EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 7/19/24

PIPELINE NEWS
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Capitol News Illinois: After years of controversy, state pauses CO2 pipeline construction, for now
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E&E News: Illinois’ Pritzker signs law to regulate CO2 storage, pipelines
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Pipeline Fighters Hub: Paul Blackburn: Rotten Eggs: The Case of the Missing Hydrogen Sulfide in Satartia, Mississippi
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Bismarck Tribune: Morton County approves moratorium on direct air carbon capture facilities
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Law360: Enviro Groups Deploy Chevron Ruling In Pipeline Case
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DeSmog: Keystone XL Developer TC Energy Listed as RNC Host Committee Sponsor
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On the Wight: Exxon Mobil to launch public consultations for Solent CO2 Pipeline Project: Have your say
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Oil & Gas Journal: ONEOK to expand refined products pipeline to greater Denver area
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Daily Energy Insider: Florida PSC approves three projects proposed by Peninsula Pipeline Company
WASHINGTON UPDATES
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Reuters: Climate groups split over whether Biden should ‘pass the torch’
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Washington Post: How a Republican election sweep could transform U.S. climate policy
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E&E News: Feds Are Freaking Out About Trump 2.0
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E&E News: Gaming Out A Trump Energy Cabinet
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Politico: Energy At The RNC
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Bloomberg: New Interior Oil Drilling Permits Temporarily Blocked In Wyoming
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E&E News: API Backs Biden Offshore Oil Rule In Court
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Colorado Newsline: Boebert looks to replace Haaland at Interior Department if Trump wins
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E&E News: Lauren Boebert Wants To Lead Interior? Just Kidding!
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E&E News: BLM Seeks Oil And Big Game Balance For Colorado Public Lands
STATE UPDATES
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Associated Press: California first state to get federal funds for hydrogen energy hub to help replace fossil fuels
EXTRACTION
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Guardian: Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
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The Hill: Oil and gas firms backpedaling on climate goals, report finds
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Calgary Herald: ‘The mouse beside the elephant’ — Canada’s oilpatch keeps close eye on U.S. campaign
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Medicine Hat News: City quiet on carbon capture facility as Methanex ramps up production
OPINION
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Iowa City Press-Citizen: Carbon pipelines equal big oil blarney
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Bleeding Heartland: Iowa candidates must pledge to reject carbon pipeline money
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Salt Lake Tribune: Put politics aside, cut the red tape and allow state regulation of carbon capture projects in Utah
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Grand Forks Herald: Agriculture and energy are the big picture for CO2
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The ConversatIon: Methane emissions are the low-hanging fruit of the climate transition
PIPELINE NEWS
Capitol News Illinois: After years of controversy, state pauses CO2 pipeline construction, for now
ANDREW ADAMS, 7/18/24
“New safety requirements for carbon dioxide pipelines as well as a temporary ban on their construction are now in effect after Gov. JB Pritzker on Thursday signed a bill that passed the General Assembly earlier this year,” Capitol News Illinois reports. “…We are essentially attempting to refossilize fossil fuels – put them back under the ground and keep them from going into the air and contributing to global warming,” state Sen. Bill Cunningham, D-Chicago, said at a news conference Thursday. “That’s very important work.” But some oppose the technology on environmental grounds while others say the pipelines used to transport carbon dioxide from where it’s produced to storage sites brings the risk of catastrophic – and potentially lethal – failure. “There are a range of opinions within the environmental community on carbon capture technology,” Christine Nannicelli of the Sierra Club Illinois chapter said during Thursday’s bill signing. “That said, there is overwhelming agreement within our broad coalition on the need to have critical safeguards in place.” The legislation signed Thursday, which was backed by the Sierra Club and other environmental groups, as well as business and organized labor groups, contains provisions that Nannicelli said are the “strongest carbon capture protections in the nation.” “…This bill adds carbon capture to the growing list of new and burgeoning industries being built right here in our state,” Pritzker said. This mirrored comments from business leaders Thursday, such as Chris Cuddy, an executive at ADM, the Illinois-based company that operates the oldest large-scale carbon sequestration project in the U.S… “One smaller project, from Gibson City-based One Earth Energy, was under consideration for a permit from the Illinois Commerce Commission, but the company requested that the case be pulled in June in anticipation of the bill signing. An administrative judge formally suspended considerations in the case on June 10… “Steve Kelly, president of One Earth Energy, said that the company plans to file new paperwork with the ICC when the moratorium is lifted.”
E&E News: Illinois’ Pritzker signs law to regulate CO2 storage, pipelines
Jeffrey Tomich, 7/19/24
“Illinois Gov. J.B. Pritzker on Thursday signed into law rules for the deployment of carbon capture storage and pipelines — a rare kumbaya moment for a climate technology that remains divisive, especially on the left,” E&E News reports. “Enactment of the SAFE CCS Act passed by state lawmakers in late May makes Illinois just the second state after California to put a moratorium on approval of carbon dioxide pipelines while federal regulators overhaul regulations for such projects in the wake of a 2020 pipeline failure in Satartia, Mississippi. The Illinois law also comes just weeks after regulators in neighboring Iowa approved that state’s portion of Summit Carbon Solutions’ $8 billion CO2 pipeline connecting dozens of ethanol and fertilizer plants across the Corn Belt with a site in North Dakota, where the carbon pollution would be injected deep underground. Pritzker, a Democrat, was joined at the bill signing at the carbon capture education center at Richland Community College in Decatur, Illinois, by legislative leaders and representatives from agriculture giant ADM, as well as labor, manufacturing and environmental groups. The governor touted the economic potential of carbon capture technology for Illinois and said the regulations “set a national standard for safety and environmental protection.”
Pipeline Fighters Hub: Paul Blackburn: Rotten Eggs: The Case of the Missing Hydrogen Sulfide in Satartia, Mississippi
Paul Blackburn, 7/18/24
“Summit Carbon Solutions and the ethanol industry argue that ruptures of ethanol-based carbon dioxide pipelines will not have the same health impacts as the February 22, 2020, rupture of a Denbury carbon dioxide pipeline near Satartia, Mississippi, because, according to them, the carbon dioxide in the Denbury pipeline was contaminated with hydrogen sulfide, whereas the carbon dioxide that would be captured at ethanol plants is not. They claim that it was the hydrogen sulfide that harmed the people of Satartia, and not the carbon dioxide,” the Pipeline Fighters Hub reports. “As evidence for their claim, they state that the source of the carbon dioxide transported by Denbury pipeline is the Jackson Dome, an underground natural source of carbon dioxide known to be contaminated with an average of 5 percent hydrogen sulfide (50,000 parts per million), as well as an average of 5 percent natural gas. H2S concentrations as high as 35 percent have been reported… “Yet, air quality monitoring data collected by a Denbury contractor using equipment rated to detect hydrogen sulfide levels as low as 0.1 ppm failed to show any hydrogen sulfide. Where did the hydrogen sulfide go? It’s a mystery! Grab your magnifying glass, notebook and join me in solving the case of the missing hydrogen sulfide… “Don’t believe Summit or the ethanol industry’s argument that the Satartia residents were harmed by H2S and not CO2. The health impacts suffered by the Satartia residents are fully consistent with those resulting from exposure to high levels of CO2 and do not appear to be caused by high H2S concentrations. The Satartia rupture presents a stark reminder of the danger of living near a CO2 pipeline, no matter how pure the CO2 may be.”
Bismarck Tribune: Morton County approves moratorium on direct air carbon capture facilities
JOEY HARRIS, 7/19/24
“The Morton County Commission has approved a moratorium on direct air carbon capture facilities, though the project that prompted it is unlikely to be affected,” the Bismarck Tribune reports. “Commissioners on July 11 decided the moratorium will end after 12 months. If the county Planning and Zoning department doesn’t establish a process for addressing the facilities within that time frame, the moratorium will be reconsidered… “Colorado-based Retract LLC earlier this year sought a special use zoning permit for a direct air carbon capture facility in rural Morton County… “The proposed Retract project sparked controversy among locals, including a letter with over 100 signatures citing a number of concerns mostly related to potential safety issues, noise disruption and land disturbance at the large facility’s planned location near the state-owned Danzig Dam… “Some groups representing the state’s powerful energy industry have opposed the moratorium. Carbon capture is broadly viewed by state officials, as well as by coal, oil, gas and biofuel companies, as necessary to keep their businesses alive long term as the world seeks to address climate change… “The project will be heard later this month by Planning and Zoning, which will make a recommendation. The County Commission has the ultimate say. A denial by the commission would mean Retract has to wait a year to apply again.”
Law360: Enviro Groups Deploy Chevron Ruling In Pipeline Case
Ali Sullivan, 7/18/24
“Environmental groups suing the federal government over the reissuance of a nationwide Clean Water Act permit that can be used for oil and gas pipelines told a D.C. federal judge Thursday that the recent overturning of the Chevron defence bolsters their effort to get the permit thrown out,” Law360 reports.
DeSmog: Keystone XL Developer TC Energy Listed as RNC Host Committee Sponsor
Taylor Noakes, 7/18/24
“TC Energy, a Calgary-based energy company with operations throughout North America, is a sponsor of the Republican National Convention Host Committee, according to the committee’s website,” DeSmog reports. “…TC Energy was the driving force behind the Keystone XL pipeline project, which was delayed by the Obama administration in 2015 and revived by the Trump administration in 2020. The company cancelled the $9 billion, 1,200-mile project in June 2021 after the Biden administration issued an executive order blocking a key permit. Canadian officials, including Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and the Government of Alberta, objected to the decision at the time. The news comes after an American arbitration tribunal rejected the company’s claim to recover $15 billion from the U.S. government for its role in cancelling the project… “Why TC Energy is supporting the RNC host committee is not clear. Efforts to contact TC Energy’s media relations department by DeSmog were not successful… “It isn’t clear that TC Energy has any specific goal in sponsoring the committee — there are no statements on the company’s website related to its sponsorship of the event… “Environmental advocates say the partnership could prove to be a disaster for climate progress. “TC Energy’s sponsorship of the Republican National Convention’s Host Committee is a tactic straight out of the oil and gas playbook,” Julia Levin, an associate director on climate with Environmental Defence, told DeSmog. “We’ve recently seen how TC Energy seeks to influence climate progress in Canada.”
On the Wight: Exxon Mobil to launch public consultations for Solent CO2 Pipeline Project: Have your say
7/19/24
“Exxon Mobil, a major international oil and gas corporation, is set to engage with the public regarding its ambitious plans to establish a new carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline,” On the Wight reports. “The Solent CO2 Pipeline Project aims to connect Exxon Mobil’s Fawley oil refinery near Southampton to a designated CO2 storage site beneath the English Channel. According to Exxon Mobil, the proposed pipeline is an essential component for the introduction of Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) in the Solent area… “The company has scheduled a series of public consultations to discuss the project, running from 7th August to 5th September.”
Oil & Gas Journal: ONEOK to expand refined products pipeline to greater Denver area
7/18/24
“ONEOK plans to expand its pipeline capacity connecting Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast refined products supply with the greater Denver area to meet growing demand and increase connectivity with Denver International Airport,” Oil & Gas Journal reports. “ONEOK Inc., Tulsa, Okla., plans to expand its pipeline capacity connecting Mid-Continent and Gulf Coast refined products supply with the greater Denver area to meet growing demand and increase connectivity with Denver International Airport (DIA). The project—expected to cost $480 million and be completed in mid-2026—includes construction of a new 230-mile, 16-in. OD pipeline from Scott City, Kan., to DIA and the addition or upgrading of certain pump stations along the existing refined products pipeline system, the company said in a release July 18.”
Daily Energy Insider: Florida PSC approves three projects proposed by Peninsula Pipeline Company
Dave Kovaleski, 7/18/24
“Peninsula Pipeline Company (PPC), a subsidiary of Chesapeake Utilities, received approval from the Florida Public Service Commission for three projects that expand natural gas infrastructure in Florida,” Daily Energy Insider reports. “The projects, located in Brevard, Indian River and Miami-Dade counties, will bring renewable natural gas produced from local landfills into the Florida City Gas (FCG) natural gas distribution system. These projects, which will increase natural gas supply to serve FCG customers, represent a combined capital investment of $46 million. The three projects are estimated to be completed in the first half of 2025.”
WASHINGTON UPDATES
Reuters: Climate groups split over whether Biden should ‘pass the torch’
Valerie Volcovici, 7/18/24
“Green groups are split over whether President Joe Biden should step aside for another Democrat in the U.S. election, with some concerned his weakening polling against fossil fuel booster Donald Trump could hamper turnout and jeopardize his climate wins,” Reuters reports. “…Environmental groups are anxious at a potential second Trump administration, after his 2017-2021 term brought sweeping roll-backs of environmental regulation and restrictions on oil drilling, plus withdrawal from an international pact… “Of eight national environmental groups contacted by Reuters, two want Biden to step aside, one wants him to stay, and the rest were undecided or declined to comment. “Joe Biden’s inability to campaign coherently and articulate an alternative to the far right will result in lower turnout among potential Democratic voters faced with a choice between two old white men clinging to power,” Evan Drukker-Schardl, an organizer with Climate Defiance, told Reuters… “After speaking with young people across the country over the past few weeks, I am concerned that Joe Biden isn’t positioned to mobilize young people and win in November,” Sunrise director Aru Shiney-Ajay told Reuters. Friends of the Earth Action told Reuters it welcomed “the public discourse surrounding Biden’s electability” and was still weighing an endorsement. Meanwhile, the Sierra Club last week said it would stick with Biden. “No president in history has taken more action on climate than Joe Biden,” said its president Ben Jealous… “Natural Resources Defense Council Action declined to comment, while the League of Conservation Voters and EDF Action did not respond to requests for comment.”
Washington Post: How a Republican election sweep could transform U.S. climate policy
Maxine Joselow, 7/18/24
“Defunding or dismantling federal agencies focused on the environment. Slashing regulations aimed at combating climate change and cutting deadly air pollution. Boosting the use of fossil fuels that have helped drive the U.S. economy but also contribute to the heat waves afflicting millions of Americans this summer. These are just some of the ways Republicans could shift U.S. climate policy if they win the White House, flip the Senate and maintain their House majority in the November election,” the Washington Post reports. “…That prospect has unnerved some leading liberal climate groups and boosted the confidence of Trump supporters, some of whom continue to dismiss the scientific consensus that a warming climate poses significant risks. “To say climate change is the biggest threat to humanity is absolutely insane,” William Perry Pendley, who served as acting director of the Interior Department’s Bureau of Land Management during the Trump administration, told the Post. “The remedy that President Biden has is, ‘Let’s spend a ton of money solving a problem that doesn’t exist and turning over your lifestyles.’ That’s certainly not the position of the Republican Party.” Republicans already have a playbook if they gain full power in Washington: legislation that passed the House in recent years but later died, either because of Senate opposition or a veto by Biden. This includes bills to allow more pollution from diesel trucks, strip away protections for imperiled species and open up more federal lands to oil drilling… “Another potential playbook for Republicans is Project 2025, a sweeping blueprint for the next conservative administration drafted by right-wing think tanks and former Trump officials. Pendley wrote the chapter on the Interior Department, which recommends increasing oil drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and the Arctic wilderness, slashing the fees that fossil fuel firms pay to drill on public lands, and providing legal protections for energy companies that unintentionally kill birds. More broadly, Project 2025 suggests eliminating the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, which forecasts weather and tracks climate change, describing it as “one of the main drivers of the climate change alarm industry.” The plan endorses shuttering an Energy Department office that has roughly $400 billion in loan authority to help emerging clean energy technologies. And it would cut the EPA’s Office of Environmental Justice, which aims to address the pollution that disproportionately harms poor and minority communities. “Project 2025 is an absolute gift to the fossil fuel industry,” Patrick Drupp, director of climate policy at the Sierra Club, told the Post. “All of the progress we’re making would be reversed if that scenario happened.”
E&E News: Feds Are Freaking Out About Trump 2.0
ROBIN BRAVENDER, KEVIN BOGARDUS, 7/18/24
“…Understandably they’re fearful for their positions and just generally what Trump could do,” that person told E&E News. “I thought there would be some lessening of that with Biden, but it stuck through the Biden administration.” That person pointed to a recent park service controversy surrounding whether employees could wear their uniforms to LGBTQ+ Pride events. The park service issued guidance saying employees were prohibited from wearing their uniforms to Pride events before Interior Secretary Deb Haaland reversed the ban. The initial prohibition was an indication, that employee said, that government officials are “a lot more risk averse and don’t want to rock the boat, especially so close to the election.” A longtime senior employee at the Interior Department told E&E people are in a scramble to entrench programs that would be vulnerable under a potential Trump presidency. “The concern hasn’t been focused on who the Democratic nominee is as much as concerns about Trump winning and what that would mean,” the Interior official told E&E. “From everyone’s perspective it is get as much done as possible. Also trying to bury into the agency programs [like environmental justice] so they can survive a Trump administration.”
E&E News: Gaming Out A Trump Energy Cabinet
ROBIN BRAVENDER, 7/17/24
“North Dakota Republican Gov. Doug Burgum, a vocal Trump supporter who was a contender for vice presidential nominee, could land in a prime energy position,” E&E News reports. “Trump praised Burgum’s energy record on the campaign trail, saying the governor “probably knows more about energy than anybody I know.” Burgum told CNN this week that he had received a call from Trump in which Trump called him ‘Mr. Secretary.’ “…People have said “you’d make a great [Department of Agriculture] secretary, you know incredible amounts about ag,” or “you’d be great for the Department of Interior because everything you know about [the Bureau of Land Management] and tribal lands,” Burgum said last August, The Washington Times reported. “Those seem like the qualifications for the top job.” “…Other names in the mix for a Trump Interior secretary include Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy, a Trump ally who has been a staunch critic of the Biden Interior Department’s oil and gas policies in his state. Former Trump Interior Secretary David Bernhardt and former Deputy Interior Secretary Katharine MacGregor are also mentioned as contenders for the top Interior job if the White House flips.”
Politico: Energy At The RNC
7/18/24
“Republicans continued to hammer the Biden administration on energy policy on the third night of the Republican National Convention,” Politico reports. “Joe Biden is willing to buy energy from tin-pot dictators across the world when he could buy it from his own citizens right here in our own country,” said Sen. J.D. Vance, Donald Trump’s newly minted running mate, attacking “Joe Biden and Kamala Harris’s Green New Scam.” Petroleum engineer Sarah Philips led the crowd in a ‘Drill Baby Drill’ chant while North Dakota Gov. Doug Burgum opened his remarks with a call-and-response asking, ‘Who will make America energy dominant?’ Burgum, who is likely to play a key role on energy policy in a potential second Trump administration, blasted Biden’s ‘mandates to shut down reliable baseload electricity’ for raising energy bills and lamented the ‘party they must have thrown that night at the Kremlin’ when Biden paused new natural gas export permits.”
Bloomberg: New Interior Oil Drilling Permits Temporarily Blocked In Wyoming
Gabe Castro-Root, 7/17/24
“New oil drilling permits on nearly 120,000 acres of public land in Wyoming were temporarily paused by a federal court Tuesday,” Bloomberg reports. “Judge Christopher R. Cooper of the US District Court for the District of Columbia blocked the Bureau of Land Management from approving new drilling permits on the land until the agency conducts a supplemental review of the related environmental impact. He gave the agency 180 days to complete the review. Cooper previously ruled in the case that the Interior Department’s BLM failed to fully comply with the National Environmental Policy Act when assessing the environmental impact of drilling on the land “and explaining its decision to authorize a lease sale of this magnitude in light of its own estimates of the steep social costs from the projected greenhouse gas emissions.”
E&E News: API Backs Biden Offshore Oil Rule In Court
HEATHER RICHARDS, 7/18/24
“The American Petroleum Institute is defending the Biden administration’s offshore oil regulations against a legal challenge from Gulf states and midsize oil companies,” E&E News reports. “API, the nation’s leading trade organization for the oil industry, filed a request to intervene in a Louisiana court case Tuesday over the Interior Department’s recently finalized bonding rule. The Bureau of Ocean Energy Management rule aims to ensure oil companies clean up their old wells, platforms and pipelines by requiring ‘supplemental’ insurance for some companies. Republican attorneys general from Louisiana, Texas and Mississippi sued over the rule in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana last month, alleging the plan’s potential $7 billion cost to midsize oil operators would have ‘devastating and immediate effects on Gulf drilling.’ API’s move underscores an emerging schism between some of the world’s largest oil companies and smaller businesses as the nation’s offshore basins age and oil projects face high retirement costs.”
Colorado Newsline: Boebert looks to replace Haaland at Interior Department if Trump wins
SHAUN GRISWOLD, 7/17/24
“If U.S. Rep. Lauren Boebert (R-Colorado) gets her way, she will be the next Interior Department secretary in another Donald Trump administration,” Colorado Newsline reports. “I think Lauren Boebert needs to be the secretary of the Interior. President Trump, I would like to be secretary of the Interior,” she said on Native America Calling on Wednesday — the third day of the Republican National Convention. She would replace Interior Secretary Deb Haaland (Laguna), who is the current leader for the department under President Joe Biden. Haaland was celebrated as the first Native American cabinet secretary, and she has ushered in more knowledge on issues affecting tribal governments… “Boebert has never publicly stated her interest in the job, her campaign confirmed, and the idea appeared to be spontaneous… “Boebert said she would reverse Haaland-led efforts, like expanding Bears Ears National Monument, and she spoke in favor of expanding coal and “drilling” projects… “I believe that that is a cleaner way to take care of the environment and extract those resources that we have been blessed with to use what’s given to us by the earth to produce this energy in a clean and efficient way, rather than just covering it up with solar panels and wind turbines.” “…When she was asked about the Antiquities Act, an executive action that created the expansion of Bears Ears and other national monuments, she said “Ugh, the Antiquities Act, nope.” “…I am pro fossil fuels, oil and gas, and I especially want to explore nuclear,” she said during the interview. “But I think that our tribal lands are impacted severely when we are shutting down our coal-fired energy plants.”
E&E News: Lauren Boebert Wants To Lead Interior? Just Kidding!
Michael Doyle, 7/18/24
“…But when asked about the on-the-record exchange later, a Boebert spokesperson told Kyle Clark, an anchor for Denver’s 9News, that the lawmaker was just joking,” E&E News reports. “Clark reported this on X, the social media site, and confirmed the same in a phone interview. Drew Sexton, Boebert’s campaign manager, told POLITICO’s E&E News on Thursday that ‘It was a tongue-in-cheek, lighthearted comment’ that was part of an impromptu interview. ‘Obviously, the congresswoman is incredibly passionate about issues like management of public lands that fall under the purview of the secretary of Interior, but she’s completely committed to serving in Congress,’ Sexton told E&E.”
E&E News: BLM Seeks Oil And Big Game Balance For Colorado Public Lands
Scott Streater, 7/18/24
“The Bureau of Land Management announced Thursday it has finalized a proposal that would revamp land use plans covering millions of acres in Colorado to place new restrictions that balance oil and gas development with protecting key habitat corridors for big game species,” E&E News reports. “The approach BLM announced in a multivolume final environmental impact statement would amend 13 resource management plans across the state, adding new restrictions on oil and gas leasing across much of the 8.3 million acres of BLM surface lands and 4.7 million acres of subsurface federal mineral split estate. The goal of the proposal, which is related to a 2022 legal settlement between the bureau and the state of Colorado, is to better balance energy development with protection of important migration corridors and habitat for elk, mule deer, pronghorn and bighorn sheep. BLM has said it wants to complete a record of decision approving the plan and RMP amendments by November. An oil and gas industry trade group representative called the plan ‘balanced,’ and conservation groups praised it as an important step to protecting critical wildlife habitat.”
STATE UPDATES
Associated Press: California first state to get federal funds for hydrogen energy hub to help replace fossil fuels
7/17/24
“California will be the first state to receive federal funds under a program to create regional networks, or “hubs,” that produce hydrogen as an energy source for vehicles, manufacturing and generating electricity, officials announced Wednesday,” the Associated Press reports. “The U.S. Department of Energy said the California Hydrogen Hub will receive an initial $30 million to begin its planning and design phase. The state will eventually receive up to $1.2 billion for the project that is a key part of the Biden administration’s agenda to slow climate change. The administration in October selected seven regional hubs for the $7 billion program that will kickstart development and production of hydrogen fuel, with the goal of eventually replacing fossil fuels such as coal and oil with the colorless, odorless gas that already powers some cars and trains.”
EXTRACTION
Guardian: Five Just Stop Oil activists receive record sentences for planning to block M25
Damien Gayle, 7/18/24
“Five supporters of the Just Stop Oil climate campaign who conspired to cause gridlock on London’s orbital motorway have been sentenced to lengthy jail terms by a judge who told them they had “crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic,” the Guardian reports. “Roger Hallam, Daniel Shaw, Louise Lancaster, Lucia Whittaker De Abreu and Cressida Gethin were found guilty last week of conspiracy to cause a public nuisance for coordinating direct action protests on the M25 over four days in November 2022. Hallam received a five-year sentence on Thursday, while the other four were each sentenced to four years. The sentences are thought to be the longest sentences ever given in the UK for non-violent protest, exceeding those given to the Just Stop Oil protesters Morgan Trowland (three years) and Marcus Decker (two years and seven months) for scaling the Dartford Crossing… “Passing sentence on each of the defendants at Southwark crown court, the judge Christopher Hehir said: “The offending of all five of you is very serious indeed and lengthy custodial sentences must follow.” Hehir admitted there was a scientific and social consensus that human-made climate breakdown was happening and action should be taken to avert it. “I acknowledge that at least some of the concerns motivating you are, at least to some extent, shared by many,” he said. “But the plain fact is that each of you has some time ago crossed the line from concerned campaigner to fanatic. You have appointed yourselves as the sole arbiters of what should be done about climate change, bound neither by the principles of democracy nor the rule of law. “And your fanaticism makes you entirely heedless of the rights of your fellow citizens. You have taken it upon yourselves to decide that your fellow citizens must suffer disruption and harm, and how much disruption and harm they must suffer, simply so that you may parade your views.”
The Hill: Oil and gas firms backpedaling on climate goals, report finds
SAUL ELBEIN, 7/18/24
“Many energy companies are pulling back on their ambition to move away from fossil fuels, a new report has found,” according to The Hill. “More than three-quarters of pipeline and refining companies still boast an energy transition strategy — a plan to move away from the planet-warming fuels, according to Reuters’s Energy Transition Insights Report 2024. But the number of firms with such plans has fallen sharply since 2023, when more than 90 percent of respondents from pipeline and refining companies listed energy transition targets. Reuters researchers found that this pivot — which brings those sectors of oil and gas into line with the worldwide energy sector’s stance on the energy transition — coincided with a broad “slide in ambition” from global firms. Between 2023 and 2024, the number of respondents who expected their firms to meet their transition goals by 2030 fell from 75 percent to 61 percent. Over the same period, the number that expected their firm’s transition to take until 2050 nearly doubled, from 17 percent in 2023 to 31 percent in 2024. That shift, Reuters noted, occurred alongside another one: a decoupling of clean energy and fossil fuel firms from each other.”
Calgary Herald: ‘The mouse beside the elephant’ — Canada’s oilpatch keeps close eye on U.S. campaign
Chris Varcoe, 7/19/24
“The upcoming U.S. election campaign ushers in an anxious time for Canada’s oilpatch,” the Calgary Herald reports. “The politics of energy south of the border are being closely watched in Canada for its potential impact on oil and gas trade with the United States — a prolific relationship that’s sometimes fraught with potential land mines. After all, it only took one day on the job for U.S. President Joe Biden to pull the plug in 2021 on the cross-border Keystone XL pipeline that was already under construction by TC Energy – a project backed by Alberta that cost the government an estimated $1.3 billion. An investment trade dispute tribunal ruled Friday against TC Energy in the Calgary-based pipeline giant’s pursuit of US$15 billion in damages over the U.S. government’s termination of permits for the oil line. It underscores the unpredictable nature of the relationship, which is also accurately described as the most important energy partnership in the world. “In Canada, we’ve got to recognize that we’re the mouse beside the elephant. And the best thing we can do is build relationships at the business level, and at the government level, in a very cooperative way,” Hal Kvisle, former CEO of TransCanada Corp. (now TC Energy) when it developed the original Keystone pipeline to ship oil into the United States, told the Herald. “The interplay between energy and politics just never goes away.” “…Trade between the two sides is integrated and generally trouble-free, although there are exceptions, such as Keystone XL or ongoing concerns around the future of Enbridge’s Line 5 in Michigan. “Particularly in the Canada-U.S. file, it’s been infrastructure that has been the biggest problem,” Christopher Sands, director of the Wilson Centre’s Canada Institute in Washington, told the Herald.”
Medicine Hat News: City quiet on carbon capture facility as Methanex ramps up production
COLLIN GALLANT, 7/19/24
“A private sector deal to partner on building carbon capture capacity at a local plant site is not the agreement that the City of Medicine Hat is still apparently preparing for its own carbon storage hub with separate private company,” Medicine Hat News reports. “On Wednesday, Methanex outlined an initial agreement with Alberta-based “carbon solutions” firm Entropy to study, design and potentially greenlight a $100-million upgrade the methanol producer’s facility in Medicine Hat. It would capture and reuse portions of carbon dioxide emissions to boost production, but also sequester a portion deep underground. That comes as federal tax credit regime for such projects come into effect and a number of projects throughout the province are being announced this month. But, it’s also six weeks after Medicine Hat city council directed administrators to finalize a commercial agreement with unnamed private entities related to “Project Clear Horizon” carbon storage project… “Sources tell the News members of council’s energy committee met with consulting groups during a closed portion of a regular meeting on Thursday… “City officials told the News on Thursday that it would not comment further at this point, but said the City still holds exclusive geologic rights to explore and develop a hub in the area… “There is no estimate from either company on when a final investment decision will be made.”
OPINION
Iowa City Press-Citizen: Carbon pipelines equal big oil blarney
Jay Gilchrist, 7/18/24
“Applause for last week’s column by Jane Yoder-Short, “Eminent domain and carbon capture pipelines.” Thanks for speaking for our land, which is increasingly becoming not “our” land, and instead the finagled domain of big ag and big oil,” Jay Gilchrist writes for the Iowa City Press-Citizen. “…Study after study has proven that biological sequestration is much more effective and much safer than mechanical sequestration… “Carbon Capture and Storage (CCS) is no answer to climate change but a “get-out of-jail-free” card for continued oil and gas production, and a nifty distraction from cleaner, safer, and better energy options,” wrote Sarah Biermann Becker in Global Witness (Nov. 17, 2023)… “Even tiny ruptures of colorless CO2 can cause suffocation, drowsiness and death. It is sometimes used to euthanize livestock. It hospitalized 45 people in Satartia, MS, in a 2020 fissure… “We don’t know what underground effects sequestered carbon dioxide has. It could dissolve the caprock that keeps it from escaping to the surface. And the industry is largely under-regulated, with loose guidelines all along the way. Most CCS projects worldwide have failed… “Big Oil currently uses “enhanced recovery,” pumping carbon dioxide into the ground to extract more oil from depleted fields. It is not about to devote itself to reducing the use of fossil fuels. As well as being a tax dollar drain, CCS is a water drain… “We can join the “unlikely coalition” of Sierra Club, Republican legislators, affected landowners, and affected counties to act against carbon pipelines. We can join the local group 100grannies.org in writing letters to the Iowa DNR to oppose water permits for CCS. We can speak truth to power and not let the billionaires help themselves to our land and water.”
Bleeding Heartland: Iowa candidates must pledge to reject carbon pipeline money
Michaelyn Mankel is an Iowa Organizer with Food & Water Action, 7/18/24
“Last month, the Iowa Utilities Board (renamed the Iowa Utilities Commission as of July 1) approved Summit Carbon Solutions’ permit application for a carbon pipeline,” Michaelyn Mankel writes for Bleeding Heartland. “…The board issued its order as much of the pipeline’s Iowa route was underwater. Extreme flooding displaced hundreds of people, many of whom are under threat of eminent domain land-takings for the project. As Iowans return to their homes and the pipeline approval sinks in, one thing is clear: the fight to keep carbon pipelines out of this state is far from over. Next month, Summit Carbon will hold a series of public meetings to push for expanding its unwanted project by nearly 50 percent, adding 340 miles of dangerous pipeline in Iowa. With November’s election less than four months away, candidates for office must waste no time in making clear their opposition to this dangerous scam. Food & Water Action is asking Iowa candidates to pledge not to accept campaign funds from pipeline interests. It’s time for those who represent us to stand with their constituents, not the profiteering corporations trying to ram a carbon pipeline through our state… “Carbon pipelines pose a dangerous threat to public health and safety. A 2020 carbon pipeline rupture in Mississippi took less than five minutes to travel a quarter of a mile, ultimately evacuating a town of several hundred people and landing 49 in the hospital. Carbon pipelines are a disaster waiting to happen, and ruptures can be deadly, capable of mass poisonings and asphyxiation… “For too long, people connected with Summit Carbon have splashed cash in Des Moines to buy political influence and try to mask our overwhelming opposition.”
Salt Lake Tribune: Put politics aside, cut the red tape and allow state regulation of carbon capture projects in Utah
Steve Handy is a former Utah legislator and current Utah Director for The Western Way, an organization focused on fiscal, conservative and market-driven solutions to environmental and conservation challenges, 7/18/24
“The debate over energy and climate is often presented as a divisive, hyper-partisan issue. But if you know where to look, there is actually some common ground between conservatives and progressives about the best way forward,” Steve Handy writes for the Salt Lake Tribune. “It’s no secret that conservatives support an “all of the above” approach to energy and climate that includes carbon capture and storage technologies for fossil fuels, especially natural gas and coal. For example, when I served in the Utah Legislature, I sponsored HB244 Geological Carbon Capture Sequestration Amendments to accelerate carbon capture projects here by putting state regulators — not the federal EPA — in charge of permitting. It passed and is now being implemented. But on the left, you might be surprised to learn that the importance of carbon capture is also recognized by some progressives like Democratic Governor Jared Polis of Colorado… “With this level of bipartisan support, you’d think Western states like Utah and Colorado would be racing ahead with carbon capture and storage projects. But that’s not happening, because of — you guessed it — federal red tape… “The EPA has approved just four permits for carbon dioxide storage wells, with a backlog of roughly 140 permit applications. Under federal law, there’s a solution for this bottleneck — handing over the lead permitting authority to individual states. But the EPA has only granted primacy to three states so far — Wyoming, North Dakota and Louisiana. The Western Governors Association, under the leadership of Republican Wyoming Governor Mark Gordon, is actively working to change this… “But speeding up the permitting process for carbon dioxide storage wells isn’t completely in the control of the EPA. Some environmental organizations will also have to overcome their historic opposition to state-led environmental regulation of the energy industry… “These groups need to face reality. Delaying these projects will make the job of reducing emissions harder, not easier. Carbon capture and storage isn’t just a critical technology for reducing emissions from power plants that currently run on coal and natural gas. It’s also essential for producing climate-friendly fuels like green hydrogen from the West’s abundant natural gas reserves.”
Grand Forks Herald: Agriculture and energy are the big picture for CO2
N.D. Senate Majority Leader David Hogue and N.D. House Majority Leader Mike Lefor, 7/18/24
“Our two largest industries in North Dakota are energy and agriculture. These industries make up 70% of the state’s economy. Each faces the same pressures to operate in a carbon-constrained economy,” David Hogue and Mike Lefor write for the Grand Forks Herald. “That is why these industries have made huge investments to track and manage carbon and in technology to capture, transport, and store carbon dioxide. North Dakota is leading the world… “The state’s CO2 policies could allow the coal industry to extend its life to provide baseload power to our state and region for decades to come. Coal and ethanol are working together to make this a reality, with Minnkota Power Cooperative collaborating with Summit Carbon Solutions to develop a world-class CO2 storage complex. Without a stable and predictable regulatory environment that allows for capture and storage of CO2 from our state’s lignite plants, an industry that employs 13,000 and is responsible for $5.4B of annual economic impact is at risk. The stakes for oil are high. The state’s CO2 policies create the opportunity, through enhanced oil recovery, to double the output of the Bakken to date… “Our state’s most important industries – agriculture and energy – are tied to carbon capture, transport, and storage. The Legislature has set up the framework to make this industry a success… “Once these projects are approved, we will secure our spot as a world leader in agriculture and energy, positioning our state to thrive in a carbon constrained economy.”
The ConversatIon: Methane emissions are the low-hanging fruit of the climate transition
Malika Menoud, Postdoc in atmospheric chemistry, Université de Versailles Saint-Quentin-en-Yvelines (UVSQ) – Université Paris-Saclay; Thomas Röckmann, Professeur en Physique, Utrecht University, 7/18/24
“Methane is well known for coming from ruminants digestive system. What is less known is its important role in current climate change and what we could do to drastically reduce our emissions,” Malika Menoud and Thomas Röckmann write for The ConversatIon. “Methane (CH4) is the second main greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide (CO2). However, while CO2 will persist in the atmosphere for centuries, methane reacts with other air molecules. The lifetime of methane in the atmosphere is approximately nine years, before it is consumed into CO2… “A significant part (globally 30% in 2017 Saunois et al., 2020) of anthropogenic emissions, meaning from human activities, comes from the fossil fuel industry. Unlike CO2, that is formed when burning fuel, CH4 is fuel. It is a natural gas that can directly be used in our boilers. The subsurface reservoirs of other fossil fuels, solid and liquid, are associated with the presence of natural gas. This gas escapes during the exploitation, transport, storage and use of coal, oil, and also natural gas. Still now, the extraction and the distribution of fossil fuels creates some fugitive emissions of methane. They go from small leaks to massive blowouts, like it happened in the United States in 2019 and more recently in Kazakhstan. The methane released to the atmosphere in six months from this singe leak compared with the annual energy needs of 500,000 households. In Europe, the majority of methane emissions caused by the fossil fuel industry is from leaks. But the operators were until now not required to control nor even measure these losses… “We hope that the new European standards will be applied systematically. The challenge is for them to serve as a basis for cleaner practices on a global scale. Even so, this is only a first step, because if we are to limit future warming, we will above all have to drastically reduce our dependence on resources that have taken millions of years to settle beneath our feet.”