EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 5/30/23

PIPELINE NEWS

• E&E News: Mountain Valley pipeline poised for completion

• E&E News: Debt limit deal would complete Mountain Valley pipeline

• Press release: Ranking Member Grijalva Statement on Environmental Rollbacks and Mountain Valley Pipeline Provisions in Budget Agreement

• NRDC: Default Agreement Protects Key Clean Energy Investments; Makes Mockery of Process with Mountain Valley Pipeline

• Oelwein Daily Register: Federal regulators to host CO2 pipeline meeting in Des Moines

• Pipeline Fighters Hub: Landowners & Advocates Impacted by Proposed CO2 Pipelines Converge on Federal PHMSA Public Safety Meeting in Des Moines May 31-June 1

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Forbes: Here’s Why The Debt Ceiling Deal Still Faces Hurdles—From Pipeline Conflicts To Hard-Right Opposition

• Washington Post: ‘Terrible public policy’: Why the debt deal infuriates climate activists

• E&E News: Biden fossil fuel boost creates political storm on his left

• E&E News: Parties lining up votes for debt deal amid backlash

• E&E News: Biden’s Contentious N.M. Oil Sale Earns Almost $80M 

• InsideEPA: D.C. Circuit Dismisses Suit Over GHG Risk Finding, Citing Lack Of Standing

• Bloomberg: Challenge to Key EPA Climate Finding Thrown Out by D.C. Circuit

• E&E News: EPA Rules Could Force Upgrades At 64% Of Coal Plants

STATE UPDATES

• InsideClimate News: Hoboken Lodges First State-Level Racketeering Charge in Big Oil Climate Lawsuit

• Associated Press: Montana youth climate trial to move forward next month with narrowed scope

• ABC News: Montana’s new law banning climate impact reviews sparks backlash from environmental experts

• KCLU: As oil platform Holly is decommissioned what happens to the ecosystems on the underwater structure

• InsideClimate News: North Texas Suburb Approves New Fracking Zone Near Homes and Schools

• KXNET: Carbon capture could mean more money for Coal Creek plant

• JD Supra: Colorado’s Legislature Stops Short of Enabling Intrastate Carbon Capture

• Fox News: Republican state sues Biden admin over environmental justice actions: ‘Dystopian nightmare’

EXTRACTION

• The Hill: Reparations for climate change? Some think oil companies should pay

• Reuters: Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time, IEA says

• Washington Post: Scientists find way to make energy from air using nearly any material

• Reuters: ConocoPhillips to buy rest of Canada’s Surmont oil site, bumping Suncor

• Rivera: Oil giant advancing carbon capture

• Reuters: Enough with fossil fuels, Pope says in latest climate appeal

OPINION

• New York Times: Will Lawmakers Sacrifice Our Health and Safety to Get a Debt Ceiling Deal?

• TedGlick.com: It’s Time for Resistance Against Injustice This Memorial Day Week

• Resilience.org: Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It?

• Hart Energy: SUPER DUG: Why Carbon Capture Remains Up in the Air

• The Hill: Biden is missing an opportunity to lead on a global plastics treaty

• Australian Financial Review: Carbon capture and the battle to get to scale

• Cortez Journal: Our View: Proposed BLM rule conservation timestamp in history
  

PIPELINE NEWS

E&E News: Mountain Valley pipeline poised for completion
Carlos Anchondo, Niina H. Farah, 5/20/23

“The contested Mountain Valley pipeline now has a clear path to completion, but its pending boost from Congress has sparked a new round of debate over President Joe Biden’s energy and climate agenda,” E&E News reports. “A bill to raise the national debt ceiling would greenlight all permits needed for Mountain Valley’s “construction and initial operation at full capacity,” according to text released Sunday. Members of the House and Senate could approve that legislation in the coming days despite some vocal opposition… “MVP’s approvals would be virtually unassailable, unless someone were to challenge the legislative provision itself,” if the bill is approved by Congress, Jennifer Danis, federal energy policy director at New York University’s Institute for Policy Integrity, told E&E… “If the bill is signed into law, the pipeline would no longer need a new water certification from the West Virginia Department of Environmental Protection to complete its federal approvals and restart construction, a congressional aide familiar with the legislation told E&E. The 4th Circuit vacated that certification at the beginning of April, prompting opponents of the project to urge investors to walk away from the 42-inch diameter pipeline… “Danis of NYU told E&E the proposed deal includes language on Mountain Valley that “effectively tramples any barriers to project completion.” That includes removing jurisdiction for court review for all of the project’s primary and ancillary authorizations, Danis told E&E… “Farber expected the courts to uphold legislation to greenlight the Mountain Valley pipeline, but he told E&E there could be some past Supreme Court precedent that might cause confusion about lawmakers’ authority. Critics of the proposal could try to sue to block it by arguing that Congress did not directly amend laws like the Clean Water Act or the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA), Farber told E&E… “Part of the provision also shifts jurisdiction over the pipeline to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit, after a number of the project’s permits have been repeatedly struck down in the 4th Circuit. Congress’ authority to shift the project’s jurisdiction is based on the idea that the Constitution gives Congress the power to create lower courts, and so they can decide their jurisdiction, Farber told E&E. “However, there is some confusion about when it’s ok for Congress to remove jurisdiction to dictate the outcome of a particular case is allowed.”

E&E News: Debt limit deal would complete Mountain Valley pipeline
Emma Dumain, 5/28/23

“Legislation to raise the debt ceiling negotiated by House Republicans and the White House would greenlight completion of the controversial Mountain Valley pipeline,” E&E News reports. “Paired with changes to the National Environmental Policy Act and near silence on transmission deployment for renewables, the surprise policy rider is likely to enrage environmental advocates and complicate the ability of many progressive Democrats to vote “yes.” Several dozen House Democrats are on record opposing legislation to overhaul the permitting process for energy projects that put completion of the Mountain Valley pipeline at the centerpiece. Many Senate Democrats were also strongly opposed. At that time, their disapproval with the proposal, championed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), threatened to tank passage of a government funding bill and the annual defense package, and so the provision was removed from the must-pass measures. It’s not clear whether these lawmakers will dare to rebuff legislation now that it is needed to avoid the first default of the nation’s borrowing authority in history, which could occur as early as June 5. A person familiar with the closely held deliberations over the debt ceiling compromise told E&E News on Sunday night that ordering the completion of the Mountain Valley pipeline was tantamount to hastening what administration officials and many members of Congress consider a foregone conclusion at this point. “This pipeline was going to happen anyway,” the person, granted anonymity to share private discussions, told E&E, “so all this really does … is just codifies something that was going to happen.” “…House Republicans came to the negotiating table with a proposal attached to a vote on paying our country’s bills that represented, really, a broadside aimed at efforts to protect our environment and aimed at efforts to tackle the climate crisis,” said the official… “It was a “bipartisan compromise,” the official continued, that led the administration to cede on some modest changes to the bedrock 1970 environmental protect law most Democrats consider sacrosanct as a means of accomplishing a modest version of “permitting reform.” “…One thing the debt ceiling bill would not do is facilitate the kind of mass transmission deployment Democrats were insisting was necessary for hastening the clean energy transition in a meaningful way.” “…What was true a week ago is true now — if we want to fully realize the economic, reliability, and environmental benefits of the Inflation Reduction Act, we need to increase the rate at which we deploy transmission,” said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) in a statement to E&E News. “The … deal does nothing to change that.”

Press release: Ranking Member Grijalva Statement on Environmental Rollbacks and Mountain Valley Pipeline Provisions in Budget Agreement
5/29/23

“Following yesterday’s release of bill text for a budget agreement, House Natural Resources Committee Ranking Member Raúl M. Grijalva (D-Ariz.) today issued the following statement on provisions that roll back key protections under our bedrock environmental and public health laws, namely the National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA). Among other things, the bill limits the types of projects subject to NEPA review, allows polluters to conduct their own environmental reviews, and codifies various provisions of the Trump administration’s 2020 NEPA regulations. The bill also includes provisions that undermine the Endangered Species Act and other essential environmental laws. “There is no room for compromise when it comes to our bedrock environmental laws, especially for communities that have been systematically targeted by polluters for decades. NEPA is these communities’ strongest—and often their only—tool when it comes to protecting themselves against industry wrongdoing. Rather than strengthen that tool, this bill gives polluters a shield, inevitably worsening an already unacceptable status quo… But of course, it’s no surprise that when you have Big Oil’s favorite GOP lap dogs at the negotiating table, NEPA is the first target of attack. Even worse, I doubt this major blow is the end of their assault… “The bill also includes provisions to mandate permit approvals and block judicial review for the highly controversial and environmentally destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline, on which Ranking Member Grijalva said, “Mandating approval of the Mountain Valley Pipeline is a disturbing and profoundly disappointing addition to this bill. Condemning Appalachian communities to generations of pollution and pain is a legacy that no one should be forced to vote for.” Earlier this month, Ranking Member Grijalva led a letter signed by 83 House Democrats to President Biden, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.), and House Minority Leader Hakeem Jeffries (D-N.Y.) urging them to oppose inclusion of environmental rollbacks in any must-pass legislation. Outside of Congress, 63 environmental justice organizations and allies signed onto a letter to President Biden detailing their opposition to environmental rollbacks in legislation to lift the federal government’s debt ceiling.

NRDC: Default Agreement Protects Key Clean Energy Investments; Makes Mockery of Process with Mountain Valley Pipeline
5/29/23

President Biden and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy reached agreement on a plan to avoid a government default. Manish Bapna, president and CEO of NRDC (Natural Resources Defense Council), made the following statement: “President Biden stood up to extremist attacks on clean energy and climate investments that are already driving a heartland manufacturing renaissance, strengthening the domestic supply chain for the building blocks of a modern economy, and creating tens of thousands of jobs in red states and blue. This strategic investment never should have been under threat in the first place… “The Mountain Valley Pipeline threatens the rural communities that soundly rejected it in the first place. This agreement cuts local voices out of the process and short-circuits laws put in place to protect the public. It locks future generations into dependence on fossil fuels. We will use every available avenue of opposition to fight this dangerous project… “No group of representatives has any right, ever, to make its case by threatening to tank the economy, throw millions out of work and turn U.S. leadership to sand. The House majority has driven the country to the brink of disaster to force disadvantaged communities to suffer even more injustice. We can only hope we don’t go over the edge – and then work to make sure nothing like this ever happens again.”

Oelwein Daily Register: Federal regulators to host CO2 pipeline meeting in Des Moines
SHANE BUTTERFIELD, 5/29/23

“In advance of a public meeting Wednesday hosted by federal regulators in Des Moines, opponents of carbon dioxide pipelines projects called on President Biden to act unilaterally to suspend any new construction until updated national safety rules can be instituted in 2024,” the Oelwein Daily Register reports. “Among those requesting executive action was Jim Walsh, who serves as policy director for Food & Water Watch. “President Biden has the power to put a halt to the carbon capture scam by issuing an executive order and directing federal agencies to restrict permits for projects until regulatory safeguards are in place,” Walsh said, the Iowa Capital Dispatch reported. Those sentiments were echoed by Ted Schettler, science director for the Science and Environmental Health Network, who emphasized the harmful physical effects that could result from the continuation of such pipeline projects, given the current inadequacy of existing regulations… “The call for presidential action came less than a week before a two-day public meeting/conference hosted by the federal Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) scheduled for May 31-June 1 in Des Moines. The gathering’s purpose, according to the event’s page on the PHMSA website, “is to inform rulemaking decisions, by discussing key topics such as public awareness, emergency response and effective communication with emergency responders and the public,” in addition to “dispersion modeling, safety measures to address other constituents besides CO2 in CO2 Pipelines, leak detection and reporting, and Geohazards.” Among the more specific items to be addressed are safety expectations of pipeline operators, the state of Iowa’s CO2 pipeline infrastructure, public emergency notification and the relevant jurisdictions and authorities of federal and state agencies.”

Pipeline Fighters Hub: Landowners & Advocates Impacted by Proposed CO2 Pipelines Converge on Federal PHMSA Public Safety Meeting in Des Moines May 31-June 1
5/30/23

“Landowners and advocates from a half-dozen states will converge on Des Moines, IA this Wednesday, May 31 and Thursday, June 1 to attend the U.S. Dept. of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) “Public Meeting on Carbon Dioxide Pipeline Safety” to be held at the Des Moines Marriott Downtown. The Public Meeting will focus on the thousands of miles of proposed carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline projects that are pushing for permits and suing landowners via eminent domain to gain access to their land, and inform PHMSA’s current rulemaking it has undertaken to update federal carbon pipeline safety regulations. While the PHMSA Public Meeting will include participation from a range of stakeholders — including impacted landowners facing eminent domain, Bold Alliance attorney Paul Blackburn, and Pipeline Safety Trust director Bill Caram — Bold Alliance will also host a separate panel, after the conclusion of the first day’s program at 6:00 p.m. at Iowa Taproom (215 E Third St.), featuring a number of first responders and victims from the 2020 Denbury carbon pipeline rupture in Satartia, Mississippi. During the meeting, Bold Alliance will also deliver a petition urging U.S. Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg and PHMSA to issue a ruling that assures current regulations apply to pipelines carrying CO2 in all phases, and clear up the confusion and misinformation being spread by CO2 pipeline developers on what actions states, counties, and municipalities may undertake to protect their communities against the dangers of a CO2 pipeline rupture and other concerns… “Satartia First Responders & Victims Panel & Dinner hosted by Bold Alliance (catered dinner for landowners provided) SPEAKERS: Gerald Briggs (Satartia first responder); Jack Willingham (Satartia first responder); DeEmmeris “Debrae” Burns (Satartia victim); Dan Zegart (Journalist) LOCATION: Iowa Taproom, 215 E Third St, Des Moines WATCH: Video of the Satartia panel will be posted to the Bold Nebraska Facebook Page: https://facebook.com/boldnebraska” 

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Forbes: Here’s Why The Debt Ceiling Deal Still Faces Hurdles—From Pipeline Conflicts To Hard-Right Opposition
5/29/23

“Sen. Tim Kaine (D-Va.) will take steps to strip a new natural gas pipeline project from a bipartisan bill to raise the debt ceiling, his office said Monday—one of several scenarios that could derail the newly announced legislation as party leaders scramble to secure votes to pass it before the country defaults on its debt as soon as June 5,” Forbes reports. “Kaine’s office said Monday he would file an amendment to remove federal permits for the Mountain Valley Pipeline project from the debt ceiling bill, calling the provision “completely unrelated to the debt ceiling matter,” NBC News reported Monday. Kaine has long opposed the project backed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), which would transport gas to East Coast markets via a 300-mile pipeline through West Virginia and Virginia and has faced repeated delays prompted by legal challenges from environmentalists. Kaine’s push for an amendment is one of several hurdles that could complicate, delay or even change the math for the bill in the Democratic-controlled Senate—where it needs 60 votes to clear a filibuster threshold—before it heads to President Joe Biden’s desk for final approval. GOP Sens. Mike Lee (Utah) and Lindsey Graham (S.C.) have also vowed to take measures that could stall the legislation in the upper chamber, with Lee taking issue with what he said is an inadequate reduction in overall federal spending and Graham raising concerns about a provision that caps defense spending at the $886 billion Biden requested in his fiscal year 2024 budget. The Republican-controlled House Rules Committee is expected to vote as soon as Tuesday on the guidelines for debate, including whether the bill will be subject to amendments, but three of the nine Republican members have publicly criticized the bill, meaning their votes against the legislation could stall it in committee if the four Democrats on the panel also oppose… “The Democratic Party is urging members to strike an optimistic tone in public statements about the debt limit deal, according to a memo from the Democratic Policy and Communications Committee first reported by Axios. The memo instructs members to stick to these key talking points: “House Democrats are working responsibly to avoid a devastating default on our debt” while “extreme MAGA Republicans are recklessly threatening a job-killing recession.”

Washington Post: ‘Terrible public policy’: Why the debt deal infuriates climate activists
Timothy Puko, 5/29/23

“A long-disputed Appalachian natural gas pipeline could be on a fast track to completion as part of the new debt ceiling deal,” the Washington Post reports. “President Biden and House Republicans have agreed to expedite permitting for the Mountain Valley Pipeline, a project that is key to the West Virginia delegation as the president and House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) seek to woo lawmakers across the capital… “Environmentalists have fought the project since its inception, and the new provisions aims to block them from challenging almost all government approvals for the line to cut across federal forests and dozens of waterways in Appalachia’s hilly, wet terrain. The pipeline language is just one of a few energy and climate provisions in the deal, drawing ire from pipeline opponents and climate activists. The bill also proposes streamlining the landmark National Environmental Policy Act to limit its requirements on some projects, and studying the capacity of the country’s grid to transfer electricity from region to region… “The Sierra Club on Monday called for Congress to reject it, as did Sen. Tim Kaine (D) from Virginia, where both U.S. senators have opposed the pipeline project. Kaine said Monday he planned to propose an amendment to strip the pipeline provisions from the bill. “Any deal that attempts to expedite the fracked gas Mountain Valley Pipeline, that rolls back bedrock environmental protections, and makes life harder for workers and families already struggling is a bad deal for the country,” the Sierra Club Executive Director Ben Jealous said in a statement… “Just Friday, the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit ruled that the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission needed to provided a further environmental review of the project, which could have put its completion off until 2024, according to the independent research firm ClearView Energy Partners. The new legislation could nullify that decision and other outstanding court orders, experts told the Post… “Only that law itself can be challenged in the D.C. Circuit. “It’s really terrible public policy for Congress to pick winners and losers in the courtroom,” Peter Anderson, Virginia policy director with Appalachian Voices, told the Post. “One company is getting a pass while everyone else has to play by the rules.”

E&E News: Biden fossil fuel boost creates political storm on his left
Brian Dabbs, 5/26/23

“As President Joe Biden gears up for another hotly contested presidential campaign, he’s facing heat from a core constituency that played a key role in his 2020 victory: environmentalists,” E&E News reports. “Green groups rallied behind Biden as the most pro-climate-action presidential candidate in U.S. history, but activists are now ratcheting up pressure on the president after his administration recently signed off on a series of major fossil fuel projects. That’s raising core questions for the 2024 race: Is Biden living up to his clean energy promises, or exacerbating the climate crisis by bolstering fossil fuels? And is the latest pushback from the environmental left a threat to him politically?.. “But some activists say the fossil fuel approvals demonstrate a failure of leadership — and a pivot to the political center on energy that will jeopardize global climate goals and cost the president at the ballot box next year… “Not only is [Biden] shattering all his climate promises, he’s also just making a mockery of his environmental justice claims,” Collin Rees, program manager at the environmental group Oil Change U.S., told E&E. “With young people in particular, that to me is the biggest miscalculation here. Setting aside all climate arguments, I think you are absolutely losing the youth vote and doing it for very unclear gain.” Some top Democrats on Capitol Hill also are warning Biden against caving to Republican demands for permitting changes in delicate negotiations over raising the debt ceiling. “There have been decisions that the administration made that I don’t agree with … Willow, being one, and others,” Rep. Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), the ranking Democrat on the House Natural Resources Committee, said this week on a press call. “But at this point and juncture, we’re talking about fundamentally changing the existing and somewhat limited protections that communities have in terms of these projects.” “…Almost half of Biden voters in the presidential campaign were younger than age 50, according to the Pew Research Center. That suggests Biden’s support for fossil fuel projects could be a political threat, at least in some districts. A separate Pew poll in April found that young voters were much more supportive than older adults to the idea of phasing fossil fuels out entirely, for example… “I think there’s always a risk of, probably not seeing voters shift from say a Biden to a Trump, but possibly not participating,” Barry Rabe, an author and environmental professor at the University of Michigan, told the Post. Oil Change U.S.’s Rees agreed. “It’s really more a danger of depressing enthusiasm and totally losing the youth in particular,” Rees told the Post.

E&E News: Parties lining up votes for debt deal amid backlash
Nidhi Prakash, 5/20/23

“Republican and Democratic leaders are looking to secure enough support for the debt ceiling and energy permitting compromise before a planned vote Wednesday,” E&E News reports. “This weekend, House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) and President Joe Biden announced that — after weeks of haggling — they had reached a deal to raise the debt ceiling, cut spending and address long-standing energy permitting worries. But some vocal conservatives are accusing McCarthy of failing to extract enough concessions from Democrats, and progressives think the president gave away too much. “Mandating approval of the Mountain Valley pipeline is a disturbing and profoundly disappointing addition to this bill,” House Natural Resources ranking member Raúl Grijalva (D-Ariz.), who helped lead the opposition to previous attempts at energy permitting, told E&E. “Condemning Appalachian communities to generations of pollution and pain is a legacy that no one should be forced to vote for.” “…Rep. Chip Roy (R-Texas) is looking to tank the deal and suggested on Twitter he would use his perch on the House Rules Committee to get his way. He called the accord a “turd-sandwich.” Still, Biden, McCarthy and other congressional leaders believe there will be enough support to secure passage in the coming days, after critics have exhausted procedural hurdles… “The U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the American Exploration and Production Council are among the groups urging lawmakers to pass the bipartisan package… “Several Senate Democrats, including Environment and Public Works Chair Tom Carper (D-Del.), has opposed attaching the pipeline approval to must-pass bills.”

E&E News: Biden’s Contentious N.M. Oil Sale Earns Almost $80M 
Heather Richards, 5/26/23

 “The Biden administration auctioned nearly 9,000 acres of public land to oil and gas companies in New Mexico and western Kansas on Thursday, bringing in about $79 million for federal and state coffers,” E&E News reports. “ It is the first of several federal oil auctions planned over the coming weeks in states like Wyoming and Louisiana. The suite of sales has earned intense criticism from green groups opposed to drilling on federal lands, while also still frustrating many in the oil and gas industry. Oil and gas auctions on public lands have slowed down significantly under the Biden administration’s Interior Department. President Joe Biden promised on the campaign trail in 2020 to retire the nation’s oil and gas program and instituted a moratorium on new leasing after taking office. But after facing lawsuits and political pushback from Republicans, the administration retreated to a strategy of reshaping the program, including raising royalty rates and holding smaller, less frequent lease sales. Of the 45 parcels offered at auction Thursday, 37 received bids.”

InsideEPA: D.C. Circuit Dismisses Suit Over GHG Risk Finding, Citing Lack Of Standing
5/25/23

“A three-judge panel of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit is unanimously concluding that a pair of free-market groups lack standing to challenge EPA’s decision not to revisit its landmark greenhouse gas endangerment finding that forms the basis for the agency’s climate rules,” InsideEPA reports. “Petitioners fail to meet their burden to establish standing because they provide no evidence that they or any of their members have been injured by the Endangerment Finding,” Judges Karen Henderson, Gregory Katsas and Florence Pan write in a May 25 opinion dismissing the case, Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council (CHECC) et al., v. EPA, et al. CHECC and the FAIR Energy Foundation had unsuccessfully petitioned EPA to reconsider its foundational 2009 GHG risk finding that forms the basis of its rules curbing GHGs from various sectors. The D.C. Circuit in 2012 upheld the finding, and the Supreme Court in multiple cases has declined to overturn that decision.”

Bloomberg: Challenge to Key EPA Climate Finding Thrown Out by D.C. Circuit
Samantha Hawkins, 5/25/23

“The D.C. Circuit tossed a challenge Thursday to a key scientific finding that has supported climate change regulations since 2009, following in the footsteps of several other courts that have rejected similar arguments,” Bloomberg reports. “Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council sued after the US Environmental Protection Agency declined to reconsider its 2009 finding that certain greenhouse gases endanger the public health and welfare of current and future generations. The group argued that the EPA relied on a host of faulty and unreliable models which overshadow new research that finds warming in this century will be modest. The finding has been the foundational science behind standards for motor vehicles, fossil-fuel-fired power plants, and the oil and gas industry. Petitions to reconsider the finding were denied under the Obama, Trump, and Biden administrations, and courts have rejected lawsuits in response to the denials for the past decade. The group couldn’t prove that its members have been injured by the endangerment finding, so it lacked standing to bring the suit, a three-judge panel for the US Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit said in an unsigned judgment… “The judges were skeptical of the CHECC’s standing during oral arguments in April—and didn’t directly address the merits of the case.”

E&E News: EPA Rules Could Force Upgrades At 64% Of Coal Plants
Sean Reilly, 5/25/23

“A battery of planned or existing EPA air rules could force a pivotal choice for more than half of the United States’ coal-fired power plants: Retool with new pollution controls or close at least one generating unit, according to a new report,” E&E News reports. “According to a Sierra Club report released Thursday, 64 percent of remaining coal plants would have to make upgrades to address air emissions from their facilities. Of those, 53 percent would have to install various types of pollution control measures and another 11 percent would have to upgrade existing controls.”

STATE UPDATES

InsideClimate News: Hoboken Lodges First State-Level Racketeering Charge in Big Oil Climate Lawsuit
Dana Drugmand, 5/25/23

“In a first at the state level, the City of Hoboken, New Jersey recently added racketeering charges to its climate lawsuit against major petroleum producers and their national trade group the American Petroleum Institute (API),” InsideClimate News reports. “Hoboken is making this claim against fossil fuel companies under the state-level equivalent of the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) Act, a federal law used successfully to prosecute organized crime groups such as the Mafia starting in the 1970s and later the tobacco industry. Puerto Rico lodged federal racketeering charges against the industry in a class action climate case last November. “These racketeering cases should be viewed as a new legal front against the oil and gas industry,” Richard Wiles, president of the Center for Climate Integrity, which advocates for climate accountability from polluters, told ICN. Including a racketeering charge in these lawsuits helps “tell a more robust and full story of what was really happening,” Delta Merner, a scientist working on climate litigation at the Union of Concerned Scientists, told ICN. “There really were coordinated efforts to systematically question and cast doubt on the science around climate change.” Hoboken’s case, initially filed in September 2020, contends that defendants ExxonMobil, Shell, BP, Chevron, ConocoPhillips, Phillips 66, and their lobby group API deliberately misled the public in order to stave off climate action and protect profits. The lawsuit already included claims of public and private nuisance, trespass, negligence, and violation of the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. By adding a racketeering claim, the city is alleging that the defendants not only engaged in deceptive acts, but did so in a planned and coordinated way.”

Associated Press: Montana youth climate trial to move forward next month with narrowed scope
AMY BETH HANSON, 5/25/23

“The first youth climate change lawsuit in the U.S. to reach trial will take place next month, though the challenge filed against Montana has been narrowed after a judge dismissed a claim against a state energy policy that’s no longer in effect,” the Associated Press reports. “The two-week trial is set to begin June 12 before District Court Judge Kathy Seeley in Helena. Seeley on Tuesday dismissed part of the youth lawsuit that challenged the state’s energy policy, saying the only ruling she could have made was to strike down the policy, something the Legislature had already done. However, she said there are still issues to be determined at trial over whether the Montana Environmental Policy Act — which prohibits agencies from considering the effects of greenhouse gases when issuing fossil fuel development permits — violates the state constitution’s guarantee of a clean and healthful environment and causes damage to the youth plaintiffs. “The main part of this case has now been thrown out, and what’s left of the case should also be dismissed,” Emily Flower, spokeswoman for the Department of Justice, which is defending Montana in the case, told AP. “This entire case has been nothing more than a publicity stunt spearheaded by an out-of-state special interest group that is exploiting well-intentioned Montana kids … to achieve its goal of shutting down responsible energy development in our state,” Flower told AP.

ABC News: Montana’s new law banning climate impact reviews sparks backlash from environmental experts
Julia Jacobo, 5/26/23

“The federal government has made a push toward enacting policies addressing climate change in recent years, but state lawmakers in Montana are bucking the trend, recently passing a law curbing climate impact reviews in the state,” ABC News reports. “State Rep. Josh Kassmier last month introduced House Bill 971, an amendment to the Montana Environmental Policy Act that changes the process of how large projects are reviewed by preventing state regulators from considering greenhouse gas emissions and climate impacts when conducting environmental reviews… “Jenny Harbine, managing attorney for nonprofit Earthjustice’s Northern Rockies office, described the law to ABC News as “cynical.” She told ABC, “Rather than taking that issue back to the state regulator, and just doing the work to look at the climate impacts, the legislature said, ‘Well, let’s not look at climate impacts at all.'” Some environmental experts in Montana likened the new legislation to part of a long trend of climate denialism in the state, accusing state leaders of turning a blind eye to the impact on climate change to appease major industries… “Critics argue the bill also violates the 50-year-old Montana state constitution, which guarantees Montanans the right to a “clean and healthful environment.” The state clause is the “strongest constitutional provision” in the U.S. for protecting the environment, Hedges told ABC. It is also the strongest argument environmentalist have to challenge House Bill 971 in court, Michelle Bryan, a professor at the University of Montana’s natural resources and environmental law program, told ABC News. The law will likely be challenged as a violation of the state constitution, Bryan told ABC, adding that in the past when the state legislature has attempted to amend the Montana Environmental Protection Act and was challenged in court, the amendment failed.”

KCLU: As oil platform Holly is decommissioned what happens to the ecosystems on the underwater structure
Michelle Loxton, 5/26/23

“Some of the most productive ecosystems on the planet can be found on the underwater structures of oil platforms in the Santa Barbara Channel,” KCLU reports. “…There are 27 oil platforms off the coast of California. Some are active and others are inactive and in the long process of being decommissioned. Some are in very deep federal waters, as deep as the empire state building is high, and others are in more shallow state waters – just like Platform Holly. You can see Platform Holly from Haskell’s Beach in the City of Goleta – just north of Santa Barbara. Holly is only two miles offshore and at 211 feet deep is on the shallower side for a platform… “The Refugio oil spill saw over 140,000 gallons of oil leak from a pipeline. That pipeline was a major connector for oil producers, including Platform Holly. The platform stopped producing oil in 2015 because of the spill – the pipeline that leaked remains out of commission to this day… “But there are only a few options being seriously considered. “I’d say three or so categories: full removal, partial removal down to 85 feet, partial removal with some form of reefing where you maybe put the top sides, lay it down and iterations within that,” Fabel told KCLU… “Full removal of the platform including the jacket or legs down to the ocean floor would mean all the attached sea life would likely die and fish not killed in the process would lose their artificial reef… “But with anything left out there in the ocean, comes responsibility and liability. The structure would also have to be stabilized and maintained.”

InsideClimate News: North Texas Suburb Approves New Fracking Zone Near Homes and Schools
Dylan Baddour, Martha Pskowski, 5/25/23

“The Arlington City Council on Tuesday authorized the creation of a new zone for drilling and fracking in a residential area, despite objections from neighbors in the North Texas suburb,” InsideClimate News reports. “It was the first time in nearly five years that Arlington established a new “drill zone,” according to the city’s planning department. Once drill zones are established, wells can be administratively approved without a public process. Tuesday’s vote marked a major victory for French energy giant TotalEnergies and its North Texas subsidiary, Total E&P Barnett USA, which had tried and failed repeatedly in recent years to win the establishment of new drill zones in Arlington. At the Tuesday evening council meeting, more than 20 people spoke in opposition to the permit, including attorneys, advocates and Arlington residents. They raised concerns regarding the site’s proximity to two schools and the impact of fracking on local air and water. Application materials said the drilling zone was 600 feet from the nearest home and 2,000 feet from the nearest school… “However, the city attorney said these concerns were not grounds for the city to reject the permit, citing a 2015 state law that preempts Texas cities from regulating drilling activities except in specific instances.”

KXNET: Carbon capture could mean more money for Coal Creek plant
Joel Porter, 5/29/23

“This month, state leaders said ‘yes’ to a new permit that plans to capture more carbon dioxide from a plant near Underwood,” KXNET reports. “The State Industrial Commission approved a Class VI permit for carbon capture and storage that will happen at the Blue Flint ethanol plant in Mclean County. The plan will focus mainly on a partnership between UND’s Energy and Environmental Research Center and Rainbow Energy, which operates the Coal Creek power plant. The project plans to store up to 200 million metric tons of CO2. State Ag commissioner Doug Goehring told KXNET that concentrated carbon dioxide can then be sold as a commodity… “Goehring told KXNET the Dakota Gasification Plant in Beulah has already been capturing CO2 for nearly 20 years — much of which is sold to Canada to be used in advanced oil recovery. The EERC has already received $38 million from the Department of Energy to spearhead the project.”

JD Supra: Colorado’s Legislature Stops Short of Enabling Intrastate Carbon Capture
Andrew Glenn, Husch Blackwell LLP, 5/25/23

“…Despite the growing interest in CCS, Colorado’s legislature did not take the opportunity to facilitate CCS in its recent legislative session, which concluded earlier this month with minimal action on the recent CCS legislative framework proposed by the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission (“COGCC”),” according to JD Supra. “Like similar plans put forward by Colorado’s neighbors to the north and east, the Proposal addressed a number of issues generating uncertainty in the CCS industry and potentially inhibiting intrastate CCS development.  The issues range from the ownership of the underground space where carbon may be stored — known as pore space — to responsibility for long-term liability for any stored carbo.  The legislature, however, declined resolve concerns over pore space ownership or establish a process akin to the pooling and unitization framework used by the oil and gas industry to encourage CCS. A central issue generating unease around the expansion of CCS across the country is the legal ownership of pore space.  To properly store carbon, a CCS operator must place it in deep underground geologic formations, which will prevent the carbon’s subsequent escape.  An associated challenge is that to store the many tons of carbon obtained through the capture process, CCS entities typically require a large area within which they may store carbon.  This presents both a practical and legal hurdle to CCS development.  There are often numerous pore space owners within a proposed injection area, but not all those owners will be equally comfortable allowing CCS. The question of which party owns the pore space is undecided in Colorado and many other jurisdictions around the country.  Is the pore space owned by the surface owner or the party owning the minerals beneath the surface, such as oil and gas?  The answer is unclear and varies by state, due in part to the recent growth in CCS as a viable decarbonization option, which has delayed a coherent approach to the issue by courts.  While a CCS operator might be able to infer how a court may rule on the issue from decisions addressing ownership rights in the context of saltwater disposal wells and underground natural gas storage, the lack of clarity nonetheless creates considerable risk… “Colorado, however, stopped short of providing certainty to the CCS industry.  Senate Bill 23-016 (“SB-16”), signed into law by Governor Jared Polis earlier this month, avoids addressing the issues of pore space ownership, pooling, and several other issues identified in the COGCC Proposal. Instead, SB-16 limits its focus to authorizing the COGCC to seek primacy over the permitting of Class VI injection wells, which are used for CCS and administered by the EPA under the Safe Drinking Water Act.”

Fox News: Republican state sues Biden admin over environmental justice actions: ‘Dystopian nightmare’
Thomas Catenacci, 5/25/23

“Louisiana Attorney General Jeff Landry sued the Biden administration over so-called environmental justice actions targeting his state’s petrochemical industry in a federal lawsuit late Wednesday,” Fox News reports. “The federal lawsuit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana, challenges the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) opposition to state permits granted in 2020 to the Denka Performance Elastomer plant and the FG LA Formosa facility, two petrochemical facilities located in St. John Parish, Louisiana. The EPA has argued the permitting process violated federal anti-racial discrimination statute. “Activities that would be perfectly lawful under environmental law are thus now threatened because EPA believes those activities occur proximate to the ‘wrong’ racial groups,” the lawsuit states. “EPA does not bother to deny that it would be unconcerned if the exact same emissions occurred in areas with differing racial demographics.” “But EPA has nonetheless arrogated to itself the authority to decide whether otherwise-lawful emissions are affecting the ‘right’ racial groups,” it continues. “Put succinctly, EPA frequently does not care about the content of air and water emissions, but only the color of the skin of those proximate to them. That dystopian nightmare violates the Civil Rights Act.”

EXTRACTION

The Hill: Reparations for climate change? Some think oil companies should pay
ZACK BUDRYK, 5/29/23

“The idea that polluters should pay reparations for climate change is gaining steam among advocates,” The Hill reports. “Some environmentalists and academics argue the companies or states that are most significantly contributing to the climate crisis should be made to compensate the people bearing the brunt of its impacts.  Advocates have been calling for such reparations for years, especially since evidence emerged that fossil fuel companies were aware of the impact of carbon emissions. But the idea is now more practically achievable due to scientific advances, Adrien Salazar, policy director at the nonprofit Grassroots Global Justice, told The Hill. He pointed to the increased sophistication of diagnostic techniques such as “attribution science, a rapidly developing field that says when this disaster happens, how much of this is attributed to the climate crisis [and] to the fact that humans have had an impact on the atmosphere.” Those developments, he told The Hill, are going to “help identify with quite some clarity who is responsible for climate pollution and how much going into the future.” Some advocates for reparations are making specific practical calculations of what they believe is owed. Last week, an analysis published in OneEarth concluded that fossil fuel companies including BP, Shell, ExxonMobil and Chevron collectively owe $209 billion a year in restitution for the cumulative climate disasters expected to take place by midcentury. Co-author Richard Heede of the Climate Accountability Institute told The Hill the calculations used data reported by the companies to project their emissions… “The paper identifies the state-owned Saudi Aramco as owing the most to affected parties, at $42.7 billion a year, followed by Russia’s GazProm with $20.1 billion, ExxonMobil with $18.4 billion, Shell with $16.3 billion, BP with $14.5 billion and Chevron with $12.8 billion.”

Reuters: Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time, IEA says
Noah Browning, 5/25/23

“Investment in clean energy will extend its lead over spending on fossil fuels in 2023, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, with solar projects expected to outpace outlays on oil production for the first time,” Reuters reports. “Annual investment in renewable energy is up by nearly a quarter since 2021 compared to a 15% rise for fossil fuels, the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its World Energy Investment report. Around 90% of that clean energy spending comes from advanced economies and China, however, highlighting the global divide between rich and poor countries as fossil fuel investment is still double the levels needed to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. “Clean energy is moving fast – faster than many people realise,” IEA Executive Director Fatih Birol told Reuters. “For every dollar invested in fossil fuels, about 1.7 dollars are now going into clean energy. Five years ago, this ratio was one-to-one.” Around $2.8 trillion is set to be invested in energy worldwide in 2023, of which more than $1.7 trillion is expected to go to renewables, nuclear power, electric vehicles, and efficiency improvements. The rest, or around $1 trillion, will go to oil, gas and coal, demand for the last of which will reach an all-time high or six times the level needed in 2030 to reach net zero by 2050. Current fossil fuel spending is significantly higher than what it should be to reach the goal of net zero by mid-century, the agency said… “The agency did not expressly reiterate its blockbuster projection from 2021 that investors should not fund new oil, gas and coal supply projects if the world wants to reach net-zero emissions by mid-century.”

Washington Post: Scientists find way to make energy from air using nearly any material
Dan Rosenzweig-Ziff, 5/26/23

“Nearly any material can be used to turn the energy in air humidity into electricity, scientists found in a discovery that could lead to continuously producing clean energy with little pollution,” the Washington Post reports. “The research, published in a paper in Advanced Materials, builds on 2020 work that first showed energy could be pulled from the moisture in the air using material harvested from bacteria. The new study shows nearly any material, such as wood or silicon, can be used, as long as it can be smashed into small particles and remade with microscopic pores. But there are many questions about how to scale the product. “What we have invented, you can imagine it’s like a small-scale, man-made cloud,” Jun Yao, a professor of engineering at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst and the senior author of the study, told the Post. “This is really a very easily accessible, enormous source of continuous clean electricity. Imagine having clean electricity available wherever you go.” That could include a forest, while hiking on a mountain, in a desert, in a rural village or on the road. The air-powered generator, known as an “Air-gen,” would offer continuous clean electricity because it uses the energy from humidity, which is always present, rather than depending on the sun or wind. Unlike solar panels or wind turbines, which need specific environments to thrive, Air-gens could conceivably go anywhere, Yao told the Post… “The device, the size of a fingernail and thinner than a single hair, is dotted with tiny holes known as nanopores. The holes have a diameter smaller than 100 nanometers, or less than a thousandth of the width of a strand of human hair. The tiny holes allow the water in the air to pass through in a way that would create a charge imbalance in the upper and lower parts of the device, effectively creating a battery that runs continuously.“

Reuters: ConocoPhillips to buy rest of Canada’s Surmont oil site, bumping Suncor
Mrinalika Roy and Rod Nickel, 5/26/23

“ConocoPhillips (COP.N) said on Friday it was buying the 50% stake in the Surmont oil facility held by TotalEnergies’ (TTEF.PA) Canadian subsidiary for about $3 billion, giving it full ownership and elbowing away rival Suncor Energy,” Reuters reports. “Canada’s Alberta oil sands hold some of the world’s largest crude reserves, which appeal to cash-flush producers looking to bolster production. Suncor (SU.TO) last month agreed to buy TotalEnergies’ Canadian operations for C$5.5 billion ($4.11 billion), including Total’s 50% stake in Surmont, which ConocoPhillips operates. But ConocoPhillips, which held the other 50% stake, held right of first refusal to buy the rest of Surmont. Conoco’s decision to exercise that right is a setback to Suncor’s plans to boost its long-term bitumen supplies to replace its aging Base Mine.”

Rivera: Oil giant advancing carbon capture
Craig Jallal, 5/20/23

“Daphne Technology has been granted a permit by Saudi Aramco Technologies Co, a subsidiary of oil giant Aramco, to continue commercialising its mobile carbon capture (MCC) technology,” Rivera reports. “The advanced MCC technology holds great potential for reducing CO2 emissions from maritime transport and other hard-to-decarbonise sectors… “Aramco has demonstrated the MCC technology in passenger road transport and heavy-duty trucks, capturing up to 40% of carbon emissions. While marine vessels consume significantly more fuel than trucks, carbon capture technology can be applied in similar ways. Now, Daphne Technology can explore ways to adapt and integrate the MCC technology into its proprietary solutions for use on large commercial vessels.”

Reuters: Enough with fossil fuels, Pope says in latest climate appeal
5/25/23

“The world must rapidly ditch fossil fuels and end “the senseless war against creation”, Pope Francis said on Thursday, in a fresh plea over climate change that called on people to repent for their “ecological sins,” Reuters reports. “Francis has made the protection of the environment a cornerstone of his pontificate, noting in his landmark 2015 “Laudato Si” (Praised Be) encyclical that the planet was “beginning to look more and more like an immense pile of filth”. In a message for the World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, he said a U.N. climate summit meeting in Dubai on Nov. 30-Dec.12 “must listen to science and institute a rapid and equitable transition to end the era of fossil fuel”. “According to the commitments undertaken in the Paris Agreement to restrain global warming, it is absurd to permit the continued exploration and expansion of fossil fuel infrastructures,” he added. “The unrestrained burning of fossil fuels and the destruction of forests are pushing temperatures higher and leading to massive droughts,” Francis said, also criticising oil and gas fracking and “unchecked mega-mining projects”.

OPINION

New York Times: Will Lawmakers Sacrifice Our Health and Safety to Get a Debt Ceiling Deal?
Robert Bullard is a professor at Texas Southern University; Larry Shapiro is an associate director at the Rockefeller Family Fund, 5/26/23

“If the United States can figure out how to quickly build more clean energy, places like Port Arthur, Texas, and Lake Charles, Louisiana, may have the most to gain. These communities have for decades shouldered a disproportionate burden of fossil fuel pollution and residents paid dearly with their health. With fewer oil, gas and petrochemical facilities, the air in these communities could get a lot cleaner very soon,” Robert Bullard and Larry Shapiro write for the New York Times. “But a crucial part of this transition has now gotten swept up in the high-pressure negotiations over the national debt ceiling. The communities that most desperately need a greener future could — if we’re not very careful right now — end up being most victimized by the effort to get us there… “The problem is that to get more energy projects built faster, too many lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are willing to weaken a key 1970 law. And that could have devastating consequences for many marginalized communities. Some with the most to lose are in Texas, Mississippi, Louisiana and West Virginia, where the state government offers little protection and the federal government is the only real ally… “By filing a NEPA lawsuit, Cancer Alley residents were recently able to halt, at least for now, what would have been the largest plastic-producing petrochemical plant in North America… “NEPA is not the only legal resource communities have to fight fossil fuel polluters. But it is a powerful, proven safeguard, and frontline communities are counting on members of Congress and President Biden not to diminish its power… “For too long, political compromise has hurt marginalized communities. As the Biden administration and Congress approach a deal on the debt ceiling, they must create a path forward for clean energy sources without sacrificing bedrock environmental protections that mean the difference between a longer, healthier life and lasting environmental damage.”

TedGlick.com: It’s Time for Resistance Against Injustice This Memorial Day Week
Ted Glick has been a progressive activist, organizer and writer since 1968. He is the author of the recently published books, Burglar for Peace and 21st Century Revolution, 5/29/23

“The meaning of Memorial Day needs to be broadened,” Ted Glick writes. “We in the USA need to remember not just those who have died or risked death in one of the many wars the USA has been part of, going back to the original revolutionary war for independence from Britain. We also need to remember those who died or risked death or imprisonment in battles for the rights of workers to unionize, against Jim Crow segregation and for equal rights for all, for peace in Vietnam and against all imperialist wars, for the rights of women and lgbtq people, and against polluting industries and for the rights of nature and all its life forms. The White House/Republican House debt ceiling bill underlines how important it is to draw strength from those before us who refused to accept unjust laws and practices, because this is a draft law which must be fought and fought right now, this week. This legislation, if passed, would mandate the completion and operation of the destructive Mountain Valley Pipeline. It would roll back key provisions of the National Environmental Policy Act to enable a continued expansion of the fossil fuel industry. It apparently does almost nothing to advance clean renewables like wind and solar, including doing nothing to make it easier for new renewables to gain access to the electrical grid. It would weaken important social safety net provisions that help those of low income and low wealth while almost certainly increasing the nearly one trillion dollar per year military budget. And it requires student loan payments to restart for millions of young people. There is no question that corrupt dirty-dealer Joe Manchin had a lot of do with this result. Joe Biden and his administration seem to have decided that appeasing this coal baron is the path forward when it comes to energy. They continue to disregard the statements made over the last two years by the International Energy Agency, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change and, just recently, Pope Francis that the deepening urgency of the climate emergency requires that the world’s industrialized countries stop the expansion of new fossil fuel infrastructure… “At this point I have no sense as to where House and Senate members are on this latest dirty deal. What I do know is that, once again, those of us who appreciate the importance of fighting against, not weakly compromising with, the Maga Republicans and Democrats like Manchin, must flood Congress right now and every day this week, with calls and texts and faxes and tweets and visits to and actions at Congressional offices. Let’s act in the spirit of our justice-seeking ancestors who have come before us, remembering our children and grandchildren and the seven generations coming after us. They are depending on us to take action right now.”

Resilience.org: Capturing Carbon With Machines Is a Failure—So Why Are We Subsidizing It?
Richard Heinberg is Senior Fellow of Post Carbon Institute, and is regarded as one of the world’s foremost advocates for a shift away from our current reliance on fossil fuels, 5/25/23

“Human activity—mostly the burning of fossil fuels—has raised Earth’s atmospheric carbon content by 50 percent, from 280 parts per million (ppm) to 420 ppm,” Richard Heinberg writes for Resilience.org. “…Climate scientists warn that if we want to avert catastrophe, a significant amount of excess atmospheric CO2 must be captured and sequestered… “There are two broad strategies: biological and mechanical… “So, according to advocates for biological carbon removal, our best bet is simply to help the planet do a little more of what it is already doing to absorb carbon. We could accomplish this through reforestation, soil-building agricultural practices, and encouraging kelp growth in oceans. On the other hand, advocates for mechanical carbon removal point to technologies that successfully capture CO2 in the laboratory; if these machines were scaled up, those advocates tell us, we could create an enormous new industry with plenty of jobs while removing atmospheric carbon and reducing climate risk… “So, which pathway—nature or machines—holds more promise?.. “On the other hand, notes the IPCC, the implementation of mechanical DAC along with underground sequestration of CO2 “currently faces technological, economic, institutional, ecological-environmental and socio-cultural barriers.” Further, the current global rates of mechanical carbon capture and storage “are far below those in modeled pathways limiting global warming to 1.5°C to 2°C.” “…[B]iological sequestration methods, including restoration of forests, grasslands, and wetlands and regenerative agriculture, are both more effective and more resource efficient in achieving a climate-relevant scale of CO2 removal than are techno-mechanical methods—which use machinery and chemicals to capture CO2. Additionally, the co-impacts of biological methods are largely positive, while those of technical/mechanical methods are negative. Biological methods are also far less expensive.” In this comparative study, the scores for natural versus mechanical carbon removal methods were not close: Natural methods won in every category—and by a significant margin. The problem with machine-based carbon removal is not just that current technologies are immature (with the hope of getting better with more research and investment), but also that using machines is inherently inefficient, costly, and risky. On the other hand, removing carbon by restoring nature costs less, is more effective at reducing atmospheric carbon, and offers numerous side benefits… “You might expect, therefore, that policymakers would currently be directing all of their support toward natural carbon removal methods. But you’d be wrong. Government policy support in the form of subsidies is being shoveled mostly into mechanical carbon removal… “The science tells us that policymakers and investors have so far been wrong to advocate so strongly for mechanical CDR solutions to the detriment of biological ones. The fate of future generations is at stake, and we cannot afford to waste both time and money on techno-fixes that are ineffective at achieving our climate goals. The clear path forward to addressing the looming catastrophic effects of climate change is to restore nature.”

Hart Energy: SUPER DUG: Why Carbon Capture Remains Up in the Air
Velda Addison, 5/26/23

“Getting the economics and technology right to make carbon capture, utilization and storage (CCUS) projects a reality requires managing risks, having honest conversations and aligning objectives among government agencies, a trio of energy experts says,” Velda Addison writes for Hart Energy. “As with all things energy, funding, politics and permitting remain roadblocks — particularly for the emerging CCUS industry. As one expert remarked during Hart Energy’s SUPER DUG conference, “CO2 is not new, but it’s new.” “…Assessing injectivity performance, potential seismic activity and plume monitoring, and ensuring containment of CO2 — along with preventing groundwater contamination — are among the technical risks that must be managed to get projects across the finish line, according to conference panelist Siddharth Misra, an associate professor of petroleum engineering at Texas A&M University. “For these four risks, we need to have very good geophysical monitoring. … It starts from monitoring the plume, monitoring the reservoir, monitoring the wellbore, the seal, the above zone formation,” Misra said. “If we monitor all these things, we can ensure there’s no risk, and all these projects will end up with a good outcome.” The U.S. alone has an estimated storage capacity of about 3,000 gigatons; however, the problem lies in the number of active CO2 storage sites, Misra said. The U.S. operates just seven active sites—all deep saline aquifers—that store about 10 megatons of carbon per year (megatons/y), he said. Though 11 sites are under construction with 130 more in development for 200 megatons/y, storage will still be needed for nearly 1 gigaton of carbon per year, according to Misra. “That will require us to develop one megaton scale project every week till 2040. That’s a pretty daunting task,” he said, adding the U.S. Department of Energy’s National Laboratories, oil and gas companies and storage companies have been working to develop technology to help reach objectives… “Looking aboveground, Summit Carbon Solutions COO James Powell pointed out the need for alignment amongst federal agencies as well as with state and local governments. “A lot of states are trying to get primacy around storage of CO2 and that will help, but it’s that misalignment at the federal level, at the state level, and at the local level.” “…So far, about 80% of the rights of way have been acquired for transportation infrastructure with more than 130,000 acres of pore space leased for sequestration. “Just think about it politically. … Our message has to be tailored,” Powell said. “The facts are the facts, but how we present it makes a difference.” A handful of counties have passed moratoriums for ordinances restricting the construction of pipelines, he added, noting Summit spends a lot of time educating county officials. “I’ve had many landowners say, well, I’ve got a natural gas pipeline running across my property. It’s been there for 30 years. I don’t care about that, but I’m scared about this. So, it’s educating the public and landowners about what is CO2.”

The Hill: Biden is missing an opportunity to lead on a global plastics treaty
Tim Grabiel is senior lawyer and policy advisor at the Environmental Investigation Agency, 5/25/23

“With the second round of negotiations on a global plastics treaty set to take place in Paris later this month, the world has a golden opportunity to confront the plastic pollution crisis, which is not only driving the climate emergency but also threatening public health and wildlife worldwide,” Tim Gabriel writes for The Hill. “Given the Biden administration’s claims of global climate leadership, you’d think the U.S. would be leading from the front in these negotiations. Think again. In fact, the administration’s current posture on the most salient issues has put it in the same negotiating camp as Saudi Arabia and Russia. For example, the United States is supporting a weak treaty framework — similar to the Paris Agreement — with few binding obligations and control measures. They’re also refusing to directly address the production of plastics before they enter the supply chain. This is great news for fossil fuel and petrochemical companies. After all, those companies are heavily ramping up plastic production as fossil fuels fall out of fashion for the transportation and energy sectors. Left unchecked, researchers at the International Energy Agency have projected that, by 2050, half of oil demand worldwide will be driven by plastics. And given that 90 percent of greenhouse gas emissions associated with plastics come during their conversion from fossil fuels, continued plastic production at this scale will almost guarantee that the planet surpasses the 1.5-degree Celsius warming threshold. Therefore, a strong plastics treaty is our best hope for curbing plastic production and reducing its climate impact — but only if it has teeth… “The lobbying effort of the fossil fuel industry may be playing a role in dissuading the administration from taking a more forward-leaning approach. However, the administration has something you almost never find in Washington — favorable public opinion and bipartisan support on curbing plastics… “My colleagues and I from the Environmental Investigation Agency will be in Paris later this month for the next round of negotiations. We’ll be watching — as will the rest of the world — to see whether the United States will change course. This is a once-in-a-generation opportunity for Biden to lead the way toward a global solution on plastics. If he doesn’t, we may miss our last best chance for a global plastics solution.” 

Australian Financial Review: Carbon capture and the battle to get to scale
Ben Potter, 5/20/23

“Carbon capture and storage had star billing at the Australian Petroleum Production & Exploration Association conference two weeks ago. The gas industry lobby headlined its conference with a plan to create nine “net zero zones” which could store more than 90 per cent of emissions captured from heavy industry via shared infrastructure for carbon capture and storage,” Ben Potter writes for the Australian Financial Review. “Beyond the gas sector, however, heavy industry isn’t rushing its fences to develop carbon capture and storage projects in Australia. Gas companies have lined up a long string of projects that could potentially follow on the heels of Chevron’s struggling Gorgon CCS project and Santos’ $250 million Moomba CCS project, should the latter enjoy a successful commissioning next year (and the former just get back on track)… “Australian industry’s lukewarm embrace of CCS is at odds with the ardent backing of groups from the International Energy Agency and the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change to Net Zero Australia and our own Climate Change Authority for the technology as a vital tool in achieving net zero… “In reality, it seems the gas industry needs other industries to share the costs of CCS. The technology faces obstacles beyond the history of erratic policy. Matthias Raab, chief executive of CO2CRC, a research agency, points to the six- to eight-year approvals timelines for CCS project approvals, at a time when other low carbon technologies are rapidly progressing. Raab also told AFR CCS is off the agenda for coal-fired power in Australia, and the next 12 to 24 months will determine whether there is sufficient confidence in the longevity of gas-fired power stations to support the retrofitting of CCS. At the moment, none are on the drawing board, and Santos does not include power generators in its list of potential CCS customers.”

Cortez Journal: Our View: Proposed BLM rule conservation timestamp in history
5/25/23

“In conservation history, pivotal moments stand out when action taken did the most good for the most people. The Bureau of Land Management’s proposed Public Lands Rule that makes conservation equal with multiple uses in decision-making would be one of those moments,” the Cortez Journal Editorial Board writes. “…The Public Lands Rule would be a tectonic shift in safeguarding important places by considering and managing for resilient ecosystems, protecting intact landscapes and applying land health standards, guided by science and data. Not politicians. Conservation decisions would be built into management of lands – loved and overly loved – by the millions who visit them every year to camp, hunt, fish, hike, bike, boat and more… “By elevating conservation, naysayers of the rule see restrictions or uses taken away. But that won’t happen. Quite the opposite. Without conservation, we don’t see any real future for public lands. The Public Lands Rule makes good sense… “Like the Roadless Area Conservation Rule, which protected 58.5 million acres of national forest land from logging and energy development, the Public Lands Rule is an investment, a timestamp in history to protect the most intact, healthiest lands… “Backing the Public Lands Rule is the right thing to do. Join us in the conversation by offering input and, ideally, supporting this rule.”