EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/1/21
PIPELINE NEWS
ABC News: Opponents of Line 3 pipeline say project threatens Biden’s climate legacy
E&E News: Judges probe pipeline’s impact on forests, vulnerable species
Roanoke Times: Court hears arguments in latest legal attack on Mountain Valley Pipeline
ABC News: Pipeline firm deposited millions into state fund to pay local police to 'patrol' and 'protect' controversial Line 3 project
Michigan Radio: Late assistance from Enbridge slowed response to pipeline tampering, records show
Inforum: North Dakota leaders eye trans-state natural gas pipeline with federal coronavirus aid money
KQED: Chevron Says It Failed to Detect Pipeline Corrosion That Led to Bay Fuel Spill
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: What the Supreme Court’s move means for EPA climate rules
E&E News: Biden admin to require new climate analysis before oil leasing
Politico Morning Energy: THE OIL HEARING
Ars Technica: Congress fails to pin down oil company execs on their bad-faith arguments
Gizmodo: Rep. Katie Porter Used Her Costco Haul to Embarrass Big Oil
Vox: What the oil industry still won’t tell us
STATE UPDATES
Los Angeles Times: Should California Democrats take oil and gas money? The party is torn
San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Long Beach to reduce reliance on oil revenue by 2035; faster than state goal, but some say too slow
Public News Service: Groups Call on PA Governor to Maintain Methane Promise
EXTRACTION
GlobalNews.ca: Alberta oil and gas industry, environmental groups watching COP26 climate talks
Edmonton Journal: Life in oilsands camps taking mental health toll on commuter workers, finds U of A study
Reuters: One killed, 15 injured in Pemex pipeline blast in central Mexico
CNN.com: Here to stay or gone in 30 years? Inside the fight over the future of the oil industry
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Blackburn News: Chatham fire department receives donation for training supplies
OPINION
The Hill: To lead the world on climate, Biden needs a carbon price
Wall Street Journal: Shell Is the Greenest Big Oil Company. Look What That Got It.
PIPELINE NEWS
ABC News: Opponents of Line 3 pipeline say project threatens Biden’s climate legacy
Evan Simon, Jake Lefferman, and Byron Pitts, 10/29/21
“Construction of an oil pipeline deep in America's heartland has become one of the most contentious environmental battles in the country,” ABC News reports. “...The project has been the target of multiple court battles and a years-long massive civil disobedience campaign led by indigenous women in Minnesota, resulting in nearly 900 arrests, including dozens around the U.S. Capitol earlier this month. "Seeing the expansion of Line 3 tar sands into sensitive wetlands while there is a massive drought is really jarring and it should be for any person who is worried about the climate," Tara Houska, a tribal attorney who has fought the project for years and co-founded a Line 3 opposition group, told ABC News… "Climate scientists say, 'Leave the tar sands in the ground.' Full stop," Laura Triplett, an environmental scientist with Gustavus Adolphus College who testified against Line 3 during the permitting process, told ABC. "I am appalled by the lack of action on something like this," Houska told ABC. "You can't be the climate president when you're allowing through one of the largest tar sands infrastructure projects in North America. That's his climate legacy," she said… “On the campaign trail, President Joe Biden described the Keystone XL pipeline as "tar sands that we don't need -- that in fact is very, very high pollutant." He canceled Keystone XL shortly after taking office but has so far declined to intervene against Line 3, and his Department of Justice has defended the project in court.”
E&E News: Judges probe pipeline’s impact on forests, vulnerable species
By Niina H. Farah, 11/1/21
“A federal appeals court last week urged three federal agencies to show their work on the impacts of the Mountain Valley pipeline,” E&E News reports. “During oral arguments Friday, judges for the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals questioned whether the federal government had done enough to back up its assessments of potential environmental risks from building the 304-mile natural gas project. Agencies "say the magic words, they’ve done these things," said Judge James Wynn Jr. But, he later added, "the data and analysis don’t match up." In back-to-back hearings, the court reviewed a reissued Forest Service and Bureau of Land Management approval for the Mountain Valley pipeline to cross the Jefferson National Forest, as well as the Fish and Wildlife Service assessment of the project’s impact on two fish species: the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter. In both cases, the 4th Circuit judges zeroed in on whether the agencies had fully analyzed the concerns raised by the pipeline’s environmental opponents… “Wild Virginia and other environmental groups argued that BLM and the Forest Service had repeated prior failures to address the risk of sedimentation and erosion when the agencies granted new approvals in January for the pipeline to cross 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest.”
Roanoke Times: Court hears arguments in latest legal attack on Mountain Valley Pipeline
Laurence Hammack, 10/29/21
“Environmental groups waged their latest attack Friday on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, asking a federal appeals court to again strike down key permits issued to the embattled project,” the Roanoke Times reports. “After listening to oral arguments by attorneys from both sides, a three-judge panel of the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to issue written opinions by the end of the year. At issue are two key decisions by federal agencies: One to allow the natural gas pipeline to pass through 3.5 miles of the Jefferson National Forest, and the other a finding that the massive infrastructure would not jeopardize endangered species of fish and bats in its path. Challenges from the groups, led by Appalachian Voices and Wild Virginia, already have caused delays to a project that is running nearly three years behind schedule… “One of the arguments made Friday by Sierra Club attorney Elly Benson, who represented the environmental groups, was that the Fish and Wildlife Service did not properly consider climate change in its analysis of endangered species, which include the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter. Benson noted that when Mountain Valley violated erosion and sediment control regulations hundreds of times, the company repeatedly blamed the infractions on record rainfalls since construction began in 2018. “That’s exactly the kind of impact that a climate analysis would help take into account,” she told the three appellate judges — all of whom were involved in earlier 4th Circuit rulings that went against the pipeline.”
ABC News: Pipeline firm deposited millions into state fund to pay local police to 'patrol' and 'protect' controversial Line 3 project
Evan Simon, Soo Rin Kim, Jake Lefferman, and Byron Pitts, 11/1/21
“Enbridge -- a private Canadian energy corporation -- has paid more than $2.9 million for law enforcement and public safety organization expenses related to the company's controversial Line 3 oil pipeline through a state-managed escrow account,” ABC News reports. “The majority of the Enbridge money went toward more than $2 million in law enforcement wages for services such as conducting proactive patrols along the pipeline route and "protecting the construction workers and equipment," according to the records. The account also reimbursed law enforcement hundreds of thousands of dollars for training, protective gear, transportation, hotel rooms, and meals while policing the pipeline, according to the records. "If a state is openly in a financial relationship with a private actor, through an escrow account, where they are paying the police to protect their project, that should concern all of the public," Northern Minnesota-based tribal attorney and prominent Line 3 opponent Tara Houska told ABC News… “Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund and an attorney representing pipeline opponents, told ABC News that the arrangement with Enbridge is an "extraordinary set-up where the corporation is paying limitless funds into an account shared by multiple sheriff's departments across the state." "This creates a new structure that fundamentally will distort any pretense of public policing in America and will be very dangerous to fundamental democratic principles," she told ABC. Records show that at times during the Line 3 project, law enforcement billed the escrow account specifically for officers' time related to surveillance of pipeline opposition groups. One police department had wages reimbursed for an officer maintaining "mobile surveillance on multiple believed rally participants" in March, after he followed several cars believed to be occupied by pipeline opponents.”
Michigan Radio: Late assistance from Enbridge slowed response to pipeline tampering, records show
Brett Dahlberg, 10/29/21
“When an activist got inside a valve station on Enbridge’s Line 5 oil pipeline in Tuscola County Oct. 19, 16 police, fire and ambulance units from seven different agencies were called into action -- but it took almost an hour for them to arrive at the scene,” Michigan Radio reports. “Interviews with emergency response officials and a review of emergency dispatch records indicate the delayed reaction was a result of Enbridge taking the better part of an hour to tell dispatchers where the pipeline incursion was. Now, law enforcement officials and activists say Enbridge’s slow communication has them concerned about the company’s ability to handle security threats and environmental damage along the controversial pipeline, which Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has ordered Enbridge to shut down. “There was a lack of knowledge ... as to the locations of these shutoffs and that they were, in fact, vulnerable to this kind of protest,” Ben Guile, the police chief of Vassar, which is the closest city to the compromised Line 5 valve site, told WCMU. “That had never been communicated to us by Enbridge,” he said… “Unfortunately, in times of crisis, [pipeline] operators have consistently shown that it takes much, much longer to shut down a pipeline than what they put in their spill response plans or what they promise the public,” Bill Caram, the executive director of the Pipeline Safety Trust, told WCMU.
Inforum: North Dakota leaders eye trans-state natural gas pipeline with federal coronavirus aid money
Adam Willis, 11/1/21
“As North Dakota lawmakers prepare to distribute hundreds of millions of dollars in federal coronavirus aid next week, a proposal to facilitate the construction of a trans-state natural gas pipeline has emerged as a top priority for Republican leaders,” Inforum reports. “Specifics of the project, which would roughly track Highway 2 from the Bakken oil fields to Grand Forks, are still being hashed out, but a plan to put $150 million out of the state’s federal American Rescue Plan funding into trans-state natural gas delivery has the backing of Gov. Doug Burgum and leading lawmakers in both legislative chambers. North Dakota has long struggled to find capacity for the large volumes of natural gas that come up alongside oil in the Bakken. Right now, the state lacks the infrastructure to capture, process and export all of that gas, leaving many companies in western North Dakota to burn off the excess, a wasteful practice that contributes to climate change. As Bakken wells continue to mature, North Dakota gas production is expected to climb higher and higher compared to its oil output. Historically, companies might have responded to that trend by flaring off more gas… “If North Dakota leaders can facilitate the construction of a trans-state natural gas pipeline, proponents believe it would kill two birds with one stone. They argue that boosting capacity to take gas out of western North Dakota would help ameliorate concerns of scaled-back oil production while also attracting industrial businesses in need of natural gas hookups to the eastern part of the state.”
KQED: Chevron Says It Failed to Detect Pipeline Corrosion That Led to Bay Fuel Spill
Dan Brekke, 10/27/21
“Chevron says inspections at its Richmond refinery failed to detect corrosion on a pipeline that leaked hundreds of gallons of diesel fuel into the bay last February, a disclosure that one local official says shows the oil company's overall maintenance practices are inadequate to keep the oil-processing facility and the surrounding community safe,” KQED reports. “...The document confirms previous accounts from state and local agencies that a tiny hole in a pipeline on the refinery's Long Wharf allowed about 800 gallons of diesel fuel mixed with water to spill into the surrounding waters. The spill spread for several miles along the Richmond shoreline and forced the closure of Keller Beach at the nearby Miller/Knox Regional Shoreline… “The report says a cement-lined carbon steel pipe — a line used intermittently to carry ballast water or refined fuel between tankers docked at the wharf and the refinery complex — failed due to internal corrosion. That corrosion developed over time but went undetected, the report says, because maintenance of the pipeline "did not include inspection techniques that were adequate for detecting localized corrosion in cement-lined pipe." The report noted several other deficiencies in refinery practices as well, including incomplete record-keeping for previous leak incidents. The document also comments that had the pipeline corrosion been discovered earlier, the February incident would not have been so serious.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: What the Supreme Court’s move means for EPA climate rules
By Niina H. Farah, Pamela King, 11/1/21
“The Supreme Court may be poised to put new guardrails on the Biden administration’s climate agenda after justices agreed last week to consider the extent of EPA’s authority to regulate carbon emissions,” E&E News reports. “The court sent shock waves through the legal world when it agreed Friday to consider a consolidated challenge from Republican-led states and coal companies. The challenge stemmed from a federal court ruling that struck down a Trump-era regulation gutting EPA’s climate rule for power plants. When the justices issue their ruling in the EPA case, which is expected by next summer, the decision could provide the first indication of how the court’s new 6-3 conservative majority will approach questions of the federal government’s role in curbing global climate change. “This is likely to result in one of the most significant environmental rulings the court has ever reached,” Robert Percival, director of the Environmental Law Program at the University of Maryland’s law school, told E&E. The court’s decision could place new limits on how expansively EPA can interpret its authority to use the Clean Air Act to address climate change… “A more concerning — but less likely — possibility would be if the high court used the case to more broadly undermine the regulatory authority of federal agencies. "It’s possible that what the court is seeking to review here is Section 111(d) itself," Michael Burger, executive director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, told E&E. He referred to the part of the Clean Air Act that EPA used to regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants under former presidents Obama and Trump. "If that’s the case, the broadest threat here is not just about climate change, or about EPA’s authority, but it’s about the power of the court to review congressional authorizations of agency action.”
E&E News: Biden admin to require new climate analysis before oil leasing
By Heather Richards, 10/29/21
“The Biden administration today said it will consider the contribution to greenhouse gas emissions made by oil and gas produced on public lands before selling federal drilling rights,” E&E News reports. “It also released a report calculating the annual emissions impact and climate trends from development of the coal, oil and natural gas on the federal mineral estate. The report estimates that federally developed fossil fuels in fiscal 2020 were responsible for more than 900 metric megatons of carbon dioxide equivalent emissions… “Before it advances onshore sales, the administration will issue state-level draft environmental assessments that include an analysis of the national emissions impacts from producing, and combusting, oil and gas, Interior announced today. The administration’s full climate assessment, the most rigorous consideration of climate ahead of federal lease sales to date, will be in addition to the wildlife, environmental and social impacts already considered… “The new sale environmental assessments will be published by BLM state offices for Colorado, the Eastern states, Montana and the Dakotas, Nevada, New Mexico, Utah and Wyoming. The climate assessments will rely on the national report released today. The public will have 30 days to review the proposed leases’ environmental reviews.”
Politico Morning Energy: THE OIL HEARING
Matthew Choi, 10/29/21
“The heads of the country’s biggest oil companies went before the House Oversight Committee on Thursday, where Democrats hoped for a made-for-TV confrontation over climate change akin to the 1994 big tobacco hearings,” Politico Morning Energy reports. “But the latest reconciliation draft stole much of the spotlight Thursday, and the Democrats seem to score few hits during the contentious hearing. Meanwhile, Republicans on the committee used it as a launch pad to levy attacks on Democratic climate priorities as threatening U.S. energy security. The oil executives — representing Exxon Mobil, Chevron, BP America, Shell, and the American Petroleum Institute as well as the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — touted their tilt toward cleaner energy alternatives even as the chiefs of Exxon and Chevron acknowledged they planned to increase oil output. Exxon's CEO and Chairman Darren Woods was put in the hot seat over comments by former company head Lee Raymond asserting in the 1990s that climate science wasn't settled despite memos from the company's own scientists describing the phenomena two decades earlier. “There is a clear conflict with what the Exxon CEO told the public and what Exxon scientists were warning privately for years,” Chair Carolyn Maloney said.
Ars Technica: Congress fails to pin down oil company execs on their bad-faith arguments
JOHN TIMMER, 10/29/21
“Thursday, the House Committee on Oversight and Reform held hearings on the role of oil companies in fostering our present climate crisis,” Ars Technica reports. “The companies led by these executives have a long history of playing down the risks of climate change, leading a number of House Democrats to suggest that this hearing could be the equivalent of the 1994 hearings with tobacco executives, in which the executives denied well-established scientific data on the addictiveness of nicotine. But that expectation was doomed to disappointment. Oil companies, after all, had already demonstrated that they are happy to accept the science of climate change when under oath; they just tend to spin the details of their own role in influencing public perceptions of that science. Congress was treated to a repeat performance of that sort that neatly avoided the kind of catastrophic failure in public perception that the tobacco company executives produced… “For the oil companies, the hearing was mostly an exercise in misdirection. They'd point to a few renewable energy projects they are involved in, only to have committee members point out that renewables represent just a tiny fraction of the company's total outlays. They'd hype their plans for reducing the emissions produced by their operations, which committee members noted conveniently ignored the fact that those plans ignored all the emissions that would result from the products of said operations… “So maybe it was wrong to think of the tobacco hearings as the preview for Thursday's grilling of oil executives. Instead, it's probably best to think of this meeting as a preview for the sorts of hearings we can expect to see with the natural gas industry a few decades down the line.”
Gizmodo: Rep. Katie Porter Used Her Costco Haul to Embarrass Big Oil
Brianna Provenzano, 10/29/21
“Whenever a smart, powerful woman starts using literal grains of rice to illustrate her point, you know you done goofed. Big Oil companies found that out the hard way when, during a House Oversight Committee hearing on Thursday, Rep. Katie Porter whipped out 479 pounds (212 kilograms) of uncooked rice to illustrate how many vacant acres of public land are currently being leased by fossil fuel companies,” Gizmodo reports. “...After each executive filibustered and Republicans apologized for this whole misunderstanding, Porter appeared in her garage via Zoom to illustrate the executives’ hypocrisy by way of food props. First, Porter called out Shell’s head in the U.S. Gretchen Watkins, who has in the past publicly referred to the existential threat of climate change as a “defining challenge for our generation.” “Shell’s 2020 annual report called for between $19 and $22 billion in near-term spending. I’m representing that with this container of M&Ms,” Porter said. “Each M&M represents about $50 million.” Of that whopping sum, how much of the money would go towards oil, gas, and petrochemical operations? Porter asked Watkins before dumping most of the jar out to illustrate the fact that only a scant few M&Ms remained to devote to clean energy initiatives. “To me, this does not look like an adequate response to one of the defining challenges of our time,” Porter added… “Pressing Sommers on the number of unused acres of public land fossil fuel companies are currently squatting on, Porter ignored his repeated dismissals by casually raising her key fob to open the van’s trunk, revealing a dozen or so massive bags of rice. “The answer is 13.9 million acres,” she said. “To visualize how much land that is, if each grain of rice was one acre, that would be 479 pounds of rice.”
Vox: What the oil industry still won’t tell us
By Rebecca Leber, 10/28/21
“Four executives from Big Oil — “the richest, most powerful industry in human history,” according to environmentalist Bill McKibben — testified before Congress on Thursday at a hearing meant to reveal how the oil business has undermined government action on climate change,” Vox reports. “...But the executives, testifying virtually, were evasive. “As science has evolved and developed, our understanding has evolved and developed,” said ExxonMobil CEO Darren Woods, answering a question about why his company rejected climate science throughout the 2000s, when scientists already agreed that global warming was an urgent threat. Republican lawmakers argued the hearing was a farce, a distraction from other issues, and a veiled attempt to ban oil production. Big Oil’s big secrets about its climate change activities may begin to unravel in any paperwork committee staff can get their hands on… “What secrets are oil companies still keeping from the public?... How much has the oil industry spent trying to undermine climate legislation? Who is calling the shots for the politicians and groups that deny climate change? How much current polarization on climate change can be traced back to early disinformation campaigns by the industry? What are the end goals of Big Oil’s enormous marketing push? One of the mysteries of the oil industry is the type of work it contracts out to consulting and public relations groups, which have helped Big Oil craft a benevolent public image.”
STATE UPDATES
Los Angeles Times: Should California Democrats take oil and gas money? The party is torn
SAMMY ROTH, 10/28/21
“...California Gov. Gavin Newsom will be in Glasgow, too, as will Los Angeles Mayor Eric Garcetti, Assembly Speaker Anthony Rendon and various other Golden State Democrats,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “Maybe those high-profile Californians will be able to persuade other nations to commit to more aggressive action by pointing to their own climate leadership; maybe not. But I wonder what Newsom and his colleagues will say if asked why the California Democratic Party, their home base, just passed up an opportunity to ban contributions from the fossil fuel industry. That’s right: Asked this weekend whether they should stop accepting money from oil, gas and coal companies, the executive board of the California Democratic Party voted overwhelmingly to refer the issue to a committee. It was the latest skirmish in a long-running battle over what it means to show urgency on the climate crisis, the realities of a political system dominated by campaign cash and the continued influence of the fossil fuel industry, even in California. “We are a deeply Democratic state, and the fossil fuel industry needs to lose its social license,” RL Miller told the Times. When I spoke with Miller after this weekend’s vote, she was furious. During her eight years as chair of the California Democratic Party’s environmental caucus, she helped create the No Fossil Fuel Money Pledge, which has been signed by thousands of candidates and elected officials across the country, including Biden, Vice President Kamala Harris and Sen. Dianne Feinstein.”
San Gabriel Valley Tribune: Long Beach to reduce reliance on oil revenue by 2035; faster than state goal, but some say too slow
PIERCE SINGGIH, 10/28/21
“Long Beach plans to phase out its reliance on revenue from oil by 2035, 10 years before the state wants to end all petroleum production,” the San Gabriel Valley Tribune reports. “The plan, according to a new staff report, will gradually reduce the city’s reliance on oil revenue as local fields naturally decline in production. By 2035, the city expects the oil fields to cease production and in between now and then, the city will fund the abandonment of oil fields — using oil revenue to pay for it. The challenge on the horizon: it’s expensive to abandon oil fields. It will cost at least $81 million and up to $146 million, the staff report said. The city currently has $43 million set aside to fund the abandonment of oil fields and at its current rate of setting funds aside, will have at least $81 million by 2035. If it costs $146 million, the city would need to put more funds aside or extend the life of the oil field in order to avoid an unfunded liability, the staff report added. The city may also need to pluck from other revenue sources.”
Public News Service: Groups Call on PA Governor to Maintain Methane Promise
Emily Scott, 10/29/21
“Environmental groups are taking a new approach to hold Gov. Tom Wolf's administration accountable for a pledge he made; to adopt "a nation-leading strategy" to reduce methane emissions from the state's oil and gas industry,” Public News Service reports. “Earthworks, Environmental Defense Fund, Clean Air Council, and Clean Water Action have launched WolfsMethanePromise.com, a website featuring a live counter, tracking how much methane has been emitted in Pennsylvania since Wolf took office, followed by the days until his term ends in 2023. Joseph Minott, executive director and chief counsel of the Clean Air Council, said they believe Wolf is not meeting the environmental commitment necessary to address one of the root causes of climate change… “Environmental groups say they were prompted to create the website because of methane regulation the state Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) is considering. The proposed rules include a loophole to exempt more than 67,000 low-producing gas and oil wells. Although they leak small amounts of methane, the groups say they are responsible overall for more than half of all oil and gas emissions in the state. Minott argued the potential rule is a missed opportunity for the state to be an environmental leader.”
EXTRACTION
GlobalNews.ca: Alberta oil and gas industry, environmental groups watching COP26 climate talks
Carolyn Kury de Castillo, 10/31/21
“The COP26 United Nations Climate Change Conference, which starts Sunday in Scotland, will see world leaders and government officials gather for 12 days of talks. What happens there could have implications for Alberta’s oil and gas sector,” GlobalNews.ca reports. “Alberta’s greenhouse gas emissions are the highest in the country, according to federal data. “In many ways, we are waiting for the government of Alberta to catch up with where the public, industry and other levels of government are already acting,” Simon Dyer, deputy executive director at the Pembina Institute, told GlobalNews. Dyer, who will be attending the climate summit, predicts Canada will remain unable to significantly reduce emissions without addressing oil and gas and transportation emissions. Dyer said Canada can’t succeed without progress in Alberta. “Unfortunately, Alberta seems to be isolating itself from this conversation. We haven’t even made a commitment to net-zero emissions by 2050. Alberta is sort of on the outside looking in and that’s dangerous to our industries, of course, which are going to be competing in this low carbon future,” Dyer told GlobalNews.
Edmonton Journal: Life in oilsands camps taking mental health toll on commuter workers, finds U of A study
Vincent McDermott, 10/3/21
“A study from the University of Alberta found commuter workers in the oilsands have worse mental health and more work-related stress than the general population,” the Edmonton Journal reports. “The preliminary report included 72 participants who were interviewed between late 2019 and early 2020, before the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Most lived across Alberta and Canada, and worked 10- to 12-hour shifts during rotations that lasted six to 21 days. The research team, led by sociologist Sara Dorow, found distrust was common towards employers regarding mental health treatment. Any available supports will not solve this crisis if current attitudes towards mental health continue, Dorow said in an interview. “I didn’t expect that distrust to come up as often as it did but it just kept coming up,” she told the Journal. “Mental health prevention needs to be built into safety culture. Everyone’s proud of the safety culture in the oilsands industry, but the industry has not done nearly enough around psychosocial safety.” Half of the workers with on-site health care said they were unlikely to use it. They did not believe confidential matters could be kept private, and feared the services would hurt reputations, wages or employment... “Roughly 35 per cent of participants did seek mental health services, such as counselling, medications or information. This is double the rates of the general population. Dorow describes suicide among commuters as an “open secret” in the industry. Many of these deaths are not considered workplace fatalities because they happened at home. Yet, the causes are often linked, directly or indirectly, to the stress of being a transient worker in the oilsands.”
Reuters: One killed, 15 injured in Pemex pipeline blast in central Mexico
10/31/21
“At least one person was killed and over a dozen were injured when a pipeline of state oil firm Petroleos Mexicanos (Pemex) exploded in the central Mexican state of Puebla after it was breached by suspected fuel thieves, authorities said on Sunday,” Reuters reports. “Alerted to a gas leak, the Puebla state government said it had averted a higher death toll by evacuating residents from the site in the San Pablo Xochimehuacan municipality before three explosions occurred, wrecking between 30 and 50 homes. President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador said on Twitter one person had so far died and 15 more were injured in the overnight blast, and that some 1,400 rescue workers had been mobilized. In a news conference hosted by Puebla's government, officials said that within a radius of 1 kilometer of the site, some 2,000 people were evacuated, and that the blaze was under control. Five of the injured were in a serious condition, they said.”
CNN.com: Here to stay or gone in 30 years? Inside the fight over the future of the oil industry
By Julia Horowitz, 10/30/21
“The people who made their fortunes in the oil capital of Europe need a new plan,” CNN.com reports. “For decades, Aberdeen, a port city on Scotland's northeast coast, has served as the commercial gateway to the North Sea, where powerful companies have navigated deep and dangerous waters to extract tens of billions of barrels of crude. But the basin isn't what it used to be, even with oil back above $80 per barrel. Production has been on the decline since the turn of the century. Downturns caused by twin price shocks — one in 2015 and one triggered by the Covid-19 pandemic — are harrowing reminders of what happens when a boom turns bust… “There's a growing movement in Aberdeen for the region to lead the transition from Big Oil to Big Energy, using its deep-sea expertise to construct floating wind farms alongside offshore rigs… “But it's not yet evident whether the North Sea can successfully pivot away from its oil roots and serve up a model for the rest of the world. Companies in the region are determined to keep drilling. They say that money from oil and gas is essential to fund new renewable investments, and emphasize that the United Kingdom still needs fossil fuels to heat homes and keep the lights on for years to come, pointing to anxiety around an energy crunch that's gripping Europe.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Blackburn News: Chatham fire department receives donation for training supplies
By Millar Hill, 10/31/21
“Chatham-Kent Fire and Emergency Services has received a share of a $250,000 donation from Enbridge Gas to 50 fire departments across Ontario,” Blackburn News reports. “The funds will go towards training materials to upgrade life-saving techniques through the Safe Community Project Assist, a program with the Fire Marshall’s Public Fire Safety Council. The program supplements existing training for firefighters in the communities where Enbridge operates… “At Enbridge Gas, safety is our priority,” said Enbridge Gas Director of Operations for the Southwest Region Steven Jelich “We’re proud to support Ontario firefighters who share our commitment to keeping our communities safe.”
OPINION
The Hill: To lead the world on climate, Biden needs a carbon price
Mark Reynolds is the executive director of Citizens’ Climate Lobby, a national grassroots advocacy organization working to advance climate policies in Congress, 10/29/21
“In a matter of days, President Biden will arrive in Glasgow for the UN’s COP26 climate conference,” Mark Reynolds writes for The Hill. “...The best way to show the world that America is serious about climate action is with a federal price on carbon. A carbon pollution fee is endlessly adaptable and could be designed to give part of the revenue collected from corporate polluters like oil companies to American families, while exempting everyday Americans from paying additional fees at the gas pump. This policy has sound potential climate impacts and political viability. And polling suggests that the American people agree. In June 2020, Pew Research found a bipartisan majority of Americans — 73 percent — support taxing corporations based on their carbon emissions. Modeling from Resources for the Future shows that a carbon fee alone could deliver 45 percent emissions reductions by 2030… “To put America in the strongest possible position — both at this year’s international climate conference and in our trade relationships for years to come — it’s time for Congress to come to an agreement. We need a budget reconciliation bill that will cut emissions 50 percent by 2030, and we need it to include a price on carbon pollution.”
Wall Street Journal: Shell Is the Greenest Big Oil Company. Look What That Got It.
James Mackintosh, 10/31/21
“Royal Dutch Shell PLC shows much that is wrong with environmental, social and governance investing,” James Mackintosh writes for the Wall Street Journal. “The Anglo-Dutch company was the first to target reduced carbon emissions from customers, has gone further than any of the other oil supermajors to shift its direction away from fossil fuels and is closest of any of them to meeting the Paris carbon target. It even has a better ESG score than electric-car leader Tesla or hydrogen wonder stock Plug Power. The result? Shell has been rewarded with a stubbornly low market valuation, is shunned by the increasing number of big money managers that have rejected oil investment outright and was the target of a successful lawsuit ordering it to reduce emissions.”