EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 2/28/22
PIPELINE NEWS
KCRG: Protesters gather in Butler County to stand against carbon sequestration pipeline
Globe Gazette: Landowners form Iowa Easement Team to challenge proposed carbon pipelines
AgWeek: Carbon pipeline headed for North Dakota oil wells? Summit says 'no' but skeptics remain
Journal Courier: Farm Bureau meeting focusing on carbon-capture pipeline planned for region
Reuters: Trans Mountain can proceed with work on key pipeline terminals - regulator
KMTV: As gas prices rise, Biden critics slam Biden for cancelling Keystone XL pipeline
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: 15 years of Supreme Court climate fights come to a head Monday
Politico: APPEALS COURT WON’T REVIVE TRUMP 401 RULE
The Hill: Psaki says calls to enhance US oil production are a 'misdiagnosis'
FOX Business: Psaki pushes renewable energy to stop dependence on foreign oil instead of increasing US production
STATE UPDATES
Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Hawaii Circuit Court judge rules against throwing out suit against oil corporations
Albuquerque Journal: NM enters multistate hydrogen hub initiative
InsideClimate News: Why Did California Regulators Choose a Firm with Ties to Chevron to Study Irrigating Crops with Oil Wastewater?
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: BP to Exit Rosneft Stake and May Take a $25 Billion Hit
RBN Energy: An Update On LNG Export Projects Along Canada's West Coast
InsideClimate News: Oil and Gas Companies ‘Flare’ or ‘Vent’ Excess Natural Gas. It’s Like Burning Money—and it’s Bad for the Environment
OPINION
Knox County Weekly Post: Know Your Rights Regarding CO2 Pipeline
Guardian: This is how we defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats
Bloomberg: Fracking Is A Powerful Weapon Against Russia
PIPELINE NEWS
KCRG: Protesters gather in Butler County to stand against carbon sequestration pipeline
Brian Tabick, 2/26/22
“Protesters gathered Saturday afternoon in a snow-covered field to stand against a proposed carbon sequestration pipeline that would potentially be built nearby,” KCRG reports. “...I was notified through the mail that they were going to come through my property,” Duane DeGroote, a Butler County farmer, told KCRG. DeGroote said in his 50 years of farming, a company has never come to him asking to use his land. His biggest concerns were Navigator using eminent domain to build the pipeline and what the project might mean for the future of his crop yields. “It’s going to devalue the farm forever,” DeGroote told KCRG. “Wherever they dig, it won’t produce like it used to.” “...We took the picture to bring awareness that affects a lot of people, not just people of Butler County,” Ted Junker, one of the event’s organizers, told KCRG. “We plan on sending the picture to the governor’s office.” Junker told KCRG he and his wife came up with the idea for a protest along with a few other people. He doesn’t own land where the pipeline was proposed but does rent land on the proposed site. Having been farmers for decades, both DeGroote and Junker told KCRG they want to be good stewards of the land and say this isn’t the right project.”
Globe Gazette: Landowners form Iowa Easement Team to challenge proposed carbon pipelines
2/24/22
“Hundreds of Iowa landowners have hired Omaha-based Domina Law and launched the Iowa Easement Team to challenge proposed Summit Carbon Solutions and Navigator CO2 Ventures carbon pipeline projects,” the Globe Gazette reports. “We believe a united legal strategy gives us the best chance to defend ourselves against these proposed pipelines," Cynthia Hansen, who is a century farm owner from Shelby County, told the Gazette. "None of us can successfully fight them on our own, but if we work together we can protect each other and all of Iowa from these unnecessary projects. That’s why we created the Iowa Easement Team.” The Iowa Easement Team is a group of hundreds of landowners along both pipeline routes. They have banded together to refuse to sign easement agreements with the pipeline companies, defend property rights during the Iowa Utilities Board hearings, and to not negotiate unless absolutely necessary. Domina Law has a strong track record of organizing landowners against pipeline projects, successfully protecting landowner’s rights handling over 200 lawsuits and appeals related to the TransCanada Keystone XL pipeline in Nebraska. After 11 years of legal battles, TransCanada abandoned the project and rescinded easements it had previously taken across Domina Law’s clients’ land… “Anyone interested in joining forces with other affected landowners, or who simply want to support IET’s mission, can visit www.iowaeasement.org for more information.”
AgWeek: Carbon pipeline headed for North Dakota oil wells? Summit says 'no' but skeptics remain
Jeff Beach, 2/28/22
“It is known by the term “enhanced oil recovery.” Unlike hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, which opens up cracks in the oil-rich rock layers, enhanced oil recovery uses pressure to force oil toward the production well. One of the ways to create that pressure is to pump carbon dioxide into the rock formation,” AgWeek reports. “A potential source for that carbon dioxide? Carbon emissions captured from the ethanol plants that dot the countryside, turning corn into biofuel… “But Summit’s Midwest Carbon Express, with plans for 2,000 miles of pipeline linking 31 ethanol plants across five states, is being met with some resistance from landowners and environmentalists. One of several issues — safety concerns, landowners rights in the face of eminent domain, damage to farmland — that opponents have with the project is that the carbon dioxide could be sold to oil companies for enhanced oil recovery. Dan Wahl is a farmer near the Green Plains ethanol plant at Superior in northwest Iowa. “I don’t think there’s anything good about this whole thing,” Wahl told AgWeek of Summit's plans. He told AgWeek neighbors have banded together in opposition to Summit, and the pipeline’s route to North Dakota makes them suspicious of the carbon dioxide being used in the Bakken oilfields. “No one will put it in writing that they’re not going to use it for enhanced oil recovery,” Wahl told AgWeek. And at least one news article from early on in the project said Bruce Rastetter, the CEO of Iowa-based Summit Agricultural Group, which is the parent company of Summit Carbon Solutions, said enhanced oil recovery was being explored. But Summit says that is not the plan… “Jessica Mazour with the Sierra Club in Iowa, a key group in organizing landowners to oppose carbon pipelines in the state, told AgWeek Summit has not been up front about several issues, including not telling people at public meetings that there is a tax credit for using the carbon on enhanced oil recovery. She said profit is the company’s real motive, not reducing greenhouse gasses. “I highly doubt they're going to leave money on the table,” Mazour told AgWeek… “She noted that Summit has yet to apply for a federal permit for a class 6 well… “Iowa shouldn’t even be considering this project until they have a class 6 permit,” Mazour told AgWeek.
Journal Courier: Farm Bureau meeting focusing on carbon-capture pipeline planned for region
David C.L. Bauer, 2/28/22
“A 1,418-mile carbon-capture pipeline that will cross through west-central Illinois on its way from South Dakota to a sequestration site in Christian County will be the focus of a members-only Cass-Morgan Farm Bureau meeting Tuesday,” the Journal Courier reports. “...The Farm Bureau meeting at 1 p.m. Tuesday at Prairieland FS, 1132 Veterans Drive, is intended to help answer questions and listen to any concerns about the project that is being planned by Dallas-based Navigator CO2 Ventures. The company said in October that it had obtained necessary board approvals to proceed with the pipeline system and has started the process to obtain necessary permits. Under its timetable, the pipeline could go on line in late 2024 and into early 2025… “Pipeline supporters said it initially would keep as much as 5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year from being released into the atmosphere and would have the capacity to capture up to 15 million metric tons. That's like eliminating "the carbon footprint of (the) Des Moines metro area three times over," according to the company… “The Central Illinois Healthy Community Alliance said it is especially concerned about routes through residential areas. "Carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant and displaces oxygen. In too high quantities, it can cause unconsciousness or death. Lesser amounts can cause convulsions, disorientation, foaming at the mouth, nausea, vomiting and other health problems," according to a spokesman.
Reuters: Trans Mountain can proceed with work on key pipeline terminals - regulator
Bharat Govind Gautam, 2/28/22
“The Canada Energy Regulator (CER) said Trans Mountain TMC.UL does not need certain authorizations to proceed with work on two key terminals that are part of its delayed pipeline expansion project,” Reuters reports. “The Trans Mountain pipeline terminates at the Burnaby storage terminal, and crude is loaded onto tankers at the Westridge marine terminal. Work can now proceed on both, the regulator said. The authorizations relate to the City of Burnaby’s building, plumbing and electrical bylaws, the CER said, after the pipeline operator challenged their 'applicability and operability' in respect to certain work at the terminals. On its website, the CER on Friday said Trans Mountain would still have to comply with other relevant city bylaws to allow for oversight. This month, Canada's government said it will halt any further public funding for the Trans Mountain oil pipeline expansion, after the government-owned company behind the project said costs had surged 70% to C$21.4 billion ($16.75 billion).”
KMTV: As gas prices rise, Biden critics slam Biden for cancelling Keystone XL pipeline
Jon Kipper, 2/25/22
“More than a year after President Joe Biden canceled the Keystone XL Pipeline, he’s taking heat from Republican lawmakers and pundits on social media,” KMTV reports. “The critics, which include Congressman Dan Crenshaw and commentator Tomi Lahren, point to the Russian war in Ukraine as a reason that energy prices may rise and that the Keystone XL Pipeline would give America more energy independence… “Chair of the Nebraska Democrats, Jane Kleeb, who fought against the pipeline for years as founder of Bold Nebraska, says pipeline construction in Nebraska — which went through the entire state — would have taken years. “Keystone XL would not be in operation today even if President Biden had not rejected the pipeline,” Kleeb told KMTV. Kleeb says the pipeline would have come from a foreign company, taken land from Nebraskans and used dirty tar sands oil, which is difficult to refine into gasoline anyway. She also argued the oil wouldn’t be used in the US. “It would not have stopped at any Midwest refineries. It would have gone all the way down to the Gulf Coast to a refinery owned by Saudi Arabia and then offshore to China,” Kleeb told KMTV.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: 15 years of Supreme Court climate fights come to a head Monday
By Pamela King, 2/25/22
“Fifteen years after it issued its landmark ruling in Massachusetts v. EPA, the Supreme Court is about to get another chance to define the contours of federal climate regulation,” E&E News reports. “On Monday, the justices will hear arguments in West Virginia v. EPA, a novel case that asks whether the government can — in theory, since no such rule currently exists — broadly regulate carbon emissions from existing power plants. Attorneys involved in Massachusetts v. EPA told E&E they expect the Supreme Court’s new 6-3 conservative majority to take a skeptical view of the agency’s authority. They said West Virginia could upend precedent set in the watershed 2007 case, which cemented EPA’s authority to regulate greenhouse gases as air pollutants under the Clean Air Act. “The court is not only more ‘conservative,’ in a political sense, than it was in 2007,” Georgetown Law professor Lisa Heinzerling, who crafted the winning argument for states and environmentalists in Massachusetts v. EPA, told E&E. “It is also more willful and aggressive in pursuing an anti-regulatory agenda.” “...But many legal observers expect the justices will use West Virginia to put guardrails around EPA’s Clean Air Act authority, as they have in other cases since Massachusetts v. EPA… “The four justices in dissent in Massachusetts v. EPA are now part of a six-justice majority, and they clearly haven’t forgotten their dissents,” she told E&E.
Politico: APPEALS COURT WON’T REVIVE TRUMP 401 RULE
Matthew Choi, 2/25/22
“The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 9th Circuit has declined to revive a Trump-era rule that limited states’ ability to use Section 401 of the Clean Water Act to block energy infrastructure projects. A district court judge in October vacated the rule and sent it back to EPA for revision, an order appealed by various red states and oil, gas and hydropower industry groups. In a short order on Thursday, a three-judge panel from the 9th Circuit ruled that the states and industry groups seeking to reinstate the rule “do not demonstrate a sufficient likelihood of irreparable harm to warrant the requested relief.”
The Hill: Psaki says calls to enhance US oil production are a 'misdiagnosis'
BY JOSEPH CHOI, 2/27/22
“White House press secretary Jen Psaki on Sunday said calls for the U.S. to boost its own fossil fuel production in response to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which has increased oil prices further, were a "misdiagnosis," The Hill reports. “Since Russia launched a full-scale military invasion of Ukraine last week, the U.S. has issued a wave of sanctions against Russian banks and even Russian President Vladimir Putin himself. But the U.S. has so far refrained from directly sanctioning Russian energy exports. The reason is Europe, which depends on Russian oil and has opposed doing anything that would turn off the spigot… "This Week" host George Stephanopoulos pointed to recommendations from Sen. Tom Cotton (R-Ark.) for the U.S. to lift restrictions on oil drilling on federal land and for the Keystone Pipeline to be reopened. Psaki said Cotton's recommendations would not solve any of the U.S.'s problems. "The Keystone Pipeline was not processing oil through the system. That does not solve any problems. That's a misdiagnosis or maybe a misdiagnosis of what needs to happen," said Psaki. "I would also note that on oil leases, what this actually justifies in President Biden's view is the fact that we need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general ... and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others."
FOX Business: Psaki pushes renewable energy to stop dependence on foreign oil instead of increasing US production
Michael Lee, 2/27/22
“White House press secretary Jen Psaki said that the U.S. needs to decrease its reliance on foreign oil by switching over to renewable energy, not increasing domestic production,” FOX Business reports. "We need to reduce our dependence on foreign oil, on oil in general, and we need to look at other ways of having energy in our country and others," Psaki said during an interview with ABC This Week Sunday. "We've seen over the last week or so... a number of European countries are recognizing they need to reduce their own reliance on Russian oil." Psaki's comments come as fears grow that energy prices could continue to rise amid Russia's ongoing war in Ukraine, with many NATO countries such as Germany dependent on Russian oil to fuel their countries. That dependence has also limited the international response to Russia's invasion, with sanctions being specifically designed not to target Russian fuel exports amid fears such a move could send energy prices soaring in Europe. The comments also come after the Biden administration last week began delaying decisions on new oil and gas leases after a federal judge blocked the administration from using higher climate change cost estimates when regulating polluting industries.”
STATE UPDATES
Honolulu Star-Advertiser: Hawaii Circuit Court judge rules against throwing out suit against oil corporations
By Nina Wu, 2/24/22
“A Hawaii judge has denied a request by several oil corporations to dismiss a lawsuit by the City and County of Honolulu against them over the mounting costs of dealing with climate change,” the Honolulu Star-Advertiser reports. “Hawaii First Circuit Court Judge Jeffree P. Crabtree on Tuesday rejected the oil corporations’ motion to dismiss the suit. Attorneys for the corporations argued that the case belongs in federal court, not state court, and that they were doing what the federal government expected them to do, which was to produce oil, and therefore that the county’s lawsuit should be dismissed for “failure to state a claim.” “...Judge Crabtree acknowledged that this “is an unprecedented case for any court,” but ruled it is still a tort case “based exclusively on state law causes of action.” “...Sher Edling LLC of San Francisco, counsel for the suit filed for Honolulu, is also representing San Mateo County, Calif., the City of Baltimore, Md., and the state of Rhode Island in litigation over climate change impacts.”
Albuquerque Journal: NM enters multistate hydrogen hub initiative
BY DAN BOYD, 2/24/22
“New Mexico is joining with three other western states – Colorado, Utah and Wyoming – to team up on a regional plan for a hydrogen energy hub that could compete for a slice of $8 billion in federal infrastructure funds,” the Albuquerque Journal reports. “The regional partnership comes after several proposals to create a state-level hydrogen framework stalled during New Mexico’s 30-day legislative session. The bills were backed by Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration and would have established a framework for public-private partnerships to develop hydrogen projects in designated hubs, where producers that abided by carbon emission limits could qualify for government grants, loans and tax breaks. But the bills encountered opposition from environmental organizations and other advocacy groups, who said promoting hydrogen development would perpetuate natural gas production in New Mexico at a time when the state needs to replace fossil fuels with renewable resources like solar and wind generation. That’s because today’s hydrogen production is based on pulling hydrogen molecules from methane contained in natural gas, with substantial carbon dioxide emitted in the process. Producers expect to trap those emissions with carbon capture and sequestration – a technology that environmentalists say is yet to be proven effective in commercial-scale projects. However, Lujan Grisham said Thursday the multistate collaboration could create jobs and foster innovation to make hydrogen production much cleaner, helping the state meet its climate change goals. “Make no mistake, New Mexico and our partner states will succeed in developing the nation’s most productive clean hydrogen hub,” the Democratic governor said in a statement announcing the partnership.
InsideClimate News: Why Did California Regulators Choose a Firm with Ties to Chevron to Study Irrigating Crops with Oil Wastewater?
Liza Gross, 2/27/22
“In 2015, a California water board suddenly found itself under a microscope for allowing farmers to irrigate their crops with oil field wastewater, a practice it had condoned for decades,” InsideClimate News reports. “The California Council on Science and Technology had just revealed that the testing and treatment of hazardous chemicals in oil field wastewater used for irrigation was inadequate, and legislators were demanding increased oversight. They feared that oil companies’ wastewater was threatening groundwater needed for drinking water and growing crops. Faced with heightened scrutiny, the California’s Central Valley Regional Water Quality Control Board raced to secure a consultant to study the controversial practice and soon settled on GSI Environmental as both qualified and unbiased. Last fall, armed with GSI’s completed studies, the board tried to put concerns about the practice to rest, assuring the public that the firm had found “no identifiable increased health risks” from irrigating crops with water recycled from oil wells. But the board should never have chosen GSI, scientists, public interest activists and former regulators said in interviews, citing the firm’s close ties to the oil industry—ties so close that GSI once listed on its website Chevron, ExxonMobil and Occidental Petroleum as clients “we answer to.” Chevron is the largest producer of oil field wastewater for irrigation in California. The company saves millions of dollars in disposal costs by selling the “produced water” to a local water district, which in turn sells it to farmers in Kern County to irrigate their water-intensive almonds, pistachios and citrus. When the water board retained GSI, the firm had already earned millions of dollars helping Chevron defend its interests in a single court case.”
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: BP to Exit Rosneft Stake and May Take a $25 Billion Hit
Laura Hurst and Emma Ross-Thomas, 2/27/22
“BP Plc moved to dump its shares in oil giant Rosneft PJSC, taking a financial hit of as much as $25 billion by joining the campaign to isolate Russia’s economy,” Bloomberg reports. “The surprise move from the British company is the latest sign of how far Western powers are willing to go to punish President Vladimir Putin for his invasion of Ukraine. BP has been in Russia for three decades and just weeks ago was staunchly defending its presence there. But it was coming under growing pressure from the U.K. government over the alliance with Rosneft. Chief Executive Officer Bernard Looney was summoned by U.K. Business Secretary Kwasi Kwarteng to explain the company’s Russian links last week. Kwarteng welcomed BP’s move on Sunday… ‘In a memo to employees, Looney said there would be “financial consequences” from the move that would show up in its next quarterly results. A spokesperson said there could be a writedown of as much as $25 billion.”
RBN Energy: An Update On LNG Export Projects Along Canada's West Coast
Martin King, 2/27/22
“Global LNG markets have been in overdrive this winter — it seems the world just can’t get enough of the super-cooled natural gas,” RBN Energy reports. “Moreover, with long-term LNG demand growth in Asia appearing robust well into the next decade, the time would seem ripe to reconsider expanded export opportunities from Canada’s West Coast, one of the closest and potentially largest sources of LNG for Asian buyers. With one major LNG export project already under construction, at least one more awaiting the final go-ahead, and two more serious proposals having emerged last year, Canada’s outlook for additional LNG sales to Asia is clearly bright… “Coastal Gaslink (CGL), a wholly owned subsidiary of TC Energy, is constructing the 416-mile (670-km), 2.1-Bcf/d pipeline (dashed aqua line) to LNG Canada from the heart of the prolific unconventional Montney formation in northeastern BC… “Woodfibre LNG: After a number of COVID-related delays in 2020 and 2021, the 2.1-MMtpa (300-MMcf/d), land-based project in Squamish, BC, is expected to be the next LNG export project to make an official FID in the coming months… “Cedar LNG: Originally proposed by the Haisla First Nation (HFN) in 2014 as a much larger, three-train, 8.4-MMtpa (1.2-Bcf/d) floating export project to be located in the Douglas Channel outside of Kitimat, BC, Cedar LNG languished for many years, despite having in hand export certificates from the National Energy Board (now the Canada Energy Regulator) since 2015… “Ksi Lisims LNG: Pronounced “s’lisims,” this multi-partner project, formally announced in July 2021, involves the Nisga’a First Nation, Rockies LNG Partners, a consortium of seven large and mid-size Alberta- and BC-based natural gas producers, and Houston-based Western LNG, which has expertise in financing and developing LNG projects… “Enbridge confirmed in January that sometime last year it purchased the development rights to the Pacific Trails Pipeline (PTP), originally planned by Woodside Petroleum and Chevron to transport natural gas to their now-defunct Kitimat LNG export project, which would have been located farther down the Douglas Channel from the LNG Canada site.”
InsideClimate News: Oil and Gas Companies ‘Flare’ or ‘Vent’ Excess Natural Gas. It’s Like Burning Money—and it’s Bad for the Environment
Nicole Sadek, Zoha Tunio and Sarah Hunt, 2/25/22
“When companies flare, they do more than burn natural gas. They burn money,” InsideClimate News reports. “Every year, U.S. oil and gas companies set fire to billions of cubic feet of natural gas and directly vent an additional unknown amount. These processes, known as flaring and venting, don’t just waste resources; they also pollute the atmosphere with hazardous, global-warming gases, such as methane. Companies argue that they flare and vent for safety and maintenance and because selling or reusing the gas is not financially feasible. The industry and its regulators even refer to this gas as “waste.” But experts say a valuable resource is being squandered because of weak regulations, ineffective tracking of flaring and venting, and a lack of economic incentives to capture and sell the gas. “The atmosphere is a free dumping place,” Robert L. Kleinberg, senior research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy at Columbia University, told ICN. “It’s like throwing garbage out the window back in the Middle Ages.” A satellite data analysis by the Howard Center for Investigative Journalism found that oil and gas companies in the 13 top-flaring states designated by the Department of Energy flared more than 3.5 trillion cubic feet of natural gas between 2012 and 2020. That’s equal to more than $10.6 billion in revenue based on the market value of natural gas in each of those years. The American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s main oil and gas trade association, would not answer questions from the Howard Center. Instead, it noted previous statements in which the group has said flaring is necessitated by “a lack of gas gathering lines or processing capacity” and for safety reasons. Nonetheless, the group has acknowledged that flaring must be reduced.
OPINION
Knox County Weekly Post: Know Your Rights Regarding CO2 Pipeline
JOHN F. FELTHAM, Colonel, U.S. Marine Corps (Ret), 2/17/22
“Having received a landowner packet in December 2021 from an agent acting on behalf of the Navigator Heartland Greenway Pipeline project, I have been following the project’s progress in Iowa and Illinois with intense interest,” John F. Feltham writes for the Knox County Weekly Post. “I am the fourth generation to live on a farm that has been in my family for over 105 years… “Our ground, which the Heartland Greenway Pipeline wants to use as its right of way, is classified as highly erodible… “The company proposes to dig a trench seven feet deep, and 15 feet wide, down a slope that drops 100 feet in less than 300 yards, through multiple terraces, drain tile, a grass waterway containing two parallel tiles, and, finally, a riser and tile at the edge of one of our fields. Ironically, because it's highly erodible, we're restricted by regulation from using certain types of tillage equipment on the same ground the pipeline company wants to dig up… “What follows is my advice to landowners potentially impacted by the proposed Navigator Heartland Greenway Pipeline. If you have been contacted by the pipeline company, indicating it is considering constructing a liquid CO2 pipeline across your land, read the following: 1. Unless the pipeline company gets eminent domain authority from the Illinois Commerce Commission, you do not have to let it or its employees on your property… “You are not alone. Landowners throughout the 13 Illinois counties targeted by the proposed Heartland Greenway Pipeline are mobilizing to fight it… “Don't let the use of the word "Greenway" in the pipeline company's name fool you. It's not planning to build a 1300-mile linear park with bike trails and picnic tables. It's engaged in a for-profit venture, and the landowner packet I received clearly states that it intends to seek eminent domain authority to take privately-owned land to make money for itself, its customers, and its owners. It has lawyers. You should as well.”
Guardian: This is how we defeat Putin and other petrostate autocrats
Bill McKibben is the Schumann distinguished scholar at Middlebury College. He is the founder of Third Act, organizing people over 60 for progressive change, 2/25/22
“After Hitler invaded the Sudetenland, America turned its industrial prowess to building tanks, bombers and destroyers. Now, we must respond with renewables,” Bill McKibben writes for the Guardian. “...This is not a “war for oil and gas” in the sense that too many of America’s Middle East misadventures might plausibly be described. But it is a war underwritten by oil and gas, a war whose most crucial weapon may be oil and gas, a war we can’t fully engage because we remain dependent on oil and gas. If you want to stand with the brave people of Ukraine, you need to find a way to stand against oil and gas… “Today, 60% of Russia’s exports are oil and gas. Control of oil and gas supplies is Russia’s main weapon… “At the moment, big oil is using the fighting in Ukraine as an excuse to try to expand its footprint – reliable industry ally Kristi Noem, the governor of South Dakota, went on Fox this week to argue that stopping the Keystone XL pipeline had empowered the Russian leader, for instance, and the American Petroleum Institute today called for more oil and gas development. But this is absurd – we may need, for the remaining weeks of this winter, to insure gas supplies for Europe, but by next winter we need to remove that lever. That means an all-out effort to decarbonize that continent, and then our own. It’s not impossible… “Caring about the people of Ukraine means caring about an end to oil and gas.”
Bloomberg: Fracking Is A Powerful Weapon Against Russia
Karl W. Smith, 2/24/22
“Fracking may be America’s most powerful weapon against Russian aggression,” Karl W. Smith writes for Bloomberg. “President Joe Biden’s administration was already working to bring down gasoline prices before the crisis and war in Ukraine. Those measures, however, mostly depended on quick fixes such as a suspension of the federal gas tax or an opening of the strategic petroleum reserve. They would do little to relieve the financial hardship of U.S. consumers and nothing to weaken Russia’s geopolitical position. That’s because they don’t address the fundamental problem: The world’s demand for oil is growing faster than its ability to produce oil. A reduction in the gas tax would have no effect on the supply of oil, and would actually increase the demand for it. Likewise, a release from the strategic petroleum reserve would increase the supply of oil now, but because it doesn’t increase production, the bump would be short-lived. Fortunately, the U.S. has a technology that would not only increase the total supply of oil, but also keep a lid on prices. What the fracking industry needs is more support from the president and Congress. A short history of the last decade of the U.S. fracking industry is instructive. When fracking first took off in 2011, the price of oil had broken through $100 a barrel and was expected to keep rising, to perhaps $200 or more. But the rise of fracking arrested that expected price increase and held oil to about $100 for the next three years.”