EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 4/11/23
PIPELINE NEWS
Roanoke Times: Another lawsuit filed in the Mountain Valley Pipeline legal marathon
Press release: Groups File Legal Challenge to the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Biological Opinion
Bloomberg: Trans Mountain pipeline expected to provide price boost for Canadian oil, say energy CEOs
Financial Post: In aftermath of Keystone spill, Canada's oilpatch frets about pipeline capacity as U.S. targets safety
Daily Democrat: The American dream has become a nightmare for this couple because of the CO2 pipeline plan
Natural Gas Intelligence: Kinder Morgan Capturing More Low-Emissions Opportunities with California’s Renewable Diesel Hubs
Orange County Register: Pipeline connected to 2021 oil spill set to restart off Huntington Beach
Natural Gas Intelligence: Kinder Morgan Capturing More Low-Emissions Opportunities with California’s Renewable Diesel Hubs
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: States are racing to plug abandoned oil wells. It’s a monumental task.
STATE UPDATES
Capital and Main: California Climate Groups Feel Burned After Backing Big Oil Windfall Bill
The Hill: Texas bills call for renewables to help save declining fossil fuel sector
Vail Daily: Uinta Basin Railway concerns prompt Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Joe Neguse to visit Grizzly Creek
KUSA: Colorado county eyes oil moratorium as company plans to drill
KTVX: New information released on Grand Co. natural gas leak
Alaska Beacon: Liberty, an ambitious offshore Alaska oil project that once sparked excitement, is now in limbo
EXTRACTION
Wall Street Journal: Occidental Plans to Suck Carbon From the Air—So It Can Keep Pumping Oil
Washington Post: The CO2 Coalition handed out pro-carbon comic books at a teachers convention. They got kicked out.
BBC: Just Stop Oil activists arrested over Dippy the Diplodocus protest
The Hill: Study: Greenhouse gas ‘tipping points’ preceded major earlier warming events
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Scientists to JPMorgan: Stop financing fossil fuel expansion
Reuters: G7 climate ministers drop language on growing LNG demand in draft
Common Dreams: Insurance Giant Chubb Praised for Ban on Underwriting Arctic Refuge Drilling
OPINION
Carroll Times Herald: Brass Tacks for Rural Iowa
Sioux City Journal: LETTER: CO2 Eminent Domain: No Choice, All Liability
Cedar Rapids Gazette: Wake up and smell the ethanol, Iowa
Cedar Rapids Gazette: CO2 Pipelines hurt everyone in Iowa
The Hill: ‘Permitting reform’ can’t mean more fossil fuels
Financial Post: Diane Francis: Trudeau's lost LNG opportunity
PIPELINE NEWS
Roanoke Times: Another lawsuit filed in the Mountain Valley Pipeline legal marathon
Laurence Hammack, 4/10/23
“One month after a federal agency said in a biological opinion that construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline would not jeopardize protected species of bats, fish and a plant, environmental groups are seeking a second opinion,” the Roanoke Times reports. “A petition filed Monday asks a federal appeals court to review the finding by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service. “Construction of this fossil fuel nightmare has already harmed imperiled wildlife, but the Fish and Wildlife Service continues to ignore its duty to ensure that waterways and the species that rely on them are protected,” Jared Margolis, a senior attorney with the Center for Biological Diversity, one of 11 environmental and community groups that filed the petition, told the Times. “It’s reckless and unlawful to allow this project to decimate more essential habitats and harm our climate.” “...Two earlier opinions by the Fish and Wildlife Service — set aside in 2019 and 2022 by a three-judge panel of the Fourth Circuit — reached the same conclusion as the most recent one… “The brief did not state the grounds for challenging the latest finding… “The finding was derided by opponents, who say building a 303-mile buried pipeline through pristine woodlands and across clear-running streams has already had dire environmental consequences that will only continue if work resumes… “Joining the Center for Biological Diversity in the latest legal action were: Appalachian Voices, Wild Virginia, the Sierra Club, the West Virginia Rivers Coalition, Preserve Giles County, Preserve Bent Mountain, the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense League, the West Virginia Highlands Conservancy, the Indian Creek Watershed Association, and the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.”
Press release: Groups File Legal Challenge to the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s Biological Opinion
4/10/23
“Today, environmental organizations filed a petition for review in federal court challenging a recently issued new biological opinion (BiOp) and incidental take statement under the Endangered Species Act for the Mountain Valley Pipeline. A federal appeals court has already twice rejected the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s prior authorizations for the pipeline project. Previously, the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals found that the agency failed to adequately analyze the project's environmental context when assessing the detrimental impacts to the Roanoke logperch and the candy darter, a species on the brink of extinction. In the rushed process to deliver the new biological opinion on the pipeline developer’s timeline, the Fish and Wildlife Service neglected critical public input regarding key deficiencies in the agency’s analysis. This petition comes a week after the court invalidated a key water permit that would be needed to proceed with construction activities in West Virginia streams and wetlands. Without the West Virginia Clean Water Act section 401 certification, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers can't allow construction in streams anywhere along the entire 304-mile project… “In response, Roberta Bondurant of Preserve Bent Mountain, a local member group of the POWHR Coalition, stated: “While disappointed that USFWS declined to consider critical new information, we’re not surprised by the apparent agency capitulation in issuing the Biological Opinion according to MVP’s desired timeline. For over eight years, MVP, an out of state LLC with no named employees, has repeatedly rushed recklessly into construction, wreaking havoc upon our land, waters and forests— promising disaster for imperiled species — and has avoided doing the work required for well-informed regulatory decision making and developer accountability.”
Bloomberg: Trans Mountain pipeline expected to provide price boost for Canadian oil, say energy CEOs
Kevin Orland and Geoffrey Morgan, 4/10/23
“Canadian oil producers beset by years of constrained pipeline capacity expect to garner better prices for their crude when the expanded Trans Mountain conduit starts up next year, opening them to new markets in Asia,” Bloomberg reports. “The expansion project — which Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government bought for $4.5 billion in 2018 — will reduce oilsands producers’ dependence on U.S. refiners that currently forces them to accept discounted prices for their crude. Coming a little more than two years after the 2021 startup of Enbridge Inc.’s Line 3, the Trans Mountain expansion has — at least temporarily — removed pipelines from the list of a concerns for an industry long hampered by limited shipping options. “Being able to send our barrels into more markets is a big opportunity for Canada,” Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. chief financial officer Mark Stainthorpe said at the Bank of Montreal-Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers conference last week… “Exxon Mobil Corp. also is considering restarting paused expansion projects in the area as pipeline constraints ease… “Volumes are going to shift to that, and they’re going to create a little bit of capacity on the other existing infrastructure, which ideally helps our differentials in Western Canada,” Bryksa told Bloomberg. “So I see it as a big win for the basin over time.” “...More broadly, the Trans Mountain startup takes pipelines out of the menu of major concerns for the time being and allows producers to think about new ways to improve their business, Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers President Lisa Baiton told Bloomberg.
Financial Post: In aftermath of Keystone spill, Canada's oilpatch frets about pipeline capacity as U.S. targets safety
Meghan Potkins, 4/10/23
“Over a 30-year career in oil and gas pipeline consulting, Richard Kuprewicz has seen countless spills and ruptures up close. Frequently brought in to investigate pipeline failures in the United States and Canada, the chemical engineer has seen how diluted bitumen blends from the Canadian oilsands have a way of clinging to turf or sinking in water,” the Financial Post reports. “It has a characteristic to be rather sticky,” Kuprewicz told the Post. “Whatever it touches, it tends to adhere. So it’s a little more of a challenge to try and recover the oil.” He has also seen the resulting court settlements and cleanup costs balloon over the decades as pipeline politics have grown ever more contentious. “The first rule in oil spill response is don’t spill the damn oil,” Kuprewicz told the Post. “Rule number two is if you violate rule number one, you better have a plan that moves quickly and is somewhat effective.” Pipelines and pipeline safety are back in the spotlight following a large spill of crude oil from TC Energy Corp.’s Keystone pipeline in Kansas in December that resulted in the Calgary-based company being slapped with an order to lower its operating pressure. The spill ignited a debate in the United States about pipeline safety standards. In the immediate aftermath — as the company scrambled to clean up the largest onshore spill in the United States in nearly a decade — furious American lawmakers questioned why the country’s Pipeline and Hazardous Material Safety Administration (PHMSA) issued a special permit that allowed TC Energy to operate Keystone at a higher stress level than other lines in the United States. “Enough is enough,” Ed Markey, a Democratic senator from Massachusetts, wrote in a Dec. 15 letter to TC Energy chief executive François Poirier. “Communities threatened by your pipeline urgently need an explanation of how and why these spills keep happening and whether your company will continue to put people nationwide and our environment at risk.” On the Canadian side of the border, Keystone’s latest spill landed very differently. Here, the temporary shutdown of the cross-border pipeline resurrected old anxieties in Western Canada about the risk of price discounts on heavy Canadian barrels if oil production outstrips pipeline capacity… “In the intervening years, proponents have continued to push for greater export capacity while defending the safety of Canada’s pipelines. The Kansas spill begs a question, though: are they right to do so?” “...U.S. watchdog Pipeline Safety Trust said it believes the extra pressure that was permitted on the line likely added wear and tear on a pipeline with a lousy track record on spills. “It’s a big deal to operate outside of those rules,” Bill Caram, the group’s executive director, told the Post. “I hope this leads to a conversation about taking that more seriously.”
Daily Democrat: The American dream has become a nightmare for this couple because of the CO2 pipeline plan
Robin Delaney, 4/11/23
“It was the last thing they wanted to see happen. In fact, they’ve taken a series of steps over the last 20 years and spent every dime they had and could borrow to make sure it wouldn’t… but then came that letter about the Navigator Green CO2 pipeline,” the Daily Democrat reports. “...It was another one of those holy sh — moments. It’s going right through our timber, diagonal through every parcel of our land and coming out through the timber, and they said they would need an 100-foot permanent easement and a 300-foot construction easement.” “...The Johnsons told the Democrat that despite a Navigator official’s promise that they would obtain permission before coming onto their property, Navigator employees have been there unannounced several times, at all hours of the day and night. Andrew told the Democrat he has found them sitting in lawn chairs at night allegedly collecting bats for an endangered species study and digging holes on their land saying they were conducting a search of possible artifacts… “In fact, Amber told the Democrat she asked the Navigator representative why the company didn’t chart a route on public right of ways and was told because it would cost the company more money to that. The couple has solicited help from area legislators and sent letters to all members of the Iowa House and Senate in hopes of stopping the company’s use of eminent domain to take and use landowners’ property without their content… “The Johnsons and other landowners have asked Lee County Supervisors to adopt an ordinance that establishes a setback between residents and the pipeline route. “This pipeline is extremely close to the town of West Point. It’s only 1,400 feet from our nursing home,” Andrew told supervisors last month, adding that the regulations coming out after the pipeline construction begins will prompt the company to seek an exception. Although most supervisors indicated support, they have yet to place a proposed ordinance on an agenda for discussion and a vote.”
Orange County Register: Pipeline connected to 2021 oil spill set to restart off Huntington Beach
ANDRE MOUCHARD, 4/10/23
“The pipeline that ruptured and spewed about 25,000 gallons of oil into the ocean off Huntington Beach in October 2021 is being refilled with oil and is expected to be in use again sometime this month, pipeline operator Amplify Energy said Monday, April 10,” the Orange County Register reports. “Though resumption of production off the Orange County coast figures to end one part of a saga that has involved national media, a spree of lawsuits and countersuits, and a criminal plea by Houston-based Amplify, at least some environmentalists hope the local spill still could lead to tougher new rules for all offshore oil operators. “I would hope that, given the Biden administration’s stated intentions to do more on climate, that we will see a little more attention paid to these old platforms and other operations off the Pacific coast that are ripe for decommissioning,” Brady Bradshaw, senior oceans campaigner for the Center for Biological Diversity, an Arizona-based environmental group with offices in California, told the Register… “Like others who want to see an end to offshore drilling, Bradshaw noted that federal rules currently don’t take into account the fact that the equipment used off the Orange County coast – which leads to platforms in federal waters – is nearly a half-century old, far older than its intended lifespan… “If this is the status quo, we’re on a bad trajectory,” he told the Register. “We could see a much larger oil spill any day.” “...We’re forced to trust drillers. But every bit of data that we have access to points to the fact that this isn’t productive anymore, and it’s not worth the risk it poses to California,” Matt Sylvester, a spokesman for Orange County Coastkeeper, told the Register.
Natural Gas Intelligence: Kinder Morgan Capturing More Low-Emissions Opportunities with California’s Renewable Diesel Hubs
GABRIELLE VITALI, 4/10/23
“Kinder Morgan Inc.’s renewable diesel (RD) hub projects in California are in full commercial operation, which may be the first to transport the alternative fuel by pipeline to inland destinations,” Natural Gas Intelligence reports. “We are confident that the best way to serve markets during this energy evolution is through an all-of-the-above energy mix,” KMI’s Dax Sanders, president of Products Pipeline, told NGI. “Pipelines continue to be the safest and most cost-efficient mode of long-haul transportation for liquid fuels. The hubs are designed to move the low-emissions RD fuel to markets across Northern and Southern California… “Almost all domestically produced RD is used in California because of the state’s Low Carbon Fuel Standard (LCFS), according to the U.S. Department of Energy. The LCFS rule was enacted by the California Air Resources Board to decrease carbon emissions from transportation fuel.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: States are racing to plug abandoned oil wells. It’s a monumental task.
Maxine Joselow, 4/11/23
“The Biden administration has set aside billions of dollars to plug hundreds of thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, which can contaminate groundwater and leak potent planet-warming gases into the atmosphere. But experts warn that the nation is only scratching the surface on the daunting issue,” the Washington Post reports. “Although states are getting a massive infusion of cash to plug these wells, it will only begin to chip away at the problem, Adam Peltz, a director and senior attorney at the Environmental Defense Fund, told the Post. He told the Post that simply locating the wells is difficult since many are ancient or buried in wooded areas or under buildings. Plugging them has also proven to be physically intense, time-consuming and expensive… “But in its most recent national inventory, the Environmental Protection Agency estimated that the number of undocumented wells could be in the millions, and that the methane leaking from them each year accounts for nearly 3 percent of the U.S. total.”
STATE UPDATES
Capital and Main: California Climate Groups Feel Burned After Backing Big Oil Windfall Bill
Aaron Cantú, 4/6/23
“California’s new law imposing a profit margin cap on state oil refineries is the first in the nation to penalize companies for hiking prices at the gas pump,” Capital and Main reports. “...Four advocates involved in high-level discussions, who asked for anonymity in order to speak candidly about climate politics, described to Capital and Main the changes as a betrayal by the governor’s climate team. Some were upset that much of the planning for the refinery transitions was handed to the California Air Resources Board, whose market-led approach to cutting greenhouse gas emissions has consistently come at the expense of low income communities, where agency decisions have concentrated polluted air relative to wealthier areas. “If this whole bill was really just about windfall profits, avoiding price spikes and keeping consumer costs low, I think we wouldn’t really have a dog in this fight,” one person who participated in the discussions told Capital and Main… “Not everyone who signed the letter to the administration regretted their support for the windfall bill, including Martha Argüello, executive director of Physicians for Social Responsibility-Los Angeles… “Argüello backed it as a measure to hold Big Oil accountable, but thought the governor missed an opportunity to use his political capital for an important piece of the energy transition. “It was a hard trade-off,” Argüello told Capital and Main. “It’s another teachable moment we have to engage with the administration, so they understand part of holding the fossil fuel industry accountable is in reducing our extraction and use of fossil fuels.”
The Hill: Texas bills call for renewables to help save declining fossil fuel sector
SAUL ELBEIN, 4/11/23
“The Texas Senate on Wednesday passed a package of bills that would cut support from wind and solar power and force renewable electricity producers to help pay for new fossil fuel power plants,” The Hill reports. “The five bills are part of a larger campaign by the Republican-controlled body to redirect growth in the states’ flourishing renewable energy sector — by far the largest in the country — toward oil and gas. The effort seeks to establish the long-term primacy of “dispatchable” electricity — in practice, gas powered plants — over renewables… “Opposing the bill was a strange-bedfellows coalition of power utilities, environmental groups and electric coops — groups that generally have little in common… “State GOP members cast the state’s growth in renewables as a problem — and one that federal subsidies are set to exacerbate. The federal tax credits “distort” Texas’s electricity market by giving “less reliable generators an unfair market advantage over reliable generators,” Senate Republicans wrote in analysis of Senate Bill 7, a linchpin of the package. That bill would require such “non-dispatchable” sources — in other words, wind and solar — to pay more for state services like building and maintaining the grid. It also requires the state utility commission to report yearly to the legislature on how state subsidies can be tweaked to ensure sufficient “dispatchable generation to maintain reliability standards for at least five years.” “...The package amounts to a carve-out of 50 percent of the Texas power market for “natural gas, coal, and other conventional, higher-cost energy resources,” Trish Demeter of the Texas Advanced Energy Business Alliance wrote The Hill. That approach “subverts the long-standing tenet of the Texas market that embraces tech-neutrality.”
Vail Daily: Uinta Basin Railway concerns prompt Sen. Michael Bennet, Rep. Joe Neguse to visit Grizzly Creek
Ray Erku, 4/8/23
“Within a sea of Patagonia and sunglasses, some of Colorado’s state and federal lawmakers stood beside the banks of the Colorado River at Grizzly Creek on Friday afternoon, objecting to a major proposal that would significantly intensify oil-train traffic along the Colorado River in Garfield County and beyond,” Vail Daily reports. “The controversial Uinta Basin Railway Project could ship 4.6 billion gallons of waxy crude oil per year from Utah to Gulf Coast refineries by way of Garfield County, including 100 miles alongside the headwaters of the Colorado River. Joining in on the rhetoric against the proposed railway, among others, were U.S. Sen. Michael Bennet, Colorado State Sen. Dylan Roberts, U.S. Rep. Joe Neguse and Garfield County’s own State Rep. Elizabeth Velasco — all Democrats. Also joining the press conference as spring sunshine glinted off the water and anglers launched boats nearby were Glenwood Springs Mayor Jonathan Godes and Rep. Julie McCluskie from Summit County. “Derailments in this country are shockingly common — more than 1,000 per year, on average,” Bennet said, also mentioning more recent catastrophic derailments like what happened in East Palestine, Ohio. “Moving hazardous materials by rail can be dangerous for the communities and the environments that they pass through, and that’s why we’re here today, to oppose the oil trains and the Uinta Basin Railway project coming through Colorado.” “...Amid this massive proposal, many communities across Colorado and Garfield County have experienced a complete lack of dialogue with the railroad itself… “This train has no business bringing this oil from Utah through Colorado, period,” Bennett told the Daily.
KUSA: Colorado county eyes oil moratorium as company plans to drill
Greg Avery, 4/7/23
“Colorado’s oil and gas industry is trying to stop Arapahoe County from placing a six-month moratorium on new well development ahead of a proposal to drill 174 wells east of Aurora,” KUSA reports. “...Dozens of residents of nearby Aurora neighborhoods and those opposed to fracking and oil and gas development have organized to stop Civitas’ project, arguing it threatens local air quality and the water in the Aurora Reservoir. Last week, Arapahoe County staff asked the county commissioners for a six-month drilling moratorium so local rules could be updated before Civitas’ project. The commissioners are slated to consider and vote on the moratorium at a Tuesday meeting.”
KTVX: New information released on Grand Co. natural gas leak
Ryan Bittan, 4/9/23
“New information has been released on a gas leak that occurred in Grand Co. on Friday, April 7,” KTVX reports. “The Grand Co. Sheriff’s Office states that the cause of the release of natural gas was due to a TIW safety valve failure on tubing and Blind Ram failure on BOPE. Representatives from Rose Petroleum and Wild Well Control are reportedly on location and making a plan for containment upon the arrival of more resources. Road closures, including the Floy exit off I-70, Blue Hills Rd. at the 10-mile turn from 191, and all other access points within a one-mile radius of the wellhead site, will remain in effect until the wellhead is repaired and containment is verified, authorities say. After the well is controlled, soil remediation will reportedly be performed around the wellhead. “We kindly ask for the support of the community in avoiding this area until support services are able to fully remedy the situation,” officials say.”
Alaska Beacon: Liberty, an ambitious offshore Alaska oil project that once sparked excitement, is now in limbo
Yereth Rosen, 4/10/23
“Before ConocoPhillips’ massive Willow project emerged as a subject of excitement and controversy, a different North Slope oil project promised to open a new Arctic oil frontier,” the Alaska Beacon reports. “The Liberty field, with an estimated 150 million barrels of recoverable oil, was to have been the first producing oil field located entirely in the federally controlled Outer Continental Shelf, in the icy Beaufort Sea… “As state officials pin high hopes on Willow and the revenues and jobs it will generate, the history at Liberty provides a cautionary tale about the uncertainties of oil development projects. Just a few years ago, Liberty’s current owner was projecting confidence in the project… “Fifteen years ago, however, there was much excitement in Alaska about Liberty. BP had an ambitious plan to develop the project by producing oil from the shore using ultra-extended-reach drilling. Liberty would have the longest wells in the world, potentially reaching up to 40,000 feet in length, to be drilled by the world’s largest land-based drill rig, commissioned by BP and built by Parker Drilling specifically for the project… “Two years later, Suttles was BP’s chief operations officer and was embroiled in the response to the Deepwater Horizon disaster in the Gulf of Mexico. Four years after BP sanctioned Liberty, it officially withdrew the development plan, even though construction at the site had already started… “The problem with such long-distance directional drilling is that it would have required too much drilling through a difficult shale layer, called Kingak, that is known for swelling and slumping, Myers told the Beacon… “Despite the stall, there are still factors weighing in favor of Hilcorp eventually developing the Liberty project, Myers told the Beacon. “The oil’s there. It’s not very far from infrastructure,” he told the Beacon. “They’re definitely motivated to do it.”
EXTRACTION
Wall Street Journal: Occidental Plans to Suck Carbon From the Air—So It Can Keep Pumping Oil
Benoît Morenne, 4/10/23
“...The company behind this environmental moonshot is Occidental Petroleum Corp., one of the country’s most successful oil-and-gas producers. It hopes the enterprise will give it license to keep operating as a driller decades into the future,” according to the according to the Wall Street Journal. “It is spending more than $1 billion to build the first in a planned fleet of plants using direct-air capture to pull the CO2 out of the air, a budding technology with fuzzy economics. Bolstering the move are generous tax incentives included in the climate package President Biden signed into law last year that cover up to 45% of Occidental’s expected initial costs per metric ton. Chief executive Vicki Hollub, who has the blessing of the company’s largest investor, Warren Buffett, told the Journal the plan will help it reach net-zero emissions on all its operations, its own energy use and its customers’ use of its products, by 2050, and allow it to keep investing in oil extraction. Ms. Hollub told investors last year she also expects the clean-energy efforts to eventually become more lucrative than the company’s chemical segment, which manufactures basic chemicals and petroleum-derived products such as vinyls, and is the next-biggest revenue generator after oil and gas… “It is unclear what the appetite for carbon removal will be, how much the service will eventually cost or how massive volumes of buried carbon dioxide will affect the subsurface in the long term… “Many industry experts doubt that direct-air capture can be done economically because the amounts of air that need to be scrubbed are so large. Operating the plants themselves will require massive amounts of energy, which will need to be emission-free to avoid defeating the purpose of the effort, they tell the Journal… “Some environmental groups say carbon capture will prolong the world’s dependence on fossil fuel and divert investments that could be poured into renewable energy… “Occidental estimated its initial cost to remove a metric ton of CO2 would be between $400 and $500. It said that as it manufactures more plants and efficiencies kick in, it will be able to roughly halve that to between $200 and $250 a ton by the end of the decade, according to the company. None of the figures include federal tax credits… “Occidental expects to generate between $430 and $630 in revenue per metric ton of atmospheric CO2 captured this decade, including federal tax credits, it told the Journal… “Ms. Hollub told The Wall Street Journal in August that Occidental’s efforts on carbon capture and on becoming a net-zero emitter would allow it to keep up its investments in oil and gas.”
Washington Post: The CO2 Coalition handed out pro-carbon comic books at a teachers convention. They got kicked out.
Maxine Joselow, 4/11/23
“To science teachers attending a recent convention, the comic book about “Simon the solar-powered cat” seemed unremarkable at first,” the Washington Post reports. “The story began with Simon, an orange-and-white cat, begging for more food in typical feline fashion. But on Page 5, the story took this turn: A “friendly scientist” explained that Simon subsisted not on kibble, but on carbon dioxide. The scientist concluded that CO2 was a “miracle molecule” that fueled all life on Earth by helping plants turn sunlight into food. What it didn't mention? That carbon emissions are causing catastrophic climate change. That message, and the comic book, were the brainchild of the CO2 Coalition, a group that rejects the scientific consensus that carbon emissions are warming the planet. The coalition claims it distributed about 700 comic books to teachers at the National Science Teaching Association’s convention in Atlanta last month before being kicked out of the event… “The episode, details of which have not previously been reported, raised concerns among scientists and education experts that the teachers could spread climate misinformation to their students… “By focusing 100 percent on this idea that plants need CO2, they’re intentionally misleading people by avoiding the real problems of CO2, which they didn’t talk about at all,” Andrew Dessler, a climate scientist at Texas A&M University, told the Post… “While it is true that CO2 helps plants grow, its accumulation in the atmosphere will have net negative effects for plants and people alike, Dessler told the Post. Telling kids they need CO2 to survive, he said, “is like telling a drowning person they need water to survive. It’s not helpful.” On the second day of the convention, an NSTA official asked members of the CO2 Coalition to stop distributing their materials or leave, according to a YouTube video uploaded by the coalition… “When coalition members requested a booth at the convention, they signed a contract certifying that their materials were consistent with the association’s position statement on the teaching of climate science, NSTA Executive Director Erika Shugart told the Post. But then they violated the contract, she told the Post.”
BBC: Just Stop Oil activists arrested over Dippy the Diplodocus protest
4/10/23
“Two climate change activists have been arrested after attempting to stage a protest at a dinosaur exhibit,” BBC reports. “They entered Herbert Art Gallery and Museum's Dippy the Diplodocus display in Coventry at 10:00 BST on Monday. A video released by campaign group Just Stop Oil (JSO) showed them being tackled by security staff and led away. West Midlands Police said two people were held on suspicion of conspiracy to cause criminal damage and "two large bags of dry paint" had been seized. The force said "protest liaison officers" had remained at the museum to "keep people safe and limit disruption to a minimum"... “JSO has described itself as "a coalition of groups working together to ensure the government commits to halting new fossil fuel licensing and production". In a statement, one of the activists told BBC he felt he had "no choice" but to take part in the protest because "we're barrelling towards suffering, mass death and the annihilation of our species". "I cannot and will not commit myself to a future of powerlessly watching these horrors unfold," he told BBC. "The dinosaurs had no choice; we do."
The Hill: Study: Greenhouse gas ‘tipping points’ preceded major earlier warming events
ZACK BUDRYK, 4/10/23
“Multiple periods of extreme warming in the earth’s past followed “tipping points” involving the release of greenhouse gases, according to research published in the journal Science Advances,” The Hill reports. “Researchers from Wageningen University & Research and Utrecht University, in the Netherlands, analyzed three periods of rapid warming between 56 and 52 million years ago. They found that each of these periods was preceded by a climate tipping point, described by the United Nations’ Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change as “a critical threshold beyond which a system reorganizes, often abruptly and/or irreversibly.” “...The warming periods in question were already known to have coincided with the mass release into the atmosphere of gases like methane and carbon dioxide, but the data in the analysis is the first to draw a straight line between decreased stability in the climate system and those warming periods. “This is exactly what you would expect to see if release of carbon was caused by a carbon cycle tipping point,” lead author Shruti Setty, a Ph.D. candidate at Wageningen University & Research, told The Hill.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Scientists to JPMorgan: Stop financing fossil fuel expansion
Avery Ellfeldt, 4/10/23
“More than a thousand scientists and economists on Monday threw their weight behind shareholders' demands that the world's largest investment bank stop bankrolling companies that are expanding fossil fuel production,” E&E News reports. “Their letter voiced support for a shareholder resolution filed by climate-concerned investors this year ahead of JPMorgan Chase & Co.'s annual general meeting on May 16… “The firms will not fulfill that commitment, the resolution argues, unless they adopt a policy for a "time-bound phase-out" of lending and underwriting for projects and companies engaged in new fossil fuel exploration and development.”
Reuters: G7 climate ministers drop language on growing LNG demand in draft
Kate Abnett and Makiko Yamazaki, 4/11/23
“Climate ministers of the Group of Seven countries have backtracked for now on earlier language touting growing future demand for liquefied natural gas (LNG), instead noting there may be "considerable uncertainty" for consumption,” Reuters reports. “A previous draft communique for this week's meeting of G7 climate change and energy ministers had called for "necessary upstream investments in LNG and natural gas" amid the energy fallout from Russia's invasion of Ukraine and said "demand for LNG will continue to grow". But, as negotiations over the communique resumed on Tuesday ahead of the ministerial meeting on April 15-16 in Sapporo, Japan, the wording was changed, the latest draft reviewed by Reuters showed. "We recognize that, based on the IEA's (International Energy Agency) analyses, there would be considerable uncertainty for future demand of natural gas and LNG and consequently there are risks of supply and demand gap to be addressed," the document dated April 5 said. The draft also altered the earlier language on LNG and gas investments to say they would be needed to "bridge the gap in a manner consistent with our climate objectives and commitments." It added a line saying, "Furthermore we will accelerate the clean energy transition through energy savings and gas demand reductions in the process of decarbonization." It was not clear from the document why the language was changed. But Italy, Germany, France and the European Union had opposed the initial proposal on LNG demand increasing, the draft showed.”
Common Dreams: Insurance Giant Chubb Praised for Ban on Underwriting Arctic Refuge Drilling
JESSICA CORBETT, 4/10/23
“An Indigenous organization on Monday applauded Chubb for joining global insurers and major banks in refusing to underwrite new fossil fuel development within the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in Alaska,” Common Dreams reports. "After the Arctic Refuge was opened for oil and gas development, we have met with and encouraged financial institutions and insurance companies to respect the people who live and thrive off this land, which we consider very sacred," explained Bernadette Demientieff, executive director of the Gwich'in Steering Committee. "Since our first meeting, all corporate leaseholders have exited the refuge and every major U.S. and Canadian bank refuses to underwrite such projects," she said. "Chubb's policy is a first for the American insurance industry and shows leadership to protect sacred lands." “...Chubb in late March announced new underwriting standards for oil and gas extraction projects. Along with adopting criteria for methane emissions, the company said at the time that "effective immediately, Chubb will not underwrite oil and gas extraction projects in protected areas designated by state, provincial, or national governments." “...The Chubb board of directors is also encouraging shareholders to vote against a proposal from Domini Impact Investments LLC, as representative of the Domini U.S. Impact Equity Fund, that would require a report "describing how human rights risks and impacts are evaluated and incorporated in the underwriting process." “...The Gwich'in Steering Committee, meanwhile, expressed support for the Domini proposal on Monday.”
OPINION
Carroll Times Herald: Brass Tacks for Rural Iowa
Barb Kalbach, 4/10/23
“Ethics. When I think about state government, no matter who was elected, I always thought there was an ethical code to our public trust,” Barb Kalbach writes for the Carroll Times Herald. “...My core beliefs have been shaken lately, particularly by the people trying to shovel these carbon pipelines through our land. Nobody wants them, and still they’re a threat. It’s a travesty. This week, members of Iowa Citizens for Community Improvement (Iowa CCI) filed an ethics complaint against Senator Michael Bousselot (R-Ankeny)... “His failure to schedule a hearing for HF 565 and his outright opposition to participating in the democratic process of the general assembly breaks confidence and trust with the 78% of Iowans who oppose the use of eminent domain for hazardous liquid pipelines. It’s no secret that Senator Bousselot is in on the big CO2 conjob… “Senator Bousselot is full of conflicts of interest and questionable financial dealings on the issue of CO2 pipelines. He has deep personal, professional, and economic ties with Summit Carbon Solutions, a CO2 pipeline company that would profit financially from the proposed projects… “One person with all these ties to Summit should not be able to stop a bill that 78% of Iowans support. That’s why the Senate Ethics Committee needs to censure Bousselot and remove him from all his committee assignments. Bousselot and his friends at Summit want us to believe that HF 565 is dead but that’s not true. As the Senate Majority Leader Jack Whitver can move new or existing legislation any time before the session ends.”
Sioux City Journal: LETTER: CO2 Eminent Domain: No Choice, All Liability
Mark Joenks, Greenville, 4/9/23
“I oppose the use of eminent domain for private gain unilaterally, however, the CO2 pipelines take this abuse to a whole new level,” Mark Joenks writes for the Sioux City Journal. “Not only do they carve through Iowa's valuable crop land, they do no safety studies and take no responsibility for any accidents. They will not do any soil studies or give any weight ratings for the ground post pipeline. Furthermore they push all liability on the land owner and all insurance companies are denying coverage for CO2 accidents. As a result, private companies can use eminent domain to force pipelines on family farming operations without their consent and those farmers will be held liable for any accidents that will occur. In a similar rupture that happened in 2020, 50 people in a town a mile away were sent to the hospital… “The state senators must add this vital reform to an amendment to current legislation… “Say NO to Eminent Domain Abuse.”
Cedar Rapids Gazette: Wake up and smell the ethanol, Iowa
Patricia Patnode, Waterloo, 4/8/23
“The proposed carbon-capture pipelines may finally have awakened the state to the straw-house industry that is ethanol,” Patricia Patnode writes for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “...Rep. Hinson appropriately pointed out that a carbon-capture pipeline is a result of our ethanol dependence and “like it or not (Iowans are) heavily reliant” on ethanol production. A carbon capture pipeline is just the price we have to pay for mass farming ethanol corn… “Unlike the Dakota Access Pipeline, which would have produced energy for millions, genuinely improving the lives of people, this pipeline will not have any proactive energy payoff. It will simply be reducing the emissions from industrial facilities, many of which would not have been built if not for the market demand created by the federal government. Demand which will only decrease as we make the eventual transition to electric vehicles and reduce gasoline consumption. Farmers have been manipulated for decades by government subsidies for ethanol corn. This is not their fault. A farm is a business, it only makes sense that they grow the highest value crop in response to market prices. After all, the government wouldn’t ask them to do something that would harm our country in the long run, right? Wrong… “Climbing out of the cash-lined grave we are digging will be difficult and require courage and leadership. So far, no one has had the gumption to correct the situation. We need hope and courage for our farmers so that our future farm production-potential remains abundant.”
Cedar Rapids Gazette: CO2 Pipelines hurt everyone in Iowa
Mark Joenks, Greenville, 4/10/23
“The push for the CO2 pipelines is for ethanol plants to lower carbon emissions so they can get the California Low Carbon Fuel Standard incentive,” Mark Joenks writes for the Cedar Rapids Gazette. “...Sounds great until you realize that is how much extra Iowa will pay to keep it for our use. Our gas prices will go up over a dollar for E85 because of this pipeline built by taxpayer money. The pipelines do not increase the capacity of the ethanol plants, only the value to out-of-state buyers. Our citizens will have to outbid the buying power of the state of California. That’s not a price we can afford. Are pipelines good for ethanol? They're good for the investors. But for farmers? Trickle-down economics is a myth. Look at a $5 box of Wheaties. A farmer gets six cents out of $5. The athlete on the box gets 10. I am opposed to the CO2 pipelines. I don't want to live in a state beholden to outside investors and profiteers. If ethanol wants LCFS incentives it is their choice. Let them invest in their own infrastructure. But don't use tax money to destroy our state economy.”
The Hill: ‘Permitting reform’ can’t mean more fossil fuels
Lisa Frank is executive director of the Washington, D.C. office of Environment America, a national network of 30 state environmental groups with members and supporters in every state; Tony Dutzik is associate director and senior policy analyst at Frontier Group, a public policy organization that provides information and ideas to build a healthier, more sustainable America, 4/10/23
“To meet America’s climate goals, we must do two things simultaneously: Speed the deployment of clean energy and accelerate the transition away from fossil fuels that pollute our air and water and harm our health,” Lisa Frank and Tony Dutzik write for The Hill. “Producing more clean energy while also producing more dirty energy won’t get the job done, as the latest Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) report makes clear. Eroding key protections for our environment while doing either is counterproductive. In the last Congress, lawmakers quashed a so-called “permitting reform” bill backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) that would have allowed weaker environmental protections and would have paved the way for more production of dirty energy… “Now, the House of Representatives is considering even more extreme legislation… “It is already far too easy for fossil fuel producers to build projects that make Americans less healthy and less safe and that put the whole world at risk of worsening climate-related disasters. Making environmental review of dirty energy projects less rigorous and limiting opportunities for public involvement are the last things we should be doing. The debate over “permitting reform” is also a distraction from the real obstacle standing in the way of America’s clean energy transition: entrenched resistance from fossil fuel producers and monopoly utilities… “Rather than rush into poorly designed “reforms” that would further threaten our future by locking us into more fossil fuel infrastructure and more emissions, we need to commit to strategies that address both ends of the clean energy transition — expanding renewable energy while phasing out fossil fuels — and do so without jeopardizing critical ecosystems and human health. Such a path is possible, and with America’s abundant clean energy resources, there is no good reason not to take it. Poorly designed “permitting reform” won’t put us on that path. And if we’re not careful, it could easily set us back.”
Financial Post: Diane Francis: Trudeau's lost LNG opportunity
Diane Francis, 4/10/23
“Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s Canada is a place where opportunities go to die. In August, Germany was told that there’s “never been a strong business case” for liquefied natural gas exports from Canada,” Diane Francis writes for the Financial Post. “In January, Japan was told the same. And in March, Spanish energy giant Repsol SA withdrew from a planned LNG project in New Brunswick. High costs were blamed for Repsol’s decision, but Canada’s federal government is the real problem, according to New Brunswick Premier Blaine Higgs. “Trudeau’s stewardship is a disaster. Like a dream world,” said Higgs, in an interview with the Financial Post. “Private-sector investment in major projects in Canada is a challenge and we can’t get movement on the reality of natural gas as a transition fuel. We know gas is needed as we move toward a greener climate, but it’s not a headline for a campaign. Natural gas is the transition and will be for years.” “...Canada has enormous reserves of gas but they are effectively stranded because the federal government has imposed barriers to producing, transporting and exporting it, which has greatly increased costs… “Premier Higgs told the Post New Brunswick already has pipelines and enough natural gas in the province to supply LNG plants, but needs federal support to work out development plans with First Nations and effectively tap the resource, as has been done in western Canada. Repsol’s New Brunswick terminal is simply the latest casualty of the Trudeau government’s anti-energy agenda. Germany came looking for LNG exports but was told by Trudeau that there was no “business case,” and to develop hydrogen instead. Then he rebuffed Japan by downplaying Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida’s request for Canadian LNG supplies, instead choosing to preach the benefits of decarbonization when Kishida visited earlier this year. This type of “virtue signalling” is misguided, Premier Higgs told the Post. “The idea that all fossil fuels can be shut down by 2030 is a myth. People must understand that gas is the transition fuel for decades longer.”