EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/25/23

PIPELINE NEWS

• KCAU: Sierra Club accuses Iowa Utilities Board of changing rules for CO2 pipeline hearings

• KCCR: Public Utilities Commission Resumes Hearings On Navigator CO2 Pipeline Application

• KMA: Goss weighs in on IUB pipeline hearing

• The Center Square: CO2 pipeline from Iowa through Illinois is getting pushback from environmentalists

• Reuters: Draft environmental study on Dakota Access pipeline expected in fall – US Army Corps

• Law360: Landowners Take Mountain Valley Pipeline Fight To 4th Circ.

• Pittsburgh Business Times: Analyst: Mountain Valley Pipeline won’t lead to increases in drilling in the short term

• Press release: UN Expert Calls on Canada to Shut Down Line 5 Oil Pipeline

• Associated Press: New gas pipeline rules floated following 2018 blasts in Massachusetts

• Reuters: Canada PM Trudeau says Trans Mountain investment remains solid

• Bloomberg: TC Energy Eyes Sale of Gas System Stake to Indigenous Groups

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Grist: Joe Manchin could lose his pivotal Senate seat — to another coal baron

• Guardian: ‘It’s a beast’: landmark US climate law is too complex, environmental groups say

• E&E News: Greens cite NEPA in fighting court defeat on LNG tanker passage

• The Hill: Worst corporate polluters hide in regulatory ‘darkness,’ study finds

STATE UPDATES

• NPR: Montana youth climate ruling could set precedent for future climate litigation

• Sacramento News & Review: SMUD, Sutter County officials grapple with the controversial possibilities of carbon-capture near Yuba City  

• DeSmog: Portland City Government Compromised with Oil Industry in Private, Documents Suggest

• New York Times: House Explosion Kills Father of Caleb Farley, Titans Cornerback

• Bloomberg: Extreme Texas Heat Linked To Giant Methane Releases

• InsideClimate News: What’s More Harmful to Birds in North Dakota: Oil and Gas Drilling, or Corn and Soybeans?

EXTRACTION

• Bloomberg: Youth Activists Experience a Mental Toll From the Climate Crisis

CLIMATE FINANCE

• Guardian: G20 poured more than $1tn into fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report

• Bloomberg: Conoco deal triggers divestment alert from pension investors

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

• Enbridge: Advancing Reconciliation Through Education

OPINION

• Baltimore Sun: How to fight climate change — one state constitution at a time 

• NOLA.com: I’m an evangelical Christian who believes Louisiana should do more on methane
  

PIPELINE NEWS

KCAU: Sierra Club accuses Iowa Utilities Board of changing rules for CO2 pipeline hearings
Ariel Pokett, 8/24/23

“The Iowa chapter of the Sierra Club is accusing the state’s Utilities Board of changing the rules for hearings underway in Fort Dodge,” KCAU reports. “…Following the start of the hearing, the club stated that the board banned the use of cell phones and laptops by those attending the hearing. The club added that it’s a “clear violation of open meetings rules and the rights of both impacted landowners and the public to a fair and transparent hearing process. The club also claims that the security company hired for the permit hearing is also contracted to provide their services to Summit. The third day of the hearing took place on Thursday with more landowners testifying.”

KCCR: Public Utilities Commission Resumes Hearings On Navigator CO2 Pipeline Application
8/24/23

“Testimony resumed Thursday in the evidentiary hearing for the Navigator Heartland Greenway carbon dioxide transport pipeline,” KCCR reports. “South Dakota Public Utilities Commission members took testimony Thursday morning about the release of a plume modeling map. Commissioner Chris Nelson had issues with release an incomplete map… Commission chair Kristie Fiegen had reservations about releasing a map to the public that could cause confusion… Commissioner Gary Hanson agrees the public should see the map… Testimony in the hearing will continue Friday.”

KMA: Goss weighs in on IUB pipeline hearing
Mike Peterson, 8/24/23

“More than a few groups have a keen interest in the continuing pipeline hearings in Fort Dodge,” KMA reports. “Day 3 of the Iowa Utilities Board’s evidentiary hearing concerning Summit Carbon Solution’s proposed Midwest Express CO2 pipeline project featured more testimony from western Iowa farmers. Spanning nearly 700 miles in western and northern Iowa, the pipeline would carry liquid carbon dioxide from ethanol plants–including Green Plains’ Shenandoah facility–to a sequestration site in North Dakota. Creighton University Economics Professor Dr. Ernie Goss is among those monitoring the continuing hearing. Speaking on KMA’s “Morning Line” program earlier this week, Goss says the IUB’s decision will have a tremendous impact on the Midwest’s ethanol industry. “As part of the Inflation and Deficit Reduction Act passed in 2022 by the Biden Administration,” said Goss, “that calls for a 30% reduction in CO2 emissions from the ethanol plants. If you don’t do something about that–if they enforce reductions–that’s going to be a problem for ethanol. And, what’s a problem for ethanol is a problem for agriculture… This is a very, very important question in what happens to ethanol going forward. I’m just not as confident as some that the Biden Administration will not put a pinch on ethanol.” Other interested parties include the Iowa Renewable Fuels Association. Back in February, the organization released results of a study indicating 75% of the state’s ethanol production would contract or migrate out of the state if carbon sequestration projects are curtailed–leading many plants to shut down. Pipeline opponents have attacked the study since its publication earlier this year.”

The Center Square: CO2 pipeline from Iowa through Illinois is getting pushback from environmentalists
Kevin Bessler, 8/24/23

“The Illinois Commerce Commission is considering a proposal to allow a Canadian company to build a CO2 pipeline through the state,” The Center Square reports. “Wolf Carbon Solutions, the Canadian energy infrastructure entity with U.S. operations headquartered in Denver, filed its application with the Illinois Commerce Commission (ICC) June 16… “There has been some pushback from environmental groups, including from the Coalition to Stop CO2 Pipelines. Joyce Blumenshine, spokesperson for Sierra Club Illinois, said they are worried about safety because the proposed route runs close to homes and businesses in Peoria. “For the public and people nearby, number one, and for the long term impacts to our prime farmland,“ Blumenshine told The Center Square. “We don’t have any idea what property value impacts might be.” Blumenshine points to an incident in 2020 in Satartia, Mississippi, when a CO2 pipeline burst and sent dozens of residents to the hospital. During a recent rally in Peoria, Jerry Briggs, a first responder at the Satartia incident, said it is important that all first responders, including law enforcement, understand the potential dangers of these pipelines. “First responders need recurring training, all communities affected by CO2 pipelines must have access to a mass notification system, and community members should be well informed. CO2 pipelines might be out of sight underground, but they can’t be out of mind,” Briggs said. Gov. J.B. Pritzker told The Center Square the legislature might get involved depending on the outcome with the ICC. “I’m concerned that it will raise the prospect of safety challenges and raise the prospects of, as we’ve seen in other states, that if there is some sort of leak, that this could be a problem for all of Illinois,” Pritzker told The Center Square.

Reuters: Draft environmental study on Dakota Access pipeline expected in fall – US Army Corps
Arathy Somasekhar, 8/24/23

“A draft environmental impact statement for the Dakota Access oil pipeline is now expected to be released in fall, a spokesperson for the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers said on Thursday,” Reuters reports. “The review was initially expected to be completed last year and earlier was pushed back to spring of this year. A U.S. court last year ordered the federal government to undertake a more intensive environmental study of the pipeline’s route under a lake that straddles the border of North Dakota and South Dakota… “It has been the subject of a lengthy court battle between Native American tribes and Dallas-based Energy Transfer. The tribes have opposed the pipeline, saying they draw water from the lake for various purposes, including drinking, and consider the waters of the Missouri River to be sacred.”

Law360: Landowners Take Mountain Valley Pipeline Fight To 4th Circ.
Travis Bland, 8/24/23

“A pair of Virginia landowners want the Fourth Circuit to give them another shot at stopping a pipeline builder from taking their land, arguing that a district court wrongly excluded their expert before a jury could hear his testimony,” Law360 reports. 

Pittsburgh Business Times: Analyst: Mountain Valley Pipeline won’t lead to increases in drilling in the short term
Paul J. Gough, 8/24/23

“The soon-to-be completed Mountain Valley Pipeline won’t immediately increase the amount of natural gas drilling in Appalachia, according to a new report,” the Pittsburgh Business Times reports. “…A report released Thursday by East Daley Analytics, a Colorado-based energy consultancy, expects the pipeline to be operational a little later than that in the second quarter of 2024. But East Daley also said it wasn’t sure whether the pipeline would lead to big production gains among natural gas producers in Pennsylvania, West Virginia and Ohio. The 303-mile pipeline, which begins in northern West Virginia and continues into Virginia, will take Marcellus Shale gas produced in Pennsylvania through another pipeline system and to the markets in the southeast. “We are skeptical of the near-term benefits of MVP to Appalachian producers since we expect most of the new capacity to be ‘phantom takeaway,” East Daley said. “Most producers in the Northeast are content to keep production flat, so we anticipate spare egress capacity regardless if MVP is built.” East Daley projected earlier this year that MVP’s 2-billion-cubic-feet per day capacity will only be less than half used at the beginning of its life.”

Press release: UN Expert Calls on Canada to Shut Down Line 5 Oil Pipeline
8/25/23

“This month, an international human rights expert appointed by the United Nations Human Rights Council released a report in which he recommends that Canada “cease construction or operation of the Coastal GasLink, Trans Mountain and Line 5 pipelines, until the free, prior and informed consent of the Indigenous Peoples affected is secured.” The report also states that prolonging the operations of Line 5 oil pipeline “is inconsistent with its international commitment to prevent and mitigate the effects of climate change by phasing out fossil fuels.” The report reviews the situation of Indigenous Peoples in Canada, based on the information gathered ahead of and during an official country visit to Canada by the Special Rapporteur on the rights of Indigenous Peoples, which took place in March. The recommendation comes after years of advocacy by Indigenous communities in the US and Canada affected by Line 5. It echoes another recommendation from the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues (UNPFII) in April calling on Canada to “re-examine its support” for the pipeline and recommending that “Canada and the United States decommission Line 5.” The UNPFII declared that the Line 5 “jeopardizes the Great Lakes” and “presents a real and credible threat to the treaty-protected fishing rights of Indigenous Peoples.” In response to this report, Whitney Gravelle, President of Bay Mills Indian Community, said: “This report further condemns the existence of Line 5 throughout Indigenous territory, on both sides of the border. We urge the Canadian government to revoke its support for Line 5 and support Tribal Nations and the State of Michigan in shutting this pipeline down before tragedy strikes and creates an international incident. We remain committed to protect our people and treaty resources from destruction.”

Associated Press: New gas pipeline rules floated following 2018 blasts in Massachusetts
8/24/23

“Federal regulators are proposing a series of rules changes aimed at toughening safety requirements for millions of miles of gas distribution pipelines nationwide following a string of gas explosions in Massachusetts in 2018,” the Associated Press reports. “These proposed changes are designed to improve safety and ease risk through the improvement of emergency response plans, integrity management plans, operation manuals and other steps, according to the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration. This proposal was prompted by the series of blasts that ripped though parts of the Merrimack Valley region of Massachusetts. The explosions and fires in Lawrence, Andover and North Andover in September 2018 left a teenager dead, about two dozen injured and destroyed or damaged more than 130 properties. Thousands of residents and businesses were also left without natural gas service for heat and hot water for months in some cases. Leonel Rondon, of Lawrence, died after the chimney of an exploding house crashed onto his car and crushed him. The 18-year-old Rondon had received his driver’s license just hours earlier. Rondon’s family later reached a settlement with the utility involved in the disaster. The explosions were caused by overpressurized pipelines operated by Columbia Gas of Massachusetts, according to a federal investigation. The utility agreed to pay the state $56 million in 2020 in addition to a $53 million federal fine and a $143 million lawsuit settlement… “The proposal calls for improved construction procedures to minimize the risk of overpressurized pipelines and updated management programs to prepare for over-pressurization incidents. The changes require new regulator stations to be designed with secondary pressure relief valves and remote gas monitoring to prepare gas distribution systems to avoid overpressurization and to limit damage during those incidents. Finally, the plan calls for strengthening response plans for gas pipeline emergencies, including requirements for operators to contact local emergency responders and keep customers and the affected public informed of what to do in the event of an emergency. The notice of the proposed rules changes will be published in the federal register, kicking off a public comment period. The agency will review the comments before issuing final rules.”

Reuters: Canada PM Trudeau says Trans Mountain investment remains solid
8/23/23

“Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau said on Wednesday he was confident the Trans Mountain pipeline expansion was a solid investment and that interest is high among Indigenous groups who want to buy a share of the pipeline,” Reuters reports. “…The Canadian government bought the pipeline for C$4.5 billion ($3.3 billion) in 2018 to make sure the project was completed after it ran into challenges, including opposition from Indigenous peoples and environmentalists. Now that it is nearing completion, the government has approached Indigenous groups looking at buying a portion of the pipeline. “I am very excited and interested that there are so many Indigenous groups interested in purchasing the TMX pipeline. We’re engaged in conversations with them right now,” Trudeau told reporters in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. “We are confident that the business case for the Trans Mountain pipeline remains solid,” Trudeau said, when asked whether the government would have to sell the pipeline for less than it cost to build it… “The project has been beset with construction delays and cost overruns, and is now expected to cost nearly C$31 billion, more than quadrupling the C$7.4 billion budgeted in 2017. The government does not want to be the long-term owner of the project, which is due to start shipping in the first quarter of 2024.”

Bloomberg: TC Energy Eyes Sale of Gas System Stake to Indigenous Groups
Robert Tuttle, 8/24/23

“TC Energy Corp. is seeking regulatory approval for a move that would clear the way for it to sell a stake in its western Canadian natural gas pipeline system, possibly to indigenous groups,” Bloomberg reports. “The pipeline operator applied to the Canada Energy Regulator to transfer ownership of the Nova Gas Transmission Ltd. System from one corporate entity to another that would “facilitate potential future minority ownership of the system, including possible participation from Indigenous groups,” according a regulatory filing… “TC Energy has been selling assets to reduce its debt after suffering from cost overruns on the Coastal GasLink pipeline project, which would supply Canada’s first major liquefied natural gas plant. Last month, the company agreed to sell a 40% stake in two US natural gas pipeline networks for $3.9 billion (C$5.2 billion) and announced it would spin off its oil pipelines unit.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Grist: Joe Manchin could lose his pivotal Senate seat — to another coal baron
Katie Myers, 8/22/23

“A recent campaign ad targeting West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin shows the centrist Democrat standing alongside President Biden, applauding the passage of the Inflation Reduction Act,” Grist reports. “Ominous music plays as the words, attributed to Biden, “I guarantee you we’re going to end fossil fuel” splash across the screen. The spot, from a dark money group aligned with Republicans, paints Manchin as a flaming liberal happy to eliminate 100,000 West Virginia jobs in a ruthless pursuit of clean energy. Manchin probably wouldn’t define himself as particularly liberal, nor would he consider himself an enemy of fossil fuels… “He finds himself under threat by West Virginia’s sitting governor, Jim Justice, a Republican who is running for the seat Manchin has held since 2010. Justice, the state’s richest man, made his fortune as a coal executive and one of the nation’s largest grain producers, though he’s probably more well known nationally as a culture war populist who has patterned himself after Donald Trump. He loves to rail against political correctness and “wokeism,” he’s promised to deliver the biggest state tax cut in history, and he’s mastered the art of using levity to cut down opponents. He has no qualms about bringing out Babydog, his media-friendly canine, and inviting critics to “kiss her hiney.” “… Machin’s popularity has waned as his once blue state has turned bright red. After winning three consecutive races by at least 30 percentage points, he squeaked through his latest by only 3 points. Worse, he’s polling poorly against Justice, whose approval rating is at 57 percent to Manchin’s 29 percent. Justice looks likely to beat his primary opponent, Alex Mooney, and challenge Manchin in 2024. The threat he poses to the seasoned Democrat underscores how the decline of coal and the rise of anti-environment, hardline Republicans has changed politics in West Virginia — and could reshape the last years of President Biden’s administration and the future of Democratic priorities.  “The West Virginia seat is Republicans’ best chance to flip a seat,” said political commentator Jessica Cook of The Cook Report. That could give the GOP a reasonable shot at a Senate majority, paving the way for more right-wing legislation, particularly in the climate arena.” 

Guardian: ‘It’s a beast’: landmark US climate law is too complex, environmental groups say
Yessenia Funes, 8/23/23

“When President Joe Biden passed the Inflation Reduction Act a year ago, Adrien Salazar was skeptical,” the Guardian reports. “The landmark climate bill includes $60bn for environmental justice investments – money he had fought for, as policy director for the leading US climate advocacy coalition Grassroots Global Justice Alliance (GGJA). But after much discussion, the grassroots group realized they did not have the resources to chase after IRA funding. It would have to hire new staff and develop a specific program to apply for grants to access those funds. The coalition is stretched thin as is: organizing local and state campaigns, leading community engagement, and planning youth programming. GGJA decided it would not apply to funding opportunities at all. “It is not within our capacity to try to build a program that helps our members access federal funding. We just don’t have the capacity to do that,” Salazar told the Guardian. Many employees lack the time or knowhow to take on grant opportunities. “We’re a national organization. How can we imagine a small organization that’s doing neighborhood, grassroots-level door-knocking to have the capacity to also navigate the federal bureaucracy?” Indeed, many of the small, community-based organizations that would benefit from funding the most are facing hurdles to competing for these investments. Together, their experiences tell a story that echoes other environmental justice experts’ concerns about the IRA – that the monumental spending package won’t assist the communities that need the money the most. Last year, advocates speaking to the Guardian criticized the bill for its many concessions to the fossil fuel industry: “This new bill is genocide, there is no other way to put it,” Siqiñiq Maupin, co-founder of the Indigenous-led environmental justice group Sovereign Iñupiat for a Living Arctic, told the Guardian. Salazar felt similarly: how could he trust the federal government to allocate those billions of dollars to communities of color when it still fails to protect them from polluters? Now, a second major criticism has emerged: some groups simply don’t have the time or resources to navigate the complicated bureaucratic process of applying for funding. A year after the law’s passing, various grant deadlines for funding have already come and gone, representing key opportunities many groups may have missed. Applying for funding opportunities – which is no guarantee of success – requires local community groups that are often run by volunteers to prepare an enormous amount of documentation.”

E&E News: Greens cite NEPA in fighting court defeat on LNG tanker passage
Pamela King, 8/22/23

“Conservation groups are challenging their legal loss in a lawsuit related to a shipping channel dredging project that would allow large liquefied natural gas tankers to pass through Puerto Rico’s San Juan Bay,” E&E News reports. “In a notice filed Monday, El Puente de Williamsburg and other human rights and environmental groups said they are taking their case to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit. They contend that the Army Corps of Engineers fell short of its obligations under the National Environmental Policy Act to take a hard look at the project’s impacts to local communities and vulnerable species. The groups also argue that the project would harm the region by further entrenching fossil fuel infrastructure in Puerto Rico. “We have to keep fighting this destructive dredging project for the sake of the already overburdened communities living on San Juan Bay and the vulnerable ecosystem,” Federico Cintrón Moscoso, director at El Puente, told E&E. “It’s a critical time for Puerto Rico’s energy future, and we can’t just watch as decisions are made that tie us into even more dependency on fossil fuels for decades to come.”

The Hill: Worst corporate polluters hide in regulatory ‘darkness,’ study finds
SAUL ELBEIN, 8/25/23

“Many of the world’s corporations may be responsible for climate damages far greater than their annual profits, a new study has found,” The Hill reports. “For the biggest polluters worldwide — the fossil fuel-dependent power industry — that means potential legal liabilities around seven times their annual profits, four economists from leading universities wrote on Thursday in Science. “The average corporate carbon damages [are] economically large,” the economists wrote. Those climate damages result from a “choice” on the part of regulators, coauthor Michael Greenstone of the University of Chicago told The HIll. That’s because the key to bringing those emissions down is forcing firms to disclose them — and creating penalties for failing to do so, Greenstone told The Hill. While agencies like the Securities and Exchange Commission have proposed making such disclosures mandatory, “to date, that has not been a requirement,” he added. It has also been politically controversial: The GOP has made a campaign against mandatory climate disclosure a key plank of its platform, as The Hill has reported… “Based on the limited data available, researchers concluded that the average firm worldwide could be liable for damages equal to 44 percent of their annual profits. That number was a bit lower for U.S. companies — an average of 18.5 percent of profits… “Worldwide, energy companies in the bottom 10 percent of emitters could have caused carbon damages equivalent to 4.5 percent of their annual profits. But global energy companies in the top 90 percent and above could be responsible for carbon damages of nearly four times their annual profits — or comparatively 100 times as much as those bottom-ranked energy companies… “The findings in Science do not specifically focus on the idea of litigation to make companies pay those damages. But their publication comes amid a new wave of litigation against fossil fuel companies and the legislatures that have reflexively encouraged and subsidized their use.”

STATE UPDATES

NPR: Montana youth climate ruling could set precedent for future climate litigation
Nathan Rott, 8/23/23

“A Montana judge’s historic ruling in a climate lawsuit brought by 16 young plaintiffs could have implications for future climate litigation, legal experts say,” NPR reports. “The trial and ruling, which came during a summer rife with crippling heat waves and other climate change-fueled disasters, was a rare win for climate activists seeking support in court. It marked the first time a U.S. court has ruled that “young people have a fundamental right to a climate system that is safe and stable for their lives,” Julia Olson, chief legal counsel and executive director of Our Children’s Trust, told NPR… “The ruling is a paradigm shift in climate litigation, a fast-growing field of law, Olson told NPR, that will “have a ripple effect across the world.” Other legal observers agree. “I thought this was one of the strongest decisions on climate change issued by any court anywhere,” Michael Gerrard, director of Columbia Law School’s Sabin Center for Climate Change Law, told NPR. “In every respect, the court agreed with the plaintiffs that fossil fuel combustion is the main cause of climate change and [that] climate change is having all kinds of terrible health and environmental impacts which will get worse unless we stop those emissions,” he told NPR… “Legal experts say the 103-page ruling from Seeley is particularly helpful because it adds so much climate science to the record. More than 70 pages of the ruling list factual findings that could be cited in future trials. “Nationally, I think a case like this is what sets the stage for the dominoes to fall and for other courts to look at this really detailed ruling from the judge in Montana and say, ‘Yeah, we’ve got something similar going on, and we’re not charting new territory now,'” Barbara Chillcott, a Montana-based attorney who worked on the case for the Western Environmental Law Center, told NPR… “It’s not a silver bullet,” Gerrard told NPR. “But we need a lot of silver buckshot, and litigation, certainly, is one important element of that.”

Sacramento News & Review: SMUD, Sutter County officials grapple with the controversial possibilities of carbon-capture near Yuba City  
Russell Nichols, 8/23/23

“Using less water and natural gas than older models, the Sutter Energy Center came online in 2001, claiming to be one of the “cleanest” power plants ever built. Today, this 550-megawatt gas-fired plant is still standing southwest of Yuba City, but now lies at the heart of a heated climate clash,” the Sacramento News & Review reports. “Calpine, the Houston-based company that owns the Sutter Energy Center, presented a proposal to the Sacramento Municipal Utility District: to decarbonize the facility using carbon capture technology to help SMUD hit its ambitious target of zero carbon emissions by 2030. The technology, developed by Colorado-based ION Clean Energy, would capture the facility’s carbon dioxide contained in the flue gas, shuttle it to an absorption tower, where it would bind with a liquid solvent before getting sent through a pipeline to be stored thousands of feet into the Earth… “Critics have concerns about the potential environmental impacts, long-term implications and the safety of nearby communities. They see CCS systems as nothing more than a high-tech Band-Aid that will prolong reliance on fossil fuels. On the other side, proponents argue that California should consider all possible strategies, given the urgency of the climate crisis… “Signed by 18 environmental groups — including CVAQ, Sierra Club Sacramento, the Center on Race, Poverty & the Environment, and others — the letter highlights failed projects, false claims and urges the directors to see the project as a “dangerous delay tactic.” “CCS projects are very often poorly designed and can delay meaningful climate action, increase investments in fossil fuel infrastructure, and pose real potential risks to communities,” the letter says. “Unfortunately, SMUD has not adequately shown that the proposal at issue would meaningfully differ from earlier projects that resulted in such problems.” According to Valenzuela, SMUD responded with a FAQ sheet from ION Clean Energy’s website. (ION did not respond to multiple requests for comment.) Instead of moving forward with CCS projects, opponents would rather see SMUD take measures to help solve climate change through cheaper clean energy like wind and solar.

DeSmog: Portland City Government Compromised with Oil Industry in Private, Documents Suggest
Nick Cunningham, 8/23/23

“In the summer of 2022, it seemed that the days of an oil-by-rail facility in Portland, Oregon, were numbered,” DeSmog reports. “…But at the eleventh hour, in October 2022, the city made a surprise announcement: It had reversed course and authorized Zenith to continue to operate through the late 2020s, after which the company promised to switch to trains carrying renewable fuels. Community and environmental groups were furious, blasting the “backroom deal.” Elected city officials who position themselves as climate champions defended the decision as a routine administrative matter, repeatedly claiming their hands were tied. But internal email communications and documents obtained by DeSmog suggest that the process was heavily influenced by two city commissioners and their staff, who met with the oil company on multiple occasions — including at a private in-person meeting at the rail site — and seem to have helped usher the company’s land use permit through the regulatory process. In the summer of 2022, faced with a very real opportunity to confront the fossil fuel industry, potentially forcing the facility to halt oil train shipments entirely, the city instead chose to strike a compromise that allows the oil facility to continue to operate. “I didn’t expect it at all,” Nick Caleb, a staff attorney with Breach Collective, an Oregon-based climate justice organization, told DeSmog. “If you had told me the city is going to strike a deal with Zenith to allow at least five more years of their fossil fuel operations, I would just be like, ‘Why? You’re in the driver’s seat. Why would you give up your power and leverage?’ It doesn’t make any sense.” “…It all happened without any public input,” Audrey Leonard, a staff attorney with Columbia Riverkeeper, told DeSmog. Columbia Riverkeeper was formally involved in litigation defending the city’s initial rejection of Zenith’s LUCS. “It seemed like this was kept behind closed doors on purpose to just sort of have it be a done deal by the time it was public.” The approval appeared to be a compromise with the company. The new agreement stipulated that Zenith could continue shipping crude oil by train through Portland for another five years, after which it needed to transition to renewable fuels. City officials tried to frame the announcement as a win for the climate, but climate groups were incensed. At the time, Caleb, the climate attorney, called it “wildly irresponsible.” 

New York Times: House Explosion Kills Father of Caleb Farley, Titans Cornerback
Rebecca Carballo, 8/22/23

“The North Carolina home of Caleb Farley, the Tennessee Titans cornerback, was destroyed in an explosion late Monday that killed his father and injured a family friend, the authorities said on Tuesday,” the New York Times reports. “The explosion at Mr. Farley’s house in Moorseville, about 30 miles north of Charlotte, occurred just before midnight, according to the Iredell County Sheriff’s Office. Investigators believe it was most likely the result of a gas leak, though an investigation is continuing, said Kent Greene, director of fire services and emergency management for Iredell County. There was no evidence of foul play, according to the sheriff’s office.”

Bloomberg: Extreme Texas Heat Linked To Giant Methane Releases
8/23/23

“As record-breaking heat buckled pavement and hospitalized hundreds across Texas at the start of summer, another disruption occurred unseen: Operators in the largest US energy basin released hundreds of tons of natural gas into the air as crucial equipment was forced to shut down,” Bloomberg reports. “That unleashed a geyser of planet-warming methane, the main component of natural gas, into the atmosphere. The spurt of emissions wasn’t unprecedented; extremes of both hot and cold have wreaked havoc in the Permian Basin in the past.”

InsideClimate News: What’s More Harmful to Birds in North Dakota: Oil and Gas Drilling, or Corn and Soybeans?
Lydia Larsen, 8/25/23

“The struggle to meet a growing global energy demand is playing out across North Dakota’s landscape. On the western half of the state, oil and gas wells dot the Bakken shale, and farmers swap small grains, such as wheat, barley and oats, traditionally grown in the region, for corn and soybeans used as biofuel feedstocks,” InsideClimate News reports. “These landscape changes across grassland regions like those in North Dakota affect local wildlife and ecosystems. A recent study in Ecological Applications shows that between expansions of oil and gas development and growth of biofuels in the state, grassland birds had more negative responses to all the new fields of corn and soybeans. Scientists regard bird populations as indicators of ecosystem health. In recent years, grassland birds have experienced the largest loss out of any avian population… “Christine Ribic, a professor emeritus at the University of Wisconsin who was not involved in the study, told ICN this paper is the first time researchers looked at both the expansion of oil and gas drilling and farmers’ transition to corn and soybeans as threats to grassland birds in order to “understand which one is more important than the other.” “…These are species that we’ve just heard anecdotally of people talking about a lot,” Max Post van der Burg, a researcher at the U.S. geological survey and lead author on the study, told ICN. “You talk to both farmers and scientists and wildlife managers in this neck of the woods and they’re like, ‘Yeah, we just don’t see as many Western Meadowlarks on fence posts singing in the spring and the summer.” Researchers had been intuitively aware of land use changes in North Dakota for a while. In order to relate information on the amount of birds at a given site to land use data, they used publicly available cropland data from the National Agricultural Statistics service as well as a dataset on oil and gas wells from the state.” 

EXTRACTION

Bloomberg: Youth Activists Experience a Mental Toll From the Climate Crisis
Tori Tsui, 8/21/23

“The mental health impacts of the climate crisis and the toll on young activists keeps Tori Tsui up at night,” Bloomberg reports. “Her first book, It’s Not Just You , came out in July. — As told to Olivia Rudgard. “I think it’s pretty safe to say that the climate crisis does keep me up at night. Not just in its manifestation, but also how we are dealing with it or not dealing with it. I think we should be quite specific here: how world leaders and governments and corporations aren’t dealing with it. We take the weight of the world on our shoulders and we feel partly responsible. I’ve definitely been in a situation before where I’ve been like, ‘Am I not doing enough? Am I not being disruptive enough? How can I use my power and my privilege to really challenge the government?’

CLIMATE FINANCE

Guardian: G20 poured more than $1tn into fossil fuel subsidies despite Cop26 pledges – report
Ajit Niranjan, 8/23/23

“The G20 poured record levels of public money into fossil fuels last year despite having promised to reduce some of it, a report has found,” the Guardian reports. “The amount of public money flowing into coal, oil and gas in 20 of the world’s biggest economies reached a record $1.4tn(£1.1tn) in 2022, according to the International Institute for Sustainable Development (IISD) thinktank, even though world leaders agreed to phase out “inefficient” fossil fuel subsidies at the Cop26 climate summit in Glasgow two years ago. The report comes ahead of a meeting of G20 countries in Delhi next month that could set the tone for the next big climate conference, which takes place in the United Arab Emirates in November. It is crucial that leaders put fossil fuel subsidies on the agenda, Tara Laan, a senior associate with the IISD and lead author of the study, told the Guardian. “These figures are a stark reminder of the massive amounts of public money G20 governments continue to pour into fossil fuels – despite the increasingly devastating impacts of climate change.” “…The report found G20 governments last year provided fossil fuels $1tn in subsidies, $322bn in investments by state-owned enterprises and $50bn in loans from public finance institutions. The total amount was more than double what they had provided in 2019, the authors found… “There is huge potential in subsidy reform,” Richard Damania, chief economist of a sustainability group at the World Bank and lead author of the study, told the Guardian. “By repurposing wasteful subsidies, we can free up significant sums that could instead be used to address some of the planet’s most pressing challenges.”

Bloomberg: Conoco deal triggers divestment alert from pension investors
8/24/23

“ConocoPhillips has been put on divestment watch by some of Europe’s biggest pension funds, after using proceeds from a recent debt financing to expand its business in oilsands,” Bloomberg reports. “The Houston-based oil company obtained full control of the Surmont field in Alberta this year, paid for with funds from three US dollar bond sales worth $2.7 billion. Aegon NV of the Netherlands, which oversees more than $300 billion, says ConocoPhillips might now be in breach of its policy and may be added to its exclusion list later this year. KLP, Norway’s biggest pension fund with about $90 billion in assets, says it’s also monitoring the oil producer after the Surmont deal. The acquisition will likely push Conoco’s revenue from oil sands, which can emit three times more greenhouse gases than conventional crude oil, to roughly 6.9 per cent of next year’s total, up from 3.6 per cent in 2021, according to an analysis by the Anthropocene Fixed Income Institute. That’s a red line for some investors, with ESG funds in particular setting a five per cent limit on the revenue that can come from oil sands… “Arild Skedsmo, a senior analyst for responsible investments at KLP, told Bloomberg KLP is concerned that Conoco doesn’t have “credible” policies mapping out how it will transition away from fossil fuels. And building out investments in oilsands is “unlikely to improve their position.” “…In all, there are close to 600 ESG funds with investments in Conoco, data compiled by Bloomberg show. The irony is that some of those same ESG investors helped finance Conoco’s Surmont acquisition, the AFII said. They include BlackRock Inc., which is among providers of ESG-labeled exchange-traded funds that apply the 5% oil-sands exclusion threshold in accordance with MSCI Inc. methodology.” 

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

Enbridge: Advancing Reconciliation Through Education
8/24/23

“The rates of Indigenous students attending and completing post-secondary education have been rising in Canada over the past decade, thanks to meaningful reconciliation actions by schools, organizations, businesses and government,” according to Enbridge. “…Established in 2021, New Buffalo Education Circle is creating student-led chapters at post-secondary institutions to support Indigenous students in their field of study. Seed funding for New Buffalo’s important mission came from Enbridge. As the founding sponsor, we awarded the organization a Fueling Futures grant of $50,000 over two years to support its work in improving lives and communities through education. The grant aligns with Enbridge’s Indigenous Reconciliation Action Plan, which outlines our commitments to reconciliation through six pillars of focus, each one developed collaboratively with Indigenous individuals and groups.”

OPINION

Baltimore Sun: How to fight climate change — one state constitution at a time 
Editorial Board, 8/24/23

“Maryland’s constitution covers a lot of territory,” the Baltimore Sun Editorial Board writes. “…What it does not explicitly guarantee, however, is that future generations will not be forced to inherit a state devastated by climate change. Granted, that circumstance probably did not occur to Marylanders in 1867 when the current state constitution was adopted and society wasn’t emitting greenhouse gases anywhere close to the the scale of today. But why not now? That question took on a new urgency recently with the surprising success of a lawsuit brought by 16 young climate activists in Montana. On Monday, Aug. 14, a Montana judge ruled that state agencies were in violation of a state constitutional provision that ensures a clean and healthful environment when they approved greater fossil fuel development without considering the climate impact. District Court Judge Kathy Seeley’s logic was sound… “But giving citizens the tool of a constitutional guarantee of a clean environment — and thus, the right to sue the state when it fails to back that promise — is an increasingly attractive option. Maryland doesn’t have such a legally binding assurance, although some other states, including neighboring Pennsylvania, do. Some lawmakers in the Maryland General Assembly have advocated for a “green amendment” in recent years, a movement spearheaded by the Maryland Campaign for Environmental Human Rights. But the measure hasn’t gained much traction in the State House, in part, because lawmakers were skeptical about moving environmental decisions from regulatory agencies and legislative committees to the courts. Yet the power of the legal system may prove necessary… “We’re not suggesting a constitutional amendment would be Maryland’s full salvation on the climate front… “But if lawmakers are willing to enshrine abortion rights in the constitution — assuming that, as expected, voters give their approval at the ballot box next year — it seems entirely appropriate to guarantee that every man, woman and child living in this state can, if possible, be spared the worst effects of climate change.”

NOLA.com: I’m an evangelical Christian who believes Louisiana should do more on methane
Jeannette Thompson, who lives in New Orleans, is a member of the Evangelical Environmental Network and a retired librarian whose experience included almost 40 years at the Tulane University Libraries, 8/22/23

“I go outside these days and immediately feel the sweltering heat,” Jeannette Thompson writes for NOLA.com. “…I’m one of the lucky ones. I have air conditioning to keep me cool this summer. I am concerned, though, about those unable to afford to keep cool like I am. As an evangelical Christian, I believe we have a biblical mandate to care for the needy — those most vulnerable and overlooked in society. In the 21st century, that means those who are unfairly and disproportionately burdened by rising temperatures and toxic pollution. It also means defending the health of our children, who are more impacted by pollution and the health effects of rising temperatures. One of the ways we can care for these vulnerable populations is by reducing pollution from things like methane — a colorless, odorless gas… “In Louisiana alone, an estimated 360,000 adults and children suffer from asthma, which is exacerbated by poor air quality and rising temperatures. In 2019, oil and gas producers in our state lost at least 5.2 billion cubic feet of gas not by accident, but through the industry practices of venting and flaring. This represents almost $16 million of lost gas — $16 million worth of gas that could have been brought to market to meet the natural gas needs of almost every household in New Orleans for a year and taxed to pay for public goods and services. Instead, it was simply dumped into the sky to foul the air for ourselves and our children. The good news is that some of our elected officials see this problem and are trying to do something about it. Near the end of July, the Louisiana Department of Natural Resources published notice of its intent to amend state rules that would significantly reduce the venting and flaring of methane… “That’s why we need every Louisianan who cares about conserving energy resources and defending the health of their communities to tell the LDNR and Gov. John Bel Edwards to finalize the strongest rule possible as swiftly as they can. More than 18,000 evangelical Louisianans like me have already had our say. We signed a petition, organized by the Evangelical Environmental Network, telling Edwards that poor stewardship of our natural resources costs us both in dollars and cents and in the health and safety of our children and grandchildren… “We are urging Edwards to do all in his power to swiftly enact these life-saving and resource-conserving measures. Will you join us? Our children deserve nothing less.”