EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 7/28/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Duluth News Tribune: GOP challenger calls for Attorney General Keith Ellison to reject special prosecutor request in Line 3 case
Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Legislators push for extension of Mountain Valley Pipeline permit
Prince George Citizen: Lheidli T'enneh drops lawsuit against Enbridge
Associated Press: Pipeline company to pay nearly $1M over California oil spill
News-Herald: Colonial still mapping pipeline leak
BPROUD: Hazmat investigating possible natural gas pipeline leak in Bayou Sorrel
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on economy, climate bill
E&E News: Greens laud Manchin climate deal, but concerns remain
E&E News: Manchin announces climate deal
STATE UPDATES
CBS Colorado: State regulators set to release plan to address Front Range ozone
Natural Gas Intelligence: Iowa’s ‘Plausible’ Net-Zero Pathway Calls for Surge in Natural Gas Generation
EXTRACTION
WIRED: The Big Business of Burying Carbon
S&P Global: Oil Sands to Continue to Grow but Heightened Energy Security Concerns Have Not Yet Boosted Outlook
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Treasury Department to create climate research hub
Financial Times: Oil and gas majors: time for a transformative clean energy deal?
Bismarck Tribune: North Dakota lawmakers hear ESG concerns from state treasurers
OPINION
The Hill: How green is your lawyer?
PIPELINE NEWS
Duluth News Tribune: GOP challenger calls for Attorney General Keith Ellison to reject special prosecutor request in Line 3 case
Alex Derosier, 7/26/22
“Minnesota Republican-endorsed attorney general candidate Jim Schultz is calling on Democratic incumbent Keith Ellison to reject activist requests to review criminal cases tied to oil pipeline protests as a special prosecutor,” the Duluth News Tribune reports. “Hundreds face charges in connection with the protests of the Line 3 pipeline replacement project last year, which energy company Enbridge constructed through northern Minnesota to transport oil from the Canadian province of Alberta to Superior, Wisconsin. Schultz said environmental activists want Democratic Gov. Tim Walz to appoint Ellison "clearly in hopes of increasing their chances of having their criminal charges reduced or dropped." "With the significance and severity of what has happened, Minnesotans deserve to know if Keith Ellison will stand with law enforcement to uphold the rule of law and hold individuals accountable," the GOP candidate said in a statement Tuesday, July 26. Schultz and Republican primary challenger Doug Wardlow have both styled themselves as “law and order” candidates in their bids to challenge Ellison in the November election. Asked if Walz would appoint Ellison as special prosecutor, the governor's office said cases such as the protesters' are typically handled at the local level. "We don’t expect these cases will be any different," a spokesperson told the Tribune… “White Earth-based environmental justice group Honor the Earth and the broader Drop the Charges Coalition are asking state leaders to do everything in their power to drop charges against protesters, and for Walz to appoint Ellison special prosecutor in the “most egregious cases,” where activists say protesters faced exaggerated felony charges unrelated to what occurred or received “inconsistent” plea deals… “The Drop The Charges Coalition has highlighted 14 different cases that it considers the most egregious. Protesters in Aitkin County face charges including felony aiding attempted suicide for protesters who crawled into a section of empty pipe and refused to exit. In a Wadena County case, protesters face felony theft charges for chaining themselves to equipment. Prosecutors could not immediately be reached Tuesday… “Environmental activist and former vice presidential candidate Winona LaDuke is scheduled for trial for protest-related charges in Wadena County on Aug. 12.”
Bluefield Daily Telegraph: Legislators push for extension of Mountain Valley Pipeline permit
CHARLES BOOTHE, 7/28/22
“West Virginia federal legislators are putting pressure on a federal agency to approve a four-year extension of the deadline to complete the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” the Bluefield Daily Telegraph reports. “Rep. David B. McKinley, R-1st District, along with Senators Shelley Moore Capito, R-W.Va., and Joe Manchin, D-W.Va., who is Chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, and Rep. Carol Miller, R-3rd District, signed a letter last week to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) urging them to support the completion of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) and approve its pending request for a four-year extension… “More than 90 percent of the pipe has been placed. However, because of protests and lawsuits the project has been delayed by court battles and the company is now asking for an extension of the permits to 2026 and the cost estimate to finish is now at more than $6 billion… “Manchin also called for the 4th Circuit case in Richmond to be moved to the D.C. court… “Opponents of the MVP have pointed out the impact on the environment, especially in areas like Monroe County which includes karst (underground limestone which has been eroded by dissolution, producing ridges, towers, fissures, sinkholes and other characteristic landforms), and also the dangers of a large-capacity pipeline that could leak or explode with the underground instability. They also have questioned the eminent domain component, with many landowners not wanting the pipeline on their land but had no choice.”
Prince George Citizen: Lheidli T'enneh drops lawsuit against Enbridge
Mark Nielsen, 7/27/22
“The Lheidli T'enneh First Nation has backed away from its civil action against Enbridge, Inc. over the October 2018 pipeline explosion and fire near the band's Shelley reserve,” the Prince George Citizen reports. “A notice was filed July 19 at the Prince George courthouse saying the proceeding against Enbridge and its subsidiary, Westcoast Energy Inc., has been discontinued… “In a statement, Enbridge spokesperson Gina Sutherland said the company can confirm that the notice of discontinuance was filed. "The parties are working together and can provide further details in the coming days," Sutherland told the Citizen. On Oct. 9, 2018, the system's 90-centimetre (36-inch) pipeline ruptured 500-700 metres from the reserve's northern boundary, shooting a massive fireball into the air that could be seen for kilometres around. About 100 band members evacuated as the blast shook homes and showered residents with debris… “In February 2019, LTFN filed a lawsuit against Enbridge and a bit more than a month later, Enbridge filed a response denying LTN's claims. Along with damages, LTFN was seeking an order that Enbridge reroute the pipeline away from the reserve and territory… “A Transportation Safety Board of Canada investigation found that the polyethylene tape coating applied to the pipe to protect it from corrosion deteriorated over time, allowing soil moisture to come into contact with the pipe surface and leading to corrosion and cracking and the subsequent rupture.”
Associated Press: Pipeline company to pay nearly $1M over California oil spill
7/27/22
“The owner of an underwater oil pipeline that spilled some 25,000 gallons of crude into the ocean off Southern California last year will pay nearly $1 million in cleanup costs,” the Associated Press reports. “The Orange County Board of Supervisors on Tuesday agreed to accept a proposed claim settlement with Amplify Energy Corp. over the costs of dealing with last October's spill off of Huntington Beach. The ruptured pipeline spilled the oil, equal to about 94,600 liters, about 4 miles (6.4 kilometers) offshore. While less severe than initially feared, the spill shuttered beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened wetlands that Orange County communities have been striving to restore… “The $956,352 settlement with Orange County includes about $238,000 for the county Public Works Department, which built sand berms and placed booms to prevent oil from polluting sensitive wetlands, the Orange County Register reported. Money also will go to the county's health agency, the Sheriff's Department that operates the Harbor Patrol, and reimburse the county for legal costs and the hiring of contractors and environmental consultants. Meanwhile, Amplify and two subsidiaries were indicted by a federal grand jury last year on a misdemeanor count of illegally discharging oil.”
News-Herald: Colonial still mapping pipeline leak
Hugh G. Willett, 7/27/22
“Workers are still trying to locate contaminated soil several weeks after a leaking valve on a pipeline off Sugarlimb Road released thousands of gallons of gasoline into the environment,” the News-Herald reports. “After employing floating booms and earthen dams to prevent the spread of gasoline on the surface, Colonial Pipeline is drilling more than 40 feet below the ground to explore for contaminated soil. The workers have removed trees to increase access to the site and have also begun reseeding grass to restore disturbed areas along Hubbard Branch Creek, which flows directly to the Tennessee River less than a mile away. “We’re going above and beyond,” Travis Mayers, project inspector for Colonial, told the Herald. “Our goal is to leave it better than it was before.” He told the Herald the operation is still in the exploratory phase of mapping how far leaked gasoline might have spread. Materials and water extracted in the drill core samples are taken to a location off site and tested. Mayers said there is no telling how long the process might take… “Primary concerns were preventing hazardous materials from flowing into the Tennessee River and removing contaminated soil near the site of the spill. A week after the leak, Colonial said contamination was in soil about eight feet outside the trap facility… “None of the surface water samples collected and analyzed by an external third party have detected the presence of gasoline.”
BPROUD: Hazmat investigating possible natural gas pipeline leak in Bayou Sorrel
Allison Bruhl, 7/27/22
“State Police hazmat is investigating a possible natural gas pipeline leak Wednesday evening, according to Iberville Parish President J. Mitchell Ourso Jr.,” BPROUD reports. “Ourso told BPROUD parish officials were notified of the possible leak located 400 yards north of the Gracie Lane Fire Station this afternoon. He said State Police is working to resolve the issue and the leak is not a threat to the public at this time.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Manchin says he has reached deal with Schumer on economy, climate bill
Tony Romm, Jeff Stein, Rachel Roubein and Maxine Joselow, 7/27/22
“Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday reached a deal with Democratic leaders on a spending package that aims to lower health-care costs, combat climate change and reduce the federal deficit, marking a massive potential breakthrough for President Biden’s long-stalled economic agenda,” the Washington Post reports. “The new agreement, brokered between Manchin and Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), opens the door for party lawmakers to try to advance the measure next week. It caps off months of fierce debate, delay and acrimony, a level of infighting that some Democrats saw as detrimental to their political fate ahead of this fall’s critical elections. Under the deal, Schumer secured Manchin’s support for roughly $433 billion in new spending, most of which is focused on climate change and clean energy production. It is the largest such investment in U.S. history, and a marked departure from Manchin’s position only days earlier… “The accord came in part because Schumer, Pelosi and Biden also agreed to seek and pass new legislation easing the federal permitting rules for pipelines and other infrastructure in the coming months. Such regulatory changes have to be tackled separately from Democrats’ spending package, given the rules under which lawmakers hope to advance their forthcoming bill. Manchin has in particular prioritized a drilling project in Alaska and a natural gas pipeline that runs through West Virginia.”
E&E News: Greens laud Manchin climate deal, but concerns remain
Timothy Cama, Kelsey Brugger, 7/28/22
“Climate change activists cautiously praised yesterday’s news that Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin had agreed to a legislative package that includes nearly $370 billion in climate and energy spending,” E&E News reports. “...Food & Water Action, on the other hand, slammed the deal. Wenonah Hauter, the organization’s executive director, pointed to Manchin’s mentions of provisions on pipeline permitting, hydrogen and carbon capture. “After dragging his feet for more than a year, Senator Manchin announced an agreement that won’t solve the crisis, and may make it worse. The few details released this evening suggest this deal will prop up fossil fuels and promote the various false climate solutions beloved by industry.” The deal includes Democratic leaders promising to pursue reforms “essential to unlocking domestic energy and transmission projects, which will lower costs for consumers and help us meet our long-term emissions goals,” according to a summary. That raised alarms for Brett Hartl, government affairs director with the Center for Biological Diversity. “We have no idea what they’ve agreed to,” he told E&E. “They might not know.” “...Pica of Friends of the Earth called on “Democratic leadership to stand firm against an unjust and doomed ‘all of the above’ energy strategy.”
E&E News: Manchin announces climate deal
Jeremy Dillon, 7/27/22
“Senate Energy and Natural Resources Chair Joe Manchin announced a deal this afternoon on budget reconciliation legislation with climate and clean energy provisions,” E&E News reports. “Rather than risking more inflation with trillions in new spending, this bill will cut the inflation taxes Americans are paying, lower the cost of health insurance and prescription drugs, and ensure our country invests in the energy security and climate change solutions we need to remain a global superpower through innovation rather than elimination,” Manchin said in a statement… “It is truly all of the above, which means this bill does not arbitrarily shut off our abundant fossil fuels,” Manchin said. “It invests heavily in technologies to help us reduce our domestic methane and carbon emissions and also helps decarbonize around the world as we displace dirtier products.”
STATE UPDATES
CBS Colorado: State regulators set to release plan to address Front Range ozone
SHAUN BOYD, 7/26/22
“Colorado may be known for clean mountain air, but the Front Range has one of the worst ozone problems in the country. The Environmental Protection Agency is preparing to reclassify nine counties on the Front Range from "serious" to "severe" violators of federal ozone standards,” CBS Colorado reports. “Last year, the state marked a ominous milestone, a record 65 ozone alert days. When we exceed the federal limit for what's considered safe, state regulators are required to come up with an action plan. That plan will be rolled out next week and some environmental and health experts warn, it doesn't go far enough. "We've been here before," Gregg Thomas, Director of Denver's Environmental Quality Division, told CBS. He told CBS every few years the state develops a new plan, and every time, it doesn't go far enough. "So the question is 'are we going to continue to live on the edge and just keep doing what modeling needs us to do knowing said before and right back boat we're in?” “...State regulators will release their new plan to address ozone August 5th. Environmental and health advocates are urging Coloradans to weigh in before then.”
Natural Gas Intelligence: Iowa’s ‘Plausible’ Net-Zero Pathway Calls for Surge in Natural Gas Generation
MORGAN EVANS, 7/26/22
“While Iowa could require 35-199 GW of additional installed wind capacity to meet net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, land use ordinances and regulatory hurdles leave the door open for natural gas to play a role in decarbonizing, according to estimates,” Natural Gas Intelligence reports. “In order to reach net-zero carbon emissions by 2050, the state would need to see a “massive infrastructure build-out over the next 28 years,” Clear Path’s Spencer Nelson, managing director of research, told NGI. Standing in the way of such a buildout are county-level restrictions on new wind development that were enacted over the last three years, according to the report. More than 75% of land in Iowa could accommodate wind development. However, between 49% and 77% of the counties that could support projects have adopted ordinances blocking development. “Not all net-zero pathways that have been modeled are actually feasible,” Nelson told NGI. “Policies that support technology-neutral decarbonization and either the reuse or optimization of existing infrastructure and rights of way are essential.” “...Clear Path’s findings demonstrate “how challenging a clean energy transition would be if we put all our eggs into one basket,” Clear Path CEO Rich Powerll told NGI. “We should focus on a clean energy portfolio approach that includes wind and solar, and other baseload clean energy assets like nuclear energy as well as coal and gas with carbon capture.”
EXTRACTION
WIRED: The Big Business of Burying Carbon
Jeffrey Ball, 7/28/22
“Sometime after the dinosaurs died, sediment started pouring into the Gulf of Mexico,” WIRED reports.”...The idea is that major emitters will hoover up their own carbon waste, then pay to have it compressed into liquid and injected back down, safely and permanently, into the same sorts of rocks it came from—carbon capture and sequestration on a scale unprecedented around the globe, large enough to put a real dent in climate change. Suddenly, amid surging global concern about the climate crisis, some of the biggest names in the petroleum industry are jumping in… “Amid rising climate concern, Congress fattened a federal tax credit for carbon capture and sequestration that until then hadn’t attracted much commercial interest. The new subsidy, modeled broadly on ones for renewable energy, gave developers a credit topping out at $50 for every ton of waste carbon dioxide they captured and geologically stored… “It also launched the US carbon-storage race… “The result today is that, more than a century after opportunists first swarmed the Gulf to profit from its hydrocarbons, a new swarm has descended, this time to profit from mitigating the damage those hydrocarbons have wrought… “Within about a 75-mile circle around Port Arthur, more than half a dozen industrial-scale projects are in various stages of preparation. Their backers include oil giants such as ExxonMobil, ConocoPhillips, BP, and TotalEnergies, which have announced the possibility of more than $100 billion in investments; major pipeline operators, which see human-generated CO2 as a huge new market; renewable-energy developers who once lambasted fossil fuels but now want to decarbonize them for profit; and landowners who sense a new way to monetize their dirt. A stampede for capital, land rights, and regulatory approval is underway. Meckel concedes that carbon storage is a “blunt” and “dumb” approach to curbing climate change. “You’re basically just landfilling,” he told WIRED, not decoupling the economy from the production of heat-trapping gases… “When Congress passed the $50 carbon incentive, Tiller told WIRED, he pounced on it as an “opportunity to ride a wave that I’d seen before.” But he had “zero idea” about burying carbon… “The crux of the dilemma is that only about 2 million of the 35 million tons of industrial CO2 emitted annually by large facilities in the Port Arthur area, which includes neighboring Beaumont, is, as Tiller puts it, “low-hanging fruit”—meaning that the tax credit of $50 a ton can cover the cost of capturing, transporting, and burying it.”
S&P Global: Oil Sands to Continue to Grow but Heightened Energy Security Concerns Have Not Yet Boosted Outlook
7/27/22
“While the Russian invasion of Ukraine has increased the incentive to raise Canadian oil sands production in the short-term, it has not fundamentally altered the production outlook over the longer-term,” according to S&P Global. “The updated 10-year forecast expects Canadian oil sands production to reach 3.5 million barrels per day (MMbd) in 2030, an increase of about half a million barrels per day compared to 2021 production levels, according to the S&P Global Commodity Insights forecast. The previous forecast expected production to reach 3.6 MMbd in 2030—a difference of 100,000 barrels per day (b/d). "The Russian invasion of Ukraine has heightened interest in the ability of Canada—and oil sands specifically—to contribute more crude supply to the global oil market," said Kevin Birn, vice president, Canadian oil markets chief analyst, S&P Global Commodity Insights. "While this has increased the incentive to raise oil sands production in the near-term, a longer-term focus on strengthening returns to shareholders as well as decarbonizing the industry continue to weigh on growth for the longer-term." The latest revisions to the 10-year outlook reflect newer trends, such as investor priorities shifting toward greater returns on capital, as well as ambitious greenhouse gas reduction expectations announced by the Government of Canada and plans announced by the industry that would require large-scale investments over multiple years in decarbonization projects such as carbon capture and storage… “The emphasis on production growth from existing projects means that the strongest oil sands production growth will occur within the next few years. Conversely, nearly all of the 100,000 b/d reduction compared to the previous 2030 forecast comes from output associated with new projects that would have been expected to come online later in the forecast period… “Nevertheless, the latest 10-year forecast could still prove conservative if higher crude prices and energy security concerns persist long enough. "If current price levels are sustained it is possible that upstream operators may be able to satisfy shareholders with sufficient returns, advance larger-scale decarbonization efforts and invest in growing production," said Celina Hwang, director, North American crude oil markets, S&P Global Commodity Insights.
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: Treasury Department to create climate research hub
Avery Ellfeldt, 7/28/22
“The Treasury Department is launching a new effort to provide financial regulators with the data, tools and software they need to more precisely assess the threat that climate change poses to the U.S. financial system,” E&E News reports. “The “Climate Data and Analytics Hub” will be housed in the Treasury’s Office of Financial Research, an independent bureau created in the wake of the 2007-2008 financial crisis. One of its main missions is to track and investigate emerging financial threats… “The move to launch the Climate Data and Analytics Hub comes nine months after the council for the first time identified climate change as an emerging threat to financial stability. It also comes amid efforts by the Biden administration to maintain momentum on climate in the face of recent setbacks… “Among the biggest advances recently by U.S. financial agencies are two rules proposed by the SEC. One would crack down on the booming — yet largely unchecked — universe of sustainable investing. The other would require public companies to disclose more climate-related information. The latter has drawn fire from Republican officials and various business groups, who argue it would be being overly burdensome for many companies. They also say it solicits information that may not be material to a company’s financial performance.”
Financial Times: Oil and gas majors: time for a transformative clean energy deal?
Tom Wilson, 7/27/22
“The world’s biggest oil and gas companies are generating more money than ever while spending relatively little of it,” the Financial Times reports. “European supermajors BP, Shell and TotalEnergies have each pledged to become green businesses over the next three decades but are still investing only a fraction of their capital on renewable energy. With each expected to report another set of bumper profits over the next week, bankers are asking whether they might be tempted to turbocharge their transition strategies with a big acquisition… “But the deals are tiny compared with the tens of billions that would be needed to strike a transformative deal for a “green energy major” such as Germany’s RWE or Denmark’s Orsted… “However, Jim Peterkin, head of oil and gas at investment bank Credit Suisse, told WIRED that while the time for such deals would come, it was still some way off. “I do think there’s going to be a consolidation over time but that may be 10 years away, not one year away.” “...For now, the supermajors are yet to show whether they can run renewables businesses profitably — let alone, for the purposes of successful M&A, more profitability than their current owners. To approve a deal, shareholders in an oil and gas company would need to be convinced that it could run a company such as RWE’s assets better than they are being run currently, the head of one renewables-focused private equity group told WIRED. Many industry insiders remain sceptical of the ability of oil and gas companies to make the leap.”
Bismarck Tribune: North Dakota lawmakers hear ESG concerns from state treasurers
JACK DURA, 7/26/22
“Three state treasurers on Tuesday told a panel of North Dakota lawmakers about their concerns related to investing practices that consider climate change, social policies and other factors,” the Bismarck Tribune reports. “The Legislature's interim Energy Development and Transmission Committee heard from the North Dakota, Utah and West Virginia state treasurers -- all Republicans -- about so-called ESG, or "environmental, social and governance" factors that financial institutions and investors consider for perceived risk related to topics such as climate change, impacts on people, and structures of companies and institutions. North Dakota State Treasurer Thomas Beadle cited ratings from the S&P Global ESG Credit Indicator Report Card that ranked North Dakota as "neutral" for social and governance factors, but "moderately negative" for environmental, tabbed as a "'climate transition risk' due to our exposure to oil, gas and coal." "It's easy to see how these type of ratings could get used in years to come to impact businesses operating here and our communities at large," Beadle told the panel. The 2021 Legislature passed a bill banning "social investment," or "the consideration of socially responsible criteria in the investment or commitment of public funds for the purpose of obtaining an effect other than a maximized return to the state." “...Utah State Treasurer Marlo Oaks said ESG "really undermines our institutions in the United States, starting with the U.S. Constitution." “...West Virginia State Treasurer Riley Moore described a new law barring from state business any financial institutions "engaged in a boycott of any energy company, fossil fuel industry."
OPINION
The Hill: How green is your lawyer?
James Cooper is a professor of law at California Western School of Law in San Diego. Kashyap Kompella, CFA, is president and CEO of RPA2AI Research and visiting faculty at the Institute of Directors, 7/28/22
“In a recent Climate Action Tracker study, half of the corporations surveyed acknowledged that they had no concrete plan for realizing their net-zero carbon emissions pledges. Moreover, not a single country among the 187 that signed the Paris Climate Agreement is on track for emissions reductions. Houston, we have a problem,” James Cooper and Kashyap Kompella write for The Hill. “With everyone jumping on the environmental, social and governance (ESG) bandwagon to meet the United Nations’ Sustainable Development Goals, it is important that countries do more than just sign international accords with lofty promises. And corporations need to do more than virtue-signal. Even the Securities and Exchange Commission has provided ESG disclosure rules, which are being opposed in court. Not surprisingly, the scramble to be “ESG compliant” has continued in earnest. And so has the greenwashing — the practice of faking credentials and fabricating goal achievement in meeting ESG standards. For example, Deutsche Bank has been accused of greenwashing. So have KLM Airlines and a number of others. Greenwashing is not just companies passing off their ESG credibility. We must guard against competence greenwashing, too. It is time to jettison the inevitable opportunism and instead build a cadre of experts with real ESG chops — a much-needed step to help guide this journey towards ESG compliance. This means that we need to make sure our lawyers and legal advisers are green. Law students, lawyers and judicial administrators are an important part of the solution, but they need to upskill. This is a great opportunity for law schools and continuing legal education programs to help fill in the gaps of knowledge… “Green lawyers and other professionals with rigorous ESG certifications must earn their seat at the table. A new social contract is being drafted for the 21st century at a legislature and corporate boardroom near you. It is neither the maligned Green New Deal, nor the polluted days of old, but a middle path.”