article thumbnail

Five Reasons “Natural” Gas is Bad for You and the Environment

Enviromental Defense

Naturalgas is not clean or green, as its misleading name implies Every reputable environmental organization and energy agency around the world is saying we can’t build new gas projects if we want to avoid complete climate chaos. But Ontario is in the process of expanding the use of fossil gas, not phasing it out.

article thumbnail

Diesel is the Reason for the Sneezin’: Cleaner Holiday Deliveries are on the Horizon

Union of Concerned Scientists

How would that change if I hopped on the electric bus route at the end of my block? But while greenhouse gas emissions may be reduced, a delivery fulfilled by a diesel-burning truck may lead to increases in emissions of smog-forming nitrogen oxides and lung-damaging particulate matter.

Insiders

Sign Up for our Newsletter

This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.

article thumbnail

Ask a Scientist: Two Dozen States Can Meet 100 Percent of Electricity Demand with Renewables by 2035

Union of Concerned Scientists

Nearly all of the alliance members have a renewable electricity standard (RES), which requires utilities in their jurisdiction to increase their use of renewable energy to a particular percentage by a specific year. Under the no-new-policy scenario, sulfur dioxide and nitrogen oxides decline only by 27 percent and 18 percent, respectively.

article thumbnail

Ask a Scientist: Gas Plants Disproportionately Harm Marginalized Communities

Union of Concerned Scientists

Just how bad is fossil “naturalgas? And, as it turns out, the infrastructure used to produce, store, distribute, transmit, and burn gas leaks like a sieve , making gas as bad as coal for the climate. Gas, which now generates 40 percent of US electricity, is considered by some to be critical to maintain grid reliability.

article thumbnail

California Ready to Take Giant Leap Toward Zero-Emission Trucks

Union of Concerned Scientists

Together, these standards will accelerate California’s necessary transition to a cleaner and more efficient freight system, increasing the estimated number of electric trucks on our roads and highways by 70 percent in 2050. A full transition to electric drayage truck operations in 2035. There are more than 1.8 pollution from vehicles.

article thumbnail

DEP Awards $2.9 Million In Grants To Schools, Businesses, Local Governments To Switch To Zero- Or Low-Emission Vehicles; Next Round Of Applications Due Dec. 15

PA Environment Daily

The 28 funded projects will install 32 electric vehicle chargers for private and public use and put 95 electric vehicles, 24 compressed or renewable natural gas vehicles, and 11 propane vehicles on the road. Nine of the vehicles will be fully electric long-haul tractor trailers, the first supported by the AFIG program.

article thumbnail

We Need an Agreement to Phase out Fossil Fuels at COP28

Union of Concerned Scientists

Beyond the climate harms of fossil fuels, they also impose a terrible toll on human health, as numerous recent studies show—including the Lancet Countdown on Health and Climate Change , a BMJ study on global deaths from air pollution caused by fossil fuels, and a study on US deaths attributable to coal-fired electricity generation.