EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 10/6/21
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Pipeline developer charged in connection with contamination
Press release: Otten calls for halt of Mariner East pipeline following Attorney General Shapiro’s filing of 48 criminal charges
Politico Morning Energy: CANADA ON LINE 5
NPR: The California oil spill could endanger birds and sea life for years, experts say
WOOD: California oil spill stokes concern for Great Lakes
The Tyee: Pipeline Standoff: Wet’suwet’en Block Effort to Tunnel under Morice River
Financial Post: 'Steeply disconnected': Why Alberta's battered producers could miss out on global natural gas boom
CNBC [VIDEO]: Enbridge CEO explains the pipeline operator’s plans to reduce carbon emissions
Virginia Business: Dominion Energy to sell Questar Pipeline to Southwest Gas for $1.9B
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: White House promotes faraway promise of green hydrogen
EXTRACTION
New York Times: Energy Prices Spike as Producers Worry Over Pandemic and Climate
Grand Forks Herald: More than 9,000 gallons of brine spill near Williston
E&E News: Natural Gas Is Having A Moment. Will It Last?
Bloomberg: The Cheap and Easy Climate Fix That Can Cool the Planet Fast
OPINION
Los Angeles Times: Op-Ed: It’s time Biden started making good on his big climate change promises
Heated: Biden's silent climate betrayal: Why activists are planning “the largest civil disobedience action in decades"
Bloomberg: Why Biden’s Methane Fee Isn’t a Gas Tax
Toronto Star: Sorry, Alberta, there’s nothing ‘friendly’ about Canadian oil — or anyone else’s
FLOW For Love of Water: Why Do Canadians Seem to Care So Little about Protecting the Great Lakes from Line 5?
Western Standard: BAROOTES: There’s nothing ‘just’ about Justin’s ‘Just Transition’
Houston Chronicle: Editorial: Carbon gets the headlines. But Texas' methane emissions are root cause of climate change.
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Pipeline developer charged in connection with contamination
10/5/21
“Pennsylvania’s attorney general filed criminal charges Tuesday against the developer of a problem-plagued pipeline that takes natural gas liquids from the Marcellus Shale gas field to an export terminal near Philadelphia,” the Associated Press reports. “Attorney General Josh Shapiro announced the case at a news conference at Marsh Creek State Park in Downingtown, where Sunoco Pipeline LP spilled thousands of gallons of drilling fluid last year. The spill, during construction of the troubled Mariner East 2 pipeline, fouled wetlands, a stream and part of a 535-acre lake. Energy Transfer, Sunoco’s owner, faces 48 criminal charges, most of them for releasing industrial waste at 22 sites in 11 counties across the state. Shapiro said Energy Transfer contaminated the drinking water of at least 150 families statewide. The charges are for “illegal behavior that related to the construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline that polluted our lakes, our rivers and our water wells and put Pennsylvania’s safety at risk,” said Shapiro, speaking with Marsh Creek Lake behind him. The multibillion-dollar pipeline project has been the focus of criminal probes. At one point, a statewide investigating grand jury subpoenaed the company for documents relating to the inadvertent release of drilling fluids and effects on water supplies… “But environmental activists and homeowners who assert their water has been fouled say that fines and periodic shutdown orders have not forced Sunoco to clean up its act. They have been demanding revocation of Mariner East’s permits.”
Press release: Otten calls for halt of Mariner East pipeline following Attorney General Shapiro’s filing of 48 criminal charges
10/5/21
“State Rep. Danielle Friel Otten, D-Chester, chair of the Pennsylvania House Legislative Climate Caucus and member of the House Environmental Resources and Energy Committee, issued the following statement regarding today’s announcement that Pennsylvania Attorney General Josh Shapiro has filed criminal charges against Sunoco Pipeline/Energy Transfer for environmental crimes related to the Mariner East pipeline project: “This morning, PA Attorney General Josh Shapiro came to Marsh Creek State Park to announce 48 criminal charges against Energy Transfer, the developer of the Mariner East II pipeline. The charges, most of which are for releasing industrial waste at 22 sites in 11 counties across the commonwealth, include 22 counts of prohibition of discharge of industrial waste under the Clean Streams Law; 22 counts of prohibition against other pollutions under the Clean Streams Law; two misdemeanor counts of unlawful conduct under the Clean Streams Law; and one felony count of unlawful conduct under the Clean Streams Law for willfully failing to report incidents to the Department of Environmental Protection. “Attorney General Shapiro is sending a clear message to Energy Transfer and other pipeline operators: You cannot operate in Pennsylvania and play by your own set of rules. If you break Pennsylvania law, you will be tried in a criminal courtroom in Pennsylvania.”
Politico Morning Energy: CANADA ON LINE 5
Matthew Choi, 10/5/21
“The Canada-Michigan spat over Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline turned more serious on Monday when Canada invoked a 1977 treaty with the U.S. to defend the pipeline’s continued operation,” Politico Morning Energy reports. “Michigan ordered the pipeline that runs under the Straits of Mackinac shut down over environmental concerns, but Canada insists it’s a necessary conduit for its energy needs (Enbridge has kept the pipeline open, ready to duke it out in court). The pipeline ships 540,000 barrels of oil across the border each day. Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer said she was “profoundly disappointed” in Monday’s move and vowed to continue her quest to shut the pipeline. “I had expected that Canada, a nation that prides itself on its commitment to environmental protection, would share my interest in protecting the Great Lakes,” she said. Bringing the 1977 Transit Pipelines Treaty into the fray could mean Biden’s involvement. The president has so far kept out of the dispute, viewing it as a matter between Michigan and Canada. Biden is visiting Michigan today to tout his Build Back Better agenda.“
NPR: The California oil spill could endanger birds and sea life for years, experts say
JOE HERNANDEZ, 10/5/21
“Emergency officials are still trying to contain a major oil spill off the coast of Southern California that dumped more than 120,000 gallons of crude oil into the Pacific Ocean, some of which has washed ashore,” NPR reports. “But even as the response effort continues, experts say the long-term impacts to the environment — particularly on birds and marine life — could be significant even if they didn't get saturated by the weekend oil slick. "They might not look visibly oiled, but the exposure that they get subtly through their diet or because of physical contact later on might affect their physiology, their health and translate into a lower reproductive success and therefore lower chances of the population to persist," Andrea Bonisoli Alquati, a professor of biological sciences at Cal Poly Pomona, told NPR. Bonisoli Alquati studied the effects of the 2010 Deepwater Horizon oil spill on marine and terrestrial wildlife along the Gulf Coast and found that the repercussions are still present today. "Some populations might recover fast. Some other populations take years and years," he told NPR. "Sometimes the focus, of course, of the press and the public has already shifted away, but the consequences are still happening." "...Even after fines and criminal charges, the oil industry is still spilling and leaking into California's coastal waters," Miyoko Sakashita with the Center for Biological Diversity said in a tweet. "The only solution is to shut this dirty business down."
WOOD: California oil spill stokes concern for Great Lakes
Kyle Mitchell, 10/5/21
“The California oil spill that has contaminated miles of coastline is renewing concerns about the potential of an oil leak from Line 5, which runs under the Straits of Mackinac,” WOOD reports. ”An anchor strike is suspected to have caused the spill in California and the pipeline through the straits has dealt with anchor strikes before. Daniel Macfarlane, an associate professor at Western Michigan University’s Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, fears it could happen again. “There were anchor strikes in 2018 and 2020, both of which hit Line 5. One of them damaged Line 5 and also spilled fluid from power cables that were nearby. So absolutely an anchor strike is not just a risk, it’s already happened so it’s probably more a matter of time,” Macfarlane told WOOD. Enbridge, a Canadian company, also owns the pipeline that spilled oil into the Kalamazoo River in 2010. The disaster was the second biggest inland oil spill in U.S. history… “Macfarlane, who is Canadian, told WOOD the pipeline provides very little energy to Michigan and little economic benefit. “It’s essentially just moving fossil fuels from Canada to another part of Canada with Michigan bearing the risk.”
The Tyee: Pipeline Standoff: Wet’suwet’en Block Effort to Tunnel under Morice River
Amanda Follett Hosgood, 10/5/21
“At the turnoff, four workers with Coastal GasLink security gather in orange and yellow vests, their voices edged with frustration as they talk above four idling pickup trucks that release a haze of exhaust into the early morning light. Another pickup faces off against the group, blocking access to the rough and muddy spur road that leads to the pipeline worksite. It’s a scene that has played out every day for the past week and a half on Wet’suwet’en territory, as land defenders block pipeline workers from accessing a site where Coastal GasLink is preparing to drill under the Morice River and install the pipeline,” The Tyee reports. “On Sept. 24, protesters used Coastal GasLink’s own machinery to dig up the rough resource road that connects this junction to a worksite two kilometres beyond. A camp was established at the site and a school bus used to block access. The school bus has since been removed — twice — by RCMP and Coastal GasLink before being returned to its place in the road, which has been roughly repaired by the pipeline company. Known to the Wet’suwet’en as Wedzin Kwa, the Morice River becomes the Bulkley, eventually flowing into the Skeena River at Hazelton. It’s a major artery through the territory and source of sustenance and tradition for the nation, as well as the territorial boundary between the Gidimt’en Clan’s Cas Yikh house and the Unist’ot’en, a house group belonging to Gilseyhu Clan. According to Molly Wickham, a Cas Yikh house member whose Wet’suwet’en name is Sleydo’, it was never a question of whether they would fight to protect Wedzin Kwa. Only a question of when.”
Financial Post: 'Steeply disconnected': Why Alberta's battered producers could miss out on global natural gas boom
Geoffrey Morgan, 10/6/21
“Heavily discounted natural gas prices in Alberta have domestic producers frustrated they could miss out on much of the upside of a global rally as natural gas prices skyrocket ahead of the winter,” the Financial Post reports. “Natural gas prices are hitting multi-year seasonal highs across North America due to a combination of low storage levels and red-hot demand from overseas markets even before winter heating season begins in earnest. The Henry Hub benchmark price in Louisiana traded for US$5.69 per thousand cubic feet on Tuesday, while gas prices at Dawn, Ont. traded at US$5.19 per mcf according to ATB Capital Markets. By contrast, Alberta’s AECO benchmark price averaged at US$3.12 per mcf on Tuesday — which is at a just 55 per cent of the U.S. Henry Hub benchmark price, or a US$2.57 per mcf discount. Producers point to maintenance and expansion work on TC Energy Corp.’s Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL) pipeline system for the disconnect between Alberta’s market and the rest of North America. NGTL is the largest gas transmission system in Canada and TC Energy also operates the largest network of export pipelines, moving Alberta gas eastward to Ontario and westward to San Francisco… “Calgary-based TC Energy said the maintenance and expansion work is part of the company’s $8 billion in spending to expand the system and remove bottlenecks over a five-year period. The pipeline giant said flows on the system “have remained robust” at 12.2 billion cubic feet per day.”
CNBC [VIDEO]: Enbridge CEO explains the pipeline operator’s plans to reduce carbon emissions
10/5/21
“Enbridge President and CEO Al Monaco appeared on Tuesday’s episode of “Mad Money” and explained the pipeline operator’s plans to reduce emissions,” CNBC reports.
Virginia Business: Dominion Energy to sell Questar Pipeline to Southwest Gas for $1.9B
ROBYN SIDERSKY, 10/5/21
“Richmond-based Dominion Energy Inc. has reached an agreement to sell its Questar Pipeline subsidiary to Las Vegas-based Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. for $1.975 billion, the Fortune 500 utility announced Tuesday,” according to Virginia Business. “The all-cash deal includes the assumption of $430 million of debt. The transaction is expected to close in the fourth quarter. Questar Pipeline is an interstate natural gas pipeline business that provides natural gas transportation and underground storage services in Utah, Wyoming and Colorado. The company owns and operates 1,867 miles of natural gas pipeline. It transports gas for delivery to markets in the West and Midwest, including southern Idaho. Southwest Gas Holdings Inc. provides natural gas service to more than 2 million customers in Arizona, Nevada and portions of California… “Dominion began divesting its natural gas holdings in November 2020, when the utility sold the majority of its gas transmission and storage assets to Berkshire Hathaway Energy for approximately $2.7 billion in cash. In July 2020, Dominion’s then-CEO, Thomas F. Farrell II, who died in April, said that the company was taking the action as part of a “narrowing of focus,” repositioning Dominion strategically with a pure-play focus on its “state-regulated, sustainability-focused utilities” business.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: White House promotes faraway promise of green hydrogen
By Scott Waldman, 10/5/21
“Long-haul trucks. Cargo ships. Steel mills and cement plants. The White House believes it can use green hydrogen to cut emissions in all of them. Much of the attention around climate policy has focused on reducing carbon dioxide from vehicles, power plants and airplanes. But the Biden administration is also promoting the elusive promise of using water and renewable energy to make a clean version of hydrogen for powering U.S. industry,” E&E News reports. “White House climate adviser Gina McCarthy said recently that the fuel source, which is not commercially available, could become a key tool for reducing emissions. “We need to get more and more solutions to deploy, so green hydrogen is a big player in both the manufacturing and the heavy-duty vehicle sector right away,” McCarthy said on the "Madam Policy" podcast hosted by Bracewell LLP, a firm representing energy clients. Hydrogen is made by using electrolysis to separate it from oxygen molecules in water. But the process requires electricity, and 95 percent of all hydrogen produced today relies on fossil fuels. So-called green hydrogen would be made with renewable energy. The technology is promising, but it’s uncertain when, or if, it will be widely available… “Fossil fuel companies have embraced gray and blue hydrogen as a way to keep natural gas flowing in a carbon-constrained future, Mike O’Boyle, director of electricity policy at Energy Innovation, told E&E. He also pointed to a debate over green hydrogen, which has been criticized for potentially redirecting money and renewable energy generation away from electric cars and homes. Green hydrogen could be shipped through pipelines along with natural gas. The gas industry has touted that as a way to reduce its carbon intensity.”
EXTRACTION
New York Times: Energy Prices Spike as Producers Worry Over Pandemic and Climate
Clifford Krauss and Peter Eavis, 10/4/21
“Americans are spending a dollar more for a gallon of gasoline than they were a year ago. Natural gas prices have shot up more than 150 percent over the same time, threatening to raise prices of food, chemicals, plastic goods and heat this winter,” the New York Times reports. “The energy system is suddenly in crisis around the world as the cost of oil, natural gas and coal has climbed rapidly in recent months. In China, Britain and elsewhere, fuel shortages and panic buying have led to blackouts and long lines at filling stations. The situation in the United States is not quite as dire, but oil and gasoline prices are high enough that President Biden has been calling on foreign producers to crank up supply. He is doing so as he simultaneously pushes Congress to address climate change by moving the country away from fossil fuels toward renewable energy and electric cars. U.S. energy executives and the Wall Street bankers and investors who finance them are not doing anything to bolster production to levels that could bring down prices. The main U.S. oil price jumped nearly 3 percent on Monday, to about $78 a barrel, a seven-year high, after OPEC and its allies on Monday declined to significantly increase supply… “If the drillers don’t increase production, fuel prices could stay high and even rise. That would present a political problem for Mr. Biden. Many Americans, especially lower-income families, are vulnerable to big swings in oil and gas prices. And while use of renewable energy and electric cars is growing, it remains too small to meaningfully offset the pain of higher gasoline and natural gas prices… “Another reason for the pullback from drilling is that banks and investors are reluctant to put more money into the oil and gas business. The flow of capital from Wall Street has slowed to a trickle after a decade in which investors poured over $1.4 trillion into North American oil and gas producers through stock and bond issues and loans, according to the research firm Dealogic. “The banks have pulled away from financing,” Scott Sheffield, chief executive of Pioneer Natural Resources, a major Texas oil and gas producer, told the Times.
Grand Forks Herald: More than 9,000 gallons of brine spill near Williston
Jeremy Turley, 10/5/21
“An estimated 9,240 gallons of produced water spilled Sunday, Oct. 3, at a saltwater disposal facility in Williams County, North Dakota, according to a news release from the state Department of Environmental Quality,” the Grand Forks Herald reports. “Produced water, or brine, is a mixture of saltwater, oil and sometimes drilling fluids that is created during oil and gas production. Texas-based Oasis Petroleum reported the spill about five miles southeast of Williston occurred due to an equipment failure, though the cause of the spill is still under investigation. About 85 gallons of brine is estimated to have run off into a nearby agricultural field.”
E&E News: Natural Gas Is Having A Moment. Will It Last?
10/5/21
“The world was awash in natural gas for much of the last decade. Now, it can’t get enough of it. European prices are at record highs. So too are Asian prices. Even the United States, which has seen a comparatively modest price increase, is witnessing the highest sustained run in natural gas prices in more than five years,” E&E News reports. “The surge in gas prices is the result of a confluence of factors. A cold winter drained storage tanks in Europe. A global economy roared back to life from COVID-19. Plus, weak hydroelectric generation in China and reduced European wind output prompted grid operators in both regions to call for more gas. In the shor -term, the world is responding to rising gas prices by burning more coal (Climatewire, July 9)... “The boom has been stoked in part by the United States, which has boosted production and installed new liquefied natural gas terminals to ship the fuel around the world. […] The harder question is what to do about it. Gas differs from other fossil fuels in that it is used in a variety of industries. It is used for home heating, as industrial feedstock and a source of power generation. Yet the industry also faces a squeeze as the world focuses more attention on slashing greenhouse gas emissions. Methane, the primary component of natural gas, is a short-lived but powerful greenhouse gas.”
Bloomberg: The Cheap and Easy Climate Fix That Can Cool the Planet Fast
By Hayley Warren and Akshat Rathi, 10/5/21
“Let a molecule of carbon dioxide escape into the atmosphere, and it stays for centuries. There’s more than enough up there to smother the planet like a too-warm quilt, trapping heat within and weirding the weather. The damage will be felt for generations. But CO2 is only part of the patchwork of warming. Methane locks in far more heat in the short term and has been leaking just as relentlessly,” according to Bloomberg. “The difference is that methane’s power fades faster, within just decades. If we stopped emissions today, almost all the methane in the atmospheric blanket would degrade within a lifetime. Scientists use a metric called the Global Warming Potential to judge the potency of greenhouse gases.The measure shows that over the first two decades methane traps 84 times as much heat as the same amount of CO2.Within a century, its warming power is still 28 times that of CO2. That’s why cutting methane has such a big pay off: the faster emissions fall, the more warming we avoid. That’s why the U.S. and the European Union have been pressing countries to make a methane-cutting pledge. If enough nations sign up and meet the target—reaching a 30% reduction from last year’s levels by the end of the decade—the global movement against methane could prove to be one of the crucial achievements of the COP26 climate talks taking place in November in Glasgow, Scotland.”
OPINION
Los Angeles Times: Op-Ed: It’s time Biden started making good on his big climate change promises
John Horning is the executive director of WildEarth Guardians, a nonprofit organization working to protect and restore the wildlife and the wild places of the American West, 10/4/21
“Just seven days into President Biden’s administration, he declared that the United States must “meet the moment” and raise our “climate ambition,” John Horning writes for the Los Angeles Times. “He backed that sentiment up with a set of sweeping executive orders directing the government to place the climate crisis at the center of domestic and foreign policy decisions. It was a welcome change from past presidents who have too often waited until the end of their terms to take any bold action to protect the environment. To many in the conservation movement, Biden’s words sent a signal that perhaps the U.S. was finally willing to address the climate crisis with the urgency it demands. However, now eight months later, Biden’s climate signal has not only faded — it’s been replaced by a series of confounding mixed messages. On Sept. 20, a federal judge in California rebuked the Biden administration in a lawsuit involving the failure to protect the Joshua tree, a species so iconic in the Western landscape that a national park bears its name… “Still, I was surprised that a judge appointed by a Republican president would understand the effect of climate change on an imperiled species better than the Biden administration… “We will be joining partners in Washington, D.C., on Oct. 11 for People vs. Fossil Fuels, a week of direct action led by Indigenous, brown and Black communities living on the front lines of the climate emergency. The demands are clear: Biden must direct agencies to reject fossil fuel projects and start treating the climate crisis like the emergency it is.”
Heated: Biden's silent climate betrayal: Why activists are planning “the largest civil disobedience action in decades"
Emily Atkin, 10/5/21
“President Joe Biden never spoke a word about the Line 3 tar sands pipeline, which officially went online on Friday,” Emily Atkin writes for Heated. “Nearly 900 people were arrested protesting it. More than 400 groups asked Biden to reject it. More than 200 Democratic donors and celebrities asked the same, as did 63 members of Congress. Countless rallies and direct actions targeted his attention. Nobody got it, even amid controversy. When the oil company Enbridge paid local police over $2 million to outfit them with riot gear for indigenous protesters, Biden said nothing. When construction punctured an aquifer and Enbridge hid it for months, Biden said nothing. When women reported being harassed by pipeline workers—and when two Line 3 workers were arrested in a human trafficking sting—Biden said nothing. Even when Biden’s good friend Jane Fonda said she was “sickened” by his inaction on Line 3, the president who promised swift action on climate change and indigenous rights said nothing. And while Biden himself remained silent on Line 3, his administration worked to ensure its approval. In court, Biden’s DOJ lawyers defended the project. On the ground, DHS helicopter pilots helped clear indigenous protestors by blasting them with sand… “By allowing Line 3 to become operational now, Biden has done precisely what he sought to avoid: undermined his own climate credibility, and the U.S.’s ability to influence abroad. Biden could have easily paused Line 3’s construction by ordering the complete environmental review Trump never gave it. Instead, he chose to let it move forward—and ignored every attempt by his constituents to explain why… “This isn’t Biden’s only recent climate betrayal, activists say. And in response, they’re planning “the largest civil disobedience action in decades, demanding President Biden use his executive authority to hasten the end of the era of fossil fuels.”
Bloomberg: Why Biden’s Methane Fee Isn’t a Gas Tax
By Liam Denning, 10/5/21
“Charif Souki, who founded the biggest U.S. natural gas-export firm and now chairs another called Tellurian Inc., isn’t known for mincing words. And he didn’t disappoint when tackling the issue of methane emissions at a recent event hosted by the Center for Strategic and International Studies: In the upstream, methane leaks are inexcusable. They’re avoidable. The technology is available to do it … It should not be allowed,” Liam Denning writes for Bloomberg. “...You cannot say that gas has a constructive role to play in the energy transition without saying, at the same time, that emissions are unacceptable and must be eliminated immediately. I don’t buy the competitiveness objection: if you need to pollute with impunity to be competitive, then you really need to rethink your business model. It is puzzling that an industry boasting enormous technical prowess in such fields as fracking and liquefied natural gas hasn’t moved more quickly to just hang onto and sell more of its own product. The opportunity to sell U.S. gas overseas (at sometimes very hefty spreads) as well as back-up renewable energy should be incentive enough to burnish its image via relatively easy fixes. Framing the methane fee as a tax on billpayers may be politically useful, but it also isn’t true. This isn’t a tax on the gas we consume but rather the gas that somehow never makes it far enough for us to consume. In that sense, it’s a tax on failure.”
Toronto Star: Sorry, Alberta, there’s nothing ‘friendly’ about Canadian oil — or anyone else’s
Heather Mallick, 10/2/21
“Canada’s energy is “friendly,” claims a new Alberta oil industry billboard campaign in Washington and Times Square in New York. “Choose friendly oil. Cleaner. Closer. Committed to Net Zero,” Heather Mallick writes for the Toronto Star. “If this is true, and I’m afraid it’s very much not, I’m pleased to hear it. My own energy these days is low, sapped, spavined even. It’s as thick and slow as Alberta’s famous bitumen, oppositional if not bellicose, peevish if not surly. Or so the $240,000 peppy video billboards from Alberta’s notorious energy “war room” claim, illustrating the point with a gas pump nozzle emitting red maple leaves that drift prettily onto passing American heads… “But there’s another reason, as the centre points out. “Of the top 10 countries from which the U.S. imported oil in June 2021, three were designated Not Free (Russia, Saudi Arabia and Iraq) and three were designated as Partly Free (Mexico, Nigeria and Colombia).” “The campaign will highlight that oil from Canada is a better option for America.” Other oil “largely comes from areas that do not like the U.S.,” says New York-based analyst Phil Skolnick helpfully. As Americans are slowly realizing, it doesn’t matter whether oil is friendly or unfriendly, whether it is shipped out by pale, English-speaking people or the most depraved tented murderous Saudi decapitators. Oil is the unfriendliest material on earth — I see Australian coal putting its hand up at the back of the class — and it has doomed us. Even if Alberta oil were not originally tarlike, and then refined to make it more like Chablis than gasoline, it carries the same emissions burden that makes pension funds divest around the world.”
FLOW For Love of Water: Why Do Canadians Seem to Care So Little about Protecting the Great Lakes from Line 5?
Dr. Daniel MacFarlane, Institute of the Environment and Sustainability, 10/5/21
“As a Canadian living in Michigan, I’ve never seen a state or province that identifies with the Great Lakes the way Michigan does: their silhouette adorns t-shirts, water bottles, and bumper stickers everywhere. At the same time, I would say that the Great Lakes-St. Lawrence system is woven into the nationalisms and founding mythologies of the Canadian nation-state, especially in central Canada, in a way that isn’t true of the United States. You might even say that the Great Lakes are in the DNA of the territory now called Canada,” Dr. Daniel MacFarlane writes for FLOW For Love of Water. “...But if the Great Lakes are so important to Canadians, why do they seem to care so little about protecting them? Specifically, I’m talking about Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline… “Line 5 is a ticking time bomb, especially at the Straits, where Enbridge is proposing a tunnel for this decaying and dangerous dual pipeline—but if you read the fine print, it will take a decade to build and taxpayers will be on the hook for the risky endeavor… “But, make no mistake, the goal here is not to just shift fossil fuels to a different pipeline. The end game is an energy transition, and a just one at that. In the long run, stopping Line 5, and other pipelines, could actually be doing Canadians a favor: weaning them off of fossil fuels and their infrastructure, and protecting the Great Lakes and the climate. What could be more neighborly?”
Western Standard: BAROOTES: There’s nothing ‘just’ about Justin’s ‘Just Transition’
Erika Barootes is a Senate nominee candidate for the Conservative Party of Canada, 10/5/21
“A key reason I put my name forward to represent Alberta in the Senate is to speak up for the many Albertans whose lives and livelihoods are being fundamentally ignored by Ottawa,” Erika Barootes writes for the Western Standard. “The Liberal government’s so-called “Just Transition” scheme is only the most recent example. In its crosshairs are the 522,000 Canadians working in the oil and gas industry and the families that depend on them. You easily could have missed it: right before the Liberals pulled the plug and called their opportunistic election in August, they launched consultations for “just transition” legislation. That consultation has already closed, with no further opportunities for feedback to be welcomed by the government. No matter how it’s branded, the “transition” here involves putting resource workers out of work, with their livelihoods deemed a write-off. The “Just Transition” plan, a scheme to mothball a key economic driver in our country, started long before the creation of Trudeau’s buzz term with the stopping of resource projects. Whether it was the prime minister’s killing Northern Gateway by cabinet order or the regulatory strangulation of the Frontier oil sands project, amongst others, the government knows the jobs it doesn’t want Canadians supporting their families with. The glaring omission in the idealistic “just transition” are the lives of those it impacts immediately. Much like the consumer carbon tax forced on provinces by Ottawa, the considerations for ordinary people weren’t taken into account: the carbon tax didn’t stop people from driving to work, or their kids to extra-curricular activities, or paying to heat their homes — it just made it more expensive.“
Houston Chronicle: Editorial: Carbon gets the headlines. But Texas' methane emissions are root cause of climate change.
The Editorial Board, 10/6/21
“A cluster of yellow and orange squares on a newly developed digital map of the largest oil and gas field on the planet illustrates a five-alarm fire in combating climate change: dozens of wells in West Texas are constantly emitting one of the world’s most destructive greenhouse gases,” the Houston Chronicle Editorial Board writes. “The Permian Basin, an 86,000-square-mile landscape that spans West Texas and Southeastern New Mexico is Ground Zero for this pollution, as the nation’s highest methane-emitting basin. Texas’ love affair with natural gas — we lead the country in production and hold nearly one-quarter of the nation’s gas reserves — guarantees that the Lone Star State will be the most important battlefield in the fight to save our planet… “Simply put: the United States cannot halt climate change without curbing methane emissions in Texas. And so far, Texas has largely refused to do anything about it. As such, the Biden administration’s forthcoming efforts to vastly strengthen regulations on methane emissions will be pivotal in staving off climate change’s worst impacts… “If Texas wants to keep its status as the global energy capital, it must adapt to a cleaner economy. Investors, regulators and consumers are all demanding it. The industry’s methane emissions threaten to negate its progress elsewhere toward a more sustainable future.”