EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 4/19/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Natural gas pipeline future in doubt after SCOTUS rejection
FOX Business: GOP states urge Biden to reauthorize Keystone XL pipeline: 'We told you so'
Bloomberg: Unregulated Texas gas pipeline triggers a huge methane leak
Dakota News Now: Route changes for CO2 pipeline affecting new landowners, PUC extends deadline
Politico: ON THE FERC DOCKET
Press release: ASU professor appointed to USDOT pipeline advisory committee
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Drilling plan complicates climate, reconciliation politics
E&E News: Inside Biden’s sparsely staffed, high-pressure environmental shop
STATE UPDATES
Politico: New Mexico’s Democrats offer an energy lesson for the party
KVPR: In Kern County, an oil town grapples with a green future
KFYR: Two recent produced water and oil spills in western North Dakota
EXTRACTION
Nature: Methane emissions from US low production oil and natural gas well sites
Reuters: Canada climate goals set high hurdle for Suncor oil sands mine extension
Vox: Clean energy is buried at the bottom of abandoned oil wells
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Insurers invested $536B in fossil fuel interests — analysis
OPINION
The Hill: LNG exports will add to climate change
UT Daily Beacon: Pipeline bill shows big government reach from ‘small government’ party
Toronto Star: Big Oil is singing a new tune about climate change — unlike Jason Kenney
PIPELINE NEWS
Associated Press: Natural gas pipeline future in doubt after SCOTUS rejection
4/18/22
“The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday declined to hear a St. Louis-based natural gas company’s appeal of a lower court’s decision that could close a pipeline that runs through parts of Illinois and Missouri,” the Associated Press reports. “The court rejected Spire Inc.’s appeal without comment. Spire President Scott Smith pledged to continue fighting to keep the 65-mile (105-kilometer) pipeline up and running… “The Environmental Defense Fund sued in 2020, raising concerns that the pipeline was approved without adequate review. In June, a three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia ruled that FERC had not adequately demonstrated a need for the project, vacating approval of the pipeline… “As the case played out in court, FERC last year issued a temporary certificate allowing the pipeline to remain operational. The temporary order continues to stand while the agency considers Spire’s appeal to FERC seeking new approval of the pipeline.
FOX Business: GOP states urge Biden to reauthorize Keystone XL pipeline: 'We told you so'
Bradford Betzj, 4/18/22
“Multiple GOP state Attorneys General are calling on President Biden to reauthorize the Keystone XL pipeline, saying that his decision to revoke the Trump-era permit has contributed to record-high gas prices and made U.S. allies more dependent on Russia during its invasion of Ukraine,” FOX Business reports. “In a letter, led by Montana State Attorney General Austin Knudsen, the signatories called Biden’s revoking of the Keystone XL permit on his first day in office "misguided" and "unlawful." "We warned you then if your decision was not reversed, Americans would ‘suffer serious detrimental consequences,’ consumers would pay higher prices, and our allies would become further dependent on Russian and Middle Eastern oil," the wrote, adding: "We hate to say we told you so." “...They noted that few viable options remain to import oil from Canada, as existing pipelines have little capacity. The oil, they said, "is the same oil that would have flowed through the Keystone XL pipeline, which would have transported nearly a million barrels per day—not only from Canada but from the Bakken oilfields in Montana and North Dakota—to American refineries…Your vitriolic language and vilification of the American fossil fuel industries while holding out your hand to the despotic foreign leaders whose interests directly conflict with American values has undoubtedly depressed American development both on- and off-shore," they said.
Bloomberg: Unregulated Texas gas pipeline triggers a huge methane leak
Aaron Clark and Naureen Malik, 4/18/22
“A natural gas pipeline in Texas leaked so much of the super-potent greenhouse gas methane in little more than an hour that by one estimate its climate impact was equivalent to the annual emissions from about 16,000 U.S. cars.,” Bloomberg reports. “The leak came from a 16-inch pipe that’s a tiny part of a vast web of unregulated lines across the U.S., linking production fields and other sites to bigger transmission lines. Although new federal reporting requirements start next month for so-called gathering lines, the incident highlights the massive climate damage even minor parts of the network can inflict… “The timing of the release and its location appeared to match a plume of methane observed by a European Space Agency satellite that geoanalytics firm Kayrros SAS called the most severe in the U.S. in a year… “ETC Texas Pipeline reported a “line break” that lasted from 8:08 a.m. to 9:17 a.m. local time March 17 on its Big Cowboy pipeline that is jointly owned with Kinder Morgan Inc., according to a filing to the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality. The incident caused a release of 52,150 thousand standard cubic feet of natural gas. The event likely released about 900 metric tons of methane into the atmosphere, according to the Environmental Defense Fund, a non-profit group that has used aerial surveys to map releases of the fossil gas over oil and gas operations in the U.S. Permian basin.”
Dakota News Now: Route changes for CO2 pipeline affecting new landowners, PUC extends deadline
Beth Warden, 4/18/22
“The future of Carbon Dioxide Pipelines in South Dakota remains in the hands of the Public Utilities Commission as they review application information and hear from landowners,” Dakota News Now reports. “376 landowners, counties, and towns have applied for party status with the P-U-C, allowing them to have more of a say in the application review process. To put that into perspective, that is nearly double the number of party status applicants for the Keystone Pipeline at the same point in the process. According to a community organizer with Dakota Rural Action, Summit changed the route within hours of the deadline to apply for party status. Chase Jensen told DNN this gave the new landowners affected a short time to become aware of the changes and apply for party status… “Landowners don’t have a team of lawyers and 250 million dollars from investors, billions of dollars for the project to legally analyze all the loopholes to know and to play hardball the way that the company is,” Chase Jensen, Community Organizer for Dakota Rural Action, told DNN… “Due to the changes, the P-U-C is open to extending the deadline for newly affected landowners to apply for party status until April 28th… “Spink county landowner Ed Fischbach organized a landowners group when he first heard about the CO2 pipeline plans last year. He comments on the route change, telling DNN: “We had surveyors here again Saturday, so I assume I’m still on the route. Have had no contact with Summit, but if the route was moved, I doubt they would be here surveying the right-of-way. No one believes Summit about moving the route, we believe it was an attempt to cause confusion and divide the overwhelming opposition since Summit tried to kick out several landowners who had filed for party status. Their tactic failed as the PUC reinstated all of the original landowners to party status.”
Politico: ON THE FERC DOCKET
Matthew Choi, 4/18/22
“FERC may make take steps to update U.S. transmission planning — a rulemaking process that has the potential to unleash more wind and solar resources — during its open meeting this week, according to the agency’s agenda,” Politico reports. “...The agency is also considering permitting several gas pipelines. During last month’s open meeting, FERC approved three pipeline projects after deciding to pause its efforts to expand the criteria it considers for those certificates.”
Press release: ASU professor appointed to USDOT pipeline advisory committee
4/18/22
“...Samuel Ariaratnam, professor and the Beavers-Ames Chair in Heavy Construction in the Ira A. Fulton Schools of Engineering at Arizona State University, has been appointed by United States Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg to the Technical Pipeline Safety Standards Committee, also known as the Gas Pipeline Advisory Committee, or GPAC. As a public member of the committee, Ariaratnam will play a role in ensuring pipelines that move important resources stay up and running across America. GPAC is mandated by federal law and was established under the Federal Advisory Committee Act of 1972 to review the regulatory initiatives undertaken by the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. GPAC members also determine the technical feasibility, reasonableness, cost effectiveness and practicality of those initiatives… “The committee, composed of 15 individuals representing public, industry and government entities, makes recommendations to stakeholders, giving guidance on the laws and regulations that protect and advance the nation’s pipeline infrastructure.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Drilling plan complicates climate, reconciliation politics
Nick Sobczyk, Scott Streater, 4/19/22
“The Interior Department’s move to resume onshore oil and gas leasing and hike royalty rates is scrambling the political talk around energy production after months of efforts by congressional Democrats to overhaul federal drilling,” E&E News reports. “...The announcement comes at a crucial political juncture for an administration trying desperately to lower prices at the pump before the midterms after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. It drew a mixed bag of praise and ridicule from progressives and Democrats and an overwhelmingly negative response from Republicans intent on blaming President Joe Biden’s policies for high energy prices. The move could also introduce another wrinkle as Democrats attempt to revive their $1.7 trillion climate and social spending bill in the coming weeks. Royalty rates and leasing reforms were a point of debate between House Democrats and Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) — the swing-vote moderate who killed off the “Build Back Better Act” last year… “The oil and gas industry says that the announcement will not have any positive impact on increasing oil and gas production on federal lands. Industry executives said in conversations with E&E News today that they are pleased the administration is once again moving forward with oil and gas lease sales on federal lands. But they note that’s not anything the Mineral Leasing Act, which mandates quarterly lease sales, didn’t already require. If anything, the only thing new that was announced on Friday was the royalty rate hike of 18.75 percent, Frank Macchiarola, senior vice president of policy, economics and regulatory affairs for the American Petroleum Institute, told E&E.
E&E News: Inside Biden’s sparsely staffed, high-pressure environmental shop
Robin Bravender, Kelsey Brugger, 4/18/22
“President Joe Biden has promised ambitious policies that promote renewable energy, advance environmental justice and slash greenhouse gas emissions. At the nexus of it all: a tiny environmental policy shop that Biden promised to elevate but remains woefully understaffed,” according to E&E News. “The Council on Environmental Quality is a Nixon-era office whose primary mandate is to oversee the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1969 law that requires federal agencies to blunt the environmental impacts of projects like building new highways, renewable energy projects on public lands and the construction of federal buildings… “The Biden administration has pledged to channel 40 percent of federal climate-related investments to disadvantaged communities and to track its progress with a new scorecard. But CEQ has already fallen behind on multiple key goals, including the scorecard, which was supposed to be released two months ago, and the climate and economic screening tool, which was released in February in draft form after a six-month delay… “Climate and environmental justice advocates want to see the agency’s staff beefed up dramatically so CEQ can keep pace with what the White House calls “the most ambitious environmental justice agenda ever undertaken by an administration.” “...Some environmental justice advocates think CEQ needs a dramatic staff influx to be able to keep up with the administration’s promises. “I made a recommendation at the beginning that they needed to double or triple the size of CEQ with a strong focus of having enough folks to authentically do the work around environmental justice,” Mustafa Santiago Ali, a former EPA environmental justice official who’s now at the National Wildlife Federation, told E&E. “They’ve got to give the individuals the resources that they need as well and the power to be able to get this stuff done.”
STATE UPDATES
Politico: New Mexico’s Democrats offer an energy lesson for the party
BEN LEFEBVRE, JOSH SIEGEL, 4/18/22
“Democrats who hold power in one of largest oil-producing states in the U.S. have some advice for the Biden administration on how to craft a winning energy policy: Don’t pit renewables and fossil fuels against each other,” Politico reports. “It’s a strategy Democrats in New Mexico have developed almost as a political necessity as they try to keep the state solidly blue even as it has quietly become the second-largest oil producer in the country behind GOP stronghold Texas. That doesn’t mean New Mexico Democrats have shunned clean energy. The state has used its ample sunlight and windy landscape to triple its renewable energy since 2019, and it’s aiming to keep that momentum — but not at the expense of its prolific oil and gas fields… “New Mexico produced more than 10 percent of the total U.S. oil output in January, and more than a third of the state's budget in recent years has come from oil and gas royalties on state lands. The oil and gas industry is also a principal employer in the state, particularly in the south. That's forced Democrats there to take a different approach than many of their colleagues in other states… “But that doesn't mean Democrats are betting their future on fossil fuels, since the state’s revenues can swing wildly with oil markets, New Mexico Land Commissioner Stephanie Garcia Richard told Politico, and there needs to be more sustainable long-term plans to keep the state’s budget healthy.”
KVPR: In Kern County, an oil town grapples with a green future
Kerry Klein, 4/18/22
“...A little over a century ago, this city was built directly on top of Midway-Sunset, the state’s most productive oilfield, after an exploratory well released 9 million barrels of oil into the sky and surrounding hills. The so-called Lakeview Gusher still remains one of the largest oil spills in the country’s history, but at the time, it revealed a vast untapped resource lying under the middle of the state,” KVPR reports. “It also reportedly inspired the Hollywood movie There Will Be Blood. Today, the city’s economy is still built on oil… “But that way of life is in question. In an effort to reduce climate-forcing emissions, Governor Gavin Newsom has committed to halting all in-state petroleum production by 2045, and has already promised to ban new hydraulic fracturing (“fracking”) permits by 2024. For so long, Taft has embraced its history as an oil town. Now, locals worry about what a green future could mean… “The producers and the companies that are a part of it are much more than employers, they're community partners,” Mayor Dave Noerr, standing downtown at a massive bronze statue of an oil derrick and roustabouts carrying wrenches and ropes, told KVPR. A slender man in jeans and a paisley button-down, Noerr points out that oil companies support community events and workers mentor high school students in a local college prep program.”
KFYR: Two recent produced water and oil spills in western North Dakota
4/18/22
“The North Dakota Oil and Gas Division has reported two spills in the past week that were weather-related,” KFYR reports. “The first one was last Wednesday, April 13 at a Tank Battery location about three miles east of Keene, which started with a fire, followed by the spill of 24 hundred barrels of produced water and 50 barrels of crude oil. And on Saturday, 11 miles southwest of Mandaree, 400 barrels of oil leaked because of a valve failure. Both spills were contained on site and cleanup is underway.”
EXTRACTION
Nature: Methane emissions from US low production oil and natural gas well sites
Mark Omara, Daniel Zavala-Araiza, David R. Lyon, Benjamin Hmiel, Katherine A. Roberts & Steven P. Hamburg, 4/19/22
“Eighty percent of US oil and natural gas (O&G) production sites are low production well sites, with average site-level production ≤15 barrels of oil equivalent per day and producing only 6% of the nation’s O&G output in 2019,” according to a report in Nature. “Here, we integrate national site-level O&G production data and previously reported site-level CH4 measurement data (n = 240) and find that low production well sites are a disproportionately large source of US O&G well site CH4 emissions, emitting more than 4 (95% confidence interval: 3—6) teragrams, 50% more than the total CH4 emissions from the Permian Basin, one of the world’s largest O&G producing regions. We estimate low production well sites represent roughly half (37—75%) of all O&G well site CH4 emissions, and a production-normalized CH4 loss rate of more than 10%—a factor of 6—12 times higher than the mean CH4 loss rate of 1.5% for all O&G well sites in the US. Our work suggests that achieving significant reductions in O&G CH4 emissions will require mitigation of emissions from low production well sites.”
Reuters: Canada climate goals set high hurdle for Suncor oil sands mine extension
By Nia Williams, 4/19/22
“Canada is favouring oil projects with lower carbon emissions per barrel to help meet its climate targets, a strategy that may block Suncor Energy's (SU.TO) plan to expand bitumen mining to feed its key oil sands operations,” Reuters reports. “On April 6, Canadian environment minister Steven Guilbeault warned Suncor in a letter that its proposed 225,000 barrel per day (bpd) extension to its oil sands Base Mine in northern Alberta would not, in current form, pass a federal environmental review due to high carbon emissions. The same day, Guilbeault approved Equinor's (EQNR.OL) huge Bay du Nord offshore drilling project in the north Atlantic Ocean, expected to produce crude with an emissions intensity of eight kilograms of carbon per a barrel. Suncor's existing Base Mine emits 42 kilograms a barrel of carbon. The contrast underlines how Canada, the world's fourth-largest crude producer, is distinguishing between higher and lower-carbon fossil fuel production as it aims to slash emissions over the next three decades… “Suncor's new application for the mine extension will shed light on how the company intends to meet its climate target of net-zero emissions by 2050, Jamie Bonham, director of corporate engagement at NEI Investments, a Suncor shareholder, told Reuters… “Many climate analysts question the government's strategy of encouraging "cleaner" oil production, when most of the emissions from a barrel of oil are released during end-use combustion, rather than production. "It's like being on a diet and getting an ice cream with a low-calorie cone or a regular cone," Dan Woynillowicz, principal at climate advisory firm Polaris Strategy + Insight, told Reuters. "You're still eating the ice cream."
Vox: Clean energy is buried at the bottom of abandoned oil wells
Neel Dhanesha, 4/19/22
“...The UN climate report from early April makes clear we’re on a path that will careen past the climate goals set in the Paris Agreement, and we need to cut carbon emissions — fast,” Vox reports. “... What we need, the UN report says, is new solutions. Which is why a pilot program recently detailed by the US Department of Energy (DOE) is particularly intriguing. If it works, it could help solve multiple problems at once, using an often-overlooked solution: geothermal energy… “However, drilling doesn’t come cheap — it accounts for half the cost of most geothermal energy projects — and requires specialized labor to map the subsurface, drill into the ground, and install the infrastructure needed to bring energy to the surface… “But the US, in the wake of an oil and gas boom, just so happens to have millions of oil and gas wells sitting abandoned across the country. And oil and gas wells, it turns out, happen to share many of the same characteristics as geothermal wells — namely that they are deep holes in the ground, with pipes that can bring fluids up to the surface. So, the DOE asks, why not repurpose them? That’s exactly what the agency’s pilot program, called Wells of Opportunity: ReAmplify, aims to do, awarding a total of $8.4 million to four projects across the country that will each try to tap into some of those old wells to extract geothermal energy rather than gas or oil. If they work, they could be the key to not only reducing the country’s use of planet-damaging fossil fuels, but also helping answer the question of how to transition many of the more than 125,000 people who work in oil and gas extraction across the country into clean-energy jobs.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Insurers invested $536B in fossil fuel interests — analysis
Anne C. Mulkern, 4/19/22
“Insurance companies invested more than $536 billion in fossil fuel interests in 2019, even as they paid damages for climate-accelerated catastrophes, according to a report released yesterday by the California Department of Insurance,” E&E News reports. “The report examined about 1,200 insurance companies, all of which operate in California, often in addition to other parts of the United States… “The report looked at information from 2018 and 2019, the most recent years with data available, and found that insurance companies increased their fossil fuel investments from $477 billion in 2018 to $536 billion in 2019… “With losses mounting, insurers are under pressure to no longer avoid addressing the impact of a changing climate on their underwriting, pricing, investment decisions and bottom lines,” the report said. “Increased disclosure can help regulators assess the effectiveness of insurer actions to mitigate insurance risk due to climate change.” The report details investments in fossil fuel extraction, which it says shows exposure to potential stranded assets if governments implement policies to transition away from fossil fuels. Companies in 2019 had $96.8 billion invested in fossil fuel extraction activities, compared to $78.5 billion a year earlier.”
OPINION
The Hill: LNG exports will add to climate change
Anthony Ingraffea is the Dwight C. Baum professor of engineering emeritus and Weiss presidential teaching fellow at Cornell University; Robert W. Howarth is the David R. Atkinson professor of ecology and environmental biology at Cornell University, 4/18/22
“The Biden administration is issuing orders to expand the amount of liquified natural gas (LNG) that it exports by over 50 percent as Europe seeks to reduce its reliance on Russian gas. However, by doing so we are decreasing our own energy security, while increasing climate-harming methane emissions and diverting capital expenditures away from green energy to yet more new fossil fuel infrastructure. There are better ways to aid our European allies in their time of energy need,” Anthony Ingraffea and Robert W. Howarth write for The Hill. “The U.S. tripled its worldwide LNG exports between 2019 and 2021. At our current internal consumption rate, the U.S. Energy Information Agency estimates that the U.S. currently has about a 15-year remaining supply of its own natural gas. However, in 2021 the U.S. exported the equivalent of about a 2-month supply of our gas as LNG to Europe and Asia. With the rush to increase our LNG exports, 100-fold since 2015, we are diminishing our energy security at an increasing rate. This rapid upscaling of U.S. LNG exports is demanding new pipelines, export facilities and cryogenic tankers. This deflection of capital expenditures away from green energy deployment has two major results: First, it’s a further delay in the green energy transition needed to increase the supply of renewable energy… “Like the industry’s cry for massive blue hydrogen production, which also demands an increase in natural gas production, this rapid increase in U.S. exports of LNG is tossing another lifeline to a dying industry. We cannot fail in our fight against climate change while helping to win a war exacerbated by a Russian natural gas cudgel… “The European energy crisis brought on by the Russian invasion of Ukraine has made clear that the key to energy security for all nations is the realization that nobody owns the infinite and free supplies of solar, wind and hydro energy. They cannot be weaponized. We need to do all we can to export to Europe what will win the energy war in the long run while not imperiling the rest of the world with more greenhouse gas emissions.”
UT Daily Beacon: Pipeline bill shows big government reach from ‘small government’ party
Walker Kinsler is a freshman at UT this year studying political science, 4/18/22
“A bill currently in the Tennessee state house, and passed by the senate, shows a significant overreach of government power despite the GOP’s claims of more freedom,” Walker Kinsler writes for the UT Daily Beacon. “The GOP legislation, SB 2077, would give the state the ability to override local laws and governments that want to block fossil-fuel projects in their communities. So, if a city or county doesn’t want an oil pipeline going through their neighborhood’s backyard, they would be helpless to stop it. In the United States, a higher power has the ability to invalidate the laws of a lower power through the concept of preemption. If the local law conflicts with state law, the state wins out. This bill would make local communities near defenseless in the face of giant fossil-fuel companies. It would strip city and county governments of their autonomy and ability to prevent potentially harmful effects on the environment and their own citizens. Last year, a grass-roots environmental group in Memphis famously prevented the construction of a pipeline through the city’s Southwest neighborhoods to transport crude oil. The neighborhood, Boxtown, is predominantly Black and would have faced the loss of property and bared the risks of environmental pollution… “The potential for harm against the environment and pollution that affects residents is increased when the fossil-fuel industry can place projects with relative free reign. Now without the protection of city councils or county commissions, any community, especially those of color, is at risk of finding their water or soil polluted by oil companies with abysmal safety records… “The state legislature needs to reexamine its use of big government and wield its power to benefit Tennessee, not lead it to ruin.”
Toronto Star: Big Oil is singing a new tune about climate change — unlike Jason Kenney
Gillian Steward, 4/18/22
“It wasn’t so long ago that Big Oil could be counted on to reject almost every proposal for combating climate change by reducing carbon emissions if it limited the industry in any way,” Gillian Steward writes for the Toronto Star. “At first it denied climate change was even happening. And then it told Canadians over and over again how important oil and natural gas are to their way of life and the economy in general… “So it was quite a turn around when Big Oil in Alberta was openly supportive of the Liberal government’s new plan to cut the petroleum industry’s carbon emissions to 42 per cent below 2019 levels by 2030 and reach net zero by 2050. It was certainly enthusiastic about the $2.7 billion worth of tax credits over the next five years for carbon capture utilization and storage (CCUS) facilities revealed in the recent federal budget… “If oilsands producers want to remain competitive they are going to have to do something about all that carbon. That’s where CCUS and the tax credits come in… “Of course, a lot of questions remain. Is this simply green washing on the part of the oilsands operators? Can costly CCUS facilities make enough of a difference? Why doesn’t the industry, now awash in profits, finance decarbonization itself? Will the Alberta government come to the table and add other incentives even though Premier Jason Kenney doesn’t want to be seen working with the federal Liberal government? He is in the midst of a leadership review and his base wouldn’t approve at all. Kenney certainly had that base in mind when he said on his weekly radio show that the Liberals’ plan to cut carbon emissions is “nuts” and he planned to fight it “with everything we’ve got.” “...But this time around it looks like the government is isolating itself into a tight corner in order to appease Kenney’s base, which includes a lot of mid-size and small oil and natural gas producers who won’t benefit as much from the Liberal strategy.”