EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 5/8/23

PIPELINE NEWS

• Associated Press: Proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would end in Illinois hits legal road bump in Iowa

• Iowa Capital Dispatch: Judges in two states differ on pipeline land surveys

• South Dakota Searchlight: ‘It’s about property rights’: Some farmers resent ethanol industry’s push for carbon pipelines

• Iowa Legislature: Senate Concurrent Resolution 6

• RFD TV: Debate continues over carbon pipelines in Iowa

• Yahoo Finance Canada: Enbridge adds ‘layers of defence’ to Mainline ahead of TMX opening

• E&E News: Federal pipeline agency rolls out methane proposal

• Associated Press: New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks

• U.S. PHMSA: USDOT Announces Bipartisan PIPES Act Proposal to Modernize Decades-Old Pipeline Leak Detection Rules, Invests in Critical American Infrastructure, Create Good-Paying Jobs, and Improve Safety

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Washington Post: Democrats press White House on permitting of gas projects

• Bloomberg: Biden’s Plan to Cut Power Emissions Hinges on Little-Used Carbon Capture

• Politico: ‘No other way to do it’: Biden about to go big on power plants

• Washington Times: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Dogged By Ethics Questions Over Daughter’s Anti-Drilling Activism 

STATE UPDATES

• Houston Chronicle: The Alaskan gambit: $44 billion LNG project decades in the making

• NOLA.com: Carbon capture creates new allies, foes in Louisiana, a ground zero for climate change

• Associated Press: New Mexico delegates renew push for broader Chaco protection

• Associated Press: Texas petrochemical plant fire sends 9 workers to hospital

• Los Angeles Times: Four people hospitalized due to gas leak at Marathon Petroleum refinery in Wilmington

EXTRACTION

• CNN: Climate activists dye iconic Italian fountain water black

• New York Times: Price to Plug Old Wells in Gulf of Mexico? $30 Billion, Study Says.

• Wall Street Journal: Big Oil Has $150 Billion in Cash and Investors Want a Share

• Bloomberg: Idle Oil Wells’ Next Act? Becoming Batteries for Renewable Energy

• Barron’s: Carbon Capture Is Set to Take Off. These Companies Are Ahead of the Game.

• Globe and Mail: Hopper CEO aims to transform Canada into a carbon capture capital with startup Deep Sky

• New York Times: Nature Lawyers Up: A growing number of countries and courts say the environment should be endowed with legal rights.

CLIMATE FINANCE

• Washington Post: Is BlackRock’s Larry Fink blowing it for the climate?

• Financial Times: COP28 team marshals oil and gas industry alliance ahead of climate summit

OPINION

• Chicago Sun Times: Carbon capture can help the environment, but only if it’s done safely

• Philadelphia Business Journal: Viewpoint: Will denial of a rail permit to haul LNG through Philadelphia kill the project?
  

PIPELINE NEWS

Associated Press: Proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that would end in Illinois hits legal road bump in Iowa
5/5/23

“Opponents of planned liquid carbon dioxide pipelines in the Midwest won a victory when an Iowa judge ruled that a state law that gives surveyors the right to enter private property is unconstitutional,” the Associated Press reports. “In his ruling Wednesday, District Judge John Sandy denied a pipeline company’s request for an injunction that would allow survey crews access to Martin’s Koenig’s farmland near Sioux Rapids in northwest Iowa. Sandy said a law giving crews that access violated the state constitution because it doesn’t provide just compensation for damages to landowners in exchange for the loss of their right to deny entry to their land, according to the Sioux City Journal. Pipeline company Navigator CO2 Ventures said it will appeal the ruling, arguing it deviated from decisions in similar cases in other states. Attorney Brian Jorde, who is representing Koenig, welcomed the ruling, calling it “a good day for anyone who cares about property rights.” Jorde, of Omaha, Nebraska, also represents another property owner in western Iowa who has made a similar claim against Navigator. A ruling in that case is expected soon.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Judges in two states differ on pipeline land surveys
JARED STRONG, 5/5/23

“A North Dakota judge has granted a carbon dioxide pipeline company access to private land for surveys and denied claims that the state’s law that allows that access is unconstitutional, according to court records,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “That is different than a recent ruling in Iowa, in which a judge said the state’s law about similar surveys violates constitutional property rights. Navigator CO2 Ventures, which wants to build a carbon dioxide pipeline of more than 800 miles in Iowa, seeks to use the North Dakota decision to persuade a district court judge in Iowa to grant it access to private land in Woodbury County to survey it. But the laws in each state are dissimilar in that the North Dakota law applies directly to eminent domain and Iowa’s law is part of its hazardous pipeline permitting process, which doesn’t necessarily include eminent domain. “The challenged statute is markedly different,” attorney Brian Jorde wrote in his objection to using the North Dakota ruling as a guide for the Woodbury County case in Iowa… “Separately, in Clay County in Iowa, a judge who considered similar arguments decided that the state’s survey law is unconstitutional because it provides no compensation for the duress landowners suffer when they are forced to allow someone onto their properties… “It’s unclear when the Woodbury County case will conclude. Navigator and Summit have other, similar cases that are pending in Iowa court.”

South Dakota Searchlight: ‘It’s about property rights’: Some farmers resent ethanol industry’s push for carbon pipelines
JOSHUA HAIAR, 5/5/23

“Craig Schaunaman, who farms thousands of acres, has been invested in the ethanol industry since its early days and even served on the board of an ethanol plant,” South Dakota Searchlight reports. “ But a carbon-capture pipeline supported by dozens of ethanol plants would cross his land, and he’s against it, even though ethanol officials say the pipeline is crucial to the future viability of the industry. “Eminent domain should not be used for a private company’s gain,” Schaunaman told Searchlight. Schaunaman received a letter in mid-2021 from Summit Carbon Solutions, one of the companies planning to build a carbon-capture pipeline across the Midwest, requesting permission to conduct surveys on his land that would involve digging. “I told them they were not allowed to do surveying without compensation,” he told Searchlight.  By the fall of 2021, Summit approached him with an initial offer that he considered “under market value” to place a permanent easement on his land. By May 2022, the company had offered him “three times as much,” but Schaunaman remained adamant about not allowing the construction of a pipeline carrying potentially hazardous liquified carbon dioxide on his property, saying, “It’s about property rights for me.” He declined to disclose the amounts of the offers. But he, like some other farmers, has an active lawsuit against Summit Carbon Solutions claiming the company doesn’t have a right to enter their land… “Ed Fischbach, a corn farmer near Mellette, never received an initial offer from Summit Carbon Solutions, because he signed on with a lawyer representing opponents of the project as soon as he could. “I made it very clear in the very beginning that I was against it,” Fischbach told Searchlight. “The ethanol companies are already making massive profits. They don’t need this to maintain viability.” “…Last month, Summit initiated dozens of eminent domain proceedings in state court — including against Fischbach and Schaunaman. Those are among more than 100 cases of pending state and federal litigation concerning proposed carbon pipelines in South Dakota… “John Satterfield, regulatory affairs director with Summit Carbon Solutions, told Searchlight eminent domain has to be on the table; otherwise, no pipeline of any kind would ever get built. “The expectation that people want to invest in a project like ours, without that tool available, is a misunderstanding of the business,” he told Searchlight.

Iowa Legislature: Senate Concurrent Resolution 6
Iowa State Senators ALONS, GUTH, SALMON, WESTRICH, GREEN, EVANS, LOFGREN, J.TAYLOR, and ROWLEY, 5/3/23

“A Concurrent Resolution urging the Iowa Utilities Board to deny the use of eminent domain in relation to carbon capture pipeline projects… “And WHEREAS, the use of eminent domain is constitutionally limited to public use, constrained to public convenience and necessity; and WHEREAS, pipelines transporting captured carbon dioxide do not meet this constitutional standard as a transport system for an industrial product used by private, for-profit companies, and will exclusively benefit private companies, not the general public; and WHEREAS, the installation of carbon capture pipelines will compromise the productivity of valuable agricultural land, disrupt and damage carefully installed patterned drainage tile systems, and threaten the proper soil conditions necessary for optimal crop growth; and WHEREAS, Iowa Code section 479B.9 restricts hazardous pipeline project permitting by the Iowa Utilities Board, stating: “A permit shall not be granted to a pipeline company unless the board determines that the proposed services will promote the  public convenience and necessity”; and WHEREAS, to contend that a carbon capture pipeline project promotes public convenience and necessity because it is needed to fight climate change is speculative, as man-made climate change is highly debatable and not clearly settled science, and public policy should only be adopted based upon fully known and established science; and WHEREAS, the federal and state constitutions were written specifically to keep economic power from being a factor in deciding whether to use the power of eminent domain… “BE IT RESOLVED BY THE SENATE, THE HOUSE OF REPRESENTATIVES CONCURRING, That the General Assembly urges the Iowa Utilities Board to uphold and protect the private property rights of landowners and farmers pursuant to the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Iowa, and the laws of this state, and deny the use of the power of eminent domain to private companies constructing carbon capture pipelines.”

RFD TV: Debate continues over carbon pipelines in Iowa
Karleigh Creighton, 5/5/2

“Arguments over carbon pipelines continue in Iowa,” RFD TV reports. “Currently, there are three major projects in development in the Hawkeye state and a district court ruled on a lawsuit over the Navigator CO2 project. According to DTN, the company sued landowner, Martin Koenig, who refused to allow officials on his property to conduct a site survey. He then filed a counter claim to stop Navigator CO2 from entering his land without permission or compensation. The judge ruled in favor of Koenig. Overall, the three carbon pipeline companies working in Iowa say the vast majority of surveys have been voluntarily completed.”

Yahoo Finance Canada: Enbridge adds ‘layers of defence’ to Mainline ahead of TMX opening
Jeff Lagerquist, 5/5/23

“A top Enbridge (ENB.TO)(ENB) executive says the flow of oil through the company’s massive North American pipeline network will barely take a hit from the start of the federal government-owned rival Trans Mountain pipeline expansion (TMX) project, due in part to its new deal with shippers,” Yahoo Finance Canada reports. Colin Gruending, Enbridge’s executive vice-president and president of liquids pipelines, told analysts on Friday that his conviction on these points has strengthened since the company’s Investor Day in March. “Since then, let’s reflect on what all happened here. TMX announced another delay,” he said on Calgary-based Enbridge’s first-quarter earnings call. “We understand the TMX is likely to have higher tolls with cost increases. We’ve seen the Keystone incident, and subsequent pressure restrictions invoked by firms. It’s questionable if or when those will come off.” Gruending adds that Mexico is looking to refine more of its oil domestically, a bullish factor for bids on Canadian crude by U.S. Gulf Coast refineries. At the same time, he sees deteriorating economics for moving Canadian oil south by rail. Enbridge’s toll agreement with oil shippers for its Mainline crude pipeline system announced Thursday aims to adds a new risk buffer for the company. It “provides downside protection in the event of supply or demand disruptions or unforeseen cost exposure, a feature that did not exist in the previous Competitive Tolling Settlement,” the company said… “We’ve got a couple layers of defence here,” Gruending told Yahoo Finance Canada. “Will we need them? Maybe not. But it is Enbridge’s preference to have them.”

E&E News: Federal pipeline agency rolls out methane proposal
Mike Soraghan, 5/5/23

“Federal pipeline regulators Friday formally proposed their first regulations to crack down on natural gas leaks from pipelines to reduce pollution and the effects of climate change,” E&E News reports. “…The proposal would cover the 2.7 million miles of transmission, distribution and other pipelines under the jurisdiction of the Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. It would also cover underground natural gas storage facilities and liquefied natural gas facilities. It would update leak detection and repair rules to require companies to use commercially available technologies to find and fix methane leaks from pipelines and other facilities… “Congress gave PHMSA broad new responsibility to limit greenhouse gas emissions a little more than two years ago, and the agency had already begun making inquiries to companies about their methane emissions. Helping to fulfill the Biden administration’s climate agenda is a new focus for PHMSA, a small agency that has traditionally viewed leaks as an issue of physical safety. For most of its history, its environmental efforts had been geared toward preventing and dealing with spills of hazardous liquids such as crude oil. Methane leaks from pipelines and other facilities in unpopulated areas were not considered a major safety threat if they didn’t explode or catch fire. PHMSA officials project their proposal would cut emissions from the pipelines they regulate by as much as 55 percent. It would set criteria and deadlines for repairing leaks that endanger “public health or the environment” according to the agency’s release. It would also increase requirements to seek out leaks using aerial surveys, handheld detection devices and continuing monitoring sensors. It would require the use of advanced, but commercially available, technology to meet a minimum performance standard.”

Associated Press: New pipeline agency rule aimed at cutting methane leaks
MATTHEW DALY, 5/5/23

“The federal agency that regulates pipelines announced new rules Friday aimed at reducing leaks of methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from a network of nearly 3 million miles of natural gas pipelines that crisscross the country,” the Associated Press reports. “The proposal by the Transportation Department’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration would significantly improve the detection and repair of leaks from gas pipelines, keep more product in the pipes and prevent dangerous accidents, officials said. If finalized, the rules would eliminate up to 1 million metric tons of methane emissions by 2030, equivalent to emissions from 5.6 million gasoline-powered cars, the agency said. Overall, the rule would reduce emissions from covered pipelines by up to 55%… “The proposal is part of a broader effort by the Biden administration to restrict methane emissions and follows proposed rules by the Environmental Protection Agency and Interior Department to strengthen methane leak detection and limit emissions from oil and gas production… “The Associated Press reported last year that researchers identified more than 500 methane “super emitters,” including pipelines, wells, tanks and compressor stations, during a 2021 aerial survey of the oil-rich Permian Basin in New Mexico and Texas. The sites leak massive amounts of methane into the atmosphere, according to Carbon Mapper, a partnership of university researchers and NASA’s Jet Propulsion Laboratory.”

U.S. PHMSA: USDOT Announces Bipartisan PIPES Act Proposal to Modernize Decades-Old Pipeline Leak Detection Rules, Invests in Critical American Infrastructure, Create Good-Paying Jobs, and Improve Safety
5/5/23

“Following the Biden-Harris Administration’s historic announcement to invest $196 million in grants for 37 pipeline modernization projects spread across 19 states, the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) today announced it is proposing a new rule to significantly improve the detection and repair of leaks from gas pipelines. As directed by the bipartisan PIPES Act of 2020, the proposed rule would create good-paying jobs, deploy pipeline workers across the country to keep more product in the pipe, and prevent dangerous accidents. These actions, if finalized, would boost efficiency, cut harmful pollution and waste, and create an estimated up to $2.3 billion annually in benefits. The Notice of Proposed Rulemaking—transmitted to the Federal Register today—would enhance public safety and lower methane emissions and other air pollution from more than 2.7 million miles of gas transmission, distribution, and gathering pipelines; 400+ underground natural gas storage facilities; and 165 liquefied natural gas facilities. The proposed rule will update decades-old federal leak detection and repair standards that rely solely on human senses in favor of new requirements that add an additional layer of safety by deploying commercially available, advanced technologies to find and fix leaks of methane and other flammable, toxic, and corrosive gases. These health and safety improvements will advance environmental justice in communities where gas pipeline infrastructure is disproportionately sited.  “Quick detection of methane leaks is an important way to keep communities safe and help curb climate change,” said U.S. Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg. “We are proposing a long-overdue modernization of the way we identify and fix methane leaks, thereby reducing emissions and strengthening protections for the American people.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Washington Post: Democrats press White House on permitting of gas projects
Maxine Joselow, 5/8/23

“Forty-four congressional Democrats are asking the White House to provide greater scrutiny of how liquefied natural gas projects contribute to climate change,” the Washington Post reports. “In a letter sent this morning to the White House Council on Environmental Quality, the Democrats urged the agency to develop a specific approval process for liquefied natural gas, or LNG, projects that accounts for their impact on the climate and nearby communities… “The letter adds to a burgeoning debate over whether the Biden administration should be approving more gas projects. It comes as the United States is poised to overtake Australia as the world’s biggest LNG exporter this year… “Today’s letter was led by Sen. Jeff Merkley (Ore.) and Reps. Jared Huffman (Calif.), Raúl M. Grijalva (Ariz.) and Nanette Barragán (Calif.). Signatories include three other senators and 36 other House members. The Council on Environmental Quality is preparing to issue guidance on how federal agencies should analyze the climate impact of highways, pipelines and other major projects across the country… “In their letter, the Democrats argued that the council must require agencies to conduct a rigorous analysis of gas projects’ methane emissions… “In addition, the Democrats urged the council to establish a “cross-agency team” to assess the climate impacts of any planned LNG build out. They wrote that participants should include the Energy Department, the Environmental Protection Agency and the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission… “The Democrats also called on the council to give disadvantaged communities more input in the permitting process for LNG projects… “Existing LNG infrastructure already has a disproportionate impact on Black, Brown, Indigenous, and poor communities; this will only be exacerbated with the addition of the proposed projects,” the lawmakers wrote. “That’s why it is important that frontline communities are meaningfully and proactively engaged throughout environmental reviews.”

Bloomberg: Biden’s Plan to Cut Power Emissions Hinges on Little-Used Carbon Capture
Jennifer A Dlouhy, 5/8/23

“One of the Biden administration’s most important efforts to flight climate change, slashing greenhouse gases from the electricity sector, hinges on carbon capture technology that’s barely in commercial use at power plants and faces daunting legal and logistical hurdles,” Bloomberg reports. “…Skeptics, meanwhile, say the technology hasn’t yet been “adequately demonstrated” — a legal threshold for the government’s embrace of it under the Clean Air Act… “But carbon capture, utilization and storage systems are still uncommon in the power sector. Only two commercial coal plants now supplying US grids employ carbon capture on a commercial basis, and no gas-fired power plants do, though a Massachusetts gas plant ran the technology at the turn of the century and there are plans to restart the Texas Petra Nova coal unit that trapped CO2 before its 2020 closure… “Yet critics on the right argue carbon-capture systems fail the “adequately demonstrated” test and are still too expensive — a factor the EPA is legally required to consider in setting new pollution-control standards. “The technology itself is not proven on the scale to where you could, with a straight face, say it has been adequately demonstrated” and commercially viable, Mandy Gunasekara, former EPA chief of staff and a director at the Independent Women’s Forum, told Bloomberg. And, she added, it’s still often constrained by proximity to storage sites and pipelines. That could be a legal vulnerability… “Successful carbon capture depends on more than deploying the technology at plants themselves, since trapped gas must also be transported and stored off-site, former EPA assistant air administrator Jeff Holmstead, a Bracewell LLP partner who has represented energy industry clients, told Bloomberg. This presents logistical problems. The 5,000 miles of CO2 pipelines crisscrossing the country today aren’t enough to support a national scale-up, and developers have encountered steep opposition in the Midwest. Meanwhile, dozens of applications for wells to store carbon dioxide underground are piling up at the EPA. The agency just advanced Louisiana’s bid to take over permitting the state’s wells nearly two years after it asked for the job… “It is still uneconomical for coal and natural gas power,” said BloombergNEF carbon capture analyst Brenna Casey. Even with the expanded tax credit, “retrofitting a coal plant is more expensive than just building a new coal plant with CCUS,” and on its own, the incentive isn’t enough to spur coal and gas plants to adopt the technology. “

Politico: ‘No other way to do it’: Biden about to go big on power plants
JEAN CHEMNICK, PAMELA KING and ROBIN BRAVENDER, 5/5/23

“The Biden administration is poised to unveil its most ambitious effort yet to roll back planet-warming pollution from the nation’s thousands of power plants — an effort that’s certain to bring a legal and political attack from conservatives but may disappoint some supporters of the president’s climate agenda,” Politico reports. “…EPA is expected to rely on advanced technologies rarely if ever employed in the U.S. power industry, such as capturing coal plants’ carbon pollution before it hits the atmosphere or blending hydrogen into the fuel mix at natural gas plants. But it could also exempt hundreds of the nation’s dirtiest gas plants from strict pollution limits, these people told Politico. That may lessen the rules’ legal peril and keep more units online, but it may also provide fewer benefits to the low-income, Black or Hispanic communities where the dirtiest plants are disproportionately located… “But the effort faces dangers. One is from the courts, which rejected both the Obama and Trump administrations’ attempts to enact climate rules for power plants. And Biden’s rule is coming so late in his term that if a Republican wins the White House next year, the new administration could sweep it away… “The template tracks roughly with what influential green groups like Evergreen Action, the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Clean Air Task Force have advocated… “EPA will have a hard time showing that [carbon capture] is adequately demonstrated sufficient to use it as a basis for regulation,” Scott Segal, a partner with Bracewell LLP, told Politico. He predicted that the fact that a plant may have to store its captured carbon offsite might be a complication.”

Washington Times: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland Dogged By Ethics Questions Over Daughter’s Anti-Drilling Activism 
Valerie Richardson, 5/4/23

“President Biden isn’t the only member of his administration with family issues. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland is being dogged by ethics questions stemming from her daughter Somah Haaland’s activism against oil-and-gas leasing near Chaco Canyon in northwestern New Mexico, an issue pitting the department against the Navajo Nation,” the Washington Times reports. “…Somah Haaland works as a media organizer for the Pueblo Action Alliance, the New Mexico environmental group helping spearhead the ‘Frack Off Chaco’ campaign to block drilling in the Chaco Canyon area, which includes the allotments owned by Navajo members. The alliance was among the organizations involved in the raucous October 2021 protest outside the Interior Department in which activists rushed the lobby, resulting in an estimated 55 arrests and multiple injuries to security personnel… “Western Energy Alliance President Kathleen Sgamma said Somah Haaland has “aggressively lobbied DOI and Congress to advance the Chaco withdrawal” and cited a double standard. “Can you imagine if President Trump’s interior secretary David Bernhardt had a son who lobbied him on behalf of Western Energy Alliance to increase leasing around Chaco?” she said. “It would have been unacceptable and rightfully criticized. Secretary Haaland’s situation is no different and probably worse since over 5,000 Navajos stand to lose millions of dollars in income every year if the withdrawal is approved…“The situation is a violation of ethics rules and the interior secretary’s trust responsibility to the tribe,” Ms. Sgamma told the Times. Protect the Public’s Trust filed lawsuits in April against the department and the Bureau of Land Management after receiving no responses to its Jan. 2 requests under the Freedom of Information Act for communications between the administration and Somah Haaland. Michael Chamberlain, director of Protect the Public’s Trust, told the Times Somah Haaland’s activism “has tremendous potential to create the appearance in the minds of the American public that the secretary is no longer an objective decision-maker on this issue.”

STATE UPDATES

Houston Chronicle: The Alaskan gambit: $44 billion LNG project decades in the making
James Osborne, 5/8/23

“Oil companies have for decades pulled billions of dollars of natural gas from Alaska’s rugged North Slope, only to pump it back underground once it’s been separated from the crude oil they are seeking,” the Houston Chronicle reports. “More than 800 miles from the closest ice-free port accessible to ships, the North Slope has no natural gas pipeline and thus no market for companies such as Exxon Mobil and Conoco Phillips to sell their gas into. Now a planned $44 billion project that would pipe gas the length of Alaska to an LNG terminal outside Anchorage stands to change all that as state officials, with the support of the Biden administration, seek to breathe new life into the state’s declining oil and gas industry by shipping the gas across the northern Pacific to South Korea and Japan… “It seemed like this thing was dead,” Clark Williams-Derry, an analyst with the nonprofit Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told the Chronicle. “This project isn’t cheap to begin with, and then you have all the question marks about what the LNG market will look like a decade from now. There’s many reasons to think this isn’t going to happen, but without this project, that gas is stranded.” “…When Russian troops invaded Ukraine last year, driving up gas prices in Europe and Asia to well in excess of $15 per mmBTUs, Alaska LNG suddenly looked like it could be a viable project…”But deep questions remain as to whether Alaska LNG will actually go ahead, including whether it can clear a series of lawsuits by environmental groups arguing the federal government has failed to adequately assess the greenhouse gas emissions the project will generate… “Is this going to lead to more exports, or this is a project we don’t really need and you’ve built a bunch of infrastructure you don’t need?” Nathan Matthews, an attorney with the Sierra Club, told the Chronicle. “Europe is rapidly going to renewables, so whether the same demand (for gas) will be there a decade from now is a question. From a climate perspective we sure hope there won’t be.”

NOLA.com: Carbon capture creates new allies, foes in Louisiana, a ground zero for climate change
SAM KARLIN, 5/8/23

“In April, at the state library across the street from the State Capitol, Rep. Bill Wheat, a burly, bespectacled Republican from Ponchatoula, stood behind a podium adorned with a sign that read, “We want wetlands, not wastelands,” NOLA.com reports. “Wheat was speaking at a rally against carbon capture and sequestration, the practice of injecting planet-warming carbon dioxide, often from industrial plants, deep underground. The event was put on by environmental advocates and concerned residents. Wheat was incensed about such a project by Air Products, which is planning to store carbon underneath Lake Maurepas near his district. Republican legislators don’t often speak at rallies hosted by environmental advocates – let alone at an event that drew a retort from the Louisiana Mid-Continent Oil and Gas Association. But the project slated for Lake Maurepas has upended some of the normal political and ideological lines around industry and climate solutions in Louisiana. A group of Republicans have fought against the carbon capture project by Air Products, arguing the company wants to put their “waste” into their backyards. They are using some of the same arguments that communities along the Mississippi River – many of them majority Black – have used to try to fight industrial projects for years. Their allies include a new group called Louisiana Against False Solutions, a coalition of environmental justice and advocacy groups that see carbon capture as a fig leaf. They say it allows industry to keep fossil fuel investments alive as the world transitions to renewables, while continuing to threaten communities around petrochemical facilities. Meanwhile, Democratic Gov. John Bel Edwards has emerged as a leading voice for carbon capture. He has traveled the world to pitch Louisiana as a site for carbon capture projects, and was slated to deliver a keynote address Sunday at the Global CCS Institute’s annual forum… “Carbon capture has also attracted a host of lobbying interest at the state Capitol. Former legislators Neil Abramson, Norby Chabert and Dan Claitor are all lobbying for firms seeking carbon capture projects. Edwards’ former executive counsel Matthew Block is also lobbying for Air Products, one of more than two dozen lobbyists the firm hired to fight a crop of bills taking aim at its proposal.”

Associated Press: New Mexico delegates renew push for broader Chaco protection
SUSAN MONTOYA BRYAN, 5/3/23

“Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation are again pushing to make permanent a stop on oil and gas development outside the boundaries of Chaco Culture National Historical Park,” the Associated Press reports. “The Democrats reintroduced legislation Tuesday that would formalize a 10-mile (16-kilometer) buffer around the park that would span more than 490 square miles (1,269 square kilometers) of federal land. It’s the latest attempt to protect what environmentalists and Native American tribes consider the greater Chaco region, an expansive stretch of northwestern New Mexico that includes locations that are culturally significant to New Mexico pueblos and other tribes. A moratorium on new leasing and mineral development on federal land remains in effect as the U.S… “Pueblos in New Mexico have been working on an extensive ethnographic study of the region in hopes of better informing federal land managers of the cultural resources that dot the landscape. While the work is still under way, tribal leaders are hopeful that the federal government — particularly the Interior Department — is moving toward planning that incorporates traditional knowledge. Mark Mitchell, chairman of the All Pueblo Council of Governors and former governor of Tesuque Pueblo, told AP the Chaco area represents an ancestral footprint and the foundation of core values that pueblo communities still strive to uphold today. The legislation is a means to safeguard Indigenous histories, Mitchell and other pueblo governors said in a statement. 

Associated Press: Texas petrochemical plant fire sends 9 workers to hospital
JUAN LOZANO and ACACIA CORONADO, 5/5/23

“Fire erupted at a petrochemical plant in the Houston area Friday, sending nine workers to a hospital and causing a huge plume of smoke visible for miles,” the Associated Press reports. “Emergency responders were called to help around 3 p.m. at the Shell facility in Deer Park, a suburb east of Houston. The city of Deer Park said in an advisory that there was no shelter-in-place order for residents. Harris County Sheriff Ed Gonzalez told AP earlier in the day that five contracted employees were hospitalized for precautionary reasons, adding that they were not burned. He told AP they were taken to a hospital due to heat exhaustion and proximity to the fire. Shell Deer Park officials said on Twitter Friday night that they were continuing to respond to the fire, all workers were accounted for and nine workers had been released after undergoing precautionary medical evaluations… “The cause of the blaze was still being investigated. The fire started while the olefins unit was undergoing routine maintenance. Air monitoring for any impact from the fire was ongoing, and had not detected any harmful levels of chemicals, Shell Deer Park said. “There is no danger to the nearby community,” the post said.

Los Angeles Times: Four people hospitalized due to gas leak at Marathon Petroleum refinery in Wilmington
SUMMER LIN, 5/4/23

“Four people were hospitalized Thursday morning following a gas leak at the Marathon Petroleum refinery in Wilmington, according to the Los Angeles Fire Department,” the Los Angeles Times reports. “The leak was reported at the refinery on East Pacific Coast Highway at about 6:39 a.m., according to a Fire Department release. One person was rescued by firefighters using a rigid basket or stretcher and lowered by a rope system to the ground. The gas was reported to be hydrogen sulfide and butane. Three of the people were listed in moderate condition and one was in serious condition. The risk from the gas has since been mitigated and there’s no further hazard to people in the area, according to the Fire Department. Marathon confirmed four employees were hospitalized after they were exposed, according to news reports.”

EXTRACTION

CNN: Climate activists dye iconic Italian fountain water black
Barbie Latza Nadeau, Sharon Braithwaite and Heather Chen, 5/7/23

“A group of climate activists in Italy have poured what they described as “a charcoal-based black liquid” into the water of Rome’s famous Fontana dei Quattro Fiumi (Fountain of the Four Rivers) – to “sound the alarm about the black future that awaits humanity,” CNN reports. ““Our future is as black as this water,” the group called Ultima Generazione, or Last Generation, said on their website. “Without water, there is no life and with rising temperatures, we are exposed to drought on the one hand and floods on the other,” they added… “Photos showed activists, wearing orange vests, standing waist deep in the fountain. They unfolded orange banners bearing the words in Italian: “Our future is as black as this water” as crowds of onlookers snapped pictures. It is believed to be the same group of climate activists that led protests at other Italian historical sites including the Barcaccia fountain at the base of the Spanish Steps in central Rome, where they poured black liquid into the fountain on April 1.”

New York Times: Price to Plug Old Wells in Gulf of Mexico? $30 Billion, Study Says.
Hiroko Tabuchi, 5/8/23

“Ever since the first offshore platforms went up off Louisiana 85 years ago, the Gulf of Mexico has been an oil and gas juggernaut,” the New York Times reports. “But decades of drilling has left behind more than 14,000 old, unplugged wells at risk of springing dangerous leaks and spills that may cost more than $30 billion to plug, a new study has found. Nonproducing wells that haven’t been plugged now outnumber active wells in the gulf, the study said. The researchers also found that, in federal waters, nearly 90 percent of the old wells were owned at some point in the past by giant oil companies known as the “supermajors,” including BP, Shell, Chevron and Exxon. Under federal law, that means those companies would still be responsible for cleanup costs, even though they might have sold the wells in the past, the study’s authors said… “The $1 trillion infrastructure bill that President Biden signed into law in 2021 sets aside $4.7 billion to plug orphaned wells, both onshore and off. That’s a sizable sum, but not nearly enough to cover the backlog of orphaned wells. Still, in federal waters, the government can hold prior owners of wells liable for plugging them, even if the current owners go under or otherwise don’t fulfill their cleanup obligations. Eighty-seven percent of wells under federal jurisdiction were once owned by one of the supermajors, many of which have recently booked record profits.

Wall Street Journal: Big Oil Has $150 Billion in Cash and Investors Want a Share
David Uberti, 5/8/23

“Oil-and-gas companies have built up a mountain of cash with few precedents in recent history,” the Wall Street Journal reports. “Wall Street has a few ideas on how to spend it—and new drilling isn’t near the top of the list. Many companies are cutting costs and raining cash on stock pickers like Berkshire Hathaway’s Warren Buffett, who believe the world’s thirst for oil will continue for years, if not decades, to come. The promise of money returned to shareholders helped turn energy shares into some of the few bright spots in a dark moment for markets last year, fueled by commodity prices that skyrocketed after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.”

Bloomberg: Idle Oil Wells’ Next Act? Becoming Batteries for Renewable Energy
Coco Liu, 5/5/23

“The fan club for abandoned oil and gas wells is an exceedingly small one, but Kemp Gregory might just be the president. Where others see an eyesore or a source of rogue methane emissions, Gregory sees opportunity,” Bloomberg reports. “Standing next to a 4,000-foot-deep well on the outskirts of Bakersfield, California, he demonstrates why. A 3,000-pound weight is suspended on a cable deep below the surface. With the push of a button, Gregory starts a small motor turning, drawing the weight up from the well’s maw until it reaches a predetermined height. Now it’s more than a heavy weight; it’s a source of potential energy. Gregory pushes another button and the weight begins its descent, releasing that energy in the form of electricity that can be fed onto the grid.”

Barron’s: Carbon Capture Is Set to Take Off. These Companies Are Ahead of the Game.
Evie Liu, 5/24/23 

“Carbon capture and storage—the technology that traps carbon dioxide from industrial processes and permanently sequesters it in rock formations underground—has become a much-hyped answer to the world’s need to quickly reign in greenhouse gas emissions and curb global warming,” Barron’s reports. 

Globe and Mail: Hopper CEO aims to transform Canada into a carbon capture capital with startup Deep Sky
5/7/23

“Fred Lalonde built online travel agency Hopper Inc. into one of Canada’s largest tech companies by using artificial intelligence to predict the best times to buy airline tickets,” the Globe and Mail reports. “…Mr. Lalonde is now determined to turn Canada into a global hub for sucking carbon dioxide out of the skies and oceans and cramming it underground. His new start-up, Deep Sky Corp., aims to build massive CO2 removal and sequestration operations in Quebec, Ontario and possibly Alberta, building already-on-market technologies from vendors like Mission Zero, Carbyon and Equatic together. The plan is not to capture carbon directly at the source as it is emitted, but to target CO2 that already comes from previous industrial activities. Deep Sky would use Canada’s vast lands, renewable energy and favorable geology to create what he calls cities to save civilization. Revenue and funding would be raised through the sale of carbon credits in a market where demand exceeds supply… “Deep Sky has raised $10 million from two Hopper investors, the Government of Quebec and Brightspark Ventures. Hopper President Dakota Smith sits on Deep Sky’s board of directors.”

New York Times: Nature Lawyers Up: A growing number of countries and courts say the environment should be endowed with legal rights.
Manuela Andreoni, 5/5/23

“Overall, humanity has made a lot of progress, albeit uneven, over the past decades. Our environment, on the other hand, might be in worse shape than ever. So, what if we all agreed that nature had basic rights similar to human rights?” the New York Times reports. “Today I want to talk about the “rights of nature” legal movement. The idea, that natural objects should have some of the same rights as people, originated in the United States some 50 years ago. Today, an increasing number of countries and judges are saying yes, they should. Countries like Ecuador, New Zealand and Uganda have laws granting natural objects rights. And court rulings in India, Colombia and Bangladesh have recognized them, too… “Embracing this legal movement may change the way we think about fundamental issues such as the energy transition. It will require a lot of mining for battery minerals and land for renewable power plants. But is there a way to live that doesn’t hurt nature as much? It’s a question for all of us.”

CLIMATE FINANCE

Washington Post: Is BlackRock’s Larry Fink blowing it for the climate?
Evan Halper, 5/6/23

“Just after Thanksgiving, dozens of state lawmakers packed into a hotel ballroom in downtown Washington to plan their next assault on a movement that pushes companies to confront global warming and social injustice,” the Washington Post reports. “Their attacks on “woke investing” were already sticking in red-state capitols and on Fox News, but the group wanted a target with a human face. “Every big problem needs a face and a name,” the speaker said at the private event hosted by the conservative American Legislative Exchange Council. “The worst offender out there is BlackRock and Larry Fink.” Since then, the attacks have been unrelenting. And Fink, founder of the world’s largest investment and risk management firm, has throttled back on the urgency with which he pushes companies to confront climate change. The resolute language in public letters to CEOs is gone. And BlackRock executives have begun waving away the climate targets they once committed to helping the world meet as irrelevant to the current moment. “The conversation with clients has moved away from … 2050 targets,” said Mark Wiedman, who heads global client business at BlackRock, referring to the U.N. goal of zeroing out emissions by 2050 to stop catastrophic warming. “It’s moved away from [climate] alliances. It’s moved toward actually putting money to work that will profit from and drive the transition.” “…Yet Fink’s once-robust warnings to CEOs about the peril of ignoring climate risk — emphasized by BlackRock in its pursuit of what is called environmental, social, governance, or ESG — now have BlackRock rivaling Disney and Anheuser Busch as the favored target of a conservative “anti-woke” movement shaping the 2024 election campaign. “If you told me two years ago that there would be a political movement focused on attacking critical race theory, gas stove bans and ESG investing, I would have said you are standing too close to your gas stove,” Brad Lander, the comptroller of New York City, told the Post. “But they have made ESG investing part of the culture war. How clever to make Wall Street the target with their pretend populism, when they are really doing the bidding of fossil fuel companies.”

Financial Times: COP28 team marshals oil and gas industry alliance ahead of climate summit
Attracta Mooney and Camilla Hodgson, 5/5/23

“A new alliance of the oil and gas sector is being marshalled by the COP28 team behind the UN climate summit in the United Arab Emirates, but early outlines of its goals aimed at tackling global warming do not include the bulk of emissions that arise from the use of fossil fuels,” the Financial Times reports. “Billed as a flagship COP28 initiative, the provisionally named Global Decarbonization Alliance will set a goal of reaching net zero emissions by 2050 from direct emissions and emissions derived from the energy the companies purchase, known as scope 1 and 2, an initiating letter seen by the Financial Times says. However, the framework as it is outlined in the letter does not include a target for so-called scope 3 emissions, or the indirect emissions that make up by far the biggest proportion of the sector’s pollution… “It’s hard to see much decarbonisation in the Global Decarbonization Alliance,” Thomas Hale, director of the independent research group Net Zero Tracker, told FT, adding that any “credible” oil and gas COP initiative must address scope 3 emissions… “The recent letter outlining the goals was addressed to COP industry partners and sent by Samir Elshihabi, COP28 energy transition lead, who has worked at Occidental Petroleum in Abu Dhabi. “We aim to reach net zero emissions (Scope 1 and 2) under our control, and work with partners to achieve the same in non-operated assets, by or before 2050,” it said.

OPINION

Chicago Sun Times: Carbon capture can help the environment, but only if it’s done safely
Editorial Board, 5/8/23

“Because of Illinois’ unusual geology, many companies throughout the nation’s midsection might want to capture carbon dioxide emissions from their operations and ship the gas to Illinois for sequestration underground,” the Chicago Sun Times Editorial Board writes. “Before that happens, Illinois should put strong safeguards in place to protect residents, landowners, taxpayers, drinking water and the climate… “We have never done anything at this scale,” Pam Richart, co-director of the Eco-Justice Collaborative in Champaign, told us. “That raises a lot of uncertainties about whether we can do it. If it isn’t done correctly, there can be induced earthquakes. That kind of seismic activity could fracture cap rock and release CO2.” Federal regulations governing the new and risky technology are limited. For example, the federal rules don’t require pipelines, which can rupture, to be a safe distance from sensitive sites. The Legislature needs to put safety measures in place to prevent long-term problems for the state, about 70% of which is home to an underground formation called the Illinois Basin… “But if compressing, transporting, injecting under high pressure and sequestering carbon dioxide underground is going to be part of the answer, it must be done safely… “Storing carbon dioxide below the site where it is generated, as ADM does, is the best option. Capturing it and transporting it long distances is a different matter. The risks of transporting carbon dioxide from one state to another are many. It takes a lot of energy to capture carbon and compress it into liquid form for transportation and sequestration, and that energy should not come from burning fossil fuels. Any transportation must be free of leaks that send the CO2 right back into the atmosphere. Long-term underground storage sites must be leak-proof as well. And capturing carbon dioxide should not be used as a trade-off to enable more air pollution from coal-fired power plants or other fossil fuel-burning industrial facilities. The net effect of carbon sequestration should be a significant climate solution. Moreover, carbon dioxide is an asphyxiant that can harm or kill people, livestock and wildlife if it escapes from pipelines or its underground storage. For example, a pipeline carrying carbon dioxide and hydrogen sulfide burst in 2020, and the gases traveled more than a mile to a small Mississippi village. Forty-six people were hospitalized with carbon dioxide poisoning. Even stored underground, CO2 can be a risk. If it pushes brine upward through cracks, drinking water could be tainted. If the carbon dioxide comes into contact with drinking water, it can form carbonic acid, which can dissolve rock and release heavy metals into drinking water, Richart said. Pipelines carrying carbon dioxide should not be situated near residences, schools, health care facilities, mines, wells or other sensitive sites. An effective monitoring system, paid for by the industry, should be in place to guard against life-threatening leaks. Financial protections should be created to prevent landowners, taxpayers and the government from being stuck with the future tab if something goes wrong… “Any final bill should ensure Illinois is regulating the technology responsibly. Keeping carbon dioxide out of the atmosphere is an important goal. But it needs to be done in a way that is safe for people and the environment.”

Philadelphia Business Journal: Viewpoint: Will denial of a rail permit to haul LNG through Philadelphia kill the project?
Stan Silverman, Guest Columnist, 5/5/23

“The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration denied Energy Transport Solutions a special permit renewal on April 24 to haul liquified natural gas (LNG) by rail through a populated portion of eastern Pennsylvania,” Stan Silverman writes for the Philadelphia Business Journal. “…The denial of the special permit renewal by the PHMSA was the right thing to do given the frequency of derailments. When the risk is small but the result of a derailment could be catastrophic, you don’t take the risk. Shipping LNG over the road by tanker truck from Wyalusing to Gibbstown also risks a catastrophe… “Is there a safer way to transport LNG from Wyalusing to Gibbstown? Yes — by pipeline. It’s a huge investment, would take years to build and may not be economically feasible. Obtaining permits would be challenged by environmental groups and might never be granted… “The Fraser Institute, a Canadian think tank, reports that transport by rail results in about 4.5 times as many accidents as transport by pipeline. Those who object to building more pipelines in the U.S. don’t realize our economy relies on them.”