EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 7/12/24
PIPELINE NEWS
Globe Gazette: Battle continues in North Iowa over 'deadly' Summit carbon capture pipeline after Iowa Utility Board ruling
KCHA: Floyd County, Others to Ask IUC to Reconsider Summit Pipeline Permit
Delaware Riverkeeper: Third Circuit Court of Appeals Vindicates Right of Environmental Organizations to Challenge the Transco REAE Pipeline
Globe and Mail: Nebraska pipeline company wins over ‘Keystone Killer’ with landowner and community benefits plan
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Meet The Ex-Trump Officials Who Helped Draft Project 2025
Daily Caller: Gop Reps Unveil Bill Rolling Back Biden Admin Attack On Oil And Gas
E&E News: Enviros Press Court For NEPA Review Of Offshore Well Plugging
E&E News: BLM Nixes Trump-Era Plan For Drilling In Sensitive New Mexico Region
DeSmog: Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Lands in Question as Lawmakers Eye Shale Collusion Allegations
Heatmap: The IRA Might Survive a Republican Trifecta — But Not as a Climate Law
E&E News: Feds Propose Restoration Plan For Mysterious 1999 Oil Spill
Associated Press: Marathon Oil Reaches A $241 Million Settlement With EPA For Environmental Violations
STATE UPDATES
E&E News: Maryland judge scraps Baltimore’s climate case against oil industry
Associated Press: Pennsylvania authorizes regulations for carbon capture wells
Cowboy State Daily: In Major Policy Shift, Wyoming Redefines Who Can Bid On State Oil And Gas Leases
CalMatters: The Supreme Court took powers away from federal regulators. Do California rules offer a backstop?
Colorado Sun: Multiple ozone violations recorded in Colorado’s current bad-air season, heat wave could make it worse
Utah News Dispatch: Which rocks are best to store carbon from coal plants? Utah is mapping their potential
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Rush to prevent oil spill from grounded ship off South African coast
Bloomberg: Google’s Former Carbon Project Gets $40 Million to Trap CO2
OPINION
Des Moines Register: Who's the loser in Iowa carbon pipeline approval? The public.
PIPELINE NEWS
Globe Gazette: Battle continues in North Iowa over 'deadly' Summit carbon capture pipeline after Iowa Utility Board ruling
Ailis McCardle, 7/11/24
“As plans for Summit Carbon Solution's 2,500-mile carbon capture pipeline draw nearer to reality after a recent Iowa Utilities Board ruling approved the necessary permits, a bipartisan opposition force is growing and hunting for ways to cripple the project,” the Globe Gazette reports. “...The idea of the project seizing land in Cerro Gordo, Floyd, and Bremer counties via eminent domain has sparked a bitter controversy among property rights advocates, environmentalists, farmers, and local legislators. Several Floyd County legislators began to organize against the project almost immediately after the IUB ruling. State Rep. Charley Thomson, R-Charles City, is just one of 30 legislators in a bipartisan, bicameral task force fighting to prevent the seizure of private land for the pipeline's construction. "The group I'm working with is looking at different legislative options. We also have a variety of litigation options we're looking at. The ruling was over 500 pages; we're going to go over it with a fine-tooth comb. ... I don't think there's any question that litigation will commence, it's a question of who, and who is pressing what," Thomson told the Globe Gazette… “State Sen. Sandy Salmon, R-Janesville, has been heavily involved in trying to protect private property rights for years. She is following the progress of the Summit pipeline closely… "I find that just absolutely breathtaking, and brazen at the same time. Because who's ever heard of this, 450 landowners subject to eminent domain in one project?" Salmon told the Globe Gazette. Both Thomson and Salmon also said that they saw a huge influx of complaints about the carbon capture pipeline. "Momentum is building as more and more people find out and begin to understand the implications of this decision," Salmon told the Globe Gazette. Doug Campbell of Mason City ran in the June primary for Iowa Senate against incumbent Sen. Waylon Brown, R-St. Ansgar, and opposing the use of eminent domain was a cornerstone of his platform. Brown, who hobbled legislation to limit the use of eminent domain during his time serving on the Commerce Committee, suddenly resigned on Monday… “The Iowa Sierra Club has expressed concerns multiple times that the pipeline was not an effective way of reducing carbon emissions.”
KCHA: Floyd County, Others to Ask IUC to Reconsider Summit Pipeline Permit
Mark Pitz, 7/11/24
“Floyd County will join a half-dozen other counties in asking the Iowa Utilities Commission (IUC) to reconsider its decision granting Summit Carbon Solutions a permit to build an underground carbon pipeline,” KCHA reports. “During Monday’s (07.08) Board of Supervisors meeting, Chair Mark Kuhn said a conference call with the other counties, also represented by attorney Tim Whipple of Ahlers and Cooney, PC, indicated a desire to let the IUC know of their opposition to the permit, even though it’s not likely to change the outcome… “Supervisors voted 3-0 to request the IUC reconsider its decision.”
Delaware Riverkeeper: Third Circuit Court of Appeals Vindicates Right of Environmental Organizations to Challenge the Transco REAE Pipeline
7/11/24
“The United States Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit has sided with environmental organizations, vindicating their right to challenge permits issued to the Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line Company, LLC (Transco) before the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board. The Third Circuit affirmed that the Pennsylvania Environmental Hearing Board (PA EHB) has jurisdiction to hear appeals of state permits issued as part of gas pipeline projects. As a result, the legal challenge brought by the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and Citizens for Pennsylvania’s Future (PennFuture) before the PA EHB can proceed. Notably, the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) had joined with Transco in seeking to prevent the Delaware Riverkeeper Network and PennFuture from challenging state permits granted to the pipeline project. The Third Circuit rejected Transco and PADEP’s argument that any legal challenge to the state-issued administrative environmental permits must exclusively be brought before a federal court… “In short, this victory validates and secures the rights of impacted communities to challenge state issued approvals to natural gas pipelines through their own state’s administrative appeals process,” said Maya van Rossum, the Delaware Riverkeeper, and leader of the Delaware Riverkeeper Network. “We look forward to the opportunity to make our case before the PA EHB that the permits granted to Transco should be vacated and the project should not be allowed to proceed.” “...In yesterday’s precedential opinion, the Third Circuit rejected Transco’s arguments and upheld the authority of the PA EHB to review the challenged permitting, and in so doing, it strengthened the rights of a state, in this case the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, to have primary legal authority regarding Clean Water Act regulation for natural gas pipeline infrastructure.”
Globe and Mail: Nebraska pipeline company wins over ‘Keystone Killer’ with landowner and community benefits plan
NATHAN VANDERKLIPPE, 7/12/24
“...Rural activist Jane Kleeb rallied ranchers, landowners, tribal groups and others in a loud and effective opposition. Rolling Stone christened her “Keystone Killer,” the Globe and Mail reports. “Over more than a decade, what began in Nebraska has spread. The group Ms. Kleeb founded, BOLD Alliance, now works in nine states and operates a Pipeline Fighters Hub to help people across the U.S. battle new projects… “Earlier this year, BOLD agreed to a community benefits package with Tallgrass, a Leawood, Kan.-based pipeline company building a transmission system designed to carry captured carbon dioxide emissions across Nebraska so they can be sequestered underground rather than emitted into the atmosphere. Under the agreement, Tallgrass committed to paying 10 years of royalties to individual landowners – an unusual direct benefit that grows as volumes increase – in addition to royalties for a community foundation and cash to local communities. Another US$500,000 will go to non-profits in affected counties, in addition to US$600,000 to train and equip first responders. Tallgrass also committed to returning easements to landowners at the end of the project’s life, with the option to either remove the pipe or abandon it in place… “BOLD’s support for Tallgrass is rooted less in the content it carries than the way it has dealt with landholders. “We do see this as a model for big energy projects, whether it’s a fossil fuel project or a clean energy project,” Ms. Kleeb told the Globe and Mail… “Tallgrass argues that it may, in the end, be cheaper to offer more generous benefits than to fight in court… “Critics of carbon pipelines cite the risk of an asphyxiating leak, pointing to a 2020 rupture in Mississippi that crippled vehicles and hospitalized 45. A local emergency director described to NPR a “zombie apocalypse” scene of people laying on the ground struggling for breath. Nebraskans share similar concerns. “Some of the information I’ve got said, if you had a major leak, it could annihilate a great portion of the county,” Merle Noel, a farmer who has been on the board of supervisors for Nebraska’s Fillmore County since 2011, told the Globe and Mail. Landowners told The Globe and Mail they have not yet received any details about a potential agreement with the company, or what it could mean for them financially. For some, he told the Globe and Mail, the involvement of Ms. Kleeb’s group may raise suspicions, rather than lowering them. Ms. Kleeb chairs the Nebraska Democratic Party; many rural Nebraskans are committed Republicans… “Tallgrass will still need to work out individual agreements with each landowner, as any pipeline would. But the agreement provides a starting point that should create more productive conversations, Shelli Meyer, a landowner organizer with BOLD, told the Globe and Mail. Her family homestead has been approached by two other carbon pipelines; both mentioned the possible use of eminent domain in their initial letters. “When you put those two words in a letter to a farmer that’s farmed his entire life on the same ground – you just don’t do that. That’s bullying and that’s just nasty,” she told the Globe and Mail. “But that’s how these companies work.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Meet The Ex-Trump Officials Who Helped Draft Project 2025
Robin Bravender, 7/11/24
“William Perry Pendley Former Trump Interior official Perry Pendley wrote in the Project 2025 blueprint that the next Republican president should slash the footprint of national monuments and move to bar future presidents from wielding executive power to protect federal lands,” E&E News reports. “He called the Biden Interior Department ‘at war with the department’s mission’ when it comes to fossil fuel extraction and urges a conservative president to pursue the ‘restoration of the department’s historic role managing the nation’s vast storehouse of hydrocarbons, much of which is yet to be discovered.’ Perry Pendley led the Bureau of Land Management under Trump, although he was never confirmed by the Senate and a judge ruled that he had unlawfully served in that job. A new administration must ‘immediately roll back Biden’s orders,’ reinstate ‘the Trump-era Energy Dominance Agenda’ and put a series of Trump-era secretarial orders back into place, he wrote in Project 2025. “We’ll see what happens after the election and what the president chooses to do,” Perry Pendley told E&E. “I think we got some commonsense recommendations in there, certainly consistent with what [Trump] did during his first term,” he told E&E. “Given the comments that [Trump] has made with regard to energy independence and developing our energy resources, I think once the president takes a look at what I prepared for the Interior Department that he’ll embrace it, but we’ll see.”
Daily Caller: Gop Reps Unveil Bill Rolling Back Biden Admin Attack On Oil And Gas
Nick Pope, 7/11/24
“Two GOP lawmakers introduced a new bill Thursday designed to walk back a Biden administration policy that disadvantaged oil and gas production on public lands,” the Daily Caller reports. “ Republican Reps. Andy Ogles of Tennessee and August Pfluger of Texas unveiled the ‘Declaration of Energy Independence Act’ on Thursday. The bill would undo increases to royalty rates for onshore oil and gas leases that were mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), President Joe Biden’s signature climate bill, which increased the costs of oil and gas development on federal lands.”
E&E News: Enviros Press Court For NEPA Review Of Offshore Well Plugging
NIINA H. FARAH, 7/12/24
“A conservation group is turning to a federal court to help speed up the process of plugging aging offshore oil and gas wells and removing idle infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico,” E&E News reports. “In a new lawsuit filed this week, the Center for Biological Diversity claimed thousands of wells and hundreds of offshore platforms are overdue to end oil and gas operations through decommissioning. The group is calling for a federal judge to order the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management to conduct a new National Environmental Policy Act review of the risks the fossil fuel infrastructure poses to the Gulf so that it can more effectively advance cleanup efforts. “Only with the new, comprehensive analysis that NEPA demands can Defendants possibly understand how to best manage offshore oil and gas activity considering the mess of leaky wells, rusty platforms, and corroding pipelines that the oil and gas industry has created in the Gulf of Mexico,” the group told the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. Without a new review, “the public will continue to be left in the dark about the true dangers posed by offshore oil and gas activity,” the Center for Biological Diversity said.”
E&E News: BLM Nixes Trump-Era Plan For Drilling In Sensitive New Mexico Region
Scott Streater, 7/11/24
“The Biden administration ditched a Trump-era land-use plan update Thursday that could have opened potentially millions of acres of land in northwest New Mexico to oil and gas drilling and sparked loud protests from Democrats and conservation groups,” E&E News reports. “The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday that it terminated an environmental impact statement evaluating a land-use plan amendment concerning how oil and gas development is carried out over the next decade across federal and Native American tribal lands. The region at issue surrounds the Chaco Culture National Historical Park, a UNESCO World Heritage Site crisscrossed by ancient highways that are considered sacred to the Hopi and Pueblo tribes. BLM had quietly posted on its New Mexico website in December that it was halting work on the plan and that it had “started an internal evaluation of the existing resource management plan to determine the next steps in updating it.” Now that move is final.”
DeSmog: Oil and Gas Leases on Federal Lands in Question as Lawmakers Eye Shale Collusion Allegations
Sharon Kelly, 7/11/24
“A dozen Democratic lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Committee want to know if shale drillers could see their oil and gas leases and operations on federal lands suspended amid allegations that the companies may have colluded to drive oil prices up,” DeSmog reports. “Such market manipulation would have enormous impacts on the price of gas paid by working families across the country,” the lawmakers wrote in a July 9 letter to the Department of the Interior. The lawmakers, who include Democratic representatives like Arizona’s Raul Grijalva and California’s Katie Porter, cited evidence that the Federal Trade Commission uncovered during its roughly six-month review of an ultimately successful merger between ExxonMobil and Permian shale giant Pioneer Natural Resources, and class action litigation alleging at least eight major shale producers engaged in antitrust violations. The letter to Interior calls attention to federal rules that let the government suspend or break off contracts with companies that engage — or are suspected of engaging — in a wide range of wrongdoing, including antitrust violations. The lawmakers asked Interior officials to weigh in on whether companies named in the class action litigation could be “permanently barred from obtaining future leases” on federal lands. They also questioned whether any of the companies might be “barred not just from obtaining future leases but from operating on public lands and waters” if they were found civilly or criminally liable for antitrust violations… “The eight defendants in the antitrust lawsuits include Pioneer, which in May merged into ExxonMobil, Occidental Petroleum, Hess Corp., EOG Resources, Diamondback Energy, the privately held Continental Resources (a private company, Chesapeake Energy and Permian Resources. None of the companies named responded to DeSmog requests for comment on the allegations or on the letter. The Department of Interior did not respond when asked if it is considering suspending or debarring any oil and gas operators over antitrust concerns.”
Heatmap: The IRA Might Survive a Republican Trifecta — But Not as a Climate Law
JAEL HOLZMAN, 7/11/24
“The Biden administration has shoveled money from the Inflation Reduction Act out the door as fast as possible this year, touting the many benefits all that cash has brought to Republican congressional districts. Many — in Washington, at think tanks and non-profits, among developers — have found in this a reason to be calm about the law’s fate. But this is incorrect. The IRA’s future as a climate law is in a far more precarious place than the Beltway conventional wisdom has so far suggested,” Heatmap reports. “Shortly after the changing of the guard in Congress and the White House, policymakers will begin discussing whether to extend the Trump-era tax cuts, which expire at the end of 2025. If they opt to do so, they’ll try to find a way to pay for it — and if Republicans win big in the November elections, as recent polling and Democratic fretting suggests could happen, the IRA will be an easy target… “What that means is that, in the event of a big GOP victory, anything impossible to fully repeal may be fiddled with, whether through legislative or administrative means. On top of all the energy and climate regulations that would be targeted in that event, the nation’s transition away from fossil fuels could lose significant federal policy tailwinds… “Anything that cannot be repealed — as the Heritage Foundation’s Project 2025 instructs — Republicans will attempt to modify… “But seasoned political veterans and D.C. industry pros I spoke with for this story noted that Republicans may be more receptive to tweaking programs in a selective fashion, going after industries like solar and offshore wind that some have long-standing grievances with. For example, it may be too difficult to repeal the “tech-neutral” electricity credits in their entirety, but legislators could try to limit their reach for these less-favored sectors — as some have proposed doing for solar projects on farmland — in the name of saving the government money or helping other favored interests.”
E&E News: Feds Propose Restoration Plan For Mysterious 1999 Oil Spill
Michael Doyle, 7/11/24
“The Fish and Wildlife Service and Washington state have drafted a $38 million plan to address the wildlife losses from a still-mysterious 1999 oil spill off the West Coast,” E&E News reports. “A long time in the making, the proposed damage assessment and restoration plan put together by the FWS and the Washington Department of Fish and Wildlife proposes six projects to restore destroyed nests and habitat, as well as reduce disturbance of nesting seabird species that were most harmed by the incident. “All projects will provide substantial benefits to the species impacted by the spill and the public who enjoy these species,” the 56-page draft plan states… “The plan calls for the establishment of about 810 nests and the restoration of habitat, at an estimated cost of about $2 million.”
Associated Press: Marathon Oil Reaches A $241 Million Settlement With EPA For Environmental Violations
7/11/24
“The federal government announced a $241.5 million settlement with Marathon Oil on Thursday for alleged air quality violations at the company's oil and gas operations on the Fort Berthold Indian Reservation in North Dakota,” the Associated Press reports. “The Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice said the settlement requires Marathon to reduce climate- and health-harming emissions from those facilities and will result in over 2.3 millions tons worth of pollution reduction.”
STATE UPDATES
E&E News: Maryland judge scraps Baltimore’s climate case against oil industry
Lesley Clark, 7/12/24
“In a major victory for the fossil fuel industry, a state judge for the first time has tossed out a local government’s entire lawsuit seeking to hold oil companies financially accountable for climate change,” E&E News reports. “The ruling issued Wednesday by Judge Videtta Brown of the Baltimore City Circuit Court found that the Charm City’s 2018 challenge against BP and other oil producers “goes beyond the limits of Maryland state law.” Baltimore’s lawsuit — like dozens of others like it nationwide — relied on state law to claim that the oil industry owes the city compensation for storms and disasters worsened by rising temperatures. But Brown said that Baltimore’s suit “requests damages for the cumulative impact of conduct occurring simultaneously across just about every jurisdiction on the planet.”
Associated Press: Pennsylvania authorizes regulations for carbon capture wells
7/12/24
“Pennsylvania legislation aimed at helping the nation’s No. 2 natural gas-producing state attract carbon capture projects and enable federally funded hydrogen hubs was approved by lawmakers Thursday night despite criticism that the technology is unproven,” the Associated Press reports. “The Republican-penned bill authorizes the Department of Environmental Protection to write regulations to oversee underground wells that store carbon dioxide, a critical component of carbon capture and removal technology that supporters envision as a way to slow climate change… “Opponents say it is experimental and expensive compared to other ways of fighting climate change, such as boosting energy conservation and renewable energies. They also say carbon capture has been oversold as a climate change solution and merely will spawn pipelines and extend the life of a fossil fuel industry that burns oil, coal and natural gas… “The Biden administration has increased tax breaks for developers of carbon capture projects and provided large grants. Developers have responded, flooding the EPA with permit applications for new wells, but only a handful of carbon capture projects are currently operating, and few wells have been approved so far.”
Cowboy State Daily: In Major Policy Shift, Wyoming Redefines Who Can Bid On State Oil And Gas Leases
Pat Maio, 7/8/24
“The Wyoming Outdoor Council did nothing wrong when it tried to outbid a few oil and natural gas companies that wanted to strike it rich on a chunk of state land put out for auction nearly a year ago south of Pinedale,” the Cowboy State Daily reports. “The Wyoming Office of State Land Investments said so. As a qualified bidder in the auction, the Lander-based conservation advocacy organization has admitted it wanted to knock off energy industry players in the auction process and preserve a bottleneck migratory route used by pronghorn antelope. It had no interest in developing oil and gas on the land. That was it. But that wasn’t how some in Wyoming’s energy industry interpreted what they claim is a gambit to deny them the leases or drive up the bid to make them overpay. Representatives with the Petroleum Association of Wyoming and Casper-based Kirkwood Cos. expressed worries about some outside billionaire — namely Michael Bloomberg, who is spending more than $1 billion on an energy transition plan to create a carbon-free world — swooping into Wyoming and dominating a state-led oil and gas lease auction. ‘There is concern for billionaires like (Michael) Bloomberg or (Bill) Gates or (Warren) Buffett putting in bids for these leases with no intention of ever developing them for oil and gas,’ Steve Degenfelder, land manager for the Casper-based Kirkwood Cos., told Cowboy State Daily.”
CalMatters: The Supreme Court took powers away from federal regulators. Do California rules offer a backstop?
BEN CHRISTOPHER, 7/10/24
“In three rulings the U.S. Supreme Court dealt a body blow to the federal bureaucracy. From healthcare to climate to workers’ rights, California’s rules often go farther,” CalMatters reports. “...For the conservative legal movement and for major business interests who bristle under what they see as an overreaching federal regulatory apparatus, the rulings mark a once-in-a-generation victory against the “administrative state.” But in California, the effects of those rulings may be a bit more muted, legal experts say. California has an administrative state of its own. From worker safeguards to water regulations to LGBTQ-protections on college campuses, the rules enforced by California state agencies often meet and exceed the stringency of their federal counterparts. If judges begin swatting down federal regulations as a result of the recent decisions, California’s own rules could serve as a regulatory backup. For critics of the court’s recent decisions, that’s some consolation. “California is, in a way, better situated than some other states because it is big enough and it has enough expertise in state government to actually provide state law protections that can kind of compensate for weakened federal ones,” Sean Donahue, a lawyer who represents the Environmental Defense Fund, told CalMatters. “That may not be true in some smaller states.”
Colorado Sun: Multiple ozone violations recorded in Colorado’s current bad-air season, heat wave could make it worse
Michael Booth, 7/11/24
“The Front Range has recorded multiple violations of EPA ozone standards this summer season, regional monitors show, and with temperatures poised to spike above 100 this week the metro area is well on the road to future crackdowns from federal regulators,” the Colorado Sun reports. “The Regional Air Quality Council July 7 update shows seven days of readings above the 2008-era limit of 75 parts per billion of ozone so far in the current ozone season. That starts the EPA’s clock for measuring whether the northern Front Range counties should be moved to the “extreme” violator category from the current “severe” ranking. After a few years of exceedances, Colorado is relegated by the EPA to the next category. Each downgrade carries with it the potential for new EPA sanctions, such as the reformulated gas required at all gas stations this summer in the nonattainment area. The same RAQC update shows 12 days shooting above the tighter 2015-era EPA limit of 70 parts per billion for toxic ozone, setting nine Front Range counties on the path to being downgraded from “moderate” to “serious” violations of that standard if the pattern continues.”
Utah News Dispatch: Which rocks are best to store carbon from coal plants? Utah is mapping their potential
ALIXEL CABRERA, 7/11/24
“In the coal-fueled power plant conversation, there’s a technology that has been front and center; carbon capture and storage — a process that captures carbon dioxide from the air and stores it in underground geologic formations,” the Utah News Dispatch reports. “...Though the state is challenging the new EPA regulations, the Utah Geological Survey is simultaneously taking an initial step to determine where carbon storage facilities or a regional hub to store those emissions may be located, conducting an assessment to study the state’s potential to store industrial carbon dioxide emissions underground. “We envision that this web application will be a really good technical resource and a source of reliable data for people that might be interested in (carbon capture, utilization and storage), maybe creating storage facilities or a regional hub in Utah,” Gabi St. Pierre, a geologist with the Utah Geological Survey, told the Dispatch. The research, which is expected to take two years, could help determine which rock formations anywhere in the state, including those near coal plants, could store those carbon dioxide emissions. Or, whether the greenhouse emissions would have to be transported to be stored in another area. Though that investigation is still ongoing, some rock formations in the Uinta Basin, which have previously been studied for carbon storage, already look promising to help keep the gas underground… “Researchers are already interested in sandstone as potential geologic storages. They have identified some promising potential reservoirs with the help of the Uinta Basin CarbonSAFE Phase II project, from the University of Utah’s Energy and Geoscience Institute, which is exploring the feasibility of a commercial scale carbon storage complex in the northeast Uinta Basin.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Rush to prevent oil spill from grounded ship off South African coast
7/11/24
“Salvage operations were in high-gear on Thursday to prevent a potential oil spill and pollution along South Africa's west coast from a grounded general cargo vessel, authorities said,” Reuters reports. “The Panama-flagged "Ultra Galaxy" ran aground close to Doring Bay, some 300 km north of Cape Town, late on Tuesday after it started listing badly. The ship was abandoned by its 18-strong Filipino crew while still at sea and concerns have since risen over the potential for an oil spill. "Salvage operations are continuing at high speed to minimise the risk of pollution and to assess the condition of the cargo on the stricken vessel," Tebogo Ramatjie, a spokesperson for the South African Maritime Safety Authority (SAMSA) told Reuters… “Efforts are now focussed on preventing a fuel and oil spill, as well as salvaging its full cargo load of fertilizer bags from the vessel which was on its way to Dar es Salaam in Tanzania.”
Bloomberg: Google’s Former Carbon Project Gets $40 Million to Trap CO2
Rafaela Jinich, 7/11/24
“Startup 280 Earth, a product of Alphabet Inc.’s moonshot factory, has signed agreements worth $40 million to extract carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a newly completed facility in Oregon,” Bloomberg reports. “The agreements, facilitated by the Frontier coalition, will fund removal of 61,600 tons of the greenhouse gas from 2024 to 2030.”
OPINION
Des Moines Register: Who's the loser in Iowa carbon pipeline approval? The public.
Dale Braun, president, Izaak Walton League of America Iowa division, 7/12/24
“Despite numerous and compelling testimonies to the contrary, the Iowa Utilities Board issued its approval for privately owned Summit Carbon Solution to use eminent domain to lay its liquid carbon dioxide pipeline across Iowa. It was argued by many that the eminent domain process is only available to a government body for accommodating public utilities and road work, not for private companies,” Dale Braun writes for the Des Moines Register. “This approval has put into perspective how the dollar overcomes common sense and the desire of 859 landowners who did not accept Summit Carbon Solutions’ right-of-way offers. Those 859 landowners (approximately 25% of the total landowners approached by Summit) have their own reasons to be anti-pipeline, and those reasons should have outweighed the so-called benefit of Summit Carbon Solutions needing to get “tax credits.” “... How is the pipeline convenient to the landowners? It isn’t. It is only convenient to Summit with tax credits and to the ethanol plant owners with the same, neither of whom are in the “public” domain… “As such, we find Iowa board’s approval a complete failure of “common sense.”