EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/19/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Common Dreams: Activists Arrested While Protesting 'Dirty Pipeline Deal' Outside Schumer's Office
E&E News: Permitting deal: Pipeline boom or ‘propaganda exercise?’
Canadian Press: Judge rejects Michigan's latest argument against Enbridge Line 5 pipeline
Iowa Public Radio: Carbon capture pipelines will benefit from federal climate legislation
KXNET: Concerns rise about Summit Carbon Solutions’ project in North Dakota
Explore Okoboji: Iowa Judge Rules Reluctant Landowner List For Pipeline Should Be Released
Natural Gas Intelligence: U.S. LNG Upside Seen Limited by Pipeline Capacity Constraints
Ohio Capital Journal: House Republicans propose free loans, tax breaks for new gas pipelines
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Associated Press: Climate bill’s unlikely beneficiary: US oil and gas industry
NPR: Federal judges deal the oil industry another setback in climate litigation
E&E News: BLM reconsiders Trump-era midnight orders opening Alaska lands
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: Study: Pennsylvania Children Who Live Near Fracking Wells Have Higher Leukemia Risk
The Center Square: Lawsuit claims company is misleading the public regarding natural gas
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada's oil sands sector aims to release treated tailings water into river
OPINION
Newsweek: Watch Out! Here Comes the Climate Deal's Other Shoe
Harvard Public Health: Carbon capture: climate change’s “healthy” cigarette
PIPELINE NEWS
Common Dreams: Activists Arrested While Protesting 'Dirty Pipeline Deal' Outside Schumer's Office
KENNY STANCIL, 8/18/22
“Climate campaigners were arrested on Thursday after demonstrating outside Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer's Manhattan office, where they expressed opposition to the fossil fuel-friendly permitting reforms the New York Democrat agreed to bring to the floor to secure Sen. Joe Manchin's support for the Inflation Reduction Act,” Common Dreams reports. "Sen. Schumer is sacrificing frontline communities and our clean energy future, all to placate a coal baron," Food & Water Watch senior New York organizer Laura Shindell, one of 10 activists taken into custody, said in a statement. Last month, in a bid to gain Manchin's (D-W.Va.) support for the climate, tax, and healthcare package that congressional Democrats recently passed through the filibuster-proof reconciliation process and President Joe Biden signed into law on Tuesday, Schumer held closed-door negotiations with the serial obstructionist. In exchange for Manchin's backing on the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), Schumer agreed to hold a separate vote on a bill that would advance permitting changes sought by the long-time coal profiteer and Capitol Hill's leading recipient of oil and gas money this election cycle… "Schumer's dirty side deal is a lose-lose-lose for our frontline communities and our climate, shortcutting the federal agencies and public processes meant to protect us and fast-tracking dangerous fossil fuel projects," said Shindell. "Sen. Schumer must reverse course on the dirty pipeline deal and recommit to preserving a livable future."
E&E News: Permitting deal: Pipeline boom or ‘propaganda exercise?’
Mike Soraghan, Carlos Anchondo, 8/19/22
“A proposal backed by the White House and Democratic leaders in Congress to speed up federal permitting is targeting an industry that many environmentalists dislike: pipelines,” E&E News reports. “But will the plan really do much to boost pipelines, and is the industry backing it? For some companies, hope remains that permitting changes could be passed as part of a stopgap spending bill next month, as promised by Democratic leaders. But others are sticking to their talking points and expressing little enthusiasm as they wait for signs of whether the plan — which has not been formally introduced as legislation — gets the bipartisan support it would require. Some conservatives, meanwhile, are pushing back on the idea that the proposed permitting changes would work. “The whole thing looks like what it is: a propaganda exercise driven by people who have never permitted a project and, therefore, don’t understand how the process actually works,” longtime GOP energy lobbyist Mike McKenna told E&E… “Manchin and Schumer have said they’re committed to getting a permitting measure done during this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30. But there are significant obstacles, including opposition from some progressive lawmakers. Passage in the Senate would require 60 votes, and many Republicans are not committing to support the proposal, which they see as linked to the climate and energy provisions of the reconciliation bill that passed the Senate on a party line vote. Lobbyists tell E&E congressional leaders have committed to a vote on the changes, not a commitment to round up votes… “Although it has been pitched to environmentalists as a way to speed progress on renewable energy projects, many have been urging their allies to contact members of Congress to oppose the proposal floated by Manchin. “We cannot let a side deal with literal coal barons reverse our course on climate and our future,” anti-pipeline crusader Jane Kleeb said in a message to supporters.”
Canadian Press: Judge rejects Michigan's latest argument against Enbridge Line 5 pipeline
8/18/22
“A Michigan judge has ruled in favour of Enbridge Inc. in its long-standing dispute with the state over the Line 5 cross-border pipeline,” the Canadian Press reports. “In her ruling on Thursday, Judge Janet Neff said the case belongs in federal court — a blow to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer's bid to shut down the pipeline. It's the second time in nine months that Neff has sided with Enbridge on the question of jurisdiction. One of the core issues at hand is whether a federal court is the most appropriate forum for the Line 5 case. In November 2021, the judge rejected the Michigan attorney general's efforts to move the case into state court. In a ruling similar to Thursday's, Neff wrote that the Line 5 case involves a "substantial federal question." Whitmer has been trying since November 2020 to shut down Line 5 for fear of a spill in the Straits of Mackinac, between Michigan's Upper and Lower peninsulas, where the pipeline crosses the Great Lakes… “Environmental activists fear an anchor strike or technical failure could trigger a catastrophe in one of the area's most important watersheds.”
Iowa Public Radio: Carbon capture pipelines will benefit from federal climate legislation
Kendall Crawford, 8/18/22
“Carbon capture projects stand to benefit from the increased tax credits signed into law this week,” Iowa Public Radio reports. “...A part of the Inflation Reduction Act, signed into law by President Joe Biden this week, will increase the tax credits for companies that choose to pipe their carbon underground. It raises the government subsidies for each metric ton of carbon stored underground from 50 dollars to 85 dollars – incentivizing ethanol plants to participate in carbon capture technology… “Vice president of public affairs Elizabeth Burns-Thompson at Navigator CO2 said the legislation could help pique the interest of more industries, beyond ethanol, to engage with their project… “Summit Carbon Solutions said in a statement that the move exemplifies carbon capture and sequestration pipelines' role in achieving significant greenhouse gas reductions… “The legislation will be a game-changer in expanding the financial viability of carbon capture projects as a whole. John Thompson, technology and markets director of the Clean Air Task Force, an international non-profit devoted to decarbonization, told IPR it will make carbon capture an option for industries that once found it too costly. “What the Inflation Reduction Act does is it makes carbon capture feasible on hundreds of plants around the nation. A lot of those are going to be ethanol plants,” Thompson told IPR. “But increasingly, more and more of them will be in what we call hard to decarbonize or hard to abate sectors: steel, cement, power refineries, petrochemicals, pulp and paper.” “...But, not all think the legislation is worthy of celebration. State environmental organizations see the increased tax incentives as a step back in addressing the nation’s climate crisis. They argue it’s using public money to increase the profits of polluting industries. “That's just more taxpayer dollars that are going to these private companies that are going to make billions of dollars in private profits,” Jess Mazour, conversation program coordinator for Iowa’s Sierra Club chapter, told IPR. “We know there are better ways to spend our taxpayer dollars on projects like wind and solar that are proven to work and do much less damage than carbon pipelines.”
KXNET: Concerns rise about Summit Carbon Solutions’ project in North Dakota
Adrienne Oglesby, 8/18/22
“As reported earlier this summer, Summit Carbon Solutions’ project plans to carry a pipeline across five states ending here in North Dakota, where captured carbon dioxide will be permanently stored underground. With more pipes making their way across our state, comes more problems,” KXNET reports. “...Essentially, central North Dakota will be a dump site for carbon dioxide, and because of this, many are worried about this project. “This is a private property rights issue and that’s why all these landowners are here and mainly it’s because a private company wants to essentially use eminent domain to take private property owners’ land in order to instruct an interstate pipeline,” Scott Skokos told KXNET. That is the Dakota Resource Council Executive Director, Scott Skokos, who is helping landowners in our state know their rights when a pipeline goes under their land. He told KXNET North Dakota landowners should not be forced to sign easements or give up their land involuntarily, especially for a project with a lot of risks. ““We’re urging landowners and local government to put up whatever kind of stop sign they can so different ordinances against this project, as well as trying to get individual landowners to contact the North Dakota public service commission, who will ultimately be the decision-maker on this if this project goes forward in North Dakota to tell them that we as north as a North Dakota don’t want this because their elected officials that will be responsible for permitting this project,” Skokos told KXNET… “One upset community member who attended the meeting even made access denied signs for all affected in an attempt to protect their land.”
Explore Okoboji: Iowa Judge Rules Reluctant Landowner List For Pipeline Should Be Released
8/16/2022
“An Iowa judge has sided with the Sierra Club by ruling the reluctant landowner list for a proposed carbon pipeline through the state should be released,” Explore Okoboji reports. “The suit was filed after the Iowa Utilities Board said the names would remain secret at the developer’s request. Summit Carbon Solutions is still working to secure agreements with landowners for about 60 percent of the proposed pipeline in Iowa. If it is granted eminent domain authority for the project the list would be used to determine which properties would be seized without negotiations between the company and the owners.”
Natural Gas Intelligence: U.S. LNG Upside Seen Limited by Pipeline Capacity Constraints
JAMISON COCKLIN, 8/17/22
“While the United States easily has the world’s largest backlog of near-shovel-ready liquefied natural gas projects, takeaway constraints remain a hurdle to getting more of the facilities built,” Natural Gas Intelligence reports. “This year alone, five developers have signed over 20 long-term deals to supply more than 30 million metric tons/year of LNG, or roughly 4 Bcf/d, to gas-thirsty buyers in Asia and Europe. Cheniere Energy Inc., the largest U.S. LNG exporter, said earlier this month it’s had the most active year for contracting since 2011. “Overall, more LNG exports in the United States increases demand for North American natural gas, and that is going to tighten the U.S. market,” RBN Energy LLC analyst Lindsay Schneider told NGI. “We can produce sufficient supplies to meet that demand as long as there is pipeline capacity to get the gas to export locations.” The Appalachian Basin is the nation’s largest gas-producing region, churning out more than 35 Bcf/d. Over the last decade, however, environmental groups have successfully stopped or slowed down pipeline projects and limited further growth in the Northeast. That isn’t likely to change meaningfully in the coming years, which could leave the Permian Basin and Haynesville Shale to shoulder much of the growth forecast for LNG exports. EQT Corp. CEO Toby Rice acknowledged during the company’s second quarter earnings call late last month that Appalachian pipeline capacity has “hit a wall.” EQT, an Appalachian pure-play and the nation’s largest gas producer, is keeping production flat as a result. Limited takeaway to the Gulf Coast also has the company searching for growth opportunities in export projects on the East Coast. The 2 Bcf/d Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), which has repeatedly been delayed in the face of environmental opposition, could be the last greenfield natural gas pipeline built out of the Appalachian Basin, senior analyst Zack Van Everen of East Daley Capital Inc. told NGI.”
Ohio Capital Journal: House Republicans propose free loans, tax breaks for new gas pipelines
JAKE ZUCKERMAN, 8/19/22
“Two state House Republicans proposed legislation to give some natural gas pipeline developers state-funded tax breaks and interest-free loans, while allowing them to add a surcharge to ratepayers’ monthly bills,” the Ohio Capital Journal reports. “...The bill would allow local governments to request a designation as an “EnergizeOhio zone.” The director of the Ohio Department of Development must grant it if he or she determines that “deficiencies in natural gas infrastructure” in the area harm economic growth. Pipeline developers siting projects within these zones can obtain interest-free loans from a new $20 million pot of money to purchase or lease land easements. The legislation would create another $50 million pot, funded by federal coronavirus relief dollars, for natural gas infrastructure projects. For companies that have already obtained regulatory approval to add surcharges to customer bills for infrastructure development, the legislation allows them to add another $1.50 if the project is in an EnergizeOhio zone. Lastly, it allows developers to receive a 75% tax abatement on new pipelines while speeding up their tax depreciation rate. Legislative analysts have not yet published a financial analysis of the bill’s costs… “We’ve been hearing from communities that are locked out of future job growth because of the high cost of energy infrastructure in the state,” Cross told the Journal. “These ‘energy deserts’ see limited job growth because there just isn’t the infrastructure in place to deliver energy at a reasonable price. House Bill 685 is a step in the right direction to address the problem and bring jobs and affordable energy to every corner of the state.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Associated Press: Climate bill’s unlikely beneficiary: US oil and gas industry
MATTHEW BROWN and MICHAEL PHILLIS, 8/19/22
“The U.S. oil industry hit a legal roadblock in January when a judge struck down a $192 million oil and natural gas lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico over future global warming emissions from burning the fuels. It came at a pivotal time for Chevron, Exxon and other industry players: the Biden administration had curtailed opportunities for new offshore drilling, while raising climate change concerns,” the Associated Press reports. “The industry’s setback was short-lived, however. The climate measure President Joe Biden signed Tuesday bypasses the administration’s concerns about emissions and guarantees new drilling opportunities in the Gulf of Mexico and Alaska. The legislation was crafted to secure backing from a top recipient of oil and gas donations, Democratic Sen. Joe Manchin, and was shaped in part by industry lobbyists. While the Inflation Reduction Act concentrates on clean energy incentives that could drastically reduce overall U.S. emissions, it also buoys oil and gas interests by mandating leasing of vast areas of public lands and off the nation’s coasts. And it locks renewables and fossil fuels together: If the Biden administration wants solar and wind on public lands, it must offer new oil and gas leases first. As a result, U.S. oil and gas production and emissions from burning fuels could keep growing, according to some industry analysts and climate experts. With domestic demand sliding, that means more fossil fuels exported to growing foreign markets, including from the Gulf where pollution from oil and gas activity plagues many poor and minority communities. To the industry, the new law signals Democrats are willing to work with them and to abandon the notion fossil fuels could soon be rendered obsolete, Andrew Gillick with Enverus, an energy analytics company whose data is used by industry and government agencies, told AP… “A Department of Energy analysis obtained by The Associated Press Thursday said the law’s leasing provisions “may lead to some increase” in carbon pollution, but that other provisions would cut 35 tons of greenhouse gas for every new ton of fossil fuel pollution.”
NPR: Federal judges deal the oil industry another setback in climate litigation
MICHAEL COPLEY, 8/18/22
“A federal appeals court has ruled that a pair of lawsuits that seek to hold oil companies accountable for the effects of climate change should be heard in state courts, striking down efforts by the fossil fuel industry to get the cases in front of federal judges,” NPR reports. “While climate change "is an important problem with national and global implications," cases cannot be transferred to federal courts "just because they are important," the U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Philadelphia said August 17. Lawyers representing the state of Delaware and the city of Hoboken, N.J., sued more than a dozen oil companies and an industry trade group in 2020 for allegedly misleading the public about the role that fossil fuels play in causing climate change. The Delaware and Hoboken lawsuits are among more than 20 similar cases filed across the United States in the last several years. Fossil fuel companies have largely unsuccessfully pushed to have the lawsuits tried in federal court, rather than state courts, arguing that the issues under litigation are of national significance. The ruling issued on August 17 marked the fifth time that a federal appeals court has blocked the oil industry from moving such cases out of state courts, Karen Sokol, a professor at the Loyola University New Orleans College of Law, told NPR.”
E&E News: BLM reconsiders Trump-era midnight orders opening Alaska lands
Scott Streater, 8/17/22
“The Biden administration plans to conduct an in-depth analysis of a series of public land orders issued in the final weeks of the Trump administration that sought to open 28 million acres of federal lands in Alaska to oil and gas development and mining activity,” E&E News reports. “The Bureau of Land Management will formally publish a notice of intent in tomorrow’s Federal Register to begin an environmental impact statement (EIS) studying so-called legal deficiencies in five public land orders signed in January 2021 by then-Interior Secretary David Bernhardt. The Biden administration in April 2021 placed those orders on a two-year moratorium while it analyzed the Bernhardt orders. The public land orders BLM will analyze collectively cover 28 million acres in portions of the “Bay, Bering Sea-Western Interior, East Alaska, Kobuk-Seward Peninsula, and Ring of Fire planning areas,” according to a advance notice in today’s Federal Register… “Depending on the outcome of the EIS, BLM could fully or partially revoke the Bernhardt orders, or retain “some or all” of the Bernhardt withdrawals that would open the lands to development.”
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: Study: Pennsylvania Children Who Live Near Fracking Wells Have Higher Leukemia Risk
Victoria St. Martin, 8/17/22
“Children in Pennsylvania who grew up within roughly a mile of fracking wells are twice as likely as other young people to develop the most common form of juvenile leukemia, according to a new study by researchers at the Yale School of Public Health,” InsideClimate News reports. “The study, published Wednesday in the journal Environmental Health Perspectives, also found that children born to pregnant women who lived near fracking wells were nearly three times as likely as other newborns to be diagnosed with leukemia… “Pennsylvania is the site of roughly 13,000 unconventional natural gas wells, according to the state department of Health, and the study’s researchers noted that from 2005 to 2014, more than 1,000 spills, 5,000 violations and 4,000 complaints from residents related to oil and gas had been recorded. Environmentalists and others have long criticized the practice, which can pollute groundwater and release greenhouse gases into the air. Oil and gas production operations have also been associated with the release of known or suspected carcinogens such as benzene and polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons. “What our results really indicate is that exposure to unconventional oil and gas development may be an important risk factor for ALL, particularly for those children that are exposed in utero,” Cassandra Clark, the lead author of the study, told ICN… “The allowable distance for how close to oil and gas wells can be to homes and schools and other sensitive receptors can be as small as 150 feet in some states,” Deziel, who is an associate professor of epidemiology, told ICN. “And we think that our study really highlights and augments that growing body of studies indicating that there are increased health problems to children, and that some of these public health policies need to be updated with newer information.”
The Center Square: Lawsuit claims company is misleading the public regarding natural gas
Kevin Bessler, 8/17/22
“A public interest advocate says a lawsuit filed against an East Coast gas company for "greenwashing" methane gas should send a message to gas companies in Illinois,” The Center Square reports. “A first-of-its-kind lawsuit has been filed against Washington Gas alleging the company is misleading customers on the environmental impacts of natural gas. U.S. PIRG Education Fund, Environment America Research & Policy Center, which are national affiliates of Illinois PIRG Education Fund and Environment Illinois Research and Education Center, and ClientEarth claim Washington Gas, which delivers methane gas to more than one million residential, commercial and industrial customers, has violated Washington, D.C.’s consumer protection laws… “The groups said they have found similar greenwashing of the environmental impacts of methane gas in customer-facing communications by Illinois-based Peoples Gas, including the claim that “choosing gas is better for the environment.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada's oil sands sector aims to release treated tailings water into river
Nia Williams, 8/18/22
“Canada's oil sands mining industry on Thursday outlined proposals to release treated water from tailings ponds into northern Alberta's Athabasca River, a move environmental groups say risks damaging one of the world's largest freshwater deltas,” Reuters reports. “Unlike other extractive industries in Canada, oil sands firms are not allowed to release treated tailings water… “Industry members say companies need to be able to treat and release the water so they can reclaim land disturbed by oil sands operations. "The water has to go someplace," Rodney Guest, director of water and closure at Suncor Energy, told Reuters… “Water volumes stored in tailings ponds equalled about 2% of the annual flow of the Athabasca River, but would be released over many years, Charles Dumaresq, the Mining Association of Canada's (MAC) vice president of science and environmental management, told Reuters… “Environmental campaigners are skeptical. "Dumping the tailings is not safe, there has been no independent testing to prove what (oil sands companies) are saying is true," Jesse Cardinal, executive director of Keepers of the Water, told Reuers.”
OPINION
Newsweek: Watch Out! Here Comes the Climate Deal's Other Shoe. | Opinion
RAÚL M. GRIJALVA , U.S. REPRESENTATIVE FOR ARIZONA'S 3RD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT, 8/17/22
“The Democrats' health, climate, and corporate tax plan—the Inflation Reduction Act (IRA)—was just signed into law by President Biden,” Rep. Raul M. Grijalva writes for Newsweek. “...Climate and environmental justice (EJ) advocates see a dark cloud on the horizon, however. Senate Majority Leader Charles Schumer has announced that, as part of the deal to secure Senate passage of the IRA, he agreed to a second bill, misleadingly referred to as a "permitting reform" package. While the actual text isn't public yet, the American Petroleum Institute (API), a trade association for fossil fuel companies, leaked a summary of the plan and draft bill text. API has this insider information because the "permitting reform" package is their idea… “The API plan is a mishmash of long-desired permitting shortcuts that will further inflate oil company profits at the expense of our environment and communities… “So why would Democrats reverse this momentum by enacting an API wish list that will make it even harder for frontline communities to protect themselves? The answer is, we should not. The IRA is a huge environmental win, on balance. Let's not weaken its impact by following it up with an API oil package that even the Trump administration wasn't able to push through. Contrary to industry talking points, these anti-environmental shortcuts will not speed up development by cutting "red tape." They will speed up development by rushing polluting projects through before the people who must live near them know what hit them. Then, they will make sure the doors to the courthouse are locked so the families hurt by this pollution can't get in. Democrats don't owe anybody anything in return for passing the IRA… “Big Oil takes and takes, and then asks: "But what have you done for us lately?" Climate advocates and EJ Communities would like to know: "What have you done for us, ever?"
Harvard Public Health: Carbon capture: climate change’s “healthy” cigarette
Laalitha Surapaneni, MD, MPH is an internal medicine physician in Minneapolis, Minn., and a Public Voices fellow with The OpEd Project in partnership with the Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, 8/17/22
“In the 1950s, as evidence began piling up that cigarette smoke was harmful to health, tobacco companies unveiled a new product – cigarettes with filters, designed to “capture” harmful substances from the smoke and give the public a “healthy cigarette,” Laalitha Surapaneni writes for Harvard Public Health. “To be clear, filters didn’t, and don’t, make cigarettes safe. Today, the fossil fuel industry faces incontrovertible science showing its products harm the climate and our health. So, it’s adopting the tobacco industry’s tactics – offering to make fossil fuels “healthy” through their own version of a filter: carbon capture. Carbon capture and storage means a range of technologies that pull carbon dioxide from industrial and power plant emissions before they hit the atmosphere – a “smokestack filter” if you will. All large carbon capture and storage (CCS) facilities around the world pull carbon dioxide out of industrial emissions, rather than from the ambient air – a method called direct air capture. These CCS facilities capture carbon dioxide at the source and compress it into a fluid for industrial use or storage underground. All but one of the 12 CCS projects in the U.S. use the recaptured fluid carbon dioxide for oil production. Companies inject the compressed carbon into oil wells to extract those last dregs of hard-to-drill oil—hardly a climate-friendly use… “We know that despite the millions of dollars spent marketing filtered cigarettes, nothing saves lives like quitting smoking. Similarly, no climate change solution will save lives quite like quitting fossil fuels… “Proponents of CCS argue that it may be our best short-term solution for a few hard-to-decarbonize industries like air travel, and cement and steel manufacturing. As we transition away from fossil fuels, carbon capture can be useful in a limited and industry-specific way. But that kernel of truth is being used by the fossil fuel industry to market carbon capture as the panacea it’s not. Instead, it is being used as a tactic that will let the industry pursue business as usual, in place of investing in renewable energy to replace fossil fuels… “Carbon capture reeks of tobacco industry tactics. Capturing planet-warming carbon dioxide and stopping it from entering the atmosphere sounds appealing, but its carbon-math is conveniently incomplete. It ignores the carbon dioxide produced from energy used to capture carbon, the methane, (a potent greenhouse gas) released from continued fossil fuel drilling, and the carbon dioxide we release from our vehicle tailpipes when we fill up the tank with supposedly “carbon-neutral” oil.”