EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 9/21/23
PIPELINE NEWS
E&E News: CO2 pipelines: The new populist Republican target
KMA: KMAland farmer calls Summit pipeline 'boondoggle'
KCZE: State Sen. Salmon Talks Eminent Domain Concerns at IUB/Summit Carbon Pipeline Hearing
Des Moines Register: Can push for carbon capture pipelines also mean billions for conservation-minded farming?
WEEK: Group forms to stop CO2 pipeline project in Central Illinois
Law360: Mexico Says USMCA Doesn't Permit Keystone-Style Claims
Marcellus Drilling News: Anti Challenge to Northern Access Pipe Dealt Blow in DC Circuit
Bloomberg: Trudeau’s Mega Pipeline Promises to Redraw Global Oil Flows
Bloomberg: Trans Mountain Sale to Start With Federal Meeting Next Week
Nebraska Examiner: Activists plan final harvest of sacred Ponca corn, planted in path of Keystone XL pipeline
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Biden is launching a Climate Corps after a similar program was dropped from the climate law
NPR: Biden Is Unveiling The American Climate Corps, A Program With Echoes Of The New Deal
E&E News: DOE official: EPA backlog on CO2 wells puts climate goals at risk
Bloomberg: US Renewable Fuel Program Beset by Fraud, EPA’s Watchdog Says
Bloomberg: Exxon Pushes White House to Subsidize Hydrogen From Natural Gas
Washington Post: DeSantis plan aims to boost fossil fuels, lower gas prices
STATE UPDATES
The Advocate: Offshore carbon capture hub planned near Cameron Parish’s Gulf of Mexico coast
S&P Global Platts: US Steel, NETL to test carbon capture technology at Pennsylvania steel mill
Star Tribune: Minnesota startup aims to remove 1B tons of carbon dioxide by 2035
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada oil sands carbon capture project cannot proceed until prices locked in -exec
OilPrice.com: Alberta's Big Bet: Ditch Emissions, Not Oil
Reuters: Equinor ‘more optimistic’ of building Canada offshore oil project
Reuters: Oil companies cautious about drilling as energy transition looms
Guardian: Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions
Reuters: Sunak delays UK petrol car ban, seeking voter support on climate
New York Times: Michael Bloomberg Dials Up a War on Plastics
CLIMATE FINANCE
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN): Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry
Reuters: US SEC cracks down on funds "greenwashing" with new investment requirement
Washington Post: Treasury unveils voluntary sustainable investment standards
OPINION
Napoleon Homestead: Dear Editor
Sioux City Journal: MINI: A company that has never built a pipeline
Farm Progress: What’s at stake in carbon pipeline argument
Ted Glick: We Need Clean Air, Not Another Billionaire
PIPELINE NEWS
E&E News: CO2 pipelines: The new populist Republican target
Mike Soraghan, 9/21/23
“Far-right leaders are often fans of pipelines crossing the country, but when it comes to ones carrying carbon dioxide — forget it,” E&E News reports. “Big pipeline and carbon sequestration projects in the Midwest, which would involve thousands of miles of pipelines to ship carbon dioxide to disposal sites, have support from some well-known GOP figures. But the Republican Party’s populist wing is attacking the use of eminent domain to secure land for pipelines. They’re also going after subsidized efforts to reduce emissions as boondoggles concocted by “globalists” and environmentalists — even as green groups are fighting the projects, too. That’s making it awkward for high-profile elected Republicans, such as Iowa Gov. Kim Reynolds and South Dakota Gov. Kristi Noem. Both are largely avoiding the topic, saying the fate of the pipelines is not in their control, but opponents say their inaction reflects quiet support for the projects. “Republicans don’t want to touch this,” David Peterson, a political science professor at Iowa State University, told E&E. “It’s a split between big corporate agriculture and landowners.” “...Reynolds’ staff did not respond to requests for comment. A Noem spokesperson declined to comment but forwarded a link to a media appearance during which Noem said, “I’m with the landowners.” “...Much of the groundwork for the opposition in those ruby-red states has been laid by liberal groups — Bold Nebraska and the Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club — going back more than a year. They’ve been joined by many conservative landowners made wary by past pipeline projects such as the Dakota Access oil pipeline and infuriated that the pipelines will cut across their farms and ranches… “Tomi Lahren, a conservative commentator and Fox News contributor, weighed in in June in a segment of her “Tomi Lahren is Fearless” on the OutKick media platform owned by Fox Corp. “This is all part of the Green New Deal, radical climate change agenda,” Lahren said during an interview with a South Dakota rancher opposed to the pipeline. “Why has there not been the outcry from the climate groups, or the land preservation groups?” But in fact, environmental groups such as the Sierra Club have aggressively fought the carbon capture projects in the Midwest… “Liberal groups say they’re proud to be working with their conservative neighbors — but they are steering clear of more controversial figures and outside issues. “There are some lines that we do draw,” Jess Mazour, a program coordinator with the Sierra Club’s Iowa chapter who is organizing opposition to the pipelines, told E&E. “We try to keep our message pretty tight. We keep it focused on the pipeline.” “...Opponents of CO2 pipelines tell E&E they haven’t been able to get a single meeting with Reynolds on the topic of Rastetter’s project. And they told E&E they’re frustrated that Reynolds has been able to avoid taking a position on it. Rastetter representatives did not respond Wednesday evening to a request for comment.”
KMA: KMAland farmer calls Summit pipeline 'boondoggle'
Mike Peterson, 9/20/23
“A Shelby County resident questions the safety of a proposed carbon pipeline planned for a good portion of western Iowa,” KMA reports. “Julie Kaufman's family owns property located approximately a half-mile from Summit Carbon Solution's proposed Midwest Express C02 pipeline, which would stretch about 700 miles through the state--including counties in KMAland. Kaufman was along a long list of property owners testifying Wednesday in the Iowa Utilities Board's continuing evidentiary hearing on Summit's construction application. Kaufman, whose property is located about a mile away from Westphalia, says her family has no interest in selling their land, despite frequent inquiries from interested parties… "This is not a safe project," she said. "They cannot prove that it's safe. We already know that they had that rupture in Satartia (Mississippi), and evacuated over 200 people. Forty-some were hospitalized. The thought of that happening to any of our grandchildren, or any of our family--this is our home. And, it feels like a violation of our private property rights, actually." Calling the project "the biggest boondoggle," Kaufman adds she doesn't believe the project should receive tax credits. "This is a private investment company that wants to make money," said Kaufman. "I'm a capitalist--I'm not against making money. But, I am against taking other people's land to do it."
KCZE: State Sen. Salmon Talks Eminent Domain Concerns at IUB/Summit Carbon Pipeline Hearing
Mark Pitz, 9/20/23
“District 29 State Senator Sandy Salmon of Waverly testified during Tuesday’s (09.19) session of the Iowa Utilities Board (IUB) hearing regarding the permit request by Summit Carbon Solutions to build some 680 miles of underground carbon pipeline in Iowa,” KCZE reports. “Salmon’s district includes all of Chickasaw County and most of Floyd County, with Summit targeting to build its pipeline through both counties. Its easternmost starting point is the Homeland Energy Solutions ethanol plant between Lawler and New Hampton. During her testimony, Salmon expressed concerns over constituents having to give in to Summit’s pressure to sign a voluntary easement to allow the company to build the pipeline through their land. Salmon also said she was disappointed that the senate failed to address eminent domain legislation during legislative session earlier this year.”
Des Moines Register: Can push for carbon capture pipelines also mean billions for conservation-minded farming?
Donnelle Eller, 9/21/23
“While three controversial carbon capture pipeline projects in Iowa could receive billions of dollars in federal tax credits, experts say it’s unclear how much of the financial boon will make its way into farmers’ pockets,” the Des Moines Register reports. “The companies behind the pipelines vow their projects will slash ethanol’s greenhouse gas emissions and help secure the future viability of the renewable fuel, which absorbs half of Iowa's corn crop. But pipeline critics say major ag companies and ethanol producers will get most of the money, leaving farmers in the cold. "These dirty energy projects are only benefiting these big agricultural interests," Jim Walsh, policy director for Food & Water Watch, a Washington, D.C., environmental group that opposes the pipelines, told the Register. "The money would be better spent helping farmers transition off of this ethanol treadmill to a more resilient food system." “...Pipeline developers in Iowa say capturing carbon dioxide emissions from ethanol plants — then liquefying the gas under pressure and transporting it via the pipelines to be sequestered deep underground in either North Dakota or Illinois — will cut ethanol's carbon footprint in half, enabling the renewable fuel to be sold in low-carbon fuel markets such as California, Oregon and other states. But experts say farmers also can cut ethanol's greenhouse gas emissions and help ethanol producers qualify for even greater tax incentives by adopting measures such as planting cover crops and improving fertilizer use, potentially making the renewable fuel carbon-negative… “David Miller, chief economist at Decisions Innovation Solutions in Urbandale, in a report earlier this year warned Iowa could lose $10 billion annually without carbon capture pipelines to lower ethanol’s greenhouse gas emissions. Those losses include about $1 billion annually in income to the state’s farmers, the report said… “Miller told the Register the pipelines are needed to meet the clean fuel tax credit’s greenhouse gas reduction benchmark. But on-farm conservation practices would help lower the score more, with direct financial benefits for farmers, he told the Register: “Your choice of nitrogen, your choice of tillage, all that could be monetized.” “...Walsh, the Food & Water Watch policy director, sees the tax-subsidized pipelines as a costly effort to extend the life of ethanol in an economy turning away from carbon-based energy production. He told the Register those billions should instead be invested in helping farmers transition to a post-ethanol era. "We need to help support a truly more resilient food system that's centered on sustainable agricultural food security, not propping up these technologies that are in place only to benefit the corporate interest," Walsh, whose group supports increased investment in expanding locally grown food, told the Register.
WEEK: Group forms to stop CO2 pipeline project in Central Illinois
Lizzie Seils, 9/20/23
“A group in Tazewell County is growing quickly, all centered on the goal of stopping the CO2 pipeline that Wolf Carbon Solutions wants to build through Central Illinois,” WEEK reports. “The group claims the project is not safe and could compromise the farmland it’s built on. “I think the general sentiment is, nobody wants it,” farmer Mark Berg told WEEK. He’s been working on fields across Tazewell County since the 1980′s… “He’s worried there aren’t enough regulations in place to protect the families and workers along the path. Berg and more than 1,900 other people have joined the Tazewell County: Stop the CO2 Pipeline Facebook group. Their main concerns were the safety and property values of their homes. Group spokesman Elton Rocke told WEEK many people they speak with don’t initially know about the pipeline proposal. “As soon as we start telling them, they’re immediately against it. They’re just shocked at the magnitude of it and how they’re trying to slide it in on us and the dangers of it,” Rocke told WEEK. In our previous reporting, Wolf Carbon Solutions maintained they have a good safety record with their other pipeline.”
Law360: Mexico Says USMCA Doesn't Permit Keystone-Style Claims
Peter McGuire, 9/20/23
“The government of Mexico has said a defunct North American trade pact didn’t preserve parties’ right to arbitration over legacy investments, appearing to support the U.S. position in a challenge to the Biden administration’s decision to cancel the Canadian-developed Keystone XL pipeline,” Law360 reports.
Marcellus Drilling News: Anti Challenge to Northern Access Pipe Dealt Blow in DC Circuit
9/20/23
“National Fuel Gas Company (NFG) and its pipeline subsidiary Empire Pipeline have worked on a plan to build the Northern Access Pipeline since 2016,” Marcellus Drilling News reports. “...The project was repeatedly delayed by the radicals of the Andrew Cuomo (now Kathy Hochul) administration. NFG says it still wants to build the project, but needs more time. The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) gave NFG an extra 35 months to get the project done in a decision in June 2022. The Sierra Club challenged FERC’s time extension, and in oral arguments yesterday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia (DC Circuit) pretty much shut down the Sierra Club and its challenge.”
Bloomberg: Trudeau’s Mega Pipeline Promises to Redraw Global Oil Flows
Lucia Kassai and Robert Tuttle, 9/21/23
“Canada, home to the world’s third-largest crude deposits, is poised to reshuffle global oil flows next year,” Bloomberg reports. “The nearly completed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline promises to vault Canada into a new role in global markets by transporting an additional 600,000 barrels a day — on par with the daily output of Azerbaijan — from the country’s vast oil sands to a port on the Pacific Coast. For Canada’s producers, the government-owned project offers a chance to break their almost total dependence on exports to the US and win higher prices for their crude. For global markets, the Trans Mountain expansion represents a new source of the heavy, sludgy oil that advanced refineries in India and China crave for producing transportation fuels and asphalt… “A postponement would be an unwelcome development for a project that already has been delayed for years — and seen its costs balloon — because of opposition from environmentalists and indigenous groups… “The majority of the oil will be going to Asia because California is not geared to process heavy Canadian oil,” Martin King, a senior oil analyst with RBN Energy, told Bloomberg. Among the shippers on the line is Chinese trader PetroChina, which reserved enough space on Trans Mountain to fill a supertanker per month.”
Bloomberg: Trans Mountain Sale to Start With Federal Meeting Next Week
Robert Tuttle, 9/20/23
“Canada’s federal government plans to kick off the sale of a stake in the Trans Mountain pipeline by meeting with indigenous communities as early as next week in Vancouver, two people familiar with the plan tell Bloomberg. “The government will be meeting with members of some of the roughly 130 indigenous groups that have shown interest in a partial ownership stake, one of the people told Bloomberg. The planned gathering follows the issuance of a letter to indigenous communities saying the government intends to sell a stake in Trans Mountain to individual indigenous communities through a special-purpose vehicle, allowing the government to balance competing groups’ requests to own a piece of the project… “The government bought the pipeline from Kinder Morgan Inc. in 2018 to keep alive a planned expansion that the company was threatening to cancel amid fierce opposition. The expansion is scheduled to start operation next year after years of delays and the ballooning of project costs to almost C$31 billion ($23 billion).”
Nebraska Examiner: Activists plan final harvest of sacred Ponca corn, planted in path of Keystone XL pipeline
PAUL HAMMEL, 9/20/23
“Opponents of the now-abandoned Keystone XL pipeline project will gather Saturday for a final harvest of a field of Ponca corn that was planted in the pipeline’s proposed path near Neligh,” the Nebraska Examiner reports. “The event marks the 10th and final year for the harvest event on the farm of Art and Helen Tanderup, who hosted a fund-raising concert against the pipeline in 2014 that featured Neil Young and Willie Nelson. The Tanderups donated 1.6 acres of their farm to the Ponca Tribe, whose home was Nebraska until their forced removal in 1877 to a reservation in Oklahoma on a “Trail of Tears” that ran through the Neligh area. Jane Kleeb, the founder of the leading anti-pipeline group Bold Nebraska, said the cornfield helped form “an unlikely alliance that won an unlikely battle against a pipeline that was set out to pollute the land and water.” “...The Ponca corn plot in Neligh is part of an effort by Mekasi Camp of the Ponca Nation of Oklahoma to bring the tribe’s corn back to its ancestral home in Nebraska, particularly the red corn, which is considered sacred. “In the beginning of our existence, the creator gave us four sacred gifts, one of which was the sacred corn,” Camp said in a press release. The initial red Ponca corn seeds were recovered from a Lakota family living near Craig, Nebraska, who had been raising it for several generations. Plots of Ponca gray and blue corn have also been planted near Kearney and in Oklahoma to keep the varieties alive. “In the same way this sacred corn has endured the test of time and still stands strong for the land and the people, so shall we,” Camp said.
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Washington Post: Biden is launching a Climate Corps after a similar program was dropped from the climate law
Maxine Joselow, 9/20/23
“President Biden today announced an initiative to train more than 20,000 young people in skills crucial to combating climate change, such as installing solar panels, restoring coastal wetlands and retrofitting homes to be more energy-efficient,” the Washington Post reports. “The American Climate Corps comes as Biden seeks to win over young voters, a critical constituency, before next year’s presidential election. Polls show that climate change is a top concern for young people, who are more likely than older generations to face raging wildfires, stronger storms and rising seas in their lifetimes. The initiative resembles a proposal that was included in an early version of Biden’s signature climate law, the Inflation Reduction Act. The Civilian Climate Corps was ultimately dropped from the final version of the legislation during private negotiations last summer between Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) and Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.). Since then, many Democrats and climate activists have called on Biden to use his executive authority to resurrect the Civilian Climate Corps… “I can’t speak on behalf of every single youth voter, but if President Biden continues to take bold climate action like this, I think it could go a long way,” Varshini Prakash, co-founder and executive director of Sunrise Movement, told the Post. “Young people need to see more policies like this from the administration in the lead-up to the election.” As part of a recruitment push, the White House on Wednesday will launch a website where Americans can sign up to learn more about the workforce training program. All participants in the program will be paid, administration officials said, although they declined to disclose specific salaries.”
NPR: Biden Is Unveiling The American Climate Corps, A Program With Echoes Of The New Deal
Eric McDaniel, 9/20/23
“The White House on Wednesday unveiled a new climate jobs training program that it says could put 20,000 people to work in its first year on projects like restoring land, improving communities’ resilience to natural disasters and deploying clean energy,” NPR reports. “The American Climate Corps is modeled after a program that put millions to work during the Great Depression. President Biden’s climate policy adviser Ali Zaidi told reporters that the program has broader goals beyond addressing the climate crisis. ‘We’re opening up pathways to good-paying careers, lifetimes of being involved in the work of making our communities more fair, more sustainable, more resilient,’ Zaidi said.
E&E News: DOE official: EPA backlog on CO2 wells puts climate goals at risk
Carlos Anchondo, 9/20/23
“The deployment potential for U.S. carbon capture is “extraordinary” but requires improved permitting of carbon dioxide injection wells and a better approach to community engagement, a senior Department of Energy official said Tuesday,” E&E News reports. “Brad Crabtree, assistant secretary for DOE’s Office of Fossil Energy and Carbon Management, spoke during a panel on carbon capture at Climate Week in New York. He pointed to the more than 150 permits pending at EPA for so-called Class VI wells, which are used to inject CO2 into rock formations for long-term geologic storage. To help ease the backlog, DOE is providing scientists and engineers from the federal labs to assist EPA in writing the permits and doing the underlying technical work, Crabtree said. Multiple states have also applied to EPA for primary enforcement authority, or “primacy,” over the wells, which would allow them to issue the permits — further easing the buildup of applications, Crabtree said.”
Bloomberg: US Renewable Fuel Program Beset by Fraud, EPA’s Watchdog Says
Stephen Lee, 9/19/23
“The EPA must tighten scrutiny of its renewable fuel standard program to seal up problem areas that are letting fraudsters skirt the rules, the agency’s watchdog said Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports. “The RFS program requires companies to get identification numbers whenever they produce or import renewable fuels so the EPA can track compliance. About 339 million fake identification numbers—worth about $87 million—have been created since the program began in 2005, according to a report from the Environmental Protection Agency’s Office of Inspector General. Among the program’s weaknesses, it lets companies submit their transactions up to 30 days after they happen; allows companies to generate more ID numbers than they need; doesn’t fully verify renewable fuel transactions among companies; and doesn’t ensure that human auditors are truly independent, creating the possibility that auditors may be paid by fuel producers and end up reviewing their own work, the inspector general said. Until those problems are resolved, “the EPA cannot provide reasonable assurance that the [renewable fuel standard] program is achieving its goals of reducing greenhouse gas emissions and expanding the nation’s renewable fuels sector while reducing reliance on imported oil,” the report found. Some transactions were found to have been reported nearly 250 days later than the five to 10 days allowed, according to the report, creating the possibility that a fake ID number can be transacted repeatedly before the EPA finds out.”
Bloomberg: Exxon Pushes White House to Subsidize Hydrogen From Natural Gas
Ari Natter, 9/20/23
“Exxon Mobil Corp. is lobbying the Biden administration to allow hydrogen made from natural gas to qualify for some of the most lucrative subsidies available in the President Joe Biden’s signature climate law, pushing for billions of dollars in tax credits intended to help phase out fossil fuels,” Bloomberg reports. “The company is targeting “key decision makers” in Washington including Democratic lawmakers, US Treasury Department officials and think tanks, according to an internal memo seen by Bloomberg. Exxon is stepping up efforts to ensure that what it dubs as low-carbon natural gas is “properly recognized“ by the Biden administration, the memo said. Exxon Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods met last week with White House senior clean energy adviser John Podesta to make the case himself, people familiar with the matter told Bloomberg. While the subsidies are intended to promote an alternative to fossil fuels, Exxon argues it can produce hydrogen from natural gas without releasing significant amounts of carbon dioxide. The company says the result is a fuel that’s as safe for the climate as hydrogen that’s made from water and renewable energy and, hence, should qualify for the law’s top tax credit. If Exxon’s efforts are successful, it will likely open the door for fossil-fuel companies to win billions of dollars in subsidies and become dominant players in hydrogen, which some analysts say is crucial for decarbonizing heavy industries, trucking and other sectors. That worries environmentalists who are skeptical hydrogen from natural gas can ever be emission-free and say promoting it will ultimately spur more fossil-fuel production, undermining the tax credit’s original goals. “We are going to end up spewing billions of dollars of subsidies to extremely carbon-polluting projects,” Rachel Fakhry, a policy director at the Natural Resources Defense Council, told Bloomberg.
Washington Post: DeSantis plan aims to boost fossil fuels, lower gas prices
Maxine Joselow, 9/21/23
“Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis (R) yesterday laid out the energy policies he would prioritize as president, promising to lower gasoline prices, eliminate the Biden administration’s climate initiatives and expand the nation’s oil and gas production, Nancy Cook, Jennifer A. Dlouhy and Hadriana Lowenkron report for Bloomberg News,” the Washington Post reports. “As your president, I will restore our freedom to fuel. I will ensure that the United States of America is the dominant energy producer in the entire world,” the presidential candidate said during a speech in front of an oil rig in Midland, Tex. Among his priorities are: Reducing national average gasoline costs to $2 per gallon by 2025. Eliminating federal tax credits for electric vehicles. Preventing the Environmental Protection Agency from implementing proposed tailpipe pollution rules. Withdrawing the United States from the Paris agreement and the Global Methane Pledge. Expanding domestic oil and gas drilling and mining for critical minerals.”
STATE UPDATES
The Advocate: Offshore carbon capture hub planned near Cameron Parish’s Gulf of Mexico coast
ROBERT STEWART, 9/20/23
“A Denver carbon capture management company and a Houston energy firm plan to develop an offshore carbon capture hub in state waters near Cameron Parish’s Gulf of Mexico coast,” The Advocate reports. “Carbonvert Inc. and Castex Energy Inc. announced Monday they have signed a deal with the state to convert a 24,000-acre Gulf of Mexico tract off the Cameron Parish coast into a subsurface storage hub that could sequester more than 250 million metric tons of carbon dioxide. Castex Energy Inc. will be the hub’s operator. The tract runs about 12 miles east and west along the Cameron Parish coastline, with its easternmost point starting around Holly Beach, according to a project map provided by Castex. It extends about three miles out into the Gulf, stopping at the boundary that divides state and federal waters. The project is in the “early development stages,” though the firms expect to begin sequestering carbon dioxide there by early 2027, according to a statement from Castex. Next steps include preparing permit applications with the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources and the Environmental Protection Agency as well as performing engineering studies and “engaging the local communities” near the site. They are also exploring ways to repurpose existing pipelines to transport the carbon dioxide to the Cameron Parish site… “They are also “working toward securing customers,” the Castex statement said. They expect to sequester carbon dioxide from nearby industrial emitters as well as new ammonia and liquefied natural gas plants being built in the next few years.”
S&P Global Platts: US Steel, NETL to test carbon capture technology at Pennsylvania steel mill
Justine Coyne, 9/20/23
“US Steel and the US Department of Energy's National Energy Technology Laboratory plan to test an advanced membrane technology to capture carbon dioxide emissions generated by steelmaking operations at the steelmaker's Edgar Thomson Plant in Pennsylvania, according to a joint statement Sept. 20,” S&P Global Platts reports. “The project is part of the DOE's Point Source Carbon Capture Program, which looks to capture carbon from industrial facilities to reduce CO2 emissions to meet US decarbonization goals… “Compared to other separation technologies, such as solvents and sorbents, polymer membranes offer a comparatively simple CO2 separation process, as membranes require few moving parts and no CO2 regeneration step, according to information provided by NETL and US Steel. This results in potential cost savings as well as reduced capital and maintenance costs, they said… “US Steel has set a goal of achieving net-zero emissions by 2050.”
Star Tribune: Minnesota startup aims to remove 1B tons of carbon dioxide by 2035
Nick Williams, 9/19/23
“A clean-energy startup developing a reactor that converts carbon dioxide into a charcoal-like substance secured $85,000 for winning the MN Cup, the nation's largest statewide innovation competition,” the Star Tribune reports. “Carba's reactor removes carbon dioxide from the air and buries the solid carbon beneath the earth's surface to reverse the effects of coal mining, abandoned mines and quarries, and remediate landfills… “Carba is selling forwards, or future sales, Jones told the Star Tribune… “Carba will apply the prize money to research and development as well as hiring to enable the company to grow from a 1 carbon-ton per day facility to a 45-ton per day facility, Jones told the Star Tribune.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Canada oil sands carbon capture project cannot proceed until prices locked in -exec
Nia Williams, 9/20/23
“A C$16.5 billion ($12.27 billion) carbon capture and storage (CCS) project proposed by Canada's major oil producers will only move forward if the federal government sets up a contract to lock in future carbon prices, the Pathways Alliance said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “Pathways, a consortium of the six biggest oil sands companies, plans to build a CCS hub to store emissions from 14 projects in northern Alberta's oil sands by 2030. Ottawa has promised a 50% investment tax credit to support the project and the Alberta government is developing incentives to help defray capital costs, but Pathways President Kendall Dilling said a financial contract to help offset operating costs is also essential. The so-called contract for difference would guarantee a minimum price for the carbon captured by the Pathways project, helping assure future revenues. Canada has been in talks with heavy emitters about developing the contract for over a year, but this month it emerged the government is struggling to get the key tool in place. "Over the life of the project we'll spend 60% on operating costs versus 40% on capital," Dilling told Reuters in an interview on the sidelines of the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary. "The contract for difference...is absolutely critical in allowing this project to proceed." “...Negotiations with the Alberta government over a provincial investment tax credit are progressing well, Dilling tol Reuters, though he warned incentives need to be finalised by year end or early next year if the project is to start operating in 2030.”
OilPrice.com: Alberta's Big Bet: Ditch Emissions, Not Oil
Alex Kimani, 9/20/23
“Over the past decade, major oil companies, under pressure from investors and environmentalists, have been fleeing Canada's oil sands, the fourth-largest oil reserve in the world, while investment in existing projects has stalled,” OilPrice.com reports. “A lack of pipelines and heavy emissions have weighed on the Canadian heavy crude sector for years, with some companies exiting after coming under pressure to invest in projects with lower emissions… “But Alberta’s politicians have no plans to ditch the province’s main cash cow any time soon. Alberta premier Danielle Smith has declared that the energy-rich region will transition away from emissions, not oil. "We're transitioning away from emissions, we're not transitioning away from oil and gas. We're not going to phase out production of oil and natural gas, we're just going to change the way in which we use it," Smith has said at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary, Alberta. According to her, hydrogen from natural gas will likely become an increasingly important fuel in the province while carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) will play a role in cleaning up emissions… “Canada has set a net-zero emissions by 2050. A number of companies including Enbridge Inc.(NYSE:ENB), TC Energy Corp. (NYSE:TRP) as well as a coalition of Canada's six largest oil sands producers called Pathways Alliance have proposed building major CCS storage hubs.”
Reuters: Equinor ‘more optimistic’ of building Canada offshore oil project
Rod Nickel, 9/19/23
“The head of Canadian operations for oil producer Equinor said on Tuesday he is more optimistic the Norwegian company will proceed with its Bay du Nord offshore project, four months after delaying the project for up to three years due to soaring costs,” Reuters reports. “That’s our sentiment now, we really want to make this happen,” Tore Løseth, Equinor’s Canada country head, told Reuters at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary. “In many ways I feel more optimistic.” Bay du Nord, far off the Atlantic coast of Newfoundland and Labrador, would be one of Canada’s biggest oil projects in years. It already has the rare support of Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s government, which has said Bay du Nord would produce relatively low emissions… “The last publicly released cost estimate for Bay du Nord was C$16 billion ($11.90 billion) before the decision to postpone it, and Løseth told Reuters the estimate privately had grown significantly higher.”
Reuters: Oil companies cautious about drilling as energy transition looms
Rod Nickel and Nia Williams, 9/20/23
“Government policies to fight climate change are discouraging oil companies from investing heavily in new production even as they turn in record profits - a dynamic that could spell tight supply and high prices as clean energy alternatives seek to fill the void,” Reuters reports. “Crude oil prices have surged above $90 a barrel and some analysts predict they will nudge above $100 by year's end. But instead of spending big to boost output, companies are boosting dividends or buying back shares to reward investors. Environmental groups say slowing production growth could accelerate a move to renewable energy and curb carbon emissions. However, lack of drilling investment could exacerbate energy shortages in poor countries and fuel inflation, company executives warned at the World Petroleum Congress in Calgary this week… “Investment looks "flattish" during the next two to three years, and may start to drop in 2026, as electric vehicle adoption and government emissions policies start flattening oil demand, Aditya Ravi, Rystad's senior vice-president of upstream research, told Reuters… “Uncertainties about government policy are a bigger factor restraining investment, Alex Pourbaix, executive chair of Canadian producer Cenovus Energy told Reuters. "If you want to add 100,000 barrels a day of production, you're going to spend billions and billions of dollars," Pourbaix told Reuters. "In terms of any real meaningful investment in large projects, that's probably going to have to wait for some more clarity on the government front."
Guardian: Revealed: top carbon offset projects may not cut planet-heating emissions
Nina Lakhani, 9/19/23
“The vast majority of the environmental projects most frequently used to offset greenhouse gas emissions appear to have fundamental failings suggesting they cannot be relied upon to cut planet-heating emissions, according to a new analysis,” the Guardian reports. “The global, multibillion-dollar voluntary carbon trading industry has been embraced by governments, organisations and corporations including oil and gas companies, airlines, fast-food brands, fashion houses, tech firms, art galleries and universities as a way of claiming to reduce their greenhouse gas footprint. It works by carbon offset credits being tradable “allowances” or certificates that allows the purchaser to compensate for 1 ton of carbon dioxide or the equivalent in greenhouse gases by investing in environmental projects that claim to reduce carbon emissions. But there is mounting evidence suggesting that many of these offset schemes exaggerate climate benefits and underestimate potential harms. In a new investigation, the Guardian and researchers from Corporate Accountability, a non-profit, transnational corporate watchdog, analysed the top 50 emission offset projects, those that have sold the most carbon credits in the global market. According to our criteria and classification system: A total of 39 of the top 50 emission offset projects, or 78% of them, were categorised as likely junk or worthless due to one or more fundamental failing that undermines its promised emission cuts… “Overall, $1.16bn (£937m) of carbon credits have been traded so far from the projects classified by the investigation as likely junk or worthless; a further $400m of credits bought and sold were potentially junk. The 50 most popular global projects include forestry schemes, hydroelectric dams, solar and wind farms, waste disposal and greener household appliances schemes across 20 (mostly) developing countries, according to data from AlliedOffsets, the most comprehensive emissions trading database which tracks projects from inception. They account for almost a third of the entire global voluntary carbon market (VCM), suggesting that junk or overvalued carbon credits which exaggerate emission reduction benefits could be the norm. In our analysis, a project was classified as likely junk if there was compelling evidence, claims or high risk that it cannot guarantee additional, permanent greenhouse gas cuts among other criteria.”
Reuters: Sunak delays UK petrol car ban, seeking voter support on climate
Kate Holton and William James, 9/20/23
“Prime Minister Rishi Sunak watered down Britain's plans to tackle climate change on Wednesday, saying he would delay a ban on sales of new petrol cars to maintain the consent of the British people in the switch to net zero,” Reuters reports. “Sunak said he remained committed to the legally-binding target of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 but said Britain could afford to make slower progress in getting there because it was "so far ahead of every other country in the world". To ease what he described as "unacceptable costs" on British households from the energy transition he delayed a ban on new petrol and diesel cars until 2035 from 2030, said he would ease the transition to heat pumps from gas boilers in homes, and said he would not force any household to improve their insulation. Sunak said he was changing the policy because previous governments had moved too quickly to set net zero targets, without securing the support of the public. "If we continue down this path, we risk losing the British people and the resulting backlash would not just be against specific policies, but against the wider mission itself," he told a press conference… “Lisa Brankin, the chair of Ford UK, was scathing on the change to the 2030 EV car target: "Our business needs three things from the UK government: ambition, commitment and consistency. A relaxation of 2030 would undermine all three."
New York Times: Michael Bloomberg Dials Up a War on Plastics
David Gelles, 9/20/23
“Michael Bloomberg is many things: former New York City mayor, founder of a financial data company, failed presidential candidate and the 11th richest man in the world,” the New York Times reports. “Since leaving public office 10 years ago, Mr. Bloomberg, 81, has also emerged as perhaps the world’s single largest funder of climate activism, making himself an expensive thorn in the side of the fossil fuel industry. The former mayor says that so far he has spent $500 million in an effort to shut down coal and gas plants. This month he said he planned to spend another $500 million on the effort. The campaign against coal was largely successful. Coal is dirty and expensive, and Mr. Bloomberg’s money helped retire more than 70 percent of the coal-burning power plants in the country, according to the Sierra Club and other organizations, or about 370. Now he is going after a more challenging target: new petrochemical plants that make fertilizer, plastics and packaging. It won’t be easy. In recent years, coal had become an increasingly costly and uneconomical way to generate electricity, making plant closures easier to achieve. But plastics and chemicals face no such economic headwinds. In fact, the petroleum industry sees these industries as its future as cars electrify and the burning of fossil fuels declines, so it is investing heavily. While the new campaign, called Beyond Petrochemicals, has scored a few wins, the petrochemicals business is booming and highly profitable, and plastics remain cheap and in demand. And the industry is fighting back with its own counter effort: Beyond Bloomberg. Companies and local economic development groups argue that Mr. Bloomberg’s efforts are a heavy-handed approach to a nuanced problem and that the world needs more products made with petrochemicals, not less. They add that his efforts are costing people jobs and hurting an area badly in need of economic growth. “Attempts to shut down American chemical manufacturing are a bet against millions of hard-working men and women in our industry,” Chris Jahn, the chief executive of the American Chemistry Council, told the Times. He added that Mr. Bloomberg’s efforts “would send essential jobs overseas and threaten America’s leadership to innovate and compete with countries like China.”
CLIMATE FINANCE
Women's Earth and Climate Action Network (WECAN): Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry
9/20/23
“The Gendered and Racial Impacts of the Fossil Fuel Industry in North America and Complicit Financial Institutions (third edition), is a report that addresses the disproportionate gender and race-specific health and safety impacts as well as human and Indigenous rights issues of fossil fuel extraction and infrastructure in the United States and selected parts of Canada— interlocking issues that have been sorely neglected in the discourse regarding fossil fuel extraction. The report spotlights the role that a specific set of financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, and insurance companies, play in preserving and perpetuating negative gender and racial impacts through focusing on eight case studies in North America. The report explicitly exposes the role that financial institutions, including banks, asset managers, and insurance companies, play in preserving and perpetuating negative gender and racial impacts through focusing on 9 regional case studies, from the fracking fields Kern County in California to the recently approved Willow Project in the Western Arctic. The report spotlights Vanguard, BlackRock, Capital Group, JPMorgan Chase, Royal Bank of Canada, Bank of America, and Liberty Mutual as primary financiers of harmful fossil fuel projects within the regional case studies. All seven of these financial institutions have voiced support of the Paris Agreement and human rights via statements or by signing various international frameworks, yet, these financial institutions continue to fund companies whose operations are disproportionately harming women and communities of color, while also violating Indigenous rights and furthering the climate crisis… “The report advocates for financial institutions to immediately transition away from fossil fuels, and instead invest in a Just Transition, clean regenerative and renewable energy, accountability and justice within institutions, and community-led solutions.”
Reuters: US SEC cracks down on funds "greenwashing" with new investment requirement
Douglas Gillison and Michelle Price, 9/20/23
“Wall Street's top regulator on Wednesday adopted a new rule cracking down on so-called "greenwashing" and other deceptive or misleading marketing practices by U.S. investment funds,” Reuters reports. “The changes to the two decades-old Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) "Name Rule" requires that 80% of a fund's portfolio matches the asset advertised by its name. It takes aim at a boom in funds that have tried to exploit investor interest in environmental, social and governance, or ESG, investing with names that do not accurately reflect its investments or strategies. "A fund’s investment portfolio should match a fund’s advertised investment focus," SEC chair Gary Gensler said on Wednesday at a meeting to vote on the rule. "Such truth in advertising promotes fund integrity on behalf of fund investors." “...Trade organizations have attacked the proposal, first issued in May of last year, claiming its requirements would be impracticably subjective, cause confusion among investors, and encourage superficial judgments based solely on names.”
Washington Post: Treasury unveils voluntary sustainable investment standards
Maxine Joselow, 9/20/23
“The Treasury Department yesterday unveiled voluntary standards aimed at spurring private-sector investment in clean energy and combating greenwashing, the practice of making a product seem more sustainable than it really is,” the Washington Post reports. “In a document titled “Principles for Net-Zero Financing and Investment,” Treasury outlined several recommendations for financial institutions with climate targets, including that they develop an implementation strategy, be transparent about their progress, account for environmental justice, and align with the Paris agreement’s goal of limiting global temperature rise to 1.5 degrees Celsius (2.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above preindustrial levels.
OPINION
Napoleon Homestead: Dear Editor
Brandon Meidinger, President, McIntosh County Farmers Union Board, 9/20/23
“Last week Lynn Helms, the head of the North Dakota Department of Mineral Resources, shamelessly peddled to the media a contradictory agenda that reeks of corporate greed and disregard for the well-being of farmers, ranchers, and public safety,” Brandon Meidinger writes for the Napoleon Homestead. “Helms’ claim that pumping more CO2 into the atmosphere is somehow necessary to repressurize the Bakken oil formation is a thinly veiled excuse to cater to the insatiable appetites of corporate greed. Worse yet, the calculated timing of his statement, conveniently coinciding with Summit Pipeline’s permit application, is an infuriating attempt to strong-arm public opinion and manipulate regulatory decisions. This blatant maneuver exposes his allegiance to the interests of big oil, underscoring his disregard for democratic processes and private landowners. Not to be overlooked, billionaire oil baron Harold Hamm has put his hands in the corporate welfare cookie jar. Hamm wrote a $250 million dollar check to Summit Carbon Solutions, a small price tag for pay-to-play scam that will reap billions of taxpayer dollars to corporate executives from private companies. The hypocrisy and cynicism demonstrated by Helms and Hamm epitomize the arrogance of an industry that has long exploited landowners… “It’s high time we see through these empty gestures and demand accountability from those who prioritize profit margins over the citizens of North Dakota.”
Sioux City Journal: MINI: A company that has never built a pipeline
Doyle Turner, Moville, Iowa, 9/20/23
“THE MINI: Only Iowa would consider giving a pipeline permit and eminent domain to a company that has never built a pipeline and doesn't own a pipeline for a pipeline to nowhere,” Doyle Turner writes for the Sioux City Journal.
Farm Progress: What’s at stake in carbon pipeline argument
Holly Spangler, 9/20/23
“If you happened to look up at the sky during the 2023 Farm Progress Show, you might have seen a lone plane, circling the airspace, pulling a banner with a message: “No dangerous CO2 pipelines!” I noticed because it’s hard to miss a plane overhead, but also because a billboard in our town carries the same message, just before the blacktop where I turn to head home. All the way home, yard signs stand at the edge of fields, all saying absolutely no thank you to a proposed carbon pipeline,” Holly Spangler writes for Farm Progress. “Back at the Farm Progress Show, the same group that flew the banner — the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines — also had a booth, where they asked people to fill out cards asking the Illinois Farm Bureau to oppose eminent domain for a private project. Many did… “Full disclosure, it would come right through my neighborhood — in fact, right across the first farm my husband and I bought together in 2004… Despite its 13 letters, eminent domain is the four-letter word here, even among pro-ethanol farmers. And in Illinois, if the Illinois Commerce Commission approves Navigator’s permit, the company receives eminent domain authority… “Because before you know it, there’s a banner in the air and a billboard in town. And we need to give the people it affects most a bigger voice in the process.”
Ted Glick: We Need Clean Air, Not Another Billionaire
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968, 9/20/23
“The first time I heard the chant it was while helping to block the street in front of leading fossil fuel financer Black Rock in lower Manhattan last Wednesday the 13th: “We need clean air, not another billionaire!” The dozens of people I was taking action with also liked it, and we kept chanting loud and long while we watched the traffic back up and for when the police were going to move in on us,” Ted Glick writes. “...This was the spirit of the week of resistance to end fossil fuels and build another world, another world that looks much more possible now that we’ve shown each other just what we can do when we work hard together in a cooperative and respectful way. It is just tremendous, a huge and very important thing that, according to mainstream media reports, 75,000 people took part in the March to End Fossil Fuels on September 17. The organizers of the march did their job and did it well, and masses of people responded. It was and is, clearly, a movement moment. It’s special that almost 200 arrests were made for the many acts of determined nonviolent direct action throughout the week. It is a very big deal that there were many hundreds, possibly close to a thousand, local actions happening around the country and around the world over this weekend. The world is rising up together again on this most critical of issues, the rapidly deepening climate emergency… “This showing, this showing to one another what we can do when unified, has to continue. A top priority has to be support for the many battles raging against new fossil fuel pipelines like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, LNG export terminals in the Gulf states and elsewhere, other infrastructure, and oil and gas leases. All of us need to do whatever we can when the calls go out for supportive acts of resistance, whether electronic or in person, responding as best as we can.”