EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 11/15/24

PIPELINE NEWS

• Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin DNR approves permits for Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 reroute

• Earthjustice: Wisconsin Bows to Enbridge, Approving Line 5 Reroute Permits

• North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota couple plans to ‘dig in’ if Summit pipeline is approved 

• Sioux Falls Live: Could green methanol technology provide an alternative to carbon pipelines?

• Roanoke Times: Erosion problems persist for Mountain Valley Pipeline

• Press release: Extinction Rebellion supporters who protested pipeline constructors sentenced as 15 Ugandan students sent to maximum security prison

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Politico: Manchin Says Schumer Wants to Pass Permitting

• Politico: Westerman Eyes Permitting In Reconciliation 

• Washington Post: Trump taps North Dakota Gov. Burgum to lead Interior Department

• E&E News: Trump picking Burgum for Interior spotlights fossil fuels

• E&E News: US ‘likely’ to pledge new climate target, says White House

• The New Republic: A Federal Court Just Upended Decades Of Environmental Regulation 

• Law360: LNG Co. Says Full DC Circ. Must Revive Texas Project 

• E&E News: Trump May Entrench DC Circuit’s Stunning NEPA Ruling 

• E&E News: Ramaswamy: Supreme Court Gave Us A Mandate To Deregulate 

• Midland Reporter-Telegram: EPA’s new methane fee sparks dismay among local industry leaders

• West Virginia Public Broadcasting: Capito Vows To Repeal EPA Methane Fee For Oil, Gas Industry

• Bloomberg: Last-Ditch Offshore Drilling Protections Proposed by Democrats

• E&E News: White House unveils ocean carbon removal plan ahead of Trump tsunami

• Houston Chronicle: ‘Zombie Wells,’ Oil And Gas Companies And Other Expected Winners In The New Trump Administration 

STATE UPDATES

• Boston Globe: After drawn-out battle, sweeping climate bill passes Mass. Legislature

• Utility Dive: California’s climate disclosure laws survive first legal challenge

• St. Charles Herald Guide: State agency reschedules public hearing for reduced-carbon ammonia plant in St. Rose

• Alaska Public Media: Rumors Abound That Dunleavy May Join The Trump Administration. Here’s What That Could Mean For Alaska

• Data Center Dynamics: Sharon AI plots 90MW natural gas-powered data center in New Mexico

EXTRACTION

• Reuters: US power use to reach record highs in 2024 and 2025, EIA forecast says

• Texas Monthly: New Hope to Combat Climate Change—From an Oil Giant?

• Reuters: Imperial Oil fined for 2021 slop oil spill

CLIMATE FINANCE

• E&E News: 5th Circuit upholds Biden SEC proxy rule

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

• DeSmog: Fossil Fuel Giants Paying Thousands to Sponsor COP29 Events

OPINION

• The Denver Post: Haaland and Stone-Manning: Conservation is equal to the many other uses of our public lands

• Beyond Pesticides: Business As Usual “Carbon Capture” Undermines Organic Land Management as a Climate Solution

• Canada’s National Observer: Alberta oil is about to get Trumped

• The Hill: Fight this Trump administration on clean energy as hard as the last
  

PIPELINE NEWS

Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Wisconsin DNR approves permits for Enbridge’s controversial Line 5 reroute
Laura Schulte, Caitlin Looby, 11/14/24

“The Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources approved the state permits needed for a Canadian oil company to move forward with a controversial pipeline through a portion of Wisconsin’s Northwoods, the agency announced Thursday,” the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports. “The permits for Enbridge Energy will allow the company to reroute Line 5 around the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa’s land in a far northern area of Wisconsin. The permit will allow Enbridge to cross waterways and permanently and temporarily fill in wetlands as needed during pipeline construction… “The DNR permits are not the final hurdle for the project. The company still needs Army Corps of Engineers permits to begin the project and a tribal lawsuit is ongoing… “The tribe filed a lawsuit in 2019 to have the pipeline removed. The tribe and environmental groups argued for shutting down Line 5 entirely, citing the risks to land, water and quality of life if the pipeline were to rupture or leak. Following the decision, tribal leaders expressed dismay. “I’m angry that the DNR has signed off on a half-baked plan that spells disaster for our homeland and our way of life,” Bad River Band Chairman Robert Blanchard said in a statement. “We will continue sounding the alarm to prevent yet another Enbridge pipeline from endangering our watershed.” “…Greg Pils, the director of the Bureau of Environmental Analysis and Sustainability, told the Journal Sentinel the DNR heavily considered the comments and concerns shared with them by the public, and did not simply rubber stamp the permits… “Industry groups called Thursday’s permits decision a win for the Wisconsin economy… “Clean Wisconsin, an environmental advocacy organization, alluded to a potential challenge in court against the approval. “Wisconsin law makes it clear that projects causing harm to our waters must meet a high bar to move forward,” Clean Wisconsin attorney Evan Feinauer told the Journal Sentinel. “Given the enormous impacts that construction of this pipeline would cause, we are skeptical that the proposed project meets these legal standards.” Attorneys at Midwest Environmental Advocates told the Journal Sentinel the decision ignored the pleas from residents who asked the DNR to turn down the permits… “But the approvals issued by the DNR could be moot, as a court case filed by the Bad River Band continues to play out.”

Earthjustice: Wisconsin Bows to Enbridge, Approving Line 5 Reroute Permits
11/14/24

“Despite overwhelming public opposition, the Wisconsin Department of Natural Resources (DNR) today approved permits for Canadian oil giant Enbridge to reroute its Line 5 pipeline around and upstream of the Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa Reservation, where it has operated in illegal trespass for over a decade,” according to Earthjustice. “Enbridge still needs federal approval from the US Army Corps of Engineers, which in August received more than 150,000 comments from project opponents, including health professionals, faith groups, and regional businesses… “The EPA has warned that the project “will result in substantial and unacceptable adverse impacts” on the Kakagon-Bad River Sloughs, an internationally recognized mosaic of sloughs, bogs, and coastal lagoons that provide a critical stopover habitat for migratory birds and harbor the largest wild rice bed on the Great Lakes. “In granting these permits, DNR officials chose to serve Enbridge’s interests at the cost of the Bad River Band’s treaty rights and the state’s future clean water supply,” said Earthjustice Senior Attorney Stefanie Tsosie, who is representing the Bad River Band. “It’s sad that they are willing to gamble the region’s irreplaceable wetlands, the wild rice beds, and even Lake Superior to secure Enbridge’s cash flow.” The Bad River Band and others have consistently pointed to Enbridge’s abysmal safety record. While constructing Line 3 in Minnesota in 2021, Enbridge punctured three aquifers, losing nearly 300 million gallons of groundwater and incurring a criminal charge. The company has said it will use similar methods in constructing the Line 5 reroute, potentially draining the aquifers and contaminating the groundwater that Bad River Band members rely on for drinking water. A rupture along the pipeline could also carry oil downstream into Lake Superior, which contains 10 percent of the world’s freshwater.”

North Dakota Monitor: North Dakota couple plans to ‘dig in’ if Summit pipeline is approved 
Jeff Beach, 11/14/24

“James and Jessica Tiegs are among the holdout landowners who have refused to sign on to the controversial Summit Carbon Solutions pipeline project to take carbon emissions from ethanol plants and store it underground in North Dakota,” the North Dakota Monitor reports. “Summit is offering to pay landowners in exchange for an easement — the right to put the hazardous liquid pipeline through their land — but the couple told the Monitor they value the land and safety over money.  “It goes right through some of our best farmland,” James Tiegs told the Monitor. “I don’t want my family to farm over that.” “…Asked what they might do if the PSC approves the project, James Tiegs told the Monitor, “We dig in.” Digging in would mean bracing for a possible legal battle with Summit over eminent domain, which allows a private business to force landowners to provide an easement… “Recent setbacks for Summit in South Dakota give them some hope that they can avoid a court battle because of possible reroutes of the pipeline in that state. “Their path is going to be severely altered,” James Tiegs told the Monitor… ”South Dakota voters on Nov. 5 defeated a ballot measure known as Referred Law 21… “The ethanol industry campaigned to keep the law passed by the Legislature. “I feel betrayed by the ethanol plants a little bit,” James Tiegs told the Monitor… “If North Dakota approves the project, the couple will be supporting their neighbors to the south who also oppose the pipeline. “If anything good has come from this it’s the people we’ve met,” Jessica Tiegs told the Monitor. “We have some new friends in South Dakota.”

Sioux Falls Live: Could green methanol technology provide an alternative to carbon pipelines?
Kennedy Tesch, 11/14/24

“As carbon pipeline projects face growing opposition, some are exploring green methanol as a cleaner, more profitable alternative for the region’s ethanol industry. The renewable fuel, made from captured CO2, could reduce emissions and create new economic opportunities without the environmental and legal hurdles of pipeline development,” Sioux Falls Live reports. “Results of the Nov. 5 election showed that South Dakota voters opposed by a margin of 60% to 40% Referred Law 21, a measure that attempted to eliminate local control over carbon dioxide pipeline zoning laws and provide protections for landowners. The South Dakota Supreme Court also ruled Aug. 22 that Summit Carbon Solutions is not a common carrier, and that CO2 is not a commodity, unlike what many proponents of the pipeline have long argued… “Doyle Turner, a retired farmer, feeder, and banker from Moville, Iowa, told Sioux Falls Live carbon pipelines are an outdated idea, and he is suggesting alternative technology for the corn and ethanol industries — green methanol. He told Sioux Falls Live green methanol is a climate-friendly alternative to the conventional process for producing methanol, which uses fossil fuels like coal or natural gas… “There is a bigger opportunity. We have the opportunity to produce a whole other industry, and the government is willing to subsidize producing that industry,” Turner told Sioux Falls Live. “Why would we not take that money and build an industry rather than just creating a landfill? Because sequestration is just a landfill, and to believe that you’re going to build economic viability and stability off a landfill is about as third-world a notion as you’re ever going to get.” Turner has been advocating for companies such as CarbonLink and CapCO2 Solutions, who have the technology to build out ethanol to green methanol technology right next to partner ethanol companies.”

Roanoke Times: Erosion problems persist for Mountain Valley Pipeline
Laurence Hammack, 11/15/24

“During the first three months that the Mountain Valley Pipeline was in operation, construction crews continued to deal with erosion and sedimentation problems that have plagued the project from the start,” the Roanoke Times reports. “The Virginia Department of Environmental Quality cited the natural gas pipeline Wednesday for failing to abide by its stormwater management and erosion control plans 10 times from between June 11 and Sept. 10. DEQ imposed a fine of $17,500, bringing the total amount of penalties this year to more than $100,000. Construction of Mountain Valley was completed earlier this year, and the pipeline began to carry natural gas through Southwest Virginia on June 14. But since then, bare earth – which quickly turns to mud when it rains – has remained on some portions of a right-of-way cleared for the buried pipe… “On Poor Mountain, a large denuded section of the right-of-way is visible from Penny Artis’s home in Elliston. “It’s incredibly steep,” Artis told the Times of a slope that is traversed regularly by workers and heavy equipment. “They can’t stabilize the mountain,” Artis, who monitors and photographs the site on a daily basis, told the Times. “They can’t keep the dirt in one spot.” Although the Poor Mountain section was not mentioned in the most recent DEQ report, Russell Chisholm told the Times he was not aware of another section of the pipeline in Virginia that appears so unfinished. Chisholm is co-director of Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights, a coalition of Mountain Valley opponents. “It’s frankly confusing that DEQ continues to do anything at all in the way of enforcement on this project,” he told the Times. “They either excuse incidents away due to weather or close out cases with no action.”

Press release: Extinction Rebellion supporters who protested pipeline constructors sentenced as 15 Ugandan students sent to maximum security prison
11/15/24

“Extinction Rebellion activists The Worley Three have been given 320 hours of community service today for causing £6,000 in “damages” for their peaceful protest at the offices of multinational corporation Worley. The action involved decorating Worley’s Brentford offices with washable fake oil and chalk spray to spotlight the petro-engineering company’s key role in constructing the East African Crude Oil Pipeline (EACOP), a project widely condemned for its devastating environmental and social impacts, and to demand the company sever its ties to the pipeline… “Marijn van de Geer, former company director from West London, and a spokesperson for Extinction Rebellion said: “Our legal system is clearly not fit for purpose if it thinks washable paint is more damaging than the displacement of 100,000 people and locking-in irreversible climate change.” Defendant Sarah Hart, mother of two, aged 42 of Farnborough said: “We stand in solidarity with the students who have been unjustly imprisoned this week. We undertook this action in support of the affected communities of East Africa who have suffered intimidation, arrest and police brutality for standing up for their rights to land and clean water and a liveable climate. And also because the climate change it would cause threatens us all… “In 2023 Human Rights Watch reported that tens of thousands of people have already lost their lands and livelihoods in preparation for the project. If the pipeline is ever completed, that number will rise to over 100,000 people across East Africa. The European Union voted in a special resolution that condemned EACOP for its human rights abuses in Uganda and Tanzania, abuses that included death threats, intimidation and wrongful imprisonment.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Politico: Manchin Says Schumer Wants to Pass Permitting
11/15/24

“Energy Committee Chair Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) says Majority Leader Chuck Schumer has told him he supports a push to pass a permitting bill in the lame duck session to make it easier to build energy projects,” Politico reports. “Schumer wants permitting done. That’s a very good sign,” Manchin told Politico. Schumer, like the Biden administration, has not taken a formal position on a permitting bill led by Manchin and top Energy Committee Republican John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), which would benefit clean energy, the power grid and fossil fuels. Environmental groups are vehemently opposed to the bill, and had urged Democrats to reject it ahead of the election… “Manchin told Politico he’s negotiating changes to the bill with congressional leaders to draw more support from Democrats and Republicans. “There’s an awful lot of people who for whatever reason in their process were pushing him [Schumer] to be against it pre-election. Now they understand it’s going to be by far much better than anything we’ve ever done before,” Manchin told Politico. The West Virginian, who is retiring from Congress at the end of the session, told Politico he’s in talks with House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) about adding elements to the bill imposing broader reforms to NEPA.”

Politico: Westerman Eyes Permitting In Reconciliation 
11/15/24

“House Natural Resources Committee Chair Bruce Westerman (R-Ark.) said he wants to include some permitting reform measures in a filibuster-proof reconciliation package Republicans are expected to pursue early next year to extend the 2017 Trump-era tax cuts,” Politico reports. “Westerman told Politico on Wednesday that he and his staff have talked about the idea to Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) and Budget Chair Jodey Arrington (R-Texas), as they look for creative ways to demonstrate making it easier to build energy projects would provide revenue to the federal government that could help offset the tax cuts. Westerman noted the CBO in a previous score of House Republicans’ sprawling energy bill introduced last year, H.R. 1, determined that some permitting measures within it had a ‘budget nexus.’ “They created a score because of some of the permitting reforms that we had, saying that projects would move faster, therefore money would flow [to] Treasury quicker. So they’ve already established that there’s a budget connection to permitting reform,” Westerman told Politico.”

Washington Post: Trump taps North Dakota Gov. Burgum to lead Interior Department
Maxine Joselow, Evan Halper and Dino Grandoni, 11/14/24

“President-elect Donald Trump announced Thursday that he would nominate North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum (R) to lead the Interior Department, a role overseeing roughly 500 million acres of federal land and more than a billion acres offshore that will be key to his plans to boost U.S. oil and gas production,” the Washington Post reports. “…After Trump asked oil industry executives to help steer $1 billion toward his campaign, Burgum talked extensively with oil donors and CEOs, and he helped lead the campaign’s development of its energy policy. At a fundraiser in Palm Beach in May, Burgum told donors that Trump would halt President Joe Biden’s “attack” on fossil fuels, according to a recording of his remarks obtained by The Washington Post… “Some Burgum allies had initially pushed for Trump to appoint the North Dakota governor as an “energy czar” that coordinated energy policy across multiple agencies, including the Energy and Interior departments. Sen. Kevin Cramer (R-North Dakota) had advocated that role as recently as Wednesday… “Burgum is a close ally of oil tycoon Harold Hamm, working with his company on an ambitious North Dakota pipeline plan that has drawn intense community opposition. The two were among Trump’s top energy advisers during the campaign. Burgum’s appointment will give Hamm expansive influence over policy related to drilling on public lands, at a time his company stands to benefit from the rule changes Trump envisions… “Oil companies are leaning on the clean-energy tax credits for investments in projects such as the pipeline Hamm is pursuing in Burgum’s state. That pipeline would be used to ship and store greenhouse gases that are trapped during fossil fuel production and stored underground. Oil companies see big financial opportunity in such technologies that curb their product’s climate impact… “But others around Trump, particularly those who question mainstream climate science, are pushing to erase all the Biden-era clean-energy subsidies on the grounds that they cost taxpayers money and undercut Trump’s vision for vastly expanded drilling.”

E&E News: Trump picking Burgum for Interior spotlights fossil fuels
Heather Richards, Mike Soraghan, Shelby Webb, 11/15/24

“President-elect Donald Trump’s decision Thursday to tap North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum as Interior secretary likely ensures that the agency will put oil and gas front and center for the next four years,” E&E News reports. “…The pick of Burgum, whose state ranks third in the nation for production of crude oil, underscores Trump’s commitment to increasing drilling access across federal lands… “Trump’s announcement of Burgum received mixed reactions Thursday. Tennessee Gov. Bill Lee, chair of the Republican Governors Association, called Burgum a “strong leader with a long track record of both preserving our natural heritage while advocating for reforms that would put our natural resources to use.” But several environmental groups were critical of the nomination. “Burgum will be a disastrous Secretary of the Interior who’ll sacrifice our public lands and endangered wildlife on the altar of the fossil fuel industry’s profits,” Kierán Suckling, executive director at the Center for Biological Diversity, told E&E… “He wants to achieve carbon neutrality not by cutting back on fossil fuel use but by burying the carbon dioxide they produce underground — a technology the Biden administration is also pushing. It’s at the center of EPA’s proposed rule to slash power plant carbon emissions… “He’s not going to be all fossil fuel, but he’s not gonna be about an energy transition either. He’s about trying to essentially create ‘fossil fuel light’ through carbon capture,” Scott Skokos, executive director of the Dakota Resource Council, told E&E in an interview before Burgum’s nomination announcement. “That’s what I would say is the No. 1 policy you’re gonna see from him.”

E&E News: US ‘likely’ to pledge new climate target, says White House
Sara Schonhardt, Anne McElvoy, Karl Mathiesen, 11/13/24

“The United States is preparing to announce a stronger target to cut its planet-warming pollution despite Donald Trump’s imminent return, the White House told POLITICO on Wednesday,” E&E News reports. “The announcement would fulfill the country’s obligations under the Paris climate agreement — a global pact to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above the preindustrial temperature — and set a 2035 emissions reduction target. Trump, however, has vowed to withdraw from the deal once he reenters the White House, leaving some to wonder if the U.S. would issue a 2035 target. The plans are due in February, just after Trump will take office. A White House official confirmed that conversations are underway on the new target, dubbed the nationally determined contribution (NDC) in climate diplomacy parlance. “We are doing an analysis on what the United States should do and what is possible with subnational action,” the official said in an email to POLITICO, highlighting the work that state and city governments might do absent the federal government. “This is likely to take the form of an NDC, but no final decision has been made.”

The New Republic: A Federal Court Just Upended Decades Of Environmental Regulation 
Matt Ford, 11/14/24

“The D.C. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled this week that federal agencies and courts have been misinterpreting a major environmental law for the last half-century, casting doubt on whether a key White House agency can actually write binding regulations on environmental policy,” The New Republi reports. “In an unsigned 2-1 decision, a three-judge panel concluded that the Council on Environmental Quality, or CEQ, had been issuing binding regulations in error since the late 1970s. It held that the National Environmental Policy Act of 1969, also known as NEPA, did not grant rulemaking authority to the agency—which it had nonetheless wielded since the Carter administration. The panel sounded almost surprised that it had to reach this conclusion in the first place. “The separation of powers and statutory interpretation issue that CEQ’s regulations present is thus unremarkable,” it noted in its ruling. “What is quite remarkable is that this issue has remained largely undetected and undecided for so many years in so many cases.”

Law360: LNG Co. Says Full DC Circ. Must Revive Texas Project 
Madeline Lyskawa, 11/13/24

“The company behind a liquefied natural gas project on the Texas Gulf Coast urged the full D.C. Circuit on Wednesday to vacate a panel’s ruling nixing its federal approval, citing another panel’s decision finding the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s National Environmental Policy Act regulations are unenforceable,” Law360 reports. “A divided D.C. Circuit panel determined Tuesday in Marin Audubon Society v. Federal Aviation Administration that the CEQ lacks the authority to issue legally binding NEPA-implementing regulations because “no statutory language states or suggests that Congress empowered CEQ to issue rules binding on other agencies.” As a result, CEQ regulations and executive orders, under Marin Audubon, “cannot and do not provide a basis for denying authorization for a project otherwise required by statute,” Rio Grande LNG LLC said in a letter to the court, in which the company asserted that this updated understanding undercuts the basis for the panel’s August decision vacating the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s approval for its project.”

E&E News: Trump May Entrench DC Circuit’s Stunning NEPA Ruling 
Niina H. Farah, Pamela King, 11/13/24

“The fate of a shocking decision from a powerful federal appeals court invalidating the White House’s power to set rules on environmental reviews will likely hinge on one key variable — the Trump administration’s motivation to fight the ruling on appeal,” E&E News reports. “While the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit on Tuesday technically sided with a conservation group’s challenge against the federal government’s National Environmental Policy Act review of tour flights over national parks in California, two of the three judges who decided the case also unexpectedly decided that the White House Council on Environmental Quality has no power to issue regulations instructing federal agencies on how to implement the law. At a different time, an appeal from the federal government might have been a foregone conclusion, Kevin Minoli, a partner at the law firm Alston & Bird, told E&E. But it’s possible that President-elect Donald Trump — who retakes the White House in just under 70 days — will want to keep the ruling about CEQ’s power intact. “It’s the sort of decision that if we were in a typical time 20 years ago, there would be en banc review, and it would likely be overturned by the full court of appeals,” Minoli, former EPA acting general counsel who advised Trump’s first presidential transition, told E&E. ‘We’re not in a normal time.’”

E&E News: Ramaswamy: Supreme Court Gave Us A Mandate To Deregulate 
Pamela King, 11/13/24

“The co-leader of President-elect Donald Trump’s effort to wipe out federal regulations and shrink the government said the operation isn’t just based on the new administration’s policy preferences,” E&E News reports. “It’s a legal *mandate* from the U.S. Supreme Court,” entrepreneur Vivek Ramaswamy, who alongside Tesla CEO Elon Musk will lead the new Department of Government Efficiency, posted Wednesday on the social network X… “First on the list is West Virginia v. EPA, the 2022 decision that invalidated an Obama-era climate rule for power plants and elevated the ‘major questions’ doctrine, which says Congress must clearly authorize agencies to tackle economically and politically significant issues. “This applies to *thousands* of rules that never passed Congress,” Ramaswamy said, without providing specifics. He also highlighted the Supreme Court’s decision earlier this year in Loper Bright v. Raimondo, which overturned the 40-year-old Chevron doctrine, which instructed judges to give agencies leeway to interpret ambiguous federal laws. While the conservative supermajority wrote that the June ruling did not apply retroactively to federal rules that had previously been upheld on Chevron grounds, Ramaswamy said those regulations will now be a focus for his team… “Over 18,000 federal cases cited the Chevron doctrine, often to uphold regulations, many of which are now null & void,” he wrote.”

Midland Reporter-Telegram: EPA’s new methane fee sparks dismay among local industry leaders
Mella McEwen, 11/13/24

“Local industry leaders greeted with dismay a new final rule that implements a federal methane fee issued this week by the Environmental Protection Agency,” the Midland Reporter-Telegram reports. “Formally known as the Waste Emission Charge, excess methane emissions could result in a fee of $900 per ton, with fees rising to $1,200 per ton in 2025 and $1,500 per ton by 2026… “We are disappointed but not surprised with the latest EPA attack on the oil and gas industry,” Ben Shepperd, president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, told the Reporter-Telegram. “We are looking forward to working with the new administration to promote common sense energy policy that allows the responsible development of our natural resources while providing enormous economic benefits for our state, our nation and our allies.” Pushing the submittal and payment of the fee to September 2025 is a slight win, giving the industry time to evaluate the rule and for Congress to act, Grant Swartzwelder, president of OTA Environmental Solutions, told the Reporter-Telegram… “Independent Petroleum Association of America President and Chief Executive Officer Jeff Eshelman told the Reporter-Telegram the fee “exemplifies the worst in legislation — no hearings, no committee reports, no conference report, no statements during floor debate.” 

West Virginia Public Broadcasting: Capito Vows To Repeal EPA Methane Fee For Oil, Gas Industry
Curtis Tate, 11/14/24

“The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released a new rule to cut methane from oil and gas extraction,” West Virginia Public Broadcasting reports. “…The EPA will impose a waste emissions charge to encourage the capture of methane and avoid the release… “However, a new president and a new Congress will take office in January and could try to overturn the new methane rule. Republican U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito, who’s in line to become chair of the Environment and Public Works Committee, told WVPB the election would have consequences. “This natural gas tax will inflate prices for consumers and reduce domestic energy production, which will empower our adversaries abroad,” she told WVPB. “I look forward to working with my colleagues and President (Elect) Trump to repeal this misguided tax early in the next Congress.”

Bloomberg: Last-Ditch Offshore Drilling Protections Proposed by Democrats
Kellie Lunney, 11/15/24

“Congressional Democrats are urging President Joe Biden to withdraw permanently unleased areas off the US coast from potential oil and gas drilling before Donald Trump is sworn into office next year,” Bloomberg reports. “President-elect Trump has vowed to ramp up domestic fossil fuel production when he starts his second term, including increasing offshore drilling. Trump during his first term in 2018 released a five-year offshore drilling proposal to open up more than 90% of the Outer Continental Shelf, including parts of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Arctic coasts to oil and gas exploration and development. The courts ultimately rejected that plan. Language in the 1953 Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act, which regulates offshore drilling and mining on submerged lands within the US, allows presidents to withdraw unleased areas from development… “Hundreds of communities along the US Atlantic and Pacific coasts have opposed expansion of offshore drilling. Many Democratic and Republican lawmakers representing tourist-rich coastal areas have also rejected efforts to increase or begin offshore drilling in their districts… “A large-scale withdrawal of the Atlantic, Pacific, and Eastern Gulf would provide durable protections for these critical areas,” congressional Democrats, led by Reps. Frank Pallone (N.J.) and Raul Grijálva (Ariz.), wrote in the Nov. 15 letter to Biden. Pallone and Grijálva are the ranking members of the House Energy and Commerce Committee and the Natural Resources panel, respectively. The lawmakers noted that withdrawals under part 12(a) of the Outer Continental Shelf Lands Act haven’t been successfully challenged in court.”

E&E News: White House unveils ocean carbon removal plan ahead of Trump tsunami
Corbin Hiar, 11/14/24

“The White House released a plan to advance research into the carbon-absorbing capacity of the oceans,” E&E News reports. “But the National Science and Technology Council’s research strategy, released Tuesday, could be short-lived because President-elect Donald Trump has dismissed the Biden administration’s climate agenda as a “green new scam.” White House officials didn’t acknowledge those political risks during a webinar held Wednesday to discuss the carbon removal plan. But the incoming Trump administration is expected to decimate federal climate programs. Instead, Biden administration officials argued there is a need for more studies on the climate mitigation potential of the seas.”

Houston Chronicle: ‘Zombie Wells,’ Oil And Gas Companies And Other Expected Winners In The New Trump Administration 
Amanda Drane, 11/13/24

“The presidential changeover was clear on Wall Street. Natural gas stocks, like EQT, soared in the five trading days after Donald Trump won the presidential election. Meanwhile, clean energy stocks, such as Houston-based solar company Sunnova, fell 34% in the same period,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “Investors are bracing for a federal government likely to roll back aid for clean energy projects and to ease regulatory pressures on oil and gas companies, Dan Pickering, chief investment officer for Pickering Energy Partners, told the Chronicle. “There’s clearly pluses and minuses, and most of the pluses stack up on oil and gas, and most of the minuses are stacking up on clean energy,” Pickering told the Chronicle… “With more export facilities moving forward along the Gulf Coast, there will need to be more natural gas to feed them. That means demand for more natural gas, extracted from shale-producing regions in Texas and Louisiana and piped into massive facilities that super-cool the gas into a liquid, making it easier to export overseas. Investors appeared to be anticipating this increase in demand as shares for natural gas companies jumped following the election… “Trump’s picks for key regulatory agencies affecting oil and gas companies are likely to be friendlier to the industry, easing the way for these companies of all sizes… “Trump’s plans to diminish the role of environmental agencies also means less friction for the Texas oil and gas regulator, which has pursued litigation against Biden era regulations in the oil patch… “However, if Trump carries out significant cuts of the EPA, the diminished agency is less likely to intervene in state affairs, Virginia Palacios, executive director of the nonprofit advocacy group Commission Shift, whose petition prompted EPA review, told the Chronicle.

STATE UPDATES

Boston Globe: After drawn-out battle, sweeping climate bill passes Mass. Legislature
Sabrina Shankman, 11/14/24

“A wide-ranging climate bill, including provisions to curb natural gas and speed up permitting for more green energy, is heading to Governor Maura Healey for signing after passing through the House on Thursday afternoon,” the Boston Globe reports. “The bill’s passage arrived later than planned, several months after the close of the formal legislative session, but it is a shot in the arm to environmental advocates who have feared a breakdown for climate progress in the wake of the presidential election… “The bill has some big headlines, such as revamping the way energy infrastructure is permitted and sited, aiming to speed up the process while being more sensitive to the communities where infrastructure would be installed. The bill also contains provisions to constrain the growth of natural gas infrastructure, boost battery storage, improve electric vehicle charging, and more. It is a “a crystal clear recognition by the Legislature and stakeholders across the board that electrification will be the Commonwealth’s key strategy to combat climate change,” Representative Jeff Roy, who helped write the legislation, said as he offered the bill on the House floor Thursday… “We cannot meet our emissions reduction targets with a slow, unresponsive, and inequitable energy siting system,” David Melly, legislative director for the Environmental League of Massachusetts, told the Globe.

Utility Dive: California’s climate disclosure laws survive first legal challenge
Zoya Mirza, 11/13/24

“A federal judge refused to halt enforcement of California’s climate disclosure bills last week, despite a legal challenge put forward by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and other business groups that alleges the bills violate First Amendment rights against compelled speech,” Utility Dive reports. “In his Nov. 5 ruling, U.S. District Judge Otis Wright II denied the plaintiffs’ motion for summary judgment, noting the court required more information and “further development of the facts” to determine whether the climate disclosure rules — Senate Bills 253 and 261 — amount to compelled speech and are, therefore, unconstitutional… “Wright also said the First Amendment did apply to the challenged laws. The U.S. Chamber of Commerce, along with a coalition of business groups, filed the lawsuit against the California Air Resources Board — the agency tasked with enforcing the state’s climate bills — in January. The suit argued that the state’s climate laws violate the First Amendment, the Supremacy Clause — which states federal laws and the Constitution take precedence over any conflicting state law — and constitutional limits on extraterritorial regulation… “SB 253 would require business entities operating in California with annual revenues exceeding $1 billion to report their greenhouse emissions each year. Meanwhile, SB 261 would require business entities with revenues exceeding $500 million to publicly disclose their climate-related financial risks and countermeasures. The Chamber’s legal challenge is also backed by the California Chamber of Commerce, American Farm Bureau Federation, Los Angeles County Business Federation, Central Valley Business Federation and Western Growers Association.”

St. Charles Herald Guide: State agency reschedules public hearing for reduced-carbon ammonia plant in St. Rose
Meghan McCune, 11/14/24

“The Louisiana Department of Environmental Quality rescheduled a public hearing on St. Charles Clean Fuel’s proposed $4.6 billion ammonia plant for Tuesday, Dec. 17 at 6 p.m.,” the St. Charles Herald Guide reports. “The hearing will take place at Harry Hurst Middle School Gymnasium in Destrehan, which can hold up to 600 people. A fire department official shut down the Sept. 26 hearing at St. Rose Public Library after nearly 200 people showed up for the hearing. The library’s meeting room reached capacity at just 60 people. In a Sept. 30 statement after the hearing, LDEQ said the large crowd was an attempt to hinder economic growth… “St. Rose resident Kimbrelle Eugene Kyereh, who runs the non-profit advocacy group Refined Community Empowerment, told the Guide she did not witness disruptive behavior at the meeting. She also told the Guide that she and Kimberly Terrell, an environmental scientist at Tulane Environmental Law Clinic, requested a larger venue before the Sept. 26 hearing. LDEQ denied the requests. Kyereh told the Guide that, before the Sept. 26 hearing, she passed out flyers about the hearing to St. Rose residents. The flyers described what Kyereh told the Guide are serious health risks of the proposed plant and carbon capture storage. In an Oct. 14 email, LDEQ said the distribution of the flyers indicated “resistance to economic development and further growth in the area.” “There was nothing on the flyers about economic development,” Kyereh told the Guide. “And nothing on the flyers that had anything to do with opposition to economic development.” “…Tulane Law Clinic filed the motion on behalf of Kyereh. Other organizations signed the motion, including Concerned Citizens of St. John the Baptist Parish, the Descendants Project, and the Green Army. The motion states these groups are entitled to an impartial decision maker in agency proceedings.”

Alaska Public Media: Rumors Abound That Dunleavy May Join The Trump Administration. Here’s What That Could Mean For Alaska
Eric Stone, 11/13/24

“Everybody’s talking about it,” Alaska Public Media reports. “It’s no secret that there is a possibility that Governor Dunleavy may become the next secretary of the Interior or possibly Energy secretary under the Trump administration,” Sen. Shelley Hughes, R-Palmer, who’s been close with the governor,” told APM… “Dunleavy is not the only person on the proverbial shortlist for Interior. Politico has floated another oil-state chief executive — Gov. Doug Burgum of North Dakota. Oklahoma Sen. Markwayne Mullin is also under consideration, according to NOTUS. Or maybe, per Politico, Wyoming Sen. Cynthia Lummis or Katharine MacGregor, who served as the Interior Department’s No. 2 under Trump… “Governor Dunleavy has attempted over the last six years to turn Alaska’s world class public lands and wildlife into a garbage dump,” Cooper Freeman, the Alaska director for the Center for Biological Diversity, told APM. “As an Interior secretary, we would bet that it would be an all-out onslaught on wild nature and biodiversity, and we would be careening towards complete climate catastrophe under his watch.”

Data Center Dynamics: Sharon AI plots 90MW natural gas-powered data center in New Mexico
Dan Swinhoe, 11/13/24

“Sharon AI and New Era Helium Corp., an industrial gas business that produces helium and natural gas, this week announced that they have executed a non-binding letter of intent to form a joint venture for the design, development, and operation of a 90MW data center in the Permian Basin,” Data Center Dynamics reports. “Under the terms of the 50/50 joint venture, the parties will jointly design, build, and operate an initial 90MW power plant and Tier III-quality liquid-cooled data center. Timelines for development weren’t shared… “The companies are currently negotiating the definitive joint venture agreement – and there are no guarantees the deal will come to fruition.”

EXTRACTION

Reuters: US power use to reach record highs in 2024 and 2025, EIA forecast says
11/13/24

“U.S. power consumption will rise to record highs in 2024 and 2025, the U.S. Energy Information Administration said in its Short Term Energy Outlook on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “EIA projected power demand will rise to 4,090 billion kilowatt-hours in 2024 and 4,158 billion kWh in 2025. That compares with 4,012 billion kWh in 2023 and a record 4,067 billion in 2022. With growing demand from artificial intelligence and data centers, and as homes and businesses use more electricity for heat and transportation, EIA forecast 2024 power sales would rise to 1,492 billion kWh for residential consumers, 1,426 billion kWh for commercial customers and 1,027 billion kWh for industrial customers… “EIA said natural gas’ share of power generation would hold at 42% in 2024, the same as 2023, before sliding to 40% in 2025.”

Texas Monthly: New Hope to Combat Climate Change—From an Oil Giant?
Russell Gold, 11/14/24

“I am standing atop an eighty-foot-tall synthetic lung made of metal and plastic. In its scale and ambition, it’s unlike anything else in Texas, or the Western Hemisphere, for that matter. Its existence leads me to feel something rare in the world of energy and climate: optimism,” the Texas Monthly reports. “The machine is a key component of Occidental Petroleum’s nearly complete $1.3 billion direct air capture facility called Stratos. When it’s turned on, in mid-2025, it will suck in industrial mouthfuls of air and strip out the carbon dioxide. That gas, a driving force behind climate change, will get diverted into pipelines and then pumped some five thousand feet into the earth to be buried within porous rocks… ‘That makes the potential effect of Stratos only marginally more potent than a fart in a windstorm. To accomplish more than that, Occidental has talked about building a hundred or more similar facilities, along with a hub for carbon removal and storage on King Ranch, south of Corpus Christi. These grander plans raise an important question: Will governments and companies pay to dispose of their carbon dioxide to reduce their climate impact? Until now, the answer has been academic. “We had to build this first one and prove it can be done commercially,” Irvin told Texas Monthly. “You can have lots of great ideas, but if you can’t make it a reality, it doesn’t help.” “…Occidental’s plan to build a host of Stratos-like projects depends on two factors out of its control. One is a generous federal tax credit for the long-term disposal of carbon, which was increased and expanded in 2022. A new Congress could eliminate the credit, although most of the beneficiaries are oil companies friendly with the incoming Trump administration and Republicans in both chambers. The second requirement is finding enough customers willing to pay to bury CO2 so that they can credibly claim their operations have attained carbon neutrality… “So is direct air capture a viable new tool for combating climate change? We won’t know the answer until someone tries at scale. Occidental will do that next year.”

Reuters: Imperial Oil fined for 2021 slop oil spill
11/14/24

“The Ontario government fined Imperial Oil C$900,000 ($641,391) for a slop oil leak into a tank containment area at its Sarnia site in 2021 that had an adverse effect on people,” Reuters reports. “Slop oil is a waste product that is typically composed of crude oil, water and waste solids and can contain various contaminants like hydrogen sulphide. The Canadian company pleaded guilty under the Environmental Protection Act in a provincial court on Sept. 16, a spokesperson told Reuters, for an occurrence on April 15, 2021, where nearly 1,150 litres (7.3 barrels) of slop oil was discharged. The discharge adversely affected people at two nearby businesses and residents of Aamjiwnaang First Nation, as per the court bulletin from Nov. 13.”

CLIMATE FINANCE

E&E News: 5th Circuit upholds Biden SEC proxy rule
Lesley Clark, 11/15/24

“A federal appeals court has rejected a challenge to the Securities and Exchange Commission’s influence over whether proposals on issues such as climate change ever make it to a shareholder vote,” E&E News reports. “By a 2-1 vote, the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Thursday dismissed a lawsuit filed by the conservative National Center for Public Policy Research, which sued the SEC for allowing grocery giant Kroger to block a shareholder proposal… “The measure — which accused the company of having “kowtowed to leftwing social media criticism” — asked for a study to review how Kroger prevented discrimination against employees based on their ideology. The measure garnered less than 2 percent of the votes cast, leading the 5th Circuit to note that “because the appeal is moot, we are unable to reach the merits of the center’s challenge.”

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

DeSmog: Fossil Fuel Giants Paying Thousands to Sponsor COP29 Events
Sam Bright, 11/12/24

“Oil and gas giants are paying tens of thousands of dollars in order to sponsor events at this year’s flagship climate talks in Baku, Azerbaijan,” DeSmog reports. “…The International Emissions Trading Association (IETA), a business lobby comprised of some of the world’s largest fossil fuel producers and greenhouse gas emitters, is hosting a series of events in its COP29 BusinessHub pavilion, sponsored by oil and gas giants including Chevron, ExxonMobil, SOCAR, and TotalEnergies. The IETA pavilion is located in the Blue Zone, the formal COP29 conference and negotiation space. According to a sponsorship registration form released by IETA, Chevron, the third largest oil and gas company in the world by market capitalization, appears to have paid $25,000 to be an IETA COP29 “supporting partner”. In exchange, the fossil fuel giant will receive access to an events room, office space, branding both online and in written materials, and “facilitated access to onsite media”… “On the first day of COP29, diplomats approved key rules governing the trade of “carbon credits”. These rules have been criticised by climate groups for allowing richer countries and corporations to offset their emissions by investing in offsets, such as planting trees or spending money on carbon capture technologies. Myriam Douo, a false solutions expert at the advocacy group Oil Change International, told DeSmog that the decision was “a gift” for big oil and gas companies.”

OPINION

The Denver Post: Haaland and Stone-Manning: Conservation is equal to the many other uses of our public lands
Deb Haaland is the U.S. Secretary of the Interior and Tracy Stone-Manning is the director of the Bureau of Land Management, 11/13/24

“Every American benefits from our public lands. They provide us with clean air and water, energy and minerals, and the healthy ecosystems, wildlife and recreation that define our cultures and ways of life. The Department of the Interior has the profound mission of managing over 500 million acres, and the Bureau of Land Management (BLM) is responsible for about half of those lands. We are committed to caring for these lands, and to creating durable and enduring policies focused on landscape health,” Deb Haaland and Tracy Stone-Manning write for The Denver Post. “To achieve this, we recognize that we can’t go it alone. We are working with state, local, Tribal and federal partners on solutions that recognize the multi-use mandate of our public lands, the threats they face, and a collaborative path ahead… “Our Public Lands Rule is at the heart of this effort. It recognizes what Congress told us nearly 50 years ago with the passage of the Federal Land Policy Management Act of 1976 – that conservation is equal to other uses of our public lands. Through this rule, we will balance the management of BLM-stewarded lands, restore those lands in decline, and make smart decisions that are guided by the health of our lands… “Driven by science and collaboration, our team has made important strides in managing our public lands for future generations. The success of this work is rooted in three things:  the remarkable public servants who work at the BLM; our partnerships with local communities, states, industry, non-profit groups and with Tribes that count on the health of our public lands and waters and the resources they provide; and finally, the support and engagement of our fellow Americans, who love and depend on our public lands. All of us must play a role in ensuring that our grandchildren, and their children experience the same joy and solace from these lands that we do today in Colorado and throughout our nation.”

Beyond Pesticides: Business As Usual “Carbon Capture” Undermines Organic Land Management as a Climate Solution
11/15/24

“There are many pie-in-the-sky ideas to address the climate crisis while allowing business as usual in the extractive and industrial systems that are causing the crisis. Prominent among them are geoengineering to block sunlight and building industrial plants to prevent carbon dioxide (CO2) from reaching the atmosphere, known as carbon capture and sequestration (CCS),” Beyond Pesticides writes. “Like geoengineering, CCS is a “solution for the future that always will be.” It has garnered decades of hype, research, and government funding of prototype projects without doing much of anything to remove carbon and keep it out of the atmosphere… “Rather than complex and expensive technological projects, the best practitioners of CCS are plants and soil… “”Thus, decoupling agriculture from fossil fuels should be a primary goal of any climate mitigation plan, yet it takes second place to more technological proposals in federal initiatives and is being actively obscured by fossil fuel companies. Many of the touted elements of industrially-based carbon reduction programs include materials that are of doubtful utility at best, such as biofuels including biochar and ethanol… “This strong emphasis on combining carbon control with energy production can compromise the former and often results in more energy being expended than is produced… “Tying progressive agricultural CCS to energy production hamstrings the climate benefits.”

Canada’s National Observer: Alberta oil is about to get Trumped
Max Fawcett, 11/15/24

“This was not the election result that most Canadians hoped for. According to a Leger poll taken in late October, 64 per cent of Canadians wanted to see Kamala Harris win, and only 21 per cent rooted for Donald Trump. Alberta, perhaps unsurprisingly, had the highest level of support for Trump with 29 per cent backing the Republican nominee. Ironically, that province is about to bear the brunt of his administration’s decisions — some of which could meaningfully alter Alberta’s economic and political trajectory,” Max Fawcett writes for Canada’s National Observer. “Much of this pro-Trump sentiment in Alberta is tied to the idea that he’ll re-approve the Keystone XL pipeline, which was torpedoed by Joe Biden when he came to power in 2021. But there’s no guarantee that TC Energy would want to proceed, given how many times that football has been yanked away in the past. They don’t even have the materials anymore: the steel that had been procured for Keystone XL was just sold to Cadiz Inc., which will use it to build a new groundwater banking project in the Mojave Desert. And Trump seems far more interested in increasing U.S. oil production than importing more oil from Canada… “All things being equal, more oil production in the US means lower prices for everyone — including, of course, Canadian companies… “Then there’s Trump’s repeated pledge to hit all imports into America with a 10 per cent tariff that if applied to energy exports, would cost Canada an estimated $16 billion. And while business leaders in both countries insist Trump won’t actually hit Canadian oil exports with these tariffs because they’d increase fuel prices paid by Americans, they seem to be overlooking his negotiating position. As energy analyst Rory Johnston said during a panel for the Canadian Global Affairs Institute on Wednesday, “Canada is uniquely vulnerable to market pressure posed by U.S. refineries given our lack of alternative egress.” Translation: Trump has us over a barrel of oil and he knows it… “Even if Trump doesn’t hit Canadian oil exports with tariffs, his broader tariff war against China and Europe will almost certainly reduce global economic activity and the overall demand for oil.”

The Hill: Fight this Trump administration on clean energy as hard as the last
Ben Jealous is the executive director of the Sierra Club and a professor of practice at the University of Pennsylvania, 11/14/24

“Barely 24 hours after the election was called for Donald Trump, the chief financial officer of Duke Energy said that Trump’s energy plans would make the utility company consider burning more coal,” Ben Jealous writes for The Hill. “That is a recipe for death. It is essentially saying they are willing to kill people. It is not a question of whether more people will die if energy companies continue — or even worse, increase — their burning of coal, it is a question of how many. Since 2010, my organization has helped retire more than 380 coal-fired power plants. That has saved tens of thousands of lives — in part by preventing tens of thousands of heart attacks and hundreds of thousands of asthma attacks… “But Trump’s victory is now giving companies like Duke the green light to force you to pay more just to keep the lights on. Increasing coal use would drive up energy costs for consumers and deprive Americans of the good jobs that come with investments in clean, renewable energy sources. We simply cannot afford yet another price hike. We cannot afford another threat to our health and well-being. Yet, big polluters are so emboldened by the fossil fuel-friendly Project 2025 agenda that they are already threatening working Americans with more deadly pollution and higher prices… “But fossil fuel and utility executives are willing to continue to generate electricity from more expensive fossil fuels like coal if they can pass the extra costs on to consumers and pocket the profits. We cannot take a step backward from the clean energy transition already underway… “And to all those Americans, I will also say there is an entire movement of green organizations that had some success in countering the Trump administration the first time and is ready to fight back again. My organization and others filed hundreds of successful lawsuits to stop the first Trump administration from gutting bedrock environmental protections and exposed the revolving door between his administration’s appointees and polluting industries.”