Advocates are applauding the Washington, D.C., Public Service Commission's decision to pause a Washington Gas infrastructure rebuild known as Project Pipes.

The project began in 2014 as a 40-year plan to replace all the District's aging natural gas infrastructure, at a projected cost to ratepayers of $4.5 billion. The project is nearing the end of Phase 2 but last Tuesday the commission voted to put a Washington Gas request for a $57 million extension of the phase on hold. The commission cited concerns about the cost and the company's inability to reduce the number of leaks.

Tim Oberleiton, senior attorney for the nonprofit Earthjustice, said the approach of replacing all the gas infrastructure distracts from what he believes is the main problem.

"Washington Gas has incurred millions of dollars in penalties for failing to meet agreed-upon leak-reduction targets," Oberleiton pointed out. "Despite spending hundreds of millions of ratepayer dollars on this program, leaks are not moving down in a meaningful way. In fact, last year in D.C., the Beyond Gas campaign measured leaks across the city [and] found hundreds of active leaks across all eight wards."

In a statement to Public News Service, Canadian-owned AltaGas, parent company of Washington Gas, said Project Pipes targets the riskiest leak-prone pipes in the system.

The commission requested additional information from Washington Gas including data on the number of miles of pipe replaced in years past and associated repair costs, as well as the number of leak repairs conducted in past years. The request seeks performance metrics on each phase of the project, as well as data going back to 2005, 9 years prior to the start of Project Pipes.

The commission did not weigh in on the prospects for Phase 3 of the project, but advocates say Project Pipes runs counter to the city's climate goals, including a pledge to be carbon-neutral by 2045, which anticipated continual movement away from fossil fuels and toward renewable energy sources for homes.

Oberleiton argued committing billions to new gas infrastructure will create an incentive to keep using a technology known to contribute to climate change. He noted a number of other cities have cut spending for similar projects or delayed them.

"In Illinois, the Illinois Commerce Commission, which is the PSC out there, put a halt on any and all activities in this regard, citing the cost overruns and climate risks," Oberleiton pointed out.

Community groups are joining the opposition. In November, the D.C. Advisory Neighborhood Commission representing Glover Park and Cathedral Heights passed a resolution opposing funding for Phase 3 and calling on the Public Service Commission to revise the project to focus on existing leaks and scaling new investment to match the city's energy and climate goals.

Advocates often refer to natural gas as methane, which is its primary component. As a greenhouse gas, methane is 25 times more potent than carbon dioxide at trapping heat in the atmosphere. In homes, research shows the use of methane gas for cooking contributes to poor air quality and releases toxic compounds into the air including known carcinogens such as benzene.

Naomi Cohen-Shields, D.C. campaign manager for the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, said use of the term "natural gas" amounts to greenwashing by the gas industry.

"It's putting this idea into our heads that this is a clean form of energy that we can trust, that it's something that is safe to have in our homes, that it's better for the environment," Cohen-Shield explained. "We're beginning to dismantle that as the science is pointing more and more clearly to the fact that fracked gas, methane gas, is not a clean source of energy, that it's extremely harmful for the planet and also for people's health when it's burned in their homes."

A new documentary looked at ways to reduce the human and environmental harms stemming from the mining of "critical minerals."

Without minerals like cobalt, nickel and lithium, there would be no cellphones, electric vehicles, solar panels or long-storage batteries.

Mira Rubio, who directed the documentary for the Trade Justice Education Fund, said people in mining communities often do dangerous work for poverty-level wages.

"In cobalt mines in the Democratic Republic of Congo, people, including children, who are making cents on the dollar, digging minerals that are ending up in $80,000 Teslas or iPhones, they're risking their health and yet they may never have access to clean air or stable electricity," Rubio pointed out.

She noted mining has also led to widespread deforestation and toxic pollution. The film, "CRITICAL MINERALS: Creating a Just & Sustainable Clean Energy Transition," will be screened at the Social and Economic Justice Film Festival in San Francisco next week.

Advocates want the government to use its arguments to negotiate agreements to enforce labor rights and environmental protections. They also support an international standard called free, prior, and informed consent, which would guard against corporate exploitation of indigenous communities.

Rubio explained the nation may already have enough aboveground minerals to meet much of the global demand, if products were designed to be recovered and reused rather than trashed.

"If we can mine less and use the minerals that are already out there by using a circular economic model, that would really help reduce the amount of emissions we're putting out and help make the transition more sustainable," Rubio contended.

Minnesotans are cooling off after last weekend's extreme heat but communities bearing the brunt of environmental injustice said there will be more climate extremes to contend with, prompting heightened outreach.

Researchers said the harmful impact of climate change is one of the drivers behind Latino populations migrating to the Midwest.

Josefina Gerónimo said destructive wildfires brought her from California to Minnesota. She acknowledged the move does not mean extreme weather events and other environmental harms are gone and noted her family is still prepared in case they are forced to evacuate.

"(We've packed) an extra pair of clothes, water bottles, maps, flashlights; an emergency to-go bag," Gerónimo explained.

It is not just preparations on her mind, since Gerónimo is a leader on the environmental justice committee for Minnesota's Communities Organizing Latino Power and Action. The panel is trying to foster more grassroots conversations about topics such as air pollution disproportionately harming Latino neighborhoods and an equitable transition to clean energy.

Gerónimo pointed out the topics came up in a collaboration with the Metropolitan Council as it develops a regional climate action plan for pursuing local strategies to reduce emissions. She added voices aligned with her group provided their input, and she hopes it will lead to more community engagement.

"A lot of the people that participated, they felt motivated after that collaboration to work on other projects or maybe attend their neighborhood association meetings," Gerónimo observed. "And maybe get more involved beyond the 'Hey, let's clean up for Earth Day!'"

Education is part of this outreach, with occasional periods of smoke from Canadian wildfires and other air quality issues affecting the communities. Committee members can recommend online tools to monitor the threats. Seeing it first hand out West, Gerónimo stressed Latino residents need more guidance on where to go and how not to be exploited during a climate emergency.

"Communities of color may not have as many resources," Gerónimo emphasized. "(They) may be victims to price gouging as they're trying to evacuate, trying to find a hotel or they don't know where evacuation zones are."

As federal electric vehicle incentives face potential rollbacks, a new study is highlighting the burden of gasoline costs on Black and Latino drivers, and policy interventions which can support equitable EV adoption to help ease the burden.

The Fuel Equity Report shows Blacks and Latinos are "superusers" of gasoline, spending on average 15% of their paycheck to fuel their cars. In Illinois, residents pay the second-highest gas taxes in the nation.

Shelly Francis, confounder and director of the advocacy group EVHybridNoire, said systemic factors like disinvestment in public transportation, economic segregation and long commute times all contribute to the disproportionate effects.

"They're also more likely on average to be driving these older, less fuel efficient cars due to income as well as financing barriers that they may experience," Francis pointed out.

The study says EV adoption could save Blacks and Latinos an average of $4,900 a year on fuel and maintenance but barriers like affordability, charging access and education persist.

The report found the top 10% of Black and Latino gasoline users are generally concentrated in smaller cities and rural areas with Chicago being an outlier hotspot. Francis noted the clusters are also where people are most disproportionately affected by air pollution.

"From a public health standpoint, overexposure is really detrimental to one's health," Francis emphasized. "Increasing your risk for a number of different types of cancer, a lot of respiratory diseases and illnesses. "

The study suggests targeted policies to encourage equitable adoption of EV for Black and Latino communities, including enhancing purchase incentives, expanding financing options, and increasing charging infrastructure in communities where top gasoline users live.

Francis stressed addressing the big misinformation gap about EVs is also crucial.

"Pushing more of those types of stories out there to show like the everyday driver," Francis urged. "It's not some fancy person living out in a castle somewhere, (it's) just regular folks who are trying to work, make ends meet and provide for their families."