EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 6/10/22
PIPELINE NEWS
WJFW: Enbridge's preparing to relocate line 5 while environmental groups share concerns
WILX: Oil spill closes shipping between Lake Superior, Lake Huron
Reuters: POET hopes pipeline partnership will speed ethanol climate goals
Engineering News Record: Energy Transfer Pipeline June 21 Hearing Set on Criminal Charges
Bucks County Courier Times: Upper Makefield OKs Delaware River pipeline project. Here are the conditions to protect Washington Crossing
Law360: FERC Urges 5th Circ. To Let Stand Bankruptcy Contract Order
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNN.com: White House official blasts 'outrageous' oil profits, leaves door open to windfall profit tax
Politico: KERRY SOUNDS ALARM ON CLIMATE TARGETS
The Hill: Democrats find that oil and gas industry is ‘failing’ to address methane leaks
Press release: SCIENCE COMMITTEE MAJORITY STAFF REPORT FINDS OIL AND GAS SECTOR FAILS TO QUANTIFY AND ADDRESS SUPER-EMITTING METHANE LEAKS
STATE UPDATES
Associated Press: North Dakota landfill OK’d for radioactive oilfield waste
University of Colorado: Methane: As concerns rise about this greenhouse gas, CU startup works to plug leaks
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Exxon Mobil shares hit record high, fueled by 60% surge in crude prices
Canadian Press: Big industry can lower costs as feds launch first offset credit market
Reuters: Canada launches greenhouse gas offset credits to help tackle emissions
Press release: Cheniere and Equinor Sign Long-Term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement
CLIMATE FINANCE
Press release: Chiefs to Meet with Banks and Investors to Attract Capital to Indigenous Energy Projects
E&E News: Conservative shareholders attack ‘climate clown show’
OPINION
Toronto Star: Trans Mountain pipeline protester Tim Takaro should not do jail time
National Review: Biden’s Oil-and-Gas Leasing Lockdown, Brought to You by the NEPA
Financial Times: The world must brace itself for a further surge in oil prices
PIPELINE NEWS
WJFW: Enbridge's preparing to relocate line 5 while environmental groups share concerns
Matt Weaver, 6/9/22
“A Canadian company is trying re-route an oil pipeline through Wisconsin. While some say this could help the state, environmentalists are quick to point out risks,” WJFW reports. “If it leaks in the straits of mackinaw, its going to be catastrophic," Jim Knight, a spokesperson with Oil and Water Don't Mix - a nonprofit organization that cites environmental concerns with the pipeline, told WJFW… “The company held an event to promote the relocation project which was attended by State Representative Rob Swearingen and State Senator Mary Felzkowski. "This is a pipeline that was built in the Eisenhower administration, it’s a pipeline that has leaked more than 1 million gallons since 1968," Knight told WJFW… “They say the project will bring $135 million of economic impact to the state, but Knight cites a recent court case with data suggesting that the pipeline does not have a a significant impact on gas prices. “There was one in 2017, that Enbridge did, said gas prices would only go up about 2 cents, now this latest consultant in this latest court filing says 1 cent, less than a penny a gallon," Knight told WJFW.
WILX: Oil spill closes shipping between Lake Superior, Lake Huron
Dane Kelly, 6/9/22
“An oil spill near the Soo Locks closed shipping traffic Thursday on the St. Marys River between Lake Superior and Lake Huron,” WILX reports. “According to the U.S. Coast Guard, the 5,300 gallon spill happened at about 10:30 a.m. Authorities said the spill originated from Algoma Steel. Shipping traffic between the two Great Lakes reopened at about 4 p.m., but officials remained at the scene to monitor the situation. The Coast Guard said it doesn’t anticipate the spill will impact further shipping traffic and they will have a better idea of the impact to the Great Lakes ecosystem Friday. The last major oil spill in Michigan was the 2010 Kalamazoo River oil spill, when the Enbridge Line 6B pipeline burst and spilled more than one million gallons of crude oil into Talmadge Creek and the Kalamazoo River. It remains one of the largest in-land oil spills ever experienced in the United States.”
Reuters: POET hopes pipeline partnership will speed ethanol climate goals
Leah Douglas, 6/9/22
“POET LLC, the world's largest ethanol producer, said it hopes to meet some of its climate goals early as a result of a new partnership it announced this week with a Midwest carbon capture and storage (CCS) pipeline,” Reuters reports. “...POET had pledged in 2021 to make its biofuels 70% less emissions intensive than gasoline by 2030. But the Navigator partnership means participating plants will achieve 75% lower emissions, President Jeff Lautt told Reuters. The pipeline "would get more than half of our plants to that goal early," Lautt told Reuters… “The ethanol industry claims its fuel is already nearly 50% lower in emissions than gasoline. But recent research has suggested ethanol could actually emit more carbon than gasoline due to tilling land under to grow corn. Opponents along the path of the pipeline in the Midwest fear they could lose land under eminent domain law, and that their crop yields could suffer during construction. In Iowa, where Navigator would run the most pipeline miles, 18 of the 36 counties on its proposed route have filed opposition to the project with the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB), according to a Reuters review of the IUB docket. Some farmers who oppose the pipeline and sell to POET are angered with the decision, saying the company had told them they would not seek a pipeline partnership. "We’re disgusted and disappointed," Kim Junker, an Iowa POET supplier whose farm is along the Navigator route, told Reuters.”
Engineering News Record: Energy Transfer Pipeline June 21 Hearing Set on Criminal Charges
Mary B. Powers, 6/9/22
“A June 21 preliminary hearing is set in a Pennsylvania court related to 48 criminal charges filed last year against pipeline builder Energy Transfer for allegedly allowing thousands of gallons of drilling fluid to escape, on repeated occasions, during construction of the $2.5-billion Mariner East 2 natural gas liquids pipeline,” Engineering News Record reports. “The hearing date was confirmed by a spokesperson for state Attorney General Josh Shapiro, who filed the charges last October, based on grand jury recommendations… “During directional drilling, Energy Transfer used drilling fluids that contain unapproved additives that spilled into the groundwater and often surfaced in fields, backyards, streams, lakes, wetlands and drinking water wells, that were never reported to the state environmental officials, Shapiro told ENR. Mariner East has been fined more than $20 million for at least 120 violations.”
Bucks County Courier Times: Upper Makefield OKs Delaware River pipeline project. Here are the conditions to protect Washington Crossing
Damon C. Williams, 6/9/22
“Kathy Vosgang has been living in her Washington Crossing house for 47 years, and the plan to replace the Sunoco pipeline that runs across the Delaware River has her concerned,” the Bucks County Courier Times reports. “For Sunoco Pipeline LP to proceed with its pipeline renovation and repositioning project in the Delaware River in Washington Crossing, it will have to adhere to more than a dozen conditions outlined by the Upper Makefield supervisors… “The refined product pipeline is part of an 111-mile, 14-inch pipeline originating at the Twin Oaks pump station, adjacent to Sunoco's Marcus Hook Tank Farm, south of Philadelphia, and terminating in Newark and Linden, in northern New Jersey. The conditions set by the supervisors as part of their approval of the project at a township meeting Tuesday night address resident concerns — specifically from those who live on or near Oakdale Avenue in Washington Crossing and and Eagle Road in Newtown — with a focus on preparation, cleanup, road and traffic management while including an emphasis on penalties if Sunoco doesn't meet the expectations… “The conditions include that Sunoco will operate the worksite from 8 a.m. to 6 p.m., and will build sound walls around the project to limit excess noise and protect residents… “Sunoco will also be responsible for landscaping and upkeep of the area for 18 months after the project is finished. The township also stipulated that Sunoco provide financial security to "guarantee the restoration of the property" and the roadway overlays.”
Law360: FERC Urges 5th Circ. To Let Stand Bankruptcy Contract Order
Katie Buehler, 6/9/22
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission told the Fifth Circuit on Thursday that while the court recently ruled the agency had a limited role in Chapter 11 reorganizations, the panel should let stand a FERC order that ending a natural gas pipeline contract isn’t in the public interest,” Law360 reports.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
CNN.com: White House official blasts 'outrageous' oil profits, leaves door open to windfall profit tax
Matt Egan, 6/9/22
“A White House official is strongly criticizing Big Oil for banking huge profits in the wake of Russia's invasion of Ukraine, which the administration has blamed for soaring gas prices,” CNN.com reports. "It's outrageous that oil and gas companies are able to take advantage and make four times the profits that they made when there wasn't a war," Bharat Ramamurti, deputy director of the National Economic Council, told CNN in a phone interview. Ramamurti's comments represent one of the sharpest critiques yet from the White House as it tries to address what has become its main political problem ahead of the 2022 midterm elections. Gas prices, which were already rising ahead of the start of the war at the end of February, have reached record highs and experts are warning that there is no end in sight for climbing prices. He pointed out that the top five oil companies raked in $35 billion in profits during the first quarter alone as energy prices spiked during the onset of Russia's war in Ukraine. Ramamurti appeared to be referring to ExxonMobil, Chevron, BP, Shell and ConocoPhillips, all of which reported sharp increases in profits last quarter. Shares of Exxon, the largest US oil company, closed at a record high on Wednesday. The White House economist did not rule out administration support for a windfall profit tax that progressives are pushing for. President Joe Biden also used his first in-person late night appearance to draw scrutiny on Big Oil. "Everybody says, 'Oh, Biden won't let them drill,'" Biden said on "Jimmy Kimmel Live" Wednesday night. "They have 9,000 drilling sites that they already own that are there. They're not doing it. You know why? Because they make more money not drilling and buying back their own stock."
Politico: KERRY SOUNDS ALARM ON CLIMATE TARGETS
Matthew Choi, 6/9/22
“U.S. climate envoy John Kerry warned that the world could slip off of meeting its global climate targets and that the Russian invasion of Ukraine should not distract from shifting away from fossil fuels,” Politico reports. “Speaking at the Summit of the Americas in Los Angeles, Kerry said: "There are vested interests right now trying to exploit Ukraine and tell people we need a whole new generation of infrastructure built out that is going to kill 1.5, let alone 2 and 2.7.” In addition to its overtures toward OPEC, the Biden administration has also been calling on domestic producers to use up their federal oil and gas leases and bring more supply to the market in order to cool the rising fuel prices. But Kerry said continuing down that path would doom the Paris Climate Agreement target of keeping warming under 1.5 degrees celsius.”
The Hill: Democrats find that oil and gas industry is ‘failing’ to address methane leaks
RACHEL FRAZIN, 6/8/22
“The oil and gas industry is “failing” to address leaks of a planet-warming gas called methane, House Democrats said in a new report on Wednesday,” The Hill reports. “A report from Democrats on the House Science, Space and Technology Committee found that the industry is not using the latest science to inform its approaches to tackle leaks of the greenhouse gas. “Existing oil and gas sector [leak detection and repair] programs are failing to mitigate methane emissions from super-emitting leaks. The principal cause of this failure is the unwillingness of oil and gas companies to prioritize super-emitting leaks,” the Democrats wrote. In particular, the committee found that all of the 10 companies it surveyed do not track, identify or maintain records on super-emitting leaks “in any organized manner.” The committee also found that innovative leak detection and repair technologies were being used in pilot programs but were not yet being used at a wider-scale, limiting how effective it would be. In particular, it cited one case where company researchers supported permanently deploying the technology, but it was rejected by management. It notes that in this case, company researchers described greater awareness of emissions and leaks as one of the “risks” of deployment. The report also suggested that Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) measurements undercount methane emissions from oil and gas.”
Press release: SCIENCE COMMITTEE MAJORITY STAFF REPORT FINDS OIL AND GAS SECTOR FAILS TO QUANTIFY AND ADDRESS SUPER-EMITTING METHANE LEAKS
6/8/22
“Today, during the House Committee on Science, Space, and Technology's hearing, “Detecting and Quantifying Methane Emissions from the Oil and Gas Sector,” a Majority staff report on the oil and gas sector’s approach to addressing methane emissions was submitted for the record. The staff report, “Seeing CH4 Clearly: Science-Based Approaches to Methane Monitoring in the Oil and Gas Sector,” assesses the sector’s use of Methane Leak Detection and Repair (LDAR) technologies to achieve rapid and large-scale reductions in methane emissions from their operations. The report also identifies opportunities for the Federal research and development enterprise to play a role in advancing LDAR technology and facilitating collaboration on reducing and quantifying methane emissions. The report has three key findings: 1. Oil and gas companies are failing to address super-emitting leaks. 2. Oil and gas companies are failing to use quantification data to mitigate methane leak emissions. 3.Oil and gas companies are deploying innovative LDAR technologies in a limited and inconsistent manner. The report also uses internal company data obtained from the Committee’s investigation to confirm that the EPA’s Greenhouse Gas Inventory significantly underestimates the true methane emissions from the oil and gas sector. “The findings of this report make clear that thus far the oil and gas sector is not taking the steps necessary to significantly reduce methane emissions, particularly ‘super-emitting’ leaks that make up much of the sector’s emissions,” said Chairwoman Eddie Bernice Johnson (D-TX). “The sector’s approach does not reflect the latest scientific evidence on methane leaks.”
STATE UPDATES
Associated Press: North Dakota landfill OK’d for radioactive oilfield waste
JAMES MacPHERSON, 6/8/22
“North Dakota regulators approved a permit for a landfill near Williston that aims to become the state’s first to accept radioactive oilfield waste,” the Associated Press reports. “Secure Energy Services, a Calgary, Alberta-based company, still must obtain a $1.125 million bond to dispose of radioactive material at its 13-Mile Landfill, which already accepts other types of waste generated by oil development, said Diana Trussell, who heads the state Department of Environmental Quality’s solid waste program. The agency on Monday renewed the company’s permit for its existing landfill and also gave it permission to dispose of up to 25,000 tons of radioactive oilfield waste annually if it can secure the required bonding. Low levels of radiation that naturally occur in soil, water and rocks can become concentrated during oil and gas production, creating a category of waste that no state landfills until now have been allowed to accept despite a 2016 rule modification — backed by the state’s oil industry — that increased the allowable concentrations of technologically enhanced radioactive material that can be disposed of at approved landfills by tenfold, which state officials say is still safe for humans and the environment. About 100,000 tons of radioactive oil field waste is produced in the state each year, which typically has been trucked to other states for disposal. In some cases, it has been disposed of illegally. Critics aren’t convinced its safe for the environment and water sources to place the oilfield waste in landfills. “There are no safe radioactive facilities,” Darrell Dorgan, a member of the North Dakota Energy Industry Waste Coalition, a watchdog group critical of oilfield waste dumping, told AP. “All we are doing now is saving oil companies money by not having to ship it out of state.” The closest state that allows such dumping is Montana. “If they are dumb enough in Montana to take it, we should keep sending it there,” Dorgan told AP.
University of Colorado: Methane: As concerns rise about this greenhouse gas, CU startup works to plug leaks
Daniel Strain, 6/8/22
“Sean Coburn walks down a dusty dirt road in Greeley, Colorado, flanked by a scene that’s becoming more common in this city at the edge of the Front Range—rows and rows of tanks, pipes, stacks and other hallmarks of the oil and gas industry,” the University of Colorado reports. “...The tower is part of an ambitious undertaking from scientists at LongPath and CU Boulder. They’re using new laser technology to do what other technologies have struggled to do for years: detect natural gas, which is invisible to the eye, leaking from pipes at sites like this, in real time… “LongPath is trying to plug that source. The company’s towers shoot lasers over miles of terrain to sniff out even the faintest whiffs of methane in the air. So far, the company has installed 23 of them covering almost 300,000 acres in Texas, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Colorado. Rieker believes the technology could be a win-win for the West: Slowing down emissions of this dangerous gas, while also reducing costs for an industry that employs tens of thousands. The story of this technology, called a dual frequency comb laser spectrometer, dates back to the 1990s when a CU/JILA physicist named Jan Hall first developed frequency comb lasers to explore the working of tiny atoms—and earned a Nobel Prize in the process. “Now, we’re able to use those same ideas and, with just one of these systems, mitigate about 80 million cubic feet of methane emissions per year,” said Rieker who co-founded LongPath in 2017.
EXTRACTION
Bloomberg: Exxon Mobil shares hit record high, fueled by 60% surge in crude prices
Geoffrey Morgan and Subrat Patnaik, 6/9/22
“Exxon Mobil Corp. shares rose to the highest intraday level ever Wednesday and are on track to close at a record, stoked by an almost 60% surge in crude prices that’s lifting oil supermajors and complicating efforts to fight global inflation,” Bloomberg reports. “North America’s largest oil company traded as high as $105 in New York, topping its previous record set in 2014 amid a 71% advance this year. Investors are piling into energy stocks as demand for oil from reopening economies and diminished supply due to the war in Ukraine spark an almost 60% surge in crude prices, complicating efforts to fight global inflation. “Every conceivable headwind has become a tailwind,” Evercore ISI analyst Stephen Richardson wrote in a note upgrading Exxon shares to a Street high on Wednesday. He added that a “structural supply deficit has opened in crude” and passive funds are flowing into the sector. Energy is by far the best performing sector in the stock market this year, with the group up 65% in 2022 compared with a 13% decline for the S&P 500 Index. Exxon is among the 10 best performing stocks in the broad equities benchmark, and its super-charged rise has exceeded even Wall Street’s expectations. The stock has skyrocketed 222% since touching a roughly two-decade low in October 2020 as it recovered from the pandemic and its loss in a proxy fight to activist investor Engine No. 1… “Two analysts hiked their price targets on Exxon shares Tuesday after the stock breached $100 for the first time since 2014.”
Canadian Press: Big industry can lower costs as feds launch first offset credit market
Mia Rabson, 6/9/22
“Canada's first federal carbon offset market kicked off Wednesday as the final piece of the puzzle in the carbon price for big industry takes shape,” the Canadian Press reports. “But the arrival of the new offset system was greeted without applause by climate activists who say it simply makes it cheaper for big industry to keep polluting… “Compliance markets are newer and allow entities that pay a carbon price to lower the amount of emissions they must cover by buying credits from a regulated market. The credits are almost always less than the carbon price — on average about 10 to 20 per cent less in compliance markets that already exist… “Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault said Wednesday the new federal system is a key piece of Canada's ability to hit both its emissions target for 2030 and getting to net zero emissions by 2050… “The government said it is also now starting to write the rules to add direct air capture technology that pulls carbon dioxide out of the air and traps it underground… “Shane Moffatt, head of the nature and food campaign at Greenpeace Canada, called it a "massive step back." "This doesn't get us anywhere," he told CP. "The carbon market is a shell game."
Reuters: Canada launches greenhouse gas offset credits to help tackle emissions
Nia Williams, 6/8/22
“Canada on Wednesday launched a credit system for greenhouse gas offsets, a major part of its plan to cut carbon emissions, starting with a set of rules stipulating how projects can generate tradeable credits by capturing gas from landfills,” Reuters reports. “The government said protocols for four other sectors including agriculture and forest management are under way. It will also start developing protocols for carbon capture technology, which Canada's high-polluting oil industry is betting on to slash its emissions, this summer… “The greenhouse gas offset credit system is intended to support a domestic carbon offset trading market, and the government said it will create new economic opportunities for companies and municipalities reducing emissions. Participants can register projects and generate one tradeable offset credit for each tonne of emissions reduced or removed from the atmosphere, providing their projects follow the federal offset protocols that set out exactly which activities are eligible. Credits can then be sold to others, such as heavy industrial emitters obliged to limit carbon pollution, or to companies wanting to voluntarily offset their emissions… “However, environmental groups warned allowing polluters to purchase offset credits instead of cutting their own emissions risked undermining climate goals. "Offsetting doesn't stop carbon from entering the atmosphere and warming our world, it just keeps it off the books of big polluters responsible,” Greenpeace Canada spokesman Shane Moffatt told Reuters.
Press release: Cheniere and Equinor Sign Long-Term LNG Sale and Purchase Agreement
6/9/22
“Cheniere Energy, Inc. announced today that its subsidiary, Cheniere Marketing, has entered into a liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) sale and purchase agreement (“SPA”) with Equinor ASA. Under the SPA, Equinor has agreed to purchase approximately 1.75 million tonnes per annum (“mtpa”) of LNG from Cheniere Marketing on a free-on-board basis for a term of approximately 15 years. The deliveries under the SPA will start in the second half of 2026 and reach the full 1.75 mtpa in the second half of 2027. Half of the volume, or approximately 0.9 mtpa, is subject to Cheniere making a positive final investment decision (“FID”) to construct additional liquefaction capacity at the Corpus Christi LNG Terminal beyond the seven-train Corpus Christi Stage III Project… “The SPA also reflects the urgency in demand for investment in additional LNG capacity, not only for the Corpus Christi Stage III Project, which is nearing FID, but also for capacity beyond the project’s initial seven trains,” said Jack Fusco, Cheniere’s President and Chief Executive Officer.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Press release: Chiefs to Meet with Banks and Investors to Attract Capital to Indigenous Energy Projects
6/8/22
“The Indian Resource Council, an organization representing over 130 First Nations who produce or have a direct interest in the oil and gas industry, is leading a delegation of Chiefs to Toronto on June 9, 2022 to meet with the investment community. Their objective is to attract capital for Indigenous energy projects and ensure First Nations have equity opportunities going forward. "There is an idea in some corners of Canada that First Nations are opposed to oil and gas development. In fact, what we want is to be partners and owners in energy projects, and benefit from the development of resources from our territories," said Chief Roy Fox, chair of the IRC Board. "For that to happen, we need the investment community to be willing partners." Ensuring that ESG (environmental social and governance) funds value Indigenous participation is key to ensuring that First Nations can access capital that has long been denied their communities. "ESG metrics have been focused almost exclusively on GHG emissions. It's time to give Indigenous participation in projects more weight, if the financial community is truly committed to reconciliation," said Chief Billy Morin. "There is an opportunity for everyone to win here." “...Members of the delegation include Chief Roy Fox (Kanai Nation/ Blood Tribe), Chief Greg Desjarlais (Frog Lake First Nation), Chief Billy Morin (Enoch Cree Nation), and Stephen Buffalo (CEO & President, Indian Resource Council).”
E&E News: Conservative shareholders attack ‘climate clown show’
Corbin Hiar, 6/10/22
“Conservative rabble-rouser Steve Milloy wasn’t happy last year when sustainable investment advocates scored a series of major victories at the annual meeting of Exxon Mobil Corp.,” E&E News reports. “A climate-focused hedge fund had won enough votes to oust a quarter of the oil major’s board. Sustainability advocates also succeeded in passing two nonbinding resolutions calling for more information about Exxon’s climate lobbying. So Milloy, an ally of former President Donald Trump and a climate science critic, filed a proposal that called for Exxon to ban future shareholder resolutions. It’s one of a handful of proposals Milloy has submitted this year targeting the environment, social and governance, or ESG, efforts of companies he’s invested in. “There is a cancer on Exxon Mobil. That cancer is climate activist shareholders,” he said last month at the oil giant’s shareholder meeting. “We must stop Exxon Mobil-hating activists from turning the annual meeting into a climate clown show so they can take over the company.” Conservative shareholder activists have filed twice as many proposals this year as they did in 2021, according to one count. While they haven’t done well — Milloy’s pitch at Exxon received less than 2 percent support, for example — conservative activists and business experts said resolutions with minimal shareholder backing still can have an impact on corporate leaders… “Aside from Milloy, other conservative activists filing shareholder resolutions include officials from the National Center for Public Policy Research and the National Legal and Policy Center, or NLPC. They are part of a broader conservative assault on ESG investing that’s being led by Republican policymakers. Together, conservative activists have placed 52 proposals on the ballot at major U.S. companies, according to an analysis from Georgeson LLC. Their proposals “are often critical of the evolving ESG landscape,” the shareholder consultancy said last week in an early review of the annual meeting season.
OPINION
Toronto Star: Trans Mountain pipeline protester Tim Takaro should not do jail time
James Boothroyd lives in Vancouver, where he leads a non-profit research initiative, 6/10/22
“Next week, Dr. Tim Takaro, a distinguished authority on public health, will go to trial for criminal contempt for allegedly violating a court-ordered injunction against blocking the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX),” James Boothroyd writes for the Toronto Star. “His potential four-week sentence, longer than those of most of the other 250 protesters charged under the 2018 injunction, reflects Takaro’s leading role in opposition to the new fossil fuel infrastructure… “Takaro is an expert on the public health impacts of climate change… “Takaro first became concerned about TMX in 2014, as he led the preparation of two public health impact assessments for the National Energy Board’s environmental review: one looked at climate change impacts; another at the toxic effects of a possible spill of diluted bitumen, including child leukemia risks. The review refused to consider Takaro’s first report, as the Harper government excluded climate impacts from its terms of reference, and the final report did not address his toxicity work… “By the summer of 2020, Takaro was exasperated with the system. The highest courts had rejected the final challenges by First Nations, and media attention had shifted to another public menace, COVID-19. Most people would have gone on vacation; Takaro used a sabbatical to climb a tall tree that would soon be cut down for the pipeline… “Critics will say he deserves to be punished for breaking the law and blocking a project of national interest. Expert observers, however, including the parliamentary budget officer, have questioned the business case for TMX and its ballooning cost — now pegged at $21 billion, up from the Trudeau government’s original quote of $4.2 billion… “Presenting a UN report in April that warned of the impending climate emergency, Secretary-General António Guterres said “Climate activists are sometimes depicted as dangerous radicals. But, the truly dangerous radicals are the countries that are increasing the production of fossil fuels.”
National Review: Biden’s Oil-and-Gas Leasing Lockdown, Brought to You by the NEPA
JORDAN MCGILLIS is the deputy director of policy at the Institute for Energy Research, 6/10/22
“President Joe Biden says he’ll “work like the devil” to lower energy prices. What’s devilish, however, isn’t his work ethic, but his duplicitousness. While trotting out sullen spokespeople to commiserate with Americans being squeezed, haranguing energy companies for profiteering, and coining terms like “the Putin price hike,” the Biden administration is acting at cross purposes by, among other things, putting a tacit kibosh on the federal oil-and-gas leasing program,” Jordan McGillis writes for the National Review. “Though President Biden’s initial leasing “pause” was ruled out of step with the Mineral Leasing Act and Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act in 2021, the administration has refined its anti-leasing strategy, putting it on the right side of the law while maintaining the same effect, according to legal analysts… “Case precedent surrounding the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) grants the administration the latitude it needs to freeze leases. Though the environmental effects of any given lease will be de minimis, the NEPA’s scope is so broad that virtually any federal action pertaining to energy development can be slowed or stopped in the absence of genuinely adversarial proceedings… “The Biden administration is culpable, in part, for the economic stress high energy prices are causing Americans. The recent Interior settlement with WildEarth Guardians and the administration’s broader antipathy to oil and gas leasing are contributors… “Point the finger at the Biden administration for putting the oil-and-gas leasing program on ice, but remember that congressional dereliction is ultimately to blame.”
Financial Times: The world must brace itself for a further surge in oil prices
David Sheppard, Energy Editor, 6/9/22
“JPMorgan’s chief executive Jamie Dimon thinks oil prices could surge to $175 a barrel later this year. Jeremy Weir, the head of commodity trader Trafigura, says oil could go “parabolic,” David Sheppard writes for the Financial Times. “Energy Aspects, a consultancy with clients stretching from hedge funds to state energy companies, says we are facing “perhaps the most bullish oil market there ever has been”. Goldman Sachs thinks oil prices will “average” $140 a barrel in the third quarter of this year. It is tempting to dismiss this mass outbreak of bullishness as book-talking by banks and traders positioned for a short-term rise in crude, which has already reached $120 a barrel… “But while a healthy dash of scepticism is usually warranted with price forecasts, you only need to scratch the surface of the oil market to see that these bullish calls are, this time, well-founded… “The big challenge is a looming ban on insurance in the EU and UK for ships carrying Russian oil. It would effectively shut Russia out of mainstream tanker markets, leaving them with vastly reduced options for shipping their oil. Oil tankers do not just need to insure expensive cargoes but against liabilities such as Exxon Valdez-style spills with multibillion-dollar clean-up costs… “All these factors point to rising oil prices until a level is reached that reduces consumption, probably by triggering an economic slowdown large enough to curtail demand. In other words, a recession for many economies. Policymakers could encourage conservation, from lowering speed limits to reinstating taxes. But the evidence to date suggests they are happier stumbling into disaster than upsetting motorists. They must hope that when oil gets cheaper again, voters will still have a job to drive to.”