EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/12/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: Enbridge Line 3 Dispute Ends After Tribal Court Tosses Lawsuit
AgUpdate: Carbon pipeline, farm bill take center stage at Dakotafest
Kiowa County Press: North Dakota landowners continue mobilization in opposing carbon pipeline
York News Times: Summit Carbon Solutions continues work toward easements, acquisitions for pipeline
KCAU: Summit Carbon Solutions requests eminent domain of Iowa properties for carbon pipeline
KGET: PG&E settles lawsuit over 2015 pipeline explosion
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: House starts process for climate bill passage
Press release: Pressure Mounts on Agriculture Secretary to Reject Hazardous Utah Oil Trains
Politico: Climate bill's methane fee could pave the way to a carbon tax
STATE UPDATES
Politico: Colo. governments tell SCOTUS to stay out of climate fight
Casper Star Tribune: Billion-barrel Wyoming oil discovery can't all be drilled, company clarifies
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Oil leak contained at three U.S. Gulf platforms on pipeline outage, Shell says
Press release: How Cheniere is Greenwashing its LNG With New Cargo Emissions Tags
The Hill: Four cities’ landfills emit as much methane as 2 million cars: study
OPINION
The Conversation: The climate bill’s projected emissions cuts rely heavily on carbon capture – it would mean thousands of miles of pipeline
San Francisco Chronicle: The Inflation Reduction Act will gut fossil fuels. This is California's last chance to divest
The Hill: We used to force oil companies to clean up their messes. Why is climate change different?
PIPELINE NEWS
Bloomberg: Enbridge Line 3 Dispute Ends After Tribal Court Tosses Lawsuit
8/11/22
“A dispute over Minnesota’s approval of Enbridge Inc.'s Line 3 replacement project will come to an end after a tribal court struck down the case, the Eighth Circuit ruled,” Bloomberg reports. “The White Earth Band of Ojibwe sued the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources after it granted water-use permits to the company for the oil pipeline. Wild rice is “integral” for the tribe and endangered by the project, it argued, and the department approved the permits “unilaterally and without formal notice to tribal leaders and without tribal consent.”
AgUpdate: Carbon pipeline, farm bill take center stage at Dakotafest
Melisa Goss, 8/11/22
“Shiny new machinery and technology are always exciting to check out at Dakotafest, but two forums taking place this year are sure to garner their fair share of attention,” AgUpdate reports. “...A forum on carbon pipelines will be held at 10:30 a.m. Tuesday, Aug. 16, and a farm bill forum with Sens. John Thune and Mike Rounds and Congressman Dusty Johnson will take place ain the same time slot Wednesday, Aug. 17. The proposed carbon-capture and sequestration pipeline has caused a stir among South Dakotans. Forum participants will represent a variety of interests both in favor of and opposing the new pipeline. Panelists include Jim Pirolli, chief commercial officer with Summit Carbon Solutions and Jim Seurer, chief executive officer with Glacial Lakes Energy who will both offer insights on the project’s latest developments. The panel will also include Jay Poindexter, landowner from Ree Heights, South Dakota and Kristen Edwards, staff attorney with the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission. “It’s an issue that’s at the forefront of a lot of people’s minds,” Lowell Mesman, western regional manager and organizational director for South Dakota Farm Bureau, told AgUpdate… “Mesman said the leadership team of South Dakota Farm Bureau spent time deliberating which two topics should be discussed at Dakotafest, tossing around ideas such as markets or farm transition. He told AgUpdate the biggest factors in deciding what to highlight center on what’s circulating at the time. “You can always do a forum on generational transfer of farms or different things like that, but these are the two (topics) that came to the top of the list for us,” Mesman told AgUpdate.”
Kiowa County Press: North Dakota landowners continue mobilization in opposing carbon pipeline
Mike Moen, 8/11/22
“Next week, North Dakota landowners will get a chance to hear updates on a proposed underground pipeline for transporting and sequestering carbon dioxide. The meeting comes as tension builds between landowners and the company behind the project,” the Kiowa County Press reports. “Dakota Resource Council is hosting next Tuesday's meeting, and said it wants affected property owners to learn about the latest efforts by Summit Carbon Solutions to secure land for its multistate pipeline. The company recently submitted paperwork in North Dakota to pursue eminent domain if it cannot obtain enough voluntary easements. Eliot Huggins, field organizer for the Council, said Summit is placing unnecessary pressure on those not agreeing to contracts. "Harassing, threats of eminent domain, things like that," Huggins told the Press. "There's folks at the beginning who might have been open to this who are now pretty opposed, and that's largely just due to their interactions with the company." “...The Council also urged those concerned to sign up for the grassroots North Dakota Easement Team, which is designed to fight Summit's efforts collectively, including potential legal options, while informing people of their rights. Brian Jorde, managing partner of Domina Law Group, which is part of the legal team, told the Press the group approach can be more effective than a person taking action on their own. "You can be as noisy as you want on your own and good luck to you," Jorde told the Press. "But unless you're part of a larger group, you can't hope to even make a dent or resist these billion-dollar-backed entities." Similar groups have been formed in other Midwestern states in the proposed project's footprint.”
York News Times: Summit Carbon Solutions continues work toward easements, acquisitions for pipeline
Melanie Wilkinson, 8/10/22
“Summit Carbon Solutions continues work toward acquiring land easements for the construction of a pipeline that would carry carbon dioxide from 31 ethanol plants (six being in Nebraska) to a storage site in North Dakota,” the York News Times reports. “Rob Latimer and Ben Fuller, representing the company, met with the York County Commissioners this week, to provide an update on the project… “The company’s investment will be $4.5 billion and no government subsidies or assistance are going to be used, Summit representatives have said in past meetings. He said the total investment in York County would be just over $43 million, generating about $964,000 in new property taxes annually. “Regarding land acquisition, in Nebraska we have 108 miles acquired,” Latimer said. “...How many landowners have given you permission in York County?” asked Commissioner Jack Sikes. “The mileage we’ve acquired so far, in York County, is 2.6 miles” (of the 18.69 needed), Latimer said. “We haven’t acquired it all yet.” Sikes said he had issues with a map already being drawn with the indication of the pipeline path, “when the land hasn’t even been acquired yet. That makes people think this is the path.” “… I also have an issue if eminent domain is used for a private project,” Sikes said… “You say a start date of August, 2023, but if you don’t get all your easements you will get into litigation,” Commissioner Bill Bamesberger said to Latimer. “I just don’t see how you can make that date.” “...During the public forum part of the commissioners’ meeting, Shannon Graves of rural Bradshaw addressed the board, saying she was having flashbacks, “as this company is working from the TransCanada (the company who sought to create the Keystone XL pipeline) playbook. They’ve already been threatening eminent domain. And the person you are meeting with today (Latimer) worked for TransCanada. He has a lot of experience in misinformation and half-truths. Some of you remember me, my husband and friends as we tried to get protections from the Keystone XL pipeline project. With this project, there are only nine easements on record in York County and we have heard landowners have been denying surveys. We are asking you today to pull out the haul route agreement we paid for but you never adopted. And remember, this is about this project and the next project and the next project.”
KCAU: Summit Carbon Solutions requests eminent domain of Iowa properties for carbon pipeline
Ariel Pokett, 8/11/22
“A company that has been trying to put in a carbon dioxide pipeline through Siouxland and in the tri-states is looking to use eminent domain to get the project started,” KCAU reports. “...According to documents filed with the Iowa Utilities Board, Summit Carbon Solutions has asked for a total of 95 parcels of land in 6 counties, with 60 land parcels located in Siouxland that were filed by Tuesday. The request stated that the future use of eminent domain was unknown by Summit Carbon Solutions in January and that they would update the application if needed. They then state they are updating the information after they “acquired a significant number of voluntary easements.”
KGET: PG&E settles lawsuit over 2015 pipeline explosion
Jason Kotowski, 8/11/22
“A settlement has been reached between PG&E and the families of two women who suffered serious burns in a 2015 gas pipeline explosion,” KGET reports. “Daniel Rodriguez, one of the lawyers representing the plaintiffs, told KGET the only comment he could give was that they’re finalizing terms… “On Nov. 13, 2015, a bulldozer struck a large transmission line near Wible and Houghton roads, sparking a huge explosion that incinerated the operator and destroyed a nearby home. Gloria Ruckman, her 17-day-old son and her mother, Amalia Leal, were inside the home when the blast hit. They escaped the inferno but suffered major burn injuries and spent weeks in a hospital. PG&E attorneys argued Monday the pipeline was properly marked while attorneys for Big N Deep, which employed the operator who hit the line, said the utility used the wrong type of markers, set them too far apart and didn’t have a standby inspector on scene to supervise the operation, as required under safety guidelines.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: House starts process for climate bill passage
Nick Sobczyk, 8/10/22
“House Democrats today began the process of getting their climate and social spending bill to the floor, inching the landmark legislation one step closer to becoming law,” E&E News reports. “The Rules Committee this afternoon is considering the “Inflation Reduction Act,” the party-line reconciliation package that contains $369 billion in climate and clean energy investments. The panel must set the guidelines for amendment and debate before a bill can move to the House floor. It’s likely to finish up later in the day, and the House is expected to vote on the bill Friday… “GOP lawmakers have proposed dozens of amendments to strip various items out of the package, including the methane fee and the $27 billion Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund. Democrats, on the other hand, have not proposed any amendments. They’re looking to keep the deal — negotiated by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) and passed by the Senate over the weekend — intact to get it to President Joe Biden’s desk before leaving town for the rest of August. The House could consider the package under a closed rule, which would effectively halt any effort to make changes on the floor. Additions or tweaks would mean the legislation would be sent back to the Senate, where it would have to undergo another marathon amendment session known as a “vote-a-rama.”
Press release: Pressure Mounts on Agriculture Secretary to Reject Hazardous Utah Oil Trains
8/10/33
“More than 100 environmental, climate and frontline Gulf Coast groups, representing millions of supporters across the country, today urged Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack to stop the Uinta Basin Railway. The proposed railway would create 53 million tons of new carbon pollution every year by opening Utah’s remote Uinta Basin to more oil extraction. Vilsack could stop the 88-mile-long railway by reversing the U.S. Forest Service’s July decision to approve a right-of-way through a protected area in Ashley National Forest in Utah, one of the last steps needed for construction to begin. “Dramatically increasing carbon pollution will worsen the punishing heatwaves, drought and fires that are wreaking havoc across this country and the world,” the groups said in their letter to Vilsack. “You pledged to take bold action to address the climate crisis. This is your chance to do just that.” The proposed Uinta Basin Railway conflicts with President Biden’s climate executive orders and his declaration that the world is in a climate emergency. In June Vilsack directed the Forest Service to “take bold action” to address the climate crisis, but just weeks later the agency approved the railway right-of-way… “After this connection to the national railway system is built, private railway developers plan to run five 2-mile-long heated oil trains each day through drought-stricken, wildfire-prone western landscapes in Utah and Colorado. That includes a 200-mile-long stretch along the Colorado River, the source of drinking water for 40 million people. More than 70 Colorado counties and local governments oppose the railway and have urged Vilsack and the congressional delegation to help stop it. Colorado Sen. Michael Bennet and Rep. Joe Neguse have also raised objections.”
Politico: Climate bill's methane fee could pave the way to a carbon tax
SCOTT WALDMAN, 8/11/22
“For the first time in history, the federal government is on the way to imposing a charge on greenhouse gas emissions,” Politico reports. “The methane fee in the "Inflation Reduction Act," which is expected to pass the House later this week, is the first step toward a long-term and seemingly impossible goal of a carbon tax, advocates told Politico. And while it’s not exactly a tax on carbon, it can show the benefits of pricing the root causes of climate change, they said. “This is the first time the federal government has put a fee on a climate pollutant, and it’s an acknowledgment that making polluters pay for their greenhouse gas emissions is a good idea,” Dana Nuccitelli, a research coordinator at Citizens' Climate Lobby, told Politico. “We basically view it as a good precedent that we hope to be expanding on in the future.” Under the bill, which is expected to be signed into law next week by President Joe Biden, facilities that report their greenhouse gas emissions to EPA would be charged $900 per metric ton of methane. That would increase to $1,500 by 2026 and would equate to a fee of $36 to $60 per metric ton of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the nonpartisan Congressional Research Service.”
STATE UPDATES
Politico: Colo. governments tell SCOTUS to stay out of climate fight
Lesley Clark, 8/11/22
“Colorado governments are telling the Supreme Court that it’s too soon for the justices to take up the oil and gas industry's bid to move climate liability lawsuits out of state court,” Politico reports. “Attorneys for the city of Boulder and two Colorado counties wrote in a filing docketed yesterday that the justices should wait for a conflict in the lower courts before they wade back into the jurisdictional fight that has stalled a massive set of legal battles over the industry's financial responsibility for helping state and local governments address flooding, wildfires and other effects of a warming planet. “If petitioners are ever able to convince a circuit to accept their position, this court can decide whether to intervene at that time,” the Colorado attorneys wrote. The filing comes in response to a June petition from Suncor Energy Inc. and Exxon Mobil Corp. that asked the justices to review a decision by a lower bench that delivered a procedural victory to the Colorado communities that are suing fossil fuel companies for climate damages.”
Casper Star Tribune: Billion-barrel Wyoming oil discovery can't all be drilled, company clarifies
Nicole Pollack, 8/10/22
“Amid reports that a billion-barrel oil reserve had been discovered in central Wyoming, the company behind the find was quick to explain that it has not, in fact, doubled the known volume of recoverable oil in the state,” the Casper Star Tribune reports. “Canadian Overseas Petroleum Limited (COPL), an oil and gas company based in Alberta, estimated in January that federal leases it holds in Natrona and Converse counties overlie most of a reservoir containing 1.5 to 1.9 billion barrels of oil. The company announced Friday that a report it commissioned from an independent consultant, Ryder Scott Company, found approximately 993.5 million barrels of oil in the reservoir, supporting its internal findings. Only a fraction of that oil is recoverable with current technology. “There’s really a misunderstanding between resources and reserves,” Arthur Millholland, COPL’s president and CEO, said during a call with investors on Monday. Reserves refer only to oil that can feasibly be extracted. The majority of the oil in the reservoir cannot... “It expects wells to extract about 8-10% of that oil, or 133 to 207 million barrels, before the underground pressure falls too low. Secondary oil recovery — injecting water or gas to raise that pressure and force more oil out of the ground — typically releases another 10-30% of a reservoir’s oil. COPL, targeting the high end, hopes the reservoir will ultimately produce about 666 to 826 million barrels of oil (but is unlikely to declare all of that oil recoverable).”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Oil leak contained at three U.S. Gulf platforms on pipeline outage, Shell says
Arathy Somasekhar and Laila Kearney, 8/11/22
“Top U.S. Gulf of Mexico oil producer Shell said on Thursday it halted production at three U.S. Gulf of Mexico deepwater platforms after a leak shut two pipelines connecting the platforms, adding it expected pipeline service to resume on Friday,” Reuters reports. “A failure at an onshore pipeline junction in Louisiana leaked about two barrels of oil, Chett Chiasson, executive director of Greater Lafourche Port Commission, told Reuters. A fix is expected to take about a day, he added. A Shell spokesperson told Reuters the leak, approximately two barrels of oil, has been contained, and the company expects the Mars and Amberjack pipelines to return to service on Aug. 12. Shell said its Mars, Ursa, and Olympus platforms were shut because of the leak. The three are designed to produce up to 410,000 barrels of oil per day combined, according to data on the company's website… “Shell shut the pipelines because of the leak at the onshore Fourchon booster station, it said.”
Press release: How Cheniere is Greenwashing its LNG With New Cargo Emissions Tags
8/11/22
“America’s largest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter, Cheniere Energy, has launched a major effort to greenwash its fracked LNG with a new certification scheme called Cargo Emissions Tags (CETs),” according to a report from Greenpeace and Oil Change International. Cheniere began issuing CETs with LNG cargoes delivered to its “long-term LNG customers” in June 2022. Our analysis of a paper detailing the methodology behind Cheniere’s CETs found broad discrepancies between the company’s claims and the limitations of currently available data. For example: Cheniere’s emissions estimates rely on facility-level methane emissions data collected from its upstream suppliers by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). Studies have found that EPA data substantially underestimates methane emissions from the oil and gas sector by relying on outdated emissions factors that do not accurately capture emissions from large “super-emitter” events. A sensitivity analysis found in the paper’s supplemental information shows that when more accurate emission factors that better incorporate high-emissions events are used, the full lifecycle emissions increase significantly. This finding was not incorporated into the paper’s result and conclusions… “Cheniere states that the prime purpose of the CETs is to inform customers of the emissions value of cargoes so that they can ‘accurately’ offset emissions with carbon credits. Offsets are a poor substitute for the systemic change that is required for addressing the climate crisis, and in most cases they create additional environmental and social justice issues. Cheniere’s claims that CETs are part of a solution to climate change ignore the fact that the company’s growth ambitions are out of sync with the trajectory of gas and LNG in climate safe scenarios.”
The Hill: Four cities’ landfills emit as much methane as 2 million cars: study
ZACK BUDRYK, 8/10/22
“Landfills are responsible for methane emissions equivalent to that of hundreds of thousands of cars, according to research from the SRON Netherlands Institute for Space Technology,” The Hill reports. “Researchers analyzed satellite data to identify cities with above-average methane emissions, including Buenos Aires, Argentina, and the Indian cities of Mumbai, Lahore and Delhi. Zooming in determined landfills comprise large amounts of those emissions within the cities. For example, Buenos Aires’s landfill emits about 28 tons of methane an hour, about the same as 1.5 million cars, while the Indian landfills collectively emit 20 tons per hour, equivalent to up 500,000 cars. “That is painful to watch because you can solve it with relatively little effort. You could for example separate and compost the organic waste, which would drastically reduce methane production. And even in the case of mixed waste, you can still collect or flare the methane produced,” lead author Bram Maasakkers told The Hill.”
OPINION
The Conversation: The climate bill’s projected emissions cuts rely heavily on carbon capture – it would mean thousands of miles of pipeline
Will Burns, Professor of Research in Environmental Policy, American University School of International Service, 8/11/22
“The sweeping climate, energy and health care bill expected to go to a vote in the U.S. House on Friday contains about US$370 billion to foster clean energy development and combat climate change, constituting the largest federal climate investment in history,” Will Burns writes for The Conversation. “...Notably, one linchpin of the bill’s climate provisions is a set of incentives to substantially expand technologies that capture carbon dioxide and either store it underground or ship it for reuse. So far, the uptake of carbon capture technologies has been slow. The costs are high, and these technologies can require miles of pipeline and vast amounts of underground storage, both of which can trigger local backlash. A recent study projected that the U.S. would have to construct 65,000 miles of carbon dioxide pipelines to achieve net-zero emissions in 2050, a whopping 13 times the current capacity… “A Princeton University analysis estimated that pertinent provisions of the bill “would increase the use of carbon capture 13-fold by 2030 relative to current policy,” with only a modest amount projected to come from carbon dioxide removal. This could translate into about one-sixth to one-fifth of the projected carbon dioxide emissions reductions from the new bill. Consistent with most of its other energy and climate provisions, the bill seeks to drive widespread deployment of carbon removal technologies through incentives. Most importantly, it substantially amends a provision of the U.S. tax code referred to as 45Q, which is designed to drive corporate investments in carbon capture… “However, while the bill may appear helpful on a theoretical basis, both carbon capture and storage and direct air capture could face some serious headwinds over the course of the next decade and beyond. One major challenge could be resistance to the construction of pipelines to transport carbon dioxide to storage sites. In recent years, counties and private landowners in Iowa have voiced opposition to such projects, particularly the idea that the state might allow pipeline builders to seize private land for their projects. Pipeline construction is also a point of contention for environmental groups, especially environmental justice organizations, and could lead to protracted litigation. This stems in part from a carbon dioxide pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi, in 2020, which hospitalized 45 people. If public opposition delays construction, projects could be pushed past the window for the incentives, leaving developers with expensive projects. While some studies argue that enhanced oil recovery results in a net reduction in carbon dioxide emissions, this may ultimately be a hard political sell for local communities.”
San Francisco Chronicle: The Inflation Reduction Act will gut fossil fuels. This is California's last chance to divest
CJ Koepp is the communications coordinator for Fossil Free California, 8/11/22
“With the U.S. Senate recently giving the Inflation Reduction Act the green light, Congress is poised to pass a once-in-a-generation climate bill, full of incentives for Americans to switch to cleaner energy. All accounts suggest this bill will transform the nation’s energy systems, CJ Koepp writes for the San Francisco Chronicle. “For California’s elected officials, the take-home message cannot be clearer or more urgent: get taxpayers’ money out of fossil fuels before it’s too late. Three separate analyses of the Inflation Reduction Act all predict that the proposed legislation will cut fossil fuel pollution by around 40% below 2005 levels by 2030. How? By making clean energy cheaper than fossil fuels. In other words, demand for oil, gas and coal will crash. For a state that has long been a leader in fighting climate change, this is welcome news. But for the country’s two largest pension funds — the California Public Employees’ Retirement System, or CalPERS, and the California State Teachers’ Retirement System, or CalSTRS — the nation’s reduced dependency on fossil fuels likely will hurt their bottom line. Why? Because CalPERS and CalSTRS are some of the largest pension funds still invested in fossil fuels — $27.1 billion and $15.7 billion, respectively. Getting our state’s pension investments — which are entirely funded by taxpayers — out of the fossil fuel industry is long overdue. For years, financial experts and analysts have said that continued investment in fossil fuels is a bad idea for long-term investors like pension funds… “The Legislature missed a golden opportunity to pass a defining piece of legislation this term. As Californians, we cannot allow it to do so again. We need California’s taxpayer money out of fossil fuels now before these investments poison not just our air, but our treasury.”
The Hill: We used to force oil companies to clean up their messes. Why is climate change different?
Hugh Helferty, Ph.D., led major research and engineering organizations for ExxonMobil, the largest U.S.-based oil company. He is now president and co-founder of Producer Accountability for Carbon Emissions (PACE), a nonprofit fighting climate change by driving fossil fuel producers to take responsibility for all emissions that result from their products and activities, 8/11/22
“The Senate passed a bill, the Inflation Reduction Act, addressing climate change on Sunday. Less than two weeks before this, the largest U.S.-based oil companies announced record profits and increased share buybacks. Given that the majority of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions result from burning oil and gas, you might expect this bill to force these companies to use their record profits to address the emissions that result from their highly profitable products. You would be wrong,” Hugh Helferty writes for The Hill. “...However, nowhere in this legislation is there a requirement for oil companies to do anything to address carbon dioxide emissions. The bill is missing any mention of producer accountability… “Oil companies have not always had the free ride that the U.S. is giving them today. Fifty years ago, pollution from cars burning gasoline was identified as a significant health issue in major cities. The government jumped into action, requiring oil companies to produce unleaded gasoline… “What changed? Why were oil companies required to address their pollution issues in the past, but not today? Unfortunately, the cynical answer is also the most reasonable explanation: The oil industry has carefully grown its influence over enough politicians, regulators and think tanks to remove responsibility for emissions from the political conversation. Instead, the only question being discussed is how large a tax credit the industry needs to encourage it to consider joining the fight against climate change. It’s past time for our government, at all levels, to commit to protecting people, not oil companies. Companies need to be held accountable for the adverse effects of their products — and the taxpayer shouldn’t be stuck with the bill.”