EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/9/23
PIPELINE NEWS
Pipeline Fighters Hub: Landowners Finish Testimony, Summit Foregoes Rebuttal, and Iowa Utilities Board Concludes Public Hearings Into Proposed CO2 Pipeline, Sets Briefing Schedule Before Decision Expected in 2024
KIWA: IUB Hearing On Summit Pipeline Has Resumed
Bloomberg: Groups Demand That Army Corps Fully Review CO2 Pipeline Permits
Prism: Energy companies’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline activists sets an alarming precedent for future protests
The Intercept: Oregon Police Obsessively Spied on Activists for Years, Even After Pipeline Fight Ended
Press release: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Get the Lead Out Initiative to Accelerate Removal of Lead Service Lines Nationwide as Part of Investing in America Agenda
Law360: Judge Severs Feds' Counterclaim In Pipeline Trespassing Row
Reuters: TC Energy looking at JVs in Mexico, Canada in divestment push
KETK: Energy company moves plans for pipeline farther from veteran’s home, will still remove 50% of trees
AgWeek: Natural gas pipeline to benefit North Dakota ag and businesses
University of Idaho Argonaut: UI classes cancelled due to damaged gas pipeline
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Democrats won in Virginia and New Jersey despite fossil fuel industry ads criticizing EVs, offshore wind
E&E News: Haley, DeSantis Clash Over Drilling At GOP Debate
Bloomberg: Interior Asks To Reevaluate California Drilling Permit Decisions
E&E News: Supreme Court may end Chevron doctrine. These states have already done it.
STATE UPDATES
New York Times: In a U.S. First, a Commercial Plant Starts Pulling Carbon From the Air
Penn Today: Carbon capture and common misconceptions: A Q&A with Joe Romm
EXTRACTION
New York Times: Nations That Vowed to Halt Warming Are Expanding Fossil Fuels, Report Finds
Associated Press: Governments plan more fossil fuel production despite climate pledges, report says
Guardian: ‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report
Bloomberg: Big Promise, Little Success: The Precarious State of Carbon Capture
Reuters: Occidental CEO sees potential to license 1,000 carbon capture plants
The Conversation: When science showed in the 1970s that gas stoves produced harmful indoor air pollution, the industry reached for tobacco’s PR playbook
Globe and Mail: Oil sector lobby group appoints new board as it fights for relevance
CLIMATE FINANCE
Reuters: Investors rebuff 'Big Oil' climate shareholder resolutions
The New Republic: The Real Cause of ESG’s Big Crash
OPINION
Farmers’ Advance: Don’t bury just the CO₂ pipelines; bury their very idea
Inforum: Ethanol executive says carbon capture is a must
PIPELINE NEWS
Pipeline Fighters Hub: Landowners Finish Testimony, Summit Foregoes Rebuttal, and Iowa Utilities Board Concludes Public Hearings Into Proposed CO2 Pipeline, Sets Briefing Schedule Before Decision Expected in 2024
11/9/23
“After a month-long hiatus in the more than two months-long proceedings to date, testimony before the Iowa Utilities Board considering a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline permit application from Summit Carbon Solutions resumed on Monday this week, and the hearings concluded on Wednesday after impacted landowners completed their testimony, and Summit opted to forego rebuttal testimony,” the Pipeline Fighters Hub reports. “Following the conclusion of testimony and resting of landowners’ case in the hearing, the IUB Commissioners on Wednesday evening decided on a six-week post-hearing briefing schedule from the parties, followed by three weeks to submit reply briefs, after which time the board will review all materials and issue its decision, not expected until sometime in 2024. A number of non-intervening landowners who did not seek legal counsel to officially participate in the proceedings gave testimony on Monday this week, while landowners represented by attorney Brian Jorde with the Iowa Easement Team and Domina Law Group continued their testimony on Tuesday and Wednesday. Bold Alliance is capturing and archiving the live video feed of the IUB proceedings in clips posted to the Bold Nebraska YouTube channel. Testimony clips from this week are assembled below.”
KIWA: IUB Hearing On Summit Pipeline Has Resumed
SCOTT VAN AARTSEN, 11/8/23
“The Iowa Utilities Board hearing on Summit Carbon Solutions proposed pipeline has resumed this week,” KIWA reports. “...Neil Dahlquist, who owns land in Palo Alto County, testified this (Wednesday) morning. Dahlquist says he’s been unable to get confirmation that his insurance company would provide liability coverage if the pipeline ruptured. Dahlquist, who is a neurologist in Minnesota, suggests if the pipeline is built, it will shut down when federal tax credits for carbon capture expire… “Last month, another company — Navigator — cancelled its carbon pipeline project. The company cited unpredictable regulatory processes in states along the proposed pipeline route.”
Bloomberg: Groups Demand That Army Corps Fully Review CO2 Pipeline Permits
Samantha Hawkins, 11/8/23
“Hundreds of environmental, public health, and community groups called on the US Army Corps of Engineers to stop fast-tracking permits for carbon dioxide pipelines that allow the agency to bypass important environmental reviews,” Bloomberg reports. “The Army Corps removed CO2 pipelines from the scope of Nationwide Permit 12 in 2021 and placed them under a new permit category—NWP 58, which allowed it to rush approvals for utility pipelines that transport water, sewage, and other substances, more than 350 groups alleged in a petition. But CO2 pipelines aren’t substantially similar to other utility line activities that are authorized under NWP 58, the …”
Prism: Energy companies’s multimillion-dollar lawsuit against Mountain Valley Pipeline activists sets an alarming precedent for future protests
Ray Levy Uyeda, 11/8/23
“A legal battle currently unfolding in southern Virginia will set the stage for future environmental protests,” Prism reports. “A Montgomery County Circuit Court judge signed an order on Nov. 2 imposing injunctions against six defendants and pipeline protesters in a lawsuit brought by Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), LLC, a joint venture between five fossil fuel companies: Equitrans Midstream Partners, LP, NextEra Energy Capital, Inc., Con Edison Transmission, Inc., WGL Midstream, and RGC Midstream, LLC… “With few other avenues of opposition available to them, activists have used direct action to fight the construction of the pipeline. “It has always been the case that folks who have participated in that kind of illegal action, that extra-legal action, had first started with the law and exhausted all of those legal avenues,” David Pellow, a professor of environmental studies and social movements at the University of California, Santa Barbara, as well as the Chair of the Environmental Studies Department, told Prism. According to activists, the pipeline companies have operated in violation of environmental permits, and their response to the protests is unprecedented. In July, MVP launched its lawsuit against protesters for damages related to direct action protests, but the Sept. 5 motion for temporary injunction pushed further, requesting that defendants be prevented from entering construction areas. Activists, many of whom declined to go on the record with Prism due to ongoing legal proceedings, told Prism they were concerned about the lengths the companies have been able to go to quash and intimidate protesters… “The lawsuit asked the judge to award compensatory and punitive damages of more than $1.3 million, as well as additional damages of $3 million levied against individual protesters and the grassroots organizations Appalachians Against Pipelines and Rising Tide North America, which facilitated bail fund donations… “With protesters potentially on the hook for millions of dollars, the lawsuit is the company’s most ardent escalation to stop direct actions against the project. Legal scholars are concerned that lawsuits like these are a blatant attempt to “chill” protest activity and dissent against climate harm. As Prism previously reported, fossil fuel companies, police, and state governments collaborate on legislation that effectively muzzles those who disagree with extractive projects… “Following the injunctions against six of the defendants named in the suit, the judge still has to make a final determination on the case. A date for the next hearing has not yet been made public. Protesters told Prism that while the lawsuit signals a concerning trend in free speech and democratic participation, it won’t quell their efforts.”
The Intercept: Oregon Police Obsessively Spied on Activists for Years, Even After Pipeline Fight Ended
Natasha Lennard, 11/8/23
“THE ACTIVISTS OF Siskiyou Rising Tide are not new to being watched,” The Intercept reports. “Founded in 2016 under the name Southern Oregon Rising Tide, the direct action climate justice group was a key player in the yearslong battle to stop the Jordan Cove Energy Project, a 229-mile natural gas pipeline that threatened to be the largest single emitter of greenhouse gasses in Oregon. Alongside a coalition of environmental and Indigenous groups, Siskiyou Rising Tide faced major police counterinsurgency efforts, including aggressive monitoring funded by Pembina Pipeline Corporation, the Canadian fossil fuel company behind the project. But a dense web of interagency and corporate surveillance was unable to curtail the Jordan Cove opposition: In a rare victory for the climate movement, Pembina canceled the project in 2021. A new trove of internal police emails, however, reveals that the intrusive and overreaching surveillance practices that developed around the pipeline project have remained firmly in place, even years after Pembina pulled out of the area. Obtained through public records requests by Information for Public Use and Siskiyou Rising Tide and shared exclusively with The Intercept ahead of their publication, the emails show a policing apparatus that treats even the most placid social justice activities — like vigils and Juneteenth celebrations — as sites of criminal threat. “As the Jordan Cove pipeline was defeated around 2020, Siskiyou Rising Tide pivoted to focusing on housing and racial justice issues, and these records requests were part of an attempt to understand what the surveillance landscape looked like post-Jordan Cove,” the Information for Public Use said in a statement shared with The Intercept. The emails show that, from 2016 to 2023, the Medford Police Department coordinated heavy-handed police responses to peaceful rallies and protests, tracked activist groups’ social media pages, and consistently treated typical, First Amendment-protected activity as a potential crime worthy of law enforcement scrutiny.” “...Seeing these emails has proven to us that the police see us as an active threat to our communities, even in the absence of evidence,” Sam Strong, a member of the Rogue Valley Pepper Shakers, told The Intercept. “The observation and keeping tabs is no shock to us however it’s extremely concerning.”
Press release: Biden-Harris Administration Announces New Get the Lead Out Initiative to Accelerate Removal of Lead Service Lines Nationwide as Part of Investing in America Agenda
11/7/23
“Today in Washington, D.C., U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox announced the Get the Lead Out (GLO) Initiative that will help ensure safer drinking water for communities as part of President Biden’s Investing in America Agenda. Through the GLO initiative, which is funded entirely by the Bipartisan Infrastructure Law and is in partnership with the Department of Labor, EPA will partner with 200 underserved communities nationwide to provide the technical assistance they need to identify and remove lead service lines. As part of the Biden-Harris Administration’s whole-of-government effort to tackle lead exposure, EPA will help communities remove the barriers to lead pipe removal. GLO will specifically help participating communities identify lead services lines, develop replacement plans, and apply for funding to get the lead out. Communities seeking to access GLO Initiative resources can request assistance by completing the WaterTA request form on EPA’s WaterTA website. “An estimated 9.2 million pipes that provide drinking water to homes across the United States still contain lead, and they are most commonly found in older homes. This means they disproportionately impact families with the fewest resources to remove them. That’s why this new initiative is so critical – it will provide the kind of assistance that’s needed to accelerate the removal of lead where it’s needed most,” said EPA Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox.
Law360: Judge Severs Feds' Counterclaim In Pipeline Trespassing Row
Tom Lotshaw, 11/8/23
“A North Dakota federal judge said he’s hitting pause on a trespassing counterclaim the U.S. Department of the Interior lodged against a Marathon Petroleum Corp. unit in response to its lawsuit challenging the department’s decision to vacate a string of orders related to its pipeline right of way on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation,” Law360 reports.
Reuters: TC Energy looking at JVs in Mexico, Canada in divestment push
Tanay Dhumal, 11/8/23
“TC Energy (TRP.TO) is open to joint ventures in Mexico and Canada as part of the pipeline operator's C$3 billion ($2.17 billion) divestiture program, the company said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “The company, best known for its Keystone oil pipeline, has disclosed plans to sell assets to reduce debt and fund its other projects grappling with high costs. TC was focusing on multiple transactions to hit the C$3 billion target, company executives said on the call, as "smaller bundles" were more attractive in the current interest rate environment. In July, the company said it would spin off its oil pipeline business and focus on transporting natural gas while also announcing divestment of a 40% interest in its Columbia Gas Transmission and Columbia Gulf Transmission pipelines… “The pipeline operator said its long-delayed Coastal GasLink project had achieved mechanical completion ahead of its year-end target.”
KETK: Energy company moves plans for pipeline farther from veteran’s home, will still remove 50% of trees
Tori Bean, 11/9/23
“In October, KETK News brought you the story of disabled veteran Anthony Voss and his wife Pamela, who have been fighting with Atmos Energy over plans to build a pipeline on their Whitehouse property,” KETK reports. “24 hours after that story aired, the company called them with a change of plans. Atmos Energy came out to the home to resurvey the land, and they moved the placement of where the pipeline would go. Instead of being 100 feet from the home, the pipe will now be built 180 feet away. “Instead of it being right next to my house, it’s only half a football field away,” Anthony told KETK. According to Voss, Atmos Energy said the movement was due to an error from a contractor that is no longer with them. Even with the construction moving further from his house, more than 50% of trees on the property will be lost. “They’re going to be taking over two acres of my land and all the trees in my front yard. [For] most people that may not be a big impact, but for me it’s huge,” Anthony told KETK… “You’re literally coming in here and stealing my wheelchair, figuratively speaking, and my sanctuary is going to become my prison because of you,” Anthony told KETK… “Anthony told KETK his next step is to challenge Atmos Energy legally and try to fight any further action by the company, including eminent domain.”
AgWeek: Natural gas pipeline to benefit North Dakota ag and businesses
Jeff Beach, 11/9/23
“A natural gas pipeline extension in southeast North Dakota will bring additional supply to agribusinesses at Wahpeton and create an opportunity for farms and grain handling facilities to add natural gas service,” AgWeek reports. “WBI Energy has secured a federal permit to build the pipeline from Mapleton, North Dakota, where it has a natural gas compressor station, about 60 miles south to Wahpeton. The company plans to start construction in spring 2024 and be operational by the end of 2024, according to Laura Lueder, manager of communications and public relations… “Wahpeton has had natural gas service but not enough capacity to provide uninterrupted service, Chris DeVries, the community development director for Wahpeton, told AgWeek… “The line also provides the opportunity for “farm taps,” where farms or agribusinesses could tap into the line to use natural gas for drying grain or other purposes.”
University of Idaho Argonaut: UI classes cancelled due to damaged gas pipeline
Joanna Hayes, 11/8/23
“University of Idaho classes have been cancelled for the remainder of the week due to a damaged regional natural gas pipeline, according to an email from President Scott Green,” the University of Idaho Argonaut reports. “Students received a Vandal Alert earlier this evening notifying them of the damaged pipeline. Students were to expect temperatures to drop in all university buildings. Avista, an energy company, notified the university of the damaged pipeline that would have a large impact on the Inland Northwest, the email said. Because of this, all university buildings will have no heat and no hot water. The repair is expected to take multiple days.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Democrats won in Virginia and New Jersey despite fossil fuel industry ads criticizing EVs, offshore wind
Maxine Joselow, 11/9/23
“Democrats won crucial victories on Tuesday night in Virginia, where they recaptured the House of Delegates and held onto the Senate, and New Jersey, where they maintained control of their legislative majorities. The Democratic victories came despite ad campaigns from the fossil fuel industry urging voters to reject liberal climate plans in both states,” the Washington Post reports. “In Virginia, the oil and gas industry spent tens of thousands of dollars on ads criticizing Virginia’s adoption of California’s clean car standards. And in New Jersey, fossil-fuel-industry-funded groups paid for a flurry of ads falsely claiming that offshore wind turbines kill whales. But the messages seem to have fallen flat. “From spreading Big Oil-backed conspiracy theories about offshore wind to hysteria about car bans, Republicans were putting money behind anti-climate and anti-clean energy messages because they were willing to bet it was going to help them win elections,” Christina Polizzi, a spokeswoman for the environmental group Climate Power, told the Post. “It didn’t.” “...Asked for comment, American Petroleum Institute spokeswoman Bethany Williams told the Post: “API is working to educate voters on the impacts of harmful vehicle mandates that restrict Americans’ freedom to purchase a car that fits both their needs and budget.” “...It appears the advertising attacking offshore wind didn’t really appeal to New Jersey voters,” Dave Anderson, a policy and communications manager for the Energy and Policy Institute and the author of the analysis, told the Post. “I think it raises a lot of questions for some of the oil companies that gave money.”
E&E News: Haley, DeSantis Clash Over Drilling At GOP Debate
Timothy Cama, Jonathan Miller, 11/9/23
“Haley, the former United Nations ambassador, accused DeSantis at the Republican presidential primary debate in Miami of being ‘a liberal’ on the environment and ‘has opposed fracking, he’s opposed drilling,’ E&E News reports. “...Haley tried to tie DeSantis to liberal climate change activists. ‘He was praised by the Sierra Club. And you’re trying to make up for it and act like you weren’t a liberal when it comes to the environment,’ she said of the Florida governor. ‘You were, you always have been. Just own it if that’s the case. But don’t keep saying you’re something that you’re not.’ DeSantis pushed back, saying his energy policy plan requires an increase in fracking to boost domestic oil and natural gas drilling. But he also defended his policies as Florida’s governor. ‘I don’t think it’s a good idea to drill in the Florida Everglades. And I know most Floridians agree with me.’ DeSantis, like many Florida Republicans, has opposed offshore drilling in the state, arguing it would harm its tourist economy. … During DeSantis’ 2018 gubernatorial campaign, he supported a ballot initiative, which turned out to be successful, to ban offshore drilling in waters controlled by Florida. He also promised to ban fracking onshore in the state, and signed an order shortly after taking office to implement the ban.”
Bloomberg: Interior Asks To Reevaluate California Drilling Permit Decisions
Shayna Greene, 11/8/23
“The Bureau of Land Management asked a federal court to send a case back to it so that it can reexamine its environmental analyses that led to approvals of oil drill permits in California,” Bloomberg reports. “Environmental groups including the Center for Biological Diversity and Friends of the Earth told the US District Court for the Eastern District of California in June that the agency didn’t account for environmental and community impacts when approving the permits for new oil wells on public land in the San Joaquin Valley.”
E&E News: Supreme Court may end Chevron doctrine. These states have already done it.
Pamela King, 11/8/23
“Some states did it through court rulings. Others, through legislative command. In one state, voters elected to do it by changing their Constitution,” E&E News reports. “Conservative groups tell E&E that efforts by about a dozen states to scale back agency deference within their own borders could be a harbinger of what’s to come at the federal level as the U.S. Supreme Court approaches oral arguments next year in a set of cases that have the potential to end the nearly 40-year-old Chevron doctrine. At the very least, they tell E&E, the state actions show that ending courts’ long-standing practice of yielding to administrative agencies when the law is unclear doesn’t have to spell doom for the environment… “In the five years since Arizona legislated away its deference standard, Tennessee has followed suit, enacting a law in 2022 that requires courts to review state rules without giving special weight to the position of the regulating agency. Florida voters took it a step further, approving a constitutional amendment in 2018 that prohibited judges from deferring to state agencies. A larger number of states have used judicial action to end Chevron deference within their borders… “David Doniger, senior strategic director at the Natural Resources Defense Council and the attorney who presented the losing argument in the 1984 Supreme Court case that birthed the Chevron doctrine, and his NRDC colleague Ian Fein have urged the justices in the upcoming case Loper Bright Enterprises v. Raimondo to uphold their loss and keep the agency deference doctrine on the books. The justices will hear Loper Bright next year, alongside a companion case, Relentless v. Commerce. Challengers in both cases have asked the high court to overturn rulings that upheld, on Chevron grounds, NOAA Fisheries monitoring rules for herring vessels.”
STATE UPDATES
New York Times: In a U.S. First, a Commercial Plant Starts Pulling Carbon From the Air
Brad Plumer, 11/9/23
“In an open-air warehouse in California’s Central Valley, 40-foot-tall racks hold hundreds of trays filled with a white powder that turns crusty as it absorbs carbon dioxide from the sky,” the New York Times reports. “The start-up that built the facility, Heirloom Carbon Technologies, calls it the first commercial plant in the United States to use direct air capture, which involves vacuuming greenhouse gases from the atmosphere. Another plant is operating in Iceland, and some scientists say the technique could be crucial for fighting climate change. Heirloom will take the carbon dioxide it pulls from the air and have the gas sealed permanently in concrete, where it can’t heat the planet. To earn revenue, the company is selling carbon removal credits to companies paying a premium to offset their own emissions. Microsoft has already signed a deal with Heirloom to remove 315,000 tons of carbon dioxide from the atmosphere. The company’s first facility in Tracy, Calif., which opens Thursday, is fairly small. The plant can absorb a maximum of 1,000 tons of carbon dioxide per year, equal to the exhaust from about 200 cars. But Heirloom hopes to expand quickly. “We want to get to millions of tons per year,” Shashank Samala, the company’s chief executive, told the Times. “That means copying and pasting this basic design over and over.” “...Critics point out that many artificial methods of removing carbon dioxide from the air are wildly expensive, in the range of $600 per ton or higher, and some fear they could distract from efforts to reduce emissions. Environmentalists are wary of oil companies investing in the technology, fearing it could be used to prolong the use of fossil fuels.” “...The debate over how big a role carbon removal should play in tackling climate change is still in early stages, Emily Grubert, associate professor of sustainable energy policy at the University of Notre Dame, told the Times. But with billions of dollars rushing in, she told the Times, it’s a crucial discussion. “Using direct air capture to offset large amounts of oil production is a completely different scale than using it to offset a few activities, like fertilizer use, where it’s impossible to cut emissions,” Dr. Grubert told the Times. “And there’s a broad societal interest in figuring out what scale of carbon removal we’re committing to.”
Penn Today: Carbon capture and common misconceptions: A Q&A with Joe Romm
Nathi Magubane, 11/8/23
“As the world leaders and climate policymakers brace for the forthcoming COP28, Joe Romm, a senior research fellow in the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Science, Sustainability, and the Media, presents two new research papers that cast a sobering light on much-touted “solutions” to curb climate change,” Penn Today reports. “The papers—“Why direct air carbon capture and storage (DACCS) is not scalable, and ‘net zero’ is just a dangerous myth” and “Why scaling bioenergy and bioenergy with carbon capture and storage (BECCS) is impractical and would speed up global warming”—serve as reminders that in the race to avert climate calamity, all that glitters is not green. On Nov. 9, he will deliver his keynote at The Third Annual Carbon Dioxide Removal Law & Policy online conference at American University. Ahead of the event, Romm, a met with Penn Today to discuss the intricacies of carbon dioxide removal (CDR) and expose the fallacies that threaten to derail climate action… “Many people have even argued that because of these CDR strategies, we don’t have to actually reduce greenhouse gas emissions so rapidly. But I had always been concerned that DACCS and BECCS are not even commercial yet, so relying on them was risky. So, that is why I took a close look at CDR. What are some of the primary barriers to the scalability of DACCS that you’ve identified? The first barrier is simply how difficult it is to extract CO2 out of the air in large quantities… “But the opportunity cost of all this money and renewables is huge because you could have achieved far more CO2 emissions reductions for a far lower cost simply by using them to replace existing fossil fuel plants on the grid and to power electric vehicles to replace gasoline powered cars. So, studies make clear that until you have eliminated most fossil fuel use, which is unlikely to occur before 2050, DACCS is a costly distraction… “If carbon capture isn’t the silver bullet, what alternatives do you believe should be our focus to reduce CO2 emissions?... “You need to rapidly decarbonize the electric grid by replacing coal and gas plants with solar and wind power–and other renewables as they become available… “At the same time, you need to replace the technologies that rely on fossil fuels for transportation and heating and industrial processes with ones that rely on electricity… “This way by mid-century you end up with a zero-carbon electric grid and the vast majority of the economy running on electricity.”
EXTRACTION
New York Times: Nations That Vowed to Halt Warming Are Expanding Fossil Fuels, Report Finds
Hiroko Tabuchi, 11/8/23
“In 2030, if current projections hold, the United States will drill for more oil and gas than at any point in its history. Russia and Saudi Arabia plan to do the same,” the New York Times reports. “They’re among the world’s fossil fuel giants that, together, are on course this decade to produce twice the amount of fossil fuels than a critical global warming threshold allows, according to a United Nations-backed report issued on Wednesday. The report, which looked at 20 major fossil fuel producing countries, underscores the wide gap between world leaders’ lofty promises to take stronger action on climate change and their nations’ actual production plans… “But in the face of strong opposition from major fossil fuel producers, climate conferences have so far shied away from discussing a phaseout of fossil fuels… “We cannot address climate catastrophe without tackling its root cause: fossil fuel dependence,” António Guterres, the United Nations secretary general, said. “Fossil fuel emissions are already causing climate chaos which is devastating lives and livelihoods,” he said. Yet, “governments are literally doubling down on fossil fuel production.” “...Yet the report issued on Wednesday, led by researchers at the Stockholm Environment Institute, found that nations of the world plan to keep increasing coal production until 2030, and oil and gas production decades beyond that. That means the world remains on track to produce around 110 percent more oil, gas and coal through 2030 as would be allowable if governments wanted to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius, the researchers warned. The world was also set to overshoot, by 69 percent, the amount of fossil fuels consistent with limiting warming to 2 degrees Celsius.”
Associated Press: Governments plan more fossil fuel production despite climate pledges, report says
JENNIFER MCDERMOTT, 11/7/23
“Despite frequent and devastating heat waves, droughts, floods and fire, major fossil fuel-producing countries still plan to extract more than double the amount of fossil fuels in 2030 than is consistent with the Paris climate accord’s goal for limiting global temperature rise, according to a United Nations-backed study released Wednesday,” the Associated Press reports. “Coal production needs to ramp sharply down to address climate change, but government plans and projections would lead to increases in global production until 2030, and in global oil and gas production until at least 2050, the Production Gap Report states. This conflicts with government commitments under the climate accord, which seeks to keep global temperature rise below 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit)... “Governments’ plans to expand fossil fuel production are undermining the energy transition needed to achieve net-zero emissions, creating economic risks and throwing humanity’s future into question,” Inger Andersen, executive director of the United Nations Environment Programme, told AP. As world leaders convene for another round of United Nations climate talks at the end of the month in Dubai, seeking to curb greenhouse gases, Andersen told AP nations must “unite behind a managed and equitable phase-out of coal, oil and gas — to ease the turbulence ahead and benefit every person on this planet.” “...Ploy Achakulwisut, a lead author and SEI scientist, told AP many governments are promoting natural gas — which she referred to as fossil gas — as an essential transition fuel, but with no apparent plans to transition away later. The organizations are calling for governments to reduce fossil fuel production in line with climate goals, and to be more transparent. They want wealthier countries to aim for more ambitious reductions and support the transition processes in poorer countries.”
Guardian: ‘Insanity’: petrostates planning huge expansion of fossil fuels, says UN report
Damian Carrington, 11/8/23
“The world’s fossil fuel producers are planning expansions that would blow the planet’s carbon budget twice over, a UN report has found. Experts called the plans “insanity” which “throw humanity’s future into question”, the Guardian reports. “The energy plans of the petrostates contradicted their climate policies and pledges, the report said. The plans would lead to 460% more coal production, 83% more gas, and 29% more oil in 2030 than it was possible to burn if global temperature rise was to be kept to the internationally agreed 1.5C. The plans would also produce 69% more fossil fuels than is compatible with the riskier 2C target. The countries responsible for the largest carbon emissions from planned fossil fuel production are India (coal), Saudi Arabia (oil) and Russia (coal, oil and gas). The US and Canada are also planning to be major oil producers, as is the United Arab Emirates. The UAE is hosting the crucial UN climate summit Cop28, which starts on 30 November. The report sets out starkly the fundamental conflict driving the climate crisis: fossil fuel burning must rapidly be cut down to zero, yet petrostates and companies intend to keep on making trillions of dollars a year by increasing production… “Neil Grant, an analyst at the Climate Analytics thinktank and an author of the report, told the Guardian: “Despite their climate promises, governments’ plan on ploughing yet more money into a dirty, dying industry, while opportunities abound in a flourishing clean energy sector. On top of economic insanity, it is a climate disaster of our own making.”
Bloomberg: Big Promise, Little Success: The Precarious State of Carbon Capture
Christine Driscoll and Akshat Rathi, 11/8/23
“On its face, carbon capture and storage (CCS) sounds like a great idea,” Bloomberg reports. “On its face, carbon capture and storage (CCS) sounds like a great idea. Using chemicals, carbon dioxide can be separated from the emissions generated by power plants and stored underground forever. The fix is so elegant, and the emissions challenge so huge, that CCS is included in the International Energy Agency’s projections of how humanity will reach net zero by 2050. CCS has also emerged as the fossil fuel industry’s favorite climate solution, but not for its net-zero potential. The technology can be used — and has historically been used — to boost fossil fuel production at aging power plants. That tension is at the heart of this week’s Zero podcast, the first of two episodes devoted to carbon capture and removal. For the first epsiode, host Akshat Rathi sits down with Emily Grubert, a professor of sustainable energy policy at Notre Dame, to talk about the state of CCS and how it should be used. “It’s so energy-intensive that if you add CCS to a coal plant, you’re roughly doubling the amount of coal you need,” Grubert told Bloomberg. “A large buildout of CCS on gas plants would dramatically increase the demand for gas. [A] large buildout for coal would dramatically increase the demand for coal. And so these incentive structures are not very well aligned with climate action.”
Reuters: Occidental CEO sees potential to license 1,000 carbon capture plants
Sabrina Valle, 11/8/23
“Occidental Petroleum (OXY.N) wants to sell technology licenses to enable partners to build plants that take carbon out of air, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub said on Wednesday, a day after winning investment for its first large scale plant,” Reuters reports. “The business potentially could support over 1,000 projects to mitigate global warming, the U.S. oil and gas producer said, creating a new line of revenue from selling direct air capture (DAC) technology and design expertise. "We will be licensing a lot of this out," Hollub told investors in a webcast to discuss third quarter earnings… “In the franchise-like model, Occidental would charge a licensing fee and turn over management and construction to partners. Its first large-scale DAC plant, a $1.3 billion project, is set to start in mid-2025 and be followed by others. "We are just going to build a partnership to make this happen at a pace that is much faster than what we could do ourselves," Hollub said. Occidental expects to spend about $600 million per year through 2026 to build its own projects, which could eventually number 100. "Instead of expecting to build 100 of these, then we can start to get into the hundreds of them and potentially the thousands that are going to be needed to be built," Hollub said… “BlackRock Inc, the world's biggest money manager, on Tuesday said it will invest $550 million in Occidental's West Texas plant, Stratos. State-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) separately agreed to fund a preliminary engineering study for a 1 million tonne-per-year facility in the United Arab Emirates.”
The Conversation: When science showed in the 1970s that gas stoves produced harmful indoor air pollution, the industry reached for tobacco’s PR playbook
Jonathan Levy, Professor and Chair, Department of Environmental Health, Boston University, 11/3/23
“In 1976, beloved chef, cookbook author and television personality Julia Child returned to WGBH-TV’s studios in Boston for a new cooking show, “Julia Child & Company,” following her hit series “The French Chef.” Viewers probably didn’t know that Child’s new and improved kitchen studio, outfitted with gas stoves, was paid for by the American Gas Association,” The Conversation reports. “While this may seem like any corporate sponsorship, we now know it was a part of a calculated campaign by gas industry executives to increase use of gas stoves across the United States. And stoves weren’t the only objective. The gas industry wanted to grow its residential market, and homes that used gas for cooking were likely also to use it for heat and hot water. The industry’s efforts went well beyond careful product placement, according to new research from the nonprofit Climate Investigations Center, which analyzes corporate efforts to undermine climate science and slow the ongoing transition away from fossil fuels. As the center’s study and a National Public Radio investigation show, when evidence emerged in the early 1970s about the health effects of indoor nitrogen dioxide exposure from gas stove use, the American Gas Association launched a campaign designed to manufacture doubt about the existing science. As a researcher who has studied air pollution for many years – including gas stoves’ contribution to indoor air pollution and health effects – I am not naïve about the strategies that some industries use to avoid or delay regulations. But I was surprised to learn that the multipronged strategy related to gas stoves directly mirrored tactics that the tobacco industry used to undermine and distort scientific evidence of health risks associated with smoking starting in the 1950s. The gas industry relied on Hill & Knowlton, the same public relations company that masterminded the tobacco industry’s playbook for responding to research linking smoking to lung cancer. Hill & Knowlton’s tactics included sponsoring research that would counter findings about gas stoves published in the scientific literature, emphasizing uncertainty in these findings to construct artificial controversy and engaging in aggressive public relations efforts.”
Globe and Mail: Oil sector lobby group appoints new board as it fights for relevance
EMMA GRANEY, 11/9/23
“Canada’s largest oil lobby group will soon have a new board chair, the latest in a series of leadership changes at the organization as it grapples with a period of significant upheaval in the global energy sector,” the Globe and Mail reports. “It was announced Wednesday that Paul Myers, the president of Canbriam Energy Inc. and a 35-year oil and gas veteran, will take the reins as chair of the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP) board on Jan. 1. He replaces Craig Bryksa, the president and chief executive officer of Crescent Point Energy Corp., who has led CAPP through what the organization called “a unique two-year tenure during a time of leadership change and organizational transformation.” In an interview at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary in September, Ms. Baiton told the Globe and Mail CAPP was rebuilding its internal research and data capabilities to get back to its roots as a research-based advocacy organization… “For years, CAPP was the loudest lobbying voice for Canada’s oil and gas producers. These days, however, it jostles for position with the Pathways Alliance, a group of Alberta’s largest oil sands producers that has pledged to bring emissions from production to net zero by 2050.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Reuters: Investors rebuff 'Big Oil' climate shareholder resolutions
11/7/23
“Big U.S. investors at the top five western oil firms' shareholder meetings this year rebuffed an activist group's resolutions to align their emission targets with the Paris climate pact, in contrast to some European peers, voting data showed,” Reuters reports. “Netherlands-based activist group Follow This was created first to target Shell and subsequently expanded to file climate resolutions at other western majors including BP, Exxon Mobil, Chevron and TotalEnergies. According to the data published by it and investors, giant U.S. investors BlackRock, Vanguard, State Street and JPMorgan all voted against the Follow This resolutions this year. The resolutions asked the groups to align their 2030 end-use emissions targets with the Paris goal of keeping warming well below 2 degrees Celsius (3.6 Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels, which scientists say will mean cutting greenhouse gas emissions by around 43% from 2019 levels.
The New Republic: The Real Cause of ESG’s Big Crash
Timothy Noah, 11/7/23
“Florida Governor Ron DeSantis surely would like to take credit for ESG’s recent woes, but there’s a simpler explanation,” The New Republic reports. “…ESG stands for environmental, social, and governance, and investors who follow its do-gooder guidelines have become a culture-war target. “Elites are circumventing the ballot box to implement a radical ideological agenda,” Governor Ron DeSantis, the nation’s preeminent culture-war blowhard, complained in February when he introduced an anti-ESG bill in Florida. The measure, which barred the state and local governments from considering ESG when making investment decisions or choosing contractors, became law in May. Nationwide, similar bills were introduced this year in 37 states and became law in about 20. But it would be a mistake to attribute ESG’s downfall to the MAGA right. The real culprit was the revival of Big Oil. ESG’s greatest triumph was to get establishment nonprofits and governments to disinvest in fossil fuels to combat climate change… “To Republican culture warriors, this was a signal that capitalism no longer believed in the profit motive. It had to be stopped! In truth, the stampede from fossil fuels reflected the reality that oil and gas stocks had over the previous decade become a seriously bad investment… “The stampede to ESG in 2020 and 2021 reflected Big Oil’s big decline. Charitable organizations, state and local governments, and Wall Street didn’t discover the climate change crisis because 2020 was a record-breaking hurricane season. They discovered it because Big Oil was on the ropes. Then Vladimir Putin invaded Ukraine and everything changed. The price of oil shot up, and oil stocks became the darlings of an otherwise lackluster S&P 500. Even after oil prices came back down, energy stocks continued to outperform the rest of the market as Russia and Saudi Arabia curtailed production. Suddenly ESG threatened to become what the MAGA right said it was all along: an investment strategy that left money on the table.”
OPINION
Farmers’ Advance: Don’t bury just the CO₂ pipelines; bury their very idea
Alan Guebert, 11/8/23
“...That elegant, beautiful truth comes to mind when reading a just-published “case study” that compares the cost and net carbon dioxide (CO₂) output of the planned 2,000-mile Summit CO₂ pipeline to the wind- and solar-based electricity that could fuel “battery-electric vehicles,” or BEVs,” Alan Guebert writes for Farmers’ Advance. “At its heart, the new study asks, what gives the better environmental and financial return, billions spent on a CO₂ pipeline that encourages more ethanol use or investing the same amount on solar and wind generators to power BEVs? The resulting math, presented by the study’s author, Mark Z. Jacobson, a civil and environmental engineer at Stanford University, is detailed, compelling, and irrefutable in its conclusion: Don’t spend another penny on Summit’s five-state, CO₂ pipeline… “This study concludes that investing in wind turbines to provide electricity to BEVs is far more beneficial in terms of consumer cost savings, CO₂ emissions, land use, and air pollution than making the same investment in a plan to capture CO₂ from ethanol refineries, pipe the CO₂ to an underground storage facility, and use the ethanol to produce E85 for FFVs,” or flex fuel vehicles. Moreover, Jacobson continues, quoting his revealing math, “The fuel savings alone,” an estimated “$66.9 to $111 billion over 30 years is 12 to 20 times the $5.6 billion investment in [the] Summit [pipeline] project.” “...Moreover,” he adds, “the production, transport and refining of corn to produce ethanol creates air pollution that may exceed the upstream pollution from gasoline.” The engineer’s hammering math dives into other aspects of the bad bargain that is CO₂ pipelines. For example, photosynthesis “is only 1% efficient” while solar panels are “20 to 23 percent efficient” and therefore need “only 1/20th of the land to produce the same energy as a biofuel crop.” The clear bottom line to the Summit pipeline and, really, any CO₂ pipeline says Jacobson, is as obvious as one plus one: Don’t bury CO₂ pipelines; instead, bury their very idea. Fast.”
Inforum: Ethanol executive says carbon capture is a must
Rob Port, 11/8/23
“Thanks to the widely-reported consternation over carbon pipelines, carbon capture has become a hot-button issue,” Rob Port writes for Inforum. “But political kerfuffles tend to obscure that North Dakota is on the bleeding edge of carbon capture and storage technology. On this episode of Plain Talk, Jeff Zueger, the CEO of Harvestone, joined us to talk about the new carbon capture and storage project they've launched at their Blue Flint Ethanol facility near Underwood. At that facility, they're capturing 100% of their emissions from the fermentation process, and since October, they've been injecting 600 metric tons of carbon dioxide about a mile-deep underground daily. As significant as that is, the project's provenance may be even more critical. The federal government made North Dakota the first stare to be granted primacy over carbon injection wells… “Zueger told Inforum capturing carbon is hugely important to the ethanol industry, from the farmers who grow fuel crops to companies like his that turn them into fuels. Carbon capture is "one of the single biggest things we can do to step down our carbon intensity," and that matters, because increasingly the fuels market is demanding lower carbon intensities. Zueger pointed out that, thanks to the emergence of electric vehicles, the liquid fuels markets are already contracting. The demand that's left wants lower-emission fuels. "We have to respond to those markets," he told Inforum.