EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/2/21
PIPELINE NEWS
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Dozens of Water Protectors and Tribal Members Flow Into Line 3 Drilling Site Under Red River met with “less-than-lethal” and chemical warfare
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Water Protectors fighting Line 3 need your help! Call Pennington County Jail
Star Tribune: Scorching drought exacerbates Line 3 water concerns in northern Minnesota
The Hill: 'The land is us' — Tribal activist turns from Keystone XL to Line 3
Michigan Advance: Indigenous activists protest Line 5 in Michigan on 20,000-mile journey to DC
Grand Forks Herald: 5 years on, public records battle brews over Dakota Access Pipeline protest enforcement
Politico: Casten Tackles Landowner Appeals In FERC Awareness Campaign
Reuters: Mexico strikes pact with Canada's TC Energy for natural gas pipeline
Ohio Country Journal: Does pipeline installation have a lasting effect on crop yields?
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: What to expect from Interior’s oil report
Politico: Dems Urge Haaland To Reverse Support For Alaska Oil Project
Forbes: Will Congress Supercharge 45Q—The Carbon-Capture Tax Credit—Or Scrap It?
EXTRACTION
Grand Forks Herald: Oil well fire in western North Dakota burns into 6th straight day
Associated Press: Forgotten oil and gas wells linger, leaking toxic chemicals
OPINION
Slate: An Indigenous Leader on Why She Still Needs to Protest Pipelines, Even Under Biden
PIPELINE NEWS
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Dozens of Water Protectors and Tribal Members Flow Into Line 3 Drilling Site Under Red River met with “less-than-lethal” and chemical warfare
7/29/21
“Yesterday, dozens of BIPOC water protectors and tribal members flowed into the drill pad on the Red River, where Enbridge is set to complete pullback against the will of Red Lake Nation. Half a dozen Indigenous and BIPOC water protectors scaled fences and others blockaded a gate into the site as allies helped hold space. Water Protectors were maced, tear gassed, shot with rubber bullets, & pepper bullets. The mass action comes as another spill was reported on the Mississippi River headwaters, where Enbridge has continued to drill despite a temporary halt buffer zone issued by White Earth Nation. Last week, the Assistant Secretary of the Army for Civil Works, along with numerous representatives from the Army Corps of Engineers, met with two Anishinaabe nations, tribal representatives, and land defenders to tour portions of Line 3 construction, wild rice beds, and spill sites. The Army Corps and the White House remain silent. “If those who can stop Line 3 will not take action, we will,” said Tara Houska, Couchiching First Nation Anishinaabe land defender. “This is our land, our wild rice, our culture, our future we are defending.Human beings are literally destroying life with our addiction to the status quo of overconsumption. We have to be brave. We have to stand strong. We have to try. Actions, not words.” “I’m standing in opposition of industrial development of my treaty territory by a foreign corporation,” said John Shimek, Red Lake Nation. “An estimated 20% of the freshwater supply left on the planet exists in my treaty territory, it’s my obligation to protect it for my children and all future generations.” Twenty people were arrested and are currently being held in Pennington county till Monday.”
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Water Protectors fighting Line 3 need your help! Call Pennington County Jail
8/1/21
“Water Protectors fighting Line 3 need your help! Call Pennington County Jail (218)681-6161. After facing excessive force in the form of pepper spray, pepper bullets and aggressive arrests supporters are now learning that water protectors have been denied medications as well as piroper food due to dietary restrictions and allergies. People have received moldy and inedible food. Certain Individuals are being held in solitary confinement. These tactics are being utilized to humiliate and punish Water Protectors for taking action. Tweet @govtimwalz @ltgovflanagan and call Pennington County Jail (218)681-6161 and demand Sample script; I am calling today to demand that water protectors are treated humanely and fairly, that their dietary needs are respected and their medications be given properly.”
Star Tribune: Scorching drought exacerbates Line 3 water concerns in northern Minnesota
By Jennifer Bjorhus, 7/28/21
“Severe drought is exacerbating concerns about the construction of the Line 3 oil pipeline across northern Minnesota, with the project moving millions of gallons of water even as river and lake levels sink,” according to the Star Tribune. “DFL lawmakers are now asking state pollution regulators to halt all drilling along the pipeline route until the drought ends and the region's numerous wetlands and rivers recover and can better dilute and flush any chemicals and sediment from the work. They also don't want drilling to resume until the state has investigated nine drilling mud spills along the construction route this summer, according to a July 27 letter to Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (MPCA) Commissioner Peter Tester signed by 32 DFL lawmakers…. “Minnesota's drought is particularly severe in the pipeline area, Rep. Frank Hornstein, DFL-Minneapolis, told the Tribune.. “Upper Rice Lake, a shallow lake in Clearwater County near the headwaters of the Mississippi River, is so low "you can walk on the lake bottom, it's that bad," he told the Tribune. "This permit was touted as restrictive, and now we've had at least nine violations," Hornstein said. "Is the system even working?" MPCA spokesman Darin Broton told the Tribune the agency is investigating all nine "frac-outs or inadvertent releases" of drilling mud.”
The Hill: 'The land is us' — Tribal activist turns from Keystone XL to Line 3
BY ZACK BUDRYK, 8/1/21
“Tara Houska attended her first anti-pipeline demonstration in 2014, against the since-defeated Keystone XL. The experience, says the cofounder of the indigenous environmental activist group Giniw Collective, taught her that “public and political pressure in moving an issue is so deeply important towards success," The Hil reports. “Now, helping to lead opposition to the Line 3 pipeline extension in Minnesota, Houska says she's become a firm believer in a "holistic approach to land protection." “I’ve also become more firm in my position that as the holders of the last remaining biodiversity on planet Earth, the need to center and uphold tribal sovereignty and indigenous rights, specifically indigenous land rights, is absolutely critical towards any sort of solution there could be involving climate," she told The Hill in a phone interview from the frontlines of the protests… “Houska said that so far she’s been pleased with some of the Biden administration’s actions on environmental issues, such as the cancellation of Keystone XL and of oil leases in the Arctic, but disappointed on others. That “mixed bag," she told the Hill, is unacceptable given the gravity of the situation. “It’s almost like this mitigated approach to climate crisis, and you can’t mitigate climate crisis.”
Michigan Advance: Indigenous activists protest Line 5 in Michigan on 20,000-mile journey to DC
LAINA G. STEBBINS, 7/29/21
“Tribal citizens on a 20,000-mile, cross-country journey to highlight sacred Indigenous sites and call on President Joe Biden’s administration to protect them made their ninth and final stop in Mackinaw City this week,” Michigan Advance reports. “The activists were met and welcomed Tuesday morning by Native people from numerous tribes across Michigan, including the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe and the Bay Mills Indian Community, who together called on Biden to shut down the Enbridge-owned Line 5 oil pipeline running under the environmentally sensitive Straits of Mackinac. The effort, dubbed the “Red Road to DC,” will culminate Thursday at the National Mall in D.C., where a 25-foot, 5,000-pound totem pole carved by members of the Lummi Nation will be delivered to U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland for the Biden administration. Haaland is a member of the Laguna Pueblo tribe and the country’s first Native American cabinet secretary. The group is led by the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers, Se’Si’Le, Native Organizers Alliance, IllumiNative and the Natural History Museum. “Today we had the opportunity to welcome the Lummi Nation’s House of Tears Carvers to the Odawa, Ojibwe and Potawatomi lands here in the Great Lakes, and here in our sacred territory at the Straits of Mackinac,” Bay Mills Tribal Chairperson Whitney Gravelle said during Tuesday’s event.
Grand Forks Herald: 5 years on, public records battle brews over Dakota Access Pipeline protest enforcement
Adam Willis, 8/2/21
“Documents pertaining to a partnership between operators of the Dakota Access Pipeline and a private security contractor during the Standing Rock protests five years ago are at the center of a public records fight still playing out in North Dakota’s courts today,” the Grand Forks Herald reports. “The question of who has jurisdiction over roughly 16,000 documents provided to the state by the private security contractor TigerSwan has pit Energy Transfer Partners, the Texas-based parent company to Dakota Access, against the North Dakota Private Investigation and Security Board. And late last month, parties in two combined cases jockeying over accessibility of the documents filed motions for summary judgment in an effort to keep the files in the state's custody. Currently, the files are locked under a judge’s temporary restraining order. The contents of the disputed documents are not clear, but their connection to the North Carolina-based security company TigerSwan has prompted intrigue among some watchdogs and journalists. Last December, the New York-based First Look Institute, publisher of the investigative reporting outfit The Intercept, sued the board after it denied their open records request, citing a litigation exemption to open records law. The Dakota Access Pipeline protests have left several unresolved lawsuits trailing in the North Dakota court system, and the tug-of-war over the TigerSwan files follows 2018 reporting in The Intercept that accused the security company of deploying military-style undercover and counterinsurgency tactics against protesters while it was contracted with Energy Transfer.”
Politico: Casten Tackles Landowner Appeals In FERC Awareness Campaign
7/30/21
“A pair of House Democrats reintroduced legislation this week that would set a time limit for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to respond to appeal requests from landowners affected by pipeline or transmission projects,” Politico reports. “At issue are ‘tolling orders,’ used by FERC to put off having to tell landowners whether it will hold a rehearing on a disputed project. Led by Reps. Tom Malinowski (D-N.J.) and Sean Casten (D-Ill.) as part of the latter’s FERC-focused summer campaign, the legislation would place a firm timeline for FERC to rule on a rehearing request under the Natural Gas Act and Federal Power Act. The first of the two bills would limit the use of eminent domain for those projects while a rehearing request remains pending at FERC and set a 90-day timeline for a response on permits under the Natural Gas Act. The second would set a 120-day timeline for projects under the Federal Power Act. ‘Landowners should have the right to challenge pipelines in court before construction permanently alters their land,’ Malinowski said in a statement. ‘This legislation gives power back to landowners in my district who have been denied a voice in the fight over their own property.’ The duo first introduced the two pieces of legislation last year in the aftermath of a high-profile lawsuit before the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. A lower-court judge called the tolling orders a ‘Kafkaesque’ scenario for their ability to block due process rights for landowners (E&E Daily, May 27). FERC has sought to address the issue by assigning more staff to review the rehearing requests in a more timely fashion. The commission has also set up an Office of Public Participation to help engage landowners caught in the midst of an energy permitting process.”
Reuters: Mexico strikes pact with Canada's TC Energy for natural gas pipeline
8/1/21
“Mexico's state power utility has struck a deal with Canada's TC Energy Corp to develop a natural gas pipeline in the country's south and consolidate the firm's contracts in the central region, the utility said on Sunday,” Reuters reports. “The pact appeared to mark a rare moment of agreement after months of dispute between energy companies and Mexico, which said such firms had benefited from contracts that put an unfair burden on taxpayers… “The pact also says Mexico will step up efforts to help TC Energy complete the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline after work stalled over concerns the project would cut across lands local communities consider sacred. Last year, President Andres Manuel Lopez Obrador had suggested re-routing the 178-mile (286-km) pipeline, but the utility did not say how it would resolve the matter. "The CFE has agreed with TC Energy that it will take a more active role that will allow for solving social conflicts and completing the Tuxpan-Tula pipeline," it said.
Ohio Country Journal: Does pipeline installation have a lasting effect on crop yields?
By Steve Culman, Theresa Brehm, 8/2/21
“Numerous underground oil and gas pipelines have been installed through Ohio farmland over the past several years. This has left many growers wondering if this installation will have lasting impacts on their soils and crops,” Ohio Country Journal reports. “Last fall, we collected soil and yield samples from 24 different farms impacted by pipeline installation in seven counties throughout Northern Ohio. The Rover, Utopia, and Nexus pipelines were targeted because of their recent installation, with each pipeline installed within the last 3 to 4 years. Grain crops like corn and soybeans were the primary focus. We sampled in two major zones for this study: the right-of-way (ROW) over the pipeline, also known as the easement area, as well as an adjacent, undisturbed area of the same field. Three areas of each field were sampled along a transect. This comparative cross-section of an impacted field provides a pseudo “before-and-after” viewpoint of the field. In preliminary findings, Ohio crop yields follow similar patterns to previous studies when pipelines are installed. On average, corn grain yields decreased an average of 23.8%, silage corn decreased an average of 28.8%, and soybean yield decreased an average of 7.4% over the pipeline compared with adjacent areas. Soils within the ROW had more rock fragments, lower soil moisture, and had a higher resistance to penetration which indicates lasting forms of soil compaction.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: What to expect from Interior’s oil report
By Heather Richards, 8/2/21
“At a budget hearing on Capitol Hill last week, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland faced few questions about line items in her department’s budget request. Instead, several Republican lawmakers grilled her about an oil and gas report due any day from the White House,” E&E News reports. “It’s expected to offer a first glimpse at the kind of changes the Interior Department could make to the fossil fuel program on federal lands and in offshore drilling areas, like the Gulf of Mexico… “With the report due “soon,” according to Haaland, here are two policy changes that experts believe the Biden team could be weighing — and another that many expect is already off the table. 1. Higher royalties: The one policy change the Biden administration has already flagged as likely is raising royalty rates… “Industry members are anticipating this as a possibility and raising flags that it will cripple their businesses… “2. Other fees or requirements? Of course, raising royalties — which advocates say is a matter of fiscal responsibility — isn’t the only way the administration could place a price tag on climate impacts. Brian Prest, an economist with Resources for the Future, a policy think tank focused on decarbonizing the U.S. economy, suggested to E&E that Interior might ask to levy a cost-of-carbon fee on federal production… “3. The big change not likely to be included: Although oil and gas operators are apprehensive about what is to come, many experts say the furthest-reaching possibility, a permanent freeze on new oil and gas leasing, would run afoul of federal law.”
Politico: Dems Urge Haaland To Reverse Support For Alaska Oil Project
7/29/21
Congressional Democrats are urging Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to backtrack on the administration’s support for a $6 billion oil and gas project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska. The Willow Master Development Project is ConocoPhillips’ plan to drill for oil and gas reserves on federal lands along the Arctic Coast, west of the state’s Prudhoe Bay oil field and the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Biden administration recently defended the Willow project in litigation brought by environmental groups, sparking pushback from opponents of continued oil development in the Arctic. In a Tuesday letter, House and Senate Democrats asked Haaland to reverse course. They cited the ‘irreversible damage’ the project could cause to the sensitive tundra on Alaska’s North Slope and its larger contribution to a warming climate. They asked the administration to rescind an approval of the project, finalized during the Trump administration, and conduct a new environmental review. ‘The Department cannot allow new, large-scale, oil and gas projects to move forward without disclosing and considering the anticipated harm,’ wrote the lawmakers, including New Mexico Sen. Martin Heinrich, California Rep. Alan Lowenthal, Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey and independent Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders. ‘This administration has set bold goals for meaningful climate action and the protection of biodiversity,’ they wrote. ‘A new oil project of this scale is at odds with those efforts.’ Lawmakers says the Willow project could produce 260 million metric tons of carbon dioxide over its life span; threaten endangered polar bears; and erode the Teshekpuk Lake Special Area, a long-protected coastal lake and wetlands home to migratory bird species as well as caribou herds
Forbes: Will Congress Supercharge 45Q—The Carbon-Capture Tax Credit—Or Scrap It?
Jeff McMahon, 7/29/21
“Bipartisan proposals are vying in Congress to increase the Section 45Q tax credit for carbon capture and sequestration, which has itself been credited with jumpstarting CO2 capture technologies. But there is also at least one proposal to abolish it,” Forbes reports. “Section 45Q of the Internal Revenue Code offers a tax credit that varies from just under $12 up to $50 for each metric ton of carbon captured and sequestered, depending on the timing and type of project. Proposals now in Congress could boost it as high as $175 per ton. They were outlined in a report to Congress Wednesday by Angela C. Jones, an analyst in environmental policy, and Molly F. Sherlock, a specialist in public finance, of the Congressional Research Service… “Democrats are also behind the proposal to abolish 45Q. Rep. Ilhan Omar (MN) and Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-VT) introduced HR 2102, the End Polluter Welfare Act, which deletes the carbon-capture and sequestration credit along with an array of subsidies for the fossil-fuel industries.”
EXTRACTION
Grand Forks Herald: Oil well fire in western North Dakota burns into 6th straight day
Adam Willis, 7/27/21
“An oil well fire that started in McKenzie County on Thursday, July 22, was still burning on Tuesday afternoon, six days later,” the Grand Forks Herald reports. “Smoke from the well pad fire, which is located on top of a hill north of Keene and a half mile south of Lake Sakakawea in western North Dakota, is visible from many miles away, the state's top oil industry regulator, Lynn Helms, told state leaders on Tuesday. The Texas-based producer Petro-Hunt, which holds the lease on the well pad, said the fire has been burning since around 1:30 p.m. Thursday. Three of the four wells on the site are on fire, Helms said. In a status update to other state officials, Helms attributed the fire to the failure of a blowout preventer, a crucial mechanical valve used to stop the uncontrolled release of oil, though the cause of the fire is still under investigation… “Officials urged people with sensitivity to air pollution to reduce their outdoor exposure if they find poor air quality in their area and contact a health care provider immediately if they have trouble breathing. The North Dakota Department of Environmental Quality said the fire could affect air conditions in the vicinity and encouraged locals to monitor the U.S. Air Quality Index.”
Associated Press: Forgotten oil and gas wells linger, leaking toxic chemicals
By CATHY BUSSEWITZ and MARTHA IRVINE, 7/29/21
“Rusted pipes litter the sandy fields of Ashley Williams Watt’s cattle ranch in windswept West Texas. The corroded skeletons are all that remain of hundreds of abandoned oil wells that were drilled long before her family owned the land. The wells, unable to produce any useful amounts of oil or gas, were plugged with cement decades ago and forgotten,” the Associated Press reports. “But something eerie is going on beneath the land, where Watt once played among the mesquite trees, jackrabbits and javelina and first drove the dirt roads at 10 years old. One by one, the wells seem to be unplugging themselves. They’re leaking dangerous chemicals that are seeping into groundwater beneath her ranch. Now 35, Watt believes the problems on her ranch, which sprawls across the oil-rich fields of the Permian Basin, are getting worse. In April, she found crude oil bubbling from an abandoned well. In June, an oil company worker called to alert her that another well was seeping pools of salty produced water, a byproduct of oil and gas extraction containing toxic chemicals. “I’m watching this well literally just spew brine water into my water table, and then I have to go home at night, and I’m sweaty and tired and smelly, and I get in the shower, and I turn on the shower and I look at it, and I think, is this shower going to kill me?” Watt told AP… “After the discoveries on Watt’s ranch, traces of benzene showed up in the well that supplies her cattle’s drinking water. Chevron, which owned at least two of the oil wells that recently came unplugged, began trucking in drinking water while its crews tried to fix the leaks. But Watt worried that her animals might have consumed contaminated water. So she had her 600 head of cattle hauled off to another part of her ranch. “At this point,” she said, “I cannot sell my cattle at market in good conscience, because I have no idea what is in them.”
OPINION
Slate: An Indigenous Leader on Why She Still Needs to Protest Pipelines, Even Under Biden
BY SOFIA ANDRADE, 7/28/21
“After five years of constant protests, the movement to Stop Line 3, a proposed pipeline in Canada and the Midwest, has been rapidly escalating in the last couple of months,” Sofia Andrade writes for Slate. “Made up primarily of Indigenous organizers, tribal governments, and climate justice organizers, the group is dedicated to fighting against the Canadian multinational fossil fuel company Enbridge, which is building the pipeline… “Slate spoke with LaDuke about organizing on the frontlines of Stop Line 3 and about protesters’ demands for the Biden administration when it comes to climate justice and Indigenous rights… “We’re gonna stand here and fight it out, man. I’ve been living on Shell River for the past two months. … I spent most of my life around Shell Lake, right, but this is a river that comes from the lake and the lake is pristine. It has the best wild rice. Now I’ve been living in the river and it’s the driest here in history, in known in history. The river is 50, 60 percent lower than it’s supposed to be. And [Minnesota] just gave 5 billion gallons of water to this Canadian multinational to [build] the last tar sands pipeline. Now that’s crazy. … They’re basically putting an entire ecosystem at risk so that they can make a buck. I mean this pipeline is worse than Keystone,” LaDuke told Slate. “Do you think that the Biden administration is doing enough to help the organizers and Indigenous communities trying to stop Line 3? “Are you kidding?! The federal government should be all over this! They’re doing nothing. Biden’s acting like he canceled one pipeline so he gets a gold star. But you don’t get a gold star from Mother Earth to let Line 3 go ahead. You don’t get a gold star from the planet. … So, [that’s] one. Two, they didn’t do an environmental impact statement.”