EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/6/23
PIPELINE NEWS
South Dakota Searchlight: Defying the odds: Meet the Omaha attorney for 1,000 clients who beat two pipeline companies
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Summit’s new route in North Dakota adds 13 miles of pipeline
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents in Iowa sue to block Summit water permit
KCHA: Floyd County Supervisors Urged to Revisit Pipeline Ordinances, Too
E&E News: Company Tied To Mountain Valley Pipeline Charged In House Explosion
Financial Times: Top US gas producer says pipeline fights endanger industrial world
Canadian Press: Pembina Pipeline needs Trans Mountain certainty before considering an offer: CEO
Indigenous Environmental Network: The Fight to Shut Down DAPL Continues: Express Your Concerns by December 13th
KMOV: Phillips 66 petroleum pipeline hit in Eureka
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Politico: Forest Service Proposes Allowing Carbon Storage In National Forests
Houston Chronicle: Biden wants hydrogen, carbon capture scaled up within a decade, but is the technology ready?
Law360: Enviros' Challenge Of 4,000 Drilling Permits Gets Axed
Daily Caller: Ted Cruz Rips Biden For Buying Oil From ‘Psychopathic Maniacs Who Want To Murder Us’
Washington Examiner: Manchin Bashes Biden Administration Over Delayed Gulf Of Mexico Oil Lease Sale
Grist: Oil Development Tees Up Fresh Fight Over Sage Grouse Protections
E&E News: NRDC recognizes staff union
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: Shapiro Orders New Controls On The Oil And Gas Industry In Pennsylvania, Targeting Methane Emissions And Drilling Chemicals
Grist: Pennsylvania’s fracking boom is hurting its oldest residents
E&E News: Oil industry notches rare win in California climate case
Emerging Technology News: H2B2's SoHyCal: Large-scale green hydrogen project in California
EXTRACTION
DeSmog: Divide Seen in CCS Firms’ Community-Involvement Rhetoric and Reality
E&E News: Shell, BP Pull Back On Renewables
Press release: Enbridge buys 7 U.S. RNG facilities from Morrow Renewables for US$1.2-billion
OPINION
Des Moines Register: On carbon pipelines, regular Iowans are winning some rounds against powerful ag interests
Teen Vogue: Young People Are Demanding An End To Oil And Gas Drilling, The US And UK Aren’t Delivering
The Nation: Supply-Side Liberals Keep Peddling the Fossil Fuel Fix
The Hill: Trump 2.0: The climate cannot survive another Trump term
PIPELINE NEWS
South Dakota Searchlight: Defying the odds: Meet the Omaha attorney for 1,000 clients who beat two pipeline companies
JOSHUA HAIAR, 11/6/23
“Brian Jorde said most people didn’t think he or his clients had much of a chance to stop a pair of carbon dioxide pipelines after the plans were announced two years ago,” South Dakota Searchlight reports. “‘You all are a nuisance. We all know this is getting permitted.’ That has been the attitude of these pipelines since day one, and here we are,” Jorde told Searchlight. In September, with Jorde representing more than 1,000 affected landowners, the Public Utilities Commission rejected permit applications from both of the companies proposing carbon pipelines in the state… “Since the permit hearings, Navigator CO2 has withdrawn its project. Meanwhile, Jorde and some of his clients are preparing for an anticipated reapplication from Summit Carbon Solutions, which has said it plans to alter its proposal. Jorde said he’ll be ready to leverage his experience with pipeline cases, including his prior work against a crude-oil pipeline… “Jorde’s introduction to pipelines came in 2008 when a longtime client’s mother called about the proposed Keystone XL oil pipeline’s attempted use of eminent domain to cross her land. “Eminent domain” refers to the power to access private property for public use, provided the owner is given just compensation. “She was in tears, and there was this company up there called TransCanada that said if she didn’t sign papers, they’re gonna take her land by eminent domain,” he told Searchlight… “Jorde took her and others on as clients, and the 11-year journey taught him a lot about eminent domain law and pipeline construction. He also learned that while many landowners may oppose a project crossing their land, a lot of those landowners are convinced it’s a hopeless cause. “We basically had to convince people that it was OK to stand up for themselves,” Jorde told Searchlight. “Practically speaking, our country is currently by and for the corporations, and anyone who believes it’s by and for the people is misinformed. However, all we can do is chip away and chip away, and exercise our rights.” The Keystone XL oil pipeline was never built after President Biden revoked a key permit. Jorde told Searchlight he played a role in that with his clients. “We outlasted three presidents,” he told Searchlight. “Every other state had fallen, and the work we did in Nebraska kept the fight alive until the end.” Jorde thinks that because landowners saw clients like his fight Keystone XL successfully, convincing landowners they could win against the carbon sequestration pipelines was easier… “Ed Fischbach of rural Aberdeen is one of Jorde’s clients in the carbon pipeline cases. Fischbach told Searchlight the law firm charges all the South Dakota landowners as one group, and the charge is split evenly among the landowners. “I wouldn’t trust anyone else to do this,” Fischbach told Searchlight. “The guy has been the greatest thing for South Dakota landowners.” “...Jorde told landowners to push counties to enact and enforce setback ordinances that determine how close a carbon sequestration pipeline can be built to existing houses, farms and other features… “Jorde also told landowners to lobby harder in the state Senate, where a bill failed last winter that would have banned eminent domain for carbon pipelines, after passing the House.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Summit’s new route in North Dakota adds 13 miles of pipeline
JARED STRONG, 11/3/23
“Summit Carbon Solutions’ revised carbon dioxide pipeline proposal in North Dakota increases its footprint by about 4% in that state and would affect dozens of landowners, according to a recent regulatory filing,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “The North Dakota Public Service Commission in August rejected the company’s request for a permit to build its pipeline system because the company didn’t show that it had minimized the project’s adverse effects on residents… “Summit recently submitted new details of its adjustments for the North Dakota route at the commission’s request. They show that the total route in North Dakota would span 333 miles — up from 320 in the initial proposal — and that the rerouting would affect about 100 new land parcels in five counties. “Summit has made significant progress in addressing deficiencies,” wrote Lawrence Bender, an attorney for Summit. He noted that the new plan moves the pipeline route more than nine miles farther north of Bismarck and avoids four sets of landowners who opposed the initial proposal. It also significantly reduces the width of the project corridor — the area in which the pipeline can be constructed — from 300 feet to 200. The route near Bismarck has been particularly contentious for its potential to threaten future development… “Summit said it has signed land easements for about 73% of its route in North Dakota, which is down slightly from what it reported to the commission in July. It attributed that decline to the route changes… “The Public Service Commission will use the new information provided by Summit to decide how to proceed with the reconsideration of its permit request. That might include one or more further hearings to weigh the changes and solicit public input.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents in Iowa sue to block Summit water permit
JARED STRONG, 11//3/23
“A carbon dioxide pipeline company’s request to withdraw more than 50 million gallons of water each year from the ground near an ethanol plant does not serve a “beneficial use” and should be denied, according to a lawsuit recently filed against the Iowa Department of Natural Resources,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “The department in May issued a water withdrawal permit to a subsidiary of Summit Carbon Solutions, which would use the water as a coolant in its carbon capture process at the Homeland Energy Solutions plant near Lawler… “Three people whose drinking water is derived from the aquifer that Summit hopes to tap filed suit recently in state district court and asked a judge to vacate the permit the DNR issued. They are Kathy Carter, Kim Junker and Candice Brandau Larson. Their concern is that the water withdrawals would “adversely impact the sources of their drinking water” and that the purpose of those withdrawals does not comply with a “beneficial use” requirement in state law, according to the lawsuit, which was filed by Wally Taylor, an attorney for the Sierra Club of Iowa… “The DNR has not yet responded to the lawsuit in district court. Summit is seeking another water withdrawal permit in Wright County… “The Iowa Utilities Board, which has the authority to grant a pipeline permit to Summit, recently declined to publicly decide whether that permit includes the equipment the company would use to capture and process carbon dioxide before it goes into the pipeline… “The IUB recently declined to issue a declaratory order about its potential jurisdiction over those facilities on procedural grounds. Hardin County filed the request for an order in Summit’s pipeline permit docket, and the IUB said it should have been filed separately as its own proceeding.”
KCHA: Floyd County Supervisors Urged to Revisit Pipeline Ordinances, Too
Mark Pitz, 11/3/23
“While Floyd County Supervisors look at updates to the County’s ordinances regarding the future development of wind turbine farms in the county, they’re also being urged to revisit ordinances for underground carbon capture pipelines as well,” KCHA reports. “...Both projects targeted Floyd County for construction of their carbon pipelines, but both came upon shaky ground after the two companies ran into construction permit application snags in North and South Dakota, with some county ordinances putting up roadblocks to the projects… “Still, Landowner Kathy Carter urged the Floyd County Board of Supervisors during their Monday (10.30) meeting that the time is now to revisit the County’s carbon pipeline ordinance. In addition to concerns over pipeline ordinances and eminent domain, Carter and fellow north Iowa landowners Candice Brandau Larson and Kim Junker have filed suit against Summit for the water the company plans to use in the operation of its pipeline. The landowners want the Iowa DNR to rescind a permit to allow Summit to withdraw some 56 million gallons of water each year from the aquifer near the Homeland Energy Solutions ethanol plant between Lawler and New Hampton, the easternmost starting point for Summit’s proposed carbon pipeline.”
E&E News: Company Tied To Mountain Valley Pipeline Charged In House Explosion
Carlos Anchondo, 11/3/23
“Pennsylvania’s attorney general filed charges this week against an arm of the company building the Mountain Valley pipeline, implicating the developer in a house explosion that left three people with severe burns,” E&E News reports. “Equitrans LP — a subsidiary of Equitrans Midstream Corp. — is facing multiple charges, including two counts of unlawful conduct under the state’s Clean Streams Law. At a press conference, Attorney General Michelle Henry alleged that methane from an Equitrans well contaminated the water supply of a home in Clarksville, Pa. That led to an explosion and fire that injured Cody White, Samantha Adamson and their 4-year-old son, according to the attorney general’s office. The charges, filed Wednesday, prompted quick criticism of Equitrans from some longtime opponents of the Mountain Valley pipeline, a 303-mile project the company has attempted to finish for years. Earlier this year, the debt ceiling law approved all remaining permits for the natural gas pipeline, which is slated to run from West Virginia to southern Virginia.”
Financial Times: Top US gas producer says pipeline fights endanger industrial world
Jamie Smyth, 11/4/23
“The largest US natural gas producer has lambasted a “war on infrastructure” that risks sparking a Europe-style energy crisis in parts of the US, days after the latest delay to a new pipeline fast-tracked for approval by Congress,” the Financial Times reports. “EQT chief executive Toby Rice told the Financial Times that the US had “oceans of natural gas”, but companies like his in the prolific Appalachian shale region were struggling to add supplies because new pipeline capacity had been blocked. “The industrial world that we enjoy now is severely compromised because of the lawsuits, the pushback and the movement to cancel energy infrastructures and modern society. We’ve run out of flexibility,” Rice, 41, who describes himself as a “shalennial,” told FT… “The ramp-up of MVP’s contractor workforce has been slower and more challenging than expected, due to multiple crews electing not to work on the project based on the history of court-related construction stops,” Equitrans Midstream, one of the owners of MVP, said in a securities filing… “Rice told FT the fact it now took an act of Congress to get a single pipeline built in the US “should scare the hell out people”, particularly when cities in New England have to import liquefied natural gas from abroad during winter freezes. He warned that parts of the US could face the kind of energy crisis that hit Europe after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Rice said Europe was vulnerable because it had “shut down building infrastructure”.
Canadian Press: Pembina Pipeline needs Trans Mountain certainty before considering an offer: CEO
11/3/23
“The CEO of Pembina Pipeline Corp. says the company needs more certainty over timing, regulations and costs related to the Trans Mountain expansion project before deciding whether to make an offer for an equity stake in the pipeline,” the Canadian Press reports. “The Calgary-based pipeline company formed a partnership in 2021 with Western Indigenous Pipeline Group for the purpose of pursuing an Indigenous-led equity stake in Trans Mountain. That partnership, called Chinook Pathways, is one of just two entities — the other is a group called Project Reconciliation — that has publicly expressed commercial interest in the federal government’s pipeline divestment process… “Pembina Pipeline CEO Scott Burrows told analysts on a third-quarter conference call Friday that neither Pembina nor Chinook Pathways are eligible to participate in this first phase, which involves talks with more than 120 Indigenous nations located along the Trans Mountain route to see if any of them are interested in an equity stake. Phase 2 will involve the consideration of commercial offers for the remaining stake in the pipeline, but Burrows said the timing of that is unclear. He added that there are still many unknowns surrounding the Trans Mountain expansion project, which is still under construction and expected to be complete sometime early next year. “Based on public information, the earliest the divestment of the asset could likely occur is the end of 2024, and there appears to be outstanding regulatory, construction and tolling issues that pose further schedule, costs and timing uncertainties,” Burrows said… ”Yet there is uncertainty around what the present value of the Trans Mountain pipeline actually is. Though bought by the federal government for $4.5 billion, the capital costs of the pipeline’s expansion project have ballooned to more than $30 billion due to construction-related challenges. In addition, Trans Mountain is currently negotiating with oil companies the pipeline tolls — fees oil shippers pay to move oil on the pipeline… “It’s also unclear how large an equity stake might be sold to Indigenous communities during Phase 1 of the process.”
Indigenous Environmental Network: The Fight to Shut Down DAPL Continues: Express Your Concerns by December 13th
11/3/23
“On Friday, September 8th, the Dakota Access Pipeline’s Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DAPL DEIS) was finally published,” according to the Indigenous Environmental Network. “After multiple delays over the course of several months, the US Army Corps of Engineers (ACOE) released the final draft… “However, the Army Corps ran the project illegally without the proper legal easement since the beginning of 2021… “For years, the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe and thousands of supporters called out DAPL as a direct violation of the 1851 Fort Laramie Treaty. Further, DAPL violates the Nation’s right to Free, Prior, and Informed Consent, affecting Indigenous livelihoods and forcing Indigenous lands to become sacrifice zones… “The Dakota Access Pipeline needs to be shutdown at all costs, as long as it operates it will continue to put our communities at risk– it is a threat to our waterways, and we will continue to denounce the Dakota Access Pipeline. It goes against our rights, not just basic human rights but our Treaty rights. We as Indigenous Peoples are considered expendable to Energy Transfer, its partners, the oil and gas industry, and politicians. It is not about if the pipeline breaks and leaks, it’s when. Our children and the next seven generations’ lives will be affected by this pipeline and I want to protect our and their futures by ensuring clean drinking water, land, and air to breathe.” said Morgan Brings Plenty (Cheyenne River Sioux Tribe), Digital Organizing Fellow at the Indigenous Environmental Network… “We urge Indigenous communities and allies to submit a public comment and express their concerns. Public comments will be accepted through December 13, 2023.”
KMOV: Phillips 66 petroleum pipeline hit in Eureka
Shoshana Stahl, 11/3/23
“A Phillips 66 petroleum pipeline was hit in Eureka Thursday afternoon, leading to a gas leak in Lions Park,” KMOV reports. “New baseball fields are being built in the park and around 1:45 Thursday afternoon, a contractor hit the pipeline… “Phillips 66 tells First Alert 4 it immediately shut down the pipeline and blocked off the impacted section of pipeline to control the release… “Phillips 66 said no injuries have been reported and air monitoring is underway to ensure the safety of the surrounding community. Phillips 66 personnel and its spill response contractors are onsite working to clean up the spill and repair the pipeline… “Phillips 66 tells First Alert 4 the pipeline delivers fuel products from refineries in Texas and Oklahoma to markets in Missouri and Illinois, including storage facilities operating in Jefferson City and Cahokia Heights, Ill. The spill volume has not yet been determined.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Politico: Forest Service Proposes Allowing Carbon Storage In National Forests
Alex Guillen, 11/2/23
“The U.S. Forest Service has proposed a change to its regulations that would open the door to permitting carbon sequestration projects in national forests,” Politico reports. “Details: Because carbon storage would be designed to last for at least 1,000 years, it currently falls under the Forest Service’s prohibition on ‘exclusive and perpetual’ uses of forest land. The proposed rule to be published in Friday’s Federal Register (Reg. 0596-AD55) would exempt carbon capture and storage proposals from the initial screen criteria’s list of prohibited uses, which would let the Forest Service consider them. But the rule wouldn’t approve any specific project. “Proposals for underground storage of carbon dioxide would have to meet all other screening criteria, including but not limited to consistency with the applicable land management plan, potential risks to public health or safety, conflicts or interference with authorized uses of NFS lands or use of adjacent non-NFS lands,” the rule said. Projects would also have to go through environmental analysis and Class VI well permitting, which is handled by EPA except in Wyoming and North Dakota. The rule will be open for public comment through Jan. 2.”
Houston Chronicle: Biden wants hydrogen, carbon capture scaled up within a decade, but is the technology ready?
James Osborne, 11/6/23
“Clean hydrogen and carbon capture have for years been the next big thing, on the verge of revolutionizing the energy sector and providing a lifeline for fossil fuel producing economies like Texas,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “But six months after the Biden administration staked its plan to get the U.S. power grid to net zero emissions by 2035 to the technologies’ rapid build out, it is facing a chorus of criticism from power utilities and grid operators, including the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, Berkshire Hathaway and the Edison Electric Institute, the power sector’s largest trade group, as well as a former energy secretary during the Obama administration. In a report published this week, former Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s nonprofit, the Energy Future Initiative, wrote that the Environmental Protection Agency’s proposal “faces major implementation challenges,” considering the tens of thousands of miles of hydrogen and carbon dioxide pipelines that would need to be built and the high costs of the technology, which they said were likely to prove far more expensive than the EPA estimated. ERCOT, in its comment to EPA, said the technologies were not “demonstrated to be physically or commercially viable” and it was unclear whether gas plants could blend in hydrogen fuel the way the administration proposed… “And it’s increasingly unclear whether the tax credits will be enough to advance the technologies to commercial scale. An analysis by Moniz’s group shows carbon capture costs exceeding the value of the tax credit by 18% to 42%, meaning companies would have to pay to store carbon dioxide with no law on the books requiring them to do so. The Energy Future Initiative put the cost of clean hydrogen production at $2.70 per kilogram, more than five times what the EPA estimates.”
Law360: Enviros' Challenge Of 4,000 Drilling Permits Gets Axed
Madeline Lyskawa, 11/2/23
“Environmental groups challenging the Biden administration’s approval of thousands of drilling permits in New Mexico and Wyoming had their claims slashed by a D.C. federal judge, who ruled in favor of an intervening coalition of oil companies,” Law360 reports. “U.S. District Judge Tanya A. Chutkan granted the oil companies’ motion to dismiss on Wednesday, finding the environmental groups did not establish an injury in fact either as organizational entities or in association with their individual members, failing “the standing inquiry at the first step.” According to court documents, the environmental groups, which include the Center for Biological Diversity, Wildearth Guardians, Citizens Caring for the Future, and New Mexico Interfaith Power and Light, sued the U.S. Department of the Interior in June 2022, seeking to vacate more than 4,000 gas and oil drilling permits issued in the first year and a half of the Biden presidency. The groups argue that the DOI violated the National Environmental Policy Act and the Endangered Species Act by failing to consider the cumulative impact of greenhouse gas pollution from added oil and gas production or the threat that higher emissions pose to endangered species already in decline due to climate change.”
Daily Caller: Ted Cruz Rips Biden For Buying Oil From ‘Psychopathic Maniacs Who Want To Murder Us’
Harold Hutchison, 11/2/23
“Republican Sen. Ted Cruz of Texas blasted President Joe Biden for opposing American oil and gas production while buying oil from ‘psychopathic maniacs.’ Biden cancelled oil leases in Alaska granted late in the Trump administration in September, according to CBS, while proposing new regulations to limit energy production in the United States,” the Daily Caller reports. “The Biden administration also revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline in January 2021 and cancelled an offshore lease sale in May 2022 after issuing new regulations for onshore drilling for oil and natural gas. ‘I do not understand Democrats like Joe Biden,’ Cruz told Fox Business host Larry Kudlow, a former Trump administration official. ‘They hate oil and gas if it’s produced in America and creating American jobs, but they love it when it’s produced by psychopathic maniacs who want to murder us. That makes no sense at all.’”
Washington Examiner: Manchin Bashes Biden Administration Over Delayed Gulf Of Mexico Oil Lease Sale
Nancy Vu, 11/2/23
“Sen. Joe Manchin (D-WV) bashed the Biden administration Thursday for a delayed oil and gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico, stating that the delay was “entirely the administration’s fault,” the Washington Examiner reports. “...BOEM is once again blaming the courts for delaying the sale, but the delays are entirely the Administration’s fault,’ Manchin told the Examiner. “The Department of the Interior was so eager to meet the demands of environmental groups to restrict the sale that it bypassed important legal requirements leading to this litigation.” In a statement issued Thursday morning, BOEM announced that it would be postponing Lease Sale 261 in “response to judicial orders” from the U.S. 5th Circuit Court of Appeals. “Until the court rules, BOEM cannot be certain of which areas or stipulations may be included in the sale notice,” the statement reads.”
Grist: Oil Development Tees Up Fresh Fight Over Sage Grouse Protections
Sierra Club, 11/2/23
“...But the sage grouse and its iconic dance have long been under attack,” Grist reports. “Settlers who colonized land in the west in the 1800s introduced invasive species that destroy habitat and food sources the bird needs. More recently, human activity like oil and gas leasing, improper livestock grazing, and other development has reduced its habitat further. Once found in 13 states, the bird is now extinct in half of its historic range. Most of the sage grouse population now relies on public lands—but not all public lands are protected equally. Millions of acres are in fact used by extractive industries, like drilling for oil. Private development has significantly impacted the integrity of what’s often referred to as the ‘sagebrush sea.’ Experts say that a renewed focus on the protection and conservation of public lands can safeguard the vast and complex ecosystem and its many native species, like the sage grouse.”
E&E News: NRDC recognizes staff union
Robin Bravender, 11/3/23
“The Natural Resources Defense Council voluntarily recognized its staff union, the green group and the union announced Friday,” E&E News reports. “The move comes after a union representing NRDC employees in September asked the group’s president and CEO, Manish Bapna, to voluntarily recognize the Washington-Baltimore News Guild (WBNG) — part of the Communications Workers of America — as the staff’s collective bargaining representative. “Given our shared commitment to organized labor, NRDC and WBNG are pleased to announce that NRDC has voluntarily recognized its union. We commend the organizing efforts and spirit of collaboration that made this possible,” NRDC official Robyn Arville and WBNG Executive Director Cet Parks said in a joint statement… “New York-based NRDC is one of many green groups whose staffers have organized unions in recent years, and negotiations remain tense at some of those organizations. (Employees at E&E News and its parent company, POLITICO, unionized in 2021, joining the NewsGuild-CWA.) The NRDC union’s organizing committee sent a letter to Bapna and NRDC’s leadership team in September laying out concerns about expected layoffs and about NRDC’s workplace culture.”
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: Shapiro Orders New Controls On The Oil And Gas Industry In Pennsylvania, Targeting Methane Emissions And Drilling Chemicals
Jake Bolster, 11/3/23
“Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro announced on Thursday that the state Department of Environmental Protection would take part in a ‘groundbreaking collaboration’ with a natural gas driller and more broadly impose new requirements on the oil and gas industry for ‘controlling’ methane emissions and compelling disclosure of all chemicals used to drill for fossil fuels,” InsideClimate News reports. “sThe new requirements stem from the findings of a grand jury investigation, completed in 2020, which concluded that state agencies failed to protect Pennsylvanians from the ‘inherent risks’ of unconventional gas drilling using hydraulic fracturing technology, or fracking. Shapiro, a Democrat elected governor in 2022, oversaw the grand jury in his previous role as the state’s attorney general.”
Grist: Pennsylvania’s fracking boom is hurting its oldest residents
Kate Raphael, 11/6/23
“In 1976, Mary Ellen McConnell, a “concrete city kid,” moved from Bethesda, Maryland, to the verdant hills and river valleys of Clearville, Pennsylvania,” Grist reports. “...But that tranquility proved to be short-lived: A few decades later, the area would be overrun with big fracking rigs from natural gas companies drawn to the rich stores of methane gas trapped in the 500 million-year-old sedimentary rock below. The previous owners of McConnell’s home had signed a lease in perpetuity with Columbia Gas, a subsidiary of a major natural gas company. That meant that even though McConnell owned the farmhouse, she had no say in how the minerals below the surface were used. In return, she received an annual check of $248, or $2 per acre. McConnell spent years trying to cancel the lease, petitioning the company directly and even seeking legal counsel, but in 2010, Columbia Gas filed an injunction against McConnell and began seismic testing to use the area beneath her land for “storage” — of exactly what, McConnell does not know. Over the next few years after the injunction, she and her family experienced a barrage of severe health problems. McConnell developed breathing trouble, severe leg pain, and high blood pressure. She had two massive heart attacks. A 2012 test conducted by a private company, Martin Water Conditioning, revealed that her water contained more than twice the safe concentration of arsenic… “Up until 10 years ago, I was a pretty healthy bitch,” McConnell, now 80, told Grist. “And, unfortunately, I’m dying.” “...Of the nearly 18 million Americans living near oil and gas wells, close to 3 million are 65 and older, many concentrated in Pennsylvania, the country’s second biggest producer of methane gas behind Texas, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Living in an environmentally polluted area is dangerous for anyone, but for older adults like McConnell, exposure over many years has the potential for devastating, even life-ending, health problems. Compared to younger people, seniors are less able to excrete harmful substances, like arsenic and other heavy metals, as the liver and kidneys filter out toxins less effectively with age. And seniors are also more likely to have pre-existing conditions such as respiratory and cardiovascular problems that can amplify health risks… “Dr. Ned Ketyer, a retired Pennsylvania physician and president of the state’s chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, has talked to many seniors suffering from a range of health problems they think are related to fracking… “I’m convinced that, at the very least, exposure to this type of pollution contributes to the illnesses,” he told Grist.
E&E News: Oil industry notches rare win in California climate case
Lesley Clark, 11/3/23
“Oil companies at the center of a nationwide legal battle over who pays for climate impacts scored a rare victory this week in California,” E&E News reports. “Judge Vince Chhabria of the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California said Wednesday that he was "reluctantly" dismissing an effort by fishing groups to move their case back to the state court where it was originally filed. Unlike the more than two dozen other climate liability lawsuits that have been filed across the country, he wrote that the case from the Pacific Coast Federation of Fishermen’s Associations could be viewed as a class action lawsuit, making it eligible for removal to federal court. “In truth, what happened here is that the Federation made a mistake,” Chhabria said in his ruling, adding that although the group “strongly prefers” to argue the case in state court, it filed a complaint that was removable under the Class Action Fairness Act.”
Emerging Technology News: H2B2's SoHyCal: Large-scale green hydrogen project in California
11/2/23
“Claimed as the first and largest green hydrogen plant to become operational in North America, SoHyCal facility located in in Fresno, California is a landmark project for H2B2 Electrolysis Technologies, Inc. Awarded by the California Energy Commission, the facility has become operational with the production of hydrogen using renewable energy sources,” Emerging Technology News reports. “The project envisages 100 percent clean hydrogen production using PEM technology, with a nameplate manufacturing capacity of up to 3 tons of green hydrogen per day using solar energy from a photovoltaic (PV) plant. In its initial phase of development, the facility is now capable of producing 1 ton of H2 per day using biogas from nearby dairy farms. The H2 facility is expected to transition into its second phase with solar power sometime in the second quarter of 2024… “H2B2 has secured $3.96 million in grant from the California Energy Commission (CEC) Clean Transportation Programme for the development of the SoHyCal project. Earlier in May this year, the company announced plans to go public via a $750 million SPAC.”
EXTRACTION
DeSmog: Divide Seen in CCS Firms’ Community-Involvement Rhetoric and Reality
Dana Drugmand, 11/6/23
“Increased federal incentives for “carbon management” technologies are catalyzing a surge in proposed carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in the United States, from the Gulf Coast to the Midwest to California. CCS proponents are touting their support of local community involvement in developing these sites. But residents say they are often left with empty promises,” DeSmog reports. “Meaningful engagement and support of local communities is essential,” Sally Benson, deputy director for energy and chief strategist for the energy transition at the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy, told attendees of the DC Forum on Carbon Capture and Storage held in May. The daylong conference, hosted by the pro-CCS think tank Global CCS Institute, in downtown Washington D.C., convened stakeholders from industry, governments, and nonprofits to discuss the current policy, financial, and societal landscape of carbon capture and storage (CCS). Communities “should have a choice” when it comes to hosting an engineered carbon capture or carbon removal project, panel moderator Jessica Oglesby, senior communications lead for the Americas at the Global CCS Institute, said. “Ultimately this is up to the community,” she added. “This has to be a real choice for them, they need to have the option to say no but also the option and the incentives to say yes.” Despite this rhetoric from CCS proponents about listening to local communities and giving them a chance to say no to projects, community groups opposing these projects claim this is not what’s happening on the ground. Excluded from the conference panels were people from the neighborhoods targeted for this massive industrial buildout. Developers of CCS projects generally don’t respect what communities actually want, Manuel Salgado, environmental justice research analyst with WE ACT for Environmental Justice, told DeSmog. In response, Oglesby told DeSmog: “The highest levels of safety, environmental stewardship, and community engagement should be incorporated into all industrial and clean energy projects, including CCS.” If statements “about communities having a real choice were true, then what we should see is that developers won’t pursue these projects in these areas.”
E&E News: Shell, BP Pull Back On Renewables
Shelly Webb, 11/3/23
“Shell and BP reported losses Thursday from their low-carbon businesses, signaling that high costs are hindering their renewable projects in the United States,” E&E News reports. “Shell announced Thursday it has abandoned its stake in the SouthCoast project, a Massachusetts offshore wind farm, adding to an announcement last week that it would cut about 200 positions from its Low Carbon Solutions unit, with another 130 positions under review. During Shell’s third quarter earnings call Thursday, officials said the company’s renewable segment performed at a loss of $67 million. Overall, Shell reported a third quarter profit of $6.2 billion -- up from $5.1 billion in the second quarter of this year – less than half the profit reported during the same period last year when energy prices skyrocketed due to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. BP officials, which reported an overall profit of $3.3 billion, wrote down the value of two U.S. offshore wind initiatives — the Beacon and Empire projects off the cost of New York — by $540 million, citing high interest rates and permitting issues. BP combines its natural gas and renewable financial data in its disclosure reports, making it unclear how much the company made or lost in each sector.”
Press release: Enbridge buys 7 U.S. RNG facilities from Morrow Renewables for US$1.2-billion
11/6/23
“Enbridge has taken another significant step in the business of manufacturing and transporting renewable natural gas (RNG) – by announcing the purchase of seven operating U.S. landfill gas-to-RNG facilities from respected, experienced RNG developer Morrow Renewables. The portfolio, worth US$1.2 billion, instantly establishes our RNG business as a North American midstream leader by volume. The carbon-neutral fuel will play a critical role in society’s cleaner energy future, and these assets complement recent Enbridge moves to grow North America’s volumes of RNG made from food waste and farm waste. “This transaction represents a uniquely de-risked portfolio of operating and scalable RNG assets,” says Enbridge president and CEO Greg Ebel. “The landfill gas-to-RNG facilities . . . will accelerate progress toward our energy transition goals… “Landfill RNG facilities collect gas produced by waste decomposition in the landfill, and treat and compress the gas to pipeline specifications.”
OPINION
Des Moines Register: On carbon pipelines, regular Iowans are winning some rounds against powerful ag interests
Lucas Grundmeier, on behalf of the Des Moines Register Editorial Board, 11/6/23
“The story is far from over, but Iowans who have spent years opposing the construction of carbon dioxide pipelines here have achieved some impressive successes,” the Des Moines Register Editorial Board writes. “Skeptics could be forgiven for having viewed these activists’ efforts at the outset as quixotic. Powerful players were behind the multi-state plans to collect climate-harming carbon dioxide emitted from ethanol plants and pipe it in liquefied form to a burial site… “But now, of three major proposals for pipelines in Iowa and the region, one is dead and another has faced regulatory problems outside Iowa… “The cast responsible for changing the narrative of a fait accompli is surely too large to comprehensively identify. (It notably has not included large segments of elected Democrats or elected Republicans in the state.) Groups such as the Sierra Club, Bold Alliance, Food & Water Watch and others have organized invaluable public and legal resistance. But a significant segment of the voices in opposition has been from landowners and tenants affected by the plans and no small number of other regular Iowans. Tangibly, their comments fill pages and pages of Iowa Utilities Board dockets for the pipelines, and their letters to lawmakers, the news media and others are equally voluminous. “This is an issue that anybody can look at and just see it's not right. It's not right to be giving away our land to a massive corporation while using our tax dollars to let them profit,” Emma Schmit, Pipeline Fighters organizer with Bold Alliance, told the Register. Schmit told the Register. she thinks the resistance is causing problems for Summit’s leadership as it did with Navigator’s. “When you've been at something for two-plus years, and you're not really making any progress, your investors start to get spooked,” she told the Register… “With the carbon pipeline proposals, the Utilities Board used what could have been a straightforward order on the schedule for resuming the Summit hearing to snipe at the attorneys representing pipeline opponents. It's entirely possible that Iowa’s regulators will overlook the concerns that have slowed Summit in other states. But optimism has never been higher that Kim Reynolds and Bruce Rastetter won’t, in fact, be allowed to take private property for a project that does not meet any sensible definition of serving a public use and pencils out only by relying on billions in taxpayer subsidies. Instead of propping up the ethanol industry, Iowans would be better served by focusing our efforts on finding its successor, and a more sustainable path for Iowa agriculture.”
Teen Vogue: Young People Are Demanding An End To Oil And Gas Drilling, The US And UK Aren’t Delivering
Zanagee Artis and Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson, 11/2/23
“...But despite their grand governmental portfolios, the US and the UK are not producing the boldest, most progressive solutions to tackle the climate crisis and achieve environmental justice. People are now waking up to the ugly reality that de-growth can be elusive when the status quo benefits wealthy individuals and corporations,” Zanagee Artis and Elijah Mckenzie-Jackson write for Teen Vogue. “In September, we took to the streets of New York City for the March to End Fossil Fuels. With around 75,000 people, from Alaska to the Amazon and more, we demanded that President Biden use his executive powers to stop federal approvals of fossil fuel projects, phase out fossil fuel production on public lands and waters, and provide a just transition to renewable energy. For us, climate action is more than mobilizing our generation; it’s a wake-up call to everyone to say we need to address the roots of climate destruction — racism, capitalism, and colonialism — to make necessary changes for the future. And we need our leaders to listen. After a harrowing summer of climate devastation, President Biden and UK Prime Minister Rishi Sunak were among the leaders who chose not to attend the UN Climate Ambition Summit. Now they’re plowing forward with new offshore drilling projects, despite the climate fallout and mass opposition… “The UK and US both possess an excess of fossil fuels: The UK exports 80% of oil and 61% of gas from the North Sea; the US is set to reach record production in 2023 and 2024 while becoming a net exporter. This reality makes clear that approvals for new fossil fuels do not contribute to reducing energy costs, bolstering energy independence, or supporting development in the Global South; instead, they deepen Western reliance on dirty energy… “There is a disturbing discrepancy between what people are demanding and what our leaders are doing. It is a divide that extends beyond ideological differences, age, and background. It is reflected in the very system of Western society and politics. After years of talks about the climate crisis, we are ready for action. President Biden, Prime Minister Sunak, and leaders around the world must end the era of fossil fuels and usher in a transition to justly sourced renewable energy.”
The Nation: Supply-Side Liberals Keep Peddling the Fossil Fuel Fix
Hannah Story Brown is a senior researcher with the Revolving Door Project; Dylan Gyauch-Lewis is a senior researcher with the Revolving Door Project, 11/3/23
“As long as they can get away with it, they will continue to invest in fossil fuels,” climate activist Greta Thunberg warned earlier this year. “They will continue to throw people under the bus.” Despite the vast logistical and technological challenges involved in transitioning to a truly green, climate-preserving economy, it has one undeniable sine qua non: society needs to get off of fossil fuels,” Hannah Story Brown and Dylan Gyauch-Lewis write for The Nation, “...Instead, center-left pundits have spent the last year and change urging the environmental left to abandon its rallying cry to “keep it in the ground,” and embrace a so-called energy abundance agenda girded by traditionally right-of-center fixations: deregulation and economic growth. Central to enabling this agenda is “permitting reform,” shorthand for fast-tracking federal approval for building new energy infrastructure. Many of its most vocal advocates have begun to describe themselves as “supply-side liberals,” adherents of an economic outlook that emphasizes government efforts to boost market capacity and productivity, and arguably includes President Biden among its converts. Their approach to decarbonization involves easing barriers to building clean and dirty infrastructure alike; presumably because that’s the most politically palatable approach, regardless of its insanity as climate policy. Deregulators of the permitting process hang their hat on the hope that new subsidies for clean energy technologies will make them cost-competitive enough to crowd out the old infrastructure, without actually implementing a plan to phase out dirty energy. Supply-side liberals consider permitting reform to be a novel course correction from a business-constricting brand of environmentalism they consider “outdated.” Yet calls for permitting reform have proliferated at a “speed you almost never see in policy and government,” remarked one apostle of the supply-side liberal gospel, The New York Times’ Ezra Klein. This is unsurprising when you consider how closely this deregulatory impulse, newly championed by the center-left punditocracy, hews to the longtime priorities of the powerful energy lobby… “It should not be surprising that the fossil fuel industry stoked calls for permitting reform, or that it benefited from them. Indeed, the main weakness of supply-side liberalism is its penchant for dreaming up new incentives aimed at coaxing private companies to voluntarily realize public policy ends… “Unfortunately, the White House has gladly taken the cover offered by supply-side liberals to embrace politically expedient half-measures that rely upon and reward the same companies responsible for destabilizing our climate. As John Podesta, Biden’s senior adviser for clean energy and implementation, explained on the first anniversary of the Inflation Reduction Act, “We stopped asking the question of what do we need to shut down to tackle the climate crisis, and started asking what do we need to build.” Building is indeed important—but building is only half of it. Some things just need shutting down.”
The Hill: Trump 2.0: The climate cannot survive another Trump term
Michael E. Mann is presidential distinguished professor and director of the Center for Science, Sustainability and the Media at The University of Pennsylvania, 11/5/23
“Back in the home stretch of the 2020 presidential election, I stated that a second Trump term would be “game over for the climate.” That hasn’t changed in the years since. In fact, it’s become even more true,” Michael E. Mann writes for The Hill. “We are three years further down the carbon emissions highway, and the devastating consequences of the 1C (1.8F) warming we have already caused are now apparent in the form of unprecedented dangerous, damaging and deadly extreme weather events. As yet, we have not taken the exit ramp needed to avoid a far worse planetary warming of 1.5C (3F). Yes, real progress has been made during the Biden era, with “staggering” green energy growth nearly on track to reach the needed reductions in carbon emissions in the power generation sector. But power generation is only a slice of the carbon emissions pie, responsible for about one-fifth of total carbon emissions. The rest comes from transportation, industry, agriculture and buildings. And collectively, we are not meeting the targets, including a 50 percent reduction in worldwide carbon emissions by 2030 and zero emissions by 2050, required to limit warming to 1.5C/3F… “When he was elected, he turned over the reins of our government to fossil fuel interests and promised — and eventually made good on — a unilateral pullout from the Paris climate agreement. That signaled to other countries, like China and India, that the U.S. was no longer willing to keep up its end of the bargain, and in turn, they slacked off in their own efforts… “The GOP has threatened to weaponize a potential second Trump term against domestic climate action. In the event they also keep the House of Representatives and retake the U.S. Senate, they will fast-track the most climate-averse policy agenda in the history of our nation to be signed into law by Trump… “It is not an overstatement to say, one year out, that we face an American election unlike any other. It will determine not only the course of the American experiment but the path that civilization collectively follows. On the left is democracy and environmental stewardship. On the right is fascism and planetary devastation. Choose wisely.”