EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 10/13/21
PIPELINE NEWS
People vs. Fossil Fuels: 155 More Arrested At White House On Tuesday As “People Vs. Fossil Fuels” Mobilization Continues
DeSmog: Indigenous Leaders Among the 136 Arrested at White House Fossil Fuel Protest
Popular Science: Minnesota’s Line 3 pipeline threatens one of North America’s only native grains
MPLS Mag: How the Line 3 Opposition Will Continue
Associated Press: Spire asks Supreme Court to keep pipeline operational
Bloomberg: Canada Methane Plume Coincided With Work on Natural Gas System
Reuters: Energy Transfer says Penn. Access refined products pipe is complete
InsideClimate News: Raging Flood Waters Driven by Climate Change Threaten the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
Facebook: West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety: WHYY featuring an hourlong show on Mariner East’s impact on residents and environment, and the criminal charges against Energy Transfer
Associated Press: Search Now on to Find Ship That Snagged California Pipeline, Leading to Oil Spill
WASHINGTON UPDATES
New York Times: More Than 30 Countries Join U.S. Pledge to Slash Methane Emissions
Associated Press: Donors pledge $223M aimed at reducing methane emissions
Global Witness: President Biden is set to choke the world’s climate in fossil gas
STATE UPDATES
Bakersfield Californian: Oil trade group sues state over fracking permit denials
Gizmodo: California Is Banning Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers and Lawnmowers
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: An Empire of Dying Wells
The Tyee: BC Promises to Fix ‘Broken’ Oil and Gas Royalty System
Corpus Christi Caller Times: Enbridge closes deal on Moda Midstream Operating purchase in Ingleside
CLIMATE FINANCE
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: Who Owns Enbridge and How to Divest Your Portfolio
OPINION
Wall Street Journal: Gretchen Whitmer’s Border War
New Yorker: When Will We Have the Last Oil Spill?
CNN.com: Peak oil is coming. That won't save the world
Environmental Defense Fund: FERC, not the Supreme Court, is the right place to fix the Spire pipeline mess
PIPELINE NEWS
People vs. Fossil Fuels: 155 More Arrested At White House On Tuesday As “People Vs. Fossil Fuels” Mobilization Continues
10/12/21
“Anti-fossil fuel protests intensified at the White House on Tuesday as over 150 more people were arrested as part of the People vs. Fossil Fuels mobilization, a week of protests and civil disobedience that is pressing President Biden to declare a climate emergency and stop all new fossil fuel projects. The second day of “People vs. Fossil Fuels” united fossil fuel fights from across the United States, from the struggle to stop petrochemical and LNG export facilities in the Gulf to efforts to stop oil and gas drilling on Native lands in Alaska. “With the power of a pen, President Biden could stop these pipeline projects. He promised he would listen to us. He’s not listening. We’re coming every day of this week to tell Biden: stop this madness,” said Joye Braun of the Indigenous Environmental Network, one of the organizations leading the week of protests. Many of the speakers at today’s rally talked about the work they’re doing in their communities to resist major fossil fuel projects, like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a 303-mile fracked gas pipeline whose proposed route stretches across Appalachia.”
DeSmog: Indigenous Leaders Among the 136 Arrested at White House Fossil Fuel Protest
Julie Dermansky, 10/11/21
“On October 11, Indigenous People’s Day, 136 people, including many Indigenous leaders opposing fossil fuel projects, were arrested in front of the White House in Washington, D.C., while calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency and to stop approving fossil fuel projects,” DeSmog reports. “The day marked the first in a five-day-long series of protests in the nation’s capitol organized by the Build Back Fossil Free coalition, which is made up of numerous environmental and social justice advocacy groups. Over the course of five days, thousands are expected to bring the message to Biden’s door that he must do more to protect the planet, and many demonstrators are coming prepared to participate in acts of civil disobedience, to make sure the President hears their message before next month’s COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland. These demonstrations, labeled People vs. Fossil Fuels, are being billed as a test for Biden. Pressure on Biden has been rising since he failed to acknowledge vocal, Indigenous-led protests to the Line 3 tar sands oil pipeline, which went online October 1 in Minnesota. As DeSmog recently reported, Indigenous peoples in North America have helped block at least eight major fossil fuel projects, from oil pipelines to LNG export terminals, keeping enormous volumes of carbon pollution out of the atmosphere. This morning, a few hundred activists marched from Freedom Square to the White House where Indigenous leaders spoke, mostly addressing President Biden, whom they called on to honor his campaign promises to protect the planet.”
Popular Science: Minnesota’s Line 3 pipeline threatens one of North America’s only native grains
BY ANGELY MERCADO, 10/12/21
“There are about 190,000 miles of pipelines that distribute oil throughout the United States. One recently contested pipeline (among many others) is Enbridge Line 3, an oil pipeline expansion that will bring a million barrels of tar sands per day from Alberta, Canada to Superior, Wisconsin,” Popular Science reports. “...Indigenous activists aren’t just fighting for the right to clean waterways themselves. They’re fighting for manoomin, also called wild rice. The grain grows along lakes in Minnesota and is one of the few grains native to North America. It is both a cultural and spiritual staple for the Annishanabe people, also referred to as Chippewa and Ojibwe, who reside around the Great Lakes area of Turtle Island, an indigenous historical term for what is now known as North America… “For Frank Bibeau, a White Earth Nation lawyer, the manoomin is a living relative of the Ashinaabe people. Pipeline construction and maintenance, as well as climate change and damming rivers, hurts the community’s ability to continue the tradition of foraging for wild rice… “Opponents of the pipeline have vowed to keep fighting and protesting. Bibeau himself is part of a lawsuit in the White Earth Nation Tribal Court on behalf of the wild rice—the second ever “rights of nature” case to be filed in the country.”
MPLS Mag: How the Line 3 Opposition Will Continue
Darby Ottoson, 10/11/21
“In September, Enbridge, the Canadian company behind the contested Line 3 project spanning northern Minnesota, announced that tar sands oil would start moving through the pipeline by October 1. However, the Indigenous-led resistance that has fought the pipeline since it was proposed seven years ago doesn’t intend to stop now,” MPLS Mag reports. “On the same day that oil was slated to start moving, Jaike Spotted Wolf joined other Indigenous leaders like Winona LaDuke and Tara Houska on a Zoom call with attorney general Keith Ellison to talk pipeline issues. Photographer Ron Turney presented pictures of cyst-spotted fish to Ellison, which he discovered recently near a pipeline construction site where drilling fluid spilled this summer. Though nontoxic, the fine particles in drilling fluid can negatively impact aquatic life and Enbridge inadvertently released the stuff into wetlands 13 times this summer.”
Associated Press: Spire asks Supreme Court to keep pipeline operational
BY JIM SALTER, 10/12/21
“The St. Louis-based natural gas company Spire Inc. is asking the U.S. Supreme Court to allow it to keep operating a pipeline through Illinois and Missouri, warning that a winter shutdown could be devastating to St. Louis-area customers,” the Associated Press reports. “In a filing last week, Spire requested a stay that would allow operation of its Spire STL Pipeline until the issue is resolved in the courts. If the Supreme Court declines to take up the case, operation of the pipeline could cease on Dec. 13 unless the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission extends an emergency order granted in September. Spire's court filing said shutting down the pipeline “in the middle of winter could result in the loss of natural-gas service to hundreds of thousands of homes and businesses" in the St. Louis region… “Spire has called it vital for providing “reliable and critical energy access to 650,000 homes and businesses throughout the St. Louis region.” But the EDF contended in a lawsuit that the pipeline harms land in its path, and that taxpayers will foot the bill for decades to come.”
Bloomberg: Canada Methane Plume Coincided With Work on Natural Gas System
Aaron Clark, 10/13/21
“A plume of methane detected by satellite last month in Canada lined up with the intentional release of the superpotent greenhouse gas from a network of natural gas pipelines,” Bloomberg reports. “SaskEnergy Inc. said its TransGas unit performed relief-valve maintenance at the Rush Lake Compressor station in Saskatchewan on the morning of Sept. 24, releasing natural gas — whose main component is methane — for 10 minutes. A concentration of the gas cloud was observed at 2:15 p.m. local time by a European Space Agency satellite. The operator first said it released about 400 gigajoules of gas, but days later revised that assessment to “significantly less” after consulting with onsite teams. It didn’t provide a new estimate. Kayrros SAS, a geoanalytics company, estimated an emissions rate of 52 tons an hour based on the satellite data, which is roughly in line with the original figure SaskEnergy provided. Kayrros estimated the source of the plume’s location was about 10 kilometers (6.2 miles) from the Rush Lake Compressor station. It was even closer to a TC Energy Corp. pipeline that's part of a vast network that transports natural gas from the Western Canadian Sedimentary Basin to eastern Canada and the U.S. “We cannot confirm that the image presented was caused by our maintenance work,” SaskEnergy said in an email. “The release was unavoidable for safety reasons. When staff work on equipment it has to be in zero energy safe state, which means any pressurized gas and all electricity needs to be shut down.” TC Energy said in a statement that it wouldn't “comment or speculate on third-party information or unvalidated imagery and data.''
Reuters: Energy Transfer says Penn. Access refined products pipe is complete
10/7/21
“U.S. energy company Energy Transfer LP (ET.N) said this week that its Pennsylvania Access refined products project in Pennsylvania was complete and ready for service,” Reuters reports. “Pennsylvania Access will allow refined products to flow from refineries in the U.S. Midwest into Pennsylvania, New York and other U.S. Northeast markets. The refined products will move through Energy Transfer's Allegheny Access pipeline system in the Midwest into Pennsylvania where the company used part of the existing 8-inch (20-centimeter) Mariner East 1 line to distribute the products in Pennsylvania and the U.S. Northeast markets. Mariner East 1 started service in the 1930s transporting refined products from the Philadelphia area to western Pennsylvania. It was repurposed and expanded to transport propane in 2014 and ethane in 2016… “Energy Transfer said it expects the full Mariner East system to be online by the end of the year.”
InsideClimate News: Raging Flood Waters Driven by Climate Change Threaten the Trans-Alaska Pipeline
David Hasemyer, 10/12/21
“It rained hard at the headwaters of the Sagavanirktok River in northern Alaska’s Brooks Range late in the summer of 2019, an unusually harsh downpour that was likely supercharged by climate change,” InsideClimate News reports. “The Sag, as it’s commonly called, swelled and began to tear at its banks, gnawing away at the tundra. Chucks of earth crumpled into the churning water 22 miles south of Prudhoe Bay. In August, the surging water jumped the riverbank and chewed away 100 feet of the land on the west side of the Sag, to within 30 feet of a buried segment of the Trans-Alaska Pipeline, the four-foot diameter conduit that carries an average of 20 million gallons of crude oil a day from the Prudhoe Bay oil fields. Two months after the flood, that close call prompted the Alyeska Pipeline Service Company, a syndicate of oil companies that owns and operates the Trans-Alaska Pipeline System (TAPS), to seek state authorization to fortify the banks of the Sag to protect the pipeline from floodwaters. But since then, the flood threat has grown, spurring Alyeska to seek authorization to build three massive flood control walls along other sections of the river “to protect TAPS from current and future flood events.” The increasing urgency to fortify sections of pipeline against thrashing floodwaters foreshadows what scientists, pipeline consultants and environmental advocates say is a future in which infrastructure like the Trans-Alaska Pipeline will face increasing assaults driven by the warming climate, such as floods, wildfire, thawing permafrost and sea level rise. It’s time that mitigation measures are charted into the future, they say, rather than applied like band aids as the damages materialize.”
Facebook: West Whiteland Residents for Pipeline Safety: WHYY featuring an hourlong show on Mariner East’s impact on residents and environment, and the criminal charges against Energy Transfer
10/12/21
“On Wednesday Oct 13 at 10:00am (WHYY 91FM) featuring an hourlong show on Mariner East’s impact on residents and environment, and the criminal charges against Energy Transfer. West Whiteland resident Ginny Kerslake and Rep. Danielle Friel Otten will both be live on air in second half.”
Associated Press: Search Now on to Find Ship That Snagged California Pipeline, Leading to Oil Spill
BY MARY ELLEN CAGNASSOLA, 10/12/21
“While it took only hours for oil to leech into the waters of California's Huntington Beach, finding the ship responsible for rupturing the oil pipeline will take much longer as federal and state agencies investigate the recent oil leak,” the Associated Press reports. “...Jason Neubauer, a Coast Guard captain, told AP investigators are searching for which of thousands of ships could have ripped open the pipeline with its anchor in the past year… “It could take a long time for investigators to comb through marine tracking data to see which ships passed over and anchored near the Amplify Energy pipeline running from platform Elly to the Long Beach port. Investigations by federal prosecutors, the Coast Guard and several other federal agencies, including the National Transportation Safety Board, could lead to criminal charges, civil penalties and new laws or regulations. "Criminal charges—when they're warranted—you absolutely want to go after for all the reasons that you pursue criminal charges: accountability, deterrence, punishment," attorney Rohan Virginkar, a former assistant U.S. attorney who helped prosecute BP for the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010, told AP. "But really in these environmental cases, it's about finding somebody who's going to pay for the cleanup."
WASHINGTON UPDATES
New York Times: More Than 30 Countries Join U.S. Pledge to Slash Methane Emissions
Lisa Friedman, 10/11/21
“The Biden administration on Monday announced that 32 countries had joined the United States in a pledge to reduce methane emissions, part of an effort to set new targets to slow global warming before a major United Nations climate summit in Glasgow next month,” the New York Times reports. “...While the four heaviest emitters of methane — China, India, Russia and Brazil — have not joined the pledge, the administration announced that nine of the world’s top 20 methane polluters had signed on. In addition to the United States and the European Union, they are Canada, Indonesia, Pakistan, Mexico, Nigeria, Argentina and Iraq. The pledges come three weeks before President Biden and other world leaders are expected to attend the United Nations conference in Scotland, which is aimed at persuading nations to slow global warming so that temperatures rise no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius, compared with levels before the Industrial Revolution… “John Kerry, Mr. Biden’s climate envoy, said on Monday that scientists had found that methane emissions accounted for about half of that temperature rise. He called cutting methane the “single fastest strategy that we have to keep a safer, 1.5-degree Centigrade future within reach.”
Associated Press: Donors pledge $223M aimed at reducing methane emissions
10/11/21
“A coalition of philanthropic donors said Monday they will spend more than $220 million to reduce global methane emissions, the largest private commitment ever toward this effort,” the Associated Press reports. “...Among the 20 donors providing funding is the philanthropic arm of former New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who now serves as a special climate envoy for United Nations Secretary-General António Guterres. The announcement for the funding says the money will support the diplomatic effort spearheaded by the U.S. and the European Union to lower methane emissions and reduce warming by at least 0.2 degrees Celsius by 2050. The two entities had announced an agreement last month aimed at cutting their emissions of methane 30% by the end of this decade… “The announcement says donors will coordinate their giving for solutions in methane reduction, by providing technical support, expertise and other things. Monday’s pledge is the latest in a series of climate-oriented philanthropic commitments made in the past few weeks as funders await the U.N.’s Climate Change Conference, set to be held in Glasgow, Scotland at the end of this month.”
Global Witness: President Biden is set to choke the world’s climate in fossil gas
10/12/21
“The US is set to become the world's top exporter of liquefied fossil gas by 2023, on Biden’s watch,” according to Global Witness. “This stands in stark contrast to Biden’s efforts to position himself as a global climate leader. Last year, President Biden was elected on a wave of youth-led support from citizens concerned about the climate crisis, who pushed him to make stronger climate pledges. His victory gave many people in the US and around the world a glimmer of hope that under his leadership, the country would turn over a new leaf and reverse course from the damaging policies of the previous US administration under Donald Trump. Since coming to power, Biden has sought to position himself and the US as a global climate leader, re-joining the UN Paris Climate Agreement and hosting multiple international climate leadership summits. Disappointingly, our new analysis shows that notwithstanding the official US rhetoric on climate, Biden’s administration is continuing some of the same anti-climate policies of the Trump administration, which continue to drive record-breaking growth in US fossil fuel extraction and export. Our analysis shows that, contrary to Biden’s claims of climate leadership, the troubling trend of the US fossil gas boom is currently set to continue on Biden’s watch.”
STATE UPDATES
Bakersfield Californian: Oil trade group sues state over fracking permit denials
BY JOHN COX, 10/11/21
“A leading oil-industry trade group has taken aim at Gov. Gavin Newsom's de-facto fracking ban with a lawsuit in Kern County Superior Court that mirrors accusations county government made in a complaint filed a month ago,” the Bakersfield Californian reports. “The 91-page lawsuit Western States Petroleum Association filed Friday repeats claims that the state's recent denial of fracking permit applications oversteps the administration's authority as laid out in the state Constitution. The suit alleges the state's move to block fracking contradicts the state's earlier findings on well stimulation treatments, and that under the state Public Resources Code the state is supposed to encourage oil production, not ban it… “Unfortunately, the State of California continues to take arbitrary actions that deliver little positive benefits for our fight against climate change but imposes big impacts on Californians — to our finances, to our freedoms, essentially to how we live and work every day," WSPA President and CEO Catherine Reheis-Boyd told the Californian.
Gizmodo: California Is Banning Gas-Powered Leaf Blowers and Lawnmowers
Dharna Noor, 10/11/21
“On Saturday, California Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill into law that could ban the sale of new gas-powered leaf-blowers as early as 2024. It also applies to lawnmowers, power washers, and other small off-road engines. The legislation could make a real difference, as over 16.7 million of these devices are in use throughout the state,” Gizmodo reports. “Leaf blowers suck, and I don’t just mean that they suck air through their vents. They also suck for the climate and air pollution. Taking leaf blowers off lawns and sidewalks isn’t just about peace and quiet, then. (To be fair, noise pollution is also a huge issue.) The new regulation, which was authored by Assemblyman Marc Berman from California’s 24th district, directs the California Air Resources Board to create rebates for residents to purchase electric-powered replacements for their yardwork equipment. Once the changes are implemented, retailers will only be allowed to sell emissions-free leaf blowers and lawnmowers that run on batteries… “Lawn equipment in the U.S. alone emitted 20.4 million pounds (9.3 kilograms) of carbon dioxide in 2011. A year ago, Newsom signed a ban on the sale of gas-powered cars that will start in 2035… “Using a leaf blower for just an hour produces as much smog-creating pollution as a car trip from Los Angeles to Las Vegas, according to CARB.”
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: An Empire of Dying Wells
By Zachary R. Mider and Rachel Adams-Heard, 10/12/21
“Outside of hunting season, few people visit the Tri-Valley Wildlife Area in the rolling hills of southeast Ohio,” Bloomberg reports. “...There are hundreds of thousands of such decrepit oil and gas wells across the U.S., and for a long time few people paid them much mind. That changed over the past decade as scientists discovered the surprisingly large role they play in the climate crisis. Old wells tend to leak, and raw natural gas consists mostly of methane, which has far more planet-warming power than carbon dioxide. That morning in Ohio we pointed our camera at busted pipes, rusted joints, and broken valves, and we saw the otherwise invisible greenhouse gas jetting out. A sour smell lingered in the air. To Rusty Hutson, it smells like money. Hutson is the founder and chief executive officer of one of the strangest companies ever to hit the American oil patch and the reason for our four-day visit to the Appalachian region. While other oilmen focus on drilling the next gusher, Hutson buys used wells that generate just a trickle or nothing at all. Over the past four years his Diversified Energy Co. has amassed about 69,000 wells, eclipsing Exxon Mobil Corp. to become the largest well owner in the country. Investors love him. Since listing shares in 2017, Hutson’s company has outperformed almost every other U.S. oil and gas stock, swelling his personal stake to more than $30 million. But Diversified’s breakneck growth has alarmed some regulators, landowner groups, and industry insiders, not to mention environmental advocates. State laws require that every well be plugged with cement after it runs dry, an expensive and complicated chore. At the rate Diversified is paying dividends to shareholders, some worry there will be nothing left when the bills come due. If a company can’t meet its plugging obligations, that burden falls to the state, which means Ohio, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia could be stuck with a billion-dollar mess. “The model seems like it’s built on abandoning those assets,” says Ted Boettner, who’s studied abandoned wells at the Ohio River Valley Institute, a regional research organization. “It looks like a liability bomb that’s destined to explode.”
The Tyee: BC Promises to Fix ‘Broken’ Oil and Gas Royalty System
Michelle Gamage, 10/12/21
“The royalty system B.C. uses to collect revenue from the oil and gas industry is “broken,” according to a report commissioned by the province,” The Tyee reports. “The Ministry of Energy, Mines and Low Carbon Innovation released a comprehensive review of the province’s royalty systems last week. It found the regime is unnecessarily complicated and almost 30 years old. The report kicks off an “overhaul of the current system that eliminates outdated, inefficient fossil-fuel subsidies and ensures British Columbians get a fair return on our resources,” said Energy Minister Bruce Ralston in a statement. The BC NDP pledged to review the royalty system as part of their 2020 campaign. Sven Biggs, Canadian oil and gas program director for Stand.earth, told the Tyee the report could mean large oil and gas companies are about to start paying a lot more money to the province to pull fossil fuels out of the ground. The report lays out how the existing royalty structure isn’t working, which is something even the oil and gas industry is starting to acknowledge, Biggs said.
Corpus Christi Caller Times: Enbridge closes deal on Moda Midstream Operating purchase in Ingleside
Kirsten Crow, 10/12/21
“Enbridge Inc. – a Canadian pipeline company – has formally closed a deal acquiring Moda Midstream Operating, according to a news release issued Tuesday,” the Corpus Christi Caller Times reports. “The $3 billion sale, announced Sept. 7, includes the acquisition of the Ingleside Energy Center. Considered the continent’s largest crude export terminal, the facility is slated to take on a new name, Enbridge Ingleside Energy Center. Other assets included in the purchase are the site’s “related pipeline and logistics infrastructure… along with a 20 percent interest in the 670-thousand-barrel-per-day Cactus II Pipeline,” the news release states… “Company officials wrote in the news release that the deal “significantly advances the company’s U.S. Gulf Coast export strategy and connectivity to low-cost and long-lived reserves in the Permian and Eagle Ford basins.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: Who Owns Enbridge and How to Divest Your Portfolio
By Star Ames, 10/11/21
“Enbridge is a huge and powerful corporation which is tearing through more than 330 miles of natural habitat to install new pipelines in Minnesota and Wisconsin,” the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative reports. “Despite overwhelming opposition at public hearings, permits were issued for this mega-corporation to move forward. This pipeline system currently averages an oil spill, leak, rupture, or explosion every 20 days, which releases tar sands oil onto our lands, surface water, wetlands, and ground water. At best, only 30% of oil is recovered after a spill. How can we stop their destructive process? MOVE YOUR MONEY. The Enbridge conglomerate consists of the following companies… Each company has a certain percentage of share traded on the open market. These shares are largely held by trust funds, retirement funds, mutual funds, and banks. Some of them are part of 401(k)s and insurance investments. In general, Enbridge is held by people who value security over action. But you may not even be aware that you are funding Enbridge. For example, the State of Wisconsin Investment Board has $2.1M invested; Vanguard Group has $63M. Do you know where your money is being used? As the world moves away from oil, every dollar invested in Enbridge loses value. Ask yourself what is more important to you, a clean environment, or a stable investment? We can change the future by moving our money to an ESG (environment, social, governance) fund. There may be a fee charged to divest your portfolio of these funds but ask your broker to apply an environmental filter on all your investments. Find a broker that is sensitive to environmental issues. There are many who will be happy to assist you.”
OPINION
Wall Street Journal: Gretchen Whitmer’s Border War
By The Editorial Board, 10/10/21
“The Democratic Party’s hostility to oil and gas pipelines is now becoming an international problem, as Canada seeks a Biden Administration intervention over Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer’s attempt to shut down Enbridge Energy’s Line 5,” the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes. “Ottawa last week formally invoked the dispute-resolution article of a 1977 treaty governing transit pipelines between the two nations. The treaty states that, except in an emergency, natural disaster or pressing safety concern, “no public authority in the territory of either” the U.S. or Canada may take measures “which are intended to, or which would have the effect of, impeding, diverting, redirecting or interfering with in any way the transmission of hydrocarbon in transit.”
New Yorker: When Will We Have the Last Oil Spill?
Bill McKibben, 10/12/21
“Perhaps the first serious shadow to fall on the oil age came in the winter of 1969, after a blowout on a well, six miles off the coast of Santa Barbara,” Bill McKibben writes for the New Yorker. “At least two million gallons of crude coated beaches and killed everything, from gulls to sea lions, and the resulting uproar fuelled the first Earth Day, in 1970, and also the first broad environmental laws in the United States, which were soon copied around the world. Half a century later, oil has again coated the beaches of Southern California, this time from a ruptured pipeline near Newport Beach. Fortunately, the quantities aren’t as large—current estimates are some hundred thousand gallons—but beaches have been shut to millions of people, and a wetland conservancy that is a refuge for dozens of bird species may take decades to recover. (And the inability of the oil industry to monitor its equipment is maddening—the damage may have been caused as long as a year ago by an anchor hitting the pipe.) The response is less shock than resignation, since we’ve seen so many of these debacles in the past fifty years, including the Exxon Valdez spill and the BP spill in the Gulf of Mexico. But there’s a difference this time: the spill comes as the oil industry heads into a terminal decline, its reputation wrecked and its power starting to wane. Responding to a call from indigenous groups, environmentalists from around the country are descending on Washington, D.C., this week for a series of “People vs. Fossil Fuels” civil-disobedience actions outside the White House, Congress, and the Army Corps of Engineers; for the moment they’re being arrested, but in the long run they clearly have momentum on their side. The only questions now are how long the industry can hang on and how much more damage it will do.”
CNN.com: Peak oil is coming. That won't save the world
By Julia Horowitz, 10/13/21
“The shift to clean energy is sending the oil industry into decline. But the world needs a much more ambitious plan to save the climate and achieve net-zero emissions by 2050,” Julia Horowitz writes for CNN.com. “That's according to the International Energy Agency, which said in its global energy outlook published Wednesday that more aggressive climate action is needed as world leaders prepare for the crucial COP26 summit in Glasgow in November… “More than 50 countries and the European Union have pledged to meet net zero emissions targets. If they live up to those commitments, demand for fossil fuels will peak by 2025, but global CO2 emissions would only fall 40% by 2050, far short of net zero. In that scenario, the world would still be consuming 75 million barrels of oil per day by 2050 — only 25 million barrels per day less than today… “Right now, investment in clean energy projects and infrastructure is falling short. The IEA has said that development of new oilfields or coal mines projects must stop if the world is going to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius. "There is a looming risk of more turbulence for global energy markets," Birol told CNN. "We are not investing enough to meet for future energy needs, and the uncertainties are setting the stage for a volatile period ahead." Birol told CNN that in order to reach net-zero emissions, clean energy investment needs to more than triple over the next decade.”
Environmental Defense Fund: FERC, not the Supreme Court, is the right place to fix the Spire pipeline mess
By Natalie Karas, 10/11/21
“After the D.C. Circuit court vacated Spire STL’s unlawful certificate to operate a 66-mile natural gas pipeline running between Illinois and Missouri in June, Spire last week asked the U.S. Supreme Court to stay the vacatur decision and hand the company back its permission slip. Not only should the Supreme Court not grant the stay, it shouldn’t even take up the case,” Natalie Karas writes for the Environmental Defense Fund. “The Spire mess started at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, the federal agency designated and empowered by Congress to handle pipeline approvals. And that’s where it should stay. FERC needs to proceed based on the law as properly administered by the commission and to address the complex facts that warrant the fact-finding review of an expert agency. While FERC’s initial orders authorizing the pipeline were deficient, it has the capability and tools to conduct a fulsome analysis and now has an opportunity to course correct… “Going forward, FERC must do a better job of assessing the benefits and burdens of the infrastructure it approves. It can’t simply ignore or minimize project harms, which include significant public health and environmental impacts, massive use of eminent domain to condemn private land for unnecessary projects, and the very substantial adverse economic consequences on families and communities.”