EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 3/15/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Politico: GLICK'S VINDICATION
Mlive.com: Maryland firm to review environmental impact of Line 5 tunnel
WXPR: Line 5 drilling method raises environmental concerns
Roanoke Times: Jury trial begins in property owner compensation dispute with Mountain Valley Pipeline
Courthouse News Service: Pipeline protester
Energy News Network: Advocates urge Illinois landowners to prepare for risks from CO2 pipelines
Press release: Navigator CO2 Ventures to Present at Appalachian Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Conference
KMOV: Clean up of Edwardsville oil pipeline leak continues, effect on wildlife remains to be seen
Bloomberg: Keystone XL Dispute Ends Months After Project Cancellation
National Post: Majority of Americans support restarting Keystone XL pipeline to make up for Russian oil ban
Bloomberg: Williams to Buy Natural Gas Pipeline Assets for $950 Million
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Judge axes Trump-era lease sales to protect sage grouse
STATE UPDATES
Politico: HOW BAD IS THE CONOCO ALASKA LEAK?
Capital and Main: Will California’s Fossil Fuel Industry Use the Ukraine War to Undermine Oil and Gas Legislation?
EXTRACTION
Journal Times: Oil is like heroin, Indigenous leader says, and we need to start kicking the addiction
Al Jazeera: Peru’s ‘catastrophe’ oil spill slams small-scale fishermen
InsideClimate News: At Global Energy Conference, Oil and Gas Industry Leaders Argue For Fossil Fuels’ Future in the Energy Transition
Calgary Herald: Waterous Energy Fund wraps up two deals, eyes growing future of oilsands
The Fulcrum: U of O researchers discover potential effects of oil sand toxins on amphibian development
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: ‘Huge setback’: Biden’s climate plan for finance takes a hit
OPINION
GoDanRiver: Letter: Completion is unlikely
Virginia Mercury: We can unhook from oil and gas wars with solar
The Hill: Putin's war is not the cause of Biden's energy price hikes
PIPELINE NEWS
Politico: GLICK'S VINDICATION
Matthew Choi, 3/14/22
“The D.C. Circuit Court sent another natural gas pipeline and LNG project back to FERC last week, arguing the commission should have further considered the downstream emissions when first approving the project and again citing FERC Chair Rich Glick's previous dissents,” Politico reports. “The court decision, centering on a project built by Eversource and the Tennessee Gas Pipeline Company, added fuel to Glick’s stance that the commission should give greater weight to environmental and climate considerations when approving new projects. “[When] one case after another after another, says the same thing, after a while you have to assume there’s something there,” Glick said. FERC recently approved a policy statement requiring projects above a certain greenhouse gas emissions threshold to go through additional environmental assessments. But the FERC chair has been heavily criticized by Republicans on the Senate Energy Committee and Democratic Chair Joe Manchin, who fear Glick’s stance is slowing down the approval of critical infrastructure.”
Mlive.com: Maryland firm to review environmental impact of Line 5 tunnel
Garret Ellison, 3/14/22
“The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers has picked a Maryland firm to perform a multi-year environmental review of a proposed oil pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac,” Mlive.com reports. “Potomac-Hudson Engineering Inc. will analyze plans by Enbridge to build a utility tunnel that would house a rebuilt section of its Line 5 pipeline — a significant and controversial fossil fuel infrastructure project that’s in the final stages of state-level permitting. Potomac-Hudson (PHE) will prepare an environmental impact statement (EIS) on the project, as ordered by Army Corps leaders last summer… “Assuming Enbridge is able to secure all its state-level permits, a federal approval in two years would potentially allow the company to begin tunnel construction in 2024 — a project launch date disclosed last year in state documents posted online in response to a lawsuit… “Opponents claim the tunnel is a gambit to extend the life of the existing oil lines, and is ultimately unnecessary and would contribute to climate-warming emissions. Enbridge argues it’s simply modernizing an existing pipeline that provides necessary energy as the industry transitions to more renewable sources. Meanwhile, the Biden administration is in formal talks with the Canadian government about the future of the existing Line 5 pipelines after Enbridge defied Whitmer’s order to decommission the Mackinac segment last year. The Canadians say the oil conduit is important to their economic security and invoked a 1977 treaty they say blocks Whitmer’s order.“
WXPR: Line 5 drilling method raises environmental concerns
Jonah Chester, 3/15/22
“Enbridge's plan to relocate a portion of its Line 5 pipeline in northern Wisconsin could involve a drilling method even the company admits will likely release toxic chemicals into surrounding waters,” WXPR reports. “Horizontal Directional Drilling (HDD) is a common method for building pipelines under bodies of water, and it sometimes leads to "frac-outs," or drilling-fluid leaks. Bobbi Rongstad, who lives in northern Wisconsin, told WXPR she has serious concerns about the plans to use HDD on Line 5. For her, the issue literally hits close to home, as the oil pipeline would cross under two streams running through her property. "I used to work in the utility industry, and it's a great thing for shoving a gas line under a sidewalk, not messing up somebody's front lawn," Rongstad told WXPR. "But when they're doing 30-inch pipe and going 60 feet under the bottom of the river, which is what's proposed, things can go wrong." In an email to a Minnesota state senator about Enbridge's similar, Line 3 project, the company acknowledged frac-outs are "a generally known and common risk," but argued HDD is still the least environmentally-destructive method for laying new pipeline under bodies of water. While Rongstad generally agrees, she contended the line should not be placed in the areas around Lake Superior, where any leaks could have far-reaching impacts. In Minnesota, state officials report more than half of the 21 HDD crossings for Line 3 have been polluted with drilling fluid.”
Roanoke Times: Jury trial begins in property owner compensation dispute with Mountain Valley Pipeline
Laurence Hammack, 3/15/22
“The company building a natural gas pipeline through a bucolic Bent Mountain property should be made to pay its owners $650,000 for their losses, a jury was told Monday,” the Roanoke Times reports. “Mountain Valley Pipeline used its legal power of eminent domain to take part of a 560-acre tract owned by the Terry family four years ago. How much it should now compensate the owners will be decided during a weeklong trial in Roanoke’s federal court. The land is worth $2 million, according to Joe Sherman, a Norfolk attorney who represents Frank Terry and his brother and sister, John Coles Terry and Elizabeth Terry Reynolds. Plowing a trench for the buried pipeline through a scenic stretch of forests, meadows and the headwaters of Bottom Creek would reduce the property’s value by about a third, Sherman said during opening statements Monday… “Mountain Valley contends that just compensation — or the difference between the fair market value of the land before and after it was condemned for the pipeline — is closer to $150,000. Dueling testimony between appraisers for each side is expected at the trial, which could lead to the second jury verdict in a just compensation case involving the deeply divisive infrastructure project… “The Terry property has already been a battleground in the pipeline war. Cole Terry’s wife and daughter, Theresa “Red” Terry and Theresa Minor Terry, spent more than a month camped in tree stands in effort to stop tree cutting when work reached Bent Mountain in the spring of 2018. More recently, opponents squared off with construction crews when blasting began on the Terry property last summer. Passed down through seven generations, the land includes a historic home built in 1890 and the headwaters of Bottom Creek, classified as a Tier III waterbody, the highest quality in Virginia.”
Courthouse News Service: Pipeline protester
3/15/22
“The Eighth Circuit revived some of a Dakota Access Pipeline protester’s claims against county and state officials relating to his allegations the law enforcement officers shot him with lead-filled bags, which shattered his eye socket and became lodged in his eye,” Courthouse News Service reports. “Read the opinion here.”
Energy News Network: Advocates urge Illinois landowners to prepare for risks from CO2 pipelines
Kari Lydersen, 3/15/22
“A coalition of downstate Illinois environmental groups is warning rural landowners about potential safety and financial hazards from a planned carbon sequestration project in the region,” Energy News Network reports. “Illinois’ sandstone geology is considered ideal for below-ground carbon sequestration… “The risk of damage from the project’s construction and operation has already raised significant opposition in Iowa. At a March 7 webinar, experts and local advocates in downstate Illinois urged landowners there to prepare a similar defense ahead of potential easement or eminent domain disputes. Illinois is poised to become a “superhighway for CO2 pipelines gathering [carbon dioxide] all over the Midwest,” energy attorney Paul Blackburn said at the webinar, presented by the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. “Some folks believe these pipelines will stop climate change, but there are arguments about whether that is actually true.” “...Blackburn, who has represented the Sierra Club and residents in opposition to the Keystone XL and other pipelines, outlined what he described as significant safety concerns from carbon dioxide transport and storage… “During the Illinois webinar, rural Iowa blogger and landowner Jessica Wiskus described her and her neighbors’ outrage at the proposed use of eminent domain for the Navigator pipeline, which would pass about a mile from her land… “She noted widespread reports that the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline has harmed soils as it was constructed in Iowa, and worried the carbon pipeline would do the same. “Don’t sign that volunteer easement,” Richart said during the webinar. “There will be time for you to sign when you decide what’s right for you, but we’re not there yet. … We’re not alone here in Illinois, there’s been a lot of work going on [in other states] before we even noticed this.”
Press release: Navigator CO2 Ventures to Present at Appalachian Hydrogen & Carbon Capture Conference
3/14/22
“Armed with a deep-pockets partner and a large anchor shipper, a midstream infrastructure developer spent months in the Midwest talking with landowners, community leaders, and other interested stakeholders about their plans to transport carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer plants to permanently store underground in Illinois. Some 55 public meetings later, Navigator CO2 Ventures found friends of the Heartland Greenway system, and fence-sitters who were educated on the merits of the $2-$3 billion, 1,200-mile line. As is the case with any major project, Navigator encountered some people who dislike any project that does not solely include windmills and solar panels. “Our customers want to lower their carbon intensity, their emissions, and they want to make themselves more attractive to ESG (Environmental, Social, and Governance) investors,” said David Giles, Navigator President and Chief Operating Officer… “A silent partner in this project, as in all such projects, is the Federal government. The 45Q federal tax credit accrues to the owner of the carbon capture equipment at an eventual price of $50 per ton for CO2 kept from the atmosphere and stored underground. The 45Q program is an important economic driver in the development of the project as the credit goes directly to the producers.”
KMOV: Clean up of Edwardsville oil pipeline leak continues, effect on wildlife remains to be seen
Caroline Hecker, 3/14/22
“Clean-up surrounding an oil pipeline leak into the Cahokia Creek continues into its fourth day Monday,” KMOV reports. “Marathon Pipe Line LLC., the company that owns the pipe, said around 165,000 gallons of crude oil leaked from the pipe and into the surrounding soil and the Cahokia Creek. As of 1:30 p.m. on Monday, the company reported 5,900 barrels of oil and water had been removed from the creek, in addition to 150 cubic yards of oily soil. “It’s just so terrible,” Joanie Buckingham, who lives in Edwardsville, told KMOV. “I love animals and I feel really bad for the animals.” Clean-up has been ongoing throughout the weekend, with many nearby residents complaining of a residual odor in the air. A Marathon spokesperson said air quality levels are being consistently monitored and have not risen to a level of concern… “The investigation into the leak continues and Illinois Governor J.B. Pritzker said upon its completion, the responsible parties will be required to pay for any expenses incurred by the state and local governments as a result of the leak.”
Bloomberg: Keystone XL Dispute Ends Months After Project Cancellation
3/14/22
“Environmental groups’ legal challenge to former President Donald Trump’s permit for the Keystone XL pipeline is finally over after TC Energy canceled the project and removed the pipeline, a Montana federal court ruled,” Bloomberg reports. “Indigenous Environmental Network and North Coast Rivers Alliance argued Trump’s presidential permit to build a cross-border segment of the pipeline violated the U.S. Constitution. President Joe Biden revoked the permit in January 2021, but the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana said the case wasn’t moot in May because there was still buried pipe that could be removed. TC Energy sought approval from the Bureau of Land Management to remove the buried segment. The agency approved the company’s decommissioning plan, and TC Energy told the court in October that it had finished removing the buried pipeline. The company told the court it also completed measures to restore the land disturbed by the project. These latest developments have rendered the case moot, the court said March 11.”
National Post: Majority of Americans support restarting Keystone XL pipeline to make up for Russian oil ban
Tyler Dawson, 3/15/22
“More than a year after President Joe Biden killed the Keystone XL project, support for the pipeline has surged in the U.S. in the wake of the country’s ban on the import of Russian oil, a new poll shows,” according to the National Post. “The exclusive poll of Americans conducted by Maru Public Opinion for Postmedia found that 71 per cent of Americans think Biden should give an executive order to “green light the restart of the building of the Keystone XL pipeline that would transport oil from Canada’s oil sands region through the Midwest to refineries in Texas.” The idea that Canadian oil and gas could help fill shortfalls in Europe and the United States has received considerable traction in the weeks since Russia invaded Ukraine, with some re-evaluating energy projects such as Keystone XL and Energy East. While 64 per cent of American believe Canada should fill the void left following the ban on Russian oil, the challenge for Canada would be in increasing production — it could take years, not weeks or months — and figuring out how to ship it across the border. Between 2014 and 2017, according to polling from the Pew Research Center, support for the Keystone XL pipeline dropped 17 percentage points, from 59 per cent to 42 per cent. It also had a major partisan divide in 2017, with 76 per cent of Republicans or Republican-leaning independents supporting it, and 74 per cent of Democrats opposing it.”
Bloomberg: Williams to Buy Natural Gas Pipeline Assets for $950 Million
Gerson Freitas Jr., 3/14/22
“Pipeline operator Williams Cos. agreed to buy natural gas gathering and processing assets from Trace Midstream, a portfolio company of Quantum Energy Partners, for $950 million to expand its footprint in Louisiana’s Haynesville Shale,” Bloomberg reports. “The deal boosts Williams’ gathering capacity in the Haynesville to more than 4 billion cubic feet a day from 1.8 billion, the company said Monday in a statement. Williams, which handles about one-third of U.S. natural gas used for power generation, heating and industrial use, said the acquisition is expected to result in an investment at about six times 2023 earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization. As part of the deal, natural gas producer Rockcliff Energy, a Trace customer and Quantum affiliate, agreed to a long-term capacity commitment to support Williams’ Louisiana Energy Gateway project. The proposed pipeline would gather as much as 2 billion cubic feet a day of gas produced in the Haynesville and connect it to liquefied natural gas export terminals and industrial customers on the Gulf Coast. Pipeline operators with excess cash are increasingly turning to mergers and acquisitions as they face limited opportunities to grow via new conduits, with fossil fuel projects facing growing opposition from the public and scrutiny from regulators. Last month, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees interstate pipelines, voted for the first time to consider gas projects’ impact on climate as part of the approval process.”.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Judge axes Trump-era lease sales to protect sage grouse
Niina H. Farah, 3/14/22
“A federal judge last week blocked five more Trump-era oil and gas lease sales for failing to comply with statutory protections for the greater sage grouse,” E&E News reports. “Chief Judge Brian Morris of the U.S. District Court for the District of Montana on Friday axed lease sales in Nevada and Wyoming from 2017 and 2018 in the second phase of litigation over the government’s failure to prioritize leasing outside of the bird’s habitat. Morris found that the leases failed to comply with Obama-era sage grouse protections aimed at keeping oil and gas development from harming the declining species. “The failure to consider the 2015 Plans’ prioritization requirement infected every step of the environmental assessment process and cannot be remedied after the fact,” Morris wrote. “Adequate implementation of the 2015 Plans’ priority requirement may necessitate that BLM not include parcels included in the lease sales,” he continued. “The Court must vacate the lease sales in their entirety.” The ruling comes after the judge, an Obama appointee, had previously thrown out Montana and Wyoming lease sales over the Trump administration’s leasing activity in sage grouse habitat. “This decision reaffirms that the Trump administration violated federal law in selling off critical sage-grouse habitat for oil and gas drilling,” Michael Freeman, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, representing a coalition of environmental groups challenging the leases, told E&E. “We shouldn’t be sacrificing an iconic species like the sage-grouse to pad oil industry profits.”
STATE UPDATES
Politico: HOW BAD IS THE CONOCO ALASKA LEAK?
Matthew Choi, 3/14/22
“ConocoPhillips suffered a major problem at a well in Alaska's North Slope last week and evacuated hundreds of employees from the site, but it has yet to offer details about the scope of accident,” Politico reports. “Several residents of the nearby town of Nuiqsut reported feeling the ground shake near the Alpine drill site, and fled south, fearing both a health risk from a potential gas leak and the loss of gas heating supplies to the town in the midst of an Arctic March… “The accident couldn't come at a worse time for Conoco, which had its approval of its Willow project in the North Slope blocked by a federal judge because of a deficient environmental study. That project could yield 600 million barrels for oil for the company — and for the declining Alaska industry — but having a major accident as the federal government gathers public input might not bode well for its new development plans. Despite removing 300 of its 400 employees from the Alpine site, also called the Colville River Unit, Conoco insists that “the most recent results obtained have not shown anything outside normal conditions," and that there are no injuries.”
Capital and Main: Will California’s Fossil Fuel Industry Use the Ukraine War to Undermine Oil and Gas Legislation?
Aaron Cantu, 3/11/22
“Although the U.S. is banning Russian energy imports, California doesn’t rely on Russia for oil or gas,” Capital and Main reports. “Yet already the industry is aggressively pushing the Newsom administration to approve more than 1,000 permits for new production to help “reduce the need to increase imports from foreign sources, like Russia,” said the Western States Petroleum Association in a statement. Experts tell Capital & Main this won’t do anything to stop rising gas prices in the short term. As legislation starts heading to committees in the California Assembly and Senate, three bills that seek to limit the oil and gas industry’s power in the state could feel the impact of this fast-changing political environment. One would divest billions in state pension funds from fossil fuel assets, while another would shut down three offshore oil platforms. A third would promote greater transparency in how companies that sell gasoline in California determine prices at the pump… “The industry is using high gas prices to double down on calls for more oil production in the state, but it won’t make much of a difference anytime soon, Mark Brownstein, a senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund who studies the energy transition from fossil fuels, told Capital & Main. “Ramping up domestic oil production, even if you thought it was the right thing to do, takes months if not years to do at scale. It would take years to impact the domestic supply or effect global pricing,” Brownstein said… “Companies that sell gasoline in California have a history of charging excessive prices compared with the rest of the country — simply because they could.”
EXTRACTION
Journal Times: Oil is like heroin, Indigenous leader says, and we need to start kicking the addiction
Adam Rogan, 3/11/22
“Oil is like heroin, Mark Denning says. We’re addicted to it and can’t stop taking it even though we know it’s bad for us,” the Journal Times reports. “Denning knows oil and opioids more intimately than he would like: In 2019, his son, Sawyer, died due to an opioid addiction. Now, Denning, a member of the Sturgeon Clan of the Oneida Tribe of Wisconsin, is among the indigenous people fighting the expansion of America’s fossil fuel use, even if winning that fight would lead to increased costs. “Oil pipelines are like heroin. Take a needle, put it into your arm, and tell the person across from you ‘Oh don’t worry about it. It won’t go into a vein. It’ll go underneath that vein,’ as oil pipelines go around and through our rivers and underneath them,” he said during a speech last week outside the Cesar Chavez Community Center in Racine. Denning continued: “We’re hooked, as heroin addicts are. We’re hooked on oil. We’re hooked on gas. We’re hooked on degrading our world. And we need to think about what it’s doing to us, because those oil pipelines again are like putting that needle into your arm and saying, ‘This won’t do anything. This pipeline, into our mother, will do nothing.’ It’s the same thing. These things are all connected.” The purpose of the March 4 gathering Denning spoke at, attended by about 25 people, was to question why Americans are looking to expand the use of fossil fuels even as humanity moves closer to the widespread viability of renewable, nonpolluting energy. Those who attended and spoke didn’t advocate for cutting off gasoline outright; most of them wouldn’t deny having driven to the Chavez Center in gasoline-powered cars. But they don’t want the country to be increasing its reliance on pollutants like gasoline and natural gas.”
Al Jazeera: Peru’s ‘catastrophe’ oil spill slams small-scale fishermen
3/14/22
“A huge recent oil spill in Peru which the government called an ecological “catastrophe” has wreaked havoc on the lives and livelihoods of many fishermen who rely on the small amounts of fish they harvest close to the shore for their daily income,” Al Jazeera reports. “Walter de la Cruz scrambled down a large sand dune in the fog to reach a rock overlooking the Pacific Ocean, where he has fished for 30 years. He cast a hook into the waters off Peru’s coast several times, with no luck. One attempt yielded a piece of plastic stained with oil. De la Cruz, 60, is one of more than 2,500 fishermen whose livelihoods have been cast into doubt as a result of the large crude-oil spill at the Spanish-owned Repsol oil refinery on January 15. “We are desperate,” he told AJ, counting on his fingers the debts that overwhelm him, including a bank loan, bills for water, electricity, gas, and school supplies for his two grandchildren. The spill has had a devastating effect on fishermen who are among the most economically vulnerable in Peru. They harvest small amounts of fish very close to the coast, sometimes from small boats and sometimes from the shore, Juan Carlos Sueiro, an expert on the economics of fishing with the international conservation group Oceana, told AJ. “They are on the poverty line. Their income varies from day to day,” he told AJ. Peru has characterised the spill of 11,900 barrels in front of a Repsol refinery as its “worst ecological disaster.” “...A report by United Nations experts estimates it involved about 2,100 tonnes of crude, well above the 700 tonnes the International Tanker Owners Pollution Federation Limited considers the threshold for a large spill — and an unprecedented amount for the type of crude that leaked. The oil was extracted from Buzios, the world’s largest deep-water oil field and the most productive in Brazil.”
InsideClimate News: At Global Energy Conference, Oil and Gas Industry Leaders Argue For Fossil Fuels’ Future in the Energy Transition
Nicholas Kusnetz, 3/11/22
“Energy titans from around the globe were set to discuss climate change and the challenges it poses to their industry when they gathered in Houston this week, but Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, and the turmoil it unleashed in energy markets, reframed their agenda. Taken together, the twin crises pose an existential threat to the industry,” InsideClimate News reports. “As Europe’s recently developed plans to speed their shift to green energy make clear, governments and consumers could react to high oil and gas prices and heightened volatility by accelerating a move away from fossil fuels. But some executives and their supporters in Congress stressed a different point. The war, and its disruptions to Russia’s oil and gas exports, showed the need for greater production of their products, they said, and for a loosening of climate-focused regulations that constrain development. The invasion, they said, shows how crucial their industry remains to the global economy and how American oil and gas exports can serve national interests. There was another theme, too, independent of Ukraine. Even in the long term, many executives argued, the urgency of addressing climate change need not sideline oil and gas as fuels of the past. Instead, they said, the fuels can serve important roles in a low-carbon future… “Last year, Exxon launched a low-carbon business devoted to carbon capture and storage, hydrogen and biofuels. Woods said these new businesses would, by capturing carbon dioxide emissions, allow fossil fuels to play an important role in a low-carbon future, particularly for the industrial sector, shipping and aviation. “People focus on oil and gas as the challenge with respect to climate change,” Woods said. “Actually it’s the emissions associated with combustion of oil and gas.”
Calgary Herald: Waterous Energy Fund wraps up two deals, eyes growing future of oilsands
Chris Varcoe, 3/15/22
“Some onlookers still discount the oilsands as a high-cost, high-carbon source of energy facing a no-growth future, even with the return of higher oil prices — but don’t tell Adam Waterous that,” the Calgary Herald reports. “I am not buying it,” Waterous told the Herald. “What I am buying is that it’s the most economic (oil), it is reducing its carbon intensity the fastest, and it has the world’s leading social and governance (standards).” “...On Monday, Waterous Energy Fund announced it has closed the amalgamation of Strathcona with Caltex Resources and completed the previously-announced acquisition of the Tucker thermal oilsands asset from Cenovus Energy — and has plans for the future. “There is growth in the future of the oilsands,” Waterous told the Herald. “Its underlying economics remain compelling on a global basis … Sometimes there is this narrative, ‘Oh well, this is high-cost oil and that can’t compete.’ That is not our analysis.” Waterous, who founded the fund in 2017, also believes the carbon intensity of the oilsands will continue to fall — and at a faster rate than U.S. shale oil, given Alberta’s geology and the ability to capture carbon emissions and store them underground. Finally, he said the amount of oil in the hands of free-market companies — not state-owned enterprises — will shrink in the coming decade, meaning the oilsands will gain greater importance as a stable source of supply.”
The Fulcrum: U of O researchers discover potential effects of oil sand toxins on amphibian development
Emma Williams, 3/14/22
“Consider northern Alberta, Canada’s largest commercially exploited oil sand deposit. The extraction of bitumen (crude oil) generates large amounts of waste that is stored in these holding ponds known as oil sands process affected water (OSPW). These ponds contain different types of chemicals, including a complex family of Naphthenic acids, composed of thousands of chemicals, some of which are toxic,” The Fulcrum reports. “The problem, according to Vance Trudeau, a professor from the University of Ottawa is these holding ponds can propagate these toxins through the environment. The increase in petroleum exploitation and the fact that amphibian populations around the world have been in decline since 1980 launched senior author Trudeau and his previous PhD student Juan Manuel Gutierrez to study the potential effects of naphthenic acid mixture from oil sands on amphibians’ embryonic development… “One third of amphibian species are in decline, a scale not seen since the dinosaur extinction. What’s interesting about this sixth mass extinction is that it is largely caused by human activity, evidenced in part by habitat loss due to construction or deforestation. Another is disease and a third major contributor is pollution… “Once separated, the bitumen needs to be extracted in one of several processes known as open pit mining. To understand the scale of these processes, open pit mines located in Alberta can be seen from space. Trudeau continued, “no matter what the province of Alberta or the industry says if you put millions of litres in a bag in the middle of the forest, it will leak and the indigenous people will tell you that they’re sick. and it’s related to petroleum exploration.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: ‘Huge setback’: Biden’s climate plan for finance takes a hit
Avery Ellfeldt, 3/15/22
“Joe Manchin has done it again. The senator from West Virginia threw a wrench yesterday into another key element of President Biden’s climate agenda,” E&E News reports. “This time, it’s the nomination of Sarah Bloom Raskin to be the Federal Reserve’s top banking regulator, a role that entails monitoring emerging risks to the U.S. financial system — climate change among them. The move narrows Raskin’s chances of confirmation in the closely divided Senate. In the case that her nomination does make it out of committee and to the Senate floor, Raskin would need to win the favor of at least one Republican to make up for Manchin’s no vote… “Manchin said yesterday that he’s unable to support Raskin’s nomination to be the Fed’s vice chair for supervision because of her climate-related comments. Republicans have stalled voting on Raskin for weeks alongside four other Fed picks in the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee. “Her previous public statements have failed to satisfactorily address my concerns about the critical importance of financing an all-of-the-above energy policy to meet our nation’s critical energy needs,” Manchin said in a statement. The stakes are high. If Democrats aren’t successful and Raskin’s nomination dies in committee or on the Senate floor, it would pose a “huge setback for the administration and for the health of the financial system,” Columbia University’s Kathryn Judge, a law professor who specializes in financial regulation, told E&E.
OPINION
GoDanRiver: Letter: Completion is unlikely
Katie Whitehead, Chatham, 3/10/22
“Mountain Valley Pipeline continues to mislead the public about the status of its 303-mile mainline project by pointing to miles of felled trees and pipe strung from northwestern West Virginia into Pittsylvania County,” Katie Whitehead writes for GoDanRiver. “Reporters routinely repeat MVP’s oversimplified contention that the “total project work is nearly 94% complete.” Miles don’t measure the difficulty of installing the “20 linear miles of pipe remaining.” Those 20 miles include steep slopes, karst terrain with sink holes and caves, more than 600 rivers and streams and endangered species. MVP has only completed 15% of total water crossings. Miles don’t measure cost. The MVP mainline is billions over budget and years behind schedule… “Miles don’t measure value and risk. In recent financial statements, MVP joint venture partners lowered the value of their investment in the mainline project. Equitrans Midstream Corp. announced a $1.9 billion impairment. AltaGas announced a $211 million impairment. NextEra Energy Inc. announced a $800 million impairment — and acknowledged “a very low probability of pipeline completion.” Miles don’t measure probability. Without mentioning miles of pipe, NextEra has succinctly assessed the status of the MVP mainline: completion is highly unlikely.”
Virginia Mercury: We can unhook from oil and gas wars with solar
Anthony Smith is a reformed oil trader now hedging energy costs with solar for public serving entities,, 3/15/22
“In its early incarnation, from 2004 to 2009, Secure Futures was an oil trading company. We were (and still are) registered as a Commodity Trading Advisor (CTA) with the National Futures Association,” Anthony Smith writes for the Virginia Mercury. “Our company helped trucking and bus companies hedge the volatile costs of diesel fuel by buying and selling oil futures and options contracts. In 2010 our company introduced the first solar Power Purchase Agreement in Virginia, with a 104 kW rooftop solar array at Eastern Mennonite University… “Today Virginia has 700 times as many kW’s registered under solar PPAs… “Another way of looking at it, for every unit of electricity you buy from the grid, over 65 percent of it gets wasted, mostly in the form of air emissions, the rest in waste heat… “Not only does fossil-fuel based grid power contribute to poor respiratory health and global warming, but it also represents an extremely volatile cost. Rooftop solar, that can be installed in a matter of weeks, can offset the spikes of the oil war economies. We don’t need to wait years to build a “clean” nuclear or natural gas power plant. If our national priority is to fast-track our path to energy independence, solar, especially when coupled with energy efficiency and energy storage technologies, represents the fastest and lowest cost solution… “Let’s put business as usual aside to reduce our dependence on war oil and transition nimbly to a more resilient renewable economy.”
The Hill: Putin's war is not the cause of Biden's energy price hikes
Mandy Gunasekara is the former chief of Staff at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, 3/14/22
“From day one, President Biden has sought to curb U.S. supply of fossil-based energy. It’s one campaign promise of which he has delivered. Where the country was once a celebrated net energy exporter, we are now dealing with record-breaking prices at the pump made worse by rising inflation,” Mandy Gunasekara writes for The Hill. Russia’s attack on Ukraine has made the situation worse, but we were well on this path prior to Putin’s invasion. High energy prices are by Democrat design. Calling the latest price increase “Putin’s price hikes” isn’t fooling anyone… “Day by day and brick-by-brick, Biden’s team of political appointees has sought to dismantle the Trump policy of energy dominance and to their credit, they have been very successful. The cancellation of the Keystone XL Pipeline and drilling moratoriums made the headlines, but their plan goes deeper than that… “They’ve undermined permitting reforms so that projects end up in a state of endless bureaucratic purgatory... “Using enforcement ambiguity, Biden appointees at the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission have promised to crack down on pipeline development… “Politics and poor leadership aside, the American people stand ready to help. The solution is not nearly as complicated as how we got here. The Biden administration can unleash the American energy industry and let them do what they proudly do best: deliver affordable, clean energy to the American people and our allies abroad.”