EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 10/4/21
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Oil pipeline leak may close California beaches for months
NBC News: Oil spill off California coast closes pipeline, prompts warnings of ecological disaster
PA Environment Daily: Hearing Set After PennEast Announced NJ Part Of Its Project Would Not Go Forward, But PA Part Might
NJ Spotlight: PennEast opponents say community activism was key to beating pipeline
DeSmog: PennEast Pipeline Cancelation Could Signal ‘End of an Era’ for Unnecessary Fossil Fuel Projects
Lehigh Valley Live: After PennEast is canceled, what is the status of this Lehigh Valley pipeline project?
Platts: North American oil, gas drillers see more investor interest; pipelines out of favor
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Landmark EJ ruling sparks legislative reckoning in Va.
STATE UPDATES
Colorado Sun: Drilling leases on 58,000 acres of public land in Colorado were awarded without proper environmental review
E&E News: Plan For Gas Site Behind Worst U.S. Methane Leak Stokes Outrage
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Energy lawsuits pact seen threatening Paris climate deal
Energy Live News: Shell starts production at its first US renewable natural gas facility
Washington Post: From novelist to climate crusader: How one woman is working to put a stop to natural gas
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Biden’s choice for bank regulator spurs climate debate
OPINION
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: We are all connected, and we are all being threatened by Enbridge and the politicians who support them
Grand Forks Herald: Line 3 is in the ground and pumping oil, as it’s intended to do. That's good
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Oil pipeline leak may close California beaches for months
Amy Taxin and Christopher Weber, 10/3/21
“One of the largest oil spills in recent Southern California history fouled popular beaches that could end up closed for months as crews scrambled Sunday to contain the crude before it spread further into protected wetlands,” the Associated Press reports. “Divers were trying to determine where and why the leak occurred, but the flow of oil was stopped late Saturday from the pipeline that runs under the ocean off Huntington Beach, according to the head of the company that operates the line. At least 126,000 gallons (572,807 liters) of crude spilled into the waters off Orange County starting late Friday or early Saturday when boaters began reporting a sheen in the water, officials said. “I don’t expect it to be more. That’s the capacity of the entire pipeline,” Amplify Energy CEO Martyn Willsher told AP… “Huntington Beach Mayor Kim Carr said the city’s famous beaches could remain closed for weeks or even months.”
NBC News: Oil spill off California coast closes pipeline, prompts warnings of ecological disaster
David Douglas and Tim Stelloh, 10/3/21
“A 13-square-mile oil spill off the coast of Southern California forced the closure of a pipeline and prompted officials to close beaches and warn of an ecological disaster Sunday,” NBC News reports. “The offshore oil pipeline being investigated as the potential source for the 126,000-gallon leak off Newport Beach has been shut down and suctioned, according to Amplify Energy, which owns the company that operates the pipeline. “We’ve started to find dead birds & fish washing up on the shore," Orange County Supervisor Katrina Foley tweeted. A 2012 plan prepared by the pipeline's operator Beta Offshore and obtained by NBC News said that a full cut in the pipeline three miles from shore could release roughly 3,000 barrels, or 126,000 gallons, of oil. It described such a situation as a “worst case” scenario that could cause “significant and substantial harm to the environment” because “of its proximity to navigable waters and adjoining shoreline areas designated as environmentally sensitive.” Foley said she visited the area Sunday and felt the sting of vapor in the air. “My throat hurt,” she said at a news conference. Foley described seeing small clusters of oil along the shoreline that she compared to egg yolk. She pleaded with residents to stay away from the area and not disturb the oil clumps. County health officials warned residents to be aware of dizziness, headaches and other side effects that exposure to an oil spill can cause. Some sections of the coastline in Huntington Beach were closed Sunday, and the city said in a statement that the spill had "substantial ecological impacts" on the shoreline and wetlands.”
PA Environment Daily: Hearing Set After PennEast Announced NJ Part Of Its Project Would Not Go Forward, But PA Part Might
10/1/21
“PennEast Pipeline last week announced it was not moving ahead with the development of its pipeline project that would have delivered natural gas from Northcentral Pennsylvania into New Jersey. PennEast did say it was looking at what further steps are needed to start the Pennsylvania portion of the project,” PA Environment Daily reports. “The Pennsylvania portion of the project would run through Luzerne, Northampton, Carbon and Bucks counties and offer three delivery points-- UGI Utilities, Inc. (to serve the Blue Mountain Ski Resort) and new interconnections with Columbia Gas and Adelphia Gateway to serve the growing demand in the southeast region. Sen. John Yudichak (I-Luzerne), Majority Chair of the Senate Community and Economic Development Committee, issued a statement after the PennEast announcement saying, “Frivolous lawsuits and misguided political policies, like RGGI [Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative], have halted the development of the PennEast Pipeline Project, which could result in the loss of over 12,000 jobs in northeastern Pennsylvania.”
NJ Spotlight: PennEast opponents say community activism was key to beating pipeline
JON HURDLE, 10/4/21
“The PennEast pipeline plan faced strong opposition. It was the community that won it,” NJ Spotlight reports. “The PennEast Pipeline Co.’s decision to end its plan to build a natural gas pipeline through about 40 miles of New Jersey’s public and private lands was fundamentally the result of sustained grassroots opposition from the communities where the pipeline would have been built, according to advocates, lawmakers and local activists. The company’s plan to take lands by eminent domain if necessary to build a fossil-fuel pipeline widely viewed as unnecessary enraged residents along the route from the moment it was announced in 2014. That outrage influenced some local and county officials, state and federal lawmakers, and the administration of Gov. Phil Murphy, whose Department of Environmental Protection denied permits, leading the company to unilaterally pull out… “Starting it all was strong opposition at the community level, said state Sen. Christopher “Kip” Bateman, a Republican representing parts of Hunterdon, Mercer, Middlesex and Somerset counties. “That was probably what determined PennEast’s decision to pull back,” said Bateman, who opposed the project from the start. “There were a number of property owners, they were going to have to condemn their land. The property owners weren’t going to let them on the land. This was really a grassroots effort at the local level by the citizens of those areas, so I think that had a great deal to do with defeating this proposal.” That pressure spread to lawmakers and to regulators at the DEP who were seen as unlikely to issue the required water-quality permits if PennEast applied again. In its statement last Monday, PennEast cited its failure to get DEP permits in its decision to pull out.”
DeSmog: PennEast Pipeline Cancelation Could Signal ‘End of an Era’ for Unnecessary Fossil Fuel Projects
Nick Cunningham, 9/30/21
“A major natural gas pipeline in Pennsylvania was canceled this week in the face of a thicket of legal obstacles and intense local opposition. The cancelation may punctuate what could be the end of a decade-long pipeline building frenzy in the U.S. as federal regulators begin to heed calls from activists and local communities to increase scrutiny over unneeded pipelines crisscrossing the country,” DeSmog reports. “...The cancelation highlights the obstacles that several other high-profile projects currently face. For instance, the Mountain Valley Pipeline in West Virginia and Virginia still needs state-level environmental permits, as does the Pacific Connector gas pipeline in Oregon, which would feed the Jordan Cove liquefied natural gas export project. The Mountain Valley Pipeline is under construction but still faces many more hurdles standing in the way of its completion. Jordan Cove is all but dead. But the fate of PennEast is not simply a story about a pipeline stopped by state regulators over water permits. It also represented the “systemic ostrich-like refusal” by federal regulators to assess whether there is market demand for gas before approving pipeline projects in the first place, Megan Gibson, an attorney at the Niskanen Center, a nonpartisan think tank based in Washington, D.C., told DeSmog.”
Lehigh Valley Live: After PennEast is canceled, what is the status of this Lehigh Valley pipeline project?
Kurt Bresswein, 10/3/21
“PennEast Pipeline is canceled, but another natural gas pipeline project touching the Lehigh Valley is proceeding as planned,” Lehigh Valley Live reports. “First proposed in 2017, two years after PennEast, Adelphia Gateway LLC is repurposing an existing pipeline and adding new facilities between the Martins Creek Terminal in Lower Mount Bethel Township and Marcus Hook Industrial Complex in Delaware County. It “is independent of PennEast and is not impacted by the recent decision,” a spokeswoman told lehighvalleylive.com last week… “Adelphia Gateway is a subsidiary of NJR Pipeline Co., which itself is owned by New Jersey Resources Corp. The project repurposes an 84-mile-long, 18-inch-diameter pipeline built in the 1970s to carry oil, so that it can transport natural gas, and also includes use of a 4.4-mile-long, 20-inch-diameter natural gas line terminating at Martins Creek… “The project is designed to tie-in to existing pipelines and carry natural gas for domestic use, Adelphia Gateway says… “Opponents of the project include the Delaware Riverkeeper Network, which as part of 737 pages of comments in February 2019 described FERC’s environmental assessment of the project as “woefully inadequate,” according to the documents on file with the federal commission. The network also fears the gas will be transported to Marcus Hook for export overseas, and was not alone in airing this concern to the commission.”
Platts: North American oil, gas drillers see more investor interest; pipelines out of favor
10/4/21
“The North American oil and gas exploration and production sector is gaining more investment dollars at the expense of pipeline operators as drillers substantially improve free cash flow and debt reduction, according to industry experts,” Platts reports. “Midstream companies over the last few years have significantly streamlined their business structures to eliminate complicated features like incentive distribution rights, while guaranteed revenues from long-term, take-or-pay contracts shielded them from the tidal wave of default that producers faced as crude oil prices tanked in 2020… “As the North American midstream sector’s great pipeline build-out cycle winds down, LNG is the fossil fuel poised to have the biggest earnings advantage given that revenues are “now driven by the ups and downs of US production versus their choices around capex spend, building and contracting customers,” Bernstein wrote in a July report. Cheniere Energy, North America’s biggest LNG exporter, should be able to attract outside investor interest after checking “all four boxes” of cutting debt, introducing a dividend, resuming stock repurchases and contributing organic growth when it provided a capital allocation update Sept. 7, according to Raymond James & Associates. In the near term, however, a “terribly destabilizing” rise in global gas prices is adding to challenges that developers have faced in building sufficient commercial support and obtaining financing for new liquefaction projects as buyers hesitate to commit to long-term contracts.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Landmark EJ ruling sparks legislative reckoning in Va.
By Niina H. Farah, 10/4/21
“More than a year after a watershed federal court ruling, Virginia is becoming a case study of whether environmental justice protections can get enshrined into law, or be stymied by legislative and regulatory fights,” E&E News reports. “In January 2020, the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals slammed the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality (DEQ) for failing to adequately study the risks of building a natural gas compressor station along the now-canceled Atlantic Coast pipeline in a community established by freed slaves after the Civil War. The landmark decision prompted DEQ to begin a rulemaking process for determining site suitability for projects seeking air permits. The court ruling is also now gradually building momentum behind Virginia legislators’ efforts to protect low-income and minority communities in the state, supporters say. "Environmental justice is a huge priority," state Sen. Jennifer McClellan (D) told E&E News in a recent interview. "When you know that there are communities disproportionately impacted by these projects and you do nothing about it, that’s definitely not justice. I think it’s what the 4th Circuit case showed us is without more guidance from the Legislature, I’m not sure they’re going to quite do it.” A bill McClellan co-sponsored in the Virginia General Assembly this year would have required companies planning new major industrial pollution sources, like compressor stations and landfills, to prove they had conducted outreach to environmental justice communities before applying for a DEQ permit. The bill had come out of a recommendation by the state’s Council on Environmental Justice, an advisory body designed to study concerns of low-income and minority communities.”
STATE UPDATES
Colorado Sun: Drilling leases on 58,000 acres of public land in Colorado were awarded without proper environmental review
Mark Jaffe, 9/30/21
“Oil and gas leases on 58,000 acres of public lands in northwest Colorado were awarded by the federal Bureau of Land Management without adequate consideration for air quality and wilderness protections, a federal district judge ruled – but she stopped short of voiding the leases,” the Colorado Sun reports. “U.S. District Court Judge Marcia Krieger remanded the leases to the BLM for “remedial action” for deficiencies outlined in her 20-page ruling. A lawsuit challenging the bureau’s leases was brought by four environment groups seeking to void the leases, but Krieger noted that even after updating the process the lease might still be in place. “We are still working to unwind the legacy of the Trump administration, which broke a lot of laws in issuing leases,” Stuart Gillespie, an attorney with Earthjustice, the environmental law firm that represented the group, told the Sun. “We are reviewing the decision to determine next steps,” BLM spokesman Steven Hall said in an email. No permits for drilling have been issued on any of these leases, Hall told the Sun.
E&E News: Plan For Gas Site Behind Worst U.S. Methane Leak Stokes Outrage
10/4/21
“The site of the worst methane leak in U.S. history would increase its natural gas storage capacity under a pair of new decisions from the California Public Utilities Commission — a move likely to draw blowback in the face of heightened pressure to shutter the Aliso Canyon facility,” E&E News reports. “The agency framed its draft decisions, reached after a series of closed-door meetings, as ‘an interim solution to address the immediate needs of the upcoming winter season.’ But the proposals run counter to the calls of many politicians, environmentalists and nearby residents for Southern California Gas to stop operations.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Energy lawsuits pact seen threatening Paris climate deal
By Arthur Neslen, 10/4/21
“Fear of multi-billion-euro lawsuits from fossil fuel investors is putting the Paris agreement on climate change at risk, one of the deal's architects has warned,” Reuters reports. “Compensation claims from a pact that allows companies to sue countries over policies that affect their investments could amount to more than a trillion euros by 2050, according to one estimate. The Energy Charter Treaty (ECT) was originally drawn up to protect energy firms as the Soviet Union crumbled, but new analysis suggests it could allow coal plants in 54 signatory states to keep belching carbon dioxide for more than a decade. "The integrity of the Paris agreement is critically undermined by the Energy Charter Treaty," Laurence Tubiana, the French climate change ambassador during negotiations for the Paris agreement, told Reuters. "Europe and others should withdraw from this shambolic and dangerous anachronism if we are to stay within 1.5C (of global warming)."
Energy Live News: Shell starts production at its first US renewable natural gas facility
Priyanka Shrestha, 9/30/21
“A subsidiary of Royal Dutch Shell has successfully achieved startup and production of renewable natural gas (RNG) at its first US biomethane facility,” Energy Live News reports. “The Shell New Energies Junction City in Oregon uses locally-sourced cow manure and excess agricultural residues to produce an estimated 736,000MMBtu of RNG annually. The project is part of Shell Oil Products US’ growing portfolio of developing RNG production and distribution assets supporting low carbon renewable compressed natural gas as fuel for heavy-duty, on-road transport. It is developing additional RNG production facilities to be located directly within operating dairies, with Shell Downstream Galloway at the High Plains Ponderosa Dairy in Plains, Kansas and Shell Downstream Bovarius at the Bettencourt Dairies in Wendell, Idaho part of the expanding biofuels portfolio using cow manure as feedstock. Together, the two facilities can produce around 900,000MMBtu of RNG a year. According to Shell, the use of RNG in the form of compressed natural gas (R-CNG) is estimated to reduce CO2 emissions from around 50% to 100% compared to fossil fuels.”
Washington Post: From novelist to climate crusader: How one woman is working to put a stop to natural gas
Tik Root, 9/30/21
“Audrey Schulman stood in the middle of the sidewalk, her eyes fixed on the gas detector in her left hand,” the Washington Post reports. “...Schulman is not an engineer or a scientist. By profession, the 58-year-old is a writer with five novels to her name, and a sixth set to publish next year. But she is also the founder and co-director of an environmental nonprofit called the Home Energy Efficiency Team (HEET). Founded in 2009, the organization has evolved from focusing on weatherizing buildings in the Boston area to putting an end to natural gas — a mission that could eventually reshape how the entire state and beyond gets energy. “It’s a system problem,” she told the Post. “For me, gas is just an explosive substance that we should not be putting into homes and lighting on fire.” “...To her, the more persistent worry with a leak is that methane is an extremely potent greenhouse gas, which — when released directly into the atmosphere instead of being burned first — has more than 80 times the warming potential of carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Biden’s choice for bank regulator spurs climate debate
By Avery Ellfeldt, 10/4/21
“A little-known bureau inside the Treasury Department has become the latest flashpoint in the debate over how to best safeguard the U.S. financial system from future risk, including climate change,” E&E News reports. “The battle over the bureau — known officially as the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency — began last month when President Biden nominated Saule Omarova, a well-known Wall Street critic, to lead the agency. Omarova, a Cornell University law professor since 2014, has warned of the long-term financial risk of fossil fuel companies. She also has called for a new federal authority to invest in projects that would support “socially inclusive and sustainable economic growth,” according to a paper she wrote last year. Several elements of Omarova’s approach to financial regulation have elicited a sharp reaction from some corners. Republican lawmakers and industry groups say Omarova has championed “radical” policy ideas that would fundamentally — and dangerously — overhaul the banking system. Many oppose her nomination. The stakes are significant. The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency polices the U.S. banking system and helps ensure the largest U.S. banks are operating in a “safe and sound manner.” That responsibility takes a number of forms. Among them: supervising the largest lenders to ensure they’re actively addressing emerging threats to the financial sector.”
OPINION
Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative: We are all connected, and we are all being threatened by Enbridge and the politicians who support them
Barbara With, 10/2/21
“As many of you might know, I spent this past summer at Shell City Water Protector Camp in northern Minnesota, taking a stand to protect the water there from Enbridge Line 3 tar sands pipeline. The destruction this project has caused is a nightmare,” Barbara With writes for the Wisconsin Citizens Media Cooperative. “While I appreciate being thanked for my service, I would much prefer to see an engaged community who are aware of these dangers and also willing to take a stand to protect our beloved Lake Superior from the destruction this multinational corporation is bringing our way in Northern Wisconsin via Line 5… “This is a potential disaster we can and must prevent. Stopping the construction of Line 5 and the social, environmental, cultural and spiritual devastation it will bring is not just about our beautiful, beloved and sacred part of the world. It’s about the survival of the entire planet. We are all connected, and we are all being threatened by Enbridge and the politicians who support them. In the end, you simply cannot drink oil.”
Grand Forks Herald: Line 3 is in the ground and pumping oil, as it’s intended to do. That's good
Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board, 10/3/21
“Provided something dramatic has not happened, oil is flowing through the Enbridge company’s new Line 3 pipeline,” the Grand Forks Herald Editorial Board writes. “...In the years before construction began across Minnesota, trouble percolated around the project. Line 3 passes through environmentally sensitive areas, drawing criticism from American Indian tribes and others. Protests before and during its construction were common. Line 3 also has become the latest focus of climate change concerns. Although literally thousands upon thousands of miles of oil pipelines already exist and are in use in the nation, the newest always seems to draw the most criticism. We have backed Line 3 throughout the process because we believe pipelines are the most efficient way to transport oil, and also because oil still is — at least for the time being — driving the nation’s, and the state’s, economy… “FNS reported last week that opponents of Line 3 have vowed to continue fighting Line 3, even after its completion. Hopefully, they won’t. So many others are behind the project, and they deserve their say, too. County commissions, city councils, mayors and business owners all backed it. The Herald and other newspapers in the region were saturated with letters of support. Far more letters supporting Line 3 came in than letters against it. Line 3 passed its regulatory hurdles and years of scrutiny before a single shovel broke Minnesota soil. It created thousands of jobs and will generate taxes for years to come in the counties through which it passes. Line 3 is in the ground and pumping oil, as it’s intended to do. That’s good.”