EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 2/11/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Aberdeen News: Landowners concerned about property acquisition process for carbon sequestration pipeline
WHO: Iowa bill would stop use of eminent domain to build carbon pipeline
Carbon Herald: Nebraska Ethanol Plants Face Opposition For Carbon Tax Breaks
Houston Chronicle: Gas pipeline constraints showing along East Coast, manufacturers say
Brownsville Herald: Pipeline agreement signed for Texas LNG
FOX46: 1.4 million gallons and growing: Where things stand with Colonial Pipeline gas leak
KTVQ: Montanans protest against NorthWestern Energy's proposed pipeline in Laurel
Food & Water Watch: DE Residents Demand County Commission Stop Proposal to Expand Pipeline Capacity
Reuters: Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge reports higher profit as transport volumes rise
Guardian: ‘Treated like a backyard’: pipeline violates civil rights, say Brooklynites
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Politico: API OBJECTS
The Hill: Two House Democrats question PR firms on work with fossil fuel companies
Politico: BUILD BACK NEVER?
Politico: INDUSTRY FOR BBB
Politico: OVERSIGHT GETS TESTY ON OIL
STATE UPDATES
Politico: CLIMATE CASE GETS ITS PREFERRED VENUE
California Globe: LA City Council Proposes Making All New Buildings in City Carbon Neutral
Broomfield Enterprise: PFAS chemicals banned in Broomfield fracking operations
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canadian oil barrels head out of the U.S. Gulf in record numbers
Natural Gas Intelligence: As Oilsands Production Drives Growth, Cenovus Eyes CCUS Opportunities
Upstream Online: Chevron's flagship Gorgon CCS project still failing to live up to expectations
WSRS: US oil refinery workers speak out on contract battle
Oil Change International: The Aggressive Explorer: How Norway’s Rapid Ramp-up of Oil and Gas Licensing Is Incompatible with Climate Leadership
Associated Press: Thailand tackles 2nd offshore oil spill in 3 weeks
CLIMATE FINANCE
Fortune: You’d think $90 oil and record electricity prices would mean more green investment. You’d be wrong
E&E News: Bill McKibben Q&A: Fighting banks, surfing sofas and booming
OPINION
The Hill: Forest Service oil transport plan would defy Biden climate promise
City & State: Dangerous pipeline protests put first responders at risk
Dispatches From the Frontlines: A Landmark Precedent Gets Set In Virginia Thanks to Frontline Environmental Justice Activists
PIPELINE NEWS
Aberdeen News: Landowners concerned about property acquisition process for carbon sequestration pipeline
Alexandra Hardle, 2/11/22
“Many landowners have voiced their concerns over Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solution's proposed carbon sequestration pipeline. While safety is a main concern, it's not the only one: some landowners are raising questions over how the company is going about acquiring land, and who would be responsible for the pipeline, should anything go wrong,” the Aberdeen News reports. “...Brian Jorde is an Omaha-based attorney with Domina Law Group. He represented a group of landowners who were fighting the Keystone XL pipeline. In a telephone interview with the American News, Jorde told the News, typically, if a landowner were to accidentally rupture the pipeline, they would be held responsible. Jorde told the News that he has seen his clients get sued for millions of dollars by pipeline companies due to accidental damage of pipelines… “If property owners sign easements, they will receive a sum of money dependent on how much of their property would be used for the project. But, Jorde cautioned people against signing easements if they don't fully understand the project. Once someone signs an easement, there is little they can do if they change their mind. “You don’t get a redo. You don’t get to go to court. You don’t get to go through the condemnation process and start over. It’s over,” Jorde told the News. Companies will also likely offer people a low sum of money to start, Jorde told the News. If people sign easements right away, they won’t be able to negotiate for a higher price… “But if Summit Carbon Solutions does not get a permit for the project, it would be able to sell the easement to the next pipeline company that comes along, according to lobbyist group Dakota Rural Action, which has been working with landowners who oppose the project and is encouraging landowners to not sign easements… “Jorde is currently working with landowners in all five states that will be affected by the pipeline. He will help clients intervene into the proceeding, meaning his clients will essentially go up against Summit Carbon Solutions applying for a permit. The Public Utilities Commission will essentially serve as a court and ultimately make a decision on the project. Landowners have organized several meetings over the last several weeks. Some, like Ed Fischbach and Mark Lapka, are using the opportunity to help educate people on the project and go over their specific concerns. Doug Sombke, who is the president of the South Dakota Farmers Union, told the News he was invited a meeting in Redfield and decided to attend to learn more about the project. Sombke is concerned about the easements and eminent domain, and stold the News that South Dakota's eminent domain laws are essentially nonexistent. That means that it almost never works out in the landowner's favor, he told the News.”
WHO: Iowa bill would stop use of eminent domain to build carbon pipeline
Dave Price, 2/10/22
“A private company could lose the right to build a carbon pipeline through land the company doesn’t own, under a bill proposed at the Iowa Statehouse,” WHO reports. “...Summit has requested the right to use eminent domain if needed to secure the land required to build the pipeline. The Iowa Utilities Board has not yet ruled on the request. Meanwhile, State Senator Jeff Taylor, a Republican from Sioux Center, has introduced a bill blocking the use of eminent domain by private companies, which could impact the pipeline project. “It’s becoming a topic of conversation. I don’t know if I could find – I haven’t talked to one landowner that’s in favor of this. Not one,” farmer Deb Main told WHO, who said that she owns land in the proposed path of Summit Carbon Solution’s pipeline. Other farmers have also spoken out against pipeline projects and don’t want the Iowa Utilities Board to allow private companies to force them through their property.Summit Carbon Solutions claims that it has already reached easement agreements with hundreds of farmers.”
Carbon Herald: Nebraska Ethanol Plants Face Opposition For Carbon Tax Breaks
Violet George, 2/10/22
“A bill that clarifies Nebraska ethanol plants could benefit from carbon tax breaks is now facing opposition from Bold Alliance,” the Carbon Herald reports. “The leading environmental group, which also includes Bold Nebraska, known for previously opposing the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline, has testified against the Legislative Bill 801, which will ensure tax breaks for carbon capture, storage and transportation. Currently, there are two potential carbon pipeline projects set to run across Nebraska… “Bold Alliance argues that providing tax breaks for such projects is unnecessary, due their riskiness and lack of state regulation. An incident from two years ago was pointed to as an example of the dangers associated with CO2 pipelines. A high-pressure pipeline carrying hydrogen sulfide and CO2 exploded in Sataria, Mississippi, poisoning residents and resulting in dozens of hospitalizations. Furthermore, the group testified that tax incentives should be used as a means to attract new businesses to and create new jobs in Nebraska, as opposed to benefiting existing projects. Another argument against the bill was the questionable viability of carbon pipelines as the world is transitioning away from gas-powered vehicles towards electric cars.”
Houston Chronicle: Gas pipeline constraints showing along East Coast, manufacturers say
James Osborne, 2/9/22
“Limited capacity on natural gas pipelines is driving up gas prices for U.S. manufacturers, making it tougher to compete with low-cost manufactures abroad, the trade group Industrial Energy Consumers of America said in a letter to members of Congress Wednesday,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “The group, which represents U.S. manufacturing and industrial firms, said pipeline companies were putting strict limits on gas flows to maintain system stability. They said increased demand from natural gas-fired power plants and liquefied natural gas export facilities, centered along the Texas and Louisiana Gulf Coast, had resulted in less available pipeline capacity for manufacturing. "New pipeline capacity is not getting built," said Paul Cicio, president of IECA. "Inadequate pipeline capacity impacts existing manufacturing facilities and is detrimental to new investments and job creation." “...Natural gas pipeline companies like Houston-based Kinder Morgan and Williams have complained for years about the difficulty in building interstate pipelines, which must be approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, a process that is frequently extended by litigation from environmental groups. That has been a particular problem for projects along the East Coast. In 2020 the energy utilities Dominion Energy and Duke Energy announced they were canceling the Atlantic Coast Pipeline project, which would have delivered gas to North Carolina from the Marcellus and Utica shales in Pennsylvania and Ohio. Last year two pipeline companies cancelled projects on the East Coast, citing delays in FERC's approval process… “Getting FERC approval for pipelines is unlikely to get any easier, as the commission weighs how to consider the future emissions associated with a gas project in deciding whether to approve it. In the meantime, pipeline companies are shifting away from building new pipelines and are instead focusing on expanding their existing systems. "It's going to be very challenging for a new green field pipeline," Hallam told the Chronicle.
Brownsville Herald: Pipeline agreement signed for Texas LNG
Steve Clark, 2/10/22
“Texas LNG Brownsville LLC, one of two companies pursuing plans to build a liquefied natural gas export terminal at the Port of Brownsville, in January signed an agreement with Enbridge Inc. to deliver natural gas via an expansion of Enbridge’s existing Valley Crossing Pipeline,” the Brownsville Herald reports. “Texas LNG, a subsidiary of New York- and Houston-based Glenfarne Group LLC, is planning a natural gas liquefaction/export facility capable of producing 4 million metric tons of LNG per year. The agreement with Enbridge, a multi-national pipeline company based in Calgary, Alberta, Canada, calls for delivery of approximately 720 million cubic feet of natural gas per day for a term of at least 20 years. Texas LNG said it expects to make a final investment decision this year whether to proceed with construction of the project, which would be built on 625 acres at the port. The company began the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission in 2015… “The Valley Crossing Pipeline is a 160-mile-long pipeline running from the major gas hub Agua Dulce in Nueces County to the port. Under the agreement, a 10-mile-long lateral line would be built to Texas LNG’s facility, with added compression facilities on the existing pipeline to keep the gas moving through it… “The Sierra Club released a statement last month regarding the Texas LNG-Enbridge agreement, calling it potentially a “major threat to the health and safety of communities in South Texas” that “will have devastating impacts on the local environment and global climate.”
FOX46: 1.4 million gallons and growing: Where things stand with Colonial Pipeline gas leak
Derek Dellinger, 2/10/22
“It may be the largest leak and clean-up of its kind in North Carolina history, but these days, its footprint is smaller,” FOX46 reports. “The Colonial Pipeline leak along Huntersville-Concord Road grew quickly once it was discovered in August 2020 to a large number of road and lane closures in the area and caused a major inconvenience for those that live nearby. In February 2022, it’s more of something that people still pass by on their way to and from home. On one side of the road, parking, and workspaces for crews. On the other side of the road, an area that was dug up has replaced grass, tanks, and a network of wells that either monitor or recover tanks… “The number one thing we get asked about is parks, (then) roads and Colonial,” Stacy Phillips, Huntersville Commissioner and Mayor Pro-Tem, told FOX46… “She told FOX46 last year, Colonial was invited but began declining meetings to answer their questions, referring them to e-mails and updates they made to the North Carolina Dept. of Environmental Quality and a website set up by Colonial for information on their response to the leak, which has not been updated since September 2021. Phillips told FOX46 she had all but given up on a face-to-face meeting with Colonial and town leaders, but as time as gone on, questions had been growing. “The more quiet they are, the more questions build up for us to ask,” Phillips told FOX46… “State Senator Natasha Marcus told FOX46 there has been a mix of understanding the work that needs to be done, but patience has been wearing thin in some of the areas most affected by the continued cleanup work… “The cleanup is something that even Colonial Pipeline has admitted will take years. However, that has not stopped people from wondering when it will be done, and what the lingering long-term effects will be. “The trend is clear, they’re going to have to work down there for some time,” Marcus told FOX46.
KTVQ: Montanans protest against NorthWestern Energy's proposed pipeline in Laurel
Alina Hauter, 2/10/22
“Nearly 100 people gathered outside the Yellowstone County Courthouse Thursday to protest a proposed natural gas pipeline underneath the Yellowstone River in Laurel,” KTVQ reports. “I wish that Northwestern Energy would be a lot more transparent about what they’re doing,” Billings resident Mary Fitzpatrick, a member of the Northern Plains Resource Council, told KTVQ. The rally was organized by the Northern Plains Resource Council, a Billings-based conservation group. Protestors gathered to voice concerns the project could harm the environment. “Right now they’re planning to put a pipeline through a very fragile area of the river and the floodplain. There’s wildlife there, there’s osprey nesting there,” Fitzpatrick said. They also voiced concerns about air pollution. “We’re trying to lower our carbon footprint and now they’re going to put in, eight, count them, eight methane plants in Montana,” said Northern Plains Resource Council member Priscilla Bell of Laurel… “However, those gathered at the courthouse say the risks outweigh the benefits. They’re hoping to send a message to county commissioners, who are set to meet next week to vote to grant a permit to build the plant. “We’re used to long fights and we’re here for the long haul,” Fitzpatrick told KTVQ.
Food & Water Watch: DE Residents Demand County Commission Stop Proposal to Expand Pipeline Capacity
2/10/22
“This afternoon, the Sussex County Planning & Zoning Commission will debate a proposal to expand pipeline capacity near the controversial planned Bioenergy DevCo factory farm biogas facility and the Phillis Wheatley Elementary School. In advance of the Commission meeting, more than a dozen Sussex County residents submitted comments demanding the Commission deny the proposal. Cited concerns include: A rise in unsafe truck transport from an undisclosed number of potentially explosive “bomb trucks” laden with gas from an undisclosed source, traveling along unspecified County roads, into a residential area; Air pollution from the processing of gas at the pipeline entry point into pipeline-grade gas close to an elementary school and peoples’ homes; and Expansion of infrastructure designed to facilitate an increase in climate-destroying gas in southern Delaware despite the scientific consensus on the need to move off fossil fuels to avert the worst of climate change. Advocates will speak at the meeting to voice their dissension to the project, thought to be connected to the controversial proposed Bioenergy DevCo factory farm biogas facility nearby.”
Reuters: Canadian pipeline operator Enbridge reports higher profit as transport volumes rise
2/11/22
“Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) reported a 3.7% jump in fourth-quarter profit on Friday, as a recovery in fuel demand boosted the Canadian pipeline operator's transportation volumes,” Reuters reports. “Pipeline operators have benefited from a pick-up in volumes with energy prices trading at multi-year highs on a sustained recovery in fuel demand from the pandemic-driven lows. Enbridge said it transported 3.01 million barrels per day (bpd) on its Mainline system in the fourth quarter, compared with 2.65 million bpd a year earlier.”
Guardian: ‘Treated like a backyard’: pipeline violates civil rights, say Brooklynites
Greta Moran, 2/11/22
“At first glance, the construction along the Brooklyn streets appeared routine. “You wouldn’t think anything of it,” said Fabian Rogers, a community organizer in Brownsville, a majority Black neighborhood where construction began in 2017,” the Guardian reports. “It wasn’t until years later, in 2020, that he learned that the overturned streets were making way for a fracked gas pipeline. “It just felt like a big slap in the face – to have [a pipeline] in my backyard that I didn’t know about,” he told the Guardian. Rogers and other residents have spent the last two years protesting National Grid’s 7-mile pipeline, which zigzags through predominantly Black and Latino neighborhoods, bypassing whiter, wealthier parts of Brooklyn. Formally known as the Metropolitan Reliability Project, the pipeline is often referred to as the north Brooklyn pipeline. They have blocked the pipeline’s construction at demonstrations and some have stopped paying part of their utility bills, in an effort to divert funding from the project. Last summer, they went a step further filing a complaint against the utility and state that argues the pipeline has resulted in racial discrimination, violating Title VI of the 1964 Civil Rights Act. (Title VI prohibits federally-funded entities from discriminating on the basis of race, gender, and other protected identities). Historically, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has been slow to act on these types of complaints, rarely finding evidence of discrimination. But under the Biden administration, the agency has committed to change this. How the EPA responds to this challenge – in which Black, Indigenous, and brown-led community groups say a fracked gas pipeline represents a violation of their civil rights – will be a test of the agency’s ability to execute on that promise.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Politico: API OBJECTS
Matthew Choi, 2/9/22
“The American Petroleum Institute isn't letting last year's Gulf of Mexico lease sale go down without a fight,” Politico reports. “The trade association appealed a court decision that last month nullified DOI's November offshore lease sale after finding a Trump-era environmental review to be flawed. “At a time of rising energy costs and heightened geopolitical tensions, the misguided decision to cancel the only lease sale held last year is contributing to significant uncertainty for U.S. natural gas and oil producers and limiting access to the affordable, reliable energy that’s needed here in the U.S. and around the world,” API Senior Vice President for Policy, Economics and Regulatory Affairs Frank Macchiarola said in a statement.
The Hill: Two House Democrats question PR firms on work with fossil fuel companies
BY ZACK BUDRYK, 2/9/22
“Reps. Katie Porter (D-Calif.) and Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) sent a letter Wednesday to six public relations firms, asking for details on their work with energy companies and whether they had aided them in campaigns to obscure the link between fossil fuels and climate change,” The Hill reports. “The members specifically cited a video recorded last summer by an undercover Greenpeace activist, in which Exxon lobbyist Keith McCoy tells the videographer the company “[fought] against some of the science” and used “shadow groups” to obfuscate the link. The letters ask the firms in question for information on campaigns they have been awarded involving oil, coal or natural gas companies and trade associations no later than Feb. 23. Recipients of the letters included the Academy of Interactive and Visual Arts, the Association of Marketing and Communication Professionals, Haymarket Media, the Minnesota Public Relations Society of America, PR News, and Provoke Media. “The oil and gas industry spent decades trying to convince people that climate change wasn’t real, or that fossil fuels didn’t play a major role in causing it,” Grijalva said in a statement. “Now that they can no longer get away with outright denial, they are using unknown tactics like the ones described by McCoy and his industry colleagues to undermine climate initiatives.”
Politico: BUILD BACK NEVER?
Matthew Choi, 2/10/22
“But Democrats are conceding BBB may never happen, Politico reports. “After Democrats' signature climate and social spending package came to a screeching halt last December, the caucus is taking a cooling off period to focus on other priorities, including the Postal Service, sexual misconduct reform, appropriations, the Supreme Court, the Violence Against Women Act, and possibly changing the Electoral Count Act and sanctioning Russia. That could mean a revived BBB will get pushed until the spring or later, with most Democrats acknowledging it wouldn't get a revamp before April.”
Politico: INDUSTRY FOR BBB
Matthew Choi, 2/9/22
“More than 20 companies across the oil and gas, power, auto, steel, technology, and manufacturing sectors are lobbying Democratic leaders to pass the clean energy and climate components of the Build Back Better Act that hit the wall in December,” Politico reports. “The climate and clean energy provisions in Build Back Better, including tax credits for innovation as well as grants and other funding to support communities in transition, would harness market forces and help spur private sector investment at the scale needed to meet our long-term climate goals,” wrote the companies in a letter today to Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi shared exclusively with Pro’s Josh Siegel. Companies on the letter, organized by the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, include oil and gas giant BP, utilities Southern Company, PG&E, Entergy, Constellation, CMS Energy, and Edison International, along with ArcelorMittal, Ford, General Electric, and more.”
Politico: OVERSIGHT GETS TESTY ON OIL
Matthew Choi, 2/9/22
“What was initially planned to be a major reckoning with Big Oil executives devolved into a testy display of the yawning gap between House Democrats and Republicans over the fossil fuel industry,” Politico reports. “Speaking at a House Oversight hearing Tuesday focused on oil major’s climate pledges, Democrats accused firms like Exxon Mobil, BP, Chevron, and Shell of corporate greenwashing, while their GOP counterparts thrashed Democrats for their attacks on the fossil fuel industry while drivers are paying $1 more per gallon than a year ago at the pump. Penn State’s Michael Mann, an outspoken advocate for climate action and witness at Tuesday's hearing, called oil companies’ promises to decrease the carbon intensity of their operations a “bait and switch” since they were still selling oil and gas, and he compared it to eating reduced fat potato chips. “We're not talking about carbon intensity. We're talking about decreasing carbon emissions,” Mann said.”
STATE UPDATES
Politico: CLIMATE CASE GETS ITS PREFERRED VENUE
Matthew Choi, 2/10/22
“A federal appeals court gave Colorado municipalities a boost in their climate lawsuit by ordering the case be heard in state court — a venue that could be friendlier to their cause,” Politico reports. “The lawsuit goes after Suncor Energy and Exxon Mobil for selling fossil fuels without disclosure of their impacts on climate change. The energy firms had hoped to move the case to federal court, and SCOTUS ordered the appellate courts to hear out the companies’ full arguments in decided which court should hear the case. Other circuit courts face similar cases, which have been tied up in jurisdiction disputes for years.”
California Globe: LA City Council Proposes Making All New Buildings in City Carbon Neutral
Evan Symon, 2/10/22
“Los Angeles City Councilwoman Nithya Raman introduced legislation during the LA City Council meeting Wednesday to require all-newly constructed buildings in Los Angeles to be carbon neutral,” the California Globe reports. “Since the 2010’s, California has set a number large-scale environmental transition goals by certain years, including for public utilities to all be carbon free by 2045. Los Angeles, however, has aimed to meet those goals quicker than the state, passing the “LA 100” measure to be powered by 100% clean energy by 2035 last year. To help meet this goal, as well as reduce indoor carbon pollution in general, Councilwoman Raman introduced her proposed ordinance on Wednesday. In it, Raman identifies buildings in Los Angeles for totaling 43% of all greenhouse gas emissions in the city. Her proposal would help reduce it by having all new construction in the city not include gas lines, she said. All new buildings would come with all electric appliances, heating systems, and other things that in things that in the past have been gas reliant… “If passed, Los Angeles would join other Californian cities such as San Francisco in banning gas lines from being placed in newer buildings.”
Broomfield Enterprise: PFAS chemicals banned in Broomfield fracking operations
SYDNEY MCDONALD, 2/9/22
“The Broomfield City Council unanimously accepted amendments to the Broomfield Municipal Code (BMC) regarding PFAS in oil and gas regulations,” the Broomfield Enterprise reports. “Perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAS chemicals, are defined as a class of fluorinated organic chemicals containing at least one fully fluorinated carbon. These chemicals have been known to contaminate water supplies which can lead to severe human health effects. Michael Foote, special counsel for oil and gas, said that the definition used in the ordinance came straight from the state of Colorado. He described the ordinance as a “blanket prohibition” of the use of any PFAS chemicals. An article by the Denver Post last year stated that an estimated 501 sites in Colorado were using and discharging PFAS into water… “Broomfield’s current oil and gas regulations prohibit use of PFAS in emergency response activities, but PFAS were not named in the list of chemicals prohibited in fracking fluid, which help reflect local control of water quality. The approved ordinance adds PFAS to the list of banned chemicals.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canadian oil barrels head out of the U.S. Gulf in record numbers
By Stephanie Kelly and Nia Williams, 2/11/22
“Canadian oil companies exported a record amount of crude out of the U.S. Gulf Coast at the end of 2021, a trend that should continue in coming months, as tight international oil markets are in need of the nation's heavy, sour crude,” Reuters reports. “These barrels are hitting the Gulf thanks to new pipeline connections and expansions that just came online last year, and are meeting surging global demand that has pushed oil prices to seven-year highs… “By contrast, Canada's oil sands production is at a record 3.5 million barrels a day. Most of that is exported to use in the United States, but a growing number of barrels are transiting the country to the U.S. Gulf Coast, where it is then re-exported. In 2021, Canadian exports from the U.S. Gulf Coast averaged more than 180,000 bpd, reaching nearly 300,000 bpd in December, a record, Matt Smith, Kpler's lead oil analyst for the Americas, told Reuters. That's up from roughly 70,000 bpd in 2019 and 2020. The accelerated pace is expected to continue in 2022. Those barrels are primarily going to big importers India, China and South Korea - in part to offset for the loss of Venezuelan barrels, which is under U.S. sanctions and dealing with years of underinvestment. Canadian producers have benefited from changes in pipeline infrastructure that make it easier to ship to the Gulf Coast, the largest U.S. export hub, where more than 3 million barrels ship out every day. The Capline Pipeline, whose owners include Plains All American Pipeline and Marathon Petroleum Corporation (MPC.N), reversed flows in 2021, sending more oil from Patoka, Illinois, to terminals in St. James, Louisiana. In October, Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) doubled the capacity of its Line 3 pipeline, which carries oil from Edmonton, Alberta, to the U.S. Midwest.”
Natural Gas Intelligence: As Oilsands Production Drives Growth, Cenovus Eyes CCUS Opportunities
GORDON JAREMKO, 2/10/22
“The first stage in the planned Alberta oilsands environmental cleanup is to be a carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) network able to collect greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions from 20 operations, according to bitumen producer Cenovus Energy Inc., “ Natural Gas Intelligence reports. “Discussions are ongoing with the federal and provincial governments to ensure the necessary policy and financial support is in place,” Cenovus said Tuesday in discussing fourth quarter and full year 2021 results. “This first project is expected to include a pipeline with phased expansion capability to gather carbon dioxide from 20 oilsands facilities,” according to Cenovus, a founder of the Oil Sands Pathways to Net Zero industry coalition. “The pathways alliance is also progressing work to assess the feasibility of multiple other GHG-reducing technologies.”
Upstream Online: Chevron's flagship Gorgon CCS project still failing to live up to expectations
Josh Lewis, 2/10/22
“US supermajor Chevron has continued to face teething problems at its flagship carbon capture and storage (CCS) project in Western Australia,” Upstream Online reports. “A freedom of information disclosure released this week by the Australian government revealed the CCS scheme at Chevron’s Gorgon liquefied natural gas development on Barrow Island had only been operating at partial capacity for the 2021 financial year, which ended 30 June last year. In an annual report dated 30 September 2021, Chevron revealed the Gorgon CCS scheme had only injected a total of about 2.26 million tonnes of carbon dioxide over the 12 months to 30 June 2021, well below its targeted 4 million tonne per annum capacity… “Chevron has had a troubled start with its flagship CCS project at Gorgon, with it being revealed last year the project had failed to meet its promised injection rates. Under the terms of Gorgon’s project approval, Chevron is required to sequester at least 80% of the CO2 emissions released from the reservoirs that feed the Gorgon LNG plant over a five-year period… “While it has been designed with a 4 million tpa injection capacity, Chevron admitted in July last year the project had injected 5 million tonnes of CO2 since the August 2019 start-up… “However, the failure to meet the terms of the project approval resulted in Chevron revealing late last year it would be investing A$40 million (US$28.8 million) in Western Australian lower carbon projects, as well as acquiring and surrendering 5.23 million greenhouse gas offsets to address the CO2 injection shortfall.”
WSRS: US oil refinery workers speak out on contract battle
2/11/22
“Although the contract for 30,000 oil refinery and petrochemical workers expired on February 1, the United Steelworkers union is keeping workers on the job despite rejecting the “final settlement” from Marathon Petroleum,” WSRS reports. “The corporation, which is leading negotiations for 12 energy companies, is demanding workers accept annual wage increases of 2 to 3 percent, although inflation is 7.5 percent. With gas prices at a seven-year high, the oil companies are racking up huge profits and spending billions on stock buybacks to boost the fortunes of their biggest investors. The following comments were recently emailed to the World Socialist Web Site from oil refinery and petrochemical workers across the US. “I work at Marathon’s largest refinery. They’re forcing employees to work extended hours on their days off in order to get the facility running again after last week’s power outage. USW is failing to utilize the great opportunity we have to show them how much they actually need us. We should have safely shut the plant down and given them strike notice, but, instead, USW has us standing around holding signs while they force us to restart the refinery.”
Oil Change International: The Aggressive Explorer: How Norway’s Rapid Ramp-up of Oil and Gas Licensing Is Incompatible with Climate Leadership
2/8/22
“Norway claims to be one of the climate leaders of the world, and was one of the first countries to ratify the Paris Agreement. At the same time, the country has led an aggressive policy of expanding its oil and gas industries, and has ramped up its exploration licensing exponentially over the past 10 years,” according to Oil Change International. “In this briefing, we reveal that over the last ten years (2012-2022), the Norwegian government awarded as many exploration licenses (700) as in the period from 1965-2012, making Norway Europe’s most aggressive explorer. Additionally, the oil and gas within fields that are already licensed, but not yet developed, could lead to an additional 3 billion tons of CO2 emissions. This is 60 times Norway’s annual domestic emissions.”
Associated Press: Thailand tackles 2nd offshore oil spill in 3 weeks
2/11/22
“Thai authorities scrambled Friday to contain the country’s second oil spill in less than three weeks in the Gulf of Thailand,” the Associated Press reports. “An estimated 5 tons (1,320 gallons) was believed to have leaked 20 kilometers (12 miles) off the eastern province of Rayong, in the same location where at least 22 tons (5,800 gallons) spilled into the sea on Jan. 25. The cleanup from the earlier spill from a mooring point was declared completed last week, but only after some oil made it on to one of the shoreline beaches. The new leak was reported Thursday, and believed to have come from an underwater pipeline to the mooring point that was undergoing repairs, according to its operator, Star Petroleum Refining Co.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Fortune: You’d think $90 oil and record electricity prices would mean more green investment. You’d be wrong
SOPHIE MELLOR, 2/10/22
“Exxon Mobil, Chevron, Shell, BP, and Total have all returned to profitability in this year’s fourth-quarter earnings—in fact, reporting the biggest profits they’ve seen in eight years,” Fortune reports. “With gas and electricity prices surging and governments pushing action to address the climate crisis, some analysts and ESG investors expected that oil and gas companies would take advantage of their bumper profits to invest more into new gas exploration and low-carbon technologies. But Big Oil has taken a different tack. High commodity prices are good for existing production streams, and so, with oil hovering around $90 a barrel, the oil majors are shoring up their business by repaying the debts they’ve accumulated over COVID-19, increasing their dividends, and buying back shares. And as big oil companies funnel cash back to investors and strengthen their balance sheets, they are taking their foot off the gas on green investment. While governments and consumers may not be thrilled by this turn of events, shareholders are elated. Those who stayed with the petroleum companies while other investors greened up their portfolio during the pandemic—which saw the five supermajors post a combined loss of $76 billion in 2020—are finally reaping their reward… “While rising oil and gas prices offer oil supermajors the resources to accelerate green investments, Biraj Borkhataria, cohead of European energy research at RBC Capital Markets, told Fortune that he didn’t expect companies to “meaningfully” ramp up activities to transition away from oil and gas.”
E&E News: Bill McKibben Q&A: Fighting banks, surfing sofas and booming
By Corbin Hiar, 2/11/22
“In 2020, Bill McKibben left the climate advocacy group he’d helped found over a dozen years earlier. It was shortly before he turned 60,” E&E News reports. “It was time to start “building the kind of world that not only limits the rise in temperature, but also cushions the blow from that which is no longer avoidable,” the Middlebury College professor said in his July 2020 resignation letter to 350.org colleagues. “I’d like to have more time to help think through that part of the problem.” In September, McKibben announced a potential solution: Third Act, a progressive group for baby boomers and their predecessors. Third Act is now revving up its advocacy efforts, protesting banks that underwrite fossil fuel development and campaigning against a wave of new voter suppression laws… “One of the things that set apart 350.org, which was named after what some scientists estimated would be the maximum safe concentration of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere, was its focus on climate change. Why is Third Act taking a broader approach to advocacy? It’s partly because our sense is none of these things are achievable without progress on all of them. I don’t think there’s a way that we’re going to be able to address climate change without a much more robust democracy than we’ve got. And I think the key to that is trying to figure out how to end voter suppression.”
OPINION
The Hill: Forest Service oil transport plan would defy Biden climate promise
Randi Spivak is the public lands program director at the Center for Biological Diversity, 2/10/22
“For the U.S. Forest Service, spewing 53 million tons of carbon pollution a year into the air is somehow compatible with President Biden’s executive order to address the climate crisis,” Randi Spivak writes for The Hill. “That order, issued in the president’s first week in office, commanded urgent action to “avoid setting the world on a dangerous, potentially catastrophic, climate trajectory.” Forest Service Chief Randy Moore, who is poised to enable an 88-mile railway that would quadruple oil production in Utah’s Uinta Basin, appears to be a rogue federal agency director who’s defying his boss — or maybe he believes his own malarky.In any case, that’s how he’s defending draft approval of a right-of-way through the Ashley National Forest in Utah to allow construction of the proposed Uinta Basin Railway. Moore claims this climate-killing fossil fuel behemoth somehow aligns with Biden’s climate plan. It does not… “It’s astonishing that Moore has tentatively OK’d this project. It adds insult to injury for him to tell us that the railway aligns with Biden’s climate goals… “The railway will bring economic growth to Utah’s rural, urban, and Tribal communities, as products move quicker and safer by railway than by tractor-trailers on a highway,” he wrote… “Moore ignores the fact that Biden’s executive order sets as U.S. policy the goal of “significant short-term reductions in greenhouse gas emissions.” “...The Uinta Basin Railway clearly fails that test. So will the Forest Service if it is approved.”
City & State: Dangerous pipeline protests put first responders at risk
Bruce L. Castor Jr. was appointed as the first solicitor general of Pennsylvania in 2016 and served as acting attorney general later that year, 2/11/22
“Construction of the Mariner East 2 pipeline is nearing completion and will soon safely transport reliable and affordable energy across Pennsylvania. Throughout the pipeline system’s multi-year construction, Mariner East has brought immense benefits, including billions in economic investment and thousands of skilled labor jobs. However, some environmentalists have decided to stand in the way of progress, attempting to block the completion of Mariner East with disruptive and dangerous protests,” Bruce L. Castor Jr. writes for CIty & State. “Just this past month, two protesters trespassed at an active pipeline construction site and locked themselves together on equipment, temporarily halting work on the project. Unfortunately, this isn’t the first time local law enforcement have been called to remove unruly protesters and secure pipeline construction sites. As a former district attorney, this concerns me. Interruptions to the pipeline’s final construction are unproductive and pose unnecessary risks to first responders, pipeline workers and protesters themselves… “Pennsylvanians can and should exercise their right to peacefully protest. However, it should be performed in a way that does not interrupt progress and create danger for others… “The more activists continue to protest the construction of Mariner East, the longer it will take for Pennsylvania to take advantage of the affordable energy and continued economic benefits the project will provide… “Opinions may differ. But I strongly urge those who continue to protest the Mariner East 2 pipeline to fully educate themselves on pipeline safety and reconsider their distracting and dangerous attempts at disrupting the construction process and preventing Pennsylvania from reaching its full energy potential.”
Dispatches From the Frontlines: A Landmark Precedent Gets Set In Virginia Thanks to Frontline Environmental Justice Activists
Crystal Cavalier, 2/10/22
“I recognized the older woman immediately as she stood up to address the six members of the Virginia Air Pollution Board gathered in the Pittsylvania County Hall in Chatham, Virginia, on December 3 last year. A month before, she’d attended a story-telling workshop I ran, where we trained members of the community how to resist the laying of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) Southgate through our lands by telling the stories of their own lives,” Crystal Cavalier writes for Dispatches From the Frontlines. “I wasn’t going to speak, but I have found the courage,” the woman said. “I suffer from asthma and it’s bad enough with the two compressor stations already in Chatham. I don’t believe I would be able to breathe at all, with a third.” The hearing was about the proposed Lambert Compressor Station that MVP planned to install as part of its Southgate Extension. This would carry fracked methane gas from the fracking fields of West Virginia across Virginia into North Carolina—right to the doorstep of my own home, along the Haw River in Mebane. I am an enrolled member of the Occaneechi Band of the Saponi Nation, with American Indian, Irish, and African blood in my veins…”As happens too often when I meet other environmental activists, I was the only person of color in the room. The conversation was all about carbon neutrality, really important of course, but I thought, “you guys are totally missing the point; that issue is so distant to the immediate concerns of Black and brown people on the frontlines. We don’t even deal with that. We’re just trying to survive and exist, and live our lives with clean water and clean air, and the way you are talking is just not going to grab people in the community.” The world has changed. Now that “environmental racism” has become recognized, we attracted media and funder attention when we started mobilizing people against the MVP Southgate Extension last year. People sat up and took notice. If last month’s victory in Virginia proved one thing, it is how essential we folks on the frontlines are in the fight against pollution — and thus also against fossil fuels, and for climate justice.”