EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/27/21
PIPELINE NEWS
KTOE: Walz defends position on Enbridge Line 3 after State Capitol protests
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Water Protectors Block Line 3 Pump Station with Aerial Structure Never Before Used in Western Hemisphere
The Intercept: MINNESOTA LAW ENFORCEMENT SHARED INTELLIGENCE ON PROTEST ORGANIZERS WITH PIPELINE COMPANY
Facebook: Tiny House Warriors: TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE INVADE TINY HOUSE WARRIOR VILLAGE AND THREATEN ARREST OF SECWEPEMC ELDERS AND INDIGENOUS YOUTH
Des Moines Register: Company wants to build a carbon sequestration pipeline in 30 Iowa counties. Find out where.
Press release: Iowa Utilities Board sets public information meetings regarding proposed CO2 pipeline
Huffington Post: The Gassing Of Satartia: A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people
Grist: Does rural Illinois really need a new gas pipeline?
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Schumer Outlines Reconciliation Emissions Targets
EXTRACTION
Williston Herald: Hopkins: Carbon emissions from North Dakota's blue hydrogen hub will be comparable to green
RESEARCH & SCIENCE
The Hill: Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea levels hit record highs in 2020: NOAA
E&E News: Climate denial newspaper flourishes on Facebook
CLIMATE FINANCE
Insure Our Future: Religious Community Calls on Leading Faith Insurer GuideOne to End Fossil Fuel Coverage
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Press release: Astros partner Energy Transfer donation tops $15,000
OPINION
The Hill: The climate crisis requires every tool we've got, including carbon removal
PIPELINE NEWS
KTOE: Walz defends position on Enbridge Line 3 after State Capitol protests
8/27/21
“Governor Tim Walz is defending his stance on Enbridge Line 3, the day after more than a thousand protesters at the State Capitol demanded he halt construction on the controversial pipeline,” KTOE reports. “Nancy Beaulieu with MN-350 from Bemidji: “When the governor told us during his campaign, no Line 3 and that we’ll honor (the) treaty, we don’t see this right now and this is why we are here — ’cause we are still here!” Walz says through this whole thing, he followed the science, the process and the law: “I’ve made the case and shown policies that we need to move away from fossil fuels but, in the meantime if we’re gonna transport oil, we need to do it as safely as we possibly can with the most modern equipment, and my job was to make sure that that’s what was happening on this,” Walz told KTOE.
Facebook: Giniw Collective: Water Protectors Block Line 3 Pump Station with Aerial Structure Never Before Used in Western Hemisphere
8/25/21
“This morning, Water Protectors erected an aerial blockade in front of a Line 3 pump station, the kind of good trouble that has inspired over 700 people to be arrested standing up for Mother Earth in northern Minnesota. The blockade is an engineered effort originally deployed by Extinction Rebellion UK — today marks the first time it has ever been deployed in the Western Hemisphere. The action follows a blockade of a Line 3 mancamp days prior, which included an all-BIPOC, mostly Indigenous femme and two-spirit team of land defenders. Wild ricing season has begun in Anishinaabe territory, under drought conditions that have impacted wild rice beds across the North Country. Some lake and riverbeds are nearly wiped out — the state of Minnesota approved Enbridge to “dewater” 5 billion gallons of water to construct Line 3. Police brutality and use of force on Water Protectors has escalated in the past month. The Walz/Flanagan and Biden/Harris administrations have said nothing about gross human rights abuses at the hands of police in financial relationship with Enbridge, a Canadian corporation. “We’re here because the Biden Administration and Enbridge continue to violate the treaties we signed centuries ago— the supreme law of the land. This betrays our oath to our indigenous siblings and this planet,” said one Water Protector suspended in the air.”
The Intercept: MINNESOTA LAW ENFORCEMENT SHARED INTELLIGENCE ON PROTEST ORGANIZERS WITH PIPELINE COMPANY
Alleen Brown, 8/27/21
“POLICE RESPONSIBLE FOR public safety surrounding the construction of an oil pipeline in Minnesota have repeatedly denied having a close relationship with Enbridge, the company behind the controversial energy project,” The Intercept reports. “According to records obtained by The Intercept through public information requests, however, Enbridge has provided repeated trainings for officers designed to cultivate a coordinated response to protests. By the time construction on Line 3, a tar sands oil pipeline, began last December, a working relationship had been established between Enbridge and police officers. A public safety official even invited the company’s Line 3 security chief to regular intelligence sharing meetings. In one case, the official passed along intelligence to Enbridge’s security chief for Line 3: a list of people who attended an anti-pipeline organizing meeting. Line 3 opponents have long raised concerns about payments made to law enforcement by Enbridge to cover pipeline-related policing. A special account set up by the state of Minnesota has distributed $2.3 million in Enbridge funds to public safety agencies so far. The records shed new light on the level of close coordination between law enforcement agencies and the Canadian oil company to police the Indigenous-led movement to stop Line 3. “Local law enforcement has become the brutal arm of a Canadian corporation,” Mara Verheyden-Hilliard, director of the Partnership for Civil Justice Fund’s Center for Protest Law and Litigation and an attorney representing opponents of the pipeline, told the Intercept. “It’s highly inappropriate for law enforcement to target people based on First Amendment activity, collect identity information and then deliver that information to their political opponents.”
Facebook: Tiny House Warriors: TRANS MOUNTAIN PIPELINE INVADE TINY HOUSE WARRIOR VILLAGE AND THREATEN ARREST OF SECWEPEMC ELDERS AND INDIGENOUS YOUTH
8/26/21
“Update: Around 35+ police, Tmx security and workers have surrounded camp and have read out the injunction. One arrest of Warrior NEED people for jail support @ Clearwater jail. This morning of August 26TH 2021 Trans Mountain Pipeline workers further encroached on Tiny House Warrior village in “Blue River, BC”, unceded Secwepemc territory. At approximately 9AM (PST) over 100 men surrounded the village at both the back and front entrances of the blockade to put up farther fencing, chainsaw down trees, and harass and surveil elders and youth asserting their inherent title and rights to live freely on unceded Secwepemc land. At approximately 10:00am (PST) a young Indigenous person laid down in front of a semi-trailer truck full of environmentally destructive equipment and supplies that was brought in along with the 100 men. Tiny House Warriors has been informed that RCMP have been notified and are on their way… “The Tiny House Warriors have been living on and reoccupying Secwepemc land legally documented as “crown land” in “Blue River, BC” for 3 years in defence of their territory against the proposed Trans Mountain pipelines Blue River man camp. Trans Mountain had done very little work on this proposed camp until July 2021 when they invaded, fenced off the proposed man camp area, installed military grade security cameras and 24/7 security patrols surrounding the blockade, and began their work. Today, they make another large jump in their construction of the camp by bringing in around 100 men, threats of RCMP enforcement of the Trans Mountain injunction and construction materials. The area of the proposed man camp is ancestrally and culturally known as Secwepemc berry picking grounds since time immemorial.”
Des Moines Register: Company wants to build a carbon sequestration pipeline in 30 Iowa counties. Find out where.
Donnelle Eller, 8/26/21
“A company that wants to build a $4.5 billion pipeline in Iowa as part of a system to permanently sequester carbon from biofuels plants will hold a series of meetings over the next two months so landowners can hear more about the proposal,” the Des Moines Register reports. “Summit Carbon Solutions, the Alden company owned by Bruce Rastetter's Summit Agricultural Group, proposes building a 710-mile underground pipeline that would extend into or through 30 of the state's 99 counties. Summit plans to capture the carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol and other industrial agricultural plants before they're released into the atmosphere and contribute to global warming. The company will compress the emissions into a liquid so it can be transported to North Dakota, where it will be injected in underground rock formations for permanent storage. The company says it has agreements to sequester carbon emissions from 31 Midwestern ethanol plants. In addition to Iowa — the nation's largest producer of ethanol — and North Dakota, Summit Carbon plans to run the pipeline into Minnesota, South Dakota and Nebraska.”
Press release: Iowa Utilities Board sets public information meetings regarding proposed CO2 pipeline
8/26/21
“On August 12, 2021, the Iowa Utilities Board issued a letter approving the locations, dates and times for a series of public informational meetings to inform landowners about a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline in Iowa by Summit Carbon Solutions, LLC. Summit Carbon filed its request for the meeting dates with the IUB on August 11, 2021 in Docket No. HLP-2021-0001. The pipeline is proposed to cross 30 Iowa counties. Summit Carbon refers to the proposed carbon capture and storage project in Iowa and four other states as the Midwest Carbon Express. The project proposes to partner with a number of ethanol plants in the five states to capture carbon dioxide emissions and transport the liquefied carbon dioxide to North Dakota where they will be stored in “deep underground geologic storage locations.” The proposed project is classified as a hazardous liquid pipeline, which is governed by Iowa Code chapter 479B and the IUB’s administrative rules at 199 Iowa Administrative Code chapter 13. Links to Iowa Code and the IUB’s rules are available on the IUB’s website under “Board Activity” in the navigation menu. Under Iowa Code chapter 479B, the pipeline company is required to hold informational meetings in each county in which real property or property rights would be affected, and the meetings are to be conducted at least 30 days prior to the company filing a petition for a new pipeline permit. The pipeline company will provide notice of the informational meetings to each landowner affected by the proposed pipeline and each person in possession of or residing on the property.”
Huffington Post: The Gassing Of Satartia: A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people.
By Dan Zegart, 8/26/21
“It was just after 7 p.m. when residents of Satartia, Mississippi, started smelling rotten eggs. Then a greenish cloud rolled across Route 433 and settled into the valley surrounding the little town. Within minutes, people were inside the cloud, gasping for air, nauseated and dazed,” the Huffington Post reports. “Some two dozen individuals were overcome within a few minutes, collapsing in their homes; at a fishing camp on the nearby Yazoo River; in their vehicles. Cars just shut off, since they need oxygen to burn fuel. Drivers scrambled out of their paralyzed vehicles, but were so disoriented that they just wandered around in the dark. The first call to Yazoo County Emergency Management Agency came at 7:13 p.m. on February 22, 2020. “CALLER ADVISED A FOUL SMELL AND GREEN FOG ACROSS THE HIGHWAY,” read the message that dispatchers sent to cell phones and radios of all county emergency personnel two minutes later. First responders mobilized almost immediately, even though they still weren't sure exactly what the emergency was. Maybe it was a leak from one of several nearby natural gas pipelines, or chlorine from the water tank. The first thought, however, was not the carbon dioxide pipeline that runs through the hills above town, less than half a mile away. Denbury Inc, then known as Denbury Resources, operates a network of CO2 pipelines in the Gulf Coast area that inject the gas into oil fields to force out more petroleum. While ambient CO2 is odorless, colorless and heavier than air, the industrial CO2 in Denbury’s pipeline has been compressed into a liquid, which is pumped through pipelines under high pressure. A rupture in this kind of pipeline sends CO2 gushing out in a dense, powdery white cloud that sinks to the ground and is cold enough to make steel so brittle it can be smashed with a sledgehammer.”
Grist: Does rural Illinois really need a new gas pipeline?
Jena Brooker, 8/27/21
“Pembroke Township, population less than 2,000, is the last historic Black farming community left in Illinois. And at one time, it was the largest such community in the northern United States. Founded in the 1860s by runaway slaves, it soon became an agricultural hub, producing tons of hemp during World War II and later feeding Chicago, Detroit, and Cleveland during the Great Migration from the South to the North. And now Nicor Gas wants to run a natural gas pipeline to it,” Grist reports. “Earlier this summer the Democrat-controlled Illinois General Assembly passed HB 3404 — a bill that will help fund the proposed gas line, in part by allowing for a 250-percent increase to customers’ gas bills statewide. It would cap a years-long push to bring cheaper natural gas heat to an area, an hour’s drive south of Chicago, that now gets its heat from a mix of propane, wood-burning stoves, and electric space heaters. Governor J.B. Pritzker, a Democrat, has until August 29 to sign the bill into law. But many local farmers and environmentalists are pleading with Pritzker to veto the bill, arguing that the pipeline would threaten agricultural land and rare black oak savanna habitat, and that the time has passed for new fossil fuel infrastructure. “The community wants renewable energy,” Fred Carter, a co-founder of the Black Oaks Center for Sustainable Renewable Living in Pembroke who also grows swiss chard, eggplant, cantaloupes, okra, and other crops on his farm, told Grist. “This pipeline is a direct assault to the agricultural potential of this community.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Schumer Outlines Reconciliation Emissions Targets
8/25/21
“The bipartisan infrastructure bill and massive reconciliation package planned by congressional Democrats would meet President Biden’s greenhouse gas emissions pledge when combined with state and federal administrative action, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) said today,” according to E&E News. “ In a letter to colleagues, Schumer said an analysis conducted by his office shows that the infrastructure bill and $3.5 trillion partisan spending package together would ‘reduce U.S. emissions to approximately 45 percent beneath 2005 levels by 2030.’ ‘When you add Administrative actions being planned by the Biden Administration and many states — like New York, California, and Hawaii — we will hit our 50 percent target by 2030,’ Schumer wrote. That goal is critical to both international and domestic politics, and the letter highlights how important the reconciliation package would be to Democrats’ climate ambitions.”
EXTRACTION
Williston Herald: Hopkins: Carbon emissions from North Dakota's blue hydrogen hub will be comparable to green
By Renée Jean, 8/25/21
“A recent study out from Stanford and Cornell universities claims that blue hydrogen production releases more greenhouse gases than simply burning natural gas. But the study looks at an out-dated process for producing blue hydrogen, the CEO of a company that plans to start a blue hydrogen hub in North Dakota says,” the Williston Herald reports. “Not many companies that are actually intending to do clean hydrogen from natural gas want to use steam methods,” Bakken Energy CEO Mike Hopkins told the Williston Herald’s Energy Chaser. “It’s a very old process. It does have absolute limitations as to just how much carbon you can capture. And it’s quite energy inefficient. So it’s got the two burdens of being energy efficient and very limiting in the ability to capture carbon.” North Dakota’s hydrogen hub, on the other hand, will use an entirely different and newer process, auto thermal reforming. “It’s not commonly used for the production of clean hydrogen because of the capital costs,” Hopkins explained. “It’s not so much the capital cost of the authothermal reforming. It’s the fact that you’d need an air separation unit. In the case of the Dakota Gasification plant, because of how it has operated as a gasification plant, it already has a perfectly good air separation unit.” Once operational, the company estimates it will be capturing 95 percent of carbon emissions for its blue hydrogen — taking 6 million tons of carbon out of the annual emissions stream or the equivalent of removing a million cars from the road. (It’s) absolutely comparable to what would be done with renewables,” Hopkins said.
RESEARCH & SCIENCE
The Hill: Greenhouse gas concentrations, global sea levels hit record highs in 2020: NOAA
ZACK BUDRYK, 8/25/21
“The concentration of greenhouse gases in Earth’s atmosphere hit their highest level ever recorded in 2020, while the year was overall the warmest on record, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration’s (NOAA) annual review,” The Hill reports. “NOAA’s 31st State of the Climate report released Wednesday found that even as the coronavirus pandemic drastically reduced economic activity, greenhouse gas concentrations hit 412.55 parts per million (PPM). This represented both a 2.5 PPM increase from 2019 and the highest level recorded in six decades. Average methane concentration also reached a record high in 2020, according to the report, as well as an all-time high year-over-year increase of 14.8 parts per billion. The same report found a record high for global sea levels for the ninth year in a row. Sea levels in 2020 were about 3.6 inches above the 1993 average, according to the NOAA, and levels are increasing at an average of 1.2 inches per decade due to melting ice sheets and glaciers… “The report also found a pattern of extreme weather activity last year, including 102 named tropical storms in both hemispheres. Comparatively, the 1981-2010 period saw an annual average of only 85.”
E&E News: Climate denial newspaper flourishes on Facebook
By Scott Waldman, 8/27/21
“One of the most-viewed sites on Facebook in the last few months is a subscription page for a conservative media outlet that publishes climate denial,” E&E News reports. “The Epoch Times, a far-right newspaper that echoes anti-vaccine messages and promoted former President Trump’s false election claims, received 44.2 million views between April and June for a page that offers to sign up subscribers, according to a report released by Facebook last week. That was 10th overall. It’s a remarkable achievement for a media outlet that has been banned from advertising on Facebook for hiding its connection to ads that supported Trump’s candidacy. It also raises questions about how an outlet that spreads climate misinformation was able to reach millions of people through a social media platform that has voiced commitments against spreading false assertions about science. The Epoch Times, which was founded by members of the Chinese spiritual group Falun Gong, pivoted hard toward conservative politics during the Trump administration. And while the paper had a history of objective climate coverage before then, it has become one of the larger media sources of climate denial.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Insure Our Future: Religious Community Calls on Leading Faith Insurer GuideOne to End Fossil Fuel Coverage
8/26/21
“Sixty-five faith leaders, religious organizations, and congregations issued a letter today calling on GuideOne Insurance, a leading provider of insurance policies for faith communities, to end its practice of underwriting fossil fuel companies, whose products are responsible for climate change. Nearly 75% of GuideOne’s business portfolio is made up of religious organizations, according to the company’s latest financial report. Yet while other insurers have exited the coal sector due to its climate-related risks, GuideOne has initiated a new “Energy and Mining” program designed to fill the growing gap in coverage. It is now offering to insure the coal sector, despite its 2017 commitment to divest from thermal coal by the end of 2019. This letter represents the first time that the religious community has called on an insurance company to eliminate its coverage for fossil fuel companies. Signatories include Iowa Interfaith Power & Light, Iowa Methodist Federation for Social Action, GreenFaith, the Hindu American Foundation, and the Islamic Society of North America. “GuideOne has served religious communities for decades,” said the Rev. Fletcher Harper, Executive Director of the international interfaith organization GreenFaith. “All major faith traditions have agreed that climate change is a sin against God, and that fossil fuels are its cause. We call on GuideOne to live up to the moral values that we have come to expect from it, and end its coverage for an unrepentant industry responsible for the destructive impacts of the climate crisis.” The letter expressed concern that high-ranking GuideOne officials have pledged to insure coal companies and utilities that lost coverage as the global insurance industry retreats from coal.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Press release: Astros partner Energy Transfer donation tops $15,000
8/26/21
“Energy Transfer’s donation to the Astros Foundation has topped the $15,000 mark and is currently at $15,725.00. For the 2021 regular season, Energy Transfer is donating $25.00 to the Astros Foundation for every strikeout recorded by an Astros pitcher at home. The initiative is part of Energy Transfer’s celebration of 25 years as the U.S. midstream energy leader. Astro pitchers have tallied 629 strikeouts at home this season, which ranks fourth-best in the American League. “We are proud to support the Astros Foundation. Energy Transfer believes in the importance of giving back to the communities in which our employees live and work,” said Chris Curia, Chief Human Resource officer for Energy Transfer. “Strengthening communities is one of our key initiatives and being able to do that locally alongside the Astros Foundation is very meaningful for us.” “Energy Transfer’s contribution to the Astros Foundation will provide funding to address critical needs in our community,” said Twila Carter, Executive Director of the Astros Foundation. “We are grateful for Energy Transfer’s continued commitment to our efforts.”
OPINION
The Hill: The climate crisis requires every tool we've got, including carbon removal
Jasmine Sanders is a climate scientist, strategist and the first black female executive director of Our Climate, a youth-led climate advocacy organization, 8/26/21
“Wake up people. Have you read the United Nations latest climate report? I hope alarm bells are going off. With climate-fueled floods on the East Coast and fires on the West Coast, humanity is in trouble. The younger generations and unborn are at risk,” Jasmine Sanders writes in The Hill. “...Environmentally just carbon removal is a potentially powerful tool that can help stop the worst impacts of climate change by removing legacy emissions from the atmosphere… “Carbon removal can never be a replacement for the important work of reducing fossil fuel use, but it can have an important role to play in meeting the goals of the Paris Agreement… “There are several open and legitimate environmental justice questions regarding if and how to deploy carbon removal responsibly… “Carbon removal projects can be responsibly developed if the project managers (both public and private sectors) start with community-based listening sessions to ensure that communities are part of the decision-making process, have enough time and resources to engage, and are given all of the information about potential impacts…”For everyone who shares this planet today and for the unborn — we can’t afford not to look at every tool in our toolbox and this includes how to responsibly deploy carbon removal.”