EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 1/19/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Canadian Press: Enbridge, state of Michigan renew Line 5 hostilities in court
Pipeline Fighters Hub: On One-Year Anniversary of Keystone XL's Death: Apply the Biden Standard: Stop the Pipelines
Bloomberg: FERC Chairman to Endorse Mandatory Pipeline Reliability Rules
The Gazette: How far would Iowa pipeline projects go toward U.S. climate change goals?
Clinton Herald: Navigator drops Clinton County from pipeline plans
Gas Compression Magazine: Nova Gas Transmission Plans North Corridor Expansion
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Biden fails to fulfill pledge on climate lawsuits
E&E News: Interior reveals plans for orphan well cleanup
EXTRACTION
Marketwatch: IEA sees global oil demand topping pre-pandemic levels in 2022
Financial Post: Canada needs energy policy clarity around carbon capture to get projects off the ground
ABC News: Experts slam oil giant Exxon Mobil's net-zero 'ambition'
CLIMATE FINANCE
Bloomberg: Larry Fink Infuriates Republicans and Climate Activists Alike
CNBC: Climate activists criticize BlackRock CEO’s support for slow transition off oil and natural gas
Reuters: BlackRock's Fink defends as 'not woke' push for values as well as profits
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Guardian: How Exxon is using an unusual law to intimidate critics over its climate denial
OPINION
Roanoke Times: Letter: Now more than ever, MVP must be stopped
The Hill: Rising costs of climate crisis must compel Congress to act
PIPELINE NEWS
Canadian Press: Enbridge, state of Michigan renew Line 5 hostilities in court
By James McCarten, 1/18/22
“Enbridge Inc. and the state of Michigan are renewing their legal hostilities over the future of the controversial Line 5 pipeline — and their latest court battle looks an awful lot like the last one,” the Canadian Press reports. “Attorney General Dana Nessel and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer were dealt a setback last November when District Court Judge Janet Neff granted Enbridge’s request that the case be removed to federal court, a decision that prompted Michigan to abandon that particular challenge. Instead, the state is focusing its efforts on a separate but similar circuit court action filed in 2019 that spent last year in a state of suspended animation, and which Enbridge is once again arguing should be heard by a federal judge because it comprises an important foreign policy question. Too late, Nessel argues in her latest tract of court documents, filed Friday with the very same judge who heard the original arguments. “The present action was pending in state court for nearly two and a half years before (Enbridge) removed it to this court,” she says. Federal law makes it clear that cases can only be removed to federal jurisdiction within 30 days of a complaint being filed, the documents note. “It is more than two years too late, and federal courts do not condone this type of gamesmanship and abuse of the removal statutes.” “...Critics want the line shut down, arguing it’s only a matter of time before an anchor strike or technical failure triggers a catastrophic environmental disaster in one of the area’s most important watersheds. Michigan has every right to take whatever steps are necessary to protect it, the National Wildlife Federation said in a statement. “If Enbridge’s gamesmanship is successful, it would allow Enbridge to circumvent Michigan’s ability to protect the Great Lakes and to tie the case up in federal court by months, if not years, leaving the Great Lakes in great danger.”
Pipeline Fighters Hub: On One-Year Anniversary of Keystone XL's Death: Apply the Biden Standard: Stop the Pipelines
1/119/22
“On the eve of the one-year anniversary of the day President Biden took action on his very first day in office to fulfill a campaign promise and revoked the permit for the Keystone XL pipeline — Bold and Indigenous Environmental Network took out a full-page ad in POLITICO and launched a digital ad campaign calling out President Biden for applying the "Biden Standard" behind the project's rejection just a single time: follow science, apply a climate test, and respect environmental justice by listening to those of us who live in the pipelines's path. The Biden administration is allowing dangerous tarsands, oil, fracked gas, and carbon pipelines to move forward even though they all fly in the face of science, due process, and advance a climate crisis. It's time for the President to honor the promise he made in his campaign and follow the Biden Standard he put in place. Add your name to the petition to tell Pres. Biden: Apply the Biden Standard & stop the pipelines: https://bit.ly/bidenstandard”
Bloomberg: FERC Chairman to Endorse Mandatory Pipeline Reliability Rules
1/18/22
“Congress should pass legislation to establish mandatory reliability standards on energy pipelines in the face of extreme weather and cyberattacks, the top U.S. energy regulator told lawmakers in written testimony published Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports. “The lack of mandatory reliability standards on pipelines carrying oil, natural gas and other energy products “poses a risk to the reliability of the bulk-power system,” Richard Glick, chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, wrote ahead of a House Energy and Commerce subcommittee hearing scheduled for Wednesday. That hearing focuses on the Energy Product Reliability Act (H.R. 6084), which would require FERC to certify a new…”
The Gazette: How far would Iowa pipeline projects go toward U.S. climate change goals?
Erin Jordan, 1/19/22
“Three companies want to build pipelines to carry carbon dioxide from Iowa ethanol plants to underground sequestration sites in neighboring states, standing to benefit from billions of dollars in federal tax credits and from West Coast fuel sales if the ethanol industry can reduce its greenhouse gas emissions,” The Gazette reports. “...But do these projects — opposed by some Iowans who don’t want the pipelines under their farms or near their homes — make a dent in the total amount of CO2 the United States must remove from the atmosphere to avoid the worst impacts of climate change? And would these billion-dollar projects focused on ethanol plants become obsolete as electric vehicle use grows?.. “Altogether, these three projects — if built — would sequester between 27 and 39 million metric tons of CO2 a year. If they operate for 10 years, they would sequester between 270 and 390 million metric tons cumulatively by 2035… “But the state’s CO2 emissions in 2019 were 86 million metric tons, said Arvind Ravikumar, an associate professor in the Hildebrand Department of Petroleum and Geosystems Engineering at the University of Texas at Austin… “But are the these pipelines the best investment to reduce the impact of climate change? Thompson tells the Gazette yes. “We’re not going to meet our climate goals without carbon capture,” Thompson told the Gazette. “Sequestering CO2 from ethanol plants removes that pollution from the atmosphere right away and can happen as even as electric vehicle use grows. These pipelines are designed to pay out over 12 years. During that period, we’re going to find out how cheap we can get carbon capture. This money will not have been wasted.”
Clinton Herald: Navigator drops Clinton County from pipeline plans
Nancy Mayfield and Erin Jordan, 1/18/22
“The Texas company with plans to build a pipeline across Iowa to transmit carbon dioxide says it is dropping Clinton and Cedar counties from its proposal,” the Clinton Herald reports. “We’ve made changes to our footprint,” Elizabeth Burns-Thompson, vice president of government and public affairs for Navigator CO2 Ventures, told the Herald. Those changes were prompted by ADM’s announcement Jan. 11 that it chose to partner with Wolf Carbon Solutions to build a 350-mile carbon dioxide pipeline from its plants in Clinton and Cedar Rapids to an already-operational sequestration site for greenhouse gases in Decatur, Illinois. While Navigator hasn’t filed any formal applications yet, it had been in confidential discussions with ADM, Burns-Thompson told the Herald… “Clinton County Supervisors Vice Chairman Jim Irwin told the Herald the supervisors received a message from Navigator about its decision. The supervisors have not heard yet about a specific route for the ADM/Wolf project. “We’re going to be looking for a lot more information in this area,” Irwin told the Herald. “This is another situation in which there are a lot of unknowns, including the route.”
Gas Compression Magazine: Nova Gas Transmission Plans North Corridor Expansion
B. Henry Henderson, 1/18/22
“Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. (NGTL), a subsidiary of TC Energy, plans to construct and operate the North Corridor Expansion Project. The project includes the addition of a 30-MW gas turbine compressor package to the existing Hidden Lake North Compressor Station, construction of approximately 50 miles (81 km) of new pipeline, and associated facilities in northwestern Alberta, Canada,” Gas Compression Magazine reports. “...Construction is expected to occur in the third and fourth quarter of 2022, with completion and in-service anticipated in the second quarter of 2023. These new pipeline sections and facilities will be integrated into TC Energy’s NGTL System. This project will expand pipeline capacity to handle gathering and transporting sweet natural gas from the Peace River Project Area to areas in eastern and northeastern Alberta.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Biden fails to fulfill pledge on climate lawsuits
By Lesley Clark, 1/19/22
“President Biden promised on the campaign trail that he would urge his Department of Justice to “strategically support” climate change-related lawsuits against polluters,” E&E News reports. “But as Biden marks one year in office tomorrow, Attorney General Merrick Garland has not — as of yet — waded into the legal battle, despite repeated entreaties from Senate Democrats and the chief lawyers in a half-dozen blue states that are pursuing claims against the oil and gas industry… “Climate lawyers had expected the Biden administration to stand in contrast to Trump’s DOJ, which filed a half-dozen "friend of the court" briefs in support of the oil industry’s arguments in a procedural battle that has stalled the climate liability lawsuits…“The president pledged that they would ‘strategically support’ the cases, and they have failed to do that,” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, told E&E. “And that’s significant. The Department of Justice is an important voice on the legal landscape, and its absence is conspicuous.” Wiles told E&E the department under Biden has not submitted briefs “or offered any support” for any of the cases — most of which are currently entangled in disputes over whether the cases should be heard in state or federal court.”
E&E News: Interior reveals plans for orphan well cleanup
By Heather Richards, 1/18/22
“The Interior Department has signed an agreement with several other federal agencies to organize its nationwide effort to clean up orphaned oil and gas wells,” E&E News reports. “Congress directed a historic $4.7 billion toward plugging abandoned wells on federal, tribal and private lands when it passed the bipartisan infrastructure package in November… “The MOU signed last week creates an executive team to provide high-level direction, decide on funding and prepare annual reports on the orphan well cleanup efforts to Congress. The team will be made up of the five Interior assistant secretaries, the director of the Bureau of Land Management and undersecretary for natural resources and environment at the USDA… “BLM will head a technical working group responsible for managing the orphan well program on federal lands, ranking orphan wells for cleanup operations, and developing a way to track and measure the methane pollution coming from abandoned wells. It will also rely on experts at the U.S. Geological Survey, the Bureau of Indian Affairs, EPA and DOE… “Nearly every state with documented orphaned wells has indicated that it will apply for federal funds, according to Interior. Preliminary reports from those state expressions of interest place the number of documented orphaned wells as more than double previous estimates.”
EXTRACTION
Marketwatch: IEA sees global oil demand topping pre-pandemic levels in 2022
Will Horner, 1/19/22
“Global oil demand will exceed pre-pandemic levels this year thanks to growing Covid-19 immunization rates and as recent virus waves haven’t proved severe enough to warrant a return to strict lockdown measures, the International Energy Agency said Wednesday,” Marketwatch reports. “In its monthly oil market report, the IEA hiked its oil demand growth forecast for the coming year by 200,000 barrels a day, to 3.3 million barrels a day. The Paris-based agency also raised its demand growth forecasts for 2021 by 200,000 barrels a day to 5.5 million barrels a day… “The number of Covid cases is exploding world-wide but measures taken by governments to contain the virus are less severe than during earlier waves and their impact on economic activity and oil demand remain relatively subdued,” the IEA said.
Financial Post: Canada needs energy policy clarity around carbon capture to get projects off the ground
Yadullah Hussain, 1/19/22
“The Canadian energy industry needs policy clarity, not just government funding, to see investments flow into the country’s carbon capture, utilization and storage technology, says a senior industry executive,” the Financial Post reports. “I think we need some aspects nailed down to a fiscal policy, not a verbal policy,” Andy Mah, who retired at the end of last year as CEO of Advantage Energy Ltd. and now sits on its board, told the Post. “We hear politicians talk, but we need to somehow build it into the fiscal framework of Canada,” Mah told the Post. “When that occurs, you’ll see more companies willing to put much more dollars into that technology and you’re going to get private investment.” “...The Paris-based energy watchdog considers CCUS technology as a key lever for Canada to help reduce its greenhouse gas emissions intensity for crude oil production, which is currently the third-highest globally. At stake are more than 440 major resource projects — worth more than $540 billion in investments — planned or under construction across Canada over the next 10 years, the IEA estimated. While Ottawa has introduced a number of new policy measures that take into account the views of many stakeholders, many of these projects remain challenged due to concerns around emissions and environmental damage, in addition to local and Indigenous opposition.”
ABC News: Experts slam oil giant Exxon Mobil's net-zero 'ambition'
Catherine Thorbecke, 1/19/22
“Exxon Mobil Corp. announced on Tuesday an "ambition" to reach net-zero greenhouse gas emissions in its operations in the next three decades, but fell short of making any commitments to offset or reduce the massive amounts of Earth-warming emissions from the fossil fuels that account for the company's profits,” ABC News reports. “...As the vast majority of greenhouse gas emissions from the oil and gas industry stem from the consumption of its products, scientists and environmental researchers have slammed the headline-grabbing announcement from the U.S. energy giant as ineffective and insufficient at a time when climate change is already harming communities around the globe. "ExxonMobil's emissions reduction pledge misses the mark and is too little, too late," Kathy Mulvey, accountability campaign director in the Climate and Energy program at the nonprofit Union of Concerned Scientists, told ABC News in a statement. "This commitment solely covers operational emissions, known as scope 1 and 2, which make up only a small portion of the global warming emissions associated with a fossil fuel company's business. By not making any commitment to reduce the emissions that come from burning oil and gas, known as scope 3, ExxonMobil is shifting blame for the bulk of its emissions onto consumers who are using its products exactly as the company intended.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Bloomberg: Larry Fink Infuriates Republicans and Climate Activists Alike
Alastair Marsh, 1/18/22
“Larry Fink, the chief executive officer of BlackRock Inc., is drawing a lot of ire these days for someone who’s attracting record inflows from investors,” Bloomberg reports. “Climate activists accuse him of being full of “hot air,” while pro-fossil-fuel Republicans have started blacklisting BlackRock from their U.S. states. The one thing the two sides have in common is that neither seems to like Fink’s approach to sustainable investing. Fink, whose firm now manages more than $10 trillion, sent his 10th annual letter to fellow CEOs late Monday. In it, Fink reaffirmed that his devotion to capitalism is what guides him, and that divesting from oil, gas and coal companies isn’t in the cards. But the 69-year-old also spoke of the inevitable shift away from fossil fuels, and warned companies not to cling on to business models that will leave them the “dodo” of the transition to renewable fuels. His efforts to strike a balance drew criticism from environmentalists. Lara Cuvelier, a campaigner at nonprofit Reclaim Finance, told Bloomberg Fink is going out “to bat for fossil gas as well as oil.” She and others pointed to the urgency of decarbonization as scientists warn that the world needs to end its fossil-fuel addiction. The International Energy Agency has made clear there’s no room for continued investment in new oil, gas and coal projects if the temperature increase is to be kept within the critical threshold of 1.5 degrees Celsius… “Ben Cushing, fossil-free finance campaign manager at the Sierra Club, told Bloomberg Fink is full of “hot air” and his annual letter is filled with “vague rhetoric.” Cushing and other climate activists pointed to BlackRock’s continued investment in some of the world’s biggest emitters of greenhouse-gas emissions, with Reclaim Finance and Urgewald having estimated last year that the asset manager had about $85 billion invested in coal companies.”
CNBC: Climate activists criticize BlackRock CEO’s support for slow transition off oil and natural gas
Catherine Clifford, 1/18/22
“BlackRock CEO Larry Fink’s most recent annual letter called the need to decarbonize the global economy the largest investment opportunity of this generation, but he didn’t go far enough in his willingness to transition away from the oil and gas industries, climate activists told CNBC. “Fink said traditional fossil fuel companies’ global infrastructures are necessary in order to build a bridge toward that decarbonized future… “But some climate activists reject the idea that greenhouse gas-emitting energy sources have any role in the conversation. “Moira Birss, climate and finance director at environmental organization, Amazon Watch, told CNBC that to include fossil fuel companies in an energy-transition conversation signals that Fink’s climate talk is insincere. “Fink apparently wants to be above the political fray, but by playing nice with those profiting off of the causes of climate change, he’s making the political choice to reject climate science, which makes absolutely clear that a rapid transition from all fossil fuels is unquestionably urgent and necessary.”.
Reuters: BlackRock's Fink defends as 'not woke' push for values as well as profits
By Akriti Sharma and Ross Kerber, Simon Jessop, 1/18/22
“Larry Fink, chief executive of the world's biggest asset manager BlackRock Inc (BLK.N), has defended its focus on the interests of society as well as on profits in the face of criticism from many sides,” Reuters reports. “Asset managers increasingly analyse corporate performance on environmental, social and governance-related issues to bolster returns and to attract cash from investors focused matters such as workforce diversity or how to cut carbon emissions… “He said it was not 'woke' and did not have an ideological agenda, but was capitalist in that it was based on mutually beneficial relationships with employees, customers, suppliers and communities. Fink, 69, also spoke up for BlackRock's stance in engaging with companies on the transition to a low-carbon economy rather than divesting from fossil fuel sectors, saying the companies cannot be the "climate police." "Divesting from entire sectors – or simply passing carbon-intensive assets from public markets to private markets – will not get the world to net zero," he said.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Guardian: How Exxon is using an unusual law to intimidate critics over its climate denial
Chris McGreal, 1/18/22
“ExxonMobil is attempting to use an unusual Texas law to target and intimidate its critics, claiming that lawsuits against the company over its long history of downplaying and denying the climate crisis violate the US constitution’s guarantees of free speech,” the Guardian reports. “The US’s largest oil firm is asking the Texas supreme court to allow it to use the law, known as rule 202, to pursue legal action against more than a dozen California municipal officials. Exxon claims that in filing lawsuits against the company over its role in the climate crisis, the officials are orchestrating a conspiracy against the firm’s first amendment rights. The oil giant also makes the curious claim that legal action in the California courts is an infringement of the sovereignty of Texas, where the company is headquartered. Eight California cities and counties have accused Exxon and other oil firms of breaking state laws by misrepresenting and burying evidence, including from its own scientists, of the threat posed by rising temperatures. The municipalities are seeking billions of dollars in compensation for damage caused by wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather events, and to meet the cost of building new infrastructure to prepare for the consequences of rising global temperatures… “Patrick Parenteau, a law professor and former director of the Environmental Law Center at Vermont law school, has described the company’s move as “intimidation” intended to make “it cost a lot and be painful to take on Exxon” whether or not the company wins its case.”
OPINION
Roanoke Times: Letter: Now more than ever, MVP must be stopped
Nathaniel Leies, field organizer, Virginia League of Conservation Voters, Richmond, 1/14/22
“In his Saturday, Jan. 8 article, “Legal fights continue over the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” Laurence Hammack depicts the nearly seven-year fight to defeat MVP as at a critical juncture. Now that Virginia’s State Water Control Board and West Virginia DEP have made clear they will not safeguard clean water from MVP and subsequent polluters, protecting Virginia from MVP rests in the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals, and the strength of our judiciary,” Nathaniel Leies writes for the Roanoke Times. “Historically, the Fourth Circuit has been on the side of environmental protection and critical of threadbare permits that did little to protect clean water and vulnerable ecosystems from destructive pipelines. If allowed to proceed, MVP will decimate water quality and the endangered species in this project’s path, which is why upcoming legal challenges are so critical. The need for this project has been consistently overblown, and we must aggressively insert ourselves in the debate over our energy needs and stop companies like EQT from telling Virginians that pipeline after pipeline is the only way to be energy secure.”
The Hill: Rising costs of climate crisis must compel Congress to act
Manish Bapna is the president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, an environmental advocacy group with more than 3 million supporters nationwide, 1/18/22
“Last year, while too much of Washington dithered and danced around the urgent need for climate action, catastrophic drought, storms, floods and other weather and climate disasters resulted in $145 billion worth of damage and took 688 lives nationwide, according to a new report from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA),” Manish Bapna writes for The Hill. “...Every day we fail to act on climate, we are adding to these costs and risks — and passing them along to our children. In economic terms, we’re borrowing from the future to sustain the fuels of the past. We’re burying our children alive beneath a mountain of environmental debt from which they may never recover. Small wonder that two-thirds of the country wants the federal government to take action. Increasingly, that support is crossing party lines. Extreme weather disasters, it turns out, don’t check the voter registration roles before striking. It’s time to confront these growing costs and the existential peril they present. Fortunately, it’s not too late to act — but it’s far too late to dither… “President Biden has a plan to set us on track to do our part. The centerpiece is the climate action, the strongest in U.S. history, contained in the Build Back Better Act. Passed by the House in November, it’s now before the Senate. We can’t afford for the Senate to fail us. It’s time to pass the bill.”