EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 9/9/22
PIPELINE NEWS
Washington Post: Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes protest climate deal
Reuters: Iowa landowner and carbon pipeline developer battle over property access
KTIV: Carbon pipeline company appeals ruling that made their affected landowner list public
Reuters: U.S. Coast Guard probes natgas pipeline explosion at Lake Lery, Louisiana
Associated Press: Oil company settles criminal cases in California spill
Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court's Gorsuch allows enforcement of $155 million award against Energy Transfer unit
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Sanders blasts permitting reform as Democrats’ divide grows
Virginia Mercury: U.S. House members raise doubts about Manchin environmental permitting deal
Bloomberg: Chevron CEO Calls for US Permit Reform to Spur Energy Investment
E&E News: Feds Delay Texas Oil Export Project Amid NEPA Lawsuit
STATE UPDATES
E&E News: Can N.M. Build World’s Largest Coal CCS Project?
Delaware Riverkeeper Network: Public blasts DRBC for shutting public out while approving an unjustified permit extension for deeply opposed Gibbstown LNG Export Terminal
Casper Star-Tribune: As environmental groups celebrate leasing win, oil and gas industry pledges appeal
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Special Report: How U.S. ethanol plants are allowed to pollute more than oil refineries
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Down to Earth: The Greenwashers: Big Oil’s words and actions on climate emergency do not match, says study
OPINION
Waging Nonviolence: Why rediscovering the power of unlikely alliances is key to defeating corporate greed
PIPELINE NEWS
Washington Post: Appalachian, Indigenous pipeline foes protest climate deal
Ellie Silverman, 9/8/22
“Roishetta Ozane and her six children squeezed into a three-bedroom trailer, paid for by FEMA, after their Southwest Louisiana home was destroyed by two hurricanes, only six weeks apart,” the Washington Post reports. “...Ozane, 37, traveled this week from her home in Sulphur, La., to the nation’s capital to rally on Thursday with others who have been displaced by climate catastrophes and those who are advocating against pipelines in their communities. She said she is sharing her story in meetings on Capitol Hill in the offices of her local representatives in hopes that those in power listen to her concerns and reject any bills that further invest in polluting infrastructure. “For so long … these industries have been placed in BIPOC communities that are too often targeted by these projects. It’s time for them to stop. We can no longer be made sacrifices for oil and gas,” Ozane said, referring to Black and Indigenous people and other people of color. Emphasizing that her home near Lake Charles, La., is surrounded by oil and gas refineries, chemical manufacturers and other industries, she had this message for lawmakers: “Breathe the air we breathe. Drink the water we drink. And feel everything we feel in a community where everywhere we look we see industry.” Though last month’s passage of the Inflation Reduction Act — a climate, energy and health-care package — was the climate movement’s biggest legislative success, Ozane and others say their communities were sacrificed as a bargaining chip. To secure the support of Sen. Joe Manchin III (D-W.Va.), Democratic leadership reached a side deal with Manchin that would overhaul the process for approving new energy initiatives and expedite the 300-mile-long Mountain Valley Pipeline project — a natural gas pipeline across West Virginia and Virginia that those rallying in D.C. on Thursday have opposed for years. Ozane, an organizer for Healthy Gulf, an environmental justice organization, was one of the hundreds protesting Thursday at the Robert A. Taft Memorial Carillon, joining people from Appalachia and as far away as Alaska to demand that lawmakers reject this side deal, Grace Tuttle, a lead organizer of the rally who has been advocating against the Mountain Valley Pipeline for three years, told the Post… “Rally organizers argue that the side deal, if passed, would “gut bedrock environmental protections, threaten tribal authority, endanger public health, fast-track fossil fuel projects, cut public input and push approval for Manchin’s pet project, the Mountain Valley Pipeline.”
Reuters: Iowa landowner and carbon pipeline developer battle over property access
Clark Mindock, 9/8/22
“An Iowa landowner is countersuing a carbon pipeline developer after it sued him and other residents to gain access to their properties for surveying,” Reuters reports. “The family told Reuters the Iowa law that allows access to private property for the purposes of energy development amounts to an illegal taking and wants an injunction barring the company from entering… “Navigator sued Martin Koenig and three other landowners in August saying they had violated the statute by refusing the company access to their land… “Heartland Greenway is one of three carbon pipeline systems proposed for the state that have received pushback from landowners and conservation groups that say CCS is a largely untested technology, and that the pressurized pipelines that transport liquefied CO2 present health dangers for nearby communities. The pipelines need multiple state and federal approvals, and some Iowa lawmakers have expressed concerns about extending eminent domain rights to the projects. “This fight is for the fair treatment of landowners,” Brian Jorde, an attorney at Domina Law Group who represents Koenig and other landowners fighting Navigator’s pipeline, told Reuters.”
KTIV: Carbon pipeline company appeals ruling that made their affected landowner list public
Matt Hoffmann, 9/7/22
“A carbon pipeline company is appealing a district court decision that would require it to release its list of possibly affected landowners,” KTIV reports. “Summit Carbon Solutions, one of three carbon pipeline companies seeking to operate in Iowa, says the list should be kept secret to protect the privacy interest of landowners. They’re the company appealing the decision to the Iowa Supreme Court. Opponents to the carbon pipelines say the move is meant to prevent them from communicating with one another… “As a public disclosure matter these type of companies have a tendency to fight disclosure of a lot of things, you know, even in some cases, evacuation routes and, you know, information that really pertains to the safety,” Dan Zegart an author with the Climate Investigations Center, told KTIV.
Reuters: U.S. Coast Guard probes natgas pipeline explosion at Lake Lery, Louisiana
9/8/22
“The U.S. Coast Guard said on Thursday that it was responding to a natural gas pipeline explosion at Lake Lery, Louisiana, and there have been no reports of injuries, casualties or pollution at this time,” Reuters reports. “The Coast Guard received a report of a large fire at Lake Lery, it said in a release. "The pipeline has been secured. The cause of the incident remains under investigation." A spokesperson at the Louisiana department of natural resources told Reuters, "it appeared to be an interstate line," adding High Point Gas Transmission, LLC, was the operator of the pipeline.”
Associated Press: Oil company settles criminal cases in California spill
AMY TAXIN and DON THOMPSON, 9/8/22
“An oil company on Thursday pleaded guilty in federal court to negligently discharging crude off the Southern California coast when its underwater pipeline ruptured last year, a spill that closed miles of shoreline and shuttered fisheries,” the Associated Press reports. “Meanwhile, Houston-based Amplify Energy and two of its subsidiaries agreed to enter no contest pleas to killing birds and water pollution in court on Friday in a settlement with the county and state officials stemming from the same October 2021 oil spill. Amplify’s pipeline broke off the Orange County coast, spilling about 25,000 gallons (94,600 liters) of oil into the Pacific Ocean. The rupture closed beaches for a week and fisheries for more than a month, oiled birds and threatened local wetlands. “Amplify unequivocally hit the snooze button. They knew they had a leak. Their leak detection system detected a leak,” Orange County District Attorney Todd Spitzer told AP. “Over and over, they kept ignoring it. That is criminal and that is why they’ve been charged.” Spitzer and state Attorney General Rob Bonta announced the filing of six misdemeanor state charges against the company and two of its subsidiaries from the spill. The company will plead no contest to all six charges and pay $4.9 million in penalties and fines as part of a settlement, Spitzer told AP. The company will also be placed on 12 months of probation and make changes designed to avoid future spills, including increased inspections and technology to detect leaks, Bonta told AP.
Reuters: U.S. Supreme Court's Gorsuch allows enforcement of $155 million award against Energy Transfer unit
9/8/22
“U.S. Supreme Court Justice Neil Gorsuch on Thursday rejected a request by pipeline operator Energy Transfer LP's Sunoco Inc unit to block efforts to enforce a $155 million judgment in a lawsuit accusing it of failing to pay interest on late payments to 53,000 oil-well owners across Oklahoma,” Reuters reports. “Gorsuch denied Sunoco's request for a stay blocking proceedings to enforce the judgment while the company appeals a federal judge's 2020 decision finding that it violated Oklahoma law by failing to pay interest on more than 1.5 million late payments to royalty owners in wells across the state.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
E&E News: Sanders blasts permitting reform as Democrats’ divide grows
Nick Sobczyk, Jeremy Dillon, Kelsey Brugger, 9/9/22
“Sen. Bernie Sanders said Thursday he would oppose a stopgap government spending measure that includes forthcoming permitting legislation, underscoring progressive resistance to the bill amid protests by environmental groups,” E&E News reports. “Sanders, a Vermont independent who caucuses with Democrats, called the permitting proposal a “disastrous side deal” that would make it easier for fossil fuel companies to “pollute the environment and destroy our planet.” “...It will need 60 votes to pass the Senate, but most Democrats are rallying to support Manchin’s deal, and Republicans are beginning to soften their tone. Sanders’ opposition may not directly impact the bill’s fate in the upper chamber, but it’s part of a larger intraparty battle that could derail it… “There’s a brewing battle, however, in the House, where progressives are publicly pressuring leadership to drop permitting from the CR or any other must-pass bill. House Natural Resources Chair Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.) is circulating a letter making that demand, and it now has signatures from more than 50 House Democrats, enough to derail the bill if Republicans do not end up supporting permitting reform. Sanders entered the letter into the congressional record during his floor speech. Sanders’ comments also came just a few hours before a large-scale environmental protest outside the Capitol opposing the permitting deal. Activists from Indigenous and frontline communities rallied in a nearby park Thursday evening, calling on lawmakers to oppose permitting reforms and the Mountain Valley pipeline… “Protesters said it would hurt communities across the state, and they implored lawmakers to keep the National Environmental Policy Act intact. The protest upped the heat from the progressive wing, but the national Democratic Party is divided on the issue.”
Virginia Mercury: U.S. House members raise doubts about Manchin environmental permitting deal
JACOB FISCHLER, 9/7/22
“More than 50 U.S. House members are objecting to a push to revise federal environmental permitting requirements for energy projects — part of a deal Democratic leaders struck with U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin III to win passage of their climate, health and taxes bill that passed last month,” the Virginia Mercury reports. “The House members signed onto a letter led by House Natural Resources Chairman Raul Grijalva, an Arizona Democrat aligned with the party’s progressive wing. The letter urges House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer of Maryland to omit permitting legislation from a must-pass spending bill this month… “But the Grijalva letter says the permitting legislation would weaken the tools used to ensure energy projects comply with environmental regulations and would specifically hurt communities near proposed projects. “The inclusion of these provisions in a continuing resolution, or any other must-pass legislation, would silence the voices of frontline and environmental justice communities by insulating them from scrutiny,” the letter reads. “Such a move would force members to choose between protecting (environmental justice) communities from further pollution or funding the government.” “...Grijalva is still gathering signatures from members and expects to send the letter by the end of the week, House Natural Resources Committee spokeswoman Lindsay Gressard told the Mercury. She declined to list the members who have already signed until the letter is sent, but said more than 50 had attached their names as of Wednesday.”
Bloomberg: Chevron CEO Calls for US Permit Reform to Spur Energy Investment
9/7/22
“Chevron Corp. threw its weight behind reforming the federal permit process for energy projects as Congress is slated to consider Democratic Senator Joe Manchin’s plan to fast-track approvals from natural gas pipelines to wind farms,” Bloomberg reports. “If we had material reform it would send a signal to the industry to invest, to invest in infrastructure, to invest in production with the confidence that we actually could execute those investments,” Chevron Chief Executive Officer Mike Wirth said in an interview on Bloomberg Television. “It would be a very positive signal.”
E&E News: Feds Delay Texas Oil Export Project Amid NEPA Lawsuit
Heather Richards, 9/8/22
“The Army Corps of Engineers will delay a controversial dredging project through a Superfund site that is aimed at expanding a crude oil export port on the Texas Gulf Coast,” E&E News reports. “Widening and deepening the Matagorda Bay Ship Channel would allow larger ships to use the port at Point Comfort, north of Corpus Christi, and boost the regional economy, according to proponents of the expansion, which was authorized by Congress in 2020. But a coalition led by the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper, and represented by Earthjustice, have tried to block the project, suing the Army Corps earlier this year in the U.S. District Court for the District of Columbia. They say dredging would churn up mercury-contaminated sediment in the Alcoa, Point Comfort/Lavaca Bay Superfund site, once a huge industrial complex for bauxite refining and smelting aluminum on the coast. In a Tuesday update to the court, the Department of Justice and Army Corps now anticipates soliciting contracts for dredging the channel in December of next year — a delay from plans to begin that work this summer that environmental organizers are claiming as an incremental win in their fight against the project. ‘We’re committed to bringing the case to a close before any dredging takes place,’ Erin Gaines, senior attorney at Earthjustice, told E&E.”
STATE UPDATES
E&E News: Can N.M. Build World’s Largest Coal CCS Project?
Carlos Anchondo, Jason Plautz, 9/8/22
“At the end of this month, the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station will produce its last electron after nearly five decades as a mainstay of power generation in New Mexico’s northwestern corner,” E&E News reports. “Or not, if you ask city officials in nearby Farmington, N.M. The city is working with startup Enchant Energy Corp. to keep the San Juan station online by retrofitting it with what they say is groundbreaking carbon capture technology. If built, the $1.6 billion project would be one of the largest carbon capture projects worldwide and among only a handful of CCS projects in the United States in the power generation sector. But first, Farmington and its electric utility, which own 5 percent of the plant, will have to acquire the remaining 95 percent and transfer it to Enchant. [...] Enchant claims it will be able to capture up to 95 percent of the carbon dioxide released from the San Juan plant. It then plans to store all 6 million metric tons each year in geologic formations in the San Juan Basin. But that capture rate is disputed by the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA), which advocates for speeding up the transition to sustainable energy. In a report issued last month, the Ohio-based group called Enchant’s claims ‘unrealistically high.’ Factoring in the methane emissions from the coal mine that supplies the San Juan station, the IEEFA analysis said the facility’s capture rate would be ‘no more’ than 72 percent. ‘The figure is likely too high, since it assumes Enchant will be able to consistently capture 95 [percent] of CO2 generated at the plant,’ the group wrote in the report.”
Delaware Riverkeeper Network: Public blasts DRBC for shutting public out while approving an unjustified permit extension for deeply opposed Gibbstown LNG Export Terminal
9/8/22
“Today the Delaware River Basin Commission (DRBC) voted to approve the extension of the permit to Delaware River Partners (DRP) for the proposed Gibbstown Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) Export Project on the Delaware River (Docket No. D-2017-009-2), located in Gloucester County NJ (the “Dock 2 Project”). The approval had been given covertly and unilaterally in June by the Executive Director Steve Tambini and was ratified publicly today by a majority vote of the DRBC Commissioners. Previously undisclosed, Mr. Tambini’s approval was discovered by Delaware Riverkeeper Network through its Freedom of Information Act request. The revelation set off a series of letters and submissions from representatives of the Delaware River LNG Coalition demanding the approval be rescinded, that there be full public disclosure, that a public hearing be held, and that any final determination be voted on by the DRBC Commissioners. The Commission took up the matter under the General Counsel Ken Warren’s report at their September 8 Business Meeting, approving a resolution that rubberstamped Mr. Tambini’s approval… “There was no opportunity for public comment before the vote and the resolution was not made public prior to the meeting. The motion to approve was made by the federal Commissioner from the Army Corps of Engineers, representing President Biden, and was seconded by the representative for New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy. New York abstained; all others voted to approve. Inexplicably, Governor Murphy stated publicly after the vote to approve the LNG Dock in 2020 that said he would do all he could to “prevent the use of this dock for LNG transport” yet his representative seconded the motion and voted for approval.”
Casper Star-Tribune: As environmental groups celebrate leasing win, oil and gas industry pledges appeal
Nicole Pollack, 9/7/22
“At least one industry group will appeal last week’s court order upholding the federal government’s right to postpone oil and gas leasing until it finishes evaluating the sales’ environmental impacts,” the Casper Star-Tribune reports. “U.S. District Judge Scott W. Skavdahl of Wyoming ruled Friday that the Department of the Interior legally delayed the federal oil and gas lease sale scheduled for the first quarter of 2021 “over concerns that the associated Environmental Assessments” — a requirement under the National Environmental Policy Act — “did not satisfy recent court caselaw.” In the narrow decision, Skavdahl focused on delineating the authority afforded to the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) by the landmark environmental law, and dismissed attempts by the oil and gas industry to contest broader agency actions… “The Western Energy Alliance plans to appeal Friday’s decision “based on the misapplication” of the National Environmental Policy Act, said Aaron Johnson, the trade group’s vice president for public affairs, in a Monday email to the Star-Tribune. Its president, Kathleen Sgamma, said in a written statement that the ruling “essentially gives the government a get-out-of-jail-free card when it comes to the environmental analysis required for any lease sales,” adding that if Interior Department says it’s not done, “it doesn’t have to hold sales.” The Petroleum Association of Wyoming, the other industry challenger involved in the lawsuit, has not yet decided whether to appeal. Nor has the state of Wyoming — the only plaintiff with complaints deemed legitimate by the judge.”
EXTRACTION
Reuters: Special Report: How U.S. ethanol plants are allowed to pollute more than oil refineries
Leah Douglas, 9/8/22
“In 2007, the U.S. Congress mandated the blending of biofuels such as corn-based ethanol into gasoline. One of the top goals: reducing greenhouse gas emissions. But today, the nation’s ethanol plants produce more than double the climate-damaging pollution, per gallon of fuel production capacity, than the nation’s oil refineries, according to a Reuters analysis of federal data. “The average ethanol plant chuffed out 1,187 metric tons of carbon emissions per million gallons of fuel capacity in 2020, the latest year data is available. The average oil refinery, by contrast, produced 533 metric tons of carbon. The ethanol plants’ high emissions result in part from a history of industry-friendly federal regulation that has allowed almost all processors to sidestep the key environmental requirement of the 2007 law, the Renewable Fuel Standard (RFS), according to academics who have studied ethanol pollution and regulatory documents examined by Reuters. The rule requires individual ethanol processors to demonstrate that their fuels result in lower carbon emissions than gasoline… “But the [EPA] has exempted more than 95% of U.S. ethanol plants from the requirement through a grandfathering provision that excused plants built or under construction before the legislation passed. Today, these plants produce more than 80% of the nation’s ethanol, according to the EPA… “Ethanol industry representatives have recognized the need to lower the biofuel’s carbon emissions, and biofuel producers have been investing in projects that would capture plants’ carbon emissions and bury them permanently underground… “Ethanol does have a key environmental advantage over gasoline: It burns cleaner in cars. The problem, biofuels researchers have found, is that those gains are offset by the pollution from planting corn and refining it into fuel… “A growing consensus of academics has found that, considering all phases of the fuel’s life cycle, ethanol produces more carbon than gasoline - not less. A study published by the National Academy of Sciences in February, for example, estimated that ethanol produces 24% more carbon. The EPA’s methodology, by contrast, has hewed closer to the findings of industry-commissioned studies, which assert that ethanol produces as much as 40% less lifecycle emissions than gasoline. The EPA has used a controversial methodology to estimate the ethanol industry’s life-cycle emissions that has effectively ensured the industry’s continuing regulatory compliance. The model greatly underestimates the industry’s pollution from corn agriculture, four academic researchers of ethanol told Reuters… “The ethanol industry’s high emissions are caused in part by the exemptions the EPA has granted to almost all ethanol plants, academic researchers told Reuters.”.
TODAY IN GREENWASHING
Down to Earth: The Greenwashers: Big Oil’s words and actions on climate emergency do not match, says study
Rajat Ghai, 9/8/22
“There is a big difference in the words and actions of global oil companies as far as the ongoing climate emergency is concerned, a new analysis has shown,” Down to Earth reports. “The analysis by InfluenceMap showed that while such companies were spending huge sums of money to portray themselves as positive and proactive on climate action, their measures to reduce climate change were inconsistent towards such a goal… “The document analysed the public communications of five ‘supermajors’ oil companies — Shell plc, BP plc, TotalEnergies, Chevron Corp, and ExxonMobil Corp. “Across the 3,421 individual evidence items of public communication analysed from the five companies from 2021, 60 per cent contained at least one green claim, while only 23 per cent contained claims promoting oil and gas (with another 23 per cent deemed not to contain claims relevant to either),” the analysis noted. The most popular type of ‘green claim’ made by the companies was that of their support of or involvement with efforts to move transition the energy mix… “It suggested that the companies were spending around $750 million each year cumulatively on climate-related communication activities. The companies might have mostly made ‘green claims’. But only 12 per cent of their 2022 capital expenditure (CAPEX) was forecasted to be dedicated to ‘low carbon’ activities. Also, several of the companies’ oil and gas production appeared set to increase up to 2026 from a 2021 baseline. “Such production forecasts appear to significantly overshoot the recommendations in the International Energy Agency’s Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario,” the analysis said. Meanwhile, the companies’ lobbying efforts were not at all aligned with the green claims they had made.”
OPINION
Waging Nonviolence: Why rediscovering the power of unlikely alliances is key to defeating corporate greed
Pamela Haines, 9/6/22
“The new multi-billion-dollar Midwest Carbon Express pipeline — proposed last fall to carry ethanol refinery waste from Iowa to underground injection sites in North Dakota — has generated a wave of resistance over the threat of eminent domain, or the seizure of land for “public good,” Pamela Haines writes for Waging Nonviolence. “The unlikely alliance of farmers, ranchers, Indigenous tribes, scientists and environmentalists that has arisen has hung banners off of freeway overpasses, rallied in front of the Iowa State Capitol and held meetings in communities all along the proposed route. This campaign offers yet another example of the potential of working across lines of deep-seated traditional enmity to accomplish shared goals. They hearken back to the Cowboy and Indian alliance campaign against the Keystone XL pipeline in 2013… “As this group of ranchers, farmers and tribal communities from along the tar sands pipeline route worked together against its construction, the tribes influenced some white neighbors to protect sacred burial sites on property they now owned. “We come from two cultures that clashed over land,” Alliance spokeswoman Faith Spotted Eagle observed. “This is a healing for the generations.” “...A common factor here seems to be the courage and vision to go beyond protest at the regulatory hearing level and be willing to frame the issues around deeper community and environmental rights. Perhaps this is a place, in the face of moneyed predation, where all of us — rural western ranchers and Indigenous people, cosmopolitan coastal liberal and rural conservatives alike — can find common ground.”