EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/16/23
PIPELINE NEWS
DeSmog: Local Governments and Grassroots Activists Stop Spate of US Carbon Capture Pipelines
Pekin Daily Times: Tazewell County Board passes resolution opposing CO2 pipeline proposal
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents urge farmers to request corn checkoff refunds
KCCR: Carbon Pipeline Regulation Could Be Focal Point For 2024 Legislature
CBC: How the natural gas pipeline debate is dividing one rural community
GlobalNews.ca: ‘I want some reassurance’: 6th sinkhole hits Langley property near TMX pipeline construction
Spotlight PA: Companies behind Mariner East II pipeline paid $42 million in pollution fines to Pennsylvania
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Upstream: US and China solidify pledges to combat climate crisis with carbon capture in focus
E&E News: EPA Rule Sets Requirements For States’ Plans For Major Pollutants
E&E News: E-ZPass Whale Ad Stems From Group With DeSantis Ties
The New Republic: The Latest Culture War Starts With Dead Whales
E&E News: Private eye behind #ExxonKnew hacking scheme faces jail time
STATE UPDATES
Bloomberg: Ohio Fracking Contract Fight May Hinge on Utica Shale Definition
World Oil: Texas regulator assesses over $1 million in fines for oil and gas operators
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Oil Majors’ Carbon Capture Plans Dubbed a ‘Dangerous Delusion’
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL): Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage
J.D. Supra: The Future of Energy: Carbon Capture and Storage at Center Stage
Associated Press: EU reaches deal to reduce highly polluting methane gas emissions from the energy sector
NPR: The world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it's cleaned up
Wall Street Journal: Big Oil Producer Lines Up African Carbon Deals Ahead of Climate Talks
GQ: Adam McKay Takes His New Oil-Company Sitcom Straight to Social Media, Hoping the Kids Will Give a Frack
OPINION
National Observer: 30 trillion reasons to make Big Oil pay up
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFFA): Green Hydrogen - not carbon capture - is the key to beating growing global competition
PIPELINE NEWS
DeSmog: Local Governments and Grassroots Activists Stop Spate of US Carbon Capture Pipelines
Taylor Noakes, 11/15/23
“Players in the carbon dioxide pipeline industry canceled major pipeline projects in recent weeks, marking an inauspicious start to President Biden’s ambitious plans to develop carbon capture infrastructure as a key emissions mitigation tool,” DeSmog reports. “It is welcome news to CO2 pipeline opponents, however, which have included a wide spectrum of interest groups united in their concerns over pipeline safety. “I think what the cancellation shows is that people have had enough of fossil fuel infrastructure being forced upon them,” Lorne Stockman, research co-director with Oil Change International, told DeSmog. “It doesn’t surprise me that communities are standing up to these projects and occasionally winning.” “...Instead of incentivizing a CO2 reduction, the Inflation Reduction Act, along with the Infrastructure Investment and Jobs Act, through their funding of carbon capture, actually incentivize net increases in CO2, air pollution, land use and consumer costs,” said Mark Z. Jacobson, in an editorial published by The Messenger. Jacobson is a professor of civil and environmental engineering and director of Stanford University’s Atmosphere/Energy Program. Jacobson identified the Summit project as one that is a direct beneficiary of Biden administration incentives for carbon capture. Noting that no study had determined whether this was an effective or efficient use of public money, Jacobson conducted a study to find out, which was recently published in Environmental Science and Technology. Jacobson compared the anticipated emissions savings and cost of the Summit project, which was intended to provide decarbonized ethanol for use in flex-fuel vehicles, with spending an equal amount on wind farms… “Not only is this better for consumers, the wind and electric vehicle model virtually eliminates CO2 emissions, negating any need for carbon capture, while the ethanol and flex fuel model, even with carbon capture, would still result in a net CO2 increase. Watchdogs argue carbon capture is being presented to the public as part of the government’s decarbonization efforts, despite being consistently proven to be incapable of reducing CO2 at the scope and scale necessary for climate change mitigation.”
Pekin Daily Times: Tazewell County Board passes resolution opposing CO2 pipeline proposal
Mike Kramer, 11/16/23
“After hearing residents speak out for and against a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline, the Tazewell County Board made its opposition to the project official during Wednesday’s meeting,” the Pekin Daily Times reports. “The Board approved a resolution urging the Illinois Commerce Commission to deny Wolf Carbon Solutions U.S. LLC’s application to construct the pipeline, which would run through parts of Tazewell, Peoria and Stark counties. In drafting the resolution, the County Board Executive Committee determined that the proposed pipeline may have negative impacts on Tazewell County is such areas as public safety, economy, schools, businesses, infrastructure, water supply and an increased burden on Tazewell County first responders. “I strongly support any resolution by this Board opposed to this pipeline and telling the ICC how we feel,” said Board member Russ Crawford. The unanimous vote to oppose the pipeline was greeted with a round of applause from Tazewell County residents who attended the meeting to voice their concerns about the project.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents urge farmers to request corn checkoff refunds
JARED STRONG, 11/15/23
“Iowa farmers should request refunds of the penny-per-bushel fee they pay for their sold corn to protest the Iowa Corn Growers Association’s support of carbon dioxide pipelines, according to some pipeline opponents,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “That “corn checkoff” fee generates more than $20 million each year for the Iowa Corn Promotion Board, which has a contract with the association for its work to strengthen markets for corn and promote the industry to the public. Most of the revenue from the fee goes to the association. The board was established by state law, and collection of the fee is automatic. But farmers can request a refund. In the board’s fiscal year 2022, which ended in August that year, fee collections totaled nearly $25 million, according to the board’s most-recent state audit. Farmers requested about $2.3 million in refunds, which was roughly similar to previous years. “We want to let them know that we don’t like what they’re promoting,” Kathy Stockdale, who anticipates a checkoff refund of about $700 for the corn produced by her Hardin County farm, told the Dispatch… “Stockdale was incensed by the associations’ support of the carbon dioxide pipelines and wants other farmers to request refunds to show their disdain for that support. “If enough people would do it, it would make an impact,” she told the Dispatch. A spokesperson for the Iowa Corn Growers Association did not respond to a request to comment for this article. The corn checkoff is often billed as a cheap investment for farmers to help increase their profits… “Kim Junker, whose farm in Butler County was in the path of Navigator’s proposal, told the Dispatch she is requesting a checkoff refund and: “I highly recommend other farmers do it too. It sends a clear message.”
KCCR: Carbon Pipeline Regulation Could Be Focal Point For 2024 Legislature
11/15/23
“While the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission shut down two proposed carbon dioxide transport pipeline projects by not issuing permits for them earlier this year, the topic of transporting CO2 is not likely to go away,” KCCR reports. “South Dakota Chamber of Commerce and Industry president David Owen believes the issue will not evaporate from the halls of the State Capitol this winter… Owen told KCCR lawmakers will have to take a side in the debate… The 2024 Legislative session starts January 9th.”
CBC: How the natural gas pipeline debate is dividing one rural community
Ben Andrews, 11/15/23
“Andrew Dawson carefully chose where to build his grain elevator. The site off Highway 511 in Lanark County, located some 80 kilometres southwest of downtown Ottawa, has its advantages. Among them, a chance he could soon hook up to a proposed natural gas pipeline recently selected for funding by the provincial government,” CBC reports. “...Currently, Dawson uses propane to dry damp wheat, corn and soybeans. That fuel needs to be delivered by truck, sometimes as often as once or twice per day. Simply connecting to a gas line, he told CBC, would save time and money… “The pipeline, part of a controversial provincial natural gas expansion project, is also facing local resistance. A local environmental group rallied against the pipeline in October and critics of the provincial program say encouraging the use of natural gas further jeopardizes the country's emissions targets. The expansion is touching dozens of small, often rural communities across the province, and the response here is part of a broader debate pitting those who value savings on energy costs against those concerned about the long-term risk of locking new communities into fossil fuels.” “...Climate Network Lanark, a local environmental advocacy group, has a goal of halving greenhouse gas emissions in Lanark County by 2030. "That's ambitious," Susan Brandum, co-founder and director of the network, told CBC. To do it, she told CBC, the first step is stopping the expansion of infrastructure that supports fossil fuels. "Fossil fuels are dead. They're passé," she told CBC. "They are killing the planet and so they just have to go. It's that simple."
GlobalNews.ca: ‘I want some reassurance’: 6th sinkhole hits Langley property near TMX pipeline construction
Simon Little & Cassidy Mosconi, 11/15/23
“It's a case of deja vu for a Langley farmer whose property has been plagued by sinkholes. On Tuesday, a sixth sinkhole appeared. Nearby, Trans Mountain is drilling for its pipeline expansion,” GlobalNews.ca reports. “When Rob Rindt walked out onto his Langley, B.C., property Tuesday morning and saw a work crew peering into a large hole, he had a sinking feeling. “It was pretty deep,” Rindt told Global News. The crew, workers with the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion, were assessing a sinkhole about three metres (10 feet) wide and three metres deep. And it wasn’t the first to crop up. Rindt says six sinkholes have now opened on or near his property since April… “It is a huge concern,” he told GlobalNews. “If I am driving around in the tractor or one of my brothers — or more importantly, my kids drive around in golf carts and gators here practically daily.” He spoke with Global News in June when the fifth hole — about nine metres (30 feet) deep — opened up. After that incident, he said the company sent a team with ground-penetrating radar who assured him everything was safe and solid in the area. He’s now trying to source an independent expert to assess the area. “We shouldn’t have to do that or worry about kids falling into sinkholes,” he told Globalnews.
Spotlight PA: Companies behind Mariner East II pipeline paid $42 million in pollution fines to Pennsylvania
Lilly Riddle, 11/16/23
“A year after the Pennsylvania attorney general’s office secured $10 million to restore private waterways polluted during the construction of the Mariner East II pipeline, little of the money has flowed toward affected residents,” Spotlight PA reports. “Spotlight PA’s requests for the status of the remediation effort and how many well owners were affected by the pollution have been rebuffed by the office, which disclosed limited information while citing an exemption under the state’s open records law that bars public access to documents linked to a criminal investigation. The lack of details has left communities and residents with an incomplete picture of the scope of the pollution and the available tools to remedy it. Between 2018 and 2023, Pennsylvania fined Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco at least $42 million in connection to the construction of Mariner East II, a now completed pipeline that transports natural gas liquids between southeastern Ohio and metro Philadelphia… “The money is a drop in the bucket compared to the pipeline’s $5 billion construction budget, but environmental lawyer Rich Raiders told Spotlight such fines set important precedents… “Since the plea agreement was announced, however, less than 1% of the funds have been distributed, and the attorney general’s office has not disclosed the status of the rest. So far, $1.8 million of the $10 million has been slated for use by Growing Greener, a DEP program that gives grants to conservation organizations. But only $387,786 of the $1.8 million has been committed to projects, and $22,082 of that has been doled out. The rest of the money remains mired in government contracting processes.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Upstream: US and China solidify pledges to combat climate crisis with carbon capture in focus
Xu Yihe, 11/15/23
“The US and China have reaffirmed their commitment to work together to address the pressing global climate crisis, joining other nations in implementing a series of comprehensive climate plans with a key focus on carbon capture storage and utilisation projects,” Upstream reports. “A statement from the US Department of State emphasised the two nations' shared support for the G20 Leaders Declaration aiming to triple global renewable energy capacity by 2030… “As part of their commitment, the US and China aim to advance a minimum of five large-scale cooperative CCUS projects by 2030, encompassing both industrial and energy sources.”
E&E News: EPA Rule Sets Requirements For States’ Plans For Major Pollutants
Alex Guillén, 11/14/23
“EPA finalized a rule this week governing when and how states must submit plans to comply with pollution rules issued under Section 111(d) of the Clean Air Act — the part of the law EPA has used for major forthcoming regulations on methane from the oil and gas sector and carbon dioxide from power plants,” E&E News reports. “The final rule gives states slightly longer to submit their Section 111(d) plans to EPA than the agency’s proposal last December, although the agency can grant states even more time for specific rules. It also addresses when states can impose weaker standards on sources and how to conduct public outreach.”
E&E News: E-ZPass Whale Ad Stems From Group With DeSantis Ties
Scott Waldman, Timothy Cama, 11/15/23
“A group of conservative operatives is behind a bizarre ad campaign that criticizes President Joe Biden for protecting an endangered whale in the Gulf of Mexico,” E&E News reports. “Last week, an ad aired during the Republican presidential debate that claimed Biden was trying to designate an ‘E-ZPass lane’ for whales that would drive up gas prices by blocking oil and gas drilling in its habitat. An online version of the ad, now deleted, called Biden a ‘whale f-cker.’ The ad was put out by Building America’s Future, which reveals little about its operations on its website. But corporate documents indicate the organization is led by a Republican operative with ties to both Florida Republican Gov. Ron DeSantis’ political action committee and Federalist Society co-Chair Leonard Leo. According to corporation commission documents filed with the state of Virginia, the president of Building America’s Future is Chris Jankowski, who also is listed as an officer. Jankowski created the Marble Freedom Trust, which has served as a $1.6 billion piggy bank for Leo and his conservative causes, according to reporting done by The Lever. Jankowski is also the executive director of the Never Back Down super PAC, which is supporting DeSantis’s 2024 presidential run.”
The New Republic: The Latest Culture War Starts With Dead Whales
Molly Taft, 11/15/23
“The ad opens with lush footage of humpback whales in the open ocean, set over somber cello music. ‘Hunted to near extinction, they rebounded against all the odds,’ a narrator says. ‘But new peril lurks beneath the waves: offshore wind,’” The New Republic reports. “The images shift to whale carcasses being dragged off the beach. ‘Save the whales,’ the narrator chants. ‘Dump New Jersey Democrats.’ This ad attacking New Jersey Democratic State Senator Vin Gopal, locked in a tight race for reelection in his 11th district, wasn’t paid for by some fringe environmental group. It was part of a five-figure ad buy from the Republican State Leadership Committee (RSLC). The RSLC, in turn, received hundreds of thousands of dollars in the first half of this year from oil interests including Marathon Petroleum, Devon Energy, the American Petroleum Institute and Energy Transfer. The GOP isn’t known for championing wildlife, or for keeping oceans clean and free of industrial structures: for decades the national party has defended offshore drilling and protected companies that routinely spill oil into open waters. But in the past two years, opposition to offshore wind in places like New Jersey has been juiced up by Republicans as well as fossil-fueled groups outside the state, pointing to a spate of mysterious whale deaths as evidence of turbines’ supposed destructive potential. The local fight has gone national: Figures from Media Matters provided to the New Republic show that Fox News has run at least 55 segments—an average of more than a segment each week—for the past year linking whale deaths to offshore wind.”
E&E News: Private eye behind #ExxonKnew hacking scheme faces jail time
Lesley Clark, 11/16/23
“A private eye who has pleaded guilty to hiring a global network of hackers to target anti-Exxon Mobil climate activists will be sentenced this week,” E&E News reports. “But Aviram Azari’s punishment — to be handed down Thursday in a federal courtroom in Manhattan — comes as a hollow victory for the environmentalists whose email accounts were breached by hackers working at Azari’s direction. Though most of the activists were involved in the #ExxonKnew climate campaign — and the oil company used some of the stolen material in court and on its website — almost no one who hired Azari has been named in the legal proceedings. Exxon has said repeatedly that it has no knowledge of Azari and had no involvement in any hacking activities… “Environmentalists involved in the hacking scam say they’ve been told the investigation won’t end with Azari’s sentencing… “It’s a little bit of an empty win,” Kert Davies, who was director of the Climate Investigations Center at the time of the hacking and is now at the Center for Climate Integrity, told E&E… “He’s just the middleman in the whole operation,” Davies told E&E of Azari. “We’d sure like to know who paid him.”
STATE UPDATES
Bloomberg: Ohio Fracking Contract Fight May Hinge on Utica Shale Definition
Eric Heisig, 11/14/23
“A closely-watched case centering on a multimillion-dollar hydraulic fracturing deal in Ohio turns on how eight words in a drilling contract are interpreted, attorneys on both sides of a contract dispute told the state Supreme Court Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports. “Gulfport Energy Corp. and a subsidiary of Rice Energy Inc. say the phrase “the formation commonly known as the Utica Shale”—which appears in a contract reached with a landowner in rural Belmont County, along the Ohio-West Virginia border—was known to include the Point Pleasant formation below Utica’s base. This gives the companies permission to conduct drilling for hydraulic fracturing, commonly known as “fracking.”
World Oil: Texas regulator assesses over $1 million in fines for oil and gas operators
11/15/23
“The Railroad Commission of Texas assessed $1,063,647 in fines involving 342 enforcement dockets against operators and businesses at the Commissioners’ Conference on Nov. 15,” World Oil reports. “...Eighteen dockets involved $217,172 in penalties after operators failed to appear at Commission enforcement proceedings… “Operators were ordered to come into compliance with Commission rules and assessed $44,025 for any oil and gas, LP-Gas, critical infrastructure, or pipeline safety rule violations. Pipeline operators and excavators were assessed $ 802,450 for violations of the Commission’s Pipeline Damage Prevention rules.”
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Oil Majors’ Carbon Capture Plans Dubbed a ‘Dangerous Delusion’
Alastair Marsh, 11/15/23
“Oil executives betting they’ll be able to meet net zero emissions goals by relying on carbon-capture technology are deluding themselves, according to an influential group of corporate bosses, bankers and academics,” Bloomberg reports. “The Energy Transitions Commission, whose members include senior representatives from BP Plc and Bank of America Corp., says the role of carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) in slashing emissions will be “vital but limited.” However, any carbon-intensive company assuming that CCUS is a license to continue expanding production, while holding on to net zero goals, is basing its business model on “a dangerous delusion,” the ETC said in a report on Thursday. The findings come just two weeks before COP28 climate talks get underway in Dubai. The summit will be presided over by the head of the state-backed Abu Dhabi National Oil Co., which has said it can raise production and cut emissions at the same time by investing in carbon capture technology. “The big debate at COP is going to be whether you get rid of fossil fuel use, or if you keep using fossil fuels at the current level and you just add CCUS” and direct air capture, Adair Turner, the former City of London finance regulator who now chairs the ETC, told Bloomberg. Representatives from oil-producing nations may say that “of course we can go on producing a hundred million barrels of oil a day for the next 50 years and we’ll do enough direct air capture to offset it,” he told Bloomberg. “And on the other hand, you’ll have a lot NGOs and renewable energy companies saying this whole CCUS and DAC thing is a bit of a con trick, and it’s a deliberate device by the fossil fuel companies to explain why they can go on producing fossil fuels forever.”
Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL): Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage
11/15/23
“Facing growing scrutiny over their contributions to climate change, polluting industries are increasingly looking for ways to cover up their continued emissions rather than phase out the fossil fuels driving them. One way companies claim the world can continue producing and using oil, gas, and coal without harming the climate is through carbon capture and storage (CCS), which purports to enable polluters to trap their carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and bury them underground or under the seabed,” according to the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL). “...The technology’s poor track record hasn’t stopped the fossil fuel industry from championing new projects, and over the last few years, companies and governments have put forward a rash of new proposals that aim to store industrial emissions offshore under the seabed. A new wave of proposed projects aims to pool CO2 waste from various fossil fuel and industrial activities for injection in offshore storage “hubs” in oceans around the world. This untested technique, which involves a step change in the scale and complexity of offshore CCS, poses uncalculated risks. Deep Trouble: The Risks of Offshore Carbon Capture and Storage explains the threat presented by a massive buildout of offshore CCS infrastructure and uncovers the government financing and fossil fuel interests enabling and advancing this new wave of projects. The report concludes that governments must halt the expansion of offshore CCS by ending subsidies and support for these projects, while interpreting existing laws and strengthening emerging regulations to protect the oceans from absorbing even more of humanity’s waste and safeguard communities, the environment, and the global climate.”
J.D. Supra: The Future of Energy: Carbon Capture and Storage at Center Stage
Bradley Arant Boult Cummings LLP, 11/15/23
“...The Biden Administration has created a climate action policy that seeks to thread the needle of these divergent views, and the carbon capture and storage (CCS) program is a key element. CCS is increasingly viewed as a necessary complement to zero-emitting energy and efficiency in the fight against climate change. It is not a substitute for moving away from fossil fuels but creates time and space for a managed transition,” according to J.D. Supra. “...Carbon capture at scale faces (at least) three major challenges. Topping the list is cost. CCS projects require major upfront investment, particularly for transmission and storage infrastructure. The capacity of CO2 transport and storage infrastructure often exceeds the needs of one emitter. Investors face risks over demand growth expectations and government policy consistency over the lifespan of projects. For DAC, the technology has yet to be demonstrated as efficient and scalable. Environmental activists are critical of CCS because they believe investment and development will come at the cost of perpetuating production and use of fossil fuels. These are not unreasonable concerns, and they present real obstacles to planning, financing, developing and sustaining CCS projects… “The Biden Administration cannot speak for future administrations, which may not see eye-to-eye on what amounts to major subsidies to one sector of the U.S. economy. Political risk may put downward pressure on capital investments if bipartisan support is not forthcoming… “The divergent views will place the future of fossil fuels in the global energy mix at center stage of COP28 in a much more direct way than in previous climate conferences. It is unlikely that any agreement will earn a “just right” assessment from the plurality. The inability to reach a consensus with global climate goals trapped in gridlock, however, presents significant global risks for the climate and for the global economy.”
Associated Press: EU reaches deal to reduce highly polluting methane gas emissions from the energy sector
11/15/23
“European Union negotiators reached a deal on Wednesday to reduce highly polluting methane gas emissions from the energy sector across the 27-nation bloc,” the Associated Press reports. “...Under the provisional agreement announced just weeks before the COP28 climate conference, the fossil gas, oil and coal industry will be forced to “properly measure, monitor, report and verify their methane emissions according to the highest monitoring standards, and take action to reduce them,” said the European Commission, the EU's executive arm… “The Commission said the compromise requires operators to report about quantification and measurements of methane emissions at source level, and forces oil and gas companies to detect and repair methane leaks on EU soil. It also bans routine venting and flaring, which release methane in the atmosphere, and limits venting from thermal coal mines from 2027, with stricter conditions introduced after 2031… “Since the EU imports large quantities of oil, gas and coal, the deal also requires from 2027 that new import contracts can only be sealed “if the same monitoring, reporting and verification obligations are applied by exporters as for EU producers,” the Commission said.
NPR: The world is awash in plastic. Oil producers want a say in how it's cleaned up
Michael Copley, Julia Simon, 11/13/23
“Plastic waste is everywhere,” NPR reports. “...So last year the United Nations set out to write a legally binding agreement to deal with the issue. That decision by U.N. member states "will clearly take us towards a future with no plastic pollution," Tsuyoshi Yamaguchi, Japan's then-environment minister, said at the time. This week, negotiators from around 150 countries are gathering in Kenya to start hashing out the treaty's details. Outside groups are there too, trying to influence the talks, including public health advocates, human rights activists, environmentalists and the oil and gas industry. Almost every piece of plastic is made from chemicals derived from fossil fuels. Now, there's growing concern among those who want deep cuts in plastic waste that plastic producers and some consumer goods companies could weaken the treaty. A constellation of groups trying to shape the negotiations can be traced back to the oil and gas industry. That includes some of the world's largest oil and gas companies, such as ExxonMobil, Chevron and France's TotalEnergies. And major oil-producing nations, such as Saudi Arabia, Russia and China, are at the negotiating table. They push a similar message: The problem of plastic pollution can be solved through recycling and other forms of waste management rather than through substantial cuts in new plastic production. But years of research and investigations, including by NPR, have shown that recycling is failing to rein in plastic waste. Reducing how much new plastic gets made in the first place is a "prerequisite" to getting pollution under control, Carsten Wachholz, who works at the Ellen MacArthur Foundation and co-leads the Business Coalition for a Global Plastics Treaty, told NPR.”
Wall Street Journal: Big Oil Producer Lines Up African Carbon Deals Ahead of Climate Talks
Saeed Shah, 11/14/23
“One of the world’s biggest exporters of fossil fuels, the United Arab Emirates, is attempting to position itself as a leader in establishing global carbon markets as it prepares to host annual United Nations climate talks this month,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Those efforts are coming under scrutiny as a company owned by one of the U.A.E.’s royal families prepares to secure rights to produce carbon credits from a giant expanse of African forest.”
GQ: Adam McKay Takes His New Oil-Company Sitcom Straight to Social Media, Hoping the Kids Will Give a Frack
Jake Kring-Schreifels, 11/15/23
“Adam McKay has spent his filmmaking career crafting big-ticket Hollywood productions that bring the fight to capitalism's doorstep. He went after Wall Street with The Other Guys and The Big Short, pilloried the political system with Vice, and made a satire about climate change with Don’t Look Up,” GQ reports. “...On Tuesday, McKay’s Yellow Dot Studios released Cobell Energy, a weekly short-form series that will live on TikTok, Instagram, Snapchat, and YouTube. The office comedy, co-written and directed by Ari Cagan, takes a satirical jab at the oil industry and marks one of the first Hollywood-backed, scripted shows to be made directly for the phone. As he leads the charge, McKay hopes the show’s environmental messaging and familiar comedic flourishes will find its targeted Gen-Z audience and cut through the social media clutter. “It’s hard for people to get their heads around how monstrous the oil companies are,” McKay said in an email to GQ. “I don’t throw around the ‘E’ word lightly but it’s an almost incomprehensible level of evil. They know full well they are actively destroying the whole livable climate and they’re like, ‘Cool, what’s for lunch?’” “...This is definitely a problem that Gen-Z is more aware of than any generation before it,” Cagan told GQ of the climate crisis. “Continuing to inform them on what's happening is really important for the future of the earth.”
OPINION
National Observer: 30 trillion reasons to make Big Oil pay up
John Woodside, 11/16/23
“Since the mid-1980s, the 25 largest oil and gas companies around the world have fought climate policies tooth and nail, making US$30 trillion in the process, according to a study published Thursday,” John Woodside writes for the National Observer. “The analysis from German-headquartered Climate Analytics also calculated the climate-related damages from the emissions of the oil and gas companies and found those 25 fossil fuel companies were responsible for approximately US$20 trillion worth of destruction. In other words, the “carbon majors” responsible for the crisis at hand knowingly spent decades that could have been used to avoid disastrous global warming to make so much money they could have paid their “fair share” of climate-related damages and still pocketed US$10 trillion, according to the report. Among the 25 companies raking in trillions of dollars over the years while torching the planet are firms with significant Canadian footprints. ExxonMobil, including its Canadian subsidiary Imperial Oil, was ranked as the fourth-largest contributor to the climate crisis, having caused US$1.2 trillion in damage while making an equivalent amount in profit. Shell, which controls a 40 per cent stake in LNG Canada — the country’s largest-ever investment in fossil fuels — was found to be the sixth-largest contributor to climate change. “These oil and gas majors have known about climate change for decades, yet they have doubled down on their business model,” said lead author Carl-Friedrich Schleussner in a statement. “They have reaped massive financial gains, while climate change has intensified and left vulnerable peoples, and particularly developing countries, footing the bill.” “...To make this year’s negotiations around paying for loss and damage a success, faith-based advocacy network KAIROS Canada is urging Canada to “explicitly recognize” the country’s historic role in driving the climate crisis. It also wants Ottawa to commit significant new funds for loss and damage in the Global South, and increase other climate finance commitments earmarked for reducing emissions and adapting to climate change from $5.3 billion over five years to $1.8 billion annually.”
Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFFA): Green Hydrogen - not carbon capture - is the key to beating growing global competition
Soroush Basirat and Simon Nicholas, 11/16/23
“The Middle East and North Africa (MENA) region is well equipped to produce cheap green hydrogen due to its excellent solar resources, but exports look inefficient and expensive,” Soroush Basirat and Simon Nicholas write for the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEFFA). “MENA should instead prioritise using green hydrogen domestically to become a global leader in the emerging green iron trade, where it already enjoys a significant advantage due to its established use of direct reduced iron (DRI) technology. The poor record of Carbon Capture, Utilisation & Storage (CCUS) means it - and consequently blue hydrogen - is not an alternative to green hydrogen.”