| Blue Hydrogen | Produced as is gray hydrogen, but the CO2 produced is captured and sequestered (CCS), so is considered “clean”. | |
| Carbon Capture and Sequestration (CCS) | A technology for capturing CO2 emissions at the source and pumping it deep underground for storage, often used as a means to extract further oil from depleted regions. While feasible at a small scale, it is unlikely to ever account for more than a very small proportion of emissions. | |
| CHaRM | Center for Hard to Recycle Materials, a type of shared facility for the sorting and recycling of items that are not part of regular recycling streams. Such facilities typically include metals, batteries, electronics, and other items. | |
| Chloro-fluorocarbons (CFC) | A class of chemicals used in refrigerators, air conditioners, and as spray propellants until the 1990s, when they were phased out by international agreement to avoid further damage to the ozone layer in the upper atmosphere. | |
| Clean Energy | An energy source, typically supplying electricity, which produces no carbon dioxide emissions or other pollutants as it operates. Nuclear energy is often considered “clean” as it produces no CO2 or air emissions, though it does produce small amounts of radioactive waste which requires special disposal. | |
| Climate Change | Changes in long-term weather patterns in different regions, caused by overall warming of the earth due to greenhouse gases in the atmosphere. | |
| Community Solar | An arrangement whereby electric customers may “buy into” a group-owned solar array, in which they receive a share of the energy generated as a credit on their electric bill. This is attractive to customers who do not own their homes, or who may have an unsuitable location. | Info |
| Community Wind | Wind turbines or farms owned and managed by communities, such as homeowners, small business owners, farmers, schools and universities, Native American Tribes, rural electric cooperatives, and municipal utilities. | |
| Composting | Recycling of organic solid waste using natural processes, e.g. bacteria and insects, producing an organic fertilizer and soil conditioner as a byproduct. | |
| CRC Watershed | The geographic area where rainfall drains into the Chester, Ridley, and Crum Creeks. | |
| Destructive Disposal | An innocuous-sounding term for incineration, the disposal of solid waste by combustion. | |
| Economic Justice | A set of moral and ethical principles for building economic institutions, where the ultimate goal is to create an opportunity for each person to establish a sufficient material foundation upon which to have a dignified, productive, and creative life. | Info |
| Electric Vehicle (EV) | An electrically-powered vehicle. Generally refers to an all-electric rather than a hybrid-electric (HEV) vehicle, though plug-in hybrid-electric (PHEV) are sometimes included in the category. | |
| Endangered Species Act | A federal law that aspires to prevent extinction, recover imperiled plants and animals, and protect the ecosystems on which they depend. | Info |
| Environmental Health | The branch of public health concerned with how the natural and built environments affect human health. | |
| Environmental Justice | A social movement to recognize and remedy harms to certain communities, largely inhabited by poor and/or minority residents, caused by proximity to industrial and other environmentally damaging facilities from which they receive little or no benefit. | |
| Executive Order 14008 | President Biden’s executive order to make climate change and environmental justice the focus of all of the federal agencies going forward. | Info |
| Flaring | Burning off gases, usually methane, at well heads and refineries. Leads to the release of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, into the atmosphere. | |
| Fossil Fuel | Any fuel which originated from deposits of organic material which were laid down millions of years ago, including oil, natural gas and associated liquids, and coal. These fuels represent carbon removed from the atmosphere in much warmer ages, and trapped in those deposits since then. | |
| Fracking | Shorthand for hydraulic fracturing, a technique which involves injecting water and chemicals under high pressure deep underground, in order the break up the underlying shale rock and release gas trapped within it. Can contaminate groundwater in the region. | |
| Geoengineering | The idea of using technological means to reduce or reverse climate change caused by global warming. | |
| Geothermal Energy | Energy generated by pumping fluid deep into layers of hot rock, using the absorbed heat to generate electricity. | |
| Global Warming | The trend of increasing average temperatures across the entire plant. As contrasted with climate change, which refers to localized effects caused by global warming. | |
| Gray Hydrogen | The most commonly available form of hydrogen, produced from natural gas through a process called “steam reforming”. A by-product of this process is CO2. so this form of hydrogen is not “clean”. | |
| Green Hydrogen | Clean hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using renewable electriticy sources. | |
| Greenhouse Gas (GHG) | Any of a group of gases but most importantly carbon dioxide (CO2) which trap solar heat in the atmosphere, leading to an overall warming effect across the planet. | |
| Ground Source Heat Pump | A type of HVAC system in which heat is exchanged into the earth, using a series of pipes, rather than into air as in a conventional system. | |
| Hazardous Waste | Any waste material which, if not properly handled, may contaminate the environment, or which constitutes a danger to people or animals. | Info |
| Heavy Metals | Metals often found in air and water pollution that can seriously affect human health when inhaled or ingested. These include mercury, lead, bismuth, cadmium, and other high atomic weight elements. | |
| Household Hazardous Waste (HHW) | Waste products from households which cannot be properly disposed of in the normal solid waste stream, largely chemicals used in home products such as heavy-duty cleaning products, oil-based paints and solvents. Such products require special handling for disposal and should never be placed in household trash. | |
| Hydro-fluorocarbons (HFC) | A class of chemicals related to CFC but originally thought to be less damaging, currently being phased out due to greenhouse effects. | |
| Hydrogen | The lightest element, hydrogen is a potential future fuel, which produces only water when burned and is therefore intrinsically a “clean” fuel. However, its actual status depends on how it is produced, leading to four categories, designated Gray, Blue, Green, and Pink, as listed. | |
| Hydrogen Hub | An industrial plant for the production of hydrogen fuel (see below). Depending on the fuel and method used to produce the hydrogen, it is labeled as Gray, Blue, Green, or Pink. | |
| Internal Combustion Engine | An engine in which fuel is burned within an enclosed chamber, using the heat and pressure of the expanding gases to produce motion. This includes traditional gasoline and diesel engines as well as variants such as rotary and turbine engines. | Info |
| Justice40 | President Biden’s announced policy which mandates that at least 40% of the benefits of certain federal investments must flow to disadvantaged communities. | Info |
| Lead Hazard Reduction Program (LHRP) | State and County program to help homeowners, landlords, tenants test for and remediate lead paint to prevent lead poisoning in children and adults. | |
| Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) | A method for transporting natural gas by ship, by cooling it until it becomes liquid, at approximately -260° F. | Info |
| Marcellus Shale | A geological formation located under portions of Pennsylvania, New York, and Ohio, West Virginia, Virginia, and Maryland, which yields an abundance of liquified natural gas through fracking. | Info |
| National Ambient Air Quality Standards | Pollution levels set by the federal government to regulate emissions that cause air pollution. | Info |
| National Environmental Policy Act | The federal law that governs the regulation of construction projects among federal agencies to minimize environmental harms. | Info |
| Natural Gas Liquids (NGL) | Various mixtures of the compounds ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and pentane, which are present in small quantities when natural gas (methane) is extracted from the ground. Can be carried by pipeline. Extremely hazardous as it is colorless, odorless, and potentially highly explosive. | |
| NOx | Oxides of nitrogen, primarily NO2 (nitrogen dioxide) and NO (nitric oxide), which contribute to smog and acid rain. | |
| Per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances | A group of synthetic chemical compounds used to make nonstick coatings and water-resistant materials, widely used in consumer products and now known to be highly toxic. Often referred to as “forever chemicals” because they remain in the environment for a long time. | Info |
| Permitting | The process in which the federal or state governments allow the erection of energy infrastructure, such as pipelines and gas wells, usually with some restrictions to avoid environmental damage. | |
| Pink Hydrogen | Clean hydrogen produced by electrolysis of water using nuclear power. | |
| PJM | The Regional System Operator (RSO) that operates our local power grid, comprising all or part of 13 states and the District of Columbia. | |
| Pollutants | Impurities or contaminants often found in the air and water. They include heavy metals, particulate matter, sulfuric acid, hydrofluoric acid, CO2, NOx. | |
| Pooling | The combining of underground reservoirs of gas and oil to maximize extraction. Includes “communization,” the combining of mineral rights leases among adjacent homeowners. Gas and oil companies often coerce homeowners to enter into these arrangements. | |
| Pyrolysis | A type of recycling by chemical means, whereby plastics are broken down by heat into their component molecules. From the Greek word “pyro”, meaning fire, and “lysis”, meaning separation. | |
| Recycling | The separation and removal of useful materials from the waste stream, and the subsequent re-use of said materials in new products. | |
| Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI) | An agreement among 11 states to cooperatively reduce greenhouse gas emissions from the power sector. | Info |
| Renewable Energy | Energy (typically electricity) produced solely from sources which are automatically replenished by natural processes. These include solar, wind, geothermal, and tidal sources as well as hydropower. Biomass, or waste vegetation (often wood chips), is sometimes considered renewable as it grows from sunlight, but does have some impact on carbon emissions since young trees and old ones sequester carbon at different rates. | |
| Renewable Energy Credit (REC) | A tradeable unit representing the economic value of renewable energy, separate from the value of the energy itself. One REC is earned for each megawatt-hour (mWh) of renewable energy supplied to the grid. | |
| Solid Waste | Unwanted or unused materials discarded from households, businesses, construction/demolition, and light industrial activities. Sometimes referred to as “municipal solid waste”, the term is somewhat broader in covering the latter two categories. | |
| Superfund | The Comprehensive Environmental Response, Compensation, and Liability Act — otherwise known as the Superfund act — provides a Federal “Superfund” to clean up uncontrolled or abandoned hazardous-waste sites as well as accidents, spills, and other emergency releases of pollutants and contaminants into the environment. This law gives the federal government the power to go after polluters and force them to clean up their hazardous waste sites. | Info |
| Waste-to-Energy | A virtuous-sounding word meaning incineration, in which electricity is generated from the heat produced by the process. Also produces CO2, particulate matter, and heavy metal pollution. | |
| Zero Waste | A set of principles focused on reducing waste at the source, re-thinking products to encourage re-use and recovery of materials, with a goal of creating a circular resource economy, rather than our current linear one. | Info |
