EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/14/23
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: US drive to make green jet fuel with ethanol stalled by CO2 pipeline foes
South Dakota Searchlight: Critics allege CO2 pipelines ‘farm the government’ for climate money while helping oil industry
Chicago Tribune: Staffer recommends Illinois regulators deny approval for Wolf CO2 pipeline, one of 2 under consideration by state
WQAD: Residents in Henry, Stark counties raising safety concerns over proposed CO2 pipeline
Sioux City Journal: Summit Carbon Solutions gives update on pipeline plans to Dakota County
Sierra Club: A New Hope for Shutting Down the Dakota Access Pipeline
Reuters: US needs more pipeline capacity for reliable gas supply -trade group
Greenfield Recorder: Oral history project revisits Kinder Morgan pipeline opposition
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Common Dreams: Climate Groups Plan To Appeal As Judge Upholds Biden Approval Of Willow Drilling Project
E&E News: Alaska Tribes To Haaland: Nix Trump-Era Orders Opening 28M Acres
E&E News: A Whale Of A Campaign Issue: The GOP Loves, Hates Sea Mammals
E&E News: The whale making waves in the Gulf of Mexico drilling fight
E&E News: BLM Plan Focuses On Protecting Gunnison Sage Grouse Habitat
STATE UPDATES
Athens Messenger: State Agency Will Meet Nov. 15 To Decide On Fracking Permits In State Parks And Wildlife Areas
Energy News Network: Advocates press Wisconsin regulators to reconsider natural gas plant need
InsideClimate News: Oil or Water? Midland Says Disposal Wells Could Threaten Water Supply
Cowboy State Daily: Judge Blocks Effort To Stop 5,000 Converse County Oil Wells
Food & Water Watch: NY Fracking Ban Under Attack: Texas Corporation Proposes Carbon Capture Drilling Scam
EXTRACTION
Washington Post: The world is ‘woefully off track’ on dozens of climate goals, scientists find
Oil & Gas Journal: EIA: North American LNG Export Capacity Could More than Double by 2027
Upstream: ‘It hasn’t been easy’: Suncor slashes 1500 jobs in oil sands cost-cutting drive
S&P Global Platts: Infographic: Direct air capture vs carbon capture and storage
OPINION
The Detroit News: Great Lakes Tunnel will make Line 5 pipeline safer
Bismarck Tribune: Installing a sleeve could solve Dakota Access Pipeline 'problem'
Globe and Mail: Alberta’s new ‘Tell the Feds’ ads are a naked ploy to unyieldingly serve Big Oil
The Hill: SLAPP-ing down free speech: The law shouldn’t be used as a corporate weapon
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: US drive to make green jet fuel with ethanol stalled by CO2 pipeline foes
Leah Douglas and Laura Sanicola, 11/14/23
“The U.S. drive to develop sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) using ethanol could be slowed because of growing opposition to proposed pipelines that would curb greenhouse gas emissions from ethanol plants by capturing carbon dioxide and carrying it away to other states for storage,” Reuters reports. “Ethanol industry players tell Reuters the developments raise questions about future growth for U.S. producers of the biofuel, including POET, Valero (VLO.N) and others, who have been banking on proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) pipeline projects across the heartland… “The proposed pipeline projects would siphon millions of tons of CO2 off Midwest ethanol processing plants and move the gas to other states for underground injection. Some residents along the pipeline routes worry the pipelines could spring deadly leaks or that their land will be seized to build the projects. Last month, Omaha-based Navigator CO2 Ventures canceled its proposed pipeline. Two others underway from Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions and Denver-based Wolf Carbon Solutions face permitting setbacks and public resistance. "Without carbon capture and storage, conventional ethanol does not have a pathway into SAF under today's policies," Homer Bhullar, vice president at biofuel producer Valero Energy, which was an investor in Navigator, said on the company’s Oct. 26 quarterly earnings call, according to Reuters… "Mark my words: the next 20 years, farmers are going to be providing 95% of all the sustainable airline fuel," he said in July at a Maine rally… “Failure of these projects would be a huge detriment to the industry's climate goals, Nikita Pavlenko, fuels team lead at the International Council on Clean Transportation, told Reuters. "It would take the most effective tool in their arsenal to reduce their emissions off the table," Pavlenko told Reuters.
South Dakota Searchlight: Critics allege CO2 pipelines ‘farm the government’ for climate money while helping oil industry
JOSHUA HAIAR, 11/10/23
“Plans to capture carbon dioxide emitted by ethanol plants, ship it via pipelines and store it underground are viewed by some as a way to fight climate change,” South Dakota Searchlight reports. “...But critics say the process known as carbon capture and sequestration could also aid oil production… “Silvia Secchi, an environmental impacts researcher and professor at the University of Iowa, told Searchlight oil extraction runs contrary to the goals of carbon sequestration, and to the goals of federal tax credits for sequestration projects. Those credits — up to $85 per metric ton of annual sequestered carbon — are supposed to motivate companies to help mitigate climate change. “These people farm the government,” Secchi told Searchlight. “They don’t care about climate change.” That’s a belief shared by the lawyer representing over 1,000 landowners in four states who are opposed to carbon pipeline projects using eminent domain – the power to access private property for public use, provided the owner is given just compensation. “Their climate change mask is being removed,” the Omaha-based lawyer, Brian Jorde, told Searchlight. “Do you honestly believe the majority of that CO2 will not be used for enhanced oil recovery? This is all the biggest joke on the taxpayer.” “...However, Summit says its project will not be used for enhanced oil recovery… “Yet project maps show the sequestration area is near the oilfields of western North Dakota… “During a September permit hearing in Iowa, Jimmy Powell, Summit’s chief operations officer, left open the possibility that CO2 transported in the pipeline to North Dakota could be used to extract oil in the future… “Silvia Secchi told Searchlight biofuels producers once branded themselves as “a bridge to electric vehicles,” but behind the scenes, the industry has been lobbying to ensure a future for liquid fuels, “making that bridge as long as possible.” “...During Summit’s September permit hearing, Zenor told South Dakota Searchlight the pipeline project is less about climate change and more about supporting the ethanol industry – a view that was echoed by Summit’s Jimmy Powell during the Iowa hearing.”
Chicago Tribune: Staffer recommends Illinois regulators deny approval for Wolf CO2 pipeline, one of 2 under consideration by state
Nara Schoenberg, 11/14/23
“A controversial 260-mile carbon dioxide pipeline, proposed for Illinois and Iowa, has experienced a setback in its bid for state approval,” the Chicago Tribune reports. “A staff member at the Illinois Commerce Commission has recommended against allowing the pipeline to be built, citing multiple concerns, including safety and uncertainty about who would supply the carbon dioxide and where the carbon dioxide would be stored. The staff member, gas engineer Brett Seagle, also said that the pipeline, a project of Denver-based Wolf Carbon Solutions U.S., should not be approved until new federal safety regulations are completed. “The lives and safety of Illinois citizens must come before business concerns,” Seagle said in Oct. 24 testimony filed with the Illinois Commerce Commission… “Seagle laid out a series of serious challenges for Wolf, according to Pam Richart, co-director of the Champaign-based environmental group Eco-Justice Collaborative and lead organizer of the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. And the clock is ticking for the pipeline company, which has about four months left to make its case. “How the heck are they going to do this?” Richart told the Tribune. “It’s like pulling a rabbit out of a hat.” “...Among the challenges the Wolf project faces in Illinois: It appears that the company hasn’t obtained any of the agreements with landowners it needs in order to run its pipeline through their property, according to Seagle’s testimony… “Richart told the Tribune that at this point, she wouldn’t be surprised if Wolf withdrew its pipeline proposal. “They have so much to do and so little time,” she told the Tribune.
WQAD: Residents in Henry, Stark counties raising safety concerns over proposed CO2 pipeline
Joe McCoy, 11/13/23
“...Before Wolf Carbon Solutions is scheduled to go before the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) early next year, residents in Henry and Stark counties are sounding the alarm,” WQAD reports. "If we don't fight it now, it's gonna get worse," Henry County landowner and farmer Jim Huffman told WQAD. "I live a half-mile on the east side of the proposed route...This half-mile is not going to be out of the plume area. So if there is a rupture, our family, our neighbors, they're going to be involved with it." Residents have two concerns over the CO2 pipeline: safety issues and eminent domain… “While safety is the main concern, residents are also concerned over the fact that Wolf Carbon Solutions wants to use eminent domain to acquire the farmland the pipeline would sit under. "If it was building a new interstate or whatever, and we needed another cloverleaf, that would be eminent domain," Huffman told WQAD. "But this is going to a private company." “...The ICC has until May to decide if they will grant a permit to Wolf to begin work. News 8 reached out to Wolf for comment but has not heard back.”
Sioux City Journal: Summit Carbon Solutions gives update on pipeline plans to Dakota County
Earl Horlyk, 11/13/23
“Brent Niese, project manager for the Ames, Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions, gave an update to the Dakota County Board of Supervisors Monday on its proposal for a carbon capture pipeline in Nebraska,” the Sioux City Journal reports. “...Last week, the Sioux City Council approved a resolution opposing the construction of CO2 pipelines in or near the city… “Niese said he was hoping to meet with Dakota County Attorney Kim Watson, but she was out of her office. His visit to Dakota County comes on the heels of the cancellation of Navigator CO2 Ventures' pipeline proposal in October; the company said the cancellation was due to the "unpredictable nature of the regulatory and government processes involved, particularly in South Dakota and Iowa." Niese said he will likely have another update on Summit Carbon Pipeline in January 2024.”
Sierra Club: A New Hope for Shutting Down the Dakota Access Pipeline
Juliet Grable, 11/14/23
“Reckless development proposals such as mines, mega-dams, and oil pipelines have a way of coming back from the dead. The controversial Keystone XL pipeline is a recent and classic example: a zombie project that just wouldn’t die. Now, in North Dakota, environmental groups and Native American tribes are seizing on a rare opportunity to shut down a fossil fuel project that’s already up and running—the fiercely fought Dakota Access Pipeline,” according to the Sierra Club. “Earlier this month, tribal members and environmentalists gathered in Bismarck, North Dakota, to give public testimony on the draft environmental impact statement for a critical section of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Before the hearing, activists who had traveled by bus from the Twin Cities rallied on the sidewalk with members of the Cheyenne River and Standing Rock Sioux Tribes, which for years have led opposition to the oil pipeline. “They are illegally operating on my land. I want it to stop for the children,” said Morgan Brings Plenty, digital organizing fellow at the Indigenous Environmental Network and member of the Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe… “Last September, the US Army Corps of Engineers issued the long-awaited draft EIS for the Lake Oahe segment. It evaluates five alternatives: removing the pipeline; abandoning it; granting the easement as-is; granting the easement with additional conditions; or constructing a new segment north of Bismarck. The agency has not yet weighed in on which alternative it prefers… “Tribal and environmental groups, including Sierra Club, are not just calling for revisions to what they view as a flawed document. They are asking for a complete rejection of the pipeline, arguing that its potential for disastrous spills and contributions to climate change are unacceptable.”
Reuters: US needs more pipeline capacity for reliable gas supply -trade group
11/13/23
“The U.S. needs more natural gas pipeline capacity to maintain reliable gas supply during extreme cold weather, a trade group representing pipeline companies said on Monday in support of regulators who last week urged sought new rules to prevent a repetition of last winter's power outages,” Reuters reports. “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) urged lawmakers to fill a regulatory blind spot to maintain reliable supply of natural gas that was highlighted by an inquiry into power outages during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022… “Speaking for operators of around 200,000 miles (322,000 km) of pipelines, the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America (INGAA) said the regulators' report confirmed that its members "used all possible flexibility and storage withdrawals to deliver as much natural gas through the system as possible."
Greenfield Recorder: Oral history project revisits Kinder Morgan pipeline opposition
MARY BYRNE, 11/13/23
“Residents from Northfield and surrounding communities packed the Community Bible Church Sunday night for what felt like a second hurrah seven years after the defeat of the Kinder Morgan NED Pipeline,” the Greenfield Recorder reports. “It’s wonderful to see so many familiar faces,” resident and activist Cate Woolner told the Recorder. “It feels like a class reunion.” Woolner and others gathered at the church for a production of “The People vs. The Pipeline,” an oral history of the events that transpired between 2014 and 2016 with respect to the Kinder Morgan pipeline. The 400-mile-long, 30-inch-diameter natural gas pipeline was expected to run through eight Franklin County towns as it carried a projected 1.2 billion cubic feet of gas from Wright, New York, to Dracut each day. The proposed project ultimately failed in 2016 largely due to public opposition. Woolner told the Recorder the oral history project began with resident Steve Stoia’s desire to weave the events of those two years into the Northfield 350th celebration. The project was funded in part by individual donations, along with the Grassroots New England Fund. Stories from those years were collected by Carrie and Michael Kline, who also opened the evening with an original song, titled “Dominion Pipeline Blues.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Common Dreams: Climate Groups Plan To Appeal As Judge Upholds Biden Approval Of Willow Drilling Project
Jake Johnson, 11/10/23
“A federal judge in Anchorage ruled Thursday that ConocoPhillips’ $8 billion oil drilling project on Alaska’s North Slope can proceed, rejecting a pair of lawsuits arguing that the Biden administration failed to adequately consider the initiative’s impact on the climate, local communities, and wildlife before approving it earlier this year,” Common Dreams reports. “Willow is the largest proposed oil and gas drilling project on public lands in U.S. history, and it comes at a time when scientists are warning that any new fossil fuel extraction is incompatible with preventing catastrophic planetary warming. But despite warnings about Willow’s potentially devastating impact, U.S. District Court Judge Sharon Gleason—an Obama appointee—deemed the Biden administration’s environmental assessments of the project sufficient and in line with federal law. The ruling was handed down a day after a U.N.-backed report cautioned that fossil fuel expansion plans by the world’s top producers are ‘throwing humanity’s future into question.’”
E&E News: Alaska Tribes To Haaland: Nix Trump-Era Orders Opening 28M Acres
Scott Streater, 11/9/23
“Dozens of Alaska Native leaders have asked Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to reject a Trump-era proposal that would open 28 million acres of federal lands in the state to energy development and mining,” E&E News reports. “At issue is a series of public land orders signed by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in the closing weeks of the Trump administration that would lift restrictions on the use of the lands that have been in place for decades. The Bureau of Land Management is currently conducting an environmental impact statement evaluating the five public land orders, which were placed on hold by the Biden administration in 2021 to analyze what the Interior Department has labeled legal ‘deficiencies’ contained in them. The coalition of Alaska Native leaders last month sent several letters to Haaland — the first Native American to serve as secretary of the Interior — asking her to reject the Bernhardt orders and not to reopen the lands to development, noting that they contain productive hunting and fishing grounds critical to their subsistence way of life.”
E&E News: A Whale Of A Campaign Issue: The GOP Loves, Hates Sea Mammals
Timothy Cama, Scott Waldman, 11/9/23
“Republicans and conservative groups are making a big deal about whales as the 2024 campaign season ramps up,” E&E News reports. “Viewers of Wednesday’s GOP presidential debate on NBC saw commercials blaming high gasoline prices on President Joe Biden and his “E-ZPass lane for whales in the Gulf, making it harder to produce energy here at home.” Another even more incendiary version of the ad, now posted online, has one of the actors say, “Biden’s a whale f-cker,” though it partly bleeps out the curse word. The actor then calls Biden a “whale hugger.” The ad was produced by a group called Building America’s Future, which offers few details about its operation online. Requests for comment were not immediately returned. The confusing ads don’t explain what an “E-ZPass lane for whales” is, but the group’s website links it to the Biden administration’s proposed protection for the endangered Rice’s whale in the Gulf of Mexico. When it comes to another whale hundreds of miles away, the GOP is taking a decidedly different tone in accusing the offshore wind industry of hurting the animals.”
E&E News: The whale making waves in the Gulf of Mexico drilling fight
Rob Hotakainen, 11/13/23
“Hauling a rotting whale across state lines, John Ososky recalled wanting to move quickly in his Chevy Silverado, looking for gas stations that had the fewest customers,” E&E News reports. “...Ososky’s work to preserve the animal after it beached in 2019 in the Florida Everglades helped lead to a big discovery in January 2021: a new species called the Rice’s whale, named in honor of a late marine biologist. Scientists believe just 51 of the whales currently live in the Gulf of Mexico, making the newly named species one of the most endangered in the world. The discovery didn’t cause the media splash that Ososky expected, but the whale is now at the center of a growing political maelstrom. Much of the increased attention is due to NOAA’s plan to set aside more than 28,000 square miles of the Gulf of Mexico as critical habitat for the whale, a proposal that has ignited widespread opposition from the powerful oil and gas industry and its allies in Congress… “The whale and its habitat are already at the center of a court battle about the Biden administration’s next oil lease sale in the Gulf, with the federal government delaying a sale until the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals weighs in… “Republicans and conservative groups are also making the Rice’s whale an issue in the 2024 campaign. Last week’s GOP presidential debate included advertisements blaming President Joe Biden for high gas prices by giving an “E-ZPass lane for whales in the Gulf, making it harder to produce energy here at home.” Supporters of the habitat area say it’s important for NOAA to finalize the plan as soon as possible, arguing that it’s desperately needed to protect an imperiled species that is the only year-round baleen whale in the Gulf of Mexico. When the committee voted to pass the bill last Wednesday, Rep. Jared Huffman (D-Calif.), the ranking member of the House Natural Resources Subcommittee on Water, Wildlife and Fisheries, said Republicans were more interested in advancing the profits of energy companies than in helping preserve a species that could soon disappear. “Folks, if you haven’t figured it out yet, Big Oil is not objective on these things,” he said. “When it comes to the fate of a critically endangered whale that is inconvenient for their ‘drill, baby, drill’ agenda, they’re not even credible.”
E&E News: BLM Plan Focuses On Protecting Gunnison Sage Grouse Habitat
Scott Streater, 11/9/23
“The Bureau of Land Management proposed Thursday to add land-use restrictions to potentially hundreds of thousands of acres of bureau lands in Colorado and Utah in an effort to recover the federally protected Gunnison sage grouse,” E&E News reports. “BLM published a draft environmental impact statement analyzing amendments to nearly a dozen resource management plans in both states that seek to stem a near-decade-long ‘rangewide downward population trend’ of Gunnison grouse. That population loss has been driven by drought, habitat loss and wildfires, among other things. The ‘preferred alternative’ in the draft EIS, which BLM began working on last year, focuses on conserving “resource values while sustaining and enhancing ecological integrity across the decision area,” which covers 2.1 million acres of BLM lands. The proposed plan would establish 1-mile buffers around Gunnison grouse habitat and, potentially, “linkage-connectivity areas” for the bird — the genetically unique, smaller cousin of the greater sage grouse.”
STATE UPDATES
Athens Messenger: State Agency Will Meet Nov. 15 To Decide On Fracking Permits In State Parks And Wildlife Areas
11/9/23
“A meeting for the Ohio Oil and Gas Land Management Commission (OGLMC) to decide to permit or deny fracking four Ohio state parks and wildlife areas will be held Wednesday at the Ohio Department of Natural Resources (ODNR) office, 2045 Morse Road, Columbus,” the Athens Messenger reports. “Save Ohio Parks will host a press conference outside the ODNR building on a grassy area at 9:30 a.m., just before the 10:30 a.m. meeting. The public is invited. “The OGLMC has had almost a year to educate itself on the human health effects, environmental impacts and climate concerns that would likely affect citizens, Ohio state parks and the world should these fracking leases be granted,” said Randi Pokladnik, steering committee member of Save Ohio Parks. “We and other environmental groups and citizens have inundated the commission with thousands of emails, citing research, peer-reviewed health studies and climate data associated with fracking. Now it’s up to them to do the right thing for Ohioans by denying leases to frack under our state parks and public lands.”
Energy News Network: Advocates press Wisconsin regulators to reconsider natural gas plant need
Kari Lydersen, 11/13/23
“When Jenny Van Sickle was elected to the Superior, Wisconsin, City Council in 2017, she joked that the first two calls she got were from her mother and representatives of the Nemadji Trail Energy Center, a proposed 625-megawatt combined-cycle gas-fired power plant planned for a site on the Nemadji River adjacent to her neighborhood, East End,” Energy News Network reports. “...Heavy industry was nothing new in the port town; an Enbridge Energy oil terminal is also located in the neighborhood. In 2019, the council unanimously passed a resolution supporting the project. But the more Van Sickle learned, the more she had doubts about the plant. She began asking more questions and felt like she was getting “misinformation and disinformation” from its developers — Dairyland Power Cooperative and Minnesota Power. She was especially concerned to learn that the proposal included the possibility of burning heavily polluting diesel if natural gas wasn’t available. “When you finally build up the courage to talk about it, it’s like a dam breaking,” she recounted, and other residents also began to share their fears. Now, Van Sickle devotes much of her life to opposing the $700 million power plant, which received crucial approval from the state Public Service Commission in January 2020 and is scheduled to go online by 2027 — if it receives permits still needed from agencies including the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources and U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. Construction could reportedly start next year. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club and Clean Wisconsin are demanding the Public Service Commission reconsider and reopen the process around the crucial certificate of public convenience and necessity that was issued in January 2020.”
InsideClimate News: Oil or Water? Midland Says Disposal Wells Could Threaten Water Supply
Martha Pskowski, 11/12/23
“...Midland isn’t contesting permits to drill for oil. The city is challenging applications by Pilot Water Solutions to inject oil and gas wastewater deep underground adjacent to the T-Bar Ranch, where Midland gets about 30 percent of its drinking water,” InsideClimate News reports. “City leaders worry that Pilot’s disposal wells could jeopardize their long-term water supply. The Railroad Commission of Texas, which regulates oil and gas drilling and disposal wells, agreed in June to give Midland standing to challenge the permits. The case will go before a Railroad Commission administrative judge in January 2024. The dispute highlights two rising challenges in West Texas: where to dispose of billions of barrels of toxic oil and gas wastewater and how to get enough freshwater to keep the taps flowing. Midland Mayor Lori Blong, herself the co-owner of the oil and gas company Octane Energy, traveled to Austin in June to appeal to the Railroad Commission in an open meeting. “Midland has an independent and friendly relationship with the oil and gas industry,” Blong told the commissioners, adding disposal wells are “essential” to that industry. “However, I also understand that all SWD [saltwater disposal] well construction procedures and applications are not created equal, and across Texas, they must demonstrate that groundwater is protected,” Blong said… “An increase in earthquakes in the Permian Basin that seismologists linked to disposal wells lead the Railroad Commission to introduce new regulations beginning in 2021 that restricted deep injection in favor of shallow injection and limit wells in certain high-seismicity zones, called seismic response areas. The T-Bar Ranch area is outside the seismic response areas, but adjacent to freshwater supplies… “Injection seems to be the baseline for taking most of the water produced in the Permian Basin region, and it doesn’t seem that that will change in the very near term,” Smye told ICN. “So this is a challenge that we see potentially increasing over time and not going away.” And as long as the oil and gas industry has more produced water and fewer options of where to inject it, conflicts like the one between Midland and Pilot Water are likely to arise.”
Cowboy State Daily: Judge Blocks Effort To Stop 5,000 Converse County Oil Wells
Leo Wolfson, 11/10/23
“Gov. Mark Gordon and state Sen. Brian Boner, R-Douglas, are celebrating a federal judge’s decision to block a lawsuit that sought to block 5,000 new oil wells in Converse County in the southern Powder River Basin,” the Cowboy State Daily reports. “U.S. District Court Judge Tanya S. Chutkan has denied a request for a preliminary injunction to stop the Converse County Oil and Gas Project and dismissed five of six claims brought by a pair of environmental watchdog groups. Chutkan ruled that the plaintiffs did not demonstrate a likelihood of success on the merits of any of their claims. The lawsuit was filed in September 2022 by the Powder River Basin Resource Council and Western Watersheds Project to stop the federally approved oil drilling and any future drilling on the project, claiming that the U.S. Department of the Interior and BLM failed to follow lawful procedures meant to prevent or mitigate environmental harm such as impacts to air quality and wildlife… “Although the lawsuit was filed against the federal government, the state of Wyoming, Petroleum Association of Wyoming, Anschutz Exploration Corp. and others intervened in the case.”
Food & Water Watch: NY Fracking Ban Under Attack: Texas Corporation Proposes Carbon Capture Drilling Scam
11/13/23
“According to media reports, a newly formed Texas corporation intends to drill thousands of new gas wells in the Southern Tier, by injecting carbon dioxide into fracking wells to escape regulation under New York’s nation-leading ban on fracking,” Food & Water Watch reports. “Food & Water Watch research has found that direct air carbon capture is resource and energy intensive, prohibitively expensive, and a risk to human health. Using that carbon dioxide to extract methane, a potent greenhouse gas would further exacerbate these concerns. Food & Water Watch Northeast Region Director Alex Beauchamp issued the following statement: “After almost ten years of relief from the destructive fracking industry, fossil fuel profiteers have once again come knocking in New York. Southern Tier Corporations’ proposal to drill thousands of new gas wells is explicitly against the intention of New York’s nation-leading fracking ban. What’s more, the corporation’s proposal to use proven-to-fail carbon capture technology to skirt state regulation is absurd and dangerous for our climate and communities.”
EXTRACTION
Washington Post: The world is ‘woefully off track’ on dozens of climate goals, scientists find
Chico Harlan, 11/14/23
“Among the many dramatic ways society must transform to limit the worst effects of climate change, the world is only moving fast enough on one of them — the uptake of electric vehicles, according to a new report from seven climate organizations looking at 42 indicators of climate progress,” the Washington Post reports. “On the other 41 points of transformation, change is either too slow, too hard to measure, or going in the wrong direction. For example…Government financing for fossil fuels has risen for the first time since 2018… “We are woefully off track,” Kelly Levin, the chief of science, data and systems change at the Bezos Earth Fund, one of the groups involved in the research, told the Post… “The share of coal, the most emissions-intensive fossil fuel, has been drifting slowly downward for the last decade. But the phase-down would need to accelerate sevenfold to meet the 2030 target. Swift and massive changes would also be needed elsewhere, including in the use of unabated gas, despite the fact that countries have been using gas as a bridge while more renewables come online. Finance for low-carbon solutions and other climate projects is growing — just nowhere fast enough, the report said.”
Oil & Gas Journal: EIA: North American LNG Export Capacity Could More than Double by 2027
11/13/23
“The US Energy Information Administration (EIA) expects North America’s LNG export capacity to increase to 24.3 bcfd by end-2027 from its current 11.4 bcfd,” Oil & Gas Journal reports. “Growth will be driven by commencement of LNG export terminals in Mexico and Canada and expansion of existing capacity in the US. By end-2027, EIA estimates LNG export capacity will grow by 1.1 bcfd in Mexico, 2.1 bcfd in Canada, and 9.7 bcfd in the US from a total of 10 new projects across the three countries. At present, developers are in the process of building three projects with a collective LNG export capacity of 1.1 bcfd in Mexico. These projects include Fast LNG Altamira offshore and onshore and Fast LNG Lakach, both on Mexico's east coast, and Sempra Energy's Energia Costa Azul on Mexico's west coast… “Developers have put forth plans for additional LNG export projects for Mexico's west coast, including Saguaro Energia LNG, Salina Cruz FLNG, and Vista Pacifico LNG, collectively boasting an export capacity of over 2.7 bcfd… “Two LNG export projects with a combined capacity of 2.1 bcfd are under construction in British Columbia on Canada’s west coast… “Five LNG export projects are currently under construction in the US with a combined 9.7 bcfd of LNG export capacity—Golden Pass, Plaquemines, Corpus Christi Stage III, Rio Grande, and Port Arthur. Developers expect LNG exports from Golden Pass LNG and Plaquemines LNG to start in 2024.”
Upstream: ‘It hasn’t been easy’: Suncor slashes 1500 jobs in oil sands cost-cutting drive
Iain Esau, 11/13/23
“Calgary-based Suncor Energy has slashed its workforce — both employees and contractors — by 1500 people as part of a “difficult” process put in place by recently appointed chief executive Rich Kruger,” Upstream reports. “Suncor currently produces about 690,000 barrels per day of oil of varying grades in Canada, with the bulk of its big producing assets located in northern Alberta’s huge oil sands play, and about 50,000 bpd coming from its assets offshore Newfoundland.”
S&P Global Platts: Infographic: Direct air capture vs carbon capture and storage
Paola Perez Pena, 11/13/23
“Direct Air Capture (DAC) often gets confused with a similar technology known as carbon capture, utilization, and storage (CCS). Although they both capture CO₂ and store it, there is a key difference between them. The following infographic has the answer,” S&P Global Platts reports.
OPINION
The Detroit News: Great Lakes Tunnel will make Line 5 pipeline safer
Geno Alessandrini is business manager of Michigan Laborers. James Holcomb is president and CEO of the Michigan Chamber of Commerce, 11/13/23
“The Line 5 pipeline isn’t a complicated issue,” Geno Alessandrini and James Holcomb write for The Detroit News. “For more than 60 years it has safely moved 540,000 barrels of fuel across the region every day, supplying the energy we use to keep our lights on and homes warm in the winter. Line 5 shouldn’t be a partisan issue. Neither should building the Great Lakes Tunnel, which would move a portion of Line 5 out of the Straits of Mackinac and in a concrete tunnel below the lakebed… “We are working to encourage permitting agencies like the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers to stop the delays and grant Enbridge the permits they need to break ground and finally begin construction on the tunnel that will protect the environment, our energy independence and family budgets, once finished. Most Michiganians support the tunnel's construction because they know it just makes sense… “Experts have studied the proposal and came to the conclusion that building the tunnel deep below the lakebed would make the risk of a spill in the Great Lakes virtually zero, according to Enbridge… “Still, there are critics and extremists who demand the elimination of all fossil fuel usage immediately. That position is unrealistic and would have devastating impacts on our economy… “It’s rare to find a project that creates the kind of bipartisan support that exists around Line 5. Protect the Great Lakes. Protect Michigan jobs. Build the Great Lakes Tunnel.”
Bismarck Tribune: Installing a sleeve could solve Dakota Access Pipeline 'problem'
Dennis Murphy, 11/14/23
“Oh, but there is another option for the Dakota Access Pipeline "problem" that seems to have been ignored when proposed. It should be SOP for the Corps of Engineers, to require whenever any pipeline crosses under or over water be it flowing or standing put the transporting pipe in a sleeve!,” Dennis Murphy writes for the Bismarck Tribune.”Then if a leak occurs the sleeve will protect the environment and allow the leaking pipe to be withdrawn and repaired. Installing a sleeve next to the DAPL would allow use of present end connections. If this were done I would be less nervous with boosting capacity to 1.1 Million barrels. Also leave space available for the Carbon Solutions CO2 line to go north of Bismarck-Mandan which North Dakota and other states need.”
Globe and Mail: Alberta’s new ‘Tell the Feds’ ads are a naked ploy to unyieldingly serve Big Oil
Martin Olszynski is a law professor at the University of Calgary, 11/14/23
“Tell the Feds,” says the Government of Alberta’s recent $8-million ad campaign opposing federal clean electricity rules. If you’re a resident of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Ontario or Nova Scotia, you’ve likely heard or seen them. Who could disagree with statements like “No one wants blackouts. What Canadians want is reliable and affordable power”? Nor does anyone want “to freeze in the dark,” Martin Olszynski writes for the Globe and Mail. “These messages seem sound, but they are grossly exaggerated if not outright false. Independent experts have already debunked the campaign’s central claims. With some effort and planning, the transition to a cleaner power grid could actually save Canadians hundreds of dollars in power bills annually, all while providing reliable and climate-friendly electricity. But in this misinformation age, even the most engaged citizens will struggle to stay on top of the continuous need for fact-checking and claim-debunking. Instead, Canadians should consider a government’s policy track record as a handy shortcut – especially when that government wraps its arguments in feasibility, affordability and protecting the public purse. Alberta’s actual track record undermines each and every one of these arguments. Alberta insists that carbon capture and storage (CCS) for natural gas power isn’t feasible under the proposed federal clean electricity rules. But it is clamouring for the federal government to spend billions on the same technology in the oil sands, where industry insists it’s proven and reliable. So much for infeasibility!... “A recent paper from the University of Calgary School of Public Policy, of which I was a co-author, makes painfully clear that this massive regulatory failure is the predictable consequence of decades of policy choices that consistently put the oil and gas industry’s desire to minimize its costs above the public interest in cleaning up wells and related infrastructure.”
The Hill: SLAPP-ing down free speech: The law shouldn’t be used as a corporate weapon
William S. Becker is executive director of the Presidential Climate Action Project (PCAP), a nonpartisan climate policy think tank unaffiliated with the White House, 11/13/23
“...Many battles pit public-interest organizations against corporations that still believe their only obligation is to increase shareholder profits, regardless of harm to people and planet,” William S. Becker writes for The Hill. “Corporations don’t always fight fair. One tactic is to use their superior resources to file lawsuits alleging that a critic has defamed them. The idea is to intimidate, silence and exhaust the critic’s resources — even when the criticism qualifies as constitutionally protected free speech and protests are protected freedom of assembly. This tactic is common enough to have a name: “strategic lawsuits against public participation,” or SLAPP suits… “Today, the fossil fuel industry is the Goliath armoring itself against slingshots… “The fossil fuel industry has responded to growing public concern about climate change by retaliating against those who challenge its practices,” EarthRights senior policy adviser Kirk Herbertson has written. A case in point: The owner of a coal company sued John Oliver after the comedian and television host talked about an accident in which nine people died at one of the company’s mines. The lawsuit went on for two years. Another case: In 2016, thousands of protestors drew attention to a company trying to build a pipeline that could threaten drinking water in the Standing Rock Sioux reservation. The company sued Greenpeace and other protestors for $900 million. Companies have few disincentives against this abuse of the courts. They can even deduct their legal expenses from their taxes. Like everyone else in the United States, corporations have a right to defend themselves against defamation in written or verbal speech that is malicious, untrue and damaging to their reputations. But powerful corporations “SLAPP” critics with lawsuits to inhibit free speech. Judges could discourage this by dismissing such suits out of hand — but not all are inclined to do so… “It’s up to Congress to level the playing field by passing legislation modeled on the strictest state anti-SLAPP laws, and requiring companies that file these lawsuits to pay all attorney and legal costs.”