EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 1/7/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Daily Local: Nighttime pipeline demonstrators charged with disorderly conduct at Marsh Creek
Facebook: P.K. Ditty: Two community members, a scientist and a nurse, have taken action early this morning to halt construction of the dangerous Mariner East pipeline
Bloomberg: Keystone XL Pipeline Cancellation Makes Suit Against Biden Moot
Common Dreams: Prosecutor Sought Funding From Oil Giant Enbridge to Jail Line 3 Water Protectors: Report
MLive.com: Pipeline expert warns of Line 5 tunnel explosion risk, Enbridge balks
MIBiz: Pipeline expert testifies that state agency is downplaying Line 5 tunnel explosion risk
Ames Tribune: 'This isn't Texas or Oklahoma ... this is Iowa': Farmers push back against proposed pipeline
Radio Iowa: Plymouth County Supervisors against eminent domain for CO2 pipelines
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Navigator plans to seek pipeline permit in May
KCCI: Iowan farmers attend meetings for proposed carbon capture pipeline
The Intercept: JUDGE RULES AGAINST PIPELINE COMPANY TRYING TO KEEP “COUNTERINSURGENCY” RECORDS SECRET
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Press release: BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT TAKES NEXT STEPS TO PROTECT CHACO CANYON
Associated Press: US agencies investigate Navy fuel leak’s effect on civilians
Politico: KEEP THE GAS ROLLING
E&E News: Will Biden’s oil plans unleash an Arctic ‘carbon bomb’?
STATE UPDATES
Colorado Times Recorder: Bennet ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Oil Trains in Colorado as Feds Approve Utah Project
EXTRACTION
Canary Media: US government squandered hundreds of millions on ‘clean coal’ pipe dream
Natural Gas Intelligence: Appalachian Natural Gas Output Growth Said Threatened by Long-term ‘Uncertainties’
Financial Post: Ottawa has authority to set new emissions limits on oil sector, but prefers to work with provinces: Wilkinson
CLIMATE FINANCE
Politico: RASKIN’S CLIMATE AGENDA AT THE FED
E&E News: Shareholder climate activists aim for ‘watershed year’
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Guardian: Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results
OPINION
The Hill: Biden's 2022 climate test
PIPELINE NEWS
Daily Local: Nighttime pipeline demonstrators charged with disorderly conduct at Marsh Creek
BILL RETTEW, 1/6/22
“A pair of protesters stopped Sunoco/Energy Transfer Mariner East pipeline construction for over an hour, early Thursday morning, until removed by police, after locking themselves down to excavation equipment,” the Daily Local reports. “Christina “P.K.” DiGiulio and Connor Young took matters into their own hands while saying that all other avenues to stop construction had failed them. The pair took action at an open trench dig site on Little Conestoga Road. About 10 other fellow demonstrators chanted and held a sign. The pair was not arrested and did not resist arrest. They were charged and cited for Disorderly Conduct. “When you have nothing left, you’ve done your due diligence and you know that your rights are being violated, then you utilize your First Amendment rights,” DiGiulio said, following the action… “Upper Uwchlan resident DiGiulio said that it is ironic the last small bit of unfinished construction is located in her township. “We are not finished,” she told the Local. “To stay healthy, you need pure water, clean air and a healthy environment, especially for those stricken with chronic illness. “It is hard for us to maintain our health when everything is polluted.”
Facebook: P.K. Ditty: Two community members, a scientist and a nurse, have taken action early this morning to halt construction of the dangerous Mariner East pipeline
1/6/22
“In August 2020, a 28,000-gallon fluid spill contaminated the area’s 535-acre Marsh Creek Lake. In October 2021, the PA Attorney General’s office announced 48 criminal charges for environmental crimes against the operator of this dangerous pipeline. Despite all of this information, the state’s Department of Environmental Protection approved new permits at this site, without even requiring the lake to be cleaned up. And now Marsh Creek lake continues to be contaminated as construction continues. Residents have sent emails, attended public meetings, and contacted elected officials, all to fall on deaf ears. Left with no other choice, 2 area residents decided they would protect this body of water and area drinking water source, in accordance with the states constitution ensuring us the right to clean water.”
Bloomberg: Keystone XL Pipeline Cancellation Makes Suit Against Biden Moot
1/6/22
“Texas, Alabama, and several other states can’t proceed with their lawsuit over the Biden administration’s decision to revoke a permit for the now-canceled Keystone XL pipeline project, a Texas federal court ruled Thursday,” Bloomberg reports. “The states sued in March after President Joe Biden revoked a permit authorizing the construction and operation of the pipeline’s cross-border facilities. They argued the decision belonged to Congress and that they face millions of dollars in lost tax revenue. TC Energy Corp.'s decision to cancel the project in June makes the lawsuit moot, the federal government told the U.S. District Court for the Southern District of Texas in July. And the lawsuit should be dismissed anyway because the president isn’t an agency, and therefore his actions aren’t subject to judicial review, the Justice Department argued. The court said it ‘takes TC Energy at its word that Keystone XL is dead.” Because it’s dead any ruling on whether Biden had the authority to revoke the permit “would be advisory,” according to the ruling. It’s doubtful any win for the states would encourage TC Energy to start the “complex and lengthy process” of developing and permitting a new project from scratch, the court said.”
Common Dreams: Prosecutor Sought Funding From Oil Giant Enbridge to Jail Line 3 Water Protectors: Report
JULIA CONLEY, 1/6/22
“With Canadian oil giant Enbridge pouring more than $4 million into a fund that was used by the law enforcement agencies which have arrested hundreds of people for protesting the company's thousand-mile-long tar sands pipeline, the prosecutor who is bringing charges against the environmental defenders believed he was also entitled to benefit from the fund, according to an independent investigation,” Common Dreams reports. “The Center for Protest Law and Litigation (CPLL) revealed Thursday that Jonathan Frieden, the lead prosecutor seeking to jail hundreds of opponents to the Line 3 pipeline, sought more than $12,000 last July from the so-called Line 3 Public Safety Escrow Trust, which the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC) ordered Enbridge to pay into as a condition of the pipeline's construction. According to documents obtained by the center, Frieden wrote to Rick Hart, manager for the escrow account at the Minnesota PUC, with a bill for the hours he and his support staff worked preparing the case against Indigenous groups and other climate campaigners. Hart later informed Frieden that "prosecution expenses are not an allowable reimbursable expense for the Line 3 Public Safety Escrow Account." “...Frieden's request suggests he believed that the company was also using "county attorneys as their personal security," said Jane Fleming Kleeb, chair of the Nebraska Democratic Party.”
MLive.com: Pipeline expert warns of Line 5 tunnel explosion risk, Enbridge balks
Sheri McWhirter, 1/7/22
“An oil and gas expert warned Michigan utility regulators not only would a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline not be a failsafe replacement for the underwater section of the line, but possible accidents could cause a catastrophic underground explosion,” MLive.com reports. “But Enbridge doesn’t even want the possibility considered by decision-makers. The Canadian oil and gas pipeline company wants much of that expert testimony tossed from the record in the state’s ongoing tunnel permit case review before the Michigan Public Service Commission. An administrative law judge will decide next week. Enbridge argued the oil and gas expert’s testimony on behalf of Bay Mills Indian Community shouldn’t be considered because of a legal technicality – that nobody has suggested a tunnel explosion before now so it can’t be considered rebuttal testimony… “The tribe hired private pipeline accident investigator and industry expert Richard Kuprewicz to review the proposal. He confirmed in his testimony there would be a dangerous risk with the tunnel plan, even if by only a slim chance. “From an engineering standpoint, there is a potential for a release into the Straits from the tunnel by way of a catastrophic explosion. While a risk of release in this manner may be considered low, it is not negligible and, in my opinion, should not be downplayed in such a way by the (MPSC) Staff,” said Kuprewicz, a chemical engineer and president of Accufacts Inc. of Redmond, Washington, according to a transcript of his testimony. He said sending hazardous and volatile gases and crude oil through a pipeline enclosed in a tunnel in fact enhances the risk of explosion; electrical equipment inside the tunnel could ignite hydrocarbon vapors trapped within the infrastructure built through the bedrock beneath the Great Lakes waters, he explained.”
MIBiz: Pipeline expert testifies that state agency is downplaying Line 5 tunnel explosion risk
Andy Balaskovitz, 1/6/22
“An oil and gas pipeline expert testifying in a permitting case involving Enbridge’s Line 5 says state energy staffers are downplaying the risk of a potentially catastrophic explosion within a proposed tunnel that would carry oil and propane beneath the Straits of Mackinac,” MIBiz reports. “Richard Kuprewicz, the president of Washington-based Accufacts Inc. who has been retained by Indigenous tribes and environmental law firms, provided formal testimony on behalf of Bay Mills Indian Community last month in a permitting case before the Michigan Public Service Commission (MPSC). Kuprewicz disagrees with MPSC staff and other consultants who have said the risk of Line 5 products entering the Great Lakes would be “negligible and unquantifiably low” if housed within the proposed tunnel. The tunnel project, first negotiated under former Gov. Rick Snyder, has been held up by supporters as a fail-safe alternative to Line 5 that currently sits exposed along the lakebed… “Kuprewicz countered: “This testimony fails to recognize that both propane and crude oil are highly hazardous and volatile substances and there is always a risk of explosion when handling these substances. When transporting these substances through a pipeline enclosed in a tunnel, the risk of an explosion is enhanced which in turn enhances the probability that the secondary containment vessel will fail.” “...Christopher Clark, supervising senior attorney with Bay Mills’ representative, Earthjustice, told MiBiz that Kuprewicz was retained specifically to respond to claims in September 2021 by MPSC staff and the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority about a tunnel virtually eliminating the risk of a spill into the Great Lakes. “It’s quite disappointing and frustrating that Enbridge has taken such an aggressive position to silence the concerns of the tribes,” Clark said.
Ames Tribune: 'This isn't Texas or Oklahoma ... this is Iowa': Farmers push back against proposed pipeline
Danielle Gehr, 1/7/22
“For two and a half hours Thursday, officials with Texas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures fielded questions and heard comments from Story County residents on the multi-billion dollar pipeline they plan to bury across the county,” the Ames Tribune reports. “Nearly 100 had gathered at the Gateway Hotel & Conference Center in Ames, although the room was half empty by the time the last question was asked… “At both meetings, attendees predominantly expressed opposition to the plans and wariness over the proposals' safety, potential effects on the environment and long-term effect on farmland. "This isn't Texas or Oklahoma. This is Iowa and things are different here," Hardin County farmer Greg Gilbert told company officials Thursday. "When I speak to you, know the value of what this means for the agricultural community — I'm seeing that, really, firsthand," Burns-Thompson said. She likened Navigator's Heartland Greenway pipeline to a bus system where the riders are the tons of CO2 emissions it would transfer. Plants would pay a flat rate for the company's transportation services and then own the economic benefits… “One farmer said the analogy makes the landowners the interstate, arguing they should be fairly compensated for that service… “One landowner asked why they wouldn't receive a yearly payment for Navigator using their land, to which Navigator COO David Giles said annual payments could be negotiated. Still, the company faced pushback from attendees, particularly those in the agricultural community who are still scared by memories of the Dakota Access Pipeline, which they said left long-term damage to the area's farmland. Others worried about safety concerns. One attendee pointed out that Navigator has never operated a CO2 pipeline and asked how are Iowans supposed to trust them to run this one adequately.”
Radio Iowa: Plymouth County Supervisors against eminent domain for CO2 pipelines
1/5/22
“The Plymouth County Board of Supervisors is joining other counties in requesting that the Iowa Utilities Board deny the use of eminent domain for two proposed carbon-dioxide pipelines,” Radio Iowa reports. “Plymouth County Supervisors Chairman, Don Kass, explains the supervisors’ position. “Frankly, the precedent set by granting eminent domain for projects like this would mean that eminent domain could be used for any number of projects for which it never was intended,” according to Kass. “We respectfully ask that the IUB deny these permits to these two entities — and in the future consider only projects that actually served the actual public good.” Kass says the letter addresses both proposed pipelines, Summit CO2 Solutions, and Navigator Ventures Heartland Greenway Systems which will run through Plymouth County. Kass says the supervisors feel there are good uses for eminent domain. “You know, things like roads, and bridges, and schools and police stations and fire stations — that is what eminent domain was for — for the public utility. In recent decades it has bled over into other things that are profit centers,” Kass says. He says electric lines and natural gas pipelines are another example of something that is needed to serve everyone. Kass says the CO2 pipelines are not the same thing. “This is nothing more than a profit center for their investors that has to do with CO2 sequestration. Which would be of a benefit to the ethanol industry, but it’s not necessarily a public utility,” Kass says. “I am all for people investing and making money — that’s great. But they shouldn’t be able to use the inherent power of the government to be able to take the things that they want for this nature.” Dickinson, and Kossuth Counties have one of the pipelines running through them and have made the same request to the Iowa Utilities Board. Kass told Radio Iowa his discussions with other counties indicate they may do the same.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Navigator plans to seek pipeline permit in May
JARED STRONG, 1/6/22
“A Texas company that wants to build a pipeline to transport liquid carbon dioxide across the state has nearly concluded a series of informational, public meetings and plans to formally petition in May for permission to build it,” Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “...Navigator plans to petition the three-member Iowa Utilities Board in May for a hazardous liquid pipeline permit, which would enable it to force some landowners to allow the pipeline’s construction on their property. Further, the network of pipes will require a handful of booster stations that would occupy 10 acres apiece. In order for the board to approve the permit, it needs to determine that the pipeline serves a “public convenience and necessity” under Iowa law. More than 100 people attended the Ames meeting. Those who spoke were concerned about the use of eminent domain to obtain easements for the pipeline, disturbing the land to construct and bury it, and the potential public safety hazards that might arise from leaks. “In spite of all the concerns raised by the pipelines, the IUB has a very simple standard that it must abide by when deciding whether or not to grant the permit,” Kevin and Evalee Strenge, who own farms in Emmet County, wrote to the board this week. “The permit must serve the public good. This project simply does not meet that standard.” “...As for safety concerns, the “worst case scenario” would be something akin to a Mississippi pipeline rupture that happened last year, said Stephen Lee, Navigator’s senior vice president of engineering. Dozens were sickened by the February rupture, which Lee said was likely caused by shifting sediment… “Lee said the liquid flowing through the Navigator pipeline would be about 98% carbon dioxide, with smaller amounts of nitrogen and hydrogen sulfide, which is poisonous and flammable.”
KCCI: Iowan farmers attend meetings for proposed carbon capture pipeline
1/6/22
“Pipeline meetings are moving to central Iowa,” KCCI reports. “Navigator Energy’s subsidiary Navigator CO₂ Ventures is trying to build a 1,300-mile pipeline project called “Heartland Greenway.” “...The company brands the pipeline as a solution to climate change. But, a leading climate advocacy group, the Sierra Club, is organizing against the project. It says the project doesn’t go after the root causes of climate change. Due to the size of the project, the Iowa Utilities Board requires the company to host 37 different public hearings to answer people’s questions about the project.”
The Intercept: JUDGE RULES AGAINST PIPELINE COMPANY TRYING TO KEEP “COUNTERINSURGENCY” RECORDS SECRET
Alleen Brown, 1/6/22
“Last week, a North Dakota court ruled against a bid by the oil company Energy Transfer to keep documents about its security contractor’s operations against anti-pipeline activism secret,” The Intercept reports. “The court thwarted the pipeline giant’s attempt to narrow the definition of a public record and withhold thousands of documents from the press. Judge Cynthia Feland ruled that Energy Transfer’s contract with the security firm TigerSwan cannot prevent the state’s private security licensing board from sharing these records with The Intercept, refusing to accept the company’s attempt to exempt the records from open government laws… “In October 2020, I made a public records request under the aegis of The Intercept for the full set of documents that gave rise to the court case. This week, Energy Transfer attorneys said they plan to appeal the latest ruling and requested a stay to prevent the North Dakota security board from releasing the material… “Energy Transfer is pouring money into fighting more documents disclosures. The pipeline company hired Kasowitz Benson Torres LLP, a law firm founded by Marc Kasowitz, one of former President Donald Trump’s longtime attorneys. Critics say the firm’s aggressive lawsuits against environmentalists are designed to strain its opponents’ resources and chill public debate.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Press release: BUREAU OF LAND MANAGEMENT TAKES NEXT STEPS TO PROTECT CHACO CANYON
1/6/22
“The Bureau of Land Management today formally proposed to withdraw approximately 351,000 acres of public lands surrounding Chaco Culture National Historical Park. This action, published today in the Federal Register, follows President Biden’s announcement on November 15 of the Department’s new efforts to protect the Chaco Canyon and the greater connected landscape, and to ensure that public land management better reflects the sacred sites, stories, and cultural resources in the region. The proposed withdrawal of federal lands within a 10-mile radius around Chaco Culture National Historical Park would bar new federal oil and gas leasing on those lands. The two-year segregation and potential withdrawal would not affect existing valid leases or rights and would not apply to minerals owned by private, state, or Tribal entities. In additional to today’s proposed withdrawal, the BLM is initiating a 90-day public comment period and will be hosting several public meetings as well as undertaking formal Tribal consultation. The public may submit comments on the proposed withdrawal until April 6, 2022… “In early 2022 the BLM and the Bureau of Indian Affairs (BIA) will also be initiating a broader assessment of the Greater Chaco cultural landscape to explore ways the Interior Department can manage existing energy development, honor sensitive areas important to Tribes and communities, and build collaborative management frameworks toward a sustainable economic future for the region.”
Associated Press: US agencies investigate Navy fuel leak’s effect on civilians
By AUDREY McAVOY, 1/4/22
“U.S. public health officials on Tuesday began investigating how civilians have been affected by the leakage of petroleum into Pearl Harbor’s tap water from a Navy fuel storage facility,” the Associated Press reports. “The Hawaii state Department of Health told AP it asked the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the Agency for Toxic Substances and Disease Registry to conduct the study. The department told AP the officials will survey civilians living in homes served by the Joint Base Pearl Harbor-Hickam water distribution system. They will also try to reach people who may have been exposed to contaminated water at work or school. The Navy’s water system serves some 93,000 people in residential homes, offices, elementary schools and businesses in and around Pearl Harbor. Starting in late November, about 1,000 people complained that their tap water smelled like fuel or reported physical ailments like nausea and rashes after ingesting it. Shortly after the Navy said it detected petroleum in a drinking well that serves its water system. Navy officials told AP they believe leaks from its Red Hill tank farm near Pearl Harbor polluted the well.”
Politico: KEEP THE GAS ROLLING
Matthew Choi, 1/6/22
“A group of Republicans on the House Transportation Committee is urging the Biden administration to scrap a proposed rollback of a Trump-era rule that allowed liquefied natural gas to be transported by train,” Politico reports. “Too soon to undo: Transportation Committee ranking member Rep. Sam Graves (R-Mo.) rail, pipelines and hazardous materials subcommittee ranking member Rep. Rick Crawford (R-Ark.) and other Republicans sent a letter to acting PHMSA director Tristan Brown on Thursday outlining their opposition to a repeal of a 2020 rule change that authorized the bulk transport of LNG in approved train cars… “Final rule change pending: PHMSA announced the proposed rollback of the new rule in November. Republicans argue that LNG will continue to be transported by boat and truck, with trucks in particular presenting a bigger threat of explosion than gas that’s transported by train, and that limiting the transport of natural gas by train hurts domestic energy production.”
E&E News: Will Biden’s oil plans unleash an Arctic ‘carbon bomb’?
Heather Richards, 1/7/22
“The Biden administration is facing a critical test about oil drilling in a vast region of the Arctic with so much crude it has been called a “carbon bomb,” E&E News reprts. “The Interior Department has declared that it may stymie drilling in the well-known Arctic National Wildlife Refuge (ANWR) — suspending leases pushed through at the end of the Trump administration. But it’s unclear what it may — or can — do in the 23-million-acre National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A). The decisions that the administration make in the reserve will help shape the future of the Alaska oil and gas industry, which state leaders and industry advocates tell E&E remains vital to the state’s economic well-being. Environmentalists tell E&E any more drilling could irreparably damage a priceless landscape and cause a major uptick in emissions.”
STATE UPDATES
Colorado Times Recorder: Bennet ‘Deeply Concerned’ About Oil Trains in Colorado as Feds Approve Utah Project
David O. Williams, 1/3/22
“The prospect of up to 350,000 barrels of oil a day rolling through Colorado on trains has caught the attention of Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet following the Dec. 15 U.S. Surface Transportation Board (STB) approval of the Uinta Basin Railway in northeastern Utah,” the Colorado Times Recorder reports. “Given the strong opposition my office has heard from community leaders, I’m deeply concerned about the proposed expansion of rail lines through Tennessee Pass and Browns Canyon National Monument to move crude oil through Colorado,” Bennet, a Democrat, told the Colorado Times Recorder in an email statement via a spokesperson. Bennet is referring to Union Pacific’s long-dormant 220-mile Tennessee Pass rail line along the Arkansas and Eagle rivers between Pueblo and Dotsero. Three private rail companies have been battling for control of that inactive line to revive freight and passenger service. Barring reactivation of the Tennessee Pass Line, oil trains from Utah’s Uinta Basin would likely use Union Pacific’s active mainline through Colorado, which travels along the Colorado River, through the Moffat Tunnel at Winter Park, and down into Denver.” “If [the Uinta Basin] railway is built, these trains are headed your way,” warned Deeda Seed, Utah-based public lands senior campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity and a former Salt Lake City Council member… “CBD’s Seed urges Coloradans to ask the White House, “‘Why is your administration enabling this terrible project?’ This project is entirely contrary to President Biden’s executive order on climate. I think it’s still a very helpful action for Coloradans to ring the alarm bell on this with their elected officials.”
EXTRACTION
Canary Media: US government squandered hundreds of millions on ‘clean coal’ pipe dream
1/5/22
“As the Biden administration prepares to shell out billions of dollars on carbon capture and storage projects, a government watchdog report offers a warning about how not to do it,” Canary Media reports. “In a report released last month, the U.S. Government Accountability Office summarized its findings on the federal government’s efforts to get carbon capture and storage off the ground at coal-fired power plants across the country. The GAO found that these efforts were tainted by major flaws that led to hundreds of millions of dollars of wasted taxpayer money. Under the Obama administration, the Department of Energy poured more than a billion dollars into carbon capture and storage (CCS), money allocated by Congress under the 2009 stimulus bill. While the DOE’s investments in capturing carbon from industrial sites achieved some success, its investments in capturing carbon from coal plants most decidedly did not. The GAO reports that the industrial CCS projects were held to higher standards and subjected to more oversight and scrutiny than the coal-plant projects. “[S]enior management directed DOE to bypass some cost controls to help struggling coal projects,” the GAO report states. The result: Not a single coal-plant CCS project that DOE invested in is still operating today. Only one of the eight projects it funded was ever completed, and that one was shut down last year. The GAO report offers an autopsy of sorts for the well-publicized failures of coal-plant CCS projects over the past decade. It also provides a warning of the potential for wasted funding on future projects and a list of stricter oversight measures that it suggests could prevent such an outcome… “The report is likely to add fuel to the long-running and contentious debate over the role of CCS in combating climate change at a time when funding for carbon capture and storage is set to grow dramatically… “The economics of CCS for coal-fired power plants are particularly grim because the energy that must be used to capture carbon can consume as much as a quarter of a plant’s total generation capacity, Mark Jacobson, senior fellow and professor of civil and environmental engineering at Stanford University’s Woods Institute for the Environment, told Canary Media last fall. “When you run the numbers, there’s virtually zero capture rate,” he said. “I think the whole thing is a scam, just a big scheme to get funding subsidies.”
Natural Gas Intelligence: Appalachian Natural Gas Output Growth Said Threatened by Long-term ‘Uncertainties’
MATTHEW VEAZEY, 1/6/22
“Higher natural gas prices were a positive for natural gas producers in the Appalachian Basin in 2021, but ongoing “uncertainties” threaten the industry’s long-term growth prospects,” Natural Gas Intelligence reports. “These include a number of challenges at the federal level being pushed by the Biden administration and some members of Congress, such as a punitive methane tax, and statewide issues such as Gov. Tom Wolf’s continued efforts to join the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative and a pair of rulemaking petitions by activist groups seeking to greatly increase the cost of well bonding,” President Daniel J. Weaver of the Pennsylvania Independent Oil and Gas Association (PIOGA) told NGI. Last year Wolf joined fellow governors in New Jersey and New York to support a permanent ban on hydraulic fracturing in the Delaware River Basin. Weaver also said PIOGA is concerned about state and federal rulemakings to control volatile organic compounds and methane emissions, along with “continued opposition to pipeline expansion projects that limit our region’s ability to deliver natural gas to markets where it is needed.”
Financial Post: Ottawa has authority to set new emissions limits on oil sector, but prefers to work with provinces: Wilkinson
Derek Brower, 1/6/22
“Canada’s new natural resources minister has defended the country’s promotion of exports from its controversial oilsands projects even as he vowed to enforce “aggressive” greenhouse gas emissions cuts on the energy sector,” the Financial Post reports. “Jonathan Wilkinson, appointed by Prime Minister Justin Trudeau in October, said Ottawa was “going to be very aggressive in reducing emissions from the sector” and would work with other countries to drive down long-term crude demand. But he insisted Canada still had the right to keep pursuing exports from one of the world’s most carbon-intensive sources of oil. “For the (oil) demand that continues to exist, Canada needs to extract value from its resources, just like the United States, the United Kingdom in the North Sea, and Norway,” Wilkinson said… “Wilkinson told the Financial Times the federal government was entitled to impose the new emissions limits, although it “would prefer to work collaboratively with our provinces.” “We believe that we have the jurisdiction and the authority to bring into play both the cap and the commitment with respect to reductions every five years,” he said… “Wilkinson pointed to government-funded carbon capture projects in the Netherlands and Norway as a possible model for Ottawa’s involvement. “Companies are going to have to come to the table and put their own capital into those projects,” he said of the oilsands producers’ idea. “But certainly we are willing to work with the sector to help us reduce emissions.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Politico: RASKIN’S CLIMATE AGENDA AT THE FED
Matthew Choi, 1/6/22
“Sarah Bloom Raskin, a former Fed governor and outspoken voice on financial climate risk, is Biden’s likely pick to oversee banks at the Federal Reserve,” Politico reports. “Raskin has pushed for the central bank and financial regulators to have a greater role in addressing climate change. Under Chair Jerome Powell, the Fed is already making moves to prepare large banks for climate risks. But the Trump-appointed chair has been getting heat from climate advocates for not acting more aggressively to directly curb fossil fuel financing. Raskin wrote in September that regulators should both “move faster in preparing firms within their jurisdiction to weather climate effects that are not being eliminated by markets” and “ask themselves how their existing instruments can be used to incentivize a rapid, orderly, and just transition away from high-emission and biodiversity-destroying investments.”
E&E News: Shareholder climate activists aim for ‘watershed year’
By Corbin Hiar, 1/7/22
“Sustainable investment advocates passed three dozen environmental, social and governance-related shareholder resolutions in 2021, a record-breaking annual tally,” E&E News reports. “This year, they plan to keep the ESG pressure on with resolutions that push for corporate net-zero emission plans and lobbying disclosures at a wide range of firms — from major emitters like Exxon Mobil Corp. to comparatively modest polluters like the Cheesecake Factory Inc. "The theme is that investors are looking to all of their companies to address climate risk," Danielle Fugere, the president and chief counsel of As You Sow, told E&E. Last year, 14 ESG resolutions backed by the sustainability advocacy group were voted on by shareholders of some of the nation’s largest companies, according to data compiled by the Manhattan Institute think tank. More than a quarter of As You Sow’s proposals were supported by those investors. The group’s winning resolutions included one urging plastic maker DuPont de Nemours Inc. to report on its pellet pollution and another calling for the industrial conglomerate General Electric Co. to create a plan to achieve net-zero emissions by 2050. Less than a week into 2022, As You Sow has already filed 79 resolutions, 30 of which are directly focused on corporate climate policies. While some of those will be withdrawn if the group and companies can reach agreements on the issues, many will be decided at annual investor meetings. The companies being targeted by As You Sow include major emitters like Exxon and utility Dominion Energy Inc., as well as insurers like Chubb Ltd. and the Hartford Financial Services Group Inc., which continue to underwrite new fossil fuel projects.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Guardian: Fossil fuel firms among biggest spenders on Google ads that look like search results
Niamh McIntyre, 1/5/22
“Fossil fuel companies and firms that work closely with them are among the biggest spenders on ads designed to look like Google search results, in what campaigners say is an example of “endemic greenwashing,” the Guardian reports. “The Guardian analysed ads served on Google search results for 78 climate-related terms, in collaboration with InfluenceMap, a thinktank that tracks the lobbying efforts of polluting industries. The results show that over one in five ads seen in the study – more than 1,600 in total – were placed by companies with significant interests in fossil fuels. Advertisers pay for their ads to appear on the search engine when a user queries certain terms. The ads are appealing to businesses because they are very similar in appearance to search results: more than half of users in a 2020 survey reported they could not tell the difference between a paid-for listing and a normal Google result. ExxonMobil, Shell, Aramco, McKinsey, and Goldman Sachs were among the top-20 advertisers on the search terms, while a number of other fossil fuel producers and their financiers also placed ads. Jake Carbone, senior data analyst at InfluenceMap, told the Guardian: “Google is letting groups with a vested interest in the continued use of fossil fuels pay to influence the resources people receive when they are trying to educate themselves. “The oil and gas sector has moved away from contesting the science of climate change and now instead seeks to influence public discussions about decarbonisation in its favour.”
OPINION
The Hill: Biden's 2022 climate test
Jeremy Symons is principal of Symons Public Affairs. He was the project manager of Climate 21, a blueprint for “whole-of-government” presidential climate leadership, 1/6/22
“In 2021, President Biden took much-needed steps to tackle climate change and reverse four years of fossil fuel largesse from former President Trump,” Jeremy Symons writes for The Hill. “Biden’s task for 2022: Prove to the country and the world that the United States can achieve his goal of cutting emissions in half this decade. One key test of Biden’s climate resolve in 2022: liquified natural gas (LNG). The clock is ticking for Biden to get in front of the next wave of LNG expansions and out from under the fossil fuel roadmap engineered by the Trump administration… “Biden has a responsibility under the law to only permit LNG export projects that are in the “public interest.” Many LNG companies are asking Biden for extensions after missing deadlines for permits handed out by the Trump administration, which cooked the books in favor of rubber stamping LNG projects and exempted LNG projects from National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Biden can and must do better. Biden can ensure that the proposed new wave of LNG facilities are evaluated against not only the president’s climate goals, but also his environmental justice commitments and the impact of exports on domestic energy prices. Evaluated fairly, LNG permits will fail the “public interest” test… “The year 2022 is Biden’s opportunity to stop the rush to expand U.S. LNG exports before it’s too late.”