EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 3/24/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: U.S. firms want pending natgas pipeline projects excluded from emissions rules
Argus Leader: Hundreds gather to push back against new CO2 pipeline through South Dakota
Aberdeen News: Brown County officials question Summit Carbon Solutions representatives during commission meeting
Siouxland News: Siouxland Ethanol strikes long-term deal with Navigator CO2 pipeline
Michigan Advance: Enviros say GOP, oil industry are using high gas prices to fearmonger about pipeline shutdowns
Esquire: Minnesota Pipeline Construction Ruptures Groundwater Aquifers
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNN: Climate groups sue Interior Department over controversial Black Friday report on oil and gas leasing
E&E News: Drivers top off their tanks as U.S. shuns energy conservation
Politico: TICK TOCK ON GLICK'S CLOCK?
STATE UPDATES
Los Angeles Times: L.A. needs clean energy. Hydrogen could be the answer — or gas industry greenwashing
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Suncor taps LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee to head mining unit
CLIMATE FINANCE
The Narwhal: The Canadian oil and gas companies that want to put the brakes on climate financial transparency
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago joins bandwagon of cities divesting city funds from fossil fuel companies
OPINION
The Nation: Big Oil in the Mackinac Straits Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen
Inforum: Bender: You're expendable to Big Energy
Bleeding Heartland: Bruce Rastetter seeks to parlay campaign cash into carbon pipelines
National Observer: Canada, don’t misread the new global energy reality
The New Republic: Reducing Our Reliance on Oil Will Increase Our Quality of Life
The Hill: War means Biden needs a more muscular energy plan
PIPELINE NEWS
Reuters: U.S. firms want pending natgas pipeline projects excluded from emissions rules
3/23/22
“Energy firms said they do not want U.S. federal energy regulators to apply new greenhouse gas emission guidelines to currently pending gas pipeline applications,” Reuters reports. “On Feb. 17, the U.S. Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) modified its policies to determine whether to approve permits for new gas pipelines to include greenhouse gas emissions, a move analysts said would present hurdles for new energy projects… “In response, U.S. energy companies Kinder Morgan Inc and Boardwalk Pipeline jointly submitted a letter on March 14 asking FERC to not apply the new review to currently pending projects. Other energy firms have since supported Kinder/Boardwalk’s motion asking FERC to reconsider the regulator’s position… “Kinder and Boardwalk said FERC’s policy would cause developers and investors to delay decisions on new projects at exactly the wrong moment “as war rages in Europe and our allies seek energy security” after Russia invaded Ukraine on Feb. 24.”
Argus Leader: Hundreds gather to push back against new CO2 pipeline through South Dakota
Nicole Ki, 3/24/22
“About 400 landowners filled Sioux Fall's Ramkota Conference Center on Wednesday evening, demanding answers from Summit Carbon Solutions and South Dakota Public Utilities Commission about a CO2 pipeline project they're concerned will endanger public safety,” the Argus Leader reports. “More than 25 residents, from Lake County to Brandon County, lined up one by one testifying against the proposed $4.5 billion pipeline going through the Dakotas, Iowa, Nebraska and Minnesota… “Landowners soured by previous pipeline projects, like Dakota Access and Northern Natural Gas, drowned out the few supporters, like Ringneck Energy and Glacial Lakes Energy, who spoke to the pipeline's economic and environmental benefits in public testimony. The emotional meeting, held by the state PUC, stretched on for more than three hours… “Others, like Sioux Falls landowner Betty Strom, only saw "smoke and mirrors." "This is the fourth Summit presentation I have attended," she said. "A slick PowerPoint, smoke and mirrors and non-answers to questions and contents of the pipeline." Summit is in it for the tax credits to sequester CO2, said Strom. "You tell them no, and your reasons," she said, like it being too close to occupy farm homes, it affecting the productivity of her crops and land value. But then, "they come with the carrot on the stake, a cash offer and three years payment for decreasing percent of crop damage," Strom explained… “Others brought up concerns about Summit using eminent domain against landowners to seize their land if they refuse to sign onto it… “But for Humboldt business owner Nancy Stofferaagn, she never saw the farm productivity she was promised five years after Dakota Access used eminent domain to take her land. "If there's a leak or damages, the landowners are subject to third party liability," she said. In other words, your neighbor could sue you for damages, she said… “Other concerns were the proximity to homes and the potential of endangering families.”
Aberdeen News: Brown County officials question Summit Carbon Solutions representatives during commission meeting
Elisa Sand, 3/23/22
“An innocuous introductory meeting with the Brown County Commission Tuesday ended up being a lengthy question-and-answer session for representatives from Summit Carbon Solutions,” the Aberdeen News reports. “Jay Volk was one of two representatives from Summit who appeared at the meeting. His primary aim was to get some initial details about procedures and contact information for the county planning and zoning office, highway department and emergency manager… “Volk said pipeline safety training is planned for emergency responders. He also said Summit has hired a contractor who will replace any tile that's cut when the pipe is laid… “Just prior to the meeting with the Summit representatives, commissioners approved the first reading of an ordinance that adds specific requirements for transmission pipelines. Pipelines would have to be at least 1,500 feet away from schools, day cares, churches, residential structures or any structure with a living quarter inside. Property owners could waive the minimum setback distance, according to the ordinance, but each waiver would subject to approval by the board of adjustment. Another proposed change in the ordinance would require the burial depth of pipelines in Brown County to be 72 inches, or 6 feet. That is 2 feet deeper than the starting depth of Summit's carbon dioxide pipeline, according to discussion later in the meeting with Summit officials… “Planning and zoning board member Dave North said other infrastructure needs to be buried at least 6 feet deep to avoid freezing in the winter. He asked why Summit planned to bury the pipeline only 4 feet deep… “In Brown County, zoning board approval would be needed to bury the pipeline less than 6 feet, if the ordinance changes are approved.”
Siouxland News: Siouxland Ethanol strikes long-term deal with Navigator CO2 pipeline
3/23/22
“A local ethanol plant has struck a deal with one of the proposed carbon capture pipelines looking to run through Siouxland,” Siouxland News reports. “Siouxland Ethanol in Jackson, Nebraska has reached a "long-term deal" with Navigator CO2 Ventures to capture and transport 235,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide from the plant through its "Heartland Greenway" pipeline and eventually store it deep underground… “Navigator hopes to have it up and running by 2025.”
Michigan Advance: Enviros say GOP, oil industry are using high gas prices to fearmonger about pipeline shutdowns
LAINA G. STEBBINS, 3/24/22
“Gas prices have soared in recent weeks amid inflation and the Russian invasion of Ukraine, with some Democrats raising concerns about price gouging. Although they’re starting to drop, many Republicans and oil companies are still using gas prices to criticize Democrats President Joe Biden and Gov. Gretchen Whitmer for efforts to shut down oil pipeline projects,” Michigan Advance reports. “This is not the first time GOP lawmakers have focused on gas prices to make the case against the decommissioning of Line 5 and other pipelines. But when gas prices reached a record average high of $4.33 per gallon on March 11, the highest since 2008, that argument has ramped up… “Right-wing media has been a key place for pro-pipeline arguments. In the fall, as Line 5 lawsuits between Enbridge and the state of Michigan played out, GOP lawmakers, conservative figures and media ramped up the pro-pipeline rhetoric and put a highly politicized lens on the debate, as the Advance previously reported… “Whitmer wants higher gas prices,” is the title of a Wall Street Journal editorial last week. Arguing that a Line 5 shutdown would raise costs at the pump for Midwesterners, the editorial heavily cites a new study from Consumers Energy Alliance (CEA) that claims Midwesterners will spend “at least $23.7 billion more on gasoline and diesel” in the five years following a shutdown. The nonprofit Consumers Energy Alliance is a front group for the energy industry that pushes pro-oil and gas messaging in the United States, according to SourceWatch… “But environmentalists say the attempt to connect currently high gas prices with these pipeline shutdowns is nothing more than empty rhetoric… “Beth Wallace, National Wildlife Federation (NWF) Great Lakes campaign manager told the Advance it is “inappropriate” and borders on “profiteering” that oil corporations are pushing these narratives. She pointed to three reports from Dynamic Risk, Martin Waymire and London Economics International that found a shutdown would result in a much smaller impact on gas prices.
Esquire: Minnesota Pipeline Construction Ruptures Groundwater Aquifers
By Charles P. Pierce, 3/23/22
“As we have documented extensively, the essential truth about energy pipelines is that they will leak. This can also apply to the construction of said pipelines, and our latest evidence of this comes to us from northern Minnesota,” Esquire reports. “From the Minneapolis Star-Tribune: Enbridge Energy crews ruptured three groundwater aquifers while building the 340-mile Line 3 replacement pipeline across northern Minnesota last year and the Canadian oil company faces expanded sanctions, the state Department of Natural Resources (DNR) said… “Native peoples have led the opposition to Enbridge No. 3, arguing that the pipeline and the bitumen it will carry are a threat to some of the country’s most pristine wilderness along the southern shores of Lake Superior. Most of the publicity concerned the dangers of the pipeline leaking the world’s dirtiest carbon-based fuel into the delicate ecosystems of the area. I have to admit, I didn’t anticipate the current threat—that simply building the thing would rupture underground aquifers and cause massive leaks in the opposite direction… “Steve Morse, executive director of the Minnesota Environmental Partnership, called the breach near Fond du Lac "pretty massive." He said he is frustrated that it took so long for information about the ruptures to come out. His organization and at least one lawmaker repeatedly have asked state agencies for more information, he said. "Why do we wait months and months for this simple information? Who are they protecting?" he asked. There’s not much point in having environmental regulations if they can’t guarantee that groundwater is kept in the ground.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNN: Climate groups sue Interior Department over controversial Black Friday report on oil and gas leasing
Ella Nilsen, 3/22/22
“Several climate and conservation groups are suing the US Department of the Interior to get more information about the department's November review of its oil and gas leasing program -- a report that was widely criticized for sidestepping the program's impact on the climate crisis,” CNN reports. “Represented by the Western Environmental Law Center, the groups -- Montana Environmental Information Center, Center for Biological Diversity and WildEarth Guardians -- filed multiple Freedom of Information Act requests last year to access correspondence between federal officials on the drafting of the report. They received documents in two responses from bureaus within DOI, including the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management, but they were redacted, Barbara Chillcott, a senior attorney at the Western Environmental Law Center, told CNN. Chillcott estimated that of the documents provided so far, about 75% of the information has been redacted. Interior released its long-awaited review of drilling on federal lands and oceans on Black Friday last year. The review recommended an increase in leasing fees and consideration of environmental concerns in leasing decisions. But the report largely sidestepped the issue of climate change and didn't recommend a halt to new oil and gas leasing -- a promise President Joe Biden campaigned on. Climate groups roundly criticized the report for not doing enough to address climate change.”
E&E News: Drivers top off their tanks as U.S. shuns energy conservation
Adam Aton, 3/24/22
“Gasoline prices have spiked — and Americans just keep driving more. As the West looks to replace global supplies of Russian oil and gas, the U.S. has done little to cool demand in the world’s biggest oil-consuming country,” E&E News reports. “Democrats are proposing more renewable energy while Republicans call for more drilling — but neither would impact prices for months, if not years. A faster approach than boosting energy supplies, energy experts tell E&E, would be lowering energy demand. The U.S. followed that path during the 1970s oil crisis, with former President Nixon slowing speed limits nationwide and urging people to lower their thermostats, use less lighting and undertake other “voluntary conservation,” as Nixon said in his 1974 State of the Union. U.S. leaders so far have not done that… “Drivers have filled up their cars more since Russia launched its invasion, not less, according to data from GasBuddy, which tracks fuel markets… “It’s not impossible that gas prices would still have to climb a considerable amount for Americans to start curbing their insatiable demand for gasoline,” Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at GasBuddy, told E&E… “The International Energy Agency — the West’s counterpart to OPEC — last week published a four-month plan to cut oil consumption by 2.7 million barrels a day, equivalent to all the cars in China. The 10-point plan calls for reducing highway speed limits by about 6 mph (estimated to save 290,000 barrels daily), working from home three days a week (170,000 barrels a day) and curtailing air travel for business (260,000 barrels daily)... “The oil industry itself rejects conservation as the answer to today’s energy crunch. “We as an industry support and promote the importance of energy efficiency. But right now, at this moment, what the consumer needs is more supply,” Frank Macchiarola, the American Petroleum Institute’s senior vice president, told E&E.”
Politico: TICK TOCK ON GLICK'S CLOCK?
Matthew Choi, 3/23/22
“FERC Chair Rich Glick has charged ahead implementing the Biden administration’s environmental goals, pushing for greater climate and environmental considerations in energy infrastructure permitting. But he’s also garnered some stiff criticism from Republicans, industry interests and Senate Energy Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — which could put him in a tight spot with his term set to this summer,” Politico reports. “The commission faced a grilling at the Senate Energy Committee recently over its new policy statements putting greater emphasis on environmental justice and climate concerns in natural gas projects. Manchin told reporters last week that Glick “went way out of his wheelhouse” with the policy statement and should “just do your damn job.” His office declined to say if he would vote for Glick if he were reappointed, and Manchin's opposition was a major factor in Sarah Bloom Raskin’s withdrawal from the running for a top Federal Reserve gig. Democrats currently have a majority on the commission, and clean energy and climate groups fear that if the commission falls back into a 2-2 split, it could stall the roll out of vital clean energy projects including transmission policy and market rule updates.”
STATE UPDATES
Los Angeles Times: L.A. needs clean energy. Hydrogen could be the answer — or gas industry greenwashing
SAMMY ROTH, 3/21/22
“Southern California runs on petroleum, with a long history of oil drilling and a landscape dominated by cars and freeways. But Angelenos are also deeply dependent on another dirty fuel. Every day, millions of homes and thousands of businesses receive more than 15 billion gallons of natural gas, on average, from the nation’s largest gas utility, Southern California Gas Co.,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “...Most of the gas flows in from other states via pipeline. Some is tucked away at local storage fields, including Aliso Canyon, site of a record-shattering methane leak. Some of it never reaches the Los Angeles Basin at all, leaking from wellheads or pipelines and rising into the atmosphere, where it traps heat even more powerfully than the carbon dioxide emitted when it’s burned. Scientists say there’s an urgent need to phase out fossil fuels and end the unprecedented global heating that is driving deadlier and more destructive heat waves, wildfires, droughts and floods. So how will Southern California solve its natural gas problem? SoCalGas says it has at least a partial answer: hydrogen. The Sempra Energy subsidiary proposed last month to build “the nation’s largest green hydrogen energy infrastructure system.” Known as Angeles Link, it could include hundreds of miles of pipelines to bring the clean-burning fuel to power plants, factories and the ports of L.A. and Long Beach. SoCalGas customers would bear the cost, which could amount to billions of dollars… “But is hydrogen a crucial clean energy solution, or a greenwashing boondoggle that would prop up the fossil fuel industry?.. “Environmental justice activists are skeptical. They want L.A. officials to follow through on their promise to shut down gas plants — especially Valley Generating Station, which is in a heavily polluted, largely Latino community… “Every day we have some other false solution coming at us,” Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles, told the Times. “The environmental justice problems that we live with are going to continue and get worse.”
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Suncor taps LNG Canada CEO Peter Zebedee to head mining unit
Robert Tuttle, 3/23/22
“Suncor Energy Inc. tapped LNG Canada Chief Executive Officer Peter Zebedee to head its mining and upgrading operations as the oil sands producer grapples with a series of fatal accidents,” Bloomberg reports. “Zebedee will join Suncor as executive vice president of mining and upgrading starting April 11. At LNG Canada, he spent almost three years leading a consortium of companies including Shell Plc that are building a $40 billion liquefied natural gas export project on the British Columbia Coast. He will replace Mike MacSween, whose early retirement from Suncor was announced last week. Zebedee, who has more than 25 years of experience in the oilsands, will lead a unit that’s been plagued by a series of fatal mishaps in recent years, including a truck accident in January that killed a contractor and injured two other workers at the Base Plant mine. Other fatal accidents included a death at Suncor’s Syncrude mine last June and two deaths in December 2020 at the Fort Hills mine… “Steve Corbin, LNG Canada’s executive project director, who will serve as interim chief executive until a permanent CEO is announced.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
The Narwhal: The Canadian oil and gas companies that want to put the brakes on climate financial transparency
Carl Meyer, 3/23/22
“While some economists warn Canada's economy is ballooning into a climate bubble that may burst and provoke severe disruptions, dozens of Canadian companies are pushing regulators of capital markets to delay new climate transparency rules,” The Narwhal reports. “...But an investigation by The Narwhal has revealed that Suncor — along with other fossil fuel firms and dozens of companies and organizations from other sectors — is also pushing back against game-changing financial disclosure proposals that, if implemented in Canada, would set clear standards and force companies to be more transparent and specific about how climate change could disrupt their operations and finances… “As regulators hammer out the fine print of new rules, an avalanche of Canadian companies and special interest groups — representing a range of sectors including the oilpatch, mining, manufacturing, utilities, banking, accounting, investments and insurance — have pushed for a delay to major reforms. The pushback is laid out in written submissions filed over the past several months to the provincial and territorial regulators of Canada’s capital markets, where companies like Suncor trade. Regulators of these markets work together to ensure no misconduct takes place, and coordinate on rules nationwide under the banner of the Canadian Securities Administrators. Two-thirds of the companies and organizations that wrote to regulators between October 2021 and February 2022 said they were opposed to key measures that would force them to reveal more in their financial disclosure documents about how they plan to deal with climate-related changes to their business, according to an analysis by The Narwhal… “Of all the voices pushing for regulators to delay or abandon reforms to climate transparency rules, oil and gas companies have been particularly vocal. In written submissions reviewed by The Narwhal, company executives frequently cite the “burden” of the workload that would stem from having to comply with climate transparency rules.”
Chicago Sun-Times: Chicago joins bandwagon of cities divesting city funds from fossil fuel companies
Fran Spielman, 3/21/22
“Chicago on Monday climbed aboard the bandwagon of cities mandating divestment of city funds from fossil fuel companies to promote a “clean energy future” for a world buffeted by climate change,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “Even before the groundbreaking vote by the City Council’s Joint Committee on Finance and Environmental Protection, City Treasurer Melissa Conyears-Ervin got a running start and “divested all applicable funds” from the “top 225 fossil fuel companies.” “This process has happened over the last 18 months through the divestiture of more than $70 million through sales and maturities,” Conyears-Ervin told the Times… “The ordinance advanced Monday and championed by Conyears-Ervin and Mayor Lori Lightfoot would mandate a similar investment policy going forward. No city treasurer could invest or re-invest city money in fossil fuels. Conyears-Ervin told the Times it’s high time Chicago divest from fossil fuels and join “some of the most forward-thinking and forward-acting cities in the world … that do not invest in fossil fuel companies that fail to protect our planet from climate change.” “...Besides confronting climate change, Conyears-Ervin told the Times moving away from fossil fuels is “smarter investing” that upholds her responsibility to ensure a “stable fiscal future” for Chicago.
OPINION
The Nation: Big Oil in the Mackinac Straits Is a Disaster Waiting to Happen
Hadassah GreenSky is an Anishinaabe (Little Traverse Bay Band Odawa) artist living in Detroit, Mich. A cultural worker, multidisciplinary artist, musician and fashion designer, she is the Detroit coordinator of Oil and Water Don’t Mix, and cofounder of Vibes With the Tribes, Michigan’s first Native American music festival, 3/23/22
“Native American sovereignty supersedes Big Oil’s authority.” This was the thought that occurred to me as I made my way home from Lansing, through the Mackinac Straits, the body of water that connects Lake Michigan to Lake Huron, last month. I had just made a presentation to the Mackinac Straits Corridor Authority (MSCA) as part of the Indigenous community’s ongoing battle to shut down a 1950s-era oil pipeline built and operated by the Canadian company Enbridge,” Hadassah GreenSky writes for The Nation. “Given the volume of water that passes through the straits and the direction of the currents in the area, the University of Michigan Water Center has determined that the Mackinac Straits are the very worst place in the Great Lakes for an oil spill to happen. The pipeline should not be there at all, but now Enbridge wants to go even further, blasting a new underground tunnel beneath the straits to replace the existing underwater pipeline. A broad coalition of Michiganders have come together to oppose Line 5, including Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer and Attorney General Dana Nessel… “Our coalition is demanding that the US Justice Department weigh in on the ongoing Michigan lawsuits against Enbridge, and that President Biden officially refute Enbridge’s and Canada’s insistence that the pipeline cannot be shut down without Canadian approval. Furthermore, because the tribes are sovereign nations with treaties that predate the 1977 US-Canadian agreement, we deserve not just “consultation” but an equal place at the table in any negotiation over Line 5 and the Mackinac Straits. President Biden surely has the power to do this himself, but he could lend even greater support by making it clear that Michigan has the authority to revoke the easement for Line 5 and that the federal government supports this action.”
Inforum: Bender: You're expendable to Big Energy
Tony Bender, 3/23/22
"A company called Summit plans to park liquefied CO2 underground in Oliver and Mercer counties in exchange for tax credits,” writes for Inforum. “That's it. That's the industry. Some 17,000 jobs could be created during construction of the pipeline, with 500 permanent jobs. In exchange for North Dakota's soul and some easement money for landowners." “...It's referred to by some as an “industry,” and I suppose it is, in the way that any landfill is. A company called Summit, whose investors include oil mogul Harold Hamm, plans to park liquefied CO2 underground in Oliver and Mercer counties in exchange for tax credits. That's it. That's the industry. Some 17,000 jobs could be created during construction of the pipeline, with 500 permanent jobs. In exchange for North Dakota's soul and some easement money for landowners. We sold out to a fracking industry that injects billions of gallons of clean North Dakota water into wells where it remains tainted and unrecoverable. This in a world in which water shortages are a reality. Will it pollute aquifers? We’re rolling the dice… “And can we be sure CO2 storage won’t taint the environment? Let’s call CO2 sequestration what it is, a lifeline to extend the viability of energy polluters, including coal plants… “All pipelines leak. Every damn one of them. And last year, a CO2 pipeline spewed a green gas in Mississippi. Dozens passed out. Cars stopped running because there was no oxygen in the air. This stuff kills… “Industries take care of themselves. That's what they do. They're not our friends. Big Energy is fighting for their profits, not the planet. They don't care one iota about you or your grandkids. If you do, however, you'd best get informed and engaged.”
Bleeding Heartland: Bruce Rastetter seeks to parlay campaign cash into carbon pipelines
Emma Schmit is senior Iowa organizer with Food & Water Action, 3/23/22
“The Republican Party of Iowa is the party of Bruce Rastetter,” Emma Schmit writes for Bleeding Heartland. “For years, he has amassed an enormous fortune at the public’s expense both here and abroad. And for years, he has invested in Iowa GOP candidates, in order to advance his own interests… “His latest venture, Summit Carbon Solutions, is behind the proposal to build the world’s largest carbon dioxide pipeline straight across Iowa. Shortly after Summit Carbon Solutions unveiled the project, Governor Reynolds created a Carbon Sequestration Task Force, which she promptly filled with industry insiders. Representatives of organizations that have long worked to reduce carbon emissions were excluded… “To say this project hasn’t gone Rastetter’s way is putting it mildly. Iowans across the political spectrum are united against this hazardous carbon pipeline, and the two others like it that have also been proposed… “Rastetter’s proposal to use this flawed technology on ethanol plants at the scale of the Summit project is ludicrous, threatening to entrench both fossil fuels and industrial agriculture, keeping polluting ethanol facilities and the monoculture farms that supply them alive for decades to come… “Iowans are making our opposition clear. So far, 868 public comments have been filed in the Iowa Utilities Board docket for the Summit proposal — 98.9 percent of which are opposed… “Rastetter has been buying influence for years, but few of his projects have drawn grassroots, bipartisan opposition like these carbon pipelines have. With the decision on whether to permit Iowa’s carbon pipelines falling to the Iowa Utilities Board (whose three members were appointed by Reynolds and her predecessor Branstad), the public will need to remain vigilant in holding the governor accountable to the people she represents — not profiteers like Rastetter who fund her political ambitions.”
National Observer: Canada, don’t misread the new global energy reality
Tzeporah Berman is the international program director at Stand.Earth, former co-chair of the Alberta Government Oilsands Advisory Working Group, an adjunct professor of environmental studies at York University and the chair of the Fossil Fuel Non-Proliferation Treaty steering committee, 3/24/22
“The devastating war in Ukraine is hastening the end of the fossil fuel era in many regions. Canada must read this new global reality correctly and not be misled by oil and gas CEOs ready to exploit another crisis to increase production and push outdated, high-carbon fuel on markets seeking to wean themselves off fossil fuels,” Tzeporah Berman writes for the National Observer. “The argument for fossil fuel expansion, at a moment when the world is experiencing unprecedented droughts and floods caused by oil, gas and coal, is that countries need more energy — so let's make sure it’s Canadian oil. This ignores how fossil fuel dependence makes us vulnerable to price shocks and declining oil demand due to the meteoric increase in policies to ban fossil fuel vehicles and replace fossil fuel heating, as well as the simple fact that building renewable energy at scale is now cheaper than fossil fuels. Canada’s oil is dirtier and costs more than most of the world’s, and it is projected to price out first as countries turn to the electrification of vehicles and heating. That’s why dozens of major international banks and insurance companies, including HSBC, BNP Paribas and Zurich Insurance now have policies not to insure or invest in the oilsands. The knee-jerk call for more Canadian oil and gas ignores our responsibility to reduce pollution and fight climate change. Electrification and renewable investment are cheaper, safer, quicker and don’t lead to violent conflict or explode when bombed. Even a major solar spill is just a sunny day… “To protect the public at home and abroad, we must break our dependence on volatile fossil fuels that fuel both wars and the climate crisis.”
The New Republic: Reducing Our Reliance on Oil Will Increase Our Quality of Life
Kate Aronoff, 3/24/22
“There aren’t many phrases that can strike fear into the hearts of an oil executive. “Demand destruction” might be one of them,” Kate Aronoff writes for The New Republic. “For the fossil fuel industry, demand destruction—as in destroying demand for their products—tends to refer to what happens when prices get so high that people become unwilling to keep paying for oil and gas. Demand for those fuels has long been thought to be relatively “inelastic,” or fixed, since people need to turn on the lights, heat their homes and get to work. But amid skyrocketing prices, alternatives are starting to threaten that model. While still only an option for certain consumers, especially in the United States, oil prices hitting $200 per barrel might prompt customers to buy an electric car instead of a gas-guzzler, or replace an old boiler with a heat pump. Demand destruction can also translate into a more pleasant quality of life. Last week, the hardly radical International Energy Agency (IEA)—a group founded by Henry Kissinger as oil consuming countries’ counterweight to the producers’ alliance OPEC—released a ten-point list of suggestions for cutting oil use in the wake of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. The IEA doesn’t just recommend EVs—which the White House has put front and center in its climate plans. Plenty of the changes outlined are pretty mundane. Reducing speed limits on highways by at least 6 miles (10 kilometers) per hour, for instance, could save 290,000 barrels per day of oil from cars, plus 140,000 barrels per day from trucks… “Absurdly, fossil fuel companies have been broadcasting climate plans that simply make their emissions disappear. Their idea seems to be that, sometime well off into the future, technology will be able to neutralize the enormous planet-heating effects of oil, gas and even coal. This assumes continued ballooning demand for fossil fuels into the future. It also casts decarbonization primarily as a technological problem that can only be solved with the same companies’ own research and engineering expertise.”
The Hill: War means Biden needs a more muscular energy plan
Paul Bledsoe is an energy fellow and strategic adviser at the Progressive Policy Institute. He served at the Interior Department and White House Climate Change Task Force during the Clinton administration, 3/23/22
“As he travels to Europe this week, President Biden seems to face nearly insurmountable new energy challenges,” Paul Bledsoe writes for The Hill. “...The president now has an opportunity to recast his energy agenda as a more muscular and powerful response to the energy security, inflation and climate crises… “To accomplish this, the White House must reframe Biden’s energy agenda as answering the war crisis by freeing up near-term U.S. natural gas exports to Europe and increasing global oil production, from both the U.S. and oil-rich allies, to fight inflation and gain support from moderates in Congress. At the same time, the president must articulate the long-term opportunity for American to lead the world in breaking free from the last 50 years of chronic vulnerability to oil price shocks through electric vehicles and other clean energy technologies, while also cutting emissions to address climate change… “At the very least, expanding near term oil and gas supply elements in pending energy legislation would help gain support from holdout Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), who in recent days has been rumored to be ready for new negotiations around the president’s clean energy agenda.”