EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/8/23
PIPELINE NEWS
KELO: PUC hearings for Navigator pipeline resume on Tuesday
Press release: Summit Carbon Solutions Advances in North Dakota, Adapting in Response to Commission Feedback
WJAG: After ND permit rejection, carbon pipeline opponents won't rest
KELO: Navigator pipeline is part of Valero’s broader plans
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline company sues Story County to block latest attempt at local regulation
Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Senator Mike Rounds: Summit Carbon gave itself a 'black eye' after controversial land surveys
Capital Journal: Pipeline concerns remain as carbon-capture advocate visits area
KXLG: Watertown area landowners pack Council Chambers in opposition to carbon-capturing pipeline
WEEK: Tazewell County resident fears loss of property with CO2 pipeline letter [VIDEO]
Press release: Indigenous Leaders, Local Communities, and Environmental Groups Take Action to Urge an Immediate Shut Down of Line 5
BridgeTower Media: Wisconsin labor groups promote Line 5 relocation proposal as Enbridge seeks permits
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Most disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, Post-UMD poll finds
New York Times: A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy
E&E News: At least 13 projects vie for $1.2B in carbon removal
Heatmap: The U.S. Government Will Pay to Remove Carbon From Atmosphere
Washington Post: Senate Democrats urge EPA to finalize strong power plant rule
E&E News: FERC to weigh EPA carbon rule's impact on grid
Heatmap: The Green Hydrogen Debate Is Much Bigger Than Hydrogen
Politico: Making Waves In The Gulf
E&E News: Big Oil Holds More Federal Leases Than Previously Known – Report
E&E News: BLM orders cleanup of Calif. monument oil wells
New York Times: Is Social Justice for the Birds? Audubon Attempts an Answer.
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: New York Activists Descend on the Hamptons to Protest the Super Rich Fueling the Climate Crisis
E&E News: Youth in Hawaii get court date for 2nd U.S. climate trial
NOLA.com: Is Louisiana’s LNG boom slowing down? Analysts weigh in after project delays.
EXTRACTION
Investor’s Business Daily: Chevron Closes PDC Deal On Shareholders' Nod; Oil Touches 10-Month High
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: House Dems urge ‘strong’ SEC climate disclosure rule
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
The American Prospect: The Unholy Alliance Between ‘Certified’ Clean Natural Gas Producers and the Certifying Companies
Press release: National Math and Science Initiative Receives $100,000 Grant from TC Energy to Train Virginia Teachers
OPINION
Chicago Sun Times: Put a moratorium on CO2 pipeline construction
Chicago Sun Times: Conservatives, environmentalists unite in Midwest CO2 pipeline fights
Globe and Mail: TC Energy will succeed even if its plan to spin off oil pipelines fails
PIPELINE NEWS
KELO: PUC hearings for Navigator pipeline resume on Tuesday
Dan Santella, 8/7/23
“The South Dakota Public Utilities Commission is deciding whether the Navigator carbon dioxide pipeline can move forward in the state,” KELO reports. “...In recent days, they’ve heard from Navigator officials along with the vice president of commercial operations for Valero Renewable Fuels, who said that the pipeline would help the company’s ethanol plants compete against producers from Brazil. However, a state legislator was the first of more than a half-dozen landowners who told the commission why they don’t want the pipeline to be permitted anywhere in the state. “The biggest thing hasn’t been decided yet, and that is there’s going to be a preemption hearing on August 24th and 25th,” Mercer told KELO. “Navigator wants the public utilities commission to preempt ordinances that were passed by Minnehaha County and Moody County, and what those ordinances would do is basically prevent the pipeline from going through either county, according to the company.” The Public Utilities Commission consists of three elected officials. For the proposed carbon dioxide pipeline to be approved, at least two commissioners would have to support it. “It sounds like all three of them have some sincere doubts about the project, but they also have some sincere doubts about the positions of the landowners, too,” Mercer told KELO… “The hearing will continue Tuesday, August 8, at 9:30 a.m. in the state Capitol.”
Press release: Summit Carbon Solutions Advances in North Dakota, Adapting in Response to Commission Feedback
8/7/23
“Summit Carbon Solutions has secured 80% of voluntary easements for its pipeline route in North Dakota and continues to negotiate with additional landowners every day. At the same time, the company is responding to the decision of the North Dakota Public Service Commission. Summit Carbon Solutions hears the Commission, including concerns with respect to the pipeline location around Bismarck. Summit is looking at plans again and will address those issues in our reconsidered application, including reroutes. The company is determined to get this right for everyone involved… “Summit Carbon Solutions has partnered with Minnkota Power Cooperative to have access to their sequestration site, Project Tundra. The company has also acquired nearly 90% of the pore space rights within its own sequestration sites in North Dakota.”
WJAG: After ND permit rejection, carbon pipeline opponents won't rest
Mike Moen, 8/8/23
“Groups tracking energy policy in the Midwest are sizing up the impact of North Dakota's decision to decline a permit for a controversial pipeline project,” WJAG reports. “Regional opponents cheer the move, but they know the debate isn't over. On Friday, the state's Public Service Commission dealt a major blow to Summit Carbon Solutions' plans for a multistate pipeline to move carbon dioxide from ethanol plants and store it underground in North Dakota… “Scott Skokos of the Dakota Resource Council, one of the project's opponents, hopes allies will be ready to stand tall again in the likelihood of a new permit request. "It's time for all of the stakeholders that could be fighting for justice in North Dakota to step up and fight against this pipeline as it proceeds." Project opponents worry about public safety, landowner rights and damage to farmland.”
KELO: Navigator pipeline is part of Valero’s broader plans
Bob Mercer, 8/7/23
“The vice president of commercial operations for Valero Renewable Fuels said Saturday that the carbon-dioxide pipeline Navigator wants to build in South Dakota and four other states would help the company’s ethanol plants compete against producers from Brazil in U.S., Canadian and European markets,” KELO repots. “Michael Harrison told the South Dakota Public Utilities Commission that the pipeline is an integral part of Valero’s plan for reducing carbon intensity. The commission is deciding whether to grant a state permit for the project… “With a lower carbon intensity we’ll be able to stop Brazilian production from coming to California and be more competitive,” Harrison said. The pipeline would qualify for federal tax credits. “We’re not in it for the tax credits. We’re not a tax credit company. We’re a renewable fuels company,” Harrison said… “Commission chair Kristie Fiegen said California is transitioning to electric vehicles and there are efforts in Europe as well. Harrison said Valero has a broader strategy. “I think (widespread EV use) is unlikely in South America or Africa.” “...Fiegen said all three commissioners — Chris Nelson farms near White Lake, while Gary Hanson previously owned stock in two ethanol plants — support ethanol and support production agriculture in South Dakota. “...I’m trying to figure out as a commissioner to have the confidence it won’t affect the heath, safety and welfare if there’s a rupture,” Fiegen said. Morey said she couldn’t make a judgment because she hadn’t seen the plume study. Fiegen asked about Navigator’s contacts with tribal interests. “I have not seen any lists of the tribes they contacted or the results of the contact,” Carlson Dietmeier answered.”
Iowa Capital Dispatch: Pipeline company sues Story County to block latest attempt at local regulation
Clark Kauffman, 8/7/23
“For the second time in less than a year, the company that’s planning to install an interstate pipeline across Iowa to transport liquid carbon dioxide waste is asking a federal judge to block Story County’s efforts to regulate the project,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “...In mid-May, the Story County Board of Supervisors passed an ordinance establishing setback requirements that directly conflict with the proposed route of the pipeline and would limit the route the Iowa Utilities Board could ultimately approve. It was the second of two ordinances passed by the board, with the first having been repealed after a legal challenge by Navigator. Navigator is now suing the county in U.S. District Court, claiming the ordinance not only usurps federal and state regulatory powers over carbon dioxide pipeline construction but also superimposes Story County’s preferences for the project over other Iowa counties, the utilities board and Iowa citizens… “The company is asking the court to follow its own precedent in a similar case that involves Shelby County where a judge ruled that county’s attempts to restrict pipeline construction and placement were preempted by federal law. “Given the near identical concerns implicated by Story County’s ordinance, the same result should follow here,” Navigator argues… “The county has yet to file a response to the lawsuit.”
Sioux Falls Argus Leader: Senator Mike Rounds: Summit Carbon gave itself a 'black eye' after controversial land surveys
Dominik Dausch, Annie Todd, 8/7/23
“Sen. Mike Rounds did not mince words when talking about Summit Carbon Solution's controversial carbon dioxide pipeline that's planned to run through eastern South Dakota,” the Sioux Falls Argus Leader reports. “[Summit Carbon] had some people in there basically blowing their way through, and that irritated a whole lot of people, and I don't blame them," Rounds told Rotarian Tony Nour, during Rotary Club of Downtown Sioux Falls' weekly meeting on Monday… “A portion of his comments referred to a series of controversial land surveys conducted by the company. Summit Carbon's actions are considered particularly notorious in the eyes of landowners opposed to carbon dioxide pipelines… “Rounds told the club members he had since spoken with representatives of Summit Carbon "to hear their side of the story." The South Dakota senator said he brought up the unresolved public relations problem to the company in this conversation. "You have really created a black eye for yourself because of the method in which you went after landowners, trying to get them to allow for their property to be accessed," Rounds said, paraphrasing his comments to the company. "I said that part is now one you have to solve because the public relations on that are not good for you." “...Rounds also provided his opinion on the issue of eminent domain, which is the process Summit Carbon could use to acquire land easements from uncooperative landowners against their wishes… "You have some folks that talk about whether or not this should be identified as far as a taking and whether or not you can legally come in and say, 'I get to put this pipeline on your land,'" Rounds told the Argus Leader. "That's going to be decided in the courts where it should be. The process of utilizing eminent domain requires a company to qualify as a common carrier, or a group that holds itself out to the public to transfer goods for a fee. The question of whether Summit Carbon fits that description, however, is one pipeline opponents have levied at the company… “Rounds was the most recent voice to renew the topic Monday after giving his "message to landowners": "I think carbon is a commodity."
Capital Journal: Pipeline concerns remain as carbon-capture advocate visits area
Michael Neary, 8/7/23
“Joe Heinrich, executive director of Smart Carbon Network, visited South Dakota this week to discuss carbon-capture pipelines in the midst of a growing scrutiny of the issue. During a visit to Pierre on Monday, he talked about his advocacy of carbon-capture in the context of two proposed pipelines within the state,” the Capital Journal reports. “The pipeline companies have a responsibility to come in and be good neighbors,” he told the Journal. “They have a lot of things they can do legally, but public-relations-wise they really need to go beyond that and be good neighbors and have good communication with these landowners they’re talking to. They need to treat them fairly. I fully believe that. But I also feel the landowners need to take the time to listen to why it’s important — what’s going to be done to make sure the ground is going to be put back in the condition it started with.” “...Heinrich declined to mention particular members of Smart Carbon Network, noting that “different industry organizations” were among those who formed the organization. “I always say we don’t talk about our members; we talk about the message,” he told the Journal. “I don’t say any names.” “...He declined to say if the group had financial connections to companies planning carbon-capture pipelines, such as Carbon Summit Solutions and Navigator CO2… “Heinrich said about half of the corn his farm grows goes to ethanol production… “As for the issue of eminent domain when it comes to carbon-capture pipeline projects, Heinrich said he doesn’t take a stand. “We don’t take a position (on eminent domain),” he told the Journal. “We’re more of an educational coalition.” “...Basav Sen, director of the Climate Policy Project for the Institute of Policy Studies, sees such questions emerge in many communities throughout the country, and he agreed that unusual coalitions can emerge. He also stressed the importance of examining energy policy in a broader sense, considering government practices at state and federal levels. “Corn ethanol wouldn’t be a thing without government subsidies,” he told the Journal. “Carbon capture wouldn’t be a thing without government subsidies. Federal dollars and federal tax credits are driving the proliferation of these polluting industries that are being sold to us as solutions to climate change when they’re not.”
KXLG: Watertown area landowners pack Council Chambers in opposition to carbon-capturing pipeline
Steve Jurrens, 8/7/23
“Approximately 20 or more concerned landowners of the Watertown area attended tonight’s Watertown City Council meeting to express their opposition to the carbon-capturing pipeline construction efforts by Summit Carbon Solutions to the Council,” KXLG reports. “...Rita Brownlee, resident, and business owner in Watertown, stepped up to speak. Brownlee references a rupture in Mississippi that was also mentioned in a previous interview with KXLG News. Brownlee continues it was determined that it was caused by flooding, causing the ground to shift, and likens it to the consistency of flooding in the Watertown area, mainly where the projected construction will occur. Public Services Commission in North Dakota denied the most recent application from Summit Carbon Solutions for a siting permit, which was brought up by Brownlee and also in a story on mykxlg.com.”
WEEK: Tazewell County resident fears loss of property with CO2 pipeline letter [VIDEO]
8/7/23
Press release: Indigenous Leaders, Local Communities, and Environmental Groups Take Action to Urge an Immediate Shut Down of Line 5
8/7/23
“On August 6, Indigenous leaders, local communities, and environmental groups took action along the banks of the Nemadji River in Superior, Wisconsin to call for immediate steps to shutdown Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline. Enbridge’s Line 5 pipeline was originally built in 1953, and continues to operate nearly 20 years past its engineered lifespan, transporting crude oil through northern Wisconsin, Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and under the Straits of Mackinac, posing a serious threat to the Great Lakes region which holds one-fifth of the world's surface freshwater. Already, Line 5 has spilled over 30 times, dumping more than a million gallons of oil. This weekend’s actions are the latest in a series amplifying the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa and allies’ call for an emergency closure of the pipeline due to extreme ongoing erosion at the Mashkiiziibii (Bad River) meander, just 16 miles upstream of Gichigami (Lake Superior). At the event, organizers held a march, flotilla action, and community water festival on the Nemadji River to bring attention to the importance of Indigenous sovereignty and rights, water protection, the climate crisis, the history of Enbridge and Line 5, and ongoing efforts to shut down the pipeline permanently… "Line 5 crosses over tribal treaty territory and one of those ceded territories is my own reservation of Bad River. The danger that Line 5 brings to the environment is our biggest concern here. Our historical homelands, cultural resources, subsistence, wildrice, medicines, fisheries, and water are in jeopardy of an imminent catastrophic oil spill. An oil spill into the Bad River waterways which leads into Lake Superior puts the entire Great Lakes ecosystem at great risk that would cause irreparable destruction,” stated Rene Ann Goodrich, Bad River Tribal Elder and Organizer with Native Lives Matter Coalition. “…We urge the Biden Administration to take action and shut down Line 5 immediately!” Organizers of the action include Native Lives Matter, Honor the Earth, Women’s Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN), Seek Joy, 350 WI and 350.org, Sierra Club, Northwoods Socialist Collective, and many other members of the Line 5 coalition.”
BridgeTower Media: Wisconsin labor groups promote Line 5 relocation proposal as Enbridge seeks permits
Ethan Duran, 8/7/23
“The Wisconsin Jobs & Energy Coalition on Thursday will stop in Kenosha to show support for a potential 42-mile Line 5 pipeline rerouting project following a federal settlement between energy company Enbridge and tribal leaders,” BridgeTower Media reports. “...Elected officials, local businesses and agricultural leaders, tribal members and labor leaders will speak in front of a 34-foot piece of displayed pipeline, coalition officials said. The event will kick off at 3 p.m. at the Kenosha Union Club at 3030 39th Ave… “Emily Pritzkow, executive director of the Wisconsin Building Trades Council, told BTM her organization hoped the DNR would advance its permitting process for the project after the judge reaffirmed his decision… “The coalition includes the Construction Business Group, International Union of Operating Engineers Local 139, North Central States Regional Council of Carpenters and the Wisconsin Building Trades Council. The coalition has made stops around the state since 2022 advocating for the reroute project that will touch Ashland, Bayfield and Iron counties. Constructing a new relocated pipeline will create more than 700 construction jobs and “millions” of dollars in tax revenues, according to the coalition website.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Most disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, Post-UMD poll finds
Tony Romm, Scott Clement, Emily Guskin and Kate Selig, 8/7/23
“Nearly one year after President Biden enacted a sprawling package to combat harmful emissions and boost clean energy, his administration is struggling to demonstrate the law’s value to weary voters — and stave off a widening array of new political threats,” the Washington Post reports. “Most Americans — 57 percent — disapprove of Biden’s handling of climate change, according to a Washington Post-University of Maryland poll, which also finds that few adults say they know a good amount or great deal about the Inflation Reduction Act, a law that includes massive new investments in response to global warming. The low approval and lack of public awareness underscore Biden’s top challenge entering the 2024 presidential race, as he looks to sell an unknowing electorate on an agenda that — in the eyes of the White House — has created jobs, boosted manufacturing and lowered costs for families… “Generally, voters today appear to have little confidence in either party to respond to global warming, according to the Post-UMD poll. Asked how much they trust Republicans to address climate change, 74 percent say either “not much” or “not at all,” compared with 59 percent who say the same of Democrats. While Democrats did secure historic new climate funding as part of the Inflation Reduction Act, the poll finds 71 percent of Americans say they have heard “little” or “nothing at all” about the package one year later. About 4 in 10 Americans say they support the law, while 2 in 10 oppose it and roughly 4 in 10 are not sure. Support rises for some of the individual tax credits — for electric vehicles and solar panels, for example -- that the law authorized… “But Biden’s efforts haven’t always satisfied Democrats, some of whom have taken issue with the White House for permitting some new oil drilling. His prospective Republican challengers, meanwhile, have promised in the early days of the 2024 campaign to unwind much of the president’s climate agenda.”
New York Times: A Republican 2024 Climate Strategy: More Drilling, Less Clean Energy
Lisa Friedman, 8/4/23
“During a summer of scorching heat that has broken records and forced Americans to confront the reality of climate change, conservatives are laying the groundwork for a future Republican administration that would dismantle efforts to slow global warming,” the New York Times reports. “The move is part of a sweeping strategy dubbed Project 2025 that Paul Dans of the Heritage Foundation, the conservative think tank organizing the effort, has called a “battle plan” for the first 180 days of a future Republican presidency. The climate and energy provisions would be among the most severe swings away from current federal policies. The plan calls for shredding regulations to curb greenhouse gas pollution from cars, oil and gas wells and power plants, dismantling almost every clean energy program in the federal government and boosting the production of fossil fuels — the burning of which is the chief cause of planetary warming. The New York Times asked the leading Republican presidential candidates whether they support the Project 2025 strategy but none of the campaigns responded. Still, several of the architects are veterans of the Trump administration, and their recommendations match positions held by former President Donald J. Trump, the current front-runner for the 2024 Republican nomination… “The Heritage Foundation worked on the plan with dozens of conservative groups ranging from the Heartland Institute, which has denied climate science, to the Competitive Enterprise Institute, which says “climate change does not endanger the survival of civilization or the habitability of the planet.” “...The plan calls for shuttering a Department of Energy office that has $400 billion in loan authority to help emerging green technologies. It would make it more difficult for solar, wind and other renewable power — the fastest growing energy source in the United States — to be added to the grid. Climate change would no longer be considered an issue worthy of discussion on the National Security Council, and allied nations would be encouraged to buy and use more fossil fuels rather than renewable energy.”
E&E News: At least 13 projects vie for $1.2B in carbon removal
Corbin Hiar, 8/8/23
“The Biden administration is expected to announce this month the first grant winners of a multi-billion dollar competition to speed the development of a new clean technology industry: massive facilities that remove carbon dioxide from the sky,” E&E News reports. “Those awards for so-called direct air capture hubs could define the future of the nascent DAC industry in the United States as well as the broader CO2 removal sector, experts say. Along with steep emissions cuts, large-scale carbon removal will be essential in the coming decades to avoid dangerously overheating the planet, according to climate scientists. “This is a big deal. It’s going to be a lot of people’s first introduction to large-scale, technological carbon removal deployment,” Sasha Stashwick, the director of tech policy at Carbon180, an advocacy group that’s involved in a feasibility study for a direct air capture project led by the University of California, Berkeley, told E&E. “To the extent that we have successful DAC hubs, we’re going to generate a lot of positive momentum, build more durable political coalitions, more communities are going to be interested in hosting a hub, and we’re going to be able to get more policies for the carbon removal sector, not just DAC,” she told E&E. “And vice versa, to the extent that we’re not successful in this deployment, it could really set us back.” “...But through interviews and public announcements, E&E News has determined that the department received more than a dozen bids to scale up DAC technology — including proposals backed by oil majors, corporate giants and top universities… “While demand for carbon removal currently outstrips supply, experts doubt that the industry could scale up to the level that climate scientists envision on voluntary corporate commitments alone. In an effort to potentially bridge that gap, lawmakers last year ordered the Biden administration to create a pilot program where the federal government would pay DAC companies and other carbon removal tech developers to remove some of its legacy emissions from the atmosphere.”
Heatmap: The U.S. Government Will Pay to Remove Carbon From Atmosphere
ROBINSON MEYER, 8/4/23
“The federal government is preparing to pay companies to remove carbon dioxide directly from the atmosphere, launching a first-of-its-kind program that could transform the market for the nascent climate technology, according to people familiar with the matter,” Heatmap reports. “The program would mark a global first: Never before has any government paid to remove climate pollution from the atmosphere. The effort will be managed by the Department of Energy and will initially have a budget in the tens of millions, the people said. It will use one of the government’s most potent tools — its power as a customer — to accelerate a technology that experts say is essential to fighting climate change… “But it could also help establish a precedent that carbon dioxide is a waste product that — like other forms of waste — must sometimes be managed by the public… “The program, which is expected to be announced soon, was quietly approved by Congress last year. The 2023 appropriations law told the Energy Department to “establish a competitive purchasing pilot program for the purchase of carbon dioxide removed from the atmosphere or upper hydrosphere.” The department has been working on the program since then. In February, it requested public input for a plan to provide “demand-side support for clean energy technologies,” including for “carbon dioxide removal.” The Bipartisan Policy Center, a centrist think tank, later held a closed-door meeting with companies and nonprofits about how to best design such a program.”
Washington Post: Senate Democrats urge EPA to finalize strong power plant rule
Maxine Joselow, 8/8//23
“Thirty Senate Democrats, including Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.), today urged the Environmental Protection Agency to swiftly finalize strong limits on greenhouse gas emissions from power plants,” the Washington Post reports. “In a letter led by Environment and Public Works Committee Chair Thomas R. Carper (D-Del.), the senators asserted that the agency has clear authority to regulate carbon pollution from fossil-fuel-burning power plants, which rank as the nation’s second-biggest contributor to climate change. “Section 111 of the Clean Air Act directs EPA to protect the public from large pollution sources that significantly contribute to air pollution that endangers public health or welfare, such as power plants’ carbon pollution, which is driving devastating climate change,” the senators wrote. “We reaffirmed and underscored EPA’s authority and obligation to issue these standards for power plants in the Inflation Reduction Act.” Today marks the end of the public comment period on the EPA’s power plant proposal. Thirty-nine Senate Republicans, including Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.), last week sent their own letter urging the EPA to withdraw the proposal. Meanwhile, the Edison Electric Institute, the top lobbying group for U.S. utilities, has drafted comments that ask the EPA to redo the requirements for natural gas plants.”
E&E News: FERC to weigh EPA carbon rule's impact on grid
Miranda Willson, 8/4/23
“The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will discuss EPA's proposal to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from power plants at a conference in November, the agency said Friday,” E&E News reports. “FERC will weigh in on the pollution standards at its reliability technical conference, an all-day event held each year that focuses on energy markets, policies and threats facing the power system. It's unclear how much of the conference will be devoted to EPA's rule, which would require coal and some natural gas plants to reduce or capture their climate-warming emissions over time. The news of FERC's conference comes one month after two Senate Republicans asked FERC to examine how EPA's proposal could affect electric reliability. FERC is an independent agency that oversees the nation's bulk power system. Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chair of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, said Friday that he was pleased with FERC's upcoming assessment of the power plant rule.”
Heatmap: The Green Hydrogen Debate Is Much Bigger Than Hydrogen
EMILY PONTECORVO, 8/3/23
“How do you prove your electricity is clean? This deceptively simple question is at the heart of an all-out war raging among environmental groups, academics, and energy companies over a new tax credit for the production of clean hydrogen,” Heatmap reports. “At stake, most immediately, is billions of dollars in subsidies and the success and integrity of a nascent climate solution. But the question is so foundational to the energy transition that the answer could also reverberate through the U.S. economy for decades to come. And by a fluke — or by the limitations of the current political system — Janet Yellen’s Treasury Department has been tasked with setting the precedent. “This is not just a hydrogen debate, at its very core,” Nathan Iyer, a senior associate at the clean energy research nonprofit RMI, told Heatmap. “This is the first round of a much larger, era-defining question.” “...But before anyone can claim the credit, the Treasury has to write rules for what counts as clean electricity. This is a more fraught question than it might sound. If a hydrogen plant wants to use power from the electric grid rather than build its own, dedicated supply, there’s no easy way to trace where the electrons it’s using originated. And the grid is still largely fed by fossil fuels… “Wagner, of Columbia, compared the situation to the federal renewable fuel standard, a subsidy for ethanol that Congress created ostensibly to reduce emissions from transportation. But recent analyses have found the policy has done more harm than good for the climate. Nonetheless, the EPA recently re-upped the policy for three more years. Once a policy is in place, it’s pretty hard to tighten it later, Wagner told Heatmap. “What we are trying to do by getting the rules for clean hydrogen right from the beginning is to avoid a reckoning later.”
Politico: Making Waves In The Gulf
8/4/23
“The next week-and-a-half will be something of a nailbiter for oil companies that had been looking forward to the September lease sale in the Gulf of Mexico,” Politico reports. “Interior’s Bureau of Ocean Energy Management is expected to release new stipulations the industry fears will put potentially millions of acres of federal waters either off limits or make them less accessible to drilling operations. The new rules would come out by Aug. 18 in a Notice To Leasees and BOEM’s Proposed Notice Of Sale. They would stem from an agreement the National Marine Fisheries Service signed with the Sierra Club and other green groups to settle a lawsuit over how it conducted a Trump-era analysis of how oil development in the Gulf affects endangered species. The settlement entails NMFS recognizing that a swath of Gulf waters stretching from the western tip of Florida to the southern tip of Texas may be an unknown habitat for the endangered Rice’s whale that now needs protecting. ‘BOEM typically includes a lease stipulation in lease sales to protect endangered species, including but not limited to the Rice’s Whale, and the stipulation may be updated as appropriate for Sale 261 next month,’ BOEM spokesperson John Filostrat said in an email. ‘As noted in the Proposed Notice of Sale, some areas may be excluded from the lease sale in September.’”
E&E News: Big Oil Holds More Federal Leases Than Previously Known – Report
Shelby Webb, 8/7/23
“Some of the largest oil and gas companies hold hundreds more leases for production on public lands than what is listed by the Interior Department, raising questions about how federal regulations are affecting the sector, according to new data from Accountable.US, a left-leaning research group,” E&E News reports. “The analysis provided first to E&E News cross-referenced leasing data from the Bureau of Land Management with oil majors’ Securities and Exchange Commission filings to get a fuller picture of how many acres and leases some of the largest energy companies hold on federal lands through their subsidiaries. The group found that 21 companies — through 300 subsidiaries — hold nearly half the federal land leases used for oil and gas operations. Among those are three of the largest U.S. oil companies, Exxon Mobil Corp., ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum Corp., which alone hold nearly 15.8 percent of federal leases by the sector when subsidiaries are counted. Exxon Mobil, for example, holds 2,093 federal leases — totaling more than 450,208 acres — through 25 subsidiary companies, according to the analysis by Accountable.US. A search for ‘ExxonMobil’ in BLM data shows a much lower tally — 105 leases across two companies, totaling about 29,630 acres. Similarly, Occidental holds 2,200 federal land leases through 26 subsidiary companies, but BLM data shows approximately 124 leases. ConocoPhillips holds 1,134 leases across 21 subsidiaries, while BLM data shows about 450 leases total.”
E&E News: BLM orders cleanup of Calif. monument oil wells
Heather Richards, 8/4/23
“The Bureau of Land Management this week ordered a California oil and gas company to permanently abandon and clean up 11 idle oil and gas wells inside a prized national monument north of Los Angeles,” E&E News reports. “The order, inked Tuesday, is part of a settlement between the bureau and environmental groups that had sued to block new oil and gas drilling in the Carrizo Plain National Monument, a rolling grassland that erupts in color during the annual wildflower season. BLM said in its order this week that addressing the idle wells is also part of a bureauwide practice, required since 2019, to annually review wells on public lands that are not producing. This effort reflects the agency’s larger aim, taken up in force by the Biden administration in policies like its proposed hike to new bonding and fees, to address idle — and sometimes possibly abandoned — oil and gas wells. The Carrizo idle wells, owned by Bakersfield-based E&B Natural Resources Management Corp., were ordered by BLM to be permanently abandoned and reclaimed in 2013. Then, they cropped up in a 2020 lawsuit that environmental groups brought against the Trump administration for approving an E&B project proposal that would approve the first new oil in the monument since it was established in 2001 and revamp an aging pipeline.”
New York Times: Is Social Justice for the Birds? Audubon Attempts an Answer.
Clyde McGrady, 8/7/23
“On the same day George Floyd was murdered by a police officer on a Minneapolis street — Memorial Day, 2020 — Christian Cooper was searching for songbirds in Central Park. Mr. Cooper, who is Black, would be vaulted to fame after a run-in with a white woman who called the police and falsely claimed he was threatening her when he asked her to leash her dog,” the New York Times reports. “To David Yarnold, the chief executive of the National Audubon Society at the time, both events demanded a response. The powerful conservation group and pre-eminent bird enthusiasts’ organization needed to weigh in, and even examine itself… “Mr. Yarnold promised to start a “long conversation” about how the Audubon Society could “become antiracist in everything we do.” Three years later, that long conversation has led the society into an all-out feud over its own handling of race within the organization. Complaints about workplace conditions and the treatment of minority employees and hobbyists are bound up in the question of whether the conservation group should drop its namesake, John James Audubon, who owned slaves. Mr. Yarnold has left, and several board members have quit. Local chapters of the national organization have distanced themselves, employees are in an uproar, donors are skittish and members — the lifeblood of the organization — are wondering what has happened to an insular community of nature lovers who were more accustomed to debating birding etiquette than to grappling with deeply entrenched racism. What is going on inside the Audubon Society is a microcosm of the debates that have roiled organizations across the country since 2020. Companies, governments and campuses, driven by the energy of groups like Black Lives Matter, committed themselves to ambitious plans to change policing and corporate culture. Many found themselves caught between a desire to appeal to a younger, more diverse generation and the objections of others who said the changes they were considering went too far. Audubon’s case is an example of the complications that can arise in a post-2020 world when an organization tries, or fails, to meet those expectations, especially when the expectations fall outside the organization’s traditional mission: What does bird conservation have to do with social justice?”
STATE UPDATES
InsideClimate News: New York Activists Descend on the Hamptons to Protest the Super Rich Fueling the Climate Crisis
Keerti Gopal, 8/5/23
“Sophie Shepherd has always described herself as a “rule follower,” but days before her 22nd birthday, she chose to face arrest in the middle of a Long Island driveway. Under a blazing hot July sun, two police officers sawed through the PVC pipes that connected her arms to the 13 other protesters blocking the entrance to a private airport,” InsideClimate News reports. “What I love about direct action is you’re actually getting in people’s faces and disrupting their way of life,” Shepherd told ICN. “That push is what’s necessary to change the temperature in the room.” Last month, Shepherd and around forty other climate activists from New York City and Long Island descended on the East Hampton Town Airport to heat up the conversation on how the super rich drive global warming. As police separated and arrested the demonstrators blocking the driveway, other activists in the group surrounded them carrying plastic pitchforks and posters that read “tax the rich.” Their bright red t-shirts read, “billionaires, what are you saving up for, hell?” above a graphic of cash burning. A five-year-old holding a pitchfork and a homemade poster started a chant: “stop private jets, stop funding oil!” Behind them, in the distance, sat a few rows of private planes and helicopters… “The racially and socioeconomically diverse coalition of activists sought to draw attention to the disproportionate role the ultra-wealthy play in filling the atmosphere with greenhouse gasses, advocate for a wealth tax to fund climate justice initiatives and pressure top fossil fuel beneficiaries to stop funding climate-warming activities.”
E&E News: Youth in Hawaii get court date for 2nd U.S. climate trial
Lesley Clark, 8/4/23
“Young people suing Hawaii’s transportation agency for contributing to climate change will go to trial next June, becoming the second group of youth in the United States to take their government to court over global warming,” E&E News reports. “Attorneys for the 14 challengers in Navahine F. v. Hawai‘i Department of Transportation said Thursday the trial has been scheduled for June 24 to July 12 at the Environmental Court of the 1st Circuit. The trial will open nearly a year to the day that a judge in Montana heard a case brought by 16 young people who sued that state over its embrace of fossil fuels. Judge Kathy Seeley of the 1st District Court is expected to rule shortly on the case, which accuses state lawmakers of violating Montana’s Constitution by barring state agencies from considering the effects of climate change during environmental reviews. In Hawaii, the youth argue that the state’s transportation system allows for high levels of greenhouse gases, in violation of the young people’s constitutional rights.”
NOLA.com: Is Louisiana’s LNG boom slowing down? Analysts weigh in after project delays.
ROBERT STEWART, 8/3/23
“Delfin LNG just wants a little more time. Again. The floating liquefied natural gas terminal, planned for a site roughly 40 miles from the Cameron Parish coast, is asking the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission for a fifth extension of its development timeline,” NOLA.com reports. “When authorizing LNG projects, FERC grants developers a limited window for construction. All four previous extensions were no more than one year, though Delfin LNG unsuccessfully sought a 3½-year extension in 2019. Its latest request is for another four years, until 2027, to finish building. Delfin LNG’s latest ask, filed with FERC in July, once again cited COVID-19 disruptions and “complications” related to U.S. trade with China as causes for its delays. It also cited “the continuing evolution” of floating LNG terminal technology… “However, Delfin LNG isn’t the only Louisiana LNG project facing setbacks. Four of the 14 LNG export terminals either built in or planned for Louisiana are grappling with extended timelines because of regulatory delays or financing struggles, according to The Advocate’s record of the state’s LNG facilities. Lake Charles LNG failed to convince the Department of Energy to give it more time to begin exporting LNG. Driftwood LNG has yet to announce a final investment decision, or FID, even though its construction began in April 2022. West Delta LNG’s bid for a deepwater port license has been delayed after environmental groups raised questions about the firm’s failure to adhere to application deadlines… “Though bigger LNG players here are firmly established, the delays facing newer projects have raised questions about how much the state’s LNG industry will continue to boom. Analysts said delays are all too common for industrial projects that require lengthy regulatory reviews and boundless resources, particularly capital. However, fundamental capitalism could also be at play: too many players rushed into a roaring market, and some of them are getting weeded out.”
EXTRACTION
Investor’s Business Daily: Chevron Closes PDC Deal On Shareholders' Nod; Oil Touches 10-Month High
KIT NORTON, 8/7/23
“Chevron (CVX) announced Monday it is officially purchasing PDC Energy (PDCE) in a $6.3 billion deal, bolstering its U.S. oil and gas operations,” Investor’s Business Daily reports. “The California-based energy giant reported Monday morning that PDC Energy shareholders had approved the purchase… “With deal complete, Chevron now has a stronger foothold in the resource-rich Denver-Julesberg Basin, bolstering its U.S. onshore holdings… "PDC's high-quality assets open up even greater opportunities in important U.S. basins where Chevron already has a strong presence," Chevron's President for Americas Exploration & Production Bruce Niemeyer said in a statement Monday… “Oil patch mergers and acquisitions ebbed in the first quarter to their lowest levels since Q1 2016, according to KPMG. At the end of Q1, KPMG reported oil and gas deals dropped 35% sequentially to 74 in the quarter. However, the Chevron deal, and ExxonMobil's recent announcement to purchase Denbury (DEN) for nearly $5 billion, could signal a change in the back half of 2023.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
E&E News: House Dems urge ‘strong’ SEC climate disclosure rule
Emma Dumain, 8/7/23
“House Democrats don’t want the Biden administration to hold back in mandating the most stringent climate disclosure requirements for publicly traded companies,” E&E News reports. “That call for action comes as Republicans on Capitol Hill are seeking to undermine administration efforts to tie emissions reductions to investing decisions. Eighty Democrats signed a letter dated Aug. 7 urging Securities and Exchange Commission Chair Gary Gensler to quickly finalize a “strong and durable” disclosure rule, which is likely to be finalized this fall. “As climate-related risks continue to grow, investors urgently need access to decision-useful information regarding risks and opportunities that will likely have a material impact on registrants’ business, operations, or financial condition,” the Democrats wrote. They said “the current patchwork of voluntary reporting requirements is inadequate and lacks rigor, consistency, and verifiability.” The letter, led by Reps. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) and Juan Vargas (D-Calif.), co-chairs of the Congressional Sustainable Investing Caucus, and Rep. Kathy Castor (D-Fla.), also nodded to Republican opposition. The Democrats said that they stand ready to defend the SEC against attacks from opponents who might seek to undermine the new mandates, either through litigation or legislation. “We are not naive to the environment that has unfortunately injected politics into requirements that should not be controversial. … However, this should not be a reason for continued delay,” they said… “There is reason for Democrats to have some anxiety: Republicans have launched a full-out war against environmental, social and governance investing, which they say is tipping the scales against “traditional” energy, namely the fossil fuel industry.”
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
The American Prospect: The Unholy Alliance Between ‘Certified’ Clean Natural Gas Producers and the Certifying Companies
HANNAH STORY BROWN, 8/3/23
“The natural gas industry has long branded itself as good for the climate because when burned to generate electric power, gas produces far less carbon dioxide and other pollutants than coal. But natural gas is mostly methane, which traps heat over 80 times more effectively than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period,” The American Prospect reports. “...Hence “certified,” “responsibly produced,” or “differentiated” methane gas, which purportedly meets some threshold of low-emissions production under scoring systems developed by certification companies… “Scenting advantage, back in July 2022 11 companies—five gas producers, four methane monitoring and certification companies, one emissions trading company, and one consulting firm—came together to form a new lobbying group: the Differentiated Gas Coordinating Council (DGCC)... “The new coalition includes both gas producers and their private-sector third-party certifiers; a rather brazen conflict of interest that the coalition couches as an “ad hoc” alignment on policy goals. Worse, the member companies’ interests are not merely aligned—many of them are already financially entangled, linked together in a pre-existing web of partnerships. As we’ll see, with the gas companies’ profits dependent on the monitoring companies certifying their gas as low-polluting, and the monitoring companies’ profits dependent on willing industry customers, the accuracy of those emissions measurements is hardly the top priority. The DGCC counts five oil and gas companies among its members: Baker Hughes, PureWest Energy, Sempra Energy, Williams Companies, and Xcel Energy. The coalition also involves multiple technology companies that make emissions monitoring, accounting, and certification products. That includes CleanConnect, whose AI-based emissions monitoring systems and publicly traded low-methane energy certificates (a mutation of the carbon offset idea) allow their oil and gas company customers to charge their customers a premium; Kuva Systems, whose CEO claims that “natural gas is the only viable option for the foreseeable future” and sells a patented infrared camera and cloud-based system for monitoring emissions; EarnDLT, whose blockchain-based emissions accounting system allows customers to certify and buy and sell the certification of “differentiated” fossil fuel products; and Project Canary, an environmental data and software company, and one of the three major gas certifiers. One of the world’s largest emissions trading platforms, Xpansiv, is also a member of the coalition. And the council’s 11th member, D.C.-based strategic consulting firm COEFFICIENT, is retained as a lobbyist for both the DGCC and DGCC member Project Canary. That’s far from the only overlap between the coalition’s members.”
Press release: National Math and Science Initiative Receives $100,000 Grant from TC Energy to Train Virginia Teachers
8/7/23
“The National Math and Science Initiative (NMSI) is pleased to announce the generous support of TC Energy through a $100,000 grant to bolster the training of Virginia teachers… “We are incredibly grateful to TC Energy for their generous grant, which will significantly enhance the quality of STEM education in Virginia,” said Michelle Stie, Vice President of Teaching and Learning at NMSI… ““This investment in STEM education aligns with TC Energy’s commitment to building more vibrant, thriving communities,” said Trevence Mitchell, Manager of Social Impact at TC Energy… “TC Energy is also sponsoring a panel focused on the retention of Black teachers, bringing in nationally recognized thought-leaders in the field to address educators, superintendents, and policy makers including faculty and future teachers in NSU’s Spartans Teach Program.”
OPINION
Chicago Sun Times: Put a moratorium on CO2 pipeline construction
Deni Mathews, Bartlett, 8/7/23
“In an Aug. 1 letter, James Watson, executive director of the American Petroleum Institute Illinois, took issue with a recent Sun-Times editorial that questioned the need for CO2 pipeline projects to transport CO2 — mostly from other states — and store it underground here in Illinois. Let me take issue with several of Watson’s talking points,” Deni Matthews writes for the Chicago Sun Times. “...Existing pipelines primarily connect natural sources of CO2 to oil fields to be used for enhanced oil recovery. The Navigator system is larger and more complex than any in existence. It will collect CO2 from multiple capture sites, pressurize it, divert some to offloading stations and deliver the rest to storage sites in the state. This is a different kind of pipeline. Past safety performance does not apply. Yes, the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration regulates CO2 pipelines, but the group recently completed an analysis of a 2020 CO2 pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi. Watson would have you believe that CO2 is just like oil and gas when it “spills.” It is not. When CO2 exploded from a pipeline weld break, it left a 40-foot, dry ice-filled crater and released an invisible toxic plume that traveled more than a mile to Satartia, hospitalizing at least 45 people. As a result of their analysis, PHMSA determined that current regulations for CO2 pipelines are inadequate. The agency has initiated a rule-making process that is projected to be completed in October 2024. Under the circumstances, a moratorium on CO2 pipeline construction until new regulations are released only makes sense.”
Chicago Sun Times: Conservatives, environmentalists unite in Midwest CO2 pipeline fights
Ben Jealous is executive director of the Sierra Club, 8/7/23
“Spend your energy figuring out what’s the one thing that you can agree on with a political foe,” Gen. Colin Powell told me years ago. “Figure that out and you can get a lot done.” We’re seeing that proven across the Midwest from Illinois to North Dakota where unlikely allies with different interests and perspectives have joined to fight against several multi-state carbon dioxide pipelines proposed by huge agribusiness and fossil fuel companies,” Ben Jealous writes for the Chicago Sun Times. “For some, it’s as simple as private companies trying to take private land that belongs to someone else to make a profit for themselves. For others, the pipelines would extend our reliance on dirty fuels and prolong pollution from industrial farming and the ethanol producers it supplies. Together, they see the pipelines as unnecessary, destructive to precious land and potentially dangerous. “We might not agree on a lot of things, but this is something we will all oppose, these pipelines,” says Kim Juncker, who with her husband in Butler County, Iowa, farms land that could be grabbed for what’s called the Navigator project. “We will lock arms on this one.” Juncker calls herself a “constitutional conservative” and explains simply her political leanings and in her view those of many landowners: “We like our property rights and we like our freedom.” Environmental activists have seen that opposition to pipelines demands the voice of the people who own land that they don’t want to sell to developers. For their part, landowners appreciate that environmental groups bring their organizing experience and their capacity to monitor the most minor details in the fight. One of the biggest challenges is farmers are busy farming and can’t make opposition a full-time job… “More than 150 landowners now join weekly Zoom calls with environmentalists to share information and strategy. One outcome is that more than 460 landowners have filed to intervene when the Iowa Utilities Board holds its hearing in a few weeks over the Summit pipeline’s request to take land through eminent domain… “To really harness that people power, we need to build coalitions that are uncomfortably large. That’s what pipeline opponents have done. People who will question whether carbon is damaging the climate are fighting alongside people who will question the role of biofuels in prolonging our fossil fuel addiction. In a country that can feel so divided, there’s promise in that beyond the pipeline fight. As General Powell told me, “As you win one victory together, you might just discover along the way that there’s something else you agree on.”
Globe and Mail: TC Energy will succeed even if its plan to spin off oil pipelines fails
Ryan Bushell is president and portfolio manager at Newhavenam Asset Management Inc., 8/8/23
“TC Energy Corp. recently announced a plan to spin off its liquids pipeline business (mainly the original Keystone system) into a standalone entity. The market’s reaction was swift and decisive, sending the shares down more than 16 per cent at one point from already depressed levels,” Ryan Bushnell writes for the Globe and Mail. “...Using this frame of reference, it likely matters little whether the plan to split TC Energy is successful or not. The roughly 15 per cent of the company devoted to oil transportation being spun off is immaterial relative to the current size, and opportunities ahead, in the gas and power businesses… “TC Energy already moves 25 per cent of the natural gas on the continent, including 30 per cent of US LNG feed gas, and will move all molecules headed for the LNG Canada project when it comes on stream later this decade… “TC Energy’s nearly fully contracted asset base is strong enough to persevere through this managerial wobble, with better performance in the years ahead is expected. Patience is especially scarce in financial markets these days, and those that have some stand to benefit.”