EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/13/23
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: Mountain Valley Pipeline sues protesters for obstructing construction
FarmWeek: Policies around CO2 pipelines return for annual meeting debate
WCBU: Peoria County Board hears CO2 pipeline objections
Patch.com: Environmental Advocates and Groups To Protest Latest Proposed Algonquin Pipeline Expansion Near Shuttered Indian Point Nuclear Plant
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Trump turns to oil barons to boost his White House bid
Houston Chronicle: Exxon, Chevron mergers face test at Biden's FTC
Utility Dive: EPA official says power plant carbon rule may need changes as groups stress reliability concerns
Canary Media: FERC decides if LNG facilities benefit the public. Is it doing its job?
STATE UPDATES
Denver Post: Uinta Basin Railway is on pause, but another Utah project stokes worries along Colorado River about more oil trains
EXTRACTION
Wall Street Journal: The Path to Green Energy Is Getting Messier
BBC: Oil giant Shell suing Greenpeace for £1.7m damages
BFM: Carbon Capture: A Smoke and Mirrors Solution?
Sydney Morning Herald: CSIRO accused of allowing BP to vet research on catastrophic oil spill
Reuters: New satellite will detect and share CO2 data from individual facilities
Washington Post: The Lego-like way to get CO2 out of the atmosphere
OPINION
The New Republic: Joe Manchin Wants One Thing, and It’s Disgusting
Sacramento Bee: Holding Big Oil accountable? Newsom has companies counting their big profits
Globe and Mail: Carbon capture moves from science fiction to reality. The next step is the tough one
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: Mountain Valley Pipeline sues protesters for obstructing construction
Clark Mindock, 11/10/23
“The developer of the Mountain Valley Pipeline has sued two protesters it says blocked construction on the $7.2 billion natural gas project, seeking compensation and orders barring them from interfering in the future,” Reuters reports. “Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sued Daniel Guidry and Ashley Stecher Wagner on Wednesday in federal court in Roanoke, Virginia, claiming they coordinated with others to illegally attach themselves to the land and construction equipment being used to build a segment of the pipeline in the Jefferson National Forest last month. The lawsuit said law enforcement ultimately removed the protesters after sawing through devices anchoring them in place, and said the removal process caused "substantial delays and expenses" for the developer… “The lawsuit noted Congress expressly ratified federal approvals for the 303-mile (488-km) pipeline running through West Virginia and Virginia earlier this year. The developer is asking for undisclosed compensatory and punitive damages, and an injunction barring Guidry and Wagner from entering the construction area, blocking access to it or helping others interfere with construction… “This past summer, the developer also sued protesters in state court for obstructing construction on remaining portions of the pipeline.”
FarmWeek: Policies around CO2 pipelines return for annual meeting debate
TIMOTHY EGGERT, 11/12/23
“County Farm Bureau delegates will again debate at Annual Meeting proposed policies related to pipelines capable of transporting for permanent storage in Illinois the carbon dioxide captured from ethanol production,” FarmWeek reports. “A pair of submittals focusing on CO2 pipelines was advanced by members of Illinois Farm Bureau’s Resolutions Committee at its Nov. 8 meeting, held at the home office in Bloomington. One submittal would support a temporary moratorium on CO2 pipeline projects until a revised set of federal regulations are promulgated, while another submittal would support a range of safety mechanisms around CO2 projects in Illinois. “It’s still a big topic of conversation, certainly throughout the state,” IFB Vice President Brian Duncan, who chairs the Resolutions Committee, told FarmWeek of CO2 pipelines and carbon capture, sequestration and utilization projects. Duncan told FarmWeek the issue “took up a majority of the discussion time” and the committee seriously weighed the safety, economic and private property rights elements surrounding it… “One submittal, a proposal by Peoria County Farm Bureau, would have nullified IFB’s existing policy on CO2 pipelines and established an opposition position to projects… “David Isermann, chair of the Natural Resources Subcommittee and president of LaSalle County Farm Bureau, said a policy fully opposing CO2 pipeline projects would put IFB at a disadvantage when negotiating future projects or legislation… “The subcommittee and the full committee also had deep discussions on how to balance members’ safety concerns, emphasis on private property rights and the future of the ethanol industry. Both ultimately decided to advance a submittal from Fulton County Farm Bureau that would support a temporary moratorium “on the approval of the construction and operation of any carbon dioxide pipeline” until the U.S. Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration promulgates revised standards for transporting CO2, which are expected in October 2024… “If passed by delegates in December, the latest version would largely serve as a backstop to the Mt. Simon Hub Pipeline and the OES Pipeline, which the ICC could approve as early as May 2024 and September 2024, respectively.”
WCBU: Peoria County Board hears CO2 pipeline objections
Tim Alexander, 11/10/23
“...The board also heard from three local activists protesting Wolf Carbon’s proposed carbon sequestration pipeline development that includes parts of Peoria County,” WCBU reports. “Joyce Blumenshine of Citizens Against Predatory Pipelines called out the board for not supporting a moratorium on CO2 pipeline developments, at least until new federal guidelines regulating pipelines are expected in 2024. “I think it’s really important at some point, with all due respect, that the county board decides whose side are you on,” said Blumenshine, who objected to potential health, environmental and safety concerns a carbon sequestration pipeline might bring to the county. Responding indirectly to Blumenshine and the other two activists during closing announcements, District 14 board member Brian Elsasser said the pipeline issue isn’t yet in the hands of the county. “It’s not like we’re going to be bringing it to a committee or anything like that,” he said. “I’m neither for nor against [the Wolf Carbon Solutions CO2 pipeline proposal], but a lot of my constituents are vehemently against it, and at least they want answers, and that’s what I want, too.”
Patch.com: Environmental Advocates and Groups To Protest Latest Proposed Algonquin Pipeline Expansion Near Shuttered Indian Point Nuclear Plant
11/13/23
“On Tuesday, activists will rally outside the shuttered Indian Point nuclear plant in Buchanan in protest of the latest proposed Algonquin Pipeline Expansion in the area,” Patch.com reports. “The protest will occur blocks from where, in 2016, three activists were arrested for blocking the last Algonquin Pipeline expansion of an added 42-inch high-pressure pipeline. In addition, two older 30-inch and 26-inch pipelines run underneath the plant. Decommissioning at Indian Point houses over 2,000 tons of irradiated fuel rods in addition to other radioactive waste. Protestors will call on Governor Hochul to stop pipeline owner Enbridge’s latest “Project Maple” proposal. “Project Maple” would significantly expand the amount of gas transmitted through the Algonquin Pipeline which runs from the Hudson Valley through Connecticut to Massachusetts. Enbridge anticipates its proposal to come on line as soon as November 2029. The proposal to expand fracked gas in the region comes despite New York’s Climate Leadership & Community Protection Act which mandates greenhouse gas emissions reductions of at least 85 percent by 2050 and the state’s nation leading ban on fossil fuels in new buildings, which will go into effect in 2026.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Trump turns to oil barons to boost his White House bid
Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow, 11/10/23
“Earlier this summer, oil billionaire Harold Hamm called for Donald Trump to drop out of the presidential race. He made contributions to the presidential campaigns of Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis and former U.N. ambassador Nikki Haley and questioned publicly whether Trump could beat President Biden in the 2024 election,” the Washington Post reports. “Then late last month, Hamm showed up at the Mar-a-Lago Club in Palm Beach, Fla., brought a $200,000 check for a pro-Trump super PAC, and attended a private meeting with Trump and an intimate fundraiser with the former president, three people familiar with the matter who spoke on the condition of anonymity to describe donations and private meetings told the Post. The reversal came as Trump and his team aggressively court donations from the oil and gas industry, one of the main beneficiaries of his time in the White House… “In recent weeks, Trump and his team have targeted donors from the oil and gas industry by holding two large events in Texas and calling some of the country’s richest executives. The campaign’s pitch has been straightforward: Trump is going to be the GOP nominee, so these donors should get on board now… “At a recent fundraiser in Texas, Trump vowed to open up more federal lands to drilling, support pipeline projects such as Keystone XL, and reinstate oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, attendees told the Post. He talked of eliminating electric vehicle mandates, dismantling environmental regulations and crushing liberal climate policies such as the Green New Deal… “In other words, he promises the oil executives what they want. “We are going to drill for so much oil,” he said at a rally on Wednesday in Florida. “We are going to drill, baby drill.”
Houston Chronicle: Exxon, Chevron mergers face test at Biden's FTC
James Osborne, 11/11/23
“In August 2021, as gasoline prices were soaring and Democrats clamored for action, Lina Khan, chair of the Federal Trade Commission, pointed the White House to a series of recent mergers between oil and gas companies,” the Houston Chronicle reports,. “In a letter to Brian Deese, President Joe Biden’s top economic adviser, Khan said leniency by regulators in previous administrations, “may have enabled increased consolidation at the national level, creating conditions ripe for price coordination and other collusive practices.” Oil and gas companies for decades had been allowed to buy and merge within one another under the principle that the global oil market is so large that it makes price manipulation by individual companies impossible. But since the Biden administration came into office almost three years ago, antitrust regulators have cast a more skeptical eye at corporate deal making, worried it places too power much in the hands of too few. Now, with Exxon Mobil and Chevron looking to acquire industry rivals Pioneer Natural Resources and Hess, the two oil giants will face the same scrutiny already brought to bear on mergers in the technology and medical technology sectors. “These mergers represent the largest upstream consolidation in two decades,” Jeffrey Oliver, a former FTC attorney who now represents companies in energy and other sectors, told the Chronicle. “There’s lots of pent up desire for antitrust enforcement, so it’s an interesting test case to see how serious these folks are about changing antitrust in this country.” “...Khan, along with Assistant Attorney General for Antitrust Jonathan Kanter, is part of a new school of attorneys that question the longstanding notion that the goal of U.S. antitrust law is to make markets run more efficiently, Douglas Ross, a law professor at the University of Washington, told the Chronicle.”
Utility Dive: EPA official says power plant carbon rule may need changes as groups stress reliability concerns
Ethan Howland, 11/10/23
“The Environmental Protection Agency may need to provide more flexibility to generators, states and others in its proposed rule to cut greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, Joseph Goffman, EPA principal deputy assistant administrator for the Office of Air and Radiation, said Thursday during a grid reliability technical conference held by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission,” Utility Dive reports. “...Two key issues that have emerged from comments on the proposal are its compliance timelines and what happens if carbon capture and hydrogen technologies aren’t available to meet them as well as the need for more details on options states could use to develop plans for meeting the proposal’s requirements, Goffman said… “EPA’s proposal is unlawful and unworkable,” Anthony Campbell, East Kentucky Power Cooperative president and CEO, said, also speaking for the National Rural Electric Cooperative Association. The proposal will be “disastrous” for reliability and is not salvageable, he said. The EPA’s compliance schedule, which begins taking effect in 2030 for some resources, is “way too short,” Campbell said. “We need more time to get to the new technology.” The proposal, when combined with other environmental regulations, will lead a significant number of coal-fired power plants to retire, partly because of its “unrealistic” deadlines, said Michelle Bloodworth, president and CEO of America’s Power, a trade group for owners of coal-fired power plants. In the near-term, the rule will have a chilling effect on investments in fossil-fueled power plants, according to Julie Fedorchak, a commissioner on the North Dakota Public Service Commission. The EPA’s assessment that carbon capture and sequestration and low-carbon hydrogen will be available for certain power plants “doesn’t reflect reality,” she said.
Canary Media: FERC decides if LNG facilities benefit the public. Is it doing its job?
Nicole Pollack, 11/7/23
“Sometime in the next few weeks, a government agency that most Americans know little about could approve a new fossil-fuel project that would have lasting consequences for the climate. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is expected to give Venture Global the green light to build Calcasieu Pass 2, one of the largest liquefied-natural-gas export facilities ever proposed in the United States, on the Louisiana coast,” Canary Media reports. “...The proposed export terminal is part of a rapid buildout of LNG export capacity in the U.S. and especially on the Gulf Coast that’s occurred over the last seven years — and has sped up dramatically since the start of 2022. Eight LNG export terminals are now operating in the U.S., and 24 more terminals and expansions have been proposed or approved, including CP2. Already, with just the facilities currently online, over 10% of U.S. natural gas is exported. Climate activists say this trend can’t continue if the world wants to limit warming to 1.5 or even 2 degrees Celsius, and if the Biden administration wants to meet its climate goals… “But FERC isn’t explicitly required to take climate impacts into consideration when deciding whether to approve an LNG terminal. Climate activists are trying to change that. Buoyed by a series of successful challenges to FERC’s environmental reviews in federal court, they hope the mounting legal pressure will persuade the commissioners to treat climate change with more urgency. For now, though, FERC is caught in a political limbo that renders such bold action unlikely.”
STATE UPDATES
Denver Post: Uinta Basin Railway is on pause, but another Utah project stokes worries along Colorado River about more oil trains
ELISE SCHMELZER, 11/12/23
“A proposed railway project that would bring a surge in the amount of oil transported along the Colorado River is on hold, but Colorado communities and lawmakers are now concerned about a different Utah project that would increase crude transports through the state,” the Denver Post reports. “The proposed expansion of a rail transport facility could result in the shipping of a billion more gallons of oil each year on trains that run along the critical water source. At the Wildcat Loadout facility in northeastern Utah, waxy crude oil extracted from the Uinta Basin is transferred from trucks to trains that carry the substance east through Colorado to be refined on the Gulf Coast. If approved by the federal Bureau of Land Management, the expansion could more than triple the amount of oil transported from the facility from 1.3 million gallons per day to 4.2 million. Communities along the rail line, environmental groups and some members of Colorado’s congressional delegation have expressed concern about the potential environmental impacts from the increase, which adds up to just over 1 billion additional gallons transported each year. They worry the Colorado River and lands around the rail line would be at risk if a train derailed and the crude oil spilled… “Concerned groups and river advocates are urging the Bureau of Land Management to produce a full environmental impact statement — a detailed process they hope would include an examination of potential threats in Colorado from the expansion — instead of a more limited environmental analysis… “BLM spokeswoman Angela Hawkins wrote in an email that the agency was gathering information about the Wildcat Loadout expansion and had not yet made a decision about which type of environmental review to conduct.
EXTRACTION
Wall Street Journal: The Path to Green Energy Is Getting Messier
Phred Dvorak, 11/12/23
“The energy transition is getting a dose of reality,” according to the Wall Street Journal. “Offshore wind projects are being scrapped, and renewable-energy companies’ share prices are tanking. In the U.S., automakers are reining in electric-vehicle plans as demand falters. Meanwhile, the oil-and-gas industry is embarking on a round of megadeals enabled by soaring profits and is pushing more forcefully the idea that fossil fuels will be around for a long time yet. Climate-warming carbon emissions are expected to climb to a record this year, some researchers say. “There will be no easy solution or quick fix to the energy transition,” James Yardley, an executive at pipeline operator TC Energy, told an audience at an energy-transition conference in Houston this past week. Energy-mix forecasts show that natural gas, oil and renewables “all play significant roles out to 2050,” he said. The shift away from oil and gas is still happening… “But Brookfield is also seeing increased amounts of money flowing into more traditional types of energy assets, such as liquefied-natural-gas facilities and natural-gas pipelines, which are included in its infrastructure business… “I think the transition to a more ESG, solar, wind et cetera world is going to take a lot longer,” said Jeffrey DiModica, president of Starwood Property Trust, during an earnings call this past week. A big chunk of the clean-energy industry’s woes are macroeconomic. Some of the worst-hit companies started big, expensive projects before pandemic supply-chain bottlenecks helped send the cost of materials such as steel soaring, and interest-rate increases made financing more expensive.”
BBC: Oil giant Shell suing Greenpeace for £1.7m damages
11/10/23
“Shell is suing Greenpeace for $2.1m (£1.7m) in damages after environmental protesters occupied a vessel transporting one of the oil company's floating platforms earlier this year,” the BBC reports. “...Shell said it was entitled to recover "the significant costs of responding to Greenpeace's dangerous actions"... “Activists campaigning against fossil fuels and oil drilling used inflatable boats to reach the Shell-contracted ship, before hoisting themselves onto it with ropes. They remained on board for 13 days until the ship reached Norway… “Greenpeace told BBC: "The claim is one of the biggest legal threats against the Greenpeace network's ability to campaign in the organisation's more than 50-year history." The group told BBC Shell offered to reduce its damage claim to $1.4m (£1.14m) if Greenpeace's activists agreed not to protest again at any of Shell's oil and gas infrastructure at sea or in port. Greenpeace told BBC it would only do so if Shell complied with a 2021 Dutch court order to cut its emissions by 45% by 2030, which Shell has appealed. Protests at sea are an established part of Greenpeace's operations.”
BFM: Carbon Capture: A Smoke and Mirrors Solution?
Juliet Jacobs, 11/6/23
“The Malaysian government launched the National Energy Transition Roadmap (NETR) this year, outlining Malaysia’s plans towards achieving a sustainable and inclusive energy system, that reduces our dependence on fossil fuels, and moves us towards a low carbon economy. However, organisations like Sahabat Alam Malaysia (SAM) have voiced concerns over some of the proposals in the roadmap, including hydrogen, and Carbon Capture, Utilisation and Storage (CCUS) technologies, which they believe require more thorough assessments and debate, before being accepted as appropriate solutions,” BFM reports. “We unpack some of these new technologies heralded as the solution to our climate woes - specifically Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) and CCUS technologies - to discuss what it means, and whether it's "a greenwash to extend the life of fossil fuel assets, or a panacea to avert catastrophic climate change consequences" with Grant Hauber, who is a Strategic Energy Finance Adviser for Asia, at the Institute for Energy Economics & Financial Analysis. Grant also shares his findings based on two long-running Norwegian carbon capture and storage projects held up as the success stories of CCS, which he believes raises a cautionary tale about the technical and financial viability of the concept in the long run.”
Sydney Morning Herald: CSIRO accused of allowing BP to vet research on catastrophic oil spill
Nick O'Malley, 11/9/23
“The CSIRO has been accused of allowing BP to vet its research regarding the catastrophic Deepwater Horizon oil spill via “ghostwriting” and “ghost management” of scientific reports used by the oil giant to defend itself against lawsuits, according to a US law firm,” the Sydney Morning Herald reports. “The Downs Law Group, which is suing BP over injuries to workers involved in the clean-up of the world’s largest oil spill in 2010, which saw over 500 million litres of oil flow from the Deepwater Horizon drilling platform into the Gulf of Mexico after an explosion, has written to the CSIRO asking for clarification over its relationship with BP. In the letter sent by the Downs Law Group to the CSIRO chief executive Dr Doug Hilton, lawyer Jason Clark writes that as part of his firm’s legal action against BP it has secured internal BP documents that “appear to demonstrate BP’s manipulation of the science” via what it calls “ghostwriting” and “ghost management” of reports. According to internal documents, the CSIRO reports were eventually published in scientific journals and were used in BP’s legal defence, but first vetted by BP’s lawyers. “Within at least one of these documents, we have identified nine studies with CSIRO employees listed as either the primary or co-authors – wherein BP’s involvement was either undisclosed or insufficiently disclosed,” Clark wrote to the CSIRO chief. “What was never disclosed was the apparent involvement of BP’s attorneys in the review and approval of these studies.
Reuters: New satellite will detect and share CO2 data from individual facilities
11/11/23
“Canadian emissions monitoring company GHGSat on Saturday launched a satellite aimed at detecting carbon dioxide emissions from individual facilities like coal plants and steel mills from space for the first time,” Reuters reports. “The satellite, named Vanguard, launched from Vandenberg Space Force Base in California, GHGSat said… “GHGSat's data is available for sale to industrial emitters who want to reduce their emissions, as well as to governments and scientists… “The information will help bolster the accuracy of government emissions inventories and scientific modeling and will improve the quality of corporate greenhouse gas reporting for investors, GHGSat said.”
Washington Post: The Lego-like way to get CO2 out of the atmosphere
Shannon Osaka, 11/13/23
“For decades, scientists have tried to figure out ways to reverse climate change by pulling carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere and storing it underground,” the Washington Post reports. “They’ve tried using trees, giant machines that suck CO2 out of the sky, complicated ocean methods that involve growing and burying huge quantities of kelp… “Now, a start-up says it has discovered a deceptively simple way to take CO2 from the atmosphere and store it for thousands of years. It involves making bricks out of smushed pieces of plants. And it could be a game changer for the growing industry working to pull carbon from the air. Graphyte, a new company incubated by Bill Gates’s investment group Breakthrough Energy Ventures, announced Monday that it has created a method for turning bits of wood chips and rice hulls into low-cost, dehydrated chunks of plant matter. Those blocks of carbon-laden plant matter — which look a bit like shoe-box sized Lego blocks — can then be buried deep underground for hundreds of years. The approach, the company claims, could store a ton of CO2 for around $100 a ton, a number long considered a milestone for affordably removing carbon dioxide from the air.”
OPINION
The New Republic: Joe Manchin Wants One Thing, and It’s Disgusting
Kate Aronoff, 11/9/23
“Use the same type of approach, when you have politicians that come and ask for support,” Joe Manchin advised a room full of fossil fuel executives last year, “that you do when you make a financial decision for yourself and your family: You want a return on investment,” Kate Aronoff writes for The New Republic. “Manchin announced today that he will not be running to keep his West Virginia Senate seat next year, but he certainly has given his donors a return on their investment. Since his first run for the Senate in 2010, he’s accepted $1.4 million worth of campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. In 2021, an ExxonMobil lobbyist bragged that he spoke to Manchin every week. He earned three times more money from his family’s fossil fuel business that year than he made as U.S. senator. Manchin spent the first half of the Biden administration shaving down the climate spending in the bill that became the Inflation Reduction Act… “At no point does Manchin seem to have been playing 12-dimensional chess. He’s a greedy, attention-seeking nihilist with a few reactionary beliefs, who can also be a little erratic. He spent months stripping anything that might pose a threat to his donors and his own business interests out of what became the IRA, got a little antsy, and then agreed to a deal once he’d secured enough sweeteners for polluters. It is better that Joe Manchin ended up voting for the Inflation Reduction Act than not, of course. But you also wouldn’t thank the man who cut off your foot for not taking the whole leg… “ What might have just been a Senate seat lost to Republicans might now become an unimaginably grating spoiler campaign that primarily benefits corporate funders… “There’s an easy life awaiting him on the other side—a visiting fellowship at the Harvard Kennedy School, perhaps, or a board seat at ExxonMobil. Maybe both. Joe Manchin isn’t particularly interesting or smart, and the world would be a better place if he had never run for office.”
Sacramento Bee: Holding Big Oil accountable? Newsom has companies counting their big profits
EDITORIAL BOARD, 11/11/23
“As the biggest oil refiners in California posted a combined $33 billion in profits over three summer months as prices spiked, Gov. Gavin Newsom says, “We’re continuing to hold them accountable with the new tools from our price-gouging law.” By all indications, the accounting by the companies has correctly identified the profits. Whether Sacramento has truly found a way to hold the companies accountable for unreasonable profits seems questionable at best,” the Sacramento Bee Editorial Board writes. “As the oil companies were busy tabulating their profits, CalMatters was calculating the biggest spenders on lobbyists so far this year to influence the governor and the California Legislature. It was the oil industry, yet again. It appears to be money very well spent. The same held true last year. According to The Bee’s Ari Plachta, the oil companies spent $34 million on lobbying in Sacramento while making $72.5 billion in annual profits. What an extraordinary return on investment. The industry spends five-one-hundredths of 1% of its profits on lobbying in Sacramento. This paltry percentage makes it the largest lobbying machine in town. And the oil industry easily escapes an attempt earlier this year by Newsom to place an immediate cap on large profits. These publicly traded companies, like any, are accountable to their shareholders. And they appear to be doing an admirable job of who they are truly accountable to. The governor’s political posture, a clever one, is that he is mad as hell and taking it to the industry… “California’s plan to convert new cars to an all-electric fleet by 2035 is a big step. In the meantime, as the governor travels about the state, he is escorted by a gas-guzzling fleet of California Highway Patrol vehicles, doing his part to keep demand high. Big Oil will forever win until the need for the product gets small.”
Globe and Mail: Carbon capture moves from science fiction to reality. The next step is the tough one
THE EDITORIAL BOARD, 11/13/23
“Capturing carbon dioxide from smokestacks, to prevent the greenhouse gas from heating the atmosphere, once seemed like science fiction. Today, it is edging toward widespread use. To some environmentalists, the technology is a distraction, perpetuating reliance on fossil fuels. To the International Energy Agency, whose net-zero road map sees global oil production down 75 per cent by 2050, carbon capture is an important tool in a mix of technologies led by renewable power,” the Globe and Mail Editorial Board writes. “To Canada, carbon capture is a pragmatic necessity to reduce this country’s elevated emissions… “Yet the problems of the past, cost and feasibility, remain the problems of the present. Carbon capture has never lived up to the many years of hype. Annual global capacity is about 45 megatonnes, a figure that has barely risen in several years. While the IEA says capacity needs rise 25-fold by 2030 to get on pace with net zero by 2050, the technology so far has been a “great disappointment.” Canada has little choice but to try. This country’s No. 1 export is oil. In September, it was one-sixth of all exports. And in a country with falling productivity, the oil business is an economic shining star. Building up carbon capture could also be an economic opportunity, to become a leader in deploying the technology… “The oil sands companies, with their many billions of dollars in recent profits and dividends to shareholders, want governments to pay for the majority of a planned $16-billion carbon capture project. Some public money makes sense – the oil sands boom was in part propelled by federal and provincial tax breaks in the 1990s – but a better balance should be struck… “All of this underscores the real way to reduce emissions from oil: rapidly reduce its use in transportation. But as the International Energy Agency notes, some oil and natural gas will be part of the net-zero mix in the second half of this century, and figuring out how to lower emissions in the production process is needed. That’s especially true for Canada, where the fossil fuel industry is the biggest emitter, at almost 30 per cent of the total. The focus at COP28 has to be about getting off fossil fuels and building up clean power. But there’s a place to talk about carbon capture. Canada should be a leader on all fronts.”