EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 4/24/24

PIPELINE NEWS

• Cardinal News: Environmental groups challenge MVP Southgate in federal court

• E&E News: Lawsuit targets FERC approval of Mountain Valley extension

• Common Dreams: Critics Blast ‘Reckless and Impossible’ Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline

• Appalachian Voices: Statement by Appalachian Voices on MVP’s request to place pipeline in service in May

• Illinois Farmer Today: Illinois considers pipeline regulations

• Mitchell Republic: Summit Carbon Solutions pitches Davison County leaders on potential pipeline

• North Dakota Monitor: Hearings set for Summit CO2 underground storage wells

• Reuters: Trans Mountain oil shippers raise concerns about risk of delay to full service

• The Volokh Conspiracy: A Discussion of Jurisdiction Stripping and the Mountain Valley Pipeline

• Wisconsin Public Radio: April 26, ‘Bad River’ Documentary

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Chicago Sun-Times: Hundreds protest in Global Climate Strike, demand that U.S. declare a climate emergency

• E&E News: Congress prepares for EPA power plant rule

• E&E News: DOE advisory panel offers ‘sobering’ view on hydrogen

• E&E News: Biden administration faces pressure to pick a side on plastics

STATE UPDATES

• Associated Press: California reject bill to crackdown on how utilities spend customers’ money

• KEYT: UCSB researcher among four people honored for help on massive oil spill investigation Friday

EXTRACTION

• Palm Springs Desert Sun: Earth Day 2024: How a 1969 California oil spill is associated with the national day

• Grist: Indigenous peoples rush to stop ‘false climate solutions’ ahead of next international climate meeting

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

• Enbridge: In Nebraska and Elsewhere, FFA Cultivates Career-Ready Students for the Agricultural Sector

OPINION

• Chicago Tribune: Students: Earth Day was born on college campuses. Now our universities must divest from fossil fuels.
  

PIPELINE NEWS

Cardinal News: Environmental groups challenge MVP Southgate in federal court
Matt Busse, 4/23/24

“Eight environmental groups have filed a petition in federal court challenging regulators’ approval of a planned extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline, arguing that the project’s scope has changed so much that an earlier approval is no longer relevant,” Cardinal News reports. “The pipeline developers’ latest plans for the MVP Southgate extension from Pittsylvania County into North Carolina call for a shorter route and a wider pipe to transport nearly twice as much gas as previously planned. Developers have also abandoned plans for a new compressor station in Pittsylvania. The eight groups say those changes mean that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which oversees construction of interstate gas pipelines, must take another look at MVP Southgate. On Dec. 19, just 10 days before pipeline developers notified FERC of their new plans, the federal agency gave the project three more years to finish by extending a necessary certificate. “How can FERC justify its extension of a Certificate of Public Convenience and Necessity for a project with a route, purpose and impact that are different from what was previously approved in the original certificate?” Appalachian Voices North Carolina Program Manager Ridge Graham said in a news release. “This is a wholly new project, and Mountain Valley Pipeline should be required to start the process from the beginning.” Besides Appalachian Voices, the petition filed Monday in the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit involves the Blue Ridge Environmental Defense Fund, the Center for Biological Diversity, the Chesapeake Climate Action Network, the Haw River Assembly, the Natural Resources Defense Council, the Sierra Club and Wild Virginia.”

E&E News: Lawsuit targets FERC approval of Mountain Valley extension
Niina H. Farah, 4/24/24

“Conservation groups are heading to court to challenge federal energy regulators’ approval of a delayed construction deadline for the redesigned Southgate extension of the Mountain Valley pipeline,” E&E News reports. “The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission gave the green light last December for the pipeline developer to build the pared-down natural gas project through the middle of 2026. Also last December, the Southgate developer announced that it would be shortening the planned 75-mile pipeline into North Carolina to just 31 miles. The conservation groups, led by Appalachian Voices, said in their new lawsuit filed late Monday that the developer had not made clear what water crossings might be affected by the project, with a pipe they said is nearly 50 percent larger in diameter than the original design.”

Common Dreams: Critics Blast ‘Reckless and Impossible’ Bid to Start Operating Mountain Valley Pipeline
BRETT WILKINS, 4/23/24

“Environmental defenders on Tuesday ripped the company behind the Mountain Valley Pipeline for asking the federal government—on Earth Day—for permission to start sending methane gas through the 303-mile conduit despite a worsening climate emergency caused largely by burning fossil fuels,” Common Dreams reports. “Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC sent a letter Monday to Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) Acting Secretary Debbie-Anne Reese seeking final permission to begin operation on the MVP next month, even while acknowledging that much of the Virginia portion of the pipeline route remains unfinished and developers have yet to fully comply with safety requirements… “Russell Chisholm, co-director of the Protect Our Water, Heritage, Rights (POWHR) Coalition—which called MVP’s request “reckless and impossible”—said in a statement that “we are watching our worst nightmare unfold in real-time: The reckless MVP is barreling towards completion.” “During construction, MVP has contaminated our water sources, destroyed our streams, and split the earth beneath our homes. Now they want to run methane gas through their degraded pipes and shoddy work,” Chisholm added. “The MVP is a glaring human rights violation that is indicative of the widespread failures of our government to act on the climate crisis in service of the fossil fuel industry.” POWHR and activists representing frontline communities affected by the pipeline are set to take part in a May 8 demonstration outside project financier Bank of America’s headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina.”

Appalachian Voices: Statement by Appalachian Voices on MVP’s request to place pipeline in service in May
4/23/24

“Yesterday, Mountain Valley Pipeline sent a letter to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission asking the agency’s director of the Office of Energy Projects for official permission to place MVP in service,” according to Appalachian Voices. “…Of note, the letter from MVP acknowledges low percentages for final restoration in much of the Virginia portion of the route and that the developers have yet to fully comply with the safety requirements from the consent agreement they reached with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. MVP has requested that FERC issue an approval by May 23, 2024. Statement by Virginia Field Coordinator Jessica Sims: “In a manner typical of its ongoing disrespect for the environment, Mountain Valley Pipeline marked Earth Day by asking FERC for authorization to place its dangerous, unnecessary pipeline into service in late May. MVP brazenly asks for this authorization while simultaneously notifying FERC that the company has completed less than two-thirds of the project to final restoration and with the mere promise that it will notify the commission when it fully complies with the requirements of a consent decree it entered into with the Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration last fall. Requesting an in-service decision by May 23 leaves the company very little time to implement the safety measures required by its agreement with PHMSA. There is no rush, other than to satisfy MVP’s capacity customers’ contracts — a situation of the company’s own making. We remain deeply concerned about the construction methods and the safety of communities along the route of MVP.”

Illinois Farmer Today: Illinois considers pipeline regulations
Brenden Moore, 4/24/24

“New legislation was filed this past week that would create a state regulatory framework for carbon capture, pipeline and storage projects in Illinois,” Illinois Farmer Today reports. “The bill, sponsored by state Rep. Ann Williams, D-Chicago, is the latest attempt to provide state-level regulations that would fill gaps in existing federal regulations of a relatively new industry… “Williams’ measure has the backing of prominent environmental groups like the Sierra Club and Illinois Environmental Council and emerges just over a month after business organizations and labor unions unveiled their own proposal… “Under Williams’ proposal, all three aspects of the process — capture, transport and storage — would be subject to state regulations. Most notably, the legislation would prohibit the use of eminent domain for pipeline construction and bar the forced acquisition of underground storage space, both key protections that have been sought by environmental groups and landowners. The proposal would also place limitations on where pipelines can be routed. The guidelines would be set by the state Environmental Protection Agency and companies would have to receive a permit approving the proposed route before filing their application for approval of the larger project with the Illinois Commerce Commission. At a minimum, pipelines would be barred within two miles of “environmental justice” communities, which are places that have historically been disproportionately impacted by pollution… “We’re hoping that this brings us closer to a point where we can provide for common-sense regulation of the industry at all phases, whether it’s the capture, the transport via pipelines or the sequestration process,” Williams told IFT… “Last month, business organizations, labor unions and their legislative allies unveiled their own proposal, which addressed capture and storage but notably left out pipelines — arguably the most controversial piece of these projects… “But he told IFT the latest proposal being touted by environmental groups is a non-starter for the business community. “The legislation that the environmental advocates proposed contains a number of poison pills that would essentially prohibit the use of carbon capture or storage in Illinois,” Denzler told IFT.

Mitchell Republic: Summit Carbon Solutions pitches Davison County leaders on potential pipeline
Jennifer Leither, 4/23/24

“Summit Carbon Solutions came to the Davison County Commission for the first time to discuss potentially constructing a carbon sequestration pipeline in the county,” the Mitchell Republic reports. “It brings the Mitchell area into the hot-button conversation around carbon pipelines for the first time, as Summit Carbon Solutions looks to build a connecting pipeline from the Poet ethanol plant north of Mitchell and connect it to its proposed main line that runs from the Sioux Falls area and into Iowa to a proposed storage site in western North Dakota. Tuesday’s meeting with the commission was a discussion only, with representatives from Summit Carbon Solutions updating the board with information about the company’s proposed carbon sequestration pipeline… “Much of Tuesday’s discussion centered around operational or logistical aspects of the project but many of the specific details aren’t being disclosed, including the proposed route the pipeline is projected to take through Davison County. Sabrina Zenor, director of community relations for Summit said they are working to plot a new route in the state now that they have acquired the Poet plants. That route however won’t be released until landowners whose property falls in its path have been contacted by Summit officials. “We are committed to visiting with landowners and we are making our way through meeting with those individuals in Davison County who the project may affect,” said Aaron Eldridge, a project manager with Summit. “We’re working on solidifying relationships for years to come. We are shaking hands with more folks regarding easements every day.” Zenor said Summit officials will be refiling their permit request with the state in the near future once they iron out differences and obtain the voluntary easements needed to site the project.”

North Dakota Monitor: Hearings set for Summit CO2 underground storage wells
JEFF BEACH, 4/18/24

“North Dakota regulators have set hearing dates to review the Summit Carbon Solutions application for underground carbon dioxide storage wells, the end point for a carbon capture pipeline system connecting ethanol plants in five states,” the North Dakota Monitor reports. “The Department of Mineral Resources has set hearings for June 11 and 12. The meetings are at 9 a.m. each day at the North Dakota Oil & Gas Division, 1000 E. Calgary Ave., Bismarck. The public can listen live through the department’s YouTube channel. Summit’s applications can be found on the Mineral Resources website. The underground storage area is at the intersection of Oliver, Mercer and Morton counties. Summit has been negotiating easement agreements in the storage area and this month held meetings with landowners. “We’re over 90% in the storage area of easements that we need,” Summit CEO Lee Blank told the North Dakota Monitor. The application will need the approval of the North Dakota Industrial Commission, comprised of Gov. Doug Burgum, Attorney General Drew Wrigley and Agriculture Commissioner Doug Goehring.” 

Reuters: Trans Mountain oil shippers raise concerns about risk of delay to full service
Nia Williams, 4/23/24

“Some shippers on Canada’s Trans Mountain expansion project are raising concerns that the long-delayed oil pipeline will not be fully in service by its projected start date of May 1, according to a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator on Tuesday,” Reuters reports. “…But in a letter to the Canada Energy Regulator (CER), shipper Suncor Energy said reasonable questions remain over whether Trans Mountain will be able to deliver contracted crude volumes from May 1 given some sections of the pipeline are still awaiting leave to open from regulators. As a result shippers are concerned about the obligation to pay tolls from the start of next month, said the letter filed by Suncor’s legal counsel on behalf of other shippers including BP and Marathon Petroleum… “However a number of contracted shippers are locked in dispute with Trans Mountain over tolls on the expanded system, citing concerns about significant cost increases.”

The Volokh Conspiracy: A Discussion of Jurisdiction Stripping and the Mountain Valley Pipeline
JONATHAN H. ADLER, 4/24/24

“Last week I participated in a Federalist Society teleforum on the legal issues raised by Congress’ decision to limit judicial review of the Mountain Valley Pipeline in response to aggressive (and initially successful) litigation by environmentalist groups,” The Volokh Conspiracy reports. “As I noted here, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Fourth Circuit initially resisted Congress’ decision to strip its jurisdiction, but ultimately acquiesced (after Supreme Court intervention). In the teleforum, I joined Professor Daniel Farber, Professor Alan Trammell, Rachel Jankowski of the U.S. House of Representatives, and Magistrate Judge Robert Numbers II, who served as moderator. The forum can be heard (or viewed) here.”

Wisconsin Public Radio: April 26, ‘Bad River’ Documentary
4/24/24

“The battle between the Bad River Band of the Lake Superior Tribe of Chippewa Indians in northwestern Wisconsin and Enbridge over an oil pipeline that runs through tribal land has been the subject of significant debate and legal controversy for more than a decade,” according to Wisconsin Public Radio. “A new documentary, released this month, features dozens of interviews with tribal leaders and officials, who share their perspective on the conflict. “Bad River,” directed by Mary Mazzio and narrated by Quannah Chasinghorse and Edward Norton, features interviews with dozens of Bad River Band members and tribal leaders to tell the story of the land, its people and their resistance to Line 5. Shereen Siewert welcomes Mazzio for a behind-the-scenes look at the film and the issues surrounding the ongoing battle against Line 5.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Chicago Sun-Times: Hundreds protest in Global Climate Strike, demand that U.S. declare a climate emergency
4/19/24

“Hundreds marched around the Loop for a Global Climate Strike protest Friday afternoon to demand climate action and call on President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency,” the Chicago Sun-Times reports. “Things need to change. We need to fight for a more sustainable and equitable future,” Ellen Trost-Rekich, 19, a student at Harper College in Palatine who took the train to Chicago to attend the protest, told the Sun-Times. “I’m really concerned for future generations. … We need to protect our world.” Led by Fridays For Future, hundreds of environmental activists took to the streets to urge President Joe Biden to declare a climate emergency and call for investment in clean energy, sustainable transportation, resilient infrastructure, quality healthcare, clean air, safe water and nutritious food, according to youth speakers… “Mahima Krishnan, 15, a student at the Illinois Mathematics and Science Academy in Aurora, told the Sun-Times the protest was intended to “make the right people listen.” She and others called on the Biden administration to declare a climate emergency.”

E&E News: Congress prepares for EPA power plant rule
Emma Dumain, 4/24/24

“A firestorm on Capitol Hill could await EPA as it prepares to roll out a final rule to crack down on planet-warming emissions at existing coal- and new gas-fired power plants,” E&E News reports. “Whereas conservative Republicans are typically the most vocal foes of the Biden administration’s climate agenda, GOP moderates and more centrist Democrats are sending signals that the agency should tread carefully in establishing its new mandates. Progressive congressional climate hawks, meanwhile, are bracing themselves for bitter disappointment over a rule they say falls short of its original, more ambitious aspirations… “In recent days, a group of House Democrats, led by House Energy-Water Appropriations Subcommittee ranking member Marcy Kaptur (D-Ohio), urged EPA Administrator Michael Regan in a letter over the weekend to “defer finalizing the proposed rules until an updated reliability assessment of the proposal is complete and made public.” Rep. Andrew Garbarino (R-N.Y.), the co-chair of the bipartisan House Climate Solutions Caucus, piled on in a separate letter Monday addressed to Regan and White House climate adviser John Podesta… “Garbarino said EPA and White House ought to go through Congress in pursuing an emissions reduction blueprint rather than relying on regulations… “Plants could reply on carbon capture tools to meet these goals if they wanted to stay open, but critics have complained the tools are still nascent and costly. Regan warned at the time some plants would be forced to shutter.”

E&E News: DOE advisory panel offers ‘sobering’ view on hydrogen
Christian Robles, Carlos Anchondo, 4/24/24

“A Department of Energy advisory committee said Tuesday that the nascent “clean” hydrogen industry is not growing fast enough to meet U.S. climate goals, a conclusion that Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm called “sobering,” E&E News reports. “According to a new report from the National Petroleum Council (NPC), the hydrogen industry won’t generate enough supply and demand for the emerging low-to-zero carbon fuel to help the U.S. achieve net-zero emissions by 2050 under current federal policies… “In the reports, NPC calls for policymakers to help facilitate hydrogen production and sales, while seeking improved efforts to curb emissions from the production and delivery of natural gas… “Hydrogen is “one of those sectors and technologies that is not on track” to meet net-zero goals, Deputy Energy Secretary David Turk told E&E. But that “doesn’t mean we’re not making progress,” he added… “In remarks to the NPC on Tuesday, Granholm said that some people may prefer to stick to the energy “status quo” and may “think that a fight is more productive than progress.” She said the Biden administration doesn’t see it that way, adding that “hopefully” members of the NPC don’t either… “Emerging “green” hydrogen made from renewable-powered electricity needs $1.8 trillion in capital investment between now and 2050 to support the 2050 goal. “Blue” hydrogen made from fossil fuels and carbon capture needs $100 billion in investment to do the same… “NPC offered 23 specific recommendations to help the hydrogen industry develop over the next three decades. They broadly call for policymakers to facilitate the production and purchase of hydrogen, increase public acceptance of hydrogen fuel, and back research and development efforts. NPC called on Congress to extend the lifetime of hydrogen tax subsidies known as 45V, which expire at the end of 2032, for example.”

E&E News: Biden administration faces pressure to pick a side on plastics
Jordan Wolman, 4/23/24

“The Biden administration is facing an increasingly charged and polarized environment around U.N. talks aimed at producing a global treaty to tackle plastic pollution as pressure mounts at home and abroad,” E&E News reports. “U.S. negotiators have consistently clung to a middle ground position as environmental and industry groups butt heads over whether the best solution for the problem lies in dramatically and enforceably cutting plastic production or finding better ways of handling its ubiquitous waste. As American diplomats bring their case to Canada’s capital for the fourth of five scheduled rounds of talks with the goal of striking a deal by the end of this year, they’re being urged to stop pursuing a something-for-everyone solution and join allies in seeking production limits. “The congressional delegation that is here, and I certainly share this, feels the U.S. should be taking more of a leadership role in seeking to capture the high ambition vision,” Sen. Jeff Merkley, the Oregon Democrat leading a group of five U.S. lawmakers at the talks, told E&E “By saying that everyone needs to be able to buy in, and just nations will figure them out for themselves by using the Paris [Climate Accords] model, we’re basically saying that we’re not going to lay out a framework that will actually tackle the problem.”

STATE UPDATES

Associated Press: California reject bill to crackdown on how utilities spend customers’ money
ADAM BEAM, 4/22/24

“California lawmakers on Monday rejected a proposal aimed at cracking down on how some of the nation’s largest utilities spend customers’ money,” the Associated Press reports. “California’s investor-owned utilities can’t use money from customers to pay for things like advertising their brand or lobbying for legislation. Instead, they’re supposed to use money from private investors to pay for those things. Consumer groups told AP utilities are finding ways around those rules. They accuse them of using money from customers to fund trade groups that lobby legislators and for TV ads disguised as public service announcements, including some recent ads by Pacific Gas & Electric. A bill in the state Legislature would have expanded the definitions of prohibited advertising and political influence to include things like regulators’ decisions on rate-setting and franchises for electrical and gas corporations. It would also allow regulators to fine utilities that break the rules. Monday, the bill failed to pass a legislative committee for the second time in the face of intense opposition from utilities, including Pacific Gas & Electric.”

KEYT: UCSB researcher among four people honored for help on massive oil spill investigation Friday
Caleb Nguyen, 4/22/24

“The FBI honored a UCSB researcher and three others in an award ceremony last Friday for their help investigating a huge oil spill of up to 25,000 gallons across Southern California in 2021,” KEYT reports. “This massive amount of crude oil leaked in early Oct. 2021 from a pipeline connected to an oil platform named Elly, operated by Beta as a subsidiary of the Texas-based, Amplify Energy corporation. Marine environments from Huntington Beach to San Diego saw beach closures, harmed wildlife and compromised protection areas though a cause remained unclear until the investigation team began their work. Dr. Mark Page of UCSB’s Marine Science Institute, DOI/BOEM divers Donna Schroeder and Susan Zaleski and Dr. Cohrane of the DOI-USGS all made their efforts to determine the cause for the hazardous conditions. Zaleski and Schroeder recovered evidence alongside the FBI’s Underwater Search and Evidence Recovery Team to find a burst pipe and delivered these samples to the FBI who then passed it onto Dr. Page. Dr. Page then estimated a timeframe for when the pipe first exposed itself from barnacle samples growing on the pipe and determined a timeline of eight months dating back to Jan. 2021. This timeframe matched when a significant storm hit offshore as an anchor drag across the ocean floor during that time provided more evidence.”

EXTRACTION

Palm Springs Desert Sun: Earth Day 2024: How a 1969 California oil spill is associated with the national day
Kathryn Palmer, 4/22/24

“If it wasn’t for an historic disaster in California, Earth Day as we know it may have never come about,” the Palm Springs Desert Sun reports. “A 1969 oil spill releasing 95,238 barrels of crude oil off the coast of Santa Barbara, California, quickly became an unprecedented environmental fiasco, garnering national and global attention. At the time, it was the largest oil spill in U.S. history, but in the years since has paled in comparison to a dozen other disasters such as the Deepwater Horizon, Exxon Valdez and Hurricane Katrina spills. To this day researchers, writers and scientists see the 1969 Santa Barbara spill as a catalyst ushering in a wave of environmental activism and birthing the environmental movement that would fundamentally change how Americans see and interact with their natural surroundings. Just a few miles from the small coastal community of Summerland along the Santa Barbara Channel, a cap on an offshore drilling rig operated by Union Oil meant to prevent spills cracked under immense pressure. The platform called Alpha was in the midst of extracting pipe from a 3,500-foot well, as UC Santa Barbara researchers Keith C. Clarke and Jeffrey J. Hemphill write in a retrospective of the disaster. It dumped more than four million gallons of oil into the Pacific waters. The spill slicked the ocean surface in black oil over a 800-square-mile region, killing thousands of marine mammals and birds and untold numbers of marine invertebrates and fish. New York Times journalist Gladwin Hill in 1970 famously called the disaster “the ecological ‘shot heard round the world’.” The devastation became a national cause célèbre, and is widely seen as a seminal event in the nation’s environmental movement and in the establishment of governing structures we know today, such as the Environmental Protection Agency and the National Environmental Policy Act. Local residents worked to clean up the spill and save oil-slicked wildlife. Critically, they also documented the contamination, and created political and activist organizations. “It is sad that it was necessary that Santa Barbara should be the example that had to bring it to the attention of the American people,” President Richard Nixon, who owned property in the area, said of the spill. “The Santa Barbara incident has frankly touched the conscience of the American people.”

Grist: Indigenous peoples rush to stop ‘false climate solutions’ ahead of next international climate meeting
Maria Parazo Rose, 4/22/24

“For more than 20 years, Tom Goldtooth has listened to conversations about the negative impacts fossil fuels and carbon markets have on Indigenous peoples. On Wednesday, Goldtooth and the Indigenous Environmental Network, or IEN, called for a permanent end to carbon markets. Beyond being an ineffective tool for mitigating climate change, the organization argues; they harm, exploit, and divide Native communities around the world,” Grist reports. “The recommendation was delivered to a crowd of Indigenous activists, policymakers, and leaders at the U.N. Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues, or UNPFII, and is the most comprehensive moratorium on the issue the panel has ever heard. If adopted, the position would pressure other United Nations agencies — like the U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change, or UNFCCC — to take a similar stance. The heightened urgency stems from the COP29 gathering planned later this year, when provisions in the 2015 Paris Climate Agreement on carbon market structures are expected to be finalized. “We are long overdue for a moratorium on false climate solutions like carbon markets,” said Goldtooth, who is Diné and Dakota and executive director of IEN. “It’s a life and death situation with our people related to the mitigation solutions that are being negotiated, especially under Article 6 of the Paris Agreement. Article 6 is all about carbon markets, which is a smokescreen, which is a loophole [that keeps] fossil fuel polluters from agreeing to phase out carbon.” The network’s language on “false climate solutions” is intentional. Tamra Gilbertson, the organization’s climate justice program coordinator and researcher, told Grist a false climate solution is anything that looks like a tool for reducing emissions or fighting climate change but allows extractive companies to continue profiting from the fossil fuels driving the crisis… “The carbon market moratorium the network called for would end carbon dioxide removal projects like carbon capture and storage; forest, soil, and ocean offsets; nature-based solutions; debt-for-nature swaps; biodiversity offsets; and other geoengineering technologies.” 

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

Enbridge: In Nebraska and Elsewhere, FFA Cultivates Career-Ready Students for the Agricultural Sector
4/23/24

“Focused on developing leaders and innovators for the future, the state association of the national Future Farmers of America (FFA) promotes agricultural education by offering skills training and education in local FFA chapters across Nebraska,” according to Enbridge. “…Enbridge is an enthusiastic supporter of the FFA across the Great Plains and the Midwest, with Fueling Futures grants targeted for the following activities by respective state chapters in 2023: Safety, diversity and inclusion training and conference support in North Dakota and Iowa; Diversity and inclusion capacity building in Minnesota; Leadership training in Wyoming and Missouri; Environmental education in Montana.”

OPINION

Chicago Tribune: Students: Earth Day was born on college campuses. Now our universities must divest from fossil fuels.
Trey McCallister is a student at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign and part of the Students for Environmental Concerns; Garrett Brand attends Brown University and is a coordinator for the Sunrise Movement; Amanda Campos attends Stanford University and is a member of the True School of Sustainability; Annika Weber attends Pomona College and is part of Claremont Colleges Environmental Justice, 4/22/24

“On April 22, 1970, college students across the nation gathered on campus quads and on administrative steps. In an explosion of teach-ins, they called attention to the injustices threatening our clean air and water and demanded immediate change. Fervent and radical — and overwhelmingly white — Earth Day was born on college campuses,” Trey McCallister, Garrett Brand, Amanda Campos and Annika Weber write for the Chicago Tribune. “Fifty-four years later, we are college students demanding that our institutions take urgent action on climate change. We join 5,000 students and 100 campuses strong, with Campus Climate Network, we join thousands from the Sunrise Movement and Fridays for Future calling on President Biden to declare a climate emergency. We insist that our institutions act with the speed and at the scale that the climate crisis requires because raging fires, floods and droughts are devastating communities already marginalized by systems of oppression. The fossil fuel economy directly contaminates the air and water of Black, brown, Indigenous and low-income communities; it is constructed to benefit wealthy, white members of Western countries… “In November, we will again decide our future with our vote. This April, we must again rethink our assumptions, including those about the environmental movement itself. From its inception, Earth Day has systematically excluded the communities of color that continue to suffer most from blackouts, heat waves and hurricanes as our planet boils. The mainstream environmental movement that grew out of 1970 remained separate from civil rights organizers, focusing on protecting places over people and maintaining a “politically neutral” ecological conservation agenda that ignored the intersection between environmental degradation and racial injustice… “We follow in the footsteps of the first Earth Day, not to repeat it but to reclaim it. We are building a multiracial, cross-class movement to destroy fossil fuel influence in our politics and institutions and center the communities most affected by the climate crisis… “This Earth Day, youths across the country and beyond declare a climate emergency and demand climate justice action from the highest powers in our government to our own educational institutions.”