OCTOBER 2021
WHAT WE'RE TALKING ABOUT
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This month: Appreciate art in the park, celebrate Vegetarian Month, learn about waste-to-hydrogen, carve those pumpkins, propagate your bulbs, keep stuff working, learn about home energy upgrades, hit the River and join our online meeting Thursday evening, October 7 at 7:00!

UPDATE ON HYDROGEN:
WASTE PAPER SOLUTION?
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By Dean Gallea

In last month’s Newsletter, I refuted the current claims by the industry on the “greenness” of using hydrogen as a transportation fuel. My analysis was based on my research on current production methods, their impacts on carbon fuel use and greenhouse gas release, and their practicality given today’s constraints on renewable energy production.

Well, times change -- sometimes daily.

An article in a recent Green Car Reports Daily Digest caught my attention, and it just may blow my assumptions out of the H2O: A California company (doesn’t all energy innovation seem to come from California?) has invented a process that uses waste paper as a gasification feedstock for their hydrogen production process.

Waste gasification has interested the Atlantic Council, a NATO-inspired economic group founded in the 60’s, as a way to further the large-scale production of green hydrogen:

“The gasification of biomass is an alternative clean hydrogen production method, sometimes described as ‘green’ along with renewable electrolysis. If biomass waste is used as the fuel source, this pathway can actually generate carbon-negative hydrogen by avoiding methane emissions from that waste. Biomass gasification operates similarly to coal gasification production of hydrogen, which has been deployed at large scale, but without the associated carbon emissions…. The largest-scale biomass-to-hydrogen plant is currently under construction in Lancaster, California; if the project meets its cost and production targets, this pathway could become a critical piece of the US hydrogen economy.”

The company, SG H2 Energy, has claimed that its process will displace 30 tons of CO2 for every ton of hydrogen produced, which it says is at least 13 tons better than with electrolysis. And it claims its process is much cheaper than electrolysis, competitive with coal gasification. The plant, breaking ground in early 2022, will be co-owned by the city of Lancaster, which will supply the feedstock.

So, let’s watch this technology, with an eye to whether it is as effective and green as is claimed. And, as the Green Car Reports article states, “…the California Energy Commission [reports] that hydrogen could reach price parity with gasoline by 2025. Part of the issue includes not just creating the demand, but creating the infrastructure to distribute it.”

WAITING FOR SPRING:
THE AUTUMN GARDEN
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By Cynthia Stegman

As fall comes to New York, it is important to prep your garden and set it up for success for the following year. When it comes to adding more specimens to your garden, there are some easy and free options!

Planting native bulbs, tubers and rhizomes in the fall can help get a head start on next year’s blooms.  If you already have growing plants, their pale, underground sections of can be divided up and used to spread new specimens as the plant goes into dormancy following the summer and reawakens when the following spring comes.

By spending the winter in the soil, these plants more easily settle their roots and gather extra energy, and as most of the plant will be dormant with the cooler weather, there is less stress, increasing their odds of survival. They also benefit from a boost in moisture and nutrition as the weather warms, giving them their best chance at growing big and beautiful!

Skip the bulk bags of daffodils, and instead, opt for a native species for your garden. Some choices that are native to the Northeast include bulbs in the Lily family, such as Michigan Lily (Lilium michiganense), Canada Lily (Lilium canadense), Turk's-Cap Lily (Lilium superbum), and finally, a great option for shady gardens, Prairie Lily (Lilium philadelphicum). Another great choice for shady gardens is Trillium grandiflorum, a short, showy plant that shows off a single, three-petaled flower -- but, as a favorite snack of white-tailed deer, this should be planted in secured and fenced gardens to avoid being on the buffet line!
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FOR THE FULL ARTICLE, WITH PLANTING DETAILS, CLICK HERE

By AMY HILL, Mothers Out Front
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President Joe Biden’s infrastructure proposal has cleared the Senate and is before the House — and that's exciting news, especially because one seemingly small element could pay off in such big ways for all of us.

The school bus electrification proposal contained in the legislation would switch at least one-fifth of the country’s ginormous school bus fleet from dirty diesel to cleaner electric buses, producing a big impact on our climate and on our collective national health.

I’m a mother of two, a climate activist and an occupational therapist whose work centers on students with unique needs. From all those perspectives, I believe that the Biden proposal on school bus electrification is perhaps one of the most important — and most achievable — of all the infrastructure improvements in this package.

One of the largest sources of greenhouse gas emissions is transportation. In New York, transportation is a leading cause of emissions; 36 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions come from the transportation sector, much of it bus transportation.

There are more than 500,000 school buses on the road and more than 26 million riders — our children. That’s a lot of kids at risk. Ninety-five percent of school buses still burn diesel fuel. If students ride an average of 30 minutes each way, they spend 180 hours on diesel-fueled buses each year, breathing various levels of diesel exhaust. Bus drivers breathe this, too. This dirty air, in fact, affects everyone who even comes near a school bus. There is no known “safe level” of exposure to diesel exhaust, especially for children and those who have respiratory illnesses and other health concerns.

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention has reported that one in 10 children has asthma. But among Black and Latino students, the asthma rate increases by more than 50 percent. It’s an issue of health equity, economic justice, and climate justice.

Even as the president’s plan moves toward full approval, we must continue to lift our voices so that our leaders will act decisively and act now.

When funding is finalized, my school district will get one new electric school bus. It hasn’t been an easy journey. The goal is not to simply convert one bus, but my district’s whole fleet — and to help other districts do the same. We've gotten this far because of a school board that listened and a state legislative leader, Assembly member Thomas Abinanti, who engaged with moms and others on the issue.

So let your local board know that school bus electrification is an urgent matter for you and tell them why. Then, reach out to your elected state officials and seek their help on policy change and funding. For the sake of our children, our communities, and our planet, we must fight forward — local, state and national — toward a greener, more electrified world.

Amy Hill, of Tarrytown, is a leader in the Westchester Rivertowns Chapter of Mothers Out Front. 
https://www.mothersoutfront.org. This article was reprinted from the Albany Times-Union on September 3, 2021.