EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 4/7/22
PIPELINE NEWS
E&E News: Opponents warn of ‘chaos’ as Supreme Court revives Trump permit rule
DailyLocal: Pipeline protesters found not guilty of disorderly conduct after locking themselves to construction equipment
Law360: Michigan Wants Judge To Toss Enbridge Pipeline Suit
Mother Jones: The Latest Attempt To Stop Line 3 Hits a Snag in Tribal Court
Sioux City Journal: CO2 projects may benefit ethanol, but worry landowners
North American Pipelines: Alberta’s Carbon Pipeline: Wolf Midstream’s ACTL Project Shows Viability of Carbon Capture
Taos News: Oregon coalition halts gas pipeline
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Associated Press: House Democrats accuse oil companies of ‘rip off’ on gas prices in hearing
E&E News: What we learned from the Big Oil hearing
E&E News: Business-GOP Alliance Crumbles Over Climate
STATE UPDATES
The Hill: Court halts Pennsylvania governor’s carbon emissions rule
Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins City Council mulls an unusual path for preventing oil and gas development
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada warns Suncor on environmental impact from proposed oil sands project
S&P Global: NextDecade's proposed Rio Grande LNG to supply 1.5 mil mt/year to China's ENN
Reuters: Enbridge looking at carbon capture and storage opportunities in Gulf Coast, Ontario
InsideClimate News: Occidental is Eyeing California’s Clean Fuels Market to Fund Texas Carbon Removal Plant
CLIMATE FINANCE
Stand.earth: Royal Bank of Canada abruptly cancels in-person portion of AGM as Wet’suwet’en Chiefs travel to confront bank’s funding of Coastal GasLink pipeline
Bloomberg: Suncor Shares Go From First to Worst in Canada Oil-Sands Boom
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
AM800: $5,000 GRANT FROM ENBRIDGE FUELING FUTURES AWARDED TO WINDSOR FIRE & RESCUE
OPINION
Bridge MI: Opinion | Now is the exact time to shut down Line 5
OilPrice.com: Is It Time To Revisit The Keystone XL Pipeline?
Williston Herald: Oil and politics
PIPELINE NEWS
E&E News: Opponents warn of ‘chaos’ as Supreme Court revives Trump permit rule
Hannah Northey, Pamela King, 4/6/22
“The Supreme Court’s decision today to reinstate a controversial Trump-era Clean Water Act permitting rule is raising concerns that states’ and tribes’ hands could be tied in how they review — and possibly deny — permits for everything from pipelines and mines to dams,” E&E News reports. “The court, without explanation and over the objection of four justices, put back in place a rule EPA finalized under the Trump administration tied to Section 401 of the Clean Water Act that bars states and tribes from considering issues not directly related to water quality — like climate change — when denying water permits). Today’s order brings back the Trump rule, pending the outcome of litigation in the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals, and notes that the parties can bring back the matter for fuller Supreme Court review if necessary… “A spokesperson for EPA told E&E the agency is reviewing the court’s order and moving forward with a rulemaking to “restore state and Tribal authority to protect water resources that are essential to public health, ecosystems, and economic opportunity.” While environmental groups criticized the court’s decision, oil and gas, and hydropower boosters applauded it, saying that permits have been delayed and denied without the rule in place. Moneen Nasmith, a senior attorney at Earthjustice, which is representing a number of tribes and environmental groups in the case, told E&E News that there was “chaos” when the Trump-era rule was in place and that the decision from the Supreme Court’s conservative supermajority to reinstate the regulation shows “disregard for the integrity of the Clean Water Act and undermines the rights of Tribes and states to review and reject dirty fossil fuel projects that threaten their water.”
DailyLocal: Pipeline protesters found not guilty of disorderly conduct after locking themselves to construction equipment
4/7/22
“Two local residents, Christine “PK” DiGiulio, analytical chemist and community watchdog, and Connor Orion Tripp Young, registered nurse and concerned citizen, were found not guilty by Magisterial District Judge Ann Feldman on disorderly conduct charges for halting construction of Sunoco/Energy Transfer’s Mariner East Pipelines by locking their bodies to construction equipment on on Jan. 6,” the DailyLocal reports. “...Former Public Health Commissioner of Philadelphia, Dr. Walter Tsou, said, “Christina and Connor asked every politician to help protect their families from contaminated water or the threat of a pipeline blast to no avail. By taking a stand against the pipeline, they are the ones who are showing courage against formidable odds.” “...My mom said justice was served here today and I’m having difficulty disagreeing with her,” Connor Young, one of the two defendants, told DailyLocal. “Today was a victory, we had a legitimate purpose in taking these hard steps to protect our community and it was recognized in a court of law that we were justified in our actions. Defendant “PK” DiGiulio said, “I am relieved and thankful that Judge Feldman ruled today we are not guilty. We feel vindicated because the judge recognized that, to no avail, we exhausted every reasonable option to ensure our health and safety were not being jeopardized by the Mariner East 2 Pipeline. Consequently, we had no choice but to resort to peaceful protest on an active construction site to raise awareness of the dangers that have not been addressed by the responsible government agencies. With Judge Feldman’s statement that we are in imminent danger it is our fervent hope that the responsible agencies will fully execute their legal obligation to ensure the health and safety of our communities.” Attorney Ronald Read of Pittsburgh, who successfully argued the Necessity Defense, traveled across the state to defend Connor and PK in court.”
Law360: Michigan Wants Judge To Toss Enbridge Pipeline Suit
Caleb Symons, 4/6/22
“Michigan has asked a federal judge to throw out a lawsuit challenging its decision to shutter an Enbridge pipeline in the Great Lakes, saying the oil and gas distributor’s claims infringe on its sovereign control of the territory,” Law360 reports. “
Mother Jones: The Latest Attempt To Stop Line 3 Hits a Snag in Tribal Court
EAMON WHALEN, 4/5/22
“Earlier this year, I wrote about a unique lawsuit aiming to stop the further construction of Line 3, a tar-sands oil pipeline built in 2021 that stretches for 330 miles across northern Minnesota and that has been fought fiercely for nearly a decade by an Indigenous-led movement,” Mother Jones reports. “The suit had an unlikely plaintiff: Manoomin, a grain known in English as Wild Rice that grows throughout the wetlands of northern Minnesota and holds immeasurable significance for Anishinaabe people. A 2018 White Earth law gave rights to the plant, part of an international Rights of Nature movement that seeks to flip dominant legal frameworks on their head. According to the complaint filed in August, the construction of the pipeline threatened Manoomin’s “inherent rights to exist, flourish, regenerate, and evolve, as well as inherent rights to restoration, recovery, and preservation.” Through a novel legal maneuver that utilized the Rights of Nature, treaty law, and the independent jurisdiction of tribal courts, it seemed possible that Line 3 could be halted, at least for a bit. But the tactic didn’t pan out. On March 10, the White Earth Band of Ojibwe Court of Appeals dismissed the August lawsuit against Minnesota’s Department of Natural Resources filed by tribal leaders on behalf of Manoomin, citing a lack of legal precedent… “This lack of legal precedent presents a persistent problem for the Rights of Nature legal movement—a potentially transformative paradigm shift in environmental conservation that in the United States legal context remains almost entirely symbolic in its real world effects. It was thought that in the case of the Manoomin lawsuit, the addition of treaty rights and tribal court could combine to become one of the first successful Rights of Nature effort in the movement’s still-young history.”
Sioux City Journal: CO2 projects may benefit ethanol, but worry landowners
Aaron Viner, 4/3/22
“As the U.S. looks to reduce its carbon footprint, ethanol has come under scrutiny from various environmental groups,” the Sioux City Journal reports. “Ethanol plants are emitting nearly 150,000 metric tons of carbon dioxide for every 50 million gallons produced each year, according to Attis Biofuels, and some companies are looking to find ways to limit their impact on the environment. Multiple carbon dioxide (CO2) pipelines are proposed to run through Midwest states, with the goal of capturing the carbon from these plants… “More than 50% of the corn bushels grown in Iowa go to ethanol, making it a critical industry for Midwestern farmers, Summit’s Kirchoff told the Journal. The impact of ethanol can be seen in the increase in corn prices, and they want to make the process more sustainable. The major result from the carbon sequestration is making ethanol plants fit more fuel policies in states such as California, Oregon and Washington. “It makes the fuel more valuable in states that have incentives around low-carbon fuel policy,” he told the Journal. “By lowering the carbon footprint of the ethanol plant, they are going to be more profitable and more competitive versus other low-carbon transportation methods such as electric vehicles.”
North American Pipelines: Alberta’s Carbon Pipeline: Wolf Midstream’s ACTL Project Shows Viability of Carbon Capture
Brad Kramer, 4/6/22
“As decarbonization has become a major topic throughout the energy industry, carbon capture projects have become increasingly popular as a solution to reduce emissions. One such project in central Alberta that came online in June 2020 has shown the viability of carbon capture, use and storage (CCUS) initiatives,” North American Pipelines reports. “The Alberta Carbon Trunk Line (ACTL) is a 240-km pipeline that currently gathers 1.6 million tonnes of carbon dioxide (CO2) per year, with an expandable capacity of up to 14.6 million tonnes per year, which is equivalent to approximately 20 percent of all current oil sands emissions. Calgary-based pipeline operator Wolf Midstream built, owns and operates the ACTL system, which currently captures carbon emissions from two facilities near Edmonton, the North West Redwater (NWR) Sturgeon Refinery and the Nutrien Redwater Fertilizer plant… “From our perspective, it has really demonstrated that decarbonization through CCUS is real,” Pearson told NAP. “The unique aspect of our pipeline is that there are systems in the United States doing the same thing, but they drill for naturally occurring CO2 and use it to produce oil, whereas our system is designed to handle manmade CO2, and it’s the largest system in the world doing that. We’re showing that it works.” “...With the success of the ACTL system and the “broader energy transition mandate in the U.S.,” Wolf Midstream began pursuing CCUS projects in the United States, Nick Noppinger, head of Wolf Carbon Solutions US, a company that began as a subsidiary of Wolf Midstream but was spun out as a separate company in late 2021, told NAP. The new company’s first move was announcing the Midwest Carbon Capture Project, a joint project with global agricultural company ADM to capture CO2 from ethanol production facilities in Iowa and transport it to a sequestration site in Illinois… “Noppinger argues that the United States needs to expand the 45Q program to help spur future development of CCUS projects.”
Taos News: Oregon coalition halts gas pipeline
Matt Witt, 4/7/22
“Communities in the rural west can stand up to giant outside gas companies, if they work together despite their differences. That’s how the Jordan Cove gas pipeline project was finally killed in Oregon by a coalition of conservative ranchers and farmers, climate activists, Indigenous tribal leaders, anglers and coastal residents,” the Taos News reports. “The victory occurred last December, when a Canadian energy company called Pembina announced it would halt plans to build a 230-mile pipeline through rural southwestern Oregon, crossing more than 400 streams and rivers along the way. The pipeline was to carry fracked gas from the Rockies to a huge terminal proposed for the coastal town of Coos Bay, where it would be loaded onto ships bound for Asia. When the Jordan Cove export project was first announced some 15 years ago, the odds of stopping it appeared slim. Supporters included the state’s governor and its two U.S. senators — all Democrats — plus most of the Republican political establishment. But community organizers in Coos Bay and beyond didn’t give up. “The last thing we needed was another giant fossil-fuel project and another major fire hazard just to profit an outside corporation,” recalls Allie Rosenbluth, campaigns director of Rogue Climate, a grassroots group in southern Oregon. Rogue Climate contacted hundreds of landowners whose property would be affected, while also working with local environmental groups like Rogue Riverkeeper. They found that many ranchers were angry about threats from the company. If landowners didn’t let the pipeline cross their land in return for a one-time payment, they were told, the power of eminent domain would be invoked to impose it on them anyway… “Over a seven-year period, an unlikely coalition grew in strength, turning out thousands of residents to public hearings and spurring more than 50,000 people to submit written comments to regulatory agencies.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Associated Press: House Democrats accuse oil companies of ‘rip off’ on gas prices in hearing
4/6/22
“House Democrats on Wednesday accused oil companies of “ripping off the American people” and putting profits before production as Americans suffer from ever-increasing gasoline prices during the war in Ukraine,” the Associated Press reports. “At a time of record profits, Big Oil is refusing to increase production to provide the American people some much needed relief at the gas pump,” said Rep. Frank Pallone, D-N.J., chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Oil executives, testifying before Congress for the second time in six months, responded that oil is a global market and that oil companies don’t dictate prices. “We do not control the market price of crude oil or natural gas, nor of refined products like gasoline and diesel fuel, and we have no tolerance for price gouging,” said Chevron CEO Michael Wirth… “Biden and other Democrats have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin and the U.S. oil industry for the increase, citing reports that oil companies have made record profits in recent months as prices have risen following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine… “Under questioning from Pallone, Woods and other CEOs said oil companies have no plans to halt payments of dividends to stockholders or to restrict stock buybacks that have enriched shareholders and company executives. The six companies at the hearing recorded $77 billion in profits last year, they told Pallone. Rep. Kim Schrier, D-Wash., said gas prices are close to $5 per gallon in her Seattle-area district. Her constituents “are mad, and they should be,” she said, citing the record profits oil companies are reaping. “This feels like gouging. It even feels like profiteering,” Schrier said. Prices at the pump have not gone down in recent weeks along with crude oil prices, she and other Democrats noted. At a time of war and high prices, “oil companies should not be sending profits back to shareholders,” she said, urging oil executives to restore production to pre-pandemic levels.
E&E News: What we learned from the Big Oil hearing
Nick Sobczyk, 4/7/22
“The House Energy and Commerce Committee yesterday held the most anticipated of several planned hearings on the energy policy fight precipitated by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine,” E&E News reports. “Democrats, looking to deflect blame for high gasoline prices as the midterms approach, launched an all-out campaign against the oil industry for alleged price gouging. Republicans defended the industry, delighting in Democratic calls to boost oil and gas production after they campaigned in 2020 on climate policy. The six-hour hearing in the Oversight and Investigations Subcommittee offered a distillation of virtually every energy talking point lawmakers have lobbed at each other over the past month and a half… “The companies denied gouging consumers, but Democrats pointed to high 2021 profits — more than $75 billion among the six — and stock buybacks as evidence of wrongdoing… “It’s not clear whether the proceedings will have much of a policy impact, with both sides dug in and Congress wielding little ability to influence global crude oil prices. But it did offer some political insights, particularly for Democrats, who are still trying to pass some version of their massive climate and social spending bill through the 50-50 Senate. While climate change was not the topic of the hearing, it was notably absent from the questioning on the Democratic side of the dais, and it could portend a larger rhetorical shift as they enter the midterm season with high gas prices and inflation a major focus for voters.”
E&E News: Business-GOP Alliance Crumbles Over Climate
JEAN CHEMNICK, 4/6/22
“Congressional Republicans are increasingly being left behind by their onetime business allies over methane regulation and other climate rules,” E&E News reports. “When it comes to climate regulations, Republicans and big business may be headed for a divorce. In the last decade, there has been growing daylight between industrial interests and their onetime Republican allies when it comes to curbing emissions and transitioning to lower-carbon technologies. U.S. industry has come to accept — or even support — regulations they spent decades resisting. Pushed by shareholders and changing political winds in the U.S. and overseas, corporations are spitting out zero-emissions pledges, talking up the Paris Agreement and offering to ‘engage constructively’ with federal agencies they spent years battling in court. Trade associations that were once the fiercest opponents of EPA regulatory authority — like the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — have moderated their tone under pressure from their members.”
STATE UPDATES
The Hill: Court halts Pennsylvania governor’s carbon emissions rule
MONIQUE BEALS, 4/5/22
“A court on Tuesday blocked a plan from Pennsylvania Gov. Tom Wolf (D) to combat climate change by curbing carbon emissions, saying the regulation was “pending further order of the court,” The Hill reports. “The policy, previously set to be published Saturday and take effect as early as July 1, would have required fossil fuel-fired power plants to pay a fee for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted. But the Pennsylvania Commonwealth Court said that it would not permit the regulation, which is part of a plan known as the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative, to be published, siding with the state’s Republican-controlled legislature… “The court’s move came as the governor looked to make the Pennsylvania the first major fossil fuel state with a carbon pricing policy.”
Fort Collins Coloradoan: Fort Collins City Council mulls an unusual path for preventing oil and gas development
Jacy Marmaduke, 4/6/22
“One way or another, Fort Collins City Council is interested in limiting oil and gas activity as much as possible in the city’s boundaries and growth management area,” the Fort Collins Coloradoan reports. “What’s less clear is how they’ll try to do it. The city could adopt regulations, currently being drafted by staff, that effectively ban new drilling in city limits. It could incentivize the plugging and abandoning of wells or leverage new state rules to do so. Or Fort Collins could pursue another idea that attracted some City Council members’ attention at a March 22 work session: What if the city bought all the mineral rights in Fort Collins? “I'm talking about buying out the operators who own the oil and gas,” Mayor Jeni Arndt said at the work session. “That just seems like an elegant solution that is probably cheaper than all these rules and regulations and potential lawsuits for takings.” “...City staff are considering draft regulations that would allow drilling only in areas with industrial zoning, located at least 2,000 feet from homes, parks, natural areas, schools, hospitals and anything defined as “occupiable space.” The 2,000-foot standard, unlike the state's regulations, would leave no room for exceptions. It’s based on a Colorado Department of Public Health and Environment study that found the greatest health risks of living near oil and gas wells were for those living within 2,000 feet of the site. No land in city limits meets all the city’s draft requirements, so they would essentially prohibit new drilling. Council members haven't expressed any discomfort at that possibility, pointing to the 2013 ballot measure where about 55% of voters supported a five-year moratorium on fracking.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada warns Suncor on environmental impact from proposed oil sands project
By Nia Williams, 4/8/22
“The Canadian government on Wednesday warned Suncor Energy (SU.TO) that the environmental impact from a proposed extension to its oil sands base mine in northern Alberta would be "unacceptable" as it currently stands,” Reuters reports. “Calgary-based Suncor was also granted a nine-month extension to a deadline to submit an impact statement for the project near Fort McMurray. The base mine extension project is in the early stages of development and is being considered as a way to sustain bitumen supply to Suncor's Base Plant facility as resources in the current mines are depleted, according to Suncor's website… “In a letter to Suncor Chief Executive Mark Little, Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said in his opinion the project as currently proposed would likely cause unacceptable environmental effects. "Emissions at this level may not align with the pace and scale of emissions reductions required to achieve our targets, and this would hinder Canada's international commitments in respect of climate change," Guilbeault wrote.
S&P Global: NextDecade's proposed Rio Grande LNG to supply 1.5 mil mt/year to China's ENN
Harry Weber, 4/6/22
“China's ENN has agreed to buy 1.5 million mt/year of LNG from NextDecade's proposed Rio Grande LNG export terminal in Texas, the companies said April 6,” S&P Global reports. “The 20-year sale and purchase agreement is indexed to US Henry Hub on a free-on-board basis. It follows a deal ENN and affiliates signed in late March to buy 2.7 million mt/year of supply from Energy Transfer's proposed Lake Charles LNG facility in Louisiana. NextDecade is building momentum for its project after a recent preliminary agreement with a Chinese utility, Guangdong Energy, and a 2019 firm offtake agreement with Shell. The three transactions combine for 5 million mt/year, out of the project's first phase that is expected to account for around 11 million mt/year of capacity. In 2021 and during the first several months of 2022, there has been a flurry of commercial activity tied to current and proposed US LNG export terminals. Other beneficiaries have been Cheniere Energy and Venture Global LNG… “Two proposed US projects were scrapped in 2021 -- Pembina's Jordan Cove in Oregon and Exelon-backed Annova LNG, which was to be built in Brownsville, near NextDecade's proposed site.”
Reuters: Enbridge looking at carbon capture and storage opportunities in Gulf Coast, Ontario
4/6/22
“Canadian energy infrastructure company Enbridge Inc (ENB.TO) is looking at carbon capture and storage opportunities in the U.S. Gulf Coast and Sarnia, Ontario, Chief Executive Al Monaco said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “Last week the Alberta government picked Enbridge's plans for a carbon storage hub near Edmonton as one of six open-access hub proposals to move forward in the Canadian province. Carbon capture and storage is a costly technology that involves capturing climate-warming emissions produced during industrial processes and sequestering them permanently underground.”
InsideClimate News: Occidental is Eyeing California’s Clean Fuels Market to Fund Texas Carbon Removal Plant
Nicholas Kusnetz, 4/6/22
“Occidental Petroleum is seeking to sell credits in California’s transportation carbon market to help finance the construction of what would be the world’s largest industrial carbon dioxide removal plant,” InsideClimate News reports. “The operation would effectively invert what Occidental has done for a century, by taking carbon out of the air and sending it underground, even if on a relatively small scale. But there’s a twist. Occidental has said it plans to use some or most of the carbon dioxide it captures from the Texas plant to squeeze more petroleum out of the ground, by pumping it into aging oil fields. As a result, the California carbon market, which is meant to help lower the climate emissions of transportation in the state, could supply tens of millions of dollars to help extract more oil, thereby contributing more emissions. Occidental’s plans raise one of environmental advocates’ biggest concerns about carbon removal technologies: that they will be used by oil companies to delay the far more urgent task of rapidly transitioning away from fossil fuels. By allowing companies to sell credits for captured carbon dioxide used to produce oil, some advocates warn, California’s program is poised to do just that. Indeed, Chief Executive Vicki Hollub has said Occidental will expand oil production, rather than curtail it, using captured CO2 to produce what the company is audaciously branding as “net-zero oil.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Stand.earth: Royal Bank of Canada abruptly cancels in-person portion of AGM as Wet’suwet’en Chiefs travel to confront bank’s funding of Coastal GasLink pipeline
4/6/22
“In the face of growing opposition to the Royal Bank of Canada (RBC)’s financing of fossil fuel projects including the Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline, Canada’s largest bank canceled the in-person portion of their annual shareholder meeting less than 24 hrs before it was scheduled,” according to Stand.earth. “A delegation of Wet'suwet'en Hereditary Chiefs announced they were attending the meeting on Wednesday and traveled from British Columbia to attend. The meeting was canceled shortly after, with RBC claiming a COVID outbreak amongst key personnel. Canada’s second largest bank, Scotiabank, held their shareholder meeting on Tuesday, despite their CEO contracting COVID and unable to participate. “This doesn’t seem like a coincidence,” said Sleydo’, Spokesperson for the Gidimt’en Checkpoint who traveled from the Yintah, the Wet'suwet'en traditional territory, to attend the meeting. “RBC has a track record of ignoring our concerns, and the criticism of shareholders and customers. It seems like they don’t want to answer for their financing of the rights-violating Coastal GasLink fracked gas pipeline and to face us in person.”
Bloomberg: Suncor Shares Go From First to Worst in Canada Oil-Sands Boom
Geoffrey Morgan, 4/6/22
“Suncor Energy Inc., once Canada’s most valuable oil producer, is now seeing rivals outrun it in the stock market on the heels of the oil-price boom,” Bloomberg reports. “Suncor is also the only Canadian oil-sands producer to underperform the rise in West Texas Intermediate crude prices during that time. Over the past year, Suncor shares have risen 56%. That’s less than half the gain for competitor Cenovus Energy Inc., which is up 125%, and about half the 103% advance for Canadian Natural Resources Ltd. Suncor is also the only Canadian oil-sands producer to underperform the rise in West Texas Intermediate crude prices during that time. Analysts say the stock is being weighed down by a checkered operational track record compared with its rivals, including a fire that resulted in an injury at a refinery last month and fatal accidents in the last two years. Suncor also cut its production guidance at its Fort Hills oil sands mine in 2021 after finding slopes in the mine were not stable.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
AM800: $5,000 GRANT FROM ENBRIDGE FUELING FUTURES AWARDED TO WINDSOR FIRE & RESCUE
Aaron Mahoney, 4/6/22
“Windsor Fire & Rescue Services has been awarded a $5,000 grant from the Enbridge Fueling Futures program,” AM800 reports. “Officials say the grant will assist Windsor Fire with training and development programs for their fire prevention division… “This collaboration with Enbridge Fueling Futures and Windsor Fire & Rescue Services helps to ensure that citizens are provided with a high level of professional support and customer service. Officials say together they're energizing communities through initiatives that strengthen the safety, vibrancy and sustainability of Windsor-Essex.”
OPINION
Bridge MI: Opinion | Now is the exact time to shut down Line 5
Regina Gasco-Bentley is tribal chairperson of the Little Traverse Bay Bands of Odawa Indians, 4/6/22
“Big oil companies are trying to use current gas prices and the temptation of jobs in an exploitive attempt to prevent the Line 5 pipeline that runs beneath the Straits of Mackinac from being shut down. The very best thing we can do to protect our homes, our way of life and our economy is to permanently take this dangerous and outdated pipeline offline as quickly as possible,” Regina Gasco-Bentley writes for Bridge MI. “...It is for these reasons that Michigan’s tribal leaders, along with indigenous leaders in Wisconsin and Ontario, have been demanding for years now that the pipeline be shut down. Commercial and subsistence fishing and hunting continue to provide economic survival for many tribal citizens. Despite all of the warning signs and our pleas, the pipeline’s Canadian owner, Enbridge, has been trying to use the current high cost of gas as an excuse to allow the ticking timebomb of a disaster to remain open while they construct a tunnel to house the pipeline. Their argument has been debunked by multiple independent studies… “Consideration of all facts makes certain that the risk of keeping Line 5 open or building a new pipeline does not outweigh the very real harms that can and will result from its continued operation. There has never been a better time to shut down the pipeline than right now.”
OilPrice.com: Is It Time To Revisit The Keystone XL Pipeline?
Felicity Bradstock, 4/6/22
“With countries around the world experiencing increasing energy insecurity following the Russian invasion of Ukraine, many are looking for ways to increase their oil and gas supply,” Felicity Bradstoc writes for OilPrice.com. “,,,This has led politicians and citizens across Canada and the U.S. to question the possibility of revisiting the construction of the Keystone pipeline, which could help transport vast amounts of oil across North America… “Now, lawmakers in the U.S. are encouraging Biden to reconsider the cancellation of the project… “However, others are not so sure, saying the pipeline won’t achieve what we want it to achieve right now. Although the pipeline could be built by the beginning of 2023 if Biden were to reverse his decision, according to Alberta Premier Jason Kenney, the White House does not believe this would help drive down crude oil and petrol prices… “This reiterates the idea that building the pipeline does not equate to higher production, it simply means easier transportation. However, critics argue, that the environmental cost is simply too high. In addition, the investment of billions of dollars in the extension suggests to the public, and oil companies, that the U.S. will continue to support fossil fuels for years to come. While reversing the Keystone XL decision seems like an obvious move to increase the crude transport capacity between Canada and the rest of North America, viewing it this way is rather too simplistic. As Biden faces the challenge of rising energy insecurity, he is not opposed to increasing production levels but believes this can be done at a faster rate by bringing existing wells back online and moving forward with already approved projects across the U.S.”
Williston Herald: Oil and politics
Alan Olson, Executive Director Montana Petroleum Association, 4/6/22
“While running for President, Joe Biden repeatedly promised to end our use of fossil fuels. “I guarantee you,” Biden told New Hampshire voters on Sept. 16, 2019, “we’re going to end fossil fuels.” Just hours after President Biden’s inauguration, one of his first executive orders killed the Keystone XL Pipeline and launched the partisan “War on Oil,” Alan Olson writes for the Williston Herald. “President Biden’s National Climate Adviser, Gina McCarthy once opined, “I want fossil fuels gone. I want fossil fuels out of products. I don’t want to help the fossil fuel industry to extend their life.” “...As the petroleum industry follows these signals from the Biden administration the President seems dismayed that the industry is not investing the billions of dollars needed to bring back historical production. When domestic crude oil production numbers stagnate and fuel prices increase, President Biden would do well to learn from Europe’s mistaken reliance on a dictatorship to supply needed and secure energy sources. Even as President Biden wrings his hands trying to decide whether or not to support domestic production, he is asking hostile foreign countries to increase their production and trying to decide which dictator we should be beholden to for our energy security. In rushing toward the great “energy transformation,” President Biden needs to stop his administration’s opposition to the energy we need today. There is no replacement for crude oil and natural gas in the foreseeable future without the tremendous negative economic effects that we are seeing today.”