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• Praying for rain as the Mississippi breaks
  in News
  By Anita Wadhwani

  Low-water challenges on the Mississippi River are evident at Memphis.  Dulce Torres Guzman/Tennessee Lookout

  Despite the pump from Appalachian rainforests, the drought-stricken Mississippi River is the lowest it has ever been

  This story was originally published by the Tennessee Lookout.

  MEMPHIS — John Dodson’s corn, cotton and soybean fields are fewer than 10 miles from the Mississippi River, the key transportation artery for West Tennessee grain farmers. But they might as well be a thousand miles.

  Historically low water levels on the river are coming at the worst possible time for him. It’s peak harvest season, but he can’t get his crop to market. 

  West Tennessee farmers have long relied on proximity to the Mississippi, delivering their crops directly from the field to the river. The ease of access has meant many farmers lack large grain storage silos that farmers in the Midwest and elsewhere rely on.  

  While drought strangles transportation on the Mississippi, many of these farmers are now being forced to leave crops in the field and pray for rain to fall anywhere and everywhere else but above their harvest-ready crops.

• DOE energy justice official: New power paradigms must protect the poor
  in News
  By Thomas Fraser

  The inordinate burden of energy costs is shown in this slide presented by Tony Reames during a discussion of energy injustice at the University of Tennessee Howard Baker Center.  U.S. Department of Energy

  Department of Energy official pushes goals for energy equity in midst of power turmoil

  KNOXVILLE — Energy injustice seems abstract until you run extension cords to your neighbor’s house and store their food in your fridge because their power got cut off.

  What else are you supposed to do? Maybe start raising hell about the utility inequities faced by poor people that are clearer every day in an energy marketplace scarred by war and inflation and manipulated by global petroleum cartels?

  “We’re at a critical moment in our society. Across the globe, we are hearing about energy insecurity, energy, affordability issues, a lack of resources,” said Tony Reames, Department of Energy deputy director of energy justice, a newly created position at DOE.

• U.S. Supreme Court’s recent clean-air ruling renews spotlight on fossil-energy producers like TVA
  in News
  By Anita Wadhwani

  Supreme Court air-pollution ruling calls into stark context all that must be done

  This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

  KNOXVILLE — The U.S. Supreme Court’s ruling limiting the power of the Environmental Protection Agency to regulate carbon emissions that cause climate change has renewed the spotlight on the Tennessee Valley Authority, the nation’s largest public utility and Tennessee’s primary source of electricity.

  The case involved EPA efforts to implement a key provision of the Clean Air Act in a challenge brought by 15 Republican-led states. That provision, which never went into effect, would have required existing power plants to shift from dirty sources of energy — such as coal — to cleaner sources, including solar and wind, as part of an urgent effort to reduce global warming.

• New digital maps outline precious pockets of remaining U.S. biodiversity and the threats they face
  in News
  By Dave Russell

  The endangered Indiana bat is among threatened and endangered species in Great Smoky Mountains National Park.  U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service

  Southern Appalachians show red as a warning on new detailed biodiversity maps 

  This story was originally published by the Sylva Herald.

  SYLVA — Great Smoky Mountains National Park has long been known for its abundance of different species of flora and fauna.

  Credit old mountains in a warm, sunny and wet region with varying types of climate, soil and stone for that large number.

  “The park is almost certainly the most biodiverse national park in North America,” said Paul Super, national park science coordinator. “And certainly the most studied of any national park.”

  A group of environmental organizations recently put together a series of maps illustrating the regions with the biggest threats to their biodiversity, and the area around Jackson County and the national park showed up in the red, showing risk. One such map, based on NatureServe data, is among the most detailed maps of endangered and threatened species ever produced.

• Carson-Newman professor hosts installment of worldwide “Climate Teach-in”
  in Air
  By Thomas Fraser

  Carson-Newman University Professor Brian Sohn is hosting a climate-oriented webinar on March 30.  Thomas Fraser/Hellbender Press

  Local installment of worldwide virtual Climate Teach-In is set for 2:30 p.m. March 30

  JEFFERSON CITY — Brian Sohn had “the closest thing to a panic attack” when his second daughter was born.

  He had long been alarmed by climate change and its potentially disastrous effects, but her arrival brought home the need to address the environmental challenges of a rapidly changing planet.

  So now the Carson-Newman University education professor is putting some final touches on a virtual climate-related “teach-in” he’ll host from 2:30 to 3:30 p.m. Wednesday, March 30.

• Tennessee Lookout: GOP legislators move to usurp even more local control with pro-pipeline bill
  in News
  By Dulce Torres Guzman

  GOP-led Legislature aims to ban local decisions on fossil-fuel infrastructure

  This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout.

  Per updated TL reporting, this bill was deferred to March 15 for committee consideration.

  Memphis activist Justin Pearson spent years trying to pass legislation to protect his city’s natural drinking water, but a bill being fast tracked through the state Legislature is threatening his efforts.  

  Last week, environmental activists learned that Rep. Kevin Vaughan, R-Collierville, and Sen. Ken Yager, R-Kingston, are seeking to pass a bill aimed at removing local government control over land use zoning for fossil fuel infrastructure. 

  Both the Tennessee State House and Senate Commerce Committees will vote on HB2246 and SB2077 on Tuesday, and if the bill passes, it could be on the Legislature floor by Thursday. 

• You are invited to Friday’s Great Smokies African American Experience Project Townhall meeting
  in Event Archive
  By Thomas Fraser
  The University of North Carolina Asheville will host a town hall at 2 p.m. Friday Oct. 22 for a robust discussion about the role of African-Americans in Southern Appalachian history, with a focus on the region that became Great Smoky Mountains National Park.

  “The National Park Service’s Antoine Fletcher will be leading this event and has been compiling oral histories in order to document and share the untold stories of African Americans in and outside the Smoky Mountains. You are invited—and encouraged—to share information about this event, especially with elders, leaders, story-tellers, activists, and the bon vivants in your local African American community. The African American Experience project is seeking their knowledge, and yours!” according to a UNC Asheville description of the event.

  To register, go to Great Smokies African American Experience Project Townhall.

  Fletcher has researched the role of early African-Americans in the Great Smoky Mountains dating to the 1540s.

  “Research topics in this framework include slavery, the American Civil War, social dynamics, laws and policies, careers, recreation, and oral histories. These, as yet, untold stories will be compiled to educate park visitors understand the vital, but not well known, history of African Americans throughout Appalachia,” according to UNCA.

  Part of Friday’s program is geared toward exchanging contacts among those who have relevant historical knowledge of Blacks in Appalachia or might wish to record oral histories related to themselves or family members.

  The town hall is the last such community information session planned for this phase of the the National Park Service’s “African-American Experience Project.” All the information gathered will be distilled into programming for visitors to Great Smoky Mountains and other national parks.

  It is sponsored by UNCA’s Africana Studies Program, Community Engagement Office and Department of History.
• Memphis City Council bans Byhalia Pipeline over aquifer contamination concerns
  in Water
  By Thomas Fraser

  Memphis residents have pushed back against the Byhalia Pipeline project. The proposed pipeline has been the subject of controversy since 2019. The joint venture project would build a 49-mile pipeline between Memphis and Mississippi and would run through several Black communities in Memphis. VALERO Memphis Refinery, shown here, is along the Mississippi River’s Lake McKellar in South Memphis. Photo by Karen Pulfer Focht

  Opponents of Memphis pipeline cite textbook examples of environmental racism

  (This story was originally published by Tennessee Lookout).

  Memphis City Council passed an ordinance this month protecting the Memphis Sand Aquifer after environmental activists spent nearly a year fighting to protect it against a crude-oil pipeline.

  The city council passed on second reading an ordinance establishing the city government’s role in  overseeing future developments in Memphis and how they may impact the aquifer, which serves as the area’s main drinking water supply. 

  The ordinance will be up for a third and final vote on Aug. 17.

  Since 2019, environmental and racial justice advocates have protested plans to build the Byhalia Pipeline, a joint venture between Texas-based Plains All American Pipeline and Valero Energy Corporation, in a historically Black neighborhood located in Southwest Memphis. What started as criticisms turned into full-blown protests that gathered national attention and support from prominent political figures, including former Vice President Al Gore and civil rights leader the Rev. William Barber.

  The council used the Federal and Tennessee Safe Drinking Water Act as an authorizing agent for local government’s ability to protect public drinking water.

  The Memphis City Council first discussed legislation to protect the aquifer in May 2021 and introduced ordinances that would affect the Byhalia Pipeline. 

  The resolution established an Underground Infrastructure Advisory Board to review all future developments within Memphis and prohibit those that carried hazardous liquids. According to council documents, developments must not pass within 1,000 feet of the Wellhead Protection Areas, which access existing public water supplies. 

  Byhalia Pipeline representatives threatened to file a lawsuit against the city council if they were to pass legislation that regulated future developments, causing the council to delay the vote. 

  Byhalia Pipeline representatives then abandoned the project in July but said they still considered filing a lawsuit if the resolution were to pass. 

  Councilman Jeff Warren, who sponsored the resolution, said “lawsuits are always possible.”

  Local community leaders and critics called the Byhalia Pipeline an example of environmental racism, adding that Memphis communities were already burdened by harmful environmental issues caused by nearby oil refineries, wastewater treatment facilities, industrial manufacturers and power plants.

  These factors led to cancer risks four-times the national average, and any contamination of the area’s drinking water could potentially turn the area into another Flint, Michigan, a city whose water system was contaminated with lead.

• Technical Society of Knoxville Centennial Celebration
  in Event Archive
  By GreyW

  Jun 14  ^{6:30 p.m. EST}

  The Turning Point: Things were never the same after 1921, when technology was changing the city in several surprising ways

  Jack Neely, Executive Director of the Knoxville History Project

  Technical Society of Knoxville (TSK)

  Charity Banquet at Crowne Plaza for the Charles Edward Ferris Engineering Endowments at University of Tennessee, Knoxville - the public is invited - RSVP by June 8

  Ferris was the first Dean of UTK’s College of Engineering.

  More details on the event, sponsorships, and reservations

  The Technical Society of Knoxville was founded in 1921. It has met over 4,000 times to discuss the application of technology from early Knoxville’s coal smoke and traffic problems to present Knoxville’s transportation air pollution and the impact of electric car technologies.

• Michaela Barnett wants to help break your consumer chains
  in Earth
  By Thomas Fraser

  Michaela Barnett is the founder and owner of KnoxFill. She is seen here outside her South Knoxville home-based business in this submitted photo.

  KnoxFill offers Knoxville home delivery and pickup of sustainably sourced personal-care products in refillable containers

  Michaela Barnett has traveled the world, is an accomplished science writer and editor and is closing in on a doctorate from the University of Virginia.

  Now she’s a business owner with a focus on sustainability and waste reduction and that has proven to be her true raison d’etre. She gets out of bed with joyous purpose and determination. And she sings to start her day.

  “My husband says it’s like living with this annoying Disney character,” she said with a light laugh.   

  “I’ve got so much energy and joy and excitement,” said Barnett, who launched KnoxFill in March after eight months of research and preparation and works out of her home to fill multiple orders each day.

  KnoxFill offers sustainably sourced personal-care items, detergents and other everyday household products in reusable glass containers for pickup or delivery. The product line includes shampoo, conditioner, body wash, lotions, laundry detergent, and dishwashing and castile soap. Barnett even offers safety razors, bamboo toothbrushes and refillable toothpaste “bites.”