EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/23/22
PIPELINE NEWS
NWIowa.com: Antipipeline litigation has 'power in numbers'
Food & Water Watch: An Economist Breaks Down The Costs of Carbon Pipelines In Iowa
KWWL: Informational meetings for proposed Navigator pipeline in Eastern Iowa taking place this week
Oelwein Daily Register: Resolution opposing CO2 pipeline before City Council tonight
Roanoke Times: Mountain Valley Pipeline submits stabilization plan in Jefferson National Forest
Houston Chronicle: An offshore oil terminal would put a pipeline under Surfside Beach. Thousands of people want to stop it.
WLDS: West Central IL Landowners Continue Fight with FERC Over Land Restoration Agreements with Spire STL Pipeline
KHQ: Washington attorney general seeks to halt expansion of gas pipeline
OilPrice.com: The World’s Biggest LNG Exporter Has A Pipeline Problem
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: 3 states tell FERC: Western gas project violates climate laws
STATE UPDATES
Star Tribune: Minnesota's 'Big Oil' lawsuit becomes an issue in attorney general's race
Carlsbad Current-Argus: $110 million sale of Permian Basin assets continues oil and gas growth in New Mexico, Texas
EXTRACTION
Guardian: Just Stop Oil activists stage protests at Essex and Midlands terminals
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Press release: Indigenous Engagement and Inclusion at Enbridge: The Lifecycle Approach
OPINION
Ted Glick: Senator Schumer, Did Manchin Tell You Oil/Gas Was Drafting the Side Deal?
Wall Street Journal: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Winners and Losers
The Hill: The Inflation Reduction Act’s modest impact on oil and gas
PIPELINE NEWS
NWIowa.com: Antipipeline litigation has 'power in numbers'
Elijah Helton, 8/20/22
“The legal front against CO2 pipelines is already fighting with live fire after a successful court filing against top corporate interest Summit Carbon Solutions,” NWIowa.com reports. “The central tension is between Summit and landowners, mostly farmers, who don’t want to sign easements for the Ames company’s 680-mile project set to cross five states including much of Iowa. Summit can go around this individual opposition and apply to get eminent domain rights with state authorities such as the Iowa Utilities Board. And that’s where the lawyers come in. Brian Jorde is the main attorney for a group of landowners united against the pipeline. “There’s power in numbers with other like-minded, concerned Iowa landowners,” Jorde told NWIowa.com. “We have to mass up and group together to try to fight against the power of the political machine and the millions and millions of dollars they can throw around to buy people off.” “...Jorde is the managing partner of Domina Law Firm in Omaha, NE. He’s been monitoring Summit’s activities in jurisdictions across the Midwest. Jorde argued that Summit is trying to brute force its way along with its political and financial connections. “They are using taxpayer dollars to steal legal rights and property rights away from landowners. That’s who they are and that’s what they’re doing, and it’s got to stop,” Jorde told NWIowa.com… “Like most folks against the pipeline, Jorde simply doesn’t buy it. To him, it’s just an unnecessary land grab without the consent of people who stand to make a vanishingly small return on a potential easement. Put simply, the lawyer said people should stick up for their property rights. “Get busy and get busy and get active, and we’ll help everyone through that process,” Jorde told NWIowa.com. It’s been about a year since the carbon pipeline saga started in Iowa. From the beginning, activist groups have warned landowners — even if they’re merely uncertain about an easement — not to sign anything from corporations. The project is moving slowly, Jorde told NWIowa.com, and getting an agreement with Summit surrenders future leverage. “There’s no rush, and there’s no urgency. These companies have no permits in any state that are required,” he told NWIowa.com. “We’re in the very beginning stages, so why would you sign anything?”
Food & Water Watch: An Economist Breaks Down The Costs of Carbon Pipelines In Iowa
Emma Schmit, 8/22/22
“Iowans are facing a monumental threat in a David-and-Goliath showdown: it’s the people against the pipelines and their dirty energy backers. The proposed hazardous pipelines would carry carbon dioxide from ethanol and fertilizer facilities across 2,000 miles in Iowa. They would extend thousands of miles across five states from Illinois to North Dakota, bolstering a failing technology known as “carbon capture,” according to Food & Water Watch. “...This week, Senior Iowa Organizer Emma Schmit corresponded with Dr. Silvia Secchi to discuss the proposed pipelines… “I wouldn’t say that I oppose the proposed carbon pipelines, but the science shows that they aren’t a good carbon mitigation strategy. The only reason they’re being considered is because of who the beneficiaries are and their political clout in both parties. They don’t make any sense otherwise — socially, economically and environmentally. My main concern is that the public truly understands these issues, because we are literally paying for the pipelines through federal subsidies. The pipelines would not be built without them. It is critical that we have clear, evidence-based conversations on costs and benefits. That includes who benefits and who pays for these projects; what we call the distributional effects… “It is common for these companies to hire consultants who, on the basis of data provided by the company itself, estimate egregious and inaccurately high benefits. This has been the case for the Dakota Access Pipeline and Keystone, and now for the ethanol CO2 pipelines. I urge everybody to look at the disclaimers that are present in these reports. They essentially say that the report is a PR stunt and should not be used for any other purpose. It is particularly important that elected officials don’t take these reports’ claims at face value, because they aren’t vetted and aren’t peer reviewed… “The oil and gas industry is a big proponent of carbon capture. It allows the industry to continue to pollute and receive government subsidies while appearing to “solve” the climate issue. These kinds of policies do not benefit the majority of Iowans. And Iowans are, in fact, stuck paying for them.”
KWWL: Informational meetings for proposed Navigator pipeline in Eastern Iowa taking place this week
Meg Swanson, 8/22/22
“A proposed pipeline project more than 1,300 miles long, spanning five states is facing some pushback in Iowa,” KWWL reports. “The Navigator Heartland Greenway CO2 pipeline would cover 810 miles in Iowa and cross through 33 counties… “Today was the first of several informational meetings to discuss the proposal with the public. In Delaware County, the meeting began at noon and was still going on by 3 p.m. Hundreds of residents filled the Gathering Place in Manchester where the Navigator team shared their plans. Many in the crowd were outspoken in their opposition of the pipeline's construction in their county. Some said they did not want a limited liability company (LLC) building on their land. A back-and-forth exchange between a member of the public and an official with Navigator today, put the question at center stage. "'You're from Alburnett?' 'Correct.' 'Family farm?' 'Correct.' 'They live there yet?' 'Correct.' 'Would you like this going next to your parents or whoever lives there or anybody else?' 'We do not draw those lines, I apologize.'" Others were concerned with possible leaks and the potential safety hazards that could arise. "You guys have a history of this," said one attendee to the panel of Navigator officials. "Maybe not you specifically but the industry does. So when that leak happens and it interacts with a manure containment system and those two toxic gases mix, how does that affect the surrounding communities?" The Bremer and Butler County Board of Supervisors have already submitted letters opposing the construction of the pipeline in their counties to the Iowa Utilities Board. At Monday's city council meeting in Oelwein, a resolution opposing the project will be on the agenda.”
Oelwein Daily Register: Resolution opposing CO2 pipeline before City Council tonight
DEB KUNKLE, 8/21/22
“The city of Oelwein is poised to take an official position opposing the Navigator Heartland Greenway CO2 pipeline. City Council will consider adopting a resolution tonight, ahead of the public meeting Tuesday, Aug. 23, at the Coliseum regarding the pipeline construction. The request for the resolution was made by the mayor and local community members,” the Oelwein Daily Register reports. “The resolution states concern with the health, safety and wellbeing of Oelwein residents, businesses, and the community, that are impacted by physical environment in which they live. The resolution further states that “threats to personal safety from the proposed … pipeline would cause undue burdens on public safety” and “a dangerous pipeline presenting the risks such as the proposed Navigator Greenway CO2 pipeline would present the need for additional emergency services, evacuation plans, disaster mitigation, and the accompanying budgetary expenses associated with those requirements.” Because the city is concerned for the pipeline’s location through, adjacent and within close proximity to the south of Oelwein, the resolution expresses opposition to the pipeline and also requests the project be abandoned or seek an alternative route that is not in close proximity to the city. The resolution further requests the Iowa Utilities Board to deny Navigator’s application to construct and operate a CO2 pipeline and not provide it the use of eminent domain to acquire property for the construction. During the Mayor’s report at the Council’s previous meeting on Aug. 8, Mayor Brett DeVore briefly expressed his concern with the development of the pipeline. He asked Councilman Matt Weber, who is also a volunteer Oelwein firefighter, if the Fire Department was trained and/or equipped to handle a CO2 pipeline rupture. Weber directly replied, “No.”
Roanoke Times: Mountain Valley Pipeline submits stabilization plan in Jefferson National Forest
Laurence Hammack, 8/22/22
“According to a proposed plan, new cribbing will be transported by helicopter to Mountain Valley construction sites in the Jefferson National Forest with unburied pipeline sections that are currently supported by deteriorating platforms,” the Roanoke Times reports. “For four years now, large sections of steel pipe have been left along a cleared path through the Jefferson National Forest, caught in a state of limbo as legal battles have stalled construction of the Mountain Valley Pipeline. The 42-inch diameter pipe sits on wooden platforms, or cribbing, that over time have deteriorated. In January, a section of pipe slipped off the cribbing and slid about 40 feet down a snow-covered slope. A similar incident happened in February… “New cribbing will be transported by helicopter to the construction sites, where it will be installed by crews without the use of heavy equipment that would tear up the ground. “We acknowledge the challenge of maintaining erosion control measures for an extended period and believe this will represent the most expedient opportunity to achieve stabilization,” Daniel Olsen, lead pipeline executive for the U.S. Forest Service, wrote in recommending the plan… “Lynda Majors, who lives along the project’s route and is a member of Preserve Montgomery County, questioned why it has taken eight months to come up with what is a simple stabilization plan. “FERC is well aware of the pipes crushing the cribbing throughout the pipeline ROW [right of way] and the real potential for way more than one pipe slipping off cribbing and falling downhill,” Majors wrote in an email.
Houston Chronicle: An offshore oil terminal would put a pipeline under Surfside Beach. Thousands of people want to stop it.
Amanda Drane, 8/23/22
“An oil export terminal offshore Freeport is inching toward reality despite thousands of opponents who argue its pipeline would disturb beloved Surfside Beach,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “The federal Maritime Administration is holding a final public hearing 6 p.m. Tuesday before making a determination on a license for the deepwater port project proposed by pipeline giant Enterprise Products Partners. (Registration information for the virtual meeting is available at spotnepaprocess.com. Written comments can be submitted online through Sept. 12.) The offshore oil port, the first of several competing projects proposed in 2019, was designed to more efficiently meet a surge in export volumes that has yet to come. Oil exports haven’t nearly reached projections after the pandemic disrupted what was anticipated to be a meteoric rise, giving more weight to residents asking: “Why Surfside?” Enterprise’s Sea Port Oil Terminal, called SPOT, would be built about 30 miles south of Freeport. A pipeline would transport crude from the company’s pipeline network in Houston to Surfside, where it would cut under the beach before heading 30 miles offshore to the port. “I’m not attacking oil, but this is a huge project I’m not so sure is necessary,” Martha Dunn, who lives in Houston but visits regularly in Surfside, where her 96-year-old mother has lived for nearly two decades, told the Chronicle… “Competing projects lag Enterprise Product’s SPOT. Phillips 66's Bluewater project offshore of Corpus Christi and Sentinel Midstream's Texas GulfLink off the coast of Brazoria County are waiting on a final environmental impact statement from the Maritime Administration, which would trigger a final round of public comment. Energy Transfer's Blue Marlin facility offshore the Texas-Louisiana border has not yet been issued a draft environmental impact statement after submitting an application for the project in 2020.”
WLDS: West Central IL Landowners Continue Fight with FERC Over Land Restoration Agreements with Spire STL Pipeline
Benjamin Cox, 8/22/22
“Greene, Scott, and Jersey County landowners are asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to take a closer look at the Spire STL Pipeline once again,” WLDS reports. “Landowners have asked for a request to rehearing on FERC’s dismissal of a request to rehear the pipeline’s permit on July 21st. On May 24th, an agent of FERC submitted a report after visiting the pipeline’s easement after the pipeline has had a noted history of non-compliance when it comes to environmental issues created by the pipeline’s construction, which were evidenced in reports provided by the Illinois Department of Agriculture and the Illinois EPA within the last 3 years. The landowners insist that their has not been a timely restoration of their properties by the natural gas company and the FERC agent’s report has denied them that right. Nate Laps of Central Land Consulting LLC who represents a large group of the landowners in the 3 counties, told WLDS the land issues are numerous: “The majority of the area that Spire has crossed are agricultural lands. Some are wooded areas, but they are mainly agricultural. The first thing they have damaged heavily are drain tiles. The landowners are identifying a lot of drain tiles that are either not connected at all where they previously had been connected across the easement or they are just settled or insufficient and not working. You are seeing a lot of flooding in those areas where the broken or unusable drain tiles are. The drain tiles are crucial in order for the farmers to get the highest yields and get production at the fullest. The other thing is there is a lot of debris, matting material, rocks, and compacted soils that are causing a lot of damage to farming machinery – especially combines. During harvest especially for soybeans, you are cutting a lot lower and these things cause a lot of damage to the cutter bars. It can get into the rotors. It does pretty extensive damage to some pretty high-end equipment that the farmers rely on. There is a lot of erosion. A lot of landowners are complaining about the mixing of top soil. The soils are severely compacted. These things have gone on for way too long and the landowners just want their properties restored.” Legal counsel of the Illinois Farm Bureau and the Illinois Department of Agriculture are now involved in the issue asking for FERC to intervene. Illinois Senator Tammy Duckworth is also reviewing the case and has been asked to help with intervention on the landowners’ behalf.”
KHQ: Washington attorney general seeks to halt expansion of gas pipeline
Noah Corrin, 8/22/22
“Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion Monday to oppose a proposed expansion to the Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) pipeline, which runs through Washington state, including through Spokane county,” KHQ reports. “ Ferguson said the expansion would hurt Washingtonians and increase greenhouse gasses. TC Energy proposed modifications to the Gas Transmission Northwest pipeline, which runs through Idaho and Washington. Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson filed a motion to oppose the modifications on Aug. 22… “The GTN is owned by TC Energy, a Canadian company that lobbied for the Keystone XL. In his motion to oppose the expansion, Ferguson argued it would undermine the State of Washington's carbon emission reduction goals. If GTN is expanded, his motion said, the emissions from the pipeline would comprise 48% of the region's target total emissions from all sources in 2050. TC Energy responded to KHQ's request for comment with the following statement: Natural Gas is a critical component of any strategy to meet our North American energy needs today and in the future and has contributed to reduced greenhouse gas emissions on the continent.”
OilPrice.com: The World’s Biggest LNG Exporter Has A Pipeline Problem
Alex Kimani, 8/22/22
“The United States has become the world's biggest liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter as deliveries to energy-starved buyers in Europe and Asia have surged. In the current year, 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 energy-starved buyers in Europe and Asia,” OilPrice.com reports. “...Unfortunately, whereas the United States has the world’s largest backlog of near-shovel-ready liquefied natural gas projects, takeaway constraints including limited pipeline capacity remain the biggest hurdle to expanding the sector. In the Appalachian Basin, the country’s largest gas-producing region churning out more than 35 Bcf/d, environmental groups have repeatedly stopped or slowed down pipeline projects and limited further growth in the Northeast. This leaves the Permian Basin and Haynesville Shale to shoulder much of the growth forecast for LNG exports. Indeed, EQT Corp. CEO Toby Rice recently acknowledged that Appalachian pipeline capacity has “hit a wall.” Analysts at East Daley Capital Inc. have projected that U.S. LNG exports will grow to 26.3 Bcf/d by 2030 from their current level of nearly 13 Bcf/d. For this to happen, the analysts say another 2-4 Bcf/d of takeaway capacity would need to come online between 2026 and 2030 in the Haynesville. According to FERC, four U.S. LNG projects are currently under construction, another 12 have been approved by federal regulators and four more have been proposed totaling 40 Bcf/d of potential LNG exports.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: 3 states tell FERC: Western gas project violates climate laws
Jason Plautz, 8/23/22
“Three West Coast states are calling on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to reject a natural gas transmission expansion project, saying it would violate their climate change laws and increase greenhouse gas emissions,” E&E News reports. “In June, FERC released a draft environmental impact statement for TC PipeLines’ Gas Transmission Northwest (GTN) XPress project, which would modify three existing natural gas compressor stations to increase capacity to meet growing market demand. The expansion would affect existing natural gas compressor stations in Idaho, Washington and Oregon to increase capacity by about 150 million standard cubic feet per day of gas between Idaho and Oregon. In the draft EIS, FERC said the modifications would result in “limited adverse impacts on the environment” and that most of those would be short-term. The draft did not characterize the significance of the project’s climate change impacts because FERC is engaged in a separate proceeding to determine emissions from natural gas projects. In a protest comment, the attorneys general from Washington, Oregon and California say that FERC should deny the project because it does not serve a public need in a region transitioning away from fossil fuels in favor of renewable energy. A separate comment from the three states decries “critical flaws” in FERC’s environmental analysis and argues that the project should not proceed without consideration of the associated greenhouse gas emissions. According to FERC’s own analysis, the project could result in emissions of 204,170 metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from project operations and another 3 million metric tons of carbon dioxide equivalent from downstream emissions. In addition, the states say any expansion of natural gas transmission would result in greater upstream emissions that were not incorporated in the EIS. Those emissions mean the project would violate the states’ climate change laws, which each require cutting greenhouse gas emissions and transitioning to 100 percent renewable energy, the attorneys general said.”
STATE UPDATES
Star Tribune: Minnesota's 'Big Oil' lawsuit becomes an issue in attorney general's race
Chloe Johnson, 8/20/22
“A lawsuit by Democratic Minnesota Attorney General Keith Ellison to hold large fossil fuel firms responsible for deceiving the public on climate change has become a campaign issue as Ellison defends his seat this year,” the Star Tribune reports. “Jim Schultz, his newly minted Republican challenger, has made an issue of the suit on the campaign trail. In an interview, he described it as "frivolous" and said the Attorney General's Office should focus on violent crime by hiring more prosecutors in that area. "It has zero chance at succeeding," Schultz said of the fossil fuel lawsuit. "It's fundamentally motivated by headlines and pleasing one side of the political aisle." Minnesota's isn't the only climate change lawsuit in the court system right now — there are more than 20 from cities, counties and states across the country. Very few have been dismissed. "This lawsuit is in the long and successful tradition of Minnesota attorneys general standing up to protect Minnesotans from corporate fraud and deception by Big Tobacco, Big Pharma, and now Big Oil," Ellison wrote in an e-mailed statement. "This is what Minnesotans expect from their attorney general. It's the right fight to be having." The litigation argues that the American Petroleum Institute, ExxonMobil and Koch Industries misled Minnesota consumers for years about the consequences of burning oil and gas. It argues that the state "has already experienced billions of dollars of economic harm due to climate change" and without action "will continue to suffer billions of dollars of damage through midcentury."
Carlsbad Current-Argus: $110 million sale of Permian Basin assets continues oil and gas growth in New Mexico, Texas
Adrian Hedden, 8/23/22
“A Minnesota oil and gas company was the latest to spend millions of dollars in growing its presence in the Permian Basin, as the fossil fuel market continued an upward trend in prices and operations targeting the region in southeast New Mexico and West Texas,” the Carlsbad Current-Argus reports. “Northern Oil and Gas announced Aug. 17 it was spending $110 million to purchase assets on the eastern side of the Permian within the Midland sub-basin. The assets were expected to produce about 1,800 barrels of oil per day in the next year from 1,600 acres in Howard County, Texas… “The sale followed the company’s $419 million purchase of other assets in the region from Veritas Energy, which closed in January, including 6,000 acres in the western Delaware sub-basin expected to produce about 11,500 barrels of oil equivalent per day… “As oil prices climbed this year, Rystad predicted many companies would be unable to use these hedged contracts to profit from the upswing. For next year, the report said companies could negotiate high ceilings for their contracts, reducing losses to $3 billion in 2023 at $100 a barrel, $1.5 billion at $85 a barrel. Hedging would become profitable, per the report, if oil prices dropped to $65 a barrel. “With huge losses on the table, operators have been frantically adapting their hedging strategies to minimize losses this year and next,” wrote Rystad Vice President Alisa Lush. “As a result, we may not have seen peak cash flow in the industry yet, which is hard to believe given the soaring financials reported in recent weeks.”
EXTRACTION
Guardian: Just Stop Oil activists stage protests at Essex and Midlands terminals
Damien Gayle, 8/23/22
“Dozens of environmental protesters have blocked critical oil infrastructure in Essex and the Midlands as they revived a campaign to “just stop oil,” the Guardian reports. “At daybreak on Tuesday, about 50 people took part in protests targeting three oil terminals, from where fuel is distributed to petrol stations, the activist group Just Stop Oil told the Guardian. In Essex, about 30 activists occupied the Inter oil terminal in Grays and blocked a road leading to the Navigator oil terminal in Thurrock, while five others occupied tunnels dug beneath access roads to the terminals. In Warwickshire about 20 people tried to block access roads to the Kingsbury oil terminal, the campaign said. Four others were said to be occupying two tunnels near the site. Just Stop Oil told the Guardian protest tunnels were “totally blocking access to Kingsbury and Navigator oil terminals”... “Just Stop Oil staged several weeks of coordinated protest actions at oil terminals and other pieces of oil infrastructure in the Midlands and south of England from 1 April, leading to hundreds of arrests and reports of fuel shortages around the region. Oil distribution companies and local government responded to the protests by obtaining high court injunctions banning protest activity around a number of sites. The campaign paused its protests around oil terminals over the summer, but supporters continued to stage actions including pitch invasions at football matches, trespassing on the track at the British grand prix, and gluing themselves to well-known works of art in galleries around the country… “Jeannie Donald-McKim, 58, a teacher from Witney, Oxfordshire, who took part in the protests near Kingsbury, said: “Our addiction to oil is fuelling climate collapse and causing the worst cost of living crisis in 40 years. People are getting desperate. We have run out of time for words. Now is the time for action.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Press release: Indigenous Engagement and Inclusion at Enbridge: The Lifecycle Approach
8/22/22
“Across North America, there’s an awakening to Indigenous history, culture, rights, engagement and inclusion, which is placing more focus on the evolving legal and constitutional framework, fostering greater political and societal attention, and providing opportunities to weave Indigenous knowledge, teachings and perspectives into decision-making. Along with this, the recent and ongoing discoveries of the unmarked graves of Indigenous children at former residential schools in Canada are a painful reminder of the inequities and injustices Indigenous peoples across North America have endured and continue to face today. We have all inherited this position in time together—and we all have a role to play in educating ourselves about the truth of the history of Indigenous peoples and then embarking on a path toward reconciliation. While we, at Enbridge, have expanded Indigenous inclusion within our projects and operations, we recognize our journey toward reconciliation is just that, a journey. More time is needed to listen, learn, understand and adapt. We are committed to this, and we are committed to bridging the gaps that exist to develop meaningful and sustainable outcomes for Indigenous groups for generations to come. We intend to further outline commitments in 2022 which will form the basis of our plan of action going forward.”
OPINION
Ted Glick: Senator Schumer, Did Manchin Tell You Oil/Gas Was Drafting the Side Deal?
Ted Glick works with Beyond Extreme Energy and is president of 350NJ-Rockland, 8/22/22
“Did Joe Manchin tell Chuck Schumer that the American Petroleum Institute was going to draft “must-pass” legislation, a pro-fossil fuels side deal, to go along with the Inflation Reduction Act?,” Ted Glick writes. “On August 3, just a few days before the Senate passed, by a 51-50 vote, that IRA legislation, Bloomberg news released a story about the pro-fossil fuels side deal which should be finally released publicly any day now. Manchin said a month ago that there was a side deal agreement between him and Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer. This agreement will allegedly allow a vote in September on a yet-to-be-released piece of legislation that will do many bad things: grease the wheels for the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline to be built; severely undercut the National Environmental Policy Act; speed up the federal permitting process for proposed fossil fuel projects; undercut the power of the federal courts to make decisions that slow down approvals of fossil fuel pipelines and infrastructure; and more. The API crowd are Joe’s people. At an infamous hearing of the Manchin-chaired Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee on March 4th of this year, Manchin said, in the heat of a back-and-forth between him/the Republicans and the three Democrats who make up a majority of the five-person leadership group of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, “you are wearing people out,” in a clear reference to Manchin’s people, the coal, oil and gas CEO’s and those on their boards of directors. “There’s a policy by some of death by a thousand cuts on the fossil fuel industry;” and “I know these people, they’re not going to invest, they’re going to walk away.” “...Will Manchin be successful in this latest effort to keep “these people” in the oil and gas industry happy, with Chuck Schumer using his power in the Senate to make it happen? You don’t need to do it Senator Schumer! You owe nothing to scheming Joe Manchin. Just say, “No Joe, I am not going to allow a vote on a bill drafted by the oil and gas industry, the American Petroleum Institute.” Chuck Schumer and other Democrats in the Senate and House need to be bombarded for the next month by the people’s movement for climate and environmental justice movement and all people who get it on the urgent need to shift from fossil fuels to clean, jobs-creating, renewable energy. Just say no, Chuck!”
Wall Street Journal: The Inflation Reduction Act’s Energy Winners and Losers
By The Editorial Board, 8/19/22
“President Biden thanked Joe Manchin on Tuesday when signing the misnamed Inflation Reduction Act. As well he should. The West Virginia Senator provided the crucial Senate vote and the advertising that it is an “all of the above” energy bill. The truth is that it’s a renewables-above-all bill that will raise U.S. energy prices and make energy and electricity supplies less secure,” the Wall Street Journal Editorial Board writes. “...The losers are fossil fuels. The bill imposes a new 16.4 cents a barrel tax on crude oil and doubles the current excise tax on coal production. It also includes a new methane fee, though it’s unclear how it will be administered. These taxes along with multitudinous subsidies for renewables will reduce fossil-fuel investment. That’s clearly the goal. The tax credits are intended to redirect business investment from fossil fuels to green energy by making the latter much more profitable and the former more costly. The result will be higher energy prices. Renewable tax credits will also exacerbate price distortions in power markets caused by the existing subsidies and make the electricity grid less reliable. Renewable subsidies have already caused an oversupply of solar and wind, which are driving out coal and nuclear (and some gas-fired) plants that provide reliable baseload power… “Mr. Manchin seems to believe that more generous subsidies for carbon-capture technology will rescue coal from the left’s tender mercies. The Biden Environmental Protection Agency has hinted that it intends to require coal plants to adopt expensive carbon-capture technologies, which would effectively force most to shut down. Alas, coal carbon capture has been a fiasco. The Obama Administration committed $1 billion from the 2009 stimulus to a carbon-capture project in Illinois. It was abandoned in 2015 amid legal challenges. Greens oppose carbon capture because they believe it provides a lifeline to fossil fuels… “Politicians and green-energy special interests won. U.S. energy security lost.”
The Hill: The Inflation Reduction Act’s modest impact on oil and gas
Brad Handler is Payne Institute program manager and sustainable finance lab researcher at the Colorado School of Mines, as well as a former Wall Street equity research analyst in the oil and gas sector. Morgan Bazilian is director of the Payne Institute and a professor of public policy at the Colorado School of Mines, as well as a former lead energy specialist at the World Bank, 8/22/22
“Inflation Reduction Act (IRA), it can be easy to miss that the new law includes several items related to the future of the oil and gas industry. Their goal is both to foster more U.S. oil and natural gas development while pursuing lower methane emissions and sharing more revenue with taxpayers,” Brad Handler and Morgan Bazilian write for The Hill. “The legislation is unlikely to have a significant impact on U.S hydrocarbon production, largely because activity today is not constrained by access to acreage. What help the IRA does offer comes from mandated streamlining of pipeline projects. Meanwhile, the threat of methane emissions charges, even if it applies to a relatively narrow set of facilities, should help spur investment in equipment and prod the industry to move more quickly to lower emissions… “Access to federal lands is not the constraint. Rather, the primary constraint is investor demand for the sector to earn an adequate financial return after many years of not doing so. It seems highly unlikely that the increased royalty rates and other charges will dampen interest in the federal acreage… “Streamlined project permitting may have the intended effect of spurring additional activity. Recent years’ stymying of new natural gas pipelines in the Northeastern U.S. has suppressed natural gas development in that region... The IRA, as the first meaningful climate policy enacted in the U.S., is poised to spur massive investments in clean energy. The same cannot be said for its oil and gas provisions despite their inclusion to get enough votes for the bill’s passage. That gets the priorities about right.”