Wheelabrator Hudson Falls, a 33-year old garbage incinerator, held a public participation meeting Wednesday April 16 as part of its efforts to renew its state-issued air permit. Neighbors and the Clean Air Action Network have long called for plant to be shut down due to its toxic odors and noise. Tracy Frisch of CAAN talks with Mark Dunlea of Hudson Mohawk Magazine about the incinerator.

Tracy Frisch on Permit Renewal for Wheelabrator Hudson Falls garbage incinerator

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Robert D. Metcalfe, a professor at Columbia University. Metcalfe recently coauthored a study of the levels of invisible particulate matter released in the air during everyday household activities like cooking and cleaning, exposure to which has been linked to health problems. He shares key findings on trends in indoor air quality, how people change their behavior when made aware of pollution levels in their homes, and the potential benefits and trade-offs of government subsidies for indoor air quality monitoring technologies. Metcalfe also highlights what areas of future research could inform this field and guide more effective interventions for public health and policy.

References and recommendations:

“Making the Invisible Visible: The Impact of Revealing Indoor Air Pollution on Behavior and Welfare” by Robert D. Metcalfe and Sefi Roth; https://www.nber.org/papers/w33510

Seeing the Invisible: Responses to Indoor Air Pollution, with Robert D. Metcalfe

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with McKenna Peplinski, a senior research associate at Resources for the Future, about delays in building up the infrastructure that delivers electricity to the United States. Many electric power projects, such as bids for new generators and transmission lines, are waiting in long queues to connect to the grid. In a recent study she coauthored, Peplinski examines the consequences of these delays in building out power infrastructure by comparing two scenarios that the research team modeled: one in which projects move forward on schedule, and another in which projects get stalled. She shares the research findings, which reveal that these delays have negative consequences for energy costs, emissions from power plants, public health, and the feasibility of adding renewable energy sources to the grid.

References and recommendations:

“Power Delayed: Economic Effects of Electricity Transmission and Generation Development Delays” by Daniel Shawhan, McKenna Peplinski, Sally Robson, Ethan Russell, Ethan Ziegler, and Karen Palmer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/power-delayed-economic-effects-of-electricity-transmission-and-generation-development-delays/

“Clean Power Delayed: Effects of Infrastructure Delays on Health, Environment, and US Households” by Daniel Shawhan, McKenna Peplinski, Sally Robson, Ethan Russell, Ethan Ziegler, and Karen Palmer; https://www.rff.org/publications/working-papers/clean-power-delayed-effects-of-infrastructure-delays-on-health-environment-and-us-households/

“Decarbonize Your Life” from Heatmap News; https://heatmap.news/decarbonize-your-life

Power Delayed: The Hidden Costs of Postponing Power Projects, with McKenna Peplinski

State legislatures are seeing a wave of industry-backed bills that would ban or restrict the public’s ability to test for air pollution in local communities. Last year, the Louisiana legislature effectively banned community groups from using their own air monitoring to warn residents about pollution or publicly advocate for cleanups. Violators can face penalties of up to $32,500 per day, plus $1 million for intentional violations. Earlier this year, Kentucky passed legislation that attempts to restrict what evidence state and local environmental regulators can use when enforcing pollution regulations. Morgan King, climate and energy program manager with the West Virginia Citizen Action Group, joins us to discuss her work building up an air monitoring network around West Virginia, where industry-backed legislation to restrict monitoring has failed twice over the last two years.

The Attack on Community Air Monitoring in State Legislatures

Since we can't depend on the system to help with reduction of traffic related air pollution, it is worth investing in personal air purifiers at home and in the office

Personal Air Purifiers Do Make a Difference to Blood Pressure

AfricaNow! August 27, 2025 Katrina's Impact 20 Years On

Topic and Guest: August 29 will mark 20 years since Hurricane Katrina made landfall on New Orleans, Louisiana.  Most of the city was flooded leaving many homeless.  Hurricane Katrina caused the death of nearly 1,400 people along the Gulf of Mexico.  The damages incurred by Hurricane Katrina made it the costliest Atlantic hurricane.  Katrina was also the fourth most intense Atlantic hurricane.  Today we will focus on the impact of Katrina on New Orleans and beyond.  Particular attention will be on the disproportional negative impact of climate change on people of the African World; the climate justice; environmental destruction by  multinational corporations; and the role of a Pan-Africanist environmental movement. 

Joining the show in this discussion is  Rev. Lennox Yearwood, president of the Hip Hop Caucus which is an organization that mobilizes and organizes communities of color to fight for racial, climate, and economic justice. Rev. Lennox Yearwood is also Host and Producer of Climate Friday on WPFW every Friday.

MUSIC ON THE SHOW: intro--“BLUE NILE” BY ALICE COLTRANE commemorating her birthday which is August 27 (August 27, 1937—January 12, 2007); break--“KURIMA” BY CHIWONISO MARAIRE; sign-off--“NOW IS THE TIME” BY CHARLIE PARKER commemorating his birthday (August 29, 1920—March 12, 1955); closing--“REALITY POEM” BY LINTON KWESI JOHNSON commemorating his birthday which is August 24 (August 24, 1952—).

Support AfricaNow! and your community station WPFW.  Donate online: visit https://pledge.wpfwfm.org/index.php and then on Step 1: Contribution scroll down to AfricaNow! to make your donation to the show. You can also text to donate by simply texting WPFWFM (not case sensitive) to 801801 and then follow the instructions. Or on our CashApp, which is $WPFWFM write it is for AfricaNow! and include your email address. Thank you.  

Originally broadcast on WPFW 89.3FM, Washington, DC. Tune into AfricaNow! live on WPFW 89.3 FM in the Washington, DC Metropolitan area or visit www.wpfwfm.org on Wednesdays from 1:00 to 2:00PM (U.S. Eastern).

Photos: Photo Hip Hop Caucus March of November 2004 courtesy of Rev. Yearwood Pres. of Hip Hop Caucus
Photos of speaker and list of those who died at the 19th anniversary of Katrina from https://www.nola.com/multimedia/photos/photos-hurricane-katrina-remembered-with-healing-march-rally/collection_24f1f43e-67e0-11ef-926d-47656a6d6164.html#anchor_item_12

AfricaNow! Aug. 27, 2025 Katrina's Impact 20 Years On

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi discusses subsidies for carbon capture and storage (CCS) with Sheila Olmstead, a professor at the Cornell Jeb E. Brooks School of Public Policy and a senior faculty fellow at the Cornell Atkinson Center for Sustainability. Olmstead evaluates the complicated nature of the 45Q policy, a federal subsidy available to firms that implement CCS. While CCS subsidy programs promote the reduction of carbon emissions, Olmstead identifies these subsidies as having the potential to financially burden the federal government, discourage clean energy projects, and motivate more pollution.

References and recommendations:

“How to design better incentives for carbon capture and storage in the United States” by Sheila M. Olmstead, Benjamin D. Leibowicz, Charles F. Mason, Andrew R. Waxman, Emily Grubert, HR Huber-Rodriguez, and Joseph Stemmler; https://www.pnas.org/doi/10.1073/pnas.2404677122

“Night Watch” by Jayne Anne Phillips; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/540650/night-watch-pulitzer-prize-winner-by-jayne-anne-phillips/

Airing New Concerns with US Carbon Capture Policies, with Sheila Olmstead

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi discusses carbon removal with Jennifer Wilcox, a professor at the University of Pennsylvania who recently coauthored a paper titled, “Elevating Carbon Management: A Policy Decision-Making Framework and Rubric for the 21st Century.” Wilcox discusses the existing gaps in current policies related to carbon removal and important considerations when amending and creating new policies. She also addresses the recent change to the 45Q subsidy (originally included in the Inflation Reduction Act of 2022 and revised by Congress in the budget reconciliation bill signed on July 4, 2025), assessing how the updated tax break offers incentives for carbon removal.

“Elevating Carbon Management: A Policy Decision-Making Framework and Rubric for the 21st Century” by Jennifer Wilcox, Noah Deich, and Holly Jean Buck; https://kleinmanenergy.upenn.edu/research/publications/elevating-carbon-management-a-policy-decision-making-framework-and-rubric-for-the-21st-century/

National Park Service Rehabilitation Tax Credits; https://www.nps.gov/subjects/taxincentives/index.htm

Achieving Societal Goals Through Carbon Removal, with Jennifer Wilcox

On Oct. 9, Lights Out Norlite held a news conference in Cohoes, NY pointing out that there is still toxic dust being blown around from the Norlite plant despite the plant temporarily stopping the burning of imported hazardous waste since March of 2024. Norlite LLC is the defendant in a lawsuit brought by New York Attorney General Letitia James and the NYS Department of Environmental Conservation on October 12, 2022. The lawsuit aims to stop the ongoing pollution from the facility. Three years later, the case has not been brought to trial or settled with the polluter. We hear from local residents Joe Ritche, Brad Blauhut, and Ed Sokol, and Judith Enck, former EPA Regional Administrator.

LON Wants NYS To Resolve Norlite Lawsuit

In this week’s episode, host Daniel Raimi talks with Neha Khanna and Ruohao Zhang about how government shutdowns prevent active air-pollution monitoring—and end up leading to more air pollution from coal-fired power plants while monitoring is on hiatus. Professor Khanna from Binghamton University and Assistant Professor Zhang from Pennsylvania State University published a related study, with another coauthor, examining the impact of the 2018–2019 government shutdown on pollution emissions from federally regulated coal-fired power plants. The authors found that the hiatus on pollution monitoring by federal employees, who were furloughed during the shutdown, led to an increase in the types of pollutants that required manual regulation at power plants. In this podcast episode, Khanna and Zhang reflect on how these findings may likewise inform how pollution rates may have changed during the government shutdown that ended just last week.

References and recommendations:

“Monitoring and Enforcement and Environmental Compliance: Power Plant Emissions During the 2018–19 Federal Government Shutdown” by Ruohao Zhang, Huan Li, and Neha Khanna; https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/10.1086/733758

“Coal plants emitted more pollution during the last government shutdown, while regulators were furloughed” by Ruohao Zhang, Huan Li, and Neha Khanna; https://theconversation.com/coal-plants-emitted-more-pollution-during-the-last-government-shutdown-while-regulators-were-furloughed-267696

“The Conversation” online platform; https://theconversation.com/us

“The Lorax” by Dr. Seuss; https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/43157/the-lorax-by-dr-seuss/

Subscribe to stay up to date on news and research from Resources for the Future: https://www.rff.org/subscribe/

Pumping Up Pollution During Government Shutdowns, with Neha Khanna and Ruohao Zhang

Hudson Mohawk Magazine is a local volunteer-produced news hour that provides sanctuary for the discussion of a wide range of topics, scaling from the global to the hyper-local. The show is broadcasted from The Sanctuary for Independent Media on WOOC 105.3 FM.

Thanks to listeners like you, the Sanctuary is able to use art and participatory action to promote social and environmental justice and freedom of creative expression.

We discuss important environmental issues in the news and investigative reports by the nonprofit, nonpartisan Environmental Integrity Project.

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast by Resources for the Future. Each week we talk to leading experts about climate change, electricity, ecosystems, and more, making the latest research accessible to everyone.

New tracks tagged #Air Pollution