EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 12/18/23
PIPELINE NEWS
North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota Supreme Court to hear pipeline survey access case
WGLT: McLean County Board denies special-use permit for CO2 wells proposed for Saybrook area
Bloomberg: Energy Regulator Weighs Manchin Pipeline Extension, Rate Boost
Real News Network: BREAKING INTO TMX: SECWÉPEMC ALLIES TRY TO STOP CONSTRUCTION OF CANADA’S PIPELINE
KVLY: ND Schools Superintendent says DAPL shutdown would hurt K-12 schools
WCMH: Ohio gas bills may go up with a pipeline provision added to this legislation
Midland Reporter-Telegram: Kinder Morgan puts Permian Highway expansion in service
Empire-Advance: Enbridge’s final task making right of way better post pipeline construction
WASHINGTON UPDATES
The Hill: Democrats revolt against Biden plan for expanded gas exports
E&E News: Biden admin approves smallest offshore oil program in history
World Oil: API: Final Five-Year Offshore Program Is ‘Step In Wrong Direction’ For U.S. Energy Security
InsideEPA: GOP Senators Object To EPA’s Oil & Gas Emissions Reporting Proposal
E&E News: Biden’s Arctic Oil Rules May Leave ‘Big Gaps’ On Climate
E&E News: BLM Advances 'Hard Look' At Trump-Era Alaska Land Orders
Associated Press: US Treasury Department issues guidelines around a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel
Washington Post: Is climate-friendly flying possible? Biden administration places a big wager.
Reuters: Exxon's low US tax payments ruffle Biden's climate agenda
E&E News: Green groups’ diversity push stalls in key areas — report
STATE UPDATES
The Ohio Newsroom: Could the Ohio River Valley be a carbon capture and storage hub?
Associated Press: Alaska Governor Unveils Budget With $3,400 Oil-Wealth Checks For Residents
EXTRACTION
Reuters: COP28 climate deal 'stab in the back', activist Greta Thunberg says
Houston Chronicle: Will the COP28 fossil fuel pledge prove out?
Reuters: Canada to announce all new cars must be zero emissions by 2035
Wall Street Journal: A Shale Oil CEO’s Second Act: Going Green
CLIMATE FINANCE
Press release: Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Surpasses 1600+ Commitments
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Enbridge: Culture, Tradition, STEM and Learning on the Land
CKNewsToday: Inaugural Black Excellence Awards set for Chatham during Black History Month
Clarington This Week: ‘The leading edge’: New funding to support Clarington firefighter training
OPINION
The Alpena News: If not now, then when?
Bismarck Tribune: Letter: Carbon capture isn’t the problem; Summit Carbon Solutions is
Dallas Morning News: Carbon capture can work
Politico: To save the climate, change the game for petrostates
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Direct air capture: An expensive, dangerous distraction from real climate solutions
PIPELINE NEWS
North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota Supreme Court to hear pipeline survey access case
JEFF BEACH, 12/17/23
“Howard Malloy says he’s fine with Summit Carbon Solutions putting in a pipeline in North Dakota, he just doesn’t want the pipeline -- or even survey crews from the company -- on his land,” the North Dakota Monitor reports. “...Malloy refused to even allow Summit representatives onto his property. “I don’t support the pipeline. I don’t want it on my property. Go wherever you want, but stay away from me,” Malloy told the Monitor. “So, they sued me, and we lost in district court.” His case, along with several similar cases in which Summit sued landowners over survey access, were lumped together into one proceeding. The North Dakota Supreme Court will hear an appeal of SCS Carbon Transport v. Malloy along with the other cases on Monday. Malloy’s attorney is Brian Jorde with Domina Law in Nebraska, a major player in the pipeline fight in the Midwest. He told the Monitor the district court ruling puts no limits on Summit’s access to private property. “They can just come on your land 24/7, 365. No notice, no restriction, no payments,” Jorde told the North Dakota Monitor. The argument from the landowners is that North Dakota law authorizes a “taking” in violation of the takings clause in the North Dakota Constitution. They say the district court’s order, including its rejection of reasonable limitations on Summit, authorizes a taking. A taking requires a court order and compensation, set by a jury, for the landowner… “Landowners have cited concerns about pipeline safety, damage to farmland and reduced property values. And in Malloy’s case, limitations on future development… “The Northwest Landowners Association supports Malloy in a court filing. “The bottom line is that the district court misapplied the law,” the association said in its legal argument. “SCS's playing fast and loose with the constitutional rights of the citizens of North Dakota should not be tolerated.”
WGLT: McLean County Board denies special-use permit for CO2 wells proposed for Saybrook area
Michele Steinbacher, 12/14/23
“The McLean County Board on Thursday resoundingly rejected a company’s request to capture and store carbon in a trio of wells near Saybrook, citing lack of a safety plan for the proposal,” WGLT reports. “...In general, rejections can’t be resubmitted for one year. But if new evidence demonstrating a changed situation is there, “the director of building and zoning can waive that requirement, and submit the application for review, without delay,” said Cline. She noted the company, which is a subsidiary of One Earth Energy, still needs to get its Class VI well permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, and that’s not expected for another year; and that the Illinois Commerce Commission hasn’t OK’d the company’s proposed pipeline to the sites in Anchor and Cheney's Grove townships… “Thursday’s 19-0 decision to vote down the zoning board’s recommendation to approve the permit drew applause from the crowded chamber. Many opponents had spoken against the proposed project — both on Thursday, and during four previous ZBA hearings on the matter. They have raised safety and health concerns surrounding the carbon capture and storage process… “Dawn Dannenbring, lead environmental organizer for Illinois People’s Action [IPA] was among the speakers calling for the county board to reject the special-use permit. After the meeting, Dannenbring told WGLT the advocacy group was very happy with the board’s vote, and she was confident they’d made a difference in the decision. “This is the first sequestration in the country that has been stopped by community organizing, and the public weighing in,” she told WGLT… “The group also wants to get a message to President Biden, that it disagrees carbon capture and storage belongs in a U.S. plan to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. At Thursday’s meeting, Dannenbring was passing out postcards to the crowd, Addressed to the White House, the cards read: “All We Want for Christmas is no CCS.”
Bloomberg: Energy Regulator Weighs Manchin Pipeline Extension, Rate Boost
Daniel Moore, Kellie Lunney, 12/18/23
“Energy regulators on Tuesday will consider rate increases and an extension of an important project deadline for the long-delayed Mountain Valley Pipeline championed by West Virginia Democrat Joe Manchin,” Bloomberg reports. “Developers of the natural gas pipeline that runs through West Virginia and Virginia want to hike transportation rates to cover ballooning costs of the project. Equitrans Midstream Corp. is also asking regulators to give them more time to complete a 75-mile extension of the pipeline into North Carolina, amid the kind of permitting hurdles and local opposition that have delayed the original project by several years.”
Real News Network: BREAKING INTO TMX: SECWÉPEMC ALLIES TRY TO STOP CONSTRUCTION OF CANADA’S PIPELINE
BRANDI MORIN, 12/15/23
“It’s 4 a.m on Sunday, December 10, and Khursten Bullock and Crissy Fox (an alias she prefers to use) are ready for their mission. The mist of their breath trails hangs in the moonlight that dimly lights the rolling grasslands near Kamloops, B.C. They’ve been tasked with dropping tobacco into one of the bore holes inside the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion’s construction site. A Secwépemc prophecy holds that the tides will shift in their favour once the ceremonial medicine touches the bottom,” Real News Network reports. “...They don’t want to be spotted by Trans Mountain security. Not yet… “This is where some of the last of Canada’s TMX project is being stitched together. The project is a cash cow for the Canadian oil economy as it’s the only pipeline carrying crude oil from Alberta to the West Coast… ”The project has faced continuous delays since its original owner proposed an expansion in 2012. Protests quickly erupted from environmental groups, the City of Burnaby, and Indigenous nations expressing opposition to the expansion cited serious concerns of damage to ecosystems along its route… “But the pipeline wasn’t supposed to run through the grassland hills near Jacko Lake in unceded Secwépemc territory. The community had opposed the original plans, and had secured assurances from the company that they would avoid parts of the area and use micro-tunnelling instead of the more destructive trenching… “Despite opposition from the Secwépemc Nation, the regulator approved the route change. “Since time immemorial, our people have had an ancestral, cultural, and spiritual connection to the area known as Pípsell, which is considered a ‘cultural keystone place,’” Stk’emlúpsemc te Secwépemc Nation, which consists of the Tk’emlúps te Secwépemc and Skeetchestn Indian Band, states in a news release. “Through engagement and collaboration over the years, Trans Mountain is aware of the spiritual and cultural significance of the Pípsell area and our obligations to these lands. The sacredness of this area is also recognized by the provincial and federal Crown.” “...As I continue to do this work, I am constantly reminded that Pípsell is not just a lake, it is an inseparable area that is also a burial and prayer ground,” Unceded Law Response Group Commissioner and Secwépemc knowledge keeper Mike McKenzie told RNN in an interview. “We have to do what we can to stop this because it is some of the last if not the last of its kind.”
KVLY: ND Schools Superintendent says DAPL shutdown would hurt K-12 schools
Gretchen Hjelmstad, 12/15/23
“North Dakota School Superintendent Kirsten Baesler says a possible shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline would cause “extensive harm” to the state’s public schools by reducing oil tax revenues that they rely upon,” KVLY reports. “...Baesler says oil tax revenues make up a substantial chunk of the state aid that North Dakota provides to its K-12 schools. A pipeline shutdown would reduce those revenues and cause “extensive, immediate, and irreparable harm … to more than 130,000 North Dakota public and nonpublic school students and their families, as well as the teachers, administrators, and school staff who support them,” Baesler said. The 2023 Legislature agreed to spend $2.38 billion in state aid to education over two years, the superintendent said. About $1.7 billion will be from the state’s general fund, which is reliant on oil and gas taxes… “So, a potential shutdown of the Dakota Access Pipeline would greatly disrupt state aid to local K-12 schools,” Baesler said. “It would reduce state revenues available to provide instruction to public school students. It would hamstring initiatives to increase the pay of our classroom teachers, and to relieve our shortages of both teachers and school administrators.” A shutdown “would damage our efforts to support students with special needs,” Baesler continued. “It will shift the responsibility for supporting local schools away from the state, which now provides more than 70 percent of local education expenditures, to local property taxpayers. This would lead to further inequities of access and opportunities for our students of color and special needs.”
WCMH: Ohio gas bills may go up with a pipeline provision added to this legislation
Sarah Szilagy, 12/15/23
“A bill meant to prevent Ohio towns and counties from restricting the sale of gas cars has been sent to the governor’s desk with a provision allowing gas companies to charge customers to build pipelines for potential “megaprojects,” WCMH reports. “House Bill 201, passed by both chambers Wednesday evening, was intended to prevent the Ohio EPA from adopting California’s more stringent emissions standards for vehicle manufacturers. But a last-minute amendment to the bill allows gas companies to tack on up to $1.50 to customers’ monthly bills to fund the construction of natural gas pipelines to supply energy to massive economic development projects – like Intel’s 1,000-acre Licking County site for semiconductor chip facilities… “Gas company executives, including from Columbia Gas and Duke Energy, testified Tuesday that without the rider, gas companies would be unable to extend pipelines to accommodate large projects in regions of the state ripe for development. That means “job makers” with bold development plans will choose elsewhere to invest, testified Vince Parisi, president and chief operating officer of Columbia Gas… “But Democrats and some Republicans view the rider less as an opportunity to boost the economy and more as an additional burden on ratepayers.”
Midland Reporter-Telegram: Kinder Morgan puts Permian Highway expansion in service
Mella McEwen, 12/16/23
“Kinder Morgan gave Permian Basin natural gas producers an early gift when it placed the expansion of its Permian Highway Pipeline into service during the first of the month,” the Midland Reporter-Telegram reports. “The expansion added 500 million cubic feet of capacity to the pipeline. “We are pleased to have placed the PHP Expansion project in service,” Kinder Morgan’s Natural Gas Midstream President Tom Dender told the Reporter-Telegram by email. “This project provides U.S. Gulf Coast markets with greater access to natural gas from the Permian Basin, which is a critical affordable, reliable and lower-carbon energy source.”
Empire-Advance: Enbridge’s final task making right of way better post pipeline construction
12/14/23
“The official record shows that construction of the Canadian portion of Enbridge’s Line 3 Replacement Program (L3RP) was completed more than four years ago and that the new pipeline came into commercial service in December 2019. But as the general public marked those milestones, small Enbridge construction crews prepared to tackle a final series of tasks – ensuring full and final restoration of the 1,070-km pipeline’s surface corridor to its pre-construction state,” the Empire-Advance reports. “...Going forward, maintenance of the pipeline RoW will continue under the Enbridge Operations team… “Both during and after construction, Enbridge worked closely with landowners to identify patches of land that would require additional attention such as reseeding, noxious weed control or rearranging topsoil among other measures. Aerial and ground surveys also helped pinpoint these areas. By the start of 2023, a total of 84 items remained in need of some form of additional attention… “In keeping with commitments to landowners and Indigenous communities, the restoration crew also featured a monitor from the Canadian Association of Energy Pipeline & Landowner Associations (CAEPLA) as well as an Indigenous construction liaison. "At the end of the day, the people who live along or in proximity to the pipeline right-of-way are Enbridge’s neighbours and we have an obligation to continuously live up to the trust that they’ve placed in us,” Sawatzky concludes. “That’s really what drives us.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
The Hill: Democrats revolt against Biden plan for expanded gas exports
SAUL ELBEIN, 12/15/23
“The Biden administration’s plans for increased natural gas exports are causing a revolt within the Democratic Party,” The Hill reports. “Despite the boom in renewables reducing domestic demand for fossil fuels, the administration is backing the gas industry’s plans to sell fuel at higher prices abroad, believing they will lead to less production of climate-warming chemicals like carbon dioxide by displacing dirtier-burning coal… “But gas is itself a planet-heating chemical, and Democrats argue that the administration’s policies have done little to address a big problem for the climate: The U.S. fossil fuel industry plans to increase oil and gas production for decades. Democratic senators, led by Ed Markey (Mass.), have called on the administration to stop investing in gas plants abroad, noting that the administration has already spent $1.8 billion on overseas fossil fuel plants this year alone, along with voting at the World Bank to direct $400 million in new gas financing to poorer countries. “The United States can’t preach temperance from a bar stool, and right now, America is drunk on oil and gas production and exports,” Markey wrote Wednesday. In addition, 32 Democratic members of Congress urged the administration in November to begin planning for the end of fossil fuels… “But in focusing only on leaks from transporting the fuel — something the industry already has incentives to do — the Biden administration is “ducking the hard issue” on climate change, Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) told The Hill… “Casten was one of 60 congressional Democrats who signed on to a November letter demanding the Department of Energy (DOE) reassess whether the new LNG terminals were in the national interest — a condition required for new gas exports under the 1931 Natural Gas Act… “Is it in the U.S. national interest for us to decarbonize our economy and continue ramping up fossil fuel production and export overseas?” Casten told The Hill.
E&E News: Biden admin approves smallest offshore oil program in history
Heather Richards, 12/15/23
“The Biden administration approved the smallest offshore oil program in U.S. history Friday, a move that’s already provoked both outrage from Republicans and disappointment from climate activists who had urged the president to take more dramatic action,” E&E News reports. “Over the next five years, the Interior Department will hold just three oil auctions of drilling rights in the Gulf of Mexico, where most of the nation’s oil and gas production occurs. The agency first announced its plans for the next five years of offshore drilling in September…”The shrunken program is the latest example of the White House’s efforts to curtail the nation’s fossil fuels footprint on public lands and waters, despite mandates to allow some development of the nation’s large stores of crude oil and natural gas. Climate activists had urged President Joe Biden to zero out oil sales in the five-year plan, consistent with his promise during the presidential campaign of 2020 to retire the nation’s drilling program. Oil supporters, however, demanded a return to previous norms with multiple oil auctions held every year… “Interior said Friday that its three-sale schedule is the minimum required to comply with the Inflation Reduction Act. West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat who supports fossil fuels, included a provision in the 2022 climate-focused law that would prohibit new offshore wind leasing — a cornerstone in Biden’s decarbonization push — unless Interior holds an offshore oil sale of at least 60 million acres in the prior year.”
World Oil: API: Final Five-Year Offshore Program Is ‘Step In Wrong Direction’ For U.S. Energy Security
12/15/23
“The American Petroleum Institute (API) released the following statement on Dec. 15 from the Vice President of Upstream Policy Holly Hopkins on the Biden administration’s approval of a five-year program for federal offshore leasing,” World Oil reports. “Simply put, this final five-year program fails to meet the energy needs of the American people and could threaten to increase reliance on foreign energy sources. Demand for affordable, reliable energy is only growing, yet the administration is choosing to limit future production in a region that plays a critical role in powering our nation and supplies among the lowest carbon-intensive barrels in the world. This program is a step in the wrong direction for U.S. energy security and will only make it harder to meet growing energy demand over the long-term.”
InsideEPA: GOP Senators Object To EPA’s Oil & Gas Emissions Reporting Proposal
12/15/23
“Several Senate Republicans are pressing EPA to reconsider its proposed revisions to greenhouse gas reporting requirements for oil and gas facilities, arguing they would ‘artificially overestimate’ methane emissions and thus companies’ obligations under a looming methane ‘fee’ on excess emissions,” InsideEPA reports. “The advocacy adds to conflicting input to the agency on its updates to the GHG Reporting Program (GHGRP) that highlights the stakes of the pending revisions, which respond to requirements in the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA). That law phases in a fee on excess methane emissions beginning in 2024, and EPA has proposed to generally rely on the pending reporting updates beginning with 2025 emissions. EPA’s proposed ‘subpart W’ revisions for oil and gas facilities under the GHGRP ‘blatantly disregard and overstep,’ the IRA statute, and ‘will excessively increase the tax burden on American energy under the new methane fee,’ claims a Dec. 14 letter to EPA from the senators, led by Senate environment panel ranking member Shelley Moore Capito (R-WV). Others signing the letter are Sens. Kevin Cramer (R-ND), Markwayne Mullin (R-OK), Pete Ricketts (R-NE), and Dan Sullivan (R-AK).”
E&E News: Biden’s Arctic Oil Rules May Leave ‘Big Gaps’ On Climate
Heather Richards, 12/18/23
“Proposed Interior Department rules for drilling in the Western Arctic are spurring two contradictory views: that President Joe Biden has thwarted an oil boom in northern Alaska or paved the way for one,” E&E News reports. “Which perspective turns out to be right has significant implications for climate change and the future of the oil industry in the Arctic, considering the size of the petroleum reserves in the region. The Bureau of Land Management proposal, which could strengthen Interior’s ability to block future drilling on protected lands in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, follows Biden’s controversial decision earlier this year to approve the massive Willow oil project in the same reserve. Drillers say the NPR-A rules could infringe on their development rights, while green groups say it fails to shift the NPR-A away from its origins as a potential stockpile of crude oil. How Interior officials apply the new language could determine which side will eventually claim victory. Earthjustice attorney Jeremy Lieb told E&E the proposed NPR-A rules, while an improvement, don’t address the serious question of how ongoing oil development in the reserve will ‘align with climate commitments.’ ‘Those are big gaps,’ he told E&E.”
E&E News: BLM Advances 'Hard Look' At Trump-Era Alaska Land Orders
Scott Streater, 12/14/23
“The Bureau of Land Management has completed a highly anticipated draft analysis of a series of Trump-era orders that would open 28 million acres of federal lands in Alaska to energy development and mining,” E&E News reports. “BLM, in a notice published in Thursday’s Federal Register, announced it has completed a draft environmental impact statement that, when finalized next year, will guide Interior Secretary Deb Haaland’s decision whether to uphold or reject five public land orders issued in the closing weeks of Donald Trump’s presidency that would have lifted restrictions on the use of the lands. The notice outlining the draft EIS offers no details on what action BLM will ultimately recommend and includes no ‘preferred alternative’ indicating whether the bureau plans to revoke the controversial land orders signed by former Interior Secretary David Bernhardt in January 2021. The Interior Department in April 2021 deferred opening the areas covered in the public land orders until at least August 2024 while it evaluated legal ‘deficiencies’ in them — including the fact that only one of the orders was published, as required, in the Federal Register.”
Associated Press: US Treasury Department issues guidelines around a new tax credit for sustainable aviation fuel
DAVID KOENIG, 12/15/23
“The Biden administration released long-awaited guidance on Friday around tax credits for aviation fuel that reduces emissions of greenhouse gases compared with fuel made from crude oil,” the Associated Press reports. “Some environmentalists expressed concern that the Treasury Department guidelines could allow credits for fuel made from corn and other crops that they consider poor choices because of the water and other resources needed to grow them. Midwest lawmakers and companies that produce corn-based ethanol praised the guidelines, although their enthusiasm could be short-lived… “On a key issue — and after months of deliberations — the Treasury Department accepted measuring those emission reductions by using a model that was developed by the U.S. Energy Department and which is supported by the ethanol industry. However, Treasury said the Biden administration plans to update the model by March 1, leaving uncertainty around the eventual tax treatment of ethanol used to power airplanes. Treasury said the update will include “new modeling of key feedstocks and processes used in aviation fuel,” and will consider the impact on emissions from growing crops used to make the fuel… “Our initial assessment is that this would be a blank check for fuels made from sugar cane, soybean and rapeseed — none of which are sustainable or consistent with Congress’ intent,” Environmental Defense Fund senior vice president Mark Brownstein told AP.
Washington Post: Is climate-friendly flying possible? Biden administration places a big wager.
Evan Halper, 12/15/23
“The Biden administration on Friday unveiled the framework of its plan for achieving one of the most elusive goals in the fight against global warming: making jet travel more climate-friendly,” the Washington Post reports. “The proposal calls for giving subsidies to support the development of “sustainable aviation fuels,” capable of powering jet engines from agricultural products. Examples of such fuels include biofuels engineered out of soybeans, diesel made with animal fat and conventional types of ethanol… “But environmental groups and some scientists expressed reservations about the plan, which would award subsidies based on a scientific model that has previously been used to justify incentives for corn-based ethanol. Studies have found the gasoline additive is exacerbating climate change… “The concern is they will end up subsidizing fuels that take an enormous amount of land to produce,” Tim Searchinger, a senior research scholar at Princeton University, told the Post. In addition to corn-based ethanol, he told the Post, the new subsidy could spur massive new production of biofuels made from vegetable oil, with farmland currently being used to grow food replaced with crops harvested for jet fuel production. That, in turn, could unleash more deforestation around the world as land is cleared to backfill food production displaced in the United States, Searchinger told the Post.”
Reuters: Exxon's low US tax payments ruffle Biden's climate agenda
Tim Mclaughlin, 12/15/23
“Exxon Mobil’s income tax payments to the U.S. government have dropped to 3% over the past five years – several times below the company’s 20-year average – on massive deductions passed under former President Donald Trump,” Reuters reports. “Corporate tax experts told Reuters Exxon could enjoy low taxes for several more years, at a time when the government needs more money to fund an ambitious fight against climate change. President Joe Biden’s minimum corporate tax is off to a shaky start and calculation of the 15% tax factors in the Trump accelerated depreciation deductions that Exxon used last year. That lowered its tax rate to a rock-bottom 2.5% on domestic profit of $28.3 billion, according to the "current federal income tax expense" Exxon disclosed in its annual report. “If you view the use of these tax breaks as a problem, Biden’s new minimum tax is unlikely to end that,” Matt Gardner, a senior fellow at the nonpartisan Institute on Taxation of Economic Policy (ITEP) in Washington D.C., told Reuters. In sharp contrast, the most valuable companies representing major sectors of the U.S. economy paid an average tax rate on domestic profits at least seven times higher than Exxon, according to a Reuters analysis of the companies' latest annual financial reports…”But if companies continue to spend money on large capital projects – like finding and developing new oil fields - payments on deferred income taxes can be postponed for years. “These deferred income tax liabilities can go on forever," Donald Williamson, an accounting professor at American University’s Kogod School of Business, told Reuters.
E&E News: Green groups’ diversity push stalls in key areas — report
Robin Bravender, 12/14/23
“Environmental groups have boosted their racial diversity in recent years, according to a report released this week, but organizations have stagnated when it comes to diversifying their senior staffs and boards,” E&E News reports. “Green 2.0, a group that promotes diversity in environmental organizations and foundations, issues an annual report card tracking groups’ efforts to boost diversity on their staffs. This year’s report — the seventh consecutive analysis — includes data from 73 nonprofit groups and 25 foundations. “This year, people of color hit a green ceiling,” Green 2.0 Executive Director Andrés Jimenez said Thursday at an event in Washington unveiling the group’s report card. “There was a halt in the number of people of color represented at many levels of organizations,” Jimenez said. “People of color cannot advance anymore if organizations do not make sustained commitments to taking a deeper look at their policies and seeing how they can create a more inclusive culture.” This year’s data shows that there were small increases in people of color among environmental organizations’ full-time staffs and among those leading the groups. But Green 2.0’s analysis found “stagnation of progress on senior staffs and boards” of nonprofits. Of the nonprofits surveyed, 71.3 percent of senior staff are white, as are 56.2 percent of board members and 68.4 percent of the organizations’ leaders.”
STATE UPDATES
The Ohio Newsroom: Could the Ohio River Valley be a carbon capture and storage hub?
Erin Gottsacker, 12/18/23
“Carbon capture and storage technology can catch carbon dioxide molecules from smokestacks before they enter the atmosphere. A recent report identified the Ohio River Valley as a potential hub where this technology could be implemented,” according to The Ohio Newsroom. “...Carbon capture and storage is a set of technologies that allow anybody to capture carbon dioxide from the smokestack of the industrial plant, isolate the carbon dioxide molecule, capture it, and then store it underground,” Aniruddha Sharma, the chair and CEO of Carbon Clean, a company that develops this technology, told the Newsroom… “But one of the best places to implement a hub, Sharma told the Newsroom, is the Ohio River Valley. “I would say it's maybe one of the top four places in the US where you have a very good concentration of CO2 emitters that could be decarbonized,” he told the Newsroom… “The report identified about 130 carbon dioxide emitting units across eastern Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia that could benefit from being part of a CCUS hub… “And there’s another reason why the Ohio River Valley could be the right region to develop a CCUS hub: its geology. “The whole area is blessed with the geology where CO2 could be actually stored for a very, very long time,” Sharma told the Newsroom, “permanently, actually.” “...He told the Newsroom West Virginia is applying for a permit from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency to store carbon dioxide underground.”
Associated Press: Alaska Governor Unveils Budget With $3,400 Oil-Wealth Checks For Residents
12/15/23
“Alaska Republican Gov. Mike Dunleavy unveiled a budget plan Thursday that would pay residents an oil-wealth dividend of about $3,400 next year using a formula that lawmakers have all but abandoned and use savings to plug an estimated $990 million deficit,” the Associated Press reports. “The proposal does not include an increase in the per-student K-12 school funding formula, though Dunleavy, a former educator, said he expected education to be at the fore of discussions when lawmakers convene for their new legislative session next month. He said he wanted lawmakers to consider his proposal from last session that would provide bonuses to teachers as a way to help recruit and retain them. Dunleavy blasted the federal government and groups that have challenged oil, mining and other development projects in Alaska, saying it has left the state with choices such as having to make budget cuts, tax residents and businesses, or reduce the size of the yearly dividend. Alaska has no state sales tax or personal income tax, and for years, without resolution, lawmakers have talked about the need for a fiscal plan that moves away from the boom-bust cycles of budgeting tied to the state’s reliance on a volatile commodity: Oil.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: COP28 climate deal 'stab in the back', activist Greta Thunberg says
12/15/23
“The COP 28 climate deal reached with huge fanfare this week in Dubai is a stab in the back for the nations most affected by global warming and won't stop temperatures rising beyond critical levels, activist Greta Thunberg said on Friday,” Reuters reports. “...But critics say the deal will not prevent global temperatures from rising more than 1.5 degrees Celsius above the pre-industrial average, which scientists say will trigger catastrophic and irreversible impacts, from melting ice sheets to the collapse of ocean currents. "This text is toothless and it is nowhere even close to being sufficient to keep us within the 1.5 degree limit," Thunberg told Reuters outside Sweden's parliament where she and a handful of other protesters were calling for climate justice. "It is a stab in the back for those most vulnerable…As long as we don't treat the climate crisis as a crisis and as long as we keep lobby interests influencing these texts and these processes, we are not going to get anywhere," she told Reuters.
Houston Chronicle: Will the COP28 fossil fuel pledge prove out?
James Osborne, 12/15/23
“The significance of the communique that came at the end of the COP28 conference, in which countries for the first time agreed to call for “transitioning away from fossil fuels,” could be tough to parse,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “After all, COP agreements are nonbinding and the text was rife with disclaimers, such as the transition must be done in a “just, orderly and equitable manner,” meaning the transition would only happen if it doesn’t cause a spike in energy prices… “Michael Webber, a University of Texas energy professor who attended the conference, told the Chronicle despite the myriad off ramps worked into the text, the agreement was meaningful by mentioning fossil fuels at all — something oil producing nations have long resisted… “Still, that reliance on diplomatic pressure to move the needle has always made it difficult to estimate the impact of the COP gatherings, which have been an annual event since 1995. One U.S. oil lobbyist, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to speak publicly, told the Chronicle the industry hadn’t paid the COP text too much mind and was more concerned with new Environmental Protection Agency rules limiting methane emissions from oil and gas drilling.”
Reuters: Canada to announce all new cars must be zero emissions by 2035
12/17/23
“Canada expects to announce this week that all new cars will have to be zero emissions by 2035, a senior government source told Reuters, as Ottawa is set to unveil new regulations in the latest example of countries around the world pushing for electrification,” Reuters reports. “The new rules, known as the Electric Vehicle Availability Standard, would help ensure supply is available to the Canadian market and shorten wait times to get an electric vehicle, the source told Reuters, confirming earlier media reports. The Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Quebec already have the same regulated sales targets. Zero-emission vehicles - which include battery electric, plug-in and hydrogen models - must represent 20% of all new car sales in 2026, 60% in 2030 and 100% in 2035, the source told Reuters on condition of anonymity.”
Wall Street Journal: A Shale Oil CEO’s Second Act: Going Green
Phred Dvorak, 12/17/23
“For almost a decade, Tony Sanchez III was the epitome of a shale-boom CEO—furiously drilling oil wells, piling on debt and hunting quail and nilgai with fellow executives near his family’s ranch in South Texas. Then tumbling oil prices and heavy debt helped send his company, Sanchez Energy, into bankruptcy in 2019,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “...Sanchez’s new company, OneNexus, is offering what he calls life insurance for oil wells—policies that pay out money needed to shut down and cap wells after they expire. Currently, many struggling oil-and-gas companies abandon their wells without capping them, leading to tens of thousands of so-called orphan wells that leak methane—a potent greenhouse gas—as well as other toxic fumes… “In the past, oil-and-gas entrepreneurs who closed one drilling venture often started another. Today, money has gotten tight for many new fossil-fuel projects in the U.S. as the productivity of wells wanes and climate-conscious investors shy away, industry executives say… “The capital available for new oil-and-gas businesses is significantly more discriminating and there’s a lot less of it,” Dan Pickering, chief investment officer at Houston-based energy investment and advisory firm, Pickering Energy Partners, told the Journal. Concerns over climate change are also lessening the attractiveness of the oil-and-gas industry… “It would have been impossible a decade ago to convince oil producers they should buy insurance policies for aging wells, but the growing attention to clean energy is changing things, Sanchez told the Journal.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Press release: Global Fossil Fuel Divestment Surpasses 1600+ Commitments
12/15/23
“On the heels of COP28, where world governments finally recognized the need to “transition away from fossil fuels” but failed to acknowledge the inevitable phase-out, the global fossil fuel divestment movement surpassed a major milestone, already leading the way to a fossil free world: 1600+ institutions, representing $40.6 trillion in assets, are cutting ties with the toxic energy of the past. Swiss pension fund CPEG, the UK’s Wiltshire Pension Fund, and the largest private pension fund in the Netherlands are the latest to join the unstoppable movement. In 2023 alone, major divestment commitments were made by the Church of England, New York University, the National Academy of Medicine, and Triodos Bank. “This 1600 commitment milestone is an undeniable proof of concept, all thanks to people-powered momentum, even in the face of climate chaos and collective grief,” said Amy Gray, Stand.earth Climate Finance Associate Director and coordinator of the Climate Safe Pensions Network. “Even in times of heartache, we are resolved in our work to hold polluters accountable for climate chaos, and to reclaim, repair, and rebuild healthy and safe communities.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Enbridge: Culture, Tradition, STEM and Learning on the Land
12/15/23
“Learning on the land through observation, storytelling, direct participation and through ceremony has always been the way of teaching in Indigenous communities,” according to Enbridge. “Finding a way to align this local knowledge with modern-day STEM teachings is exactly the aim of the Indigenous Youth in STEM Program (InSTEM) from Actua… “Enbridge is committed to fostering sustainable communities where we work and live. In 2023, a $100,000 Fueling Futures grant from Enbridge directly supports five of Actua’s for-school-credit learning camps, while an identical $100,000 Fueling Futures grant has been directed to Actua’s Cyber Smart Education program, continuing a partnership that began in 2021.”
CKNewsToday: Inaugural Black Excellence Awards set for Chatham during Black History Month
PAUL PEDRO, 12/16/23
“The first ever Black Excellence Awards and Gala (BEA) are set to take place in Chatham in a couple of months,” CKNewsToday reports. “...We have been very fortunate to have received tremendous support from so many wonderful community leaders, including Enbridge as our lead sponsor,” said BEA Co-chair Shannon Prince. Enbridge Gas Vice President Jim Redford said Enbridge Gas champions diversity, equity, and inclusion and the awards gala is an opportunity to celebrate those who have made meaningful contributions to the community. "Enbridge Gas, we are champions of equity, diversity, and inclusion and more importantly we are pleased to do that here in our community. Nothing drives inclusion more than recognition and we think that's a great deal," Redford noted.
Clarington This Week: ‘The leading edge’: New funding to support Clarington firefighter training
Moya Dillon, 12/17/23
“Clarington Fire got a boost from Enbridge to help support firefighter training,” Clarington This Week reports. “Firefighters and officials announced a donation from the company’s Safe Community Project Assist fund on Dec. 13. The project, which is a partnership with the Fire Marshal’s Public Fire Safety Council (FMPFSC), supplements existing training for volunteer and composite departments across the province. “Thank you to Enbridge Gas for supporting our Clarington firefighters in their life-saving work,” said Clarington Mayor Adrian Foster. “This additional training will support our dedicated composite Fire Department as they keep our community safe.” The project is providing $250,000 this year, shared between 50 municipalities, to support training, with Clarington receiving $5,000. The funds will be used to purchase educational materials to assist in training firefighters in life-saving techniques. “We are extremely grateful to Enbridge Gas for their generous support of the services we provide to the Clarington community,” said Clarington Fire Chief Dave Speed.
OPINION
The Alpena News: If not now, then when?
Greg Awtry, 12/15/23
“It was eight years after World War II. Back then, in 1953, we didn’t know any better, when Michigan gave Interprovincial Pipe Line Co., a Canadian firm now known as Enbridge Inc., an easement to lay twin oil pipelines on the bottom of the Straits of Mackinac,” Greg Awtry writes for The Alpena News. “If we have learned anything over the last 70 years, it is that that was an environmentally ignorant idea. The Straits of Mackinac are the worst possible place to put an oil pipeline… “If we knew in 1953 what we know now about the tragic consequences of major oil spills, we would have never granted an easement to construct Enbridge’s Line 5. So, now, Enbridge is asking to build a tunnel under those Straits to relocate Line 5. I would hope we have learned enough to say no this time. But that’s not the case. On Dec. 1, the Michigan Public Service Commission approved a permitting proposal for Enbridge’s tunnel idea. That is in spite of Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer revoking Enbridge’s easement back in 2020. Talk about mixed signals. Wake up, Michigan, and correct the mistake you made 70 years ago. Enbridge’s Line 5 has a horrible time keeping the oil in their pipes. Over the past 50 years, the pipeline has had 29 spills, pouring over a million gallons of toxic oil into the environment. We are on borrowed time, and Line 5 must be shut down soon, because it is not if but when a catastrophic oil spill will occur… “Why would we ever allow a corporation with that record to undertake building a tunnel 400 feet below the surface of the Straits?.. “Right now is our opportunity to make a historical move and correct the errors of the past… “We have one chance to get this right to preserve and protect the Great Lakes for generations. I hope the MPSC ruling is appealed, and that the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers will see the amount of risk in this tunnel project and existing Line 5 is unacceptable. If not now, then when? If not us, then who? The future of the Great Lakes is in our hands.”
Bismarck Tribune: Letter: Carbon capture isn’t the problem; Summit Carbon Solutions is
Gaylynn Becker, 12/16/12
“If Red Trail or Blue Flint want to capture and bury their CO2 emissions largely on site to access low carbon markets and federal funding— good for them. However, certain approaches taken by companies, such as Summit Carbon Solutions, have raised valid concerns,” Gaylynn Becker writes for the Bismarck Tribune. “Summit Carbon Solutions' ambitious proposal involves installing a 343-mile CO2 pipeline across North Dakota, with the largest segment, a 24-inch pipeline, slated to traverse near Bismarck. This proximity to populated areas raises significant safety concerns, given the potential risks associated with CO2 pipelines. Communities and the environment face potential hazards from leaks or ruptures, as evidenced by the unfortunate incident in Satartia, Mississippi, which serves as a cautionary tale for future CO2 projects… “Furthermore, the proposed pipeline route near Bismarck has triggered major concerns regarding its impact on property values and the general well-being of residents… “Lastly, the utilization of eminent domain to push through projects that stand to profit from substantial federal tax credits should prompt national concern. Even more concerning is that before Summit's permit was denied in South Dakota, the company sued over 150 landowners for eminent domain. The fact that a company would file eminent domain lawsuits before receiving a permit should give everyone great pause. Ethanol plants exploring carbon capture technologies should focus on on-site solutions that reduce emissions without posing risks to nearby populations. Public safety, property values, and property rights should not be compromised for projects that benefit from billions in federal tax credits. Carbon capture isn't the problem; Summit Carbon Solutions 2183 PSI carbon dioxide pipeline is.”
Dallas Morning News: Carbon capture can work
Christine A. Guldi, Dallas, 12/16/23
“Thank you for the editorial on carbon capture. I agree that developing this technology is important. Given the track record of the oil and gas industry in Texas, how can we possibly trust it with this task?” Christine A. Guldi writes for the Dallas Morning News. “I recall oil and gas leaders gloating about how useful captured carbon dioxide will be for getting the last methane or oil out of old wells. If used in that way, the new technology offers us no improvement at all. Technological carbon capture and removal has a very small and distant potential when compared with currently available, proven ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. Our state Legislature, under heavy influence from the oil and gas industry, continues to resist and punish electric vehicles, electric landscaping equipment and the phasing out fossil fuel electrical plants, all of which can have a large, immediate, positive impact on both our health and the atmosphere… “Texas oil and gas is simply not what I would trust to do so.”
Politico: To save the climate, change the game for petrostates
Daniel Litvin is the founder of Critical Resource and a visiting senior fellow at the Grantham Research Institute at LSE, 12/16/23
“The 2023 United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP28, has ended with what its host, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), described as an “historic” agreement — but what many activists feel is a whimper,” Daniel Litvin writes for Politico. “...Environmentalists, as well as many governments, queued at COP28 to lambast the seeming greed, selfishness and willful obstruction of the big fossil fuel exporting countries (and companies)... “First, and most obviously, governments of major consuming countries need to send a clearer, more credible signal that they are serious about curbing fossil fuel demand in line with the 1.5-degrees limit, and will put in place sufficiently strong policies to achieve this. One reason why many producing countries (and companies) continue to invest so heavily in new supplies of oil and gas is their belief that consuming countries will fail to implement the reforms needed. They believe the demand will be there, and fear competitors seizing the opportunity in their place. And with many of them having already committed tens of billions of dollars to expanding their own production, they have a strong interest in restraining serious global moves to curb demand. Second, governments and multilateral institutions need to support producing countries in working out how to respond to the inevitable future drop off in demand in a coordinated, orderly way that safeguards their revenues and profits as much as possible… “Finally, petrostates need to be encouraged and supported to rapidly accelerate the diversification of their economies away from oil and gas, so that a post-hydrocarbon future feels less existentially threatening… “Of course, major petrostates are unlikely to become devotees of accelerated action against fossil fuels. But the question is whether their appetite and incentives for holding back the progress of future global climate agreements can be blunted. And, given the resistance they put up at COP28, any movement could be a huge win for climate action.”
Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists: Direct air capture: An expensive, dangerous distraction from real climate solutions
Kurt House is a co-founder of KoBold Metals; Josh Goldman is a co-founder of KoBold Metals; Charles F. Harvey is a Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering at MIT, 12/15/23
“This month elites from 198 nations gathered in the fossil-fuel-rich United Arab Emirates for the 28th annual Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Agreement on Climate Change. Near the top of the agenda is the deployment of technologies to remove carbon dioxide, the principal greenhouse gas causing global warming, from the atmosphere,” Kurt House, Josh Goldman and Charles F. Harvey write for the Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists. “All year, the zeitgeist has been building toward technologies that separate carbon dioxide from air, referred to as direct air capture (DAC). In September, the United States Department of Energy awarded Occidental Petroleum a $600 million grant to build a DAC machine. As scientists and entrepreneurs who’ve dedicated our careers to help solve global warming, you might expect us to be happy. We are not. The reason is simple: Separating carbon dioxide from air, while technically straightforward, is outrageously expensive. In fighting climate change, the obvious question should always be: How can we avoid the most carbon dioxide per dollar invested?... “But, in this case, it’s easy: Air capture is among the most expensive of all climate mitigation options… “Who could possibly have thought it was a good idea to spend so much taxpayer money on such an expensive approach? Three groups: techno-optimists, who believe big investments will make air capture costs come down dramatically (they won’t); would-be climate central planners, who argue that we need air capture (if we ever do, it won’t be for 50 years, or more); and oil companies, who think they’re positioned to get fat subsidies (they’re right)... “Oil companies like Oxy claim they’ll have one business extracting carbon as oil and natural gas and another business getting it back out of the air. The problem for Oxy is that it costs way too much to get that carbon dioxide out of the air. Their solution? Get the taxpayer to build them an air capture machine… “So, how could Oxy make money by running this plant? By producing oil. Once separated from air, the carbon dioxide must be injected underground, and, if it’s injected into an old oilfield, more oil can be flushed out—a process known as enhanced oil recovery… “Unlike other climate technologies, the only way to make air capture a business is with oil production and perpetual giant subsidies. Misallocating resources to air capture makes the planet hotter. The only winners are the recipients of the subsidies and the builders of the boondoggles.”