waste. </font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Huffman also told Cartwright his agency is working with the West Virginia Department of Health and Human Resources on a study of radiation levels of drilling waste. That information will be provided to the state legislature later in the year, Huffman said.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Huffman's letter did not indicate the agency intends any further response to Cartwright.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">A Deadline, a Dearth of Details</font></strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Pennsylvania officials met Cartwright's Nov. 12 deadline with a <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1658049-pa-response-to-cartwright.html" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">five-page response</a> that provided the state’s policy positions on many of his questions. The agency generally explained its reporting requirements for the following: oil-and-gas waste facilities; mandatory chemical analysis of waste; and state inspection standards for waste facilities. It also included an explanation of enforcement rules.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"Pennsylvania's residual waste regulations provide a comprehensive approach for managing waste from the point of generation to transportation, processing, recycling and disposal," said the letter signed by Dana Aunkst, the former acting secretary of Pennsylvania’s EPA. (He is now the agency’s executive deputy secretary for programs.)</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Aunkst explained that it would take considerable time to provide specific answers to Cartwright’s questions, but pledged cooperation if more information was required.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The replies have prompted Cartwright, a member of the House Subcommittee on Economic Growth, Job Creation and Regulatory Affairs, to seek meetings with committee staff in the coming weeks to discuss ways to get the information, according to a Cartwright staff member.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">As a minority member of the committee, Cartwright must rely on the voluntary cooperation of the state agencies. To compel disclosure through subpoenas would require the support of the Republican majority, assistance that seems unlikely.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cartwright identified the three states as objects of his Congressional investigation because they generate waste from hydraulic fracturing––or fracking––as well as accepting waste from other states. Fracking is the process of blasting a mixture of water, chemicals and sand down a well to break open shale to extract fossil fuels.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cartwright's growing inquiry mirrors the increasing national concern about the disposal of oil-and-gas waste generated by fracking.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">In <a href="https://www.documentcloud.org/documents/1658048-fracking-letters-pa-wv-oh.html" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">letters</a> to the heads of the three states' environmental protection agencies, Cartwright said fracking waste can "cause harm to human health and the environment" if not properly handled.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cartwright, who is beginning his second term, also wants to determine whether the three states are following the federal Clean Air Act, which mandates protection from airborne contaminants.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Cartwright cites a <a href="http://democrats.energycommerce.house.gov/sites/default/files/documents/Hydraulic-Fracturing-Chemicals-2011-4-18.pdf" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">2011 minority staff report</a> of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. It identified 29 chemicals found in fracking waste that are possible human carcinogens, and are regulated under both the Clean Air Act and the Safe Drinking Water Act for their risks to human health.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The report identified benzene, toluene, xylene and ethylbenzene as being among the chemicals found in fracking products. Each of those compounds is a contaminant under the Safe Drinking Water Act and a hazardous air pollutant under the Clean Air Act. Benzene also is a known human carcinogen.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">An <a href="http://books.insideclimatenews.org/infrackingswake" style="text-decoration: none; outline: none;">investigation published last year by InsideClimate News</a> found that in most states where fracking is taking place, air emissions from oil-and-gas waste are among the least regulated, least monitored and least understood components in the extraction-and-production cycle.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><strong><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">No Mandate, No Monitoring</font></strong></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">The representative also wants answers to more than a dozen other questions related to the way the states ensure health and environmental safety.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The Subcommittee minority is conducting this oversight to determine if state regulations and monitoring of fracking waste are sufficient to ensure accuracy, completeness and compliance with applicable environmental laws," Cartwright said in the letters.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">But the request has not elicited the answers Cartwright sought.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">David Brown, a toxicologist at the Southwest Pennsylvania Environmental Health Project, said he suspects one of the reasons for the snub is that the state agencies simply don't have the information.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"You hope someone is paying attention to things like this," he said, "but that's not always the case."</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Brown suggests one of the reasons for some of the states' indifference is an absence of federal requirements for tracking and regulating the waste.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Consequently, he said, states don’t closely regulate oil-and-gas waste because such oversight is not mandated. And in many cases, even if they wanted to undertake the job, they don’t have adequate resources, he said.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Not regulating the waste is a huge failing, Brown said.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"It's important to know what’s in this material because some it can be highly toxic," Brown said. "If these toxic substances get into the ground water or into the air, they can be very dangerous."</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">Some of the compounds in oil-and-gas waste have been linked to cancer, or contribute to respiratory and neurological illnesses.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It's dangerous to remain uninformed of the exact makeup and concentrations of chemicals in oil-and-gas waste, Brown said. He cites leaded gasoline as an example.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">It took decades for the threat to human health posed by the toxicity of leaded fuel became known, he said.</font></p><p style="line-height: 1.5em;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);">"The implication of exposing the population to chemicals that you don't know much about is a dangerous thing," Brown said. "From a public health perspective, they ought to know what’s going on."</font></p><p style="border: 0px; margin: 0px 0px 1.4em; padding: 0px; vertical-align: baseline; max-width: 100%; line-height: 22.8px;"><font size="4" face="Times New Roman" style="background-color: rgb(255, 255, 255);"></font></p></div>