EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 4/20/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Politico: SCOTUS SETS THE TABLE FOR FERC
Reuters: Summit Says Carbon Pipeline Project Has Secured 20% of Iowa Route
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents to lawmakers: Do something to protect landowners
KMA: Mills County says no to pipeline eminent domain
Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota farmers get two-week extension to intervene in Summit's CO2 pipeline project
KUMV: With new CO2 pipeline completed, Denbury begins enhanced oil recovery in Cedar Creek Anticline
Compressor Tech: FERC issues favorable report for compressor station
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Biden restores climate safeguards in key environmental law, reversing Trump
E&E News: New Biden NEPA regs won’t stop legal war over Trump overhaul
STATE UPDATES
Politico: Company's old oil wells may become 'national problem'
Cheyenne Post: Feds schedule long-awaited oil and gas lease sale, cut Wyoming options by a third
Shreveport Times: Two contractors injured, half-acre of land burned in Barksdale gas well explosion
EXTRACTION
Associated Press: Study: Redlining tied to more oil, gas wells in urban areas
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Greens give Biden’s Fed pick the silent treatment
Sierra Club: This Shareholder Season, Big Banks Are Feeling the Heat on Climate
OPINION
Norfolk Daily News: Carbon sequestration and proposed pipeline could be huge benefit to area farmers, communities
Amery Free Press: To the Editor: The largest oil Spill in Wisconsin that no one heard of
PIPELINE NEWS
Politico: SCOTUS SETS THE TABLE FOR FERC
Matthew Choi, 4/19/22
“FERC still has a long way to go to reach consensus on how to consider the climate impacts of a pipeline. But a decision by the Supreme Court not to take a case could give the commission fresh fodder to strengthen how it assesses whether a new pipeline is needed in the first place,” Politico reports. “The high court dealt a blow to the controversial Spire pipeline in Missouri on Monday, declining its operator’s request to make moves to ensure its continued operation. The company hoped the high court would reverse a lower court order vacating its FERC permit, but the Supreme Court declined without comment Monday. That move strengthens the lower court's ruling, which vacated the permit after finding FERC failed to follow its own guidelines on determining that the project served a real market need beyond Spire's own interests. “The long term implication for this case is FERC — in evaluating that first crucial step, whether there's a need for the pipeline — will have to do a lot more work to justify permitting the pipeline based on a need,” Jim Noe, a government attorney at law firm Holland & Knight, who frequently represents the oil and gas industry, told Politico.
Reuters: Summit Says Carbon Pipeline Project Has Secured 20% of Iowa Route
4/19/2022
“Summit Carbon Solutions, the developer of what would be the world's largest carbon capture project, told Reuters it has secured 20% of its pipeline route in Iowa, the state that would host the longest stretch of pipe. The company said the Midwest Carbon Express project is set to begin construction next year, despite ongoing resistance from some landowners and environmental groups concerned about the project's potential impact. "Our project is on track and on schedule," company spokesperson Jesse Harris told Reuters… “But landowners and environmental groups are mounting opposition over concerns the line could reduce farm yields during construction or pose a public safety threat if there is a leak… “Summit told Reuters it now has easements covering about 20% of its route in the state, or 136 miles, about 7% of the total pipeline mileage. The company did not provide information about how much of its route is secured in the four other states the pipeline will cross.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline opponents to lawmakers: Do something to protect landowners
JARED STRONG, 4/19/22
“State lawmakers must act soon to protect landowners from the threat of eminent domain to build nearly 2,000 miles of liquid carbon pipelines across the state, pipeline opponents said Tuesday,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “...Proposals that would curb private companies’ use of eminent domain to build the pipelines have surfaced intermittently throughout the legislative session and culminated with a House budget bill amendment that would delay final action by the Iowa Utilities Board on the pipeline proposals until February 2023… “The company has said it has reached agreements or is close to reaching agreements with landowners for about a quarter of the pipeline’s 680-mile stretch in the northwestern half of the state. Summit must submit a list of eminent domain requests before the IUB can set the permit hearing. “If these dangerous pipelines are allowed to use eminent domain, no landowner will be safe from its use by other private companies in the future,” Cynthia Hansen, a Shelby County landowner along the Summit pipeline path, told the Dispatch. She urged lawmakers to act on the issue this session before the Summit proposal has an opportunity to be approved. She said the proposed moratorium isn’t enough, a common refrain among pipeline opponents… “Two Republican state lawmakers told the Dispatch recently that the political clout and wealth of Summit co-founder Bruce Rastetter, a major Republican donor, are preventing their colleagues from taking action on eminent domain… “The Iowa Legislature has failed to take action on one of the most important issues facing Iowa — the carbon pipelines,” Jess Mazour, of the Sierra Club Iowa Chapter, told the Dispatch “There is nothing good about these carbon pipelines. It is all risk for us and all rewards for them.”
KMA: Mills County says no to pipeline eminent domain
Mike Peterson, 4/19/22
“Mills County officials are the latest to speak out on the eminent domain issue as it pertains to a proposed carbon pipeline project,” KMA reports. “By unanimous vote Tuesday morning, the county's board of supervisors approved a letter to be sent to the Iowa Utilities Boards stating its objections to using the legal maneuver to acquire property for carbon capture projects, such as Summit Carbon Solutions' proposed Midwest Express pipeline… “Mills County Supervisors Chair Richard Crouch tells KMA News the board acted on a request from a local resident, Tom Honeyman, who urged the supervisors to voice their feelings on the matter. Crouch says the supervisors believe landowners have the right to protect their property. "Once they start using this eminent domain for something like that," Crouch told KMA, "what other issues are they going to allow it to be used for? I can see it for building roads, or maybe the county has to use it to gain some land to put in a bridge, or something. But for what they're using it for, I don't feel that it's right that they can come in and say, yep, they're using eminent domain, and that they can kind of do whatever they want." Mills County joins Montgomery County and others in voicing opposition to the IUB. Though the proposed pipeline won't penetrate Mills County, Crouch told KMA it was important to support other affected counties. "We felt that it was important that Mills County helps support these other counties having a problem with where they're going to lay the pipeline.”
Sioux Falls Argus Leader: South Dakota farmers get two-week extension to intervene in Summit's CO2 pipeline project
Nicole Ki, 4/19/22
“Roughly 30 farmers and ag businesses seeking to fight a proposed CO2 sequestration pipeline have two more weeks, as of last Thursday, to register with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission,” the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. “That's because those applications "simply didn't have enough information to determine whether they were legally qualified or not," PUC chairperson Chris Nelson told the Argus Leader… “Out of the more than 370 parties that filed with PUC to intervene with South Dakota's portion of the pipeline, about 340 were granted intervener status. "Instead of flat out denying those, we basically said, 'Hey we've got two more weeks for folks to give us more information to help us understand whether or not you're legally qualified to be in this process," Nelson told the Leader… “Several counties have also sought party status including Brown, Spink, McPherson, Edmunds, Hyde, Hand, Lake, Kingsbury and Clark… “The PUC commissioner suspects a formal public hearing with Summit and all intervenors, once they're brought to the table, will happen sometime around November and December… “At last week's Lincoln County Commission meeting, concerned farmers and landowners were distrustful of Summit switching over to an alternative route the same day as the deadline to register for party status with PUC. They were also worried about a new population of landowners unaware they might be impacted by the changed route.
KUMV: With new CO2 pipeline completed, Denbury begins enhanced oil recovery in Cedar Creek Anticline
Michael Anthony, 4/19/22
“There’s still plenty of oil in the Williston Basin, and producers are using carbon dioxide to capture it,” KUMV reports. “The process of enhanced oil recovery is becoming a necessity in the region and one company just started using the new method in southeast Montana. Texas-based Denbury completed a 105-mile pipeline that will deliver Carbon Dioxide from Wyoming to fields in the Cedar Creek Anticline, located in southeast Montana and southwest North Dakota. Officials say as region becomes mature, enhanced oil recovery will extend production for decades. “In its life, (the Cedar Creek Anticline) has produced around 700 million barrels of oil. With CO2, we think we should, over time, be able to produce another 400 million barrels or so,” Chris Kendall, President and CEO of Denbury, told KUMV… “Senator Steve Daines (R-MT) visited Baker on Tuesday for the ceremonial opening of the CCA pipeline, praising the operation for creating jobs, producing carbon-negative fuel, and promoting energy security… “We put so much of that CO2 permanently underground that we more than offset the carbon emissions that barrel of oil will ever generate,” Kendall told KUMV.
Compressor Tech: FERC issues favorable report for compressor station
Keefe Borden, 4/19/22
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission recently issued a favorable environmental assessment for a proposed compressor station in northern Oregon to be operated by TC Energy,” Compressor Tech reports. “The decision to allow the construction of the Coyote Springs Compressor Station was an important step forward in the expansion of the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN), a 1,377-mile pipeline system that transports natural gas from Canada to Washington, Oregon and California. The pipeline currently has a capacity to deliver as much as 2.7 Bcf/d, but TC Energy is planning to expand the capacity. Gas Transmission Northwest, a division of TC Energy, plans to build and operate a 1586 hp compressor station, named the Coyote Springs Compressor Station, in Morrow County, Oregon as part of that expansion. The favorable environmental assessment was not certain. Earlier this year, the environmental group Columbia Riverkeeper challenged the new station and told the FERC the facility was not a routine activity, a designation which would have made the permit for the expansion more expansive. Columbia Riverkeeper called the FERC’s initial review of the proposed compressor station was not sufficient and did not adequately address the impact on the climate that an larger capacity would have.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Biden restores climate safeguards in key environmental law, reversing Trump
Dino Grandoni and Anna Phillips, 4/19/22
“The White House on Tuesday announced it has restored key protections to a landmark environmental law governing the construction of pipelines, highways and other projects that President Donald Trump had swept away as part of an effort to cut red tape,” the Washington Post reports. “The new rule will require federal agencies to scrutinize the climate impacts of major infrastructure projects under the National Environmental Policy Act, a 1970 law that required the government to assess the environmental consequences of federal actions, such as approving the construction of oil and gas pipelines.mIn 2020, Trump introduced major changes to the law’s implementation, saying the government would exempt many projects from review and speed up the approval process. His administration also said federal agencies would not consider “indirect” climate impacts. Trump and allies in the business community said the move would reinvigorate infrastructure projects across the nation. Under the rule finalized by the Biden White House this week, regulators will now have to account for how government actions may increase greenhouse gas emissions and whether they will impose new burdens on communities, particularly poor and minority neighborhoods, that have already faced disproportionate amounts of pollution. The move underscores how President Biden is looking for ways to push forward on his climate agenda despite rising concerns about cost increases in the economy… “Business groups and Republicans are likely to argue that Tuesday’s move is going to raise costs and slow construction, but White House officials insisted that won’t be the case. “Patching these holes in the environmental review process will help projects get built faster, be more resilient, and provide greater benefits — to people who live nearby,” Brenda Mallory, chair of the White House’s Council on Environmental Quality, said in a statement.
E&E News: New Biden NEPA regs won’t stop legal war over Trump overhaul
Niina H. Farah, Lesley Clark, 4/20/22
“Environmental groups vowed to proceed with legal challenges to Trump-era rules for implementing the National Environmental Policy Act — even as the Biden administration unveiled new regulations,” E&E News reports. “...While opponents of the Trump administration’s changes say the Biden administration’s move is a positive step, those groups said they still plan to pursue pending legal challenges in federal court to restore the original decades-old NEPA rules. “The Biden administration has never said that it’s going to completely restore the 1978 regulations,” Kym Hunter, a senior attorney at the Southern Environmental Law Center, which is challenging the Trump rule in the 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, told E&E. “If they did so in a Phase 2 rule, that would be great, but until we see that, we’re going to still push this way.” “...In a press release yesterday, CEQ said it plans to propose Phase 2 of the NEPA rulemaking in the coming months to “provide further improvements to the efficiency and effectiveness of environmental review processes and reflect the Administration’s commitment to achieving environmental justice and confronting climate change.” Since Phase 2 hasn’t even been proposed yet, a final rule is still likely a year and a half away, Hunter of the Southern Environmental Law Center told E&E.”
STATE UPDATES
Politico: Company's old oil wells may become 'national problem'
MIKE LEE, 4/19/22
“Between 2014 and 2020, an Alabama-based company bought more than 20,000 aging oil and gas wells in Pennsylvania,” Politico reports. “Before the wells were sold, their owners estimated they were releasing 3 million cubic feet of natural gas a day to the air. Once the new owner — Diversified Energy Co. — took over, the estimate dropped to 140,000 cubic feet a day. In the last five years, Diversified has grown into the largest owner of oil and gas wells in Appalachia, with about 69,000 wells concentrated in four states, according to a report released last week by the nonprofit Ohio River Valley Institute. The figures on gas emissions in Pennsylvania, which the company disputes, highlight the institute’s concern about Diversified. The report’s authors argue that the company simply changed its paperwork to show lower emissions, and they worry the company has embarked on a strategy of buying old wells, without a plan to reduce their pollution or to plug them at the end of their life.”
Cheyenne Post: Feds schedule long-awaited oil and gas lease sale, cut Wyoming options by a third
Nicole Pollack, 4/18/22
“The federal government will include one-third fewer Wyoming tracts than anticipated in the first oil and gas lease sale of the Biden presidency — about 28% of the 459 parcels analyzed across the state last fall,” the Cheyenne Post reports. “A total of 129 offerings “containing about 131,771 acres of public minerals” will be available for leasing in Wyoming on June 21 and 22, the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) said Monday. Roughly another 44 parcels will be up for sale in seven other Western states… “Comparatively, in 2019, before COVID-19 caused interest in leasing to temporarily plummet, the Trump BLM included 160 Wyoming parcels in its second-quarter sale notice… “To some conservation groups, the decreased number of potential leases and higher royalty rate of 18.75% — the first time in more than a century that the BLM has set the royalty for new leases above the federal minimum of 12.5% — was a victory… “But to the conservation groups that want federal oil and gas leasing to end, the news felt like a betrayal… “The Sierra Club criticized the move, calling it a handout to oil companies. Jeremy Nichols, climate and energy program director for WildEarth Guardians, told the Post it was “pure climate denial.”
Shreveport Times: Two contractors injured, half-acre of land burned in Barksdale gas well explosion
Makenzie Boucher, 4/19/22
“Two contracted personnel from Energy Transfer LP sustained injuries as a result of the explosion and were transported to a local medical facility for care,” the Shreveport Times reports. “The status of the two hospitalized members is unknown at this time… “A small fire followed impacting approximately half an acre of land, with no further damage to installation property… “Around 11:40 a.m. Tuesday, Barksdale Air Force Base Emergency Response Personnel received a call to East Reservation. Upon arrival, personnel discovered a gas well explosion.”
EXTRACTION
Associated Press: Study: Redlining tied to more oil, gas wells in urban areas
TAMMY WEBBER, 4/19/22
“Minority neighborhoods where residents were long denied home loans have twice as many oil and gas wells as mostly white neighborhoods, according to a new study that suggests ongoing health risks in vulnerable communities are at least partly tied to historical structural racism,” the Associated Press reports. “...But researchers at the University of California, Berkeley and Columbia University wanted to determine if there was a connection to redlining — when Black and immigrant neighborhoods in the 1930s were shaded red on maps developed by the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation. Residents in those areas often found it difficult to find homes anywhere else… “Researchers compared the maps of 33 U.S. cities to records of oil and gas wells dating to the late 1800s. The maps graded neighborhoods A to D. Overall, redlined, or D-graded, neighborhoods not only had more wells before the maps were created, but many more wells were developed in those areas afterward, the researchers found… “In Los Angeles, Black and Latino residents often were forced to live in neighborhoods with oil wells because of racially restrictive covenants, Martha Dina Argüello, executive director of the Los Angeles chapter of Physicians for Social Responsibility, told AP. Even more drilling got pushed into Black and Latino neighborhoods when housing developers wanted land in more affluent areas, she told AP. The study “is one more piece of evidence that really bears out what the community has been saying: that having oil wells in our communities is treating us like a sacrifice zone,” she told AP.
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Greens give Biden’s Fed pick the silent treatment
Avery Ellfeldt, 4/20/22
“President Joe Biden’s latest nominee to the Federal Reserve isn’t generating much excitement among climate activists — and maybe that’s the point,” E&E News reports. “Biden on Friday tapped Michael Barr, an Obama-era assistant Treasury secretary, to serve as the Federal Reserve’s vice chair for supervision. Barr helped craft Wall Street reforms in the wake of the 2007-2009 financial crisis, but he’s clashed at times with progressives. And observers say his record provides little insight into how he would address the financial risk of climate change… “In private, environmentalists tell E&E that Barr has not been vocal about his positions on climate-related risk. That makes it difficult to predict how he would approach the issue. But they concede that it’s important for Biden to fill the role — and soon. If Republicans gain control of the Senate in November, it will be much more difficult for Biden to put one of his picks on the Federal Reserve… “But Barr also has been criticized by progressives who argue that, as the main liaison between Congress and the Obama administration during Dodd-Frank deliberations, he opposed more aggressive measures to crack down on big banks’ risky behavior. So much so that when Barr emerged earlier this year as a leading contender to be Biden’s next comptroller of the currency — another top banking regulator — advocacy groups quickly came out against him, citing both his work on Dodd-Frank and ties to financial technology companies.”
Sierra Club: This Shareholder Season, Big Banks Are Feeling the Heat on Climate
Adele Shraiman, 4/19/22
“Over the past several years, the Sierra Club and our partners have engaged with financial institutions around the world to reduce their financing of fossil fuels and encourage them to use their power to help accelerate the clean energy transition… “Yet despite this important victory, US banks are still pouring billions into fossil fuels every year, and their emissions reductions plans are falling dangerously behind their global peers. Investors, customers, and other stakeholders are fed up with Wall Street’s hypocrisy. Now, they’re banding together to target big banks’ financing of fossil fuel expansion… “That’s why the Sierra Club Foundation, along with other investor members of the Interfaith Center on Corporate Responsibility (ICCR), is taking a new approach to push banks to truly align their financing with climate reality by harnessing the power of shareholder advocacy… “With this year’s shareholder season in full swing, we are watching the votes closely, and taking note of which investors make good on their climate commitments and support these important resolutions. Regardless of the final vote tally, pressure on financial institutions at home and abroad will continue to grow louder, and our coalition of grassroots activists, investors, and stakeholders around the world will continue to lead the way. Help us transform the financial system: send a message to major investors to stop big banks from funding climate chaos.”
OPINION
Norfolk Daily News: Carbon sequestration and proposed pipeline could be huge benefit to area farmers, communities
Editorial Board, 4/19/22
“Carbon dioxide sequestration. Do you know what that is? How about carbon intensity? Northeast and North Central Nebraskans would be wise to take the time to read up and learn about these terms and others as they potentially could provide a huge economic boost to area farmers and ethanol production facilities,” the Norfolk Daily News Editorial Board writes. “...With ethanol already serving as a cleaner fuel option, new state and federal incentives to move the U.S. toward “net-zero” greenhouse gas emissions have created what many in the ethanol industry see as the next big opportunity. By reducing their “carbon intensity,” Nebraska’s ethanol plants will maintain access to huge consumer markets such as California, where a low-carbon fuel standards program awards credits to producers for offsetting greenhouse gas emissions. There are tax credits to make use of too by companies involved in the capturing and sequestering of carbon dioxide… “The Nebraska Public Power District has estimated that if just 120,500 tons of carbon dioxide were captured annually, it would have a $30 million positive impact on a 50-million-gallon-a-year ethanol plant. Statewide, that could mean increasing ethanol’s economic impact by $1.5 billion a year.”
Amery Free Press: To the Editor: The largest oil Spill in Wisconsin that no one heard of
Kelly Lundeen, Luck, WI, 4/19/22
“Did you know that northwestern Wisconsin, only 70 miles from Amery, holds a spot on the notorious list of worst inland oil spills in US history?,” Kelly Lundeen writes in the Amery Free Press. “A pipeline belonging to the Canadian oil company Enbridge spewed 126,000 gallons of crude oil 15 years ago in 2007, south of Exeland, in Rusk County. This year Enbridge is asking for permission to expand another pipeline Line 5, running across northern Wisconsin. To demonstrate the foolishness of considering the pipeline expansion by this irresponsible foreign company, Nukewatch and their supporters will visit the spill site in memory of the land, woods, and water that were contaminated. Nukewatch, a climate justice and peace group based in Luck, WI, is responding to a call to action by the Indigenous-led organization Honor the Earth and the statewide campaign March Forth to Earth Day to oppose the expansion of Line 5. The fastest, cheapest, and cleanest way for the US to achieve energy independence is by converting to renewable energy sources. On Friday, April 22nd, Earth Day, 20 communities around Wisconsin will be holding simultaneous climate justice assemblies to stop Line 5. Our action is one of many Pipeline Easement Monitoring Actions being held internationally.”