EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 2/1/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Des Moines Register: Summit Carbon files for permit to build a carbon capture pipeline
Earthjustice: How a Shoddy Environmental Review Could Cause a Catastrophic Oil Spill in Wisconsin
Jacobin: We’re in a Climate Crisis — But the Pipelines Keep Coming
Al Jazeera: 'We are the power': Canada's Indigenous land defenders pledge to fight on.
Ricochet: The last of the untamed: Wedzin Kwa and the Wet’suwet’en fight to save her
Utility Dive: As utilities consider ESG options, Kinder Morgan's 'responsibly sourced natural gas' plan faces scrutiny
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNBC: Biden is sending more than $1 billion to states to plug abandoned oil and gas wells
Politico: THAT’S ALL FOLKS?
Politico: BBB is also still getting a push on the climate front
Jacobin: Oil Is Killing the Planet — And Driving Inflation
Politico: MAKING A FERC COMPRESSION
The Verge: Federal court decision could slow oil industry efforts to store carbon in the Gulf of Mexico
Politico: GAS PLANT APPEAL KILLINGLY-ED
E&E News: Greens Push BLM For More Aggressive Methane Rules
STATE UPDATES
Washington Post: In Senate race, leading Pa. Democrat spurns a fracking ban
Indianapolis Star: Indiana bill targets banks that divest from fossil fuels, says they can't do business here
EXTRACTION
Nature World News: Carbon Capture Hype Might Hurt the Project in the Long Run
Interesting Engineering: Shell’s Carbon Capture Plant Creates More Emissions Than It Captures
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: BlackRock tallied its climate impact. Here's what it found
OPINION
Des Moines Register: Opinion: MidAmerican should save customers more than $1 billion by retiring coal
Globe and Mail: Oil sands companies have financial muscle to go their own way on emission reductions
Canadian Energy News Network: Carbon tech still reduces emissions when used to make products like blue hydrogen from oil and gas – and the tech is only getting better.
The Hill: The US government should end its war on natural gas
PIPELINE NEWS
Des Moines Register: Summit Carbon files for permit to build a carbon capture pipeline
Donnelle Eller, 2/1/22
“Summit Carbon Solutions has taken the next step in building a 680-mile pipeline across 29 counties in Iowa, filing with the Iowa Utilities Board for a permit,“ the Des Moines Register reports. “...Summit, an Ames company that spun off from entrepreneur Bruce Rastetter's Summit Agricultural Group, is one of three firms that want to build carbon capture pipelines in Iowa to serve ethanol, fertilizer and other industrial agriculture plants. Summit says it has agreements to capture carbon from 31 ethanol plants and one fertilizer plant in Iowa, Minnesota, Nebraska, South Dakota and North Dakota. The project is listed as a hazardous liquid pipeline because carbon dioxide in high concentrations can cause illness and asphyxiation. Summit says it is needed to cut ethanol's carbon footprint in half so it can be sold in California and other states with low-carbon fuel standards… “While the projects have supporters, many farmers, landowners and county officials have filed objections with the utilities board, expressing concern about the possible use of eminent domain to force landowners to sell rights of way to the companies. Some also have expressed concern about potential degradation of farmland the tile system that drains fields of excess moisture… “In addition to the Iowa Utilities Board permit, Summit expects it will need 19 other state and federal permits for the pipeline to cross Iowa. Jess Mazour, the Sierra Club's Iowa Chapter conservation coordinator, told the Register Monday the project affects all Iowans, regardless of whether the pipeline would cross their land. "It impacts the natural resources we as taxpayers have invested in.”
Earthjustice: How a Shoddy Environmental Review Could Cause a Catastrophic Oil Spill in Wisconsin
Bala Sivaraman, 1/31/22
“Wisconsin environmental regulators are on the brink of approving the conditions for a disastrous oil spill,” according to Earthjustice. “The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources is responsible for determining whether infrastructure projects proposed in the state are environmentally sound. In December, the department released a deeply flawed draft environmental review of a dangerous plan by Enbridge Energy to relocate part of the Line 5 oil pipeline where it runs through the Bad River watershed. Both the plan and the environmental review utterly failed to analyze the hazards this proposal creates for the surrounding communities, including the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa, as well as the ecosystems of the surrounding rivers and the local drinking water supply… “The Bay Mills Indian Community, an Ojibwe Tribal Nation that has lived along these waters since time immemorial and retains treaty-protected access to them, is is advocating and litigating to shut down the pipeline and prevent the proposed tunnel project. (Earthjustice is representing Bay Mills in its legal fight.) However, with the backing of the Canadian government, Enbridge has refused to shut the segment down and has been operating it illegally since May 2021… “The state’s environmental review was egregiously inadequate at outlining the threats that the re-route poses to the Bad River Band,” says Earthjustice attorney Stefanie Tsosie, who is working with the Bad River Band to challenge the environmental review. “The state has failed to analyze any of the environmental impacts the new pipeline will have on watersheds.”
Jacobin: We’re in a Climate Crisis — But the Pipelines Keep Coming
JULIA ROCK, 1/31/22
“Scientists and international governing bodies have been very clear: In order to have a shot at limiting the worst impacts of global warming, investment in new fossil fuel projects must stop,” Jacobin reports. “Yet the federal body that regulates America’s pipelines has created a perverse incentive for companies to keep building methane-leaking fossil fuel infrastructure that doesn’t serve anybody except shareholders. In St. Louis, Missouri, a legal battle over a new pipeline called Spire STL is a glaring example of a nationwide problem: “self-dealing” between energy and pipeline companies fleeces customers and exacerbates the climate crisis, all with the government’s blessing… “Last June, a federal court ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), the agency which regulates interstate natural gas pipelines, had ignored “evidence of self-dealing” in the Spire case, and vacated the original federal permit. But by that point, Spire had already constructed its pipeline, taking well over 200 acres of land by eminent domain in the process, and retired other infrastructure so that hundreds of thousands of utility customers now receive gas via the new pipeline. By doing so, the company tied “captive customers” to the pipeline and has threatened to cut off their heat this winter if the pipeline is shut down… “Amid a fracking boom over the past decade, Spire was far from the only company that built an unnecessary natural gas pipeline to tap into the large profit margins allowed by federal rate-setting formulas. Now energy customers are bearing the costs, and even if courts rule that some of these pipelines should not have been approved, the infrastructure could be here to stay. In the next few months, FERC is set to issue new guidelines for how it will assess proposed natural gas pipelines for the first time since 1999. Environmental watchdogs hope the guidelines will make changes to how FERC addresses whether a project is needed, as well as take into account the impacts of natural gas on climate change and environmental justice when considering proposed pipelines.”
Al Jazeera: 'We are the power': Canada's Indigenous land defenders pledge to fight on.
Brandi Morin, 1/24/22
“Freda Huson has been praying. The Wet'suwet'en matriarch and wing chief of the Unist'ot'en Dark House Clan left her home on the Witset First Nation more than a decade ago to return to her yintah, the land of her ancestors, in order to protect it from encroaching industry,” Al Jazeera reports. “On the land, she built a healing centre with her niece and sister, where Wet'suwet'en can return to their roots, connect with the land and drink the waters of the Wedzin Kwa, a sacred river so pure that people can drink directly from it. But now industry is moving in on the Wet'suwet'en territory in northern British Columbia (BC). For years, Indigenous land defenders like Freda have sought to protect their lands and sacred headwaters from the construction of a pipeline. First proposed in 2012, the 670-kilometre- (417-mile)-long Coastal GasLink (CGL) pipeline is intended to carry liquified natural gas (LNG) from northeast BC to a terminal on the coast in Kitimat. A portion of it is set to pass through the Wet’suwet’en Nation - 22,000 square kilometres of unceded territory that was never legally signed over to the Crown or to Canada. But Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs from the nation’s five clans and 13 houses oppose the multibillion-dollar pipeline and say they were not consulted before the province approved it. While the pipeline project is supported by the five elected Wet’suwet’en band councils (which were established by Canada’s 1867 Indian Act, which sought to undermine traditional forms of Indigenous governance and to control all aspects of the lives of Indigenous people), a 1997 ruling by the Supreme Court of Canada recognised that it is the Wet’suwet’en hereditary chiefs who are the rightful titleholders to the land. And they say they are determined to defend it.”
Ricochet: The last of the untamed: Wedzin Kwa and the Wet’suwet’en fight to save her
Brandi Morin, 1/29/22
“Winding through mountainous wilderness in the heart of Wet’suwet’en territories is a glistening, sacred river. The Wet’suwet’en call it Wedzin Kwa — “the blue and green river” — and cherish it for its purity and healing powers,” Ricochet reports. “...Elder Betty Joseph, 67, from the Lik’silyu Clan, is known as one of the greatest living fisherwomen among the Wet’suwet’en. She grew up helping her grandparents harvest salmon in the summer months along the Moricetown Canyon, but it wasn’t until she turned 21 that she discovered she had a gift… “Suddenly her cheerful demeanour fades. “This river system is.…” She squints her eyes in contemplation and sighs deeply. “Is at risk from these developments.” She is referring, of course, to the notorious $6.6-billion Coastal GasLink pipeline. The liquified natural gas pipeline is being constructed through approximately 190 kilometres of unceded Wet’suwet’en territories. CGL plans to run pipe underneath the Wedzin Kwa, potentially interrupting the salmon migration routes relied upon by the Wet’suwet’en and threatening the purity of the river’s drinking water. “(CGL) just want to make their money their way and put that pipeline in,” Joseph told Ricochet. “I don’t need pipeline gas because we’ve been living the way we are and we’re doing good. I don’t know why they need to put that through our land. They’re destroying all the places where we pick berries, fish and hunt.” “...CGL often defends its actions by referring to the consent it has obtained from 20 First Nations situated near the pipeline route. It sounds good, especially to a public that has little understanding of Indigenous governance — but what the company doesn’t acknowledge is that this consent comes through the elected chief and band council system, a colonial construct created via the Indian Act.”
Utility Dive: As utilities consider ESG options, Kinder Morgan's 'responsibly sourced natural gas' plan faces scrutiny
Ethan Howland, 1/25/22
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission should hold a technical conference to vet a first-of-its-kind proposal by Tennessee Gas Pipeline Co., a Kinder Morgan subsidiary, for shipping "responsibly sourced natural gas" (RSG), according to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF),” Utility Dive reports. “Tennessee Gas' proposal could set a precedent for the pipeline industry, but lacks adequate detail around standards for what constitutes RSG, EDF said in a Monday filing at FERC. "More discussion and vetting is needed to ensure that the proposed [producer certified gas] Pooling Service Option results in the real reductions in methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain that RSG programs are intended to drive," the environmental group told FERC. Tennessee Gas' mid-December proposal for shipping and trading RSG comes as utilities are looking for ways to reduce greenhouse gas emissions related to natural gas. An emerging option is RSG, conventional natural gas that has been produced in ways that meet voluntary environmental, social and governance (ESG) standards like reduced methane emissions, according to Kinder Morgan… "More fundamentally, more discussion and vetting is needed to ensure that the proposed [producer certified gas] Pooling Service Option results in the real reductions in methane emissions from the natural gas supply chain that RSG programs are intended to drive," EDF said.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNBC: Biden is sending more than $1 billion to states to plug abandoned oil and gas wells
Emma Newburger, 1/31/22
“The Biden administration on Monday announced it will send $1.15 billion to states to plug thousands of orphan oil and gas wells that emit methane, a potent climate-changing greenhouse gas,” CNBC reports. “...The funding to plug oil and gas wells comes from President Joe Biden’s bipartisan infrastructure bill, which allocated a total of $4.7 billion to form a new federal program to address the thousands of wells abandoned across the country. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland said in a statement that the funding enables the government to “confront the legacy pollution and long-standing environmental injustices that for too long have plagued underrepresented communities.” “...The money will go to the 26 states that submitted notices of intent to the Department of Interior last year, including more than $100 million each for Pennsylvania and Texas. Roughly 9 million people live within a mile of an abandoned oil and gas well, some of which emit harmful gases that disproportionately impact low-income communities of color in the U.S… “The White House also described efforts to require pipeline operators to minimize methane leaks, conduct research to curb methane emissions from beef and dairy systems and create a new interagency working group to coordinate the measurement, monitoring and reporting of greenhouse gas emissions.”
Politico: THAT’S ALL FOLKS?
Matthew Choi, Ben Lefebvre, 1/31/22
“All eyes are on the Interior Department to see whether it will appeal last week's ruling that knocked November’s offshore lease sale into a cocked hat,” Politico reports. “The oil industry views Judge Rudolph Contreras' ruling invalidating the $191 million lease sale as “a substantial threat,” one industry lobbyist told Politico. Because the judge’s order essentially scuttled any hopes that the lease sale will be redone anytime soon, companies will have to look to Interior to release a new five-year plan for future lease sales — something that the Trump administration had publicly sworn it had stopped working on and that the Biden administration has barely mentioned. “The only viable path forward for a new lease sale would be a change in administration, and even with a more supportive administration it would take years to go through the process of establishing a new five-year leasing plan and holding additional leases,” this person told Politico. Environmental groups cheered the decision that invalidated the lease sale based on the Trump administration's shoddy environmental review. The ruling, if it stands, would help President Joe Biden keep his pledge to cut U.S. methane emissions, Diane Hoskins, campaign director at environmental group Oceana, told Politico.
Politico: BBB is also still getting a push on the climate front
Matthew Choi, Ben Lefebvre, 1/31/22
“...With over 100 environmental, business, labor and conservation groups writing to House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer today to get the climate provisions of the package through,” Politico reports. “The groups focus in particular on the 45Q tax credits for carbon mitigation technology, though they urge for the inclusion of the whole clean energy tax credit package. “This tax package will, in turn, deliver an essential down payment on deployment to meet critical emissions reduction targets, while retaining and creating high-wage jobs and fostering domestic energy and industrial production,” the groups write. The signatories include Total Energies, Third Way, C2ES and the National Wildlife Federation.”
Jacobin: Oil Is Killing the Planet — And Driving Inflation
Harrison Stetler, 1/31/22
“The price of crude oil has soared to over $90 per barrel from the early-pandemic depths of under $20. This is one of the key factors driving high inflation — now a key issue in the United States and around the world, with numerous countries facing price volatility not seen in decades. Supply chain disruptions and a COVID-19-induced dearth of new oil investments are partly to blame for this. But something deeper than the pandemic and its aftershocks is destabilizing global capitalism,” Jacobin reports. “Matthieu Auzanneau is an author specializing in the oil industry and director of the Paris-based Shift Project, a think tank focused on ending the use of fossil fuels… “And then there is a much deeper phenomenon, which is the increasing problems for oil companies to go out and find untouched oil resources to compensate for the half of the world production that is structurally declining because the reserves are in depression… “The COVID-19 crisis has aggravated the deficit in oil investment that was already present in 2018. We are seeing the tensions play out right now because the investments in nonconventional and extreme petrol sources — shale oil, ultradeep offshore drilling — that would have been necessary to offset the decline have not been made. The demand has come back since, but there is a lack of additional production capacity. One thing that is very important to know about the oil industry is that if you do nothing, if you stop investing, production cannot be maintained.”
Politico: MAKING A FERC COMPRESSION
Matthew Choi, Ben Lefebvre, 1/31/22
“New York utilities National Grid and Consolidated Edison defended their proposed compressor station against criticisms from EPA in comments filed with FERC Thursday and Friday,” Politico reports. “EPA in November called FERC’s analysis of the project “inadequate,” arguing the commission did not take a close enough look at the project’s associated greenhouse gas emissions and should delay approval of its needed permits. Utilities argued the project is needed for reliability in the region and will keep New York on track to reach its climate goals. It strikes a balance between increased customer demand in the state and resistance to “traditional, large-scale natural gas infrastructure projects” by avoiding new pipeline builds and focusing only on additional compression to increase gas supply, according to the companies.”
The Verge: Federal court decision could slow oil industry efforts to store carbon in the Gulf of Mexico
Justine Calma, 1/31/22
“Fossil fuel companies’ hopes of sequestering captured greenhouse gas emissions at the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico hit a snag last week when a federal court revoked a gigantic oil and gas lease sale the Biden Administration held last November,” The Verge reports. “ExxonMobil was the biggest spender at the time, bidding on nearly 100 leases in shallow waters. Because the areas it bid on weren’t expected to be very lucrative for oil and gas drilling, experts speculated that ExxonMobil would use the areas for storing captured CO2. But late last week, US District Court Judge Rudolph Contreras canceled leases issued during the November sale. The enormous sale, which auctioned off 80.8 million acres in the Gulf of Mexico, was challenged in federal court by environmental groups when it was first announced in August. Activists criticized the Biden administration for conducting the sale even as it pledged to slash planet-heating pollution… “ExxonMobil declined to provide comment to The Verge on the court’s decision and how it might affect the company’s plans to capture and store carbon dioxide. Earlier this month, the company pledged to reach net-zero emissions for its operations by 2050, a relatively limited climate commitment since it excludes emissions that come from the burning of oil and gas products the company sells. ExxonMobil has pointed to Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) as one strategy for reducing its pollution. CCS involves using devices to capture the carbon dioxide that power plants and industrial facilities produce and then finding places to store that CO2 underground. “ExxonMobil believes the greatest opportunity for CO2 storage in the United States is in the Gulf of Mexico,” Todd Spitler, a spokesperson for Exxon’s Low Carbon Solutions business, said in an email to E&E News.
Politico: GAS PLANT APPEAL KILLINGLY-ED
Matthew Choi, Ben Lefebvre, 1/31/22
“FERC in a Friday night decision shut down the bid from a Connecticut gas plant trying to keep its investment alive,” Politico reports. “The commission found the Killingly power plant failed to prove the regulator's decision to terminate the project’s capacity contract with the region’s grid operator would result in irreparable injury, and argued further FERC’s decision does not doom the project. Killingly had argued that the revenue it would lose from being barred from the New England Independent System Operator’s next capacity market auction will cost it the millions of dollars it spent developing the power plant that it hopes to bring online in 2024. ISO-NE alleges the facility is not on track to finish development on that timeline. But FERC found in its Friday decision that the plant could still participate in future auctions, and allowing it to participate in the next auction could harm other market participants. Killingly also appealed to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit on the issue, which directed FERC earlier this month to reply within 10 days.”
E&E News: Greens Push BLM For More Aggressive Methane Rules
1/27/22
Sixty five environmental and Indigenous organizations signed a letter to the Biden administration today seeking a ban on routine venting and flaring from federal oil wells. The Bureau of Land Management will write new methane regulations for onshore oil and gas infrastructure as early as this spring, according to the White House’s regulatory schedule. In the letter to BLM Director Tracy Stone-Manning, dozens of activists argued that the forthcoming rules should enforce strict curtailment of these intentional releases of methane and other gases. They are called venting when gas is simply released and flaring when gas is burned off. Oil and gas operators sometimes intentionally release gas in these ways, either for safety reasons or because they lack pipelines to carry the gas to market. But greens have long fought the practice as wasteful and harmful to the environment. The letter urges the bureau to attach stipulations to drilling permits, so that companies are not allowed to begin production until gathering lines are in place to collect gas. ‘BLM has a critical opportunity to defend taxpayers and stop needless waste on our public lands,’ said Jon Goldstein, senior director of regulatory and legislative affairs for the Environmental Defense Fund, one of the groups to sign the letter, in an email. He said the federal government should emulate states like Colorado, Alaska and New Mexico that have restricted routine venting or flaring.
STATE UPDATES
Washington Post: In Senate race, leading Pa. Democrat spurns a fracking ban
Maxine Joselow, 1/31/22
“One of the leading Democrats in one of the most competitive Senate contests in the midterm elections opposes a ban on hydraulic fracturing, or fracking,” the Washington Post reports. “Environmentally, fracking poses a clear risk to the climate and clean water. Politically, the issue is much more complicated in Pennsylvania, where fracking has long been considered a third rail of state politics… “Lamb and Fetterman have both voiced opposition to a ban on fracking, the controversial process in which liquid is blasted underground to create cracks through which oil and natural gas can escape. In particular, Lamb has argued that support for fracking is a prerequisite for any Democrat seeking to win a statewide election in Pennsylvania. And he has taken some credit for getting President Biden to back away from a fracking ban during the 2020 presidential campaign. By contrast, Kenyatta does support a nationwide moratorium on fracking and has said the state should be “doubling down on clean energy," according to the Post-Gazette. “A more moderate stance on fracking by the eventual Democratic nominee is a smart position politically,” Jeff Brauer, a political science professor at Keystone College in La Plume, Pa., said in an email to The Climate 202. “For many moderate PA voters, who ultimately decide statewide races, fracking and all the industries around it are an economic lifeline, and they will not vote for any candidate who threatens to end the practice, especially too brashly,” Brauer added.
Indianapolis Star: Indiana bill targets banks that divest from fossil fuels, says they can't do business here
Sarah Bowman, 1/31/22
“If you say no to doing business with fossil fuel companies, then Indiana will say no to doing business with you, according to a bill that is currently advancing through the Statehouse,” the Indianapolis Star reports. “A new bill, House bill 1224, says state government cannot invest or contract with companies that “boycott” energy companies — in the case of this bill, however, energy companies means fossil fuel industries such as coal and gas. On its surface, the bill is “technically about government investments and contracts,” author Rep. Manning said during a committee hearing last week. “But what this bill is really about is the reliability of our electric grid,” the Logansport Republican continued. “And this bill is about who sets energy policy.” It's also about politics. Some supporters say this bill is critical to keeping politics out of the market, while critics argue it does just the opposite and directly interferes with the free system. Indiana is not alone in the debate. The legislation is part of a growing movement across the country. It started in Texas when a similar bill was signed into law last year. Now the right-wing American Legislative Exchange Council, known as ALEC, is pushing this new piece of anti-fossil fuel divestment legislation. Similar bills have popped up in a handful of other states… “This bill “flies in the face of what the markets are doing,” Kerwin Olson, executive director of Indiana consumer advocacy group Citizens Action Coalition, told the Star. “It’s not only about sustainability and climate goals, it’s about coal being a bad and risky investment in 2022. But they are trying to use the power of government to force investment into their companies.” A Senate bill that would have done the opposite, requiring the state to divest from fossil fuels, did not even get a hearing. It was filed by a Democrat lawmaker.”
EXTRACTION
Nature World News: Carbon Capture Hype Might Hurt the Project in the Long Run
Rain Jordan, 2/1/22
“After years of promoting carbon capture and storage (CCS) technology as a mid-term option for reducing carbon emissions from fossil fuel extraction, many people are worried about the quality of CCS projects now underway,” Nature World News reports. “...After a few years of the enormous CCS boom, there is now a lot of doubt in the business. Recent headlines have chastised the US for wasting $1.1 billion on unsuccessful CCS initiatives. Since 2009, the United States Department of Energy (DOE) has distributed funding among 11 carbon capture projects at coal-fired power stations and industrial sites. According to a study by the Government Accountability Office (GAO), however, many were failures, with some never being built. Aside from investing in CCS projects that never materialized, the government allegedly subsidized enterprises that failed to meet critical milestones. Many of these failed projects were coal-fired power plants, but as natural gas plants became more competitive in cost and cleaner energy, many coal plants were forced to close… “And it's not just in the United States where CCS technologies aren't being used to their full potential. A project in Canada that was once heralded as the future of CCS is now being scrutinized. Shell is operating a carbon capture, and storage project in Alberta called Quest, helping to decarbonize the region's oil sands operations.”
Interesting Engineering: Shell’s Carbon Capture Plant Creates More Emissions Than It Captures
Derya Ozdemir, 1/31/22
“Oil giant Shell's Quest plant has been designed to capture carbon emissions from oil sands operations and store them underground to reduce carbon emissions. However, according to a recent study by the human rights organization Global Witness, the facility actually emits more greenhouse gas emissions than it captures,” Interesting Engineering reports. “Since 2015, it has prevented the release of five million tonnes of carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, but it has also released a further 7.5 million tonnes. To put that into perspective, Global Witness stated Shell’s plant appears to have the same carbon footprint as 1.2 million gasoline-powered cars each year… “This indicates that only 48 percent of the carbon emissions from the plant were captured. The report states that this falls significantly short of the industry's claim of 90 percent carbon capture rate for these types of projects in general, and when other greenhouse gas emissions from Shell's project are factored in, the rate drops to only 39 percent… “The findings still do raise questions about whether CCS technologies are as "green" as Big Oil claims and are indeed a critical component of achieving net-zero, or whether this is another case of “greenwashing", in which green PR and green marketing are deceptively used to persuade the public that an organization's products, aims, and policies are environmentally friendly… “Hundreds of academics and scientists recently wrote a letter to Finance Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Chrystia Freeland and other ministers, urging Justin Trudeau’s government not to reward companies that use carbon capture technology.. “The experts argued that funding such efforts "diverts resources from proven, more cost-effective solutions", and that governments should instead focus efforts on renewable energy infrastructure and electrification.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: BlackRock tallied its climate impact. Here's what it found
Avery Ellfeldt, 1/31/22
“Wall Street titan BlackRock Inc. in 2020 helped pump more than 330 million tons of greenhouse gases into the atmosphere — the equivalent of 71 million passenger vehicles driven for one year,” E&E News reports. “Those eye-popping figures don't come from environmentalists; they're from the investment firm itself. The world's largest money manager disclosed last month the planet-warming emissions associated with a majority of its investment portfolio — marking a first for BlackRock and also Wall Street more broadly. As the financial sector faces pressure to slash its carbon footprint, banks, investors and other institutions have said they first would need to quantify their current levels of carbon emissions. Doing so is challenging for a range of reasons. Key among them is that determining “financed emissions” requires a complex calculation: the carbon output that results from a firm’s investments in, and loans to, companies in every sector across the economy… “While BlackRock’s report is a major step forward, it doesn’t provide a complete picture of the firm’s contributions to rising temperatures. The analysis, which was done using emissions data from index provider MSCI Inc., only encapsulates a portion of the firm’s business — and required significant levels of estimation… “But in the eyes of Ben Cushing, who leads the Sierra Club's finance campaign, they also make BlackRock’s report even more important. “It's not a comprehensive number. As they say, it only covers about 65 percent of their [assets under management],” Cushing told E&E. “So if this is the minimum baseline, the real number is actually quite a bit higher.” That reality, he added, “hopefully sends a really clear signal to financial regulators that they need to act on this issue immediately.”
OPINION
Des Moines Register: Opinion: MidAmerican should save customers more than $1 billion by retiring coal
Katie Rock is the Iowa Campaign Representative based in Des Moines for the Sierra Club Beyond Coal, a national campaign to retire the U.S. coal fleet by 2030. To date, Beyond Coal has intervened to retire over 2,000 MW of coal power capacity in Iowa, 1/31/22
“Earlier this month, MidAmerican Energy announced a plan to build a new renewable energy project, Wind PRIME. But MidAmerican has produced no public plan to phase out its dirty coal plants and even said last year it will continue burning coal for another 27 years,” Katie Rock writes for the Des Moines Register. “...Despite the utility's “green” image, MidAmerican’s coal fleet is one of the largest in the U.S., and is primarily operated to increase shareholder profits, not to benefit Iowans. In 2020, all of the generation produced by its coal plants was in excess of Iowa customer demand. In other words, contrary to MidAmerican’s assertions, these coal plants are not needed for reliability. Yet it’s Iowans paying the price for this excess generation in health impacts, water and air pollution, decreased corn yields, and more natural disasters. MidAmerican’s announcement touts carbon capture as a potential solution to these concerns, yet that should be a non-starter for anyone who gets an electric bill from MidAmerican. The Kemper Project in Mississippi failed only after spending $7 billion on carbon capture. And a new Government Accountability Office report showed all eight “clean coal” carbon capture projects supported by the Department of Energy a decade ago have flopped. Iowans can’t afford a coal boondoggle dumping more ratepayer dollars into these uneconomic losers. By failing to tie its new Wind PRIME project to any carbon pollution reduction commitment goal or timeline, and by proposing to investigate carbon capture, MidAmerican has made clear that it has no intention of delivering the low cost, reliable coal-free future that Iowans deserve.”
Globe and Mail: Oil sands companies have financial muscle to go their own way on emission reductions
Andrew Willis, 1/31/22
“Click on the websites of Shell or BP, two of the world’s largest oil and gas producers, and you’ll find a home page decorated with photos of wind turbines. Do same at Canadian Natural Resources Ltd, the largest domestic energy company, and up pops a picture of a pipeline. On Suncor Energy Inc.’s site, you’ll find a refinery worker, decked out in a hardhat and safety googles,” Andrew Willis writes for the Globe and Mail. “The contrast speaks to very different approaches to the same challenge – climate change. To cut green house gas emissions, U.K.-based Shell and BP are plowing the billions of dollars generated from their fossil fuel operations into renewable energy. Hence, the prominence given to wind farms. At Canadian Natural, Suncor and other domestic oil sands plays, the plan is to reduce emissions by reinvesting a portion of their cash flow into technology such as carbon capture. Any excess money is earmarked for investors, in the form of stock buybacks and dividends… “Major oil sands players such as Canadian Natural and Suncor now generate so much cash that they are self-financing. After raising billions of dollars over five decades to develop massive Alberta projects, these companies are in the fortunate position of no longer needing to tap equity markets or lenders for the capital to expand. A generation back, news that a major bank such as HSBC or influential pension plan like the Caisse de dépôt et placement du Québec was turning off the tap for oil sands projects would have rocked Calgary. Today, it’s a non-event. The likes of Canadian Natural no longer need anyone else’s money, or approval, to prosper.”
Canadian Energy News Network: Carbon tech still reduces emissions when used to make products like blue hydrogen from oil and gas – and the tech is only getting better.
The Canadian Energy Resource Centre was created to provide informational resources to energy advocates, in order to give people the facts needed to have an adult conversation on hydrocarbons, 1/27/22
“ACTIVIST CLAIM: Global Witness ‘report’ on hydrogen made with natural gas and carbon tech claims industry using it to prolong oil and gas development and pollute,” according to the Canadian Energy News Network. “THE FACTS: Carbon tech still reduces emissions when used to make products like blue hydrogen from oil and gas – and the tech is only getting better… “Here are some facts and sources to have a reasoned conversation about carbon tech and blue hydrogen:..” “Despite the claims that Shell’s Quest project was a failure, they never claimed they would capture 100% of the emissions from the larger plant. The plant still captured 4 MT of emissions where if it were not operational, would have emitted more than it had. Carbon capture could ease Canada into the energy transition. So why restrict it? While we disagree that Canada needs to transition off of oil and gas, CENN does agree that Carbon Tech needs to be embraced as a way to limit environmental impacts. Fossil fuels still make up over 80% of the world’s energy use and demand. Activists pushing the “only renewables” narrative seem to not understand that we need multiple ways to be environmentally friendly.”
The Hill: The US government should end its war on natural gas
Bernard L. Weinstein is emeritus professor of applied economics at the University of North Texas, former associate director of the Maguire Energy Institute at Southern Methodist University, and a fellow of Goodenough College, London, 1/31/22
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) isn’t a household name. But this relatively unknown government agency exerts tremendous influence on the cost of energy and the overall direction of America’s energy policy. Though nominally an independent and unbiased administrative entity, FERC, like the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), has become highly susceptible to outside political pressures,” Bernard L. Weinstein writes for The Hill. “...But in recent months, FERC decisions have wavered from this mission by incorporating health and environmental impacts into the rulemaking process. The result has been favoritism for renewables over natural gas, ignoring cost and reliability concerns… “Because of the intermittency of wind and solar power, and the demise of coal-fired generation, we will need base-load gas and nuclear plants well into the future… “FERC should return to its original mission by remaining fuel neutral in its rulemaking, thereby allowing competitive market forces to expand the adoption of wind, solar and other forms of renewable energy.”