EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 10/19/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: TC Energy Could Divest Keystone Oil Pipeline, Analysts Say
KPTM: CO2 pipelines in Nebraska: Are they a good idea?
Iowa State Daily: County Board of Supervisors set to approve pipeline ordinance
KMA: Montgomery County pipeline ordinance still on hold
Journal Courier: Meeting tonight in Jacksonville looks at carbon dioxide pipeline risks
Appalachian Voices: Enbridge’s 125-mile pipeline in Tennessee is not a done deal
InsideClimate News: INDIGENOUS LEADERS FIGHT TO KEEP NATURAL GAS PIPELINES OFF SACRED LANDS
STATE UPDATES
The Hill: New Jersey sues five oil companies, trade group for allegedly concealing role in climate change
Billings Gazette: Laurel, Yellowstone County sued over gas-fired power plant
EXTRACTION
E&E News: Clean energy transition gains speed, despite global tumult
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Treasury to insurers: Divulge your climate risks
OPINION
Grand Island Independent: Bold Nebraska helps protect property rights
Common Dreams: Democrats Tried to Sell Appalachia Down the Pipeline
The Atlantic: The Environmentalists Undermining Environmentalism
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: TC Energy Could Divest Keystone Oil Pipeline, Analysts Say
Geoffrey Morgan and Robert Tuttle, 10/18/22
“TC Energy Corp. could sell billions of dollars of assets to help fund projects in Mexico and Western Canada and may even seek the divestiture of its Keystone oil pipeline to the Gulf Coast, according to analysts,” Bloomberg reports. “The Canadian company may look to monetize its liquids pipelines as well as smaller gas pipelines with targeted proceeds of as much as C$4 billion ($2.9 billion), RBC Capital Markets analyst Robert Kwan said in a note Monday, citing a recent meeting with TC’s Chief Financial Officer Joel Hunter. Separately, Tudor Pickering & Co. analysts told Bloomberg they see the possibility of the company shoring up its balance sheet with asset sales. A sale of the liquids pipeline would be an “ESG-accretive divestiture” and “the major prize in right-sizing the balance sheet,” analyst Matthew Taylor said in a note Tuesday, upgrading his rating on the stock to buy from hold… “The company has faced challenges in recent years including the cancellation of its expansion of the Keystone XL pipeline after US President Joe Biden pulled a key permit for the project on his first day in office. The company has also experienced a 70% cost overrun in the Coastal GasLink pipeline, which is being built to supply LNG Canada, a massive natural gas export project in British Columbia. TC’s stock price fell to a 19-month low in Toronto earlier this month. The company is primarily focused on natural gas pipelines and power generation. It built the first phase of the 600,000-barrel-a-day Keystone pipeline system more than a decade ago. In recent years, concern about greenhouse gas emissions has prompted some investors to shun oil-sands assets.”
KPTM: CO2 pipelines in Nebraska: Are they a good idea?
Joe Harris, 10/17/22
“There are plans to put in several carbon dioxide pipelines in Nebraska,” KPTM reports. “If implemented, they would carry liquid CO2 through the state from ethanol plants to underground storage locations… “Are they safe though? The group Bold Nebraska doesn't seem to think so. "We don't know what the risks are, nor have they provided any information on what the risk would be," landowner coordinator Shelli Meyer told KPTM. "They just say, 'Everything's going to be fine.'" Opponents point to Satartia, Mississippi. That's where around 50 people were hospitalized in 2020 after being gassed in their homes and nearby vehicles because of a ruptured CO2 pipeline. Summit Carbon Solutions said there was a unique set of circumstances that led to that… “Meyer argued there are only regulations on oil and natural gas, but not on CO2 pipelines. She said she doesn't believe in risking any community, no matter how rare such a pipeline burst may be. "If it explodes by my parents' house, is that going to be the 'rare' occasion that happens?" she told KPTM. "Is that the rarity that's going to happen? One person's life is rare? Or a cow/calf herd out in a field where it explodes, all those cattle are dead. That's rare?" “...However, Meyer said a letter her parents received from Heartland Greenway saying it may seek eminent domain indicates otherwise. "You write that in the initial letter you send?" Meyer told KPTM. "Really? Those are the words you're going to use? That doesn't seem very friendly to me." “...Bold Nebraska said it wants to hear from people who have concerns about eminent domain and their land.”
Iowa State Daily: County Board of Supervisors set to approve pipeline ordinance
Biong Biong, 10/18/22
“The Story County Board of Supervisors voted to pass the first reading of an amendment to implement restrictions on the construction of carbon pipelines that would stretch across the county,” the Iowa State Daily reports. “Hazardous materials pipelines will have to abide by zoning and permitting requirements, a standard they were previously exempt from. Story County Planning and Development Director Amelia Schoeneman said the amendment aims to only regulate hazardous materials pipelines. County documents state the amendment was proposed in response to the pipelines. The first reading serves as an opportunity for the supervisors to approve the proposed changes to the ordinance while the county attorney works on final revisions and changes based on the approved alterations. “This is an ordinance establishing setbacks for hazardous materials pipelines,” Schoeneman said, “and that can include hazardous gasses or hazardous liquids.” “...So what we’re not doing is giving the county the ability to deny the actual hazardous materials pipeline — it’s a principled permitted use that is up to the Iowa Utility Board — we are just regulation setback from resident uses and other use that might be hard to evacuate or might pose risk,” Schoeneman said… “Although there are federal standards that regulate setbacks for hazardous materials pipelines, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration is currently working on new regulations for pipelines. While the updated numbers are not available yet, Schoeneman said county staff based their limits on scientific articles and analyzing how counties throughout the country regulate distribution pipes… “Schoeneman said the ordinance could be reassessed when the pipeline administration has announced the new regulations.”
KMA: Montgomery County pipeline ordinance still on hold
Mike Peterson, 10/18/22
“Montgomery County officials continue to debate the merits of a county pipeline ordinance,” KMA reports. “Earlier this month, the county's board of supervisors approved a resolution to enlist the Ahlers and Cooney law firm to guide the county through matters dealing with Summit Carbon Solution's proposed Midwest Express CO2 pipeline. That's despite the county's planning and zoning board's vote to send a proposed pipeline ordinance to the supervisors. During Tuesday morning's regular meeting, Supervisor Randy Cooper relayed a recent discussion with a Pottawattamie County official, who indicated his county declined to develop a pipeline ordinance, claiming the Iowa Utilities Board has the ultimate authority over pipeline permits. Cooper questioned the wisdom of taking on the IUB in litigation. "I think an ordinance is still good," said Cooper. "Let's say if you were a landowner, it would give some ammunition to negotiate with the pipeline. But, if it comes down to court, and the IUB says well, you can do this, those ordinances aren't going to hold up." “...Meanwhile, a planning and zoning commission member raised concerns about Summit's possible involvement in developing an ordinance. Vicky Rossander of Stanton referenced a letter read by County Engineer Karen Albert from another commission member at a recent supervisors' meeting. "In this letter, the planning and zoning member said she felt it was in the best interests of the county to allow Summit to have a seat at the table as this ordinance is being written and reviewed," said Rossander, "so we won't encounter any legal problems in the future. She seemed to imply we should adjust this ordinance so it is more satisfactory to Summit, then maybe they won't sue the county." Rossander also alleged commission members recently received an email indicating the county's zoning administrator recently met with Summit officials to discuss the legal enforceability of any ordinance. She called such matters "confounding." "It is baffling to me as to why we would sit down with one of the entities we are trying to regulate," she said, "so that they can seem to dictate how we write or change our ordinance. We did not sit down with MidAmerican Energy when we wrote the recently-passed solar ordinance, and I seriously doubt we will sit down with MidAmerican when we update the wind ordinance in the future."
Journal Courier: Meeting tonight in Jacksonville looks at carbon dioxide pipeline risks
Dave Dawson, 10/18/22
“There will be a meeting Tuesday night to discuss potential risks involving a carbon dioxide pipeline project proposed for the Jacksonville area,” the Journal Courier reports. “...Meeting organizers said plan to discuss Heartland Greenway System and what they see as negative effects on farmland and zoning in the community. Roughly 125 miles of the carbon-capture pipeline would go through Brown, Scott, Morgan and Sangamon counties under initial plans. Carbon dioxide would be carried to a site in central Illinois, where it would be injected deep into the ground.”
Appalachian Voices: Enbridge’s 125-mile pipeline in Tennessee is not a done deal
Gabrielle Lichtenstein, 10/18/22
“Two weeks ago, I attended a public meeting along with dozens of Upper Cumberland residents about the proposed “natural” gas pipeline that is slated to cut through eight Tennessee counties. Some folks had just heard about the pipeline for the first time, and, while they hoped to get more information, many left with frustration about the inaccessible process,” Appalachian Voices reports. “The meeting was hosted by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to seek comments on the 125-mile pipeline proposed by Enbridge Inc., a multi-billion-dollar fossil fuel company based in Canada. If built, the Ridgeline Expansion Project would supply gas to the Kingston Fossil Plant, which the Tennessee Valley Authority hopes to convert to gas instead of replacing with clean alternatives… “Converting the Kingston Fossil Plant to a natural gas facility would expose local communities — who already suffered the 2008 Kingston Coal Ash Spill — to more pollution while creating very few permanent jobs. TVA’s own estimate for another gas plant of the same size shows that only 25-35 permanent jobs would be created. Meanwhile, a recent study by Appalachian Voices showed that clean energy alternatives for replacing the plant would create hundreds of full-time jobs for the Tennessee Valley… “Many folks in impacted counties have been led to believe the project is a done deal or that it’s a modification of an existing pipeline. Others don’t recall hearing about it at all. But TVA hasn’t officially decided whether it’s going with gas, and this would be a brand new pipeline. For communities on the route, there are significant public safety risks. In fact, pipelines owned by Enbridge have a history of explosions. In 2018, one of the company’s pipelines exploded in Smith County, and in 2019 a woman was killed when an Enbridge pipeline exploded in Kentucky. People deserve to be informed about these risks.”
InsideClimate News: INDIGENOUS LEADERS FIGHT TO KEEP NATURAL GAS PIPELINES OFF SACRED LANDS
DYLAN BADDOUR, 10/18/22
“When Juan Mancias was a child, his grandmother told him the story her parents told her, of the place at the Great River’s end. All good things ended up there, she said, carried from the high deserts across 1,000 miles to the sea, where they spilled across a vast delta, teeming with life,” InsideClimate News reports. “...Mancias, chairman of the Carrizo Comecrudo tribe, has spent his last year engaged in a global campaign to thwart the liquified natural gas (LNG) facilities proposed for his people’s sacred site. Supported by the Sierra Club, a coalition of Indigenous leaders and local organizers have traveled Europe lobbying customers and funders that developers need for their buildout in the Rio Grande Valley, a historically marginalized zone along the Mexican border in Texas. It’s not just a legendary paradise for Mancias’ people, it also holds the remains of an ancient village, Garcia Pasture, dubbed by the World Monuments Funds as “one of America’s premier archaeological sites.’ “When you steal the land, you’re stealing us. And you’re taking away our identity, because you fence it off and you dont allow us into the land where our ancestors are buried, where we remember our ceremonies and rituals,” Mancias, 68, told ICN… “The campaign has managed for years to thwart financing agreements, dissuade committed customers, cause one terminals’ cancellation and years of delays on the remaining two. The Covid slump in energy prices helped their case. But the war in Ukraine has energized markets again, and empowered projects’ search for funders. “The situation in Ukraine is the latest attempt by investors to justify LNG export terminals that are unnecessary, uneconomic, and unwanted,” said a new report by the Sierra Club’s Lower Rio Grande Valley Group, released on Tuesday. “Even as banks pledged to align their lending and investment with a low carbon future, they continue to finance fracked gas around the world.”
STATE UPDATES
The Hill: New Jersey sues five oil companies, trade group for allegedly concealing role in climate change
ZACK BUDRYK, 10/18/22
“New Jersey Attorney General Matthew Platkin (D) on Tuesday announced a lawsuit against five fossil fuel companies and the American Petroleum Institute (API), alleging they misled the public on their products’ role in climate change,” The Hill reports. “In the lawsuit, Platkin and the state Department of Environmental Protection and Division of Consumer Affairs alleged Chevron, Exxon Mobil, BP, ConocoPhillips, Shell and API “systematically” concealed and denied knowledge of fossil fuels’ role in climate change. The lawsuit further accuses the defendants of mounting public relations campaigns to cast doubt on the facts of climate change despite their knowledge of the industry’s contributions to it… “Chevron counsel Theodore J. Boutrous Jr., of Gibson, Dunn, and Crutcher said in a statement to The Hill called the complaint “a special-interest lawsuit asking the Superior Court of New Jersey to punish a select group of energy companies for a problem that is the result of worldwide conduct stretching back to the beginning of the Industrial Revolution.” “...An Exxon Mobil spokesperson, meanwhile, told The Hill, “Legal proceedings like this waste millions of dollars of taxpayer money and do nothing to advance meaningful actions that reduce the risks of climate change. Exxon Mobil will continue to invest in efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions while meeting society’s growing demand for energy.”
Billings Gazette: Laurel, Yellowstone County sued over gas-fired power plant
Tom Lutey, 10/17/22
“Laurel residents and environmentalists are suing the city, Yellowstone County and NorthWestern Energy for allowing construction of a gas-fired power plant to proceed without local government review,” the Billings Gazette reports. “Members of the Thiel Road Coalition, Northern Plains Resource Council and Montana Environmental Information Center accuse the City of Laurel and Yellowstone County of sitting on their hands while the state’s largest monopoly utility builds a gas-fired power plant along the Yellowstone River without approval from local zoning officials or local elected officials. “The City has abandoned its jurisdictional authority of the area, causing confusion in the applicability of these laws and obstructing plaintiff’s right to participate in government decision making as it relates to the health and welfare of the community,” argued attorney Amanda Galvan in a lawsuit filed Monday. The Plaintiff's are asking the District Court to direct the City of Laurel to take up the zoning issues at the power plant site. If not Laurel, then the court should direct Yellowstone County to do the job, they argue.”
EXTRACTION
E&E News: Clean energy transition gains speed, despite global tumult
Benjamin Storrow, 10/17/22
“Investment in wind and solar is set to outpace oil and gas drilling for the first time this year, according to one analyst — a milestone in the worldwide transition to clean energy that comes in spite of a spiraling energy crisis and calls to increase fossil fuel production,” E&E News reports. “The projection by Rystad Energy is in line with a separate prediction by DNV GL, another company that tracks energy markets. DNV thinks a short-term boost for coal in developing countries is no match in the long term for the march of falling renewable costs, electrification and increasing carbon prices. These forecasts — and others like it — suggest the clean energy transition has remained durable in the face of prevailing headwinds. The International Energy Agency estimates the growth of low-carbon electricity generation this year will lead to a slight decrease in fossil fuel generation. And the U.S. Energy Information Administration projects renewables will generate more power in the United States this year than coal. “The turbulence in the energy market does not dramatically alter the decarbonization pathway towards midcentury,” Remi Eriksen, DNV president and CEO, said in a statement. “The strongest engine of the global energy transition is the rapidly reducing costs of solar and wind energy, which will outweigh the present short-term shocks to the energy system.” The growth in renewables is notable in a year when the cost of energy has been thrust to the forefront of public debate. Energy prices have risen steadily in the last year due to the combination of pandemic-induced supply chain bottlenecks; surging demand; and Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, which upended global energy markets. Many countries have responded by increasing fossil fuel production.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Treasury to insurers: Divulge your climate risks
Thomas Frank, 10/19/22
“The Biden administration launched an unprecedented effort Tuesday to analyze how climate change is affecting property insurance costs and availability. The move comes as homeowners face soaring premiums in several states and dwindling insurance options,” E&E News reports. “The Treasury Department’s Federal Insurance Office said it plans to collect detailed information about policies and claims from more than 200 large insurance companies and will assess “climate-related exposures and their effects on insurance availability.” The office does not regulate insurers — that’s done by state agencies — but its analysis could identify states or areas within states where property-insurance markets are shaky and could collapse as climate change contributes to more-damaging natural disasters. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said the information would help determine “how Americans are being affected by the increasing costs of climate change.” “...The Federal Insurance Office’s plan to collect information from insurers was opposed by a leading industry group but cheered by a consumer advocate. “You don’t need a massive data collection to know that climate-related losses have been increasing in recent years,” Jimi Grande, senior vice president of the National Association of Mutual Insurance Companies, told E&E. The association, a trade group representing more than 1,500 insurers, told E&E providing the information “will require an enormous amount of work” and that the effort has no “clear purpose or benefit.” Amy Bach, executive director of United Policyholders, a California-based consumer advocate, applauded the insurance office. The information could highlight how companies are reducing the coverage they offer homeowners “to shield themselves from increased risks and potential claim paying obligations associated with climate change,” Bach told E&E.”
OPINION
Grand Island Independent: Bold Nebraska helps protect property rights
Shelli Meyer is a Dixon County landowner who also does organizing work with the Nebraska Easement Action Team and Bold Nebraska, 10/18/22
“My family has stewarded our land in southern Dixon County since 1924. It has a creek running through it and grows soybeans, corn and pasture grass. Growing up, we had a fat cattle feedlot, farrow-to-finish hog operation and chicken flock. My parents still reside here, and I help them care for the property. But now, this beautiful, peaceful land is threatened by eminent domain from a CO2 pipeline company,” Shelli Meyer writes for the Grand Island Independent. “Bold Nebraska is the only group in this state looking out for people’s property rights. They’re listening to landowner concerns about these proposed toxic, poisonous carbon dioxide pipelines. They’re helping landowners hire lawyers to fight unconstitutional trespassing for surveying and the pipeline threats of eminent domain. They advised my family on how to stop the pipeline land agents from harassing my elderly parents. While Nebraska may not be smart enough to have enacted any laws to protect landowners, Bold, NEAT and the Easement Teams landowner legal co-ops in other states are proactively filing lawsuits against the pipeline companies, defending landowners who are refusing surveys in court in Iowa, North Dakota, South Dakota and Nebraska… “Most farmers were completely unaware of talk regarding carbon sequestration being a key to the future of farming. Especially since carbon capture is unproven and unregulated. In most cases, farmers were in shock when they got a letter from one of these private corporations announcing a pipeline was proposed to go under their ground — either via a volunteer easement or taken by eminent domain. For those farmers with century farms who are just minding their own way of life and making a living on the land, this was an insult. A fear of their lives and the heritage of their ancestors being taken away, and even worse, endangering the lives of their families, livestock and neighbors… “I do hope that Bold will continue to be “against agriculture as we know it,” Sen. Friesen — because agriculture as we know it today is vertical integration and consolidation that’s killing what’s left of our family farms. Bold assisted landowners opposed to Costco’s toxic factory chicken farms near Fremont, and it got Farm Aid founder Willie Nelson himself to play a benefit concert on a landowner’s farm in the path of the Keystone XL pipeline. Bold Nebraska and Sierra Club are fighting for landowners’ rights and are opposed to eminent domain for private gain. Place yourself in my family’s shoes. Would you fight for your ground? A private company wants to take our land through eminent domain for their own private gain. This is an invasion. Would you let billionaire companies, with foreign investors, just take it and rip it apart?”
Common Dreams: Democrats Tried to Sell Appalachia Down the Pipeline
ALEXANDRA RETTER JABBARPOUR, 10/18/2
“In late September, the now-familiar "debt ceiling showdown" was avoided when Sen. Joe Manchin III, D-W.Va., pulled his permitting reform legislation from the stopgap spending bill because it did not have the votes. Not only was a government shutdown avoided, but this was also a near-miss for anyone who cares about the future of our planet, as the senator's legislation would have fast-tracked the construction of a new natural gas pipeline through the mountains and rivers of Appalachia,” Alexandra Retter Jabbarpour writes for Common Dreams. “...This close call, however, revealed there are select Democrats in Congress who are willing to sell the people of Appalachia down the proverbial river when they get desperate to make a deal. But this bill is not dead yet, and now is not the time to get complacent… “The last-minute drama around the Continuing Resolution (CR) began with the "Inflation Reduction Act," which President Biden signed into law in August. The legislation has been described as the most ambitious action ever taken to address climate change. In order to push the legislation through the closely-divided Senate, President Joe Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi secured support from Sen. Manchin with a side deal. In exchange for the senator's vote, the Democratic leadership agreed to attach Sen. Manchin's measure that would speed up the permitting process for new energy projects to the Stopgap Spending Bill. This backroom deal could have come with a significant cost, one that is both familiar and tragic to the people who live in Appalachia. Had it passed, we would be at imminent risk of being saddled with the Mountain Valley Pipe (MVP) that, according to one study, would emit 90 million metric tons of CO2 annually, which equals the emissions from 19 million vehicles. If construction is finished, the MVP would be the largest greenhouse gas emitter in Virginia… “This is the real world we live in. Compromise is at the heart of any good legislation. But it is concerning when members of both political parties continue to provide lifelines to the fossil fuel industry rather than focus on the immediate and future well-being of the citizens they are supposed to represent. The planet's climate emergency does not care how hard it is to get bills passed these days. For those who care about the future of our communities and our planet, we should take this as a warning. This won't be the last time that we will be told to celebrate a one-sided legislative achievement while ignoring the communities that were cut out of the deal.”
The Atlantic: The Environmentalists Undermining Environmentalism
Jerusalem Demsas, 10/19/22
“Last month, Senator Joe Manchin proposed speeding up the permitting process for energy infrastructure by limiting the number of legal challenges projects can face and setting time limits on how long a project can languish in limbo, waiting for approval,” Jerusalem Demsas writes for The Atlantic. “... But they would also “come at a cost for environmentalists: The bill may authorize some fossil-fuel projects”—in fact, Manchin included a provision requiring approval of a natural-gas pipeline in West Virginia—and “make it harder for green groups to block new infrastructure projects in court.” Environmentalists weren’t willing to stomach that cost: Manchin declared defeat after an uprising from progressive Democrats and reticence from Republican senators. Manchin’s loss was hardly a win for the climate, however. The demise of permitting reform reveals that many people within the environmentalist movement are undermining the nation’s emissions goals in the name of localism and community input… “Of course, Democrats should not trade away anyone’s civil rights in the name of efficiency, but that’s a false dichotomy… “The aforementioned “green groups” empowered at the expense of permitting reform aren’t just national organizations; they’re grouchy people with time on their hands in communities large and small. And they’re not just blocking fossil-fuel infrastructure; they’re blocking everything. Their weapon of choice is often the National Environmental Policy Act and its state equivalents, which require developers to issue environmental-impact statements prior to any large-scale project.”