EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 9/1/23

PIPELINE NEWS

• WSLS: State police searching for suspects after Mountain Valley Pipeline equipment set on fire in Franklin County

• Axios: Appalachia Mobilizes Against Manchin’s Dirty Deal

• Pipeline Fighters Hub: Iowa Utilities Board Concludes Non-Intervenor Landowner Testimony; Summit to Testify Next Tuesday, Followed by Landowner Intervenors [VIDEO]

• Iowa Capital Dispatch: Governor denies influence over Summit pipeline process

• Associated Press: Minnesota regulators vote to proceed with environmental review of disputed carbon capture pipeline

• Star Tribune: Minnesota regulators push Summit carbon dioxide pipeline forward to environmental review

• AgWeek: Summit Carbon environmental study limited to 2 Minnesota counties

• Dakota Scout: Landowners turn to tribal history in fight against pipeline 

• Bloomberg: Carbon pipeline operator Denbury considered over 28 proposals prior to ExxonMobil deal

• RBN Energy: Permian Basin Production Growth Drives NGL Pipeline Build-Out

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Press release: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Availability Of $350 Million In Grants To States To Cut Methane Emissions From Oil And Gas Sector

• Marfa Public Radio: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers protecting West Texas lizard, worrying oil and gas industry

STATE UPDATES

• RTO Insider: CARB Starts Mandated Carbon Capture, Storage Program

• Associated Press: California Panel To Vote On Increasing Storage At Site Of Worst US Methane Leak Despite Risks

• High Country News: The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation

EXTRACTION

• Bloomberg: Europe’s Biggest Oil Company Quietly Shelves a Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint

• OilPrice.com: Canada’s Oil And Gas Industry Cuts Emissions While Boosting Output

OPINION

• Des Moines Register: Entrepreneurs are leading agriculture’s future through carbon capture

• Bloomberg: Our Addiction to Fossil Fuels Is Killing Baby Penguins
  

PIPELINE NEWS

WSLS: State police searching for suspects after Mountain Valley Pipeline equipment set on fire in Franklin County
8/31/23

“Virginia State Police is seeking the public’s assistance in identifying those responsible for setting fire to construction equipment being used by the Mountain Valley Pipeline project in Franklin County,” WSLS reports. “Police said the fires are believed to have been set around 5 a.m. Thursday on private property in the 800 block of Leaning Oak Road. We’re told the fires destroyed two pieces of heavy machinery being used to excavate the site. The Virginia State Police Bureau of Criminal Investigation’s Salem Field Office responded to the scene to investigate the fires, according to authorities. VSP said at the scene, investigators recovered evidence consistent with homemade incendiary devices, which will be examined forensically by the FBI Laboratory… “VSP said the FBI and ATF&E are assisting with the ongoing criminal investigation. A HAZMAT clean team also responded to the scene to mitigate environmental damage caused by burnt vehicles and the proximity of a nearby stream.”

Axios: Appalachia Mobilizes Against Manchin’s Dirty Deal
YESSENIA FUNES, 8/30/23

“The fight against the Mountain Valley Pipeline intensifies as Congress overreaches to thwart judicial action,” Axios reports. “Jammie Hale has lived in Giles County, Virginia his whole life. He’s never wanted to live anywhere else—and why would he? The verdant forest region is fed by the many waterfalls and streams that flow through the surrounding Appalachian Mountains… “That’s why the 50-year-old has been hard at work for the last five years. In 2017, Hale learned that a methane gas pipeline over 300 miles long was slated to cross through his community. The Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP), a fossil fuel project owned by several energy companies including Con Edison, courses through his neighbor’s property across the road. Hale is scared—of water contamination or an explosion—but he can’t afford to leave. He doesn’t want to, either.  “I will not allow a corporation to push me out of my home,” Hale told Axios… “Still, advocates aren’t accepting defeat. If they can’t stop MVP in the courts, then they’ll do what they can elsewhere: in the streets, along streams, and on job sites. The federal and state governments aren’t listening to community concerns… “Together, folks like Hale are doing what their leaders won’t dare to: standing up to polluters… “Many of the pipes going into the ground have been left out since before construction paused nearly six years ago. According to E&E News, if weather has worn down the pipes’ protective coating, they could be more prone to rupture or explosion. The concern over the pipeline’s integrity has finally reached federal agencies, too: The Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration issued MVP a safety order on August 11 imploring it to inspect, test, and remediate the coating to ensure the project meets safety standards… “The implications are really serious,” Peter Anderson, director of state energy policy for Appalachian Voices, an organization against the pipeline, told Axios. “It tells us that governments aren’t taking their climate commitments seriously if they continue to permit new carbon-emitting infrastructure to go into use.”

Pipeline Fighters Hub: Iowa Utilities Board Concludes Non-Intervenor Landowner Testimony; Summit to Testify Next Tuesday, Followed by Landowner Intervenors [VIDEO]
8/31/23

“The Iowa Utilities Board said on Aug. 31 that it had concluded hearing testimony from non-intervening landowners for the time being, and will commence with testimony from permit applicant Summit Carbon Solutions next Tuesday, Sept. 5 at 10:00 a.m. Following the conclusion of testimony from Summit’s witnesses, landowner intervenors will then be heard by the Board,” according to the Pipeline Fighters Hub. “Summit’s permit application hearing before the Iowa Utilities Board began on Tuesday, Aug. 22 in Fort Dodge, IA, and Bold Alliance captured video of the proceedings. Non-intervening landowners testified after the IUB Commissioners issued decisions on motions and dealt with housekeeping during the hearing, which is expected to last weeks if not months. Landowner witnesses were questioned by landowners’ attorney Brian Jorde (Iowa Easement Team); Wally Taylor (Sierra Club Iowa Chapter); and attorneys for the Iowa Office of Consumer Advocate, Iowa Farm Bureau, and Summit Carbon, along with the IUB Commissioners. Landowners are represented by the Iowa Easement Team legal co-op, and attorney Brian Jorde of Domina Law Group, Omaha, NE: https://iaeasement.org More details on eminent domain & CO2 pipelines: https://PipelineFighters.org View all Iowa Utilities Board testimony videos on the Bold Nebraska YouTube channel.”

Iowa Capital Dispatch: Governor denies influence over Summit pipeline process
JARED STRONG, 8/31/23

“Gov. Kim Reynolds “has not influenced” the state permit process for a proposed carbon dioxide pipeline that is nearing its conclusion, a spokesperson said this week,” the Iowa Capital Dispatch reports. “The comment was in response to a landowner’s recent assertion that Reynolds and other elected leaders have favored Summit Carbon Solutions’ pipeline project over their constituents’ concerns because of the company co-founder’s wealth and influence. “Follow the money,” said Richard Davis, a Cherokee County landowner who testified in a permit hearing on Tuesday. Davis opposes the project and has four parcels of land that are subject to the company’s eminent domain requests. He testified that he sought help from state legislators to protect his land but that they said Bruce Rastetter, the co-founder, has donated a lot of money to Reynolds’ campaigns and that “she will not act on this until the pipeline is through.” Rastetter is an agriculture mogul and a major political donor. From 2015 to 2022, he donated more than $160,000 to the Kim Reynolds for Iowa campaign committee, according to state campaign disclosure reports. Those donations preceded her ascent to governor in 2017, when former Gov. Terry Branstad resigned to be the U.S. ambassador to China. The allegation of Rastetter’s influence over elected officials is not new. In the past two years as legislators struggled — and ultimately failed — to pass new legislation to restrict eminent domain for carbon dioxide pipelines, some of the legislators publicly said the same. “How much money did Bruce Rastetter give you?” Rep. Jeff Shipley, R-Birmingham, told people to ask their legislators in March 2022. “There are a lot of people that bend over for money. They bend over so much sometimes I’m surprised they can still walk.” But the allegation gained more traction this summer when the Iowa Utilities Board decided to start Summit’s evidentiary hearing two months earlier than it had previously considered. The move prompted complaints from pipeline opponents and state lawmakers that the permit process was being accelerated toward approval… “That IUB decision followed Reynolds’ appointment of a new member to the board, Erik Helland, who was a replacement for a member whose term was expiring. Reynolds further named him chairperson… “The concerns of ‘undue influence’ are completely unfounded and untrue,” Crompton, Reynolds’ spokesman, told Iowa Capital Dispatch. “The governor meets regularly with leaders from a wide variety of industries in Iowa including agriculture, insurance, technology, and health care to help inform policy priorities.”

Associated Press: Minnesota regulators vote to proceed with environmental review of disputed carbon capture pipeline
Steve Karnowsk, 8/31/23

“Minnesota regulators voted Thursday to proceed with an environmental review for part of a proposed but disputed pipeline network that would carry planet-warming carbon dioxide from Midwest ethanol plants to a permanent underground storage site,” the Associated Press reports. “…But the project has run into resistance… “The question before the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission on Thursday was narrow: whether to approve a draft plan laying out the scope of a formal environmental review for one small part of the proposed project, a 28-mile segment in Minnesota that would connect an ethanol plant in Fergus Falls to the North Dakota border, where it would connect with Summit’s network. Commissioners approved it unanimously. The Minnesota-based rural environmental advocacy group CURE had asked the PUC to defer any decision indefinitely because of the decision by the North Dakota Public Service Commission to reject a certificate of need and route permit for the project… “CURE said proceeding with the environmental review in Minnesota would be a waste of state resources – that the project would be a “pipeline to nowhere” without the crucial North Dakota approvals. But Summit recently petitioned North Dakota regulators to reconsider. Company attorney Christina Brusven told the Minnesota regulators that Summit expects it will be able to address North Dakota’s concerns in the coming months, so Minnesota should not wait to start its review process. PUC staff told commissioners ahead of Thursday’s hearing that they expected the review would lead to completion of a draft environmental impact this winter, followed by a public comment process. If the commission determines that the final review meets the legal requirements, the PUC could decide whether to issue a route permit for the project as early as next summer.”

Star Tribune: Minnesota regulators push Summit carbon dioxide pipeline forward to environmental review
Christopher Vondracek, 8/31/23

“State regulators approved for environmental review a proposed pipeline that would ferry carbon dioxide from an ethanol plant outside Fergus Falls some 20 miles to the North Dakota border,” the Star Tribune reports. “But that review will not encompass — at least for now — potential future Minnesota-crossing legs of the massive multistate pipeline envisioned by Iowa-based Summit Carbon Solutions, according to a unanimous 4-0 vote by the Minnesota Public Utilities Commission (PUC). The PUC also will not wait for other states considering permits for the so-called Midwest Carbon Express, such as North Dakota, whose regulators denied the company a permit at the beginning of August. Summit Carbon has requested a reconsideration of its request after making routing changes near Bismarck… “In documents filed with the PUC, environmental advocacy groups, including CURE (Clean Up the River Environment), had asked for a stay on any review until the project demonstrated “some proof” that it was viable in North Dakota. “There’s the real possibility … that this will be denied outright,” Sarah Mooradian, government relations and policy director with CURE, told the commission on Thursday… “When pressed by Commissioner John Tuma whether the company would construct an expensive pipeline if North Dakota ultimately rejects a permit application to store the carbon, Summit’s attorney did not mince words. “If there’s no place to put it [C02],” Brusven said, “we wouldn’t be building here.” The commission on Thursday also approved route alternatives, including two proposed by CURE.” 

AgWeek: Summit Carbon environmental study limited to 2 Minnesota counties
8/31/23

“An environmental assessment of a carbon capture pipeline in Minnesota will be limited to the two counties where a short segment of the pipeline runs, leaving out the bulk of the proposed project,” AgWeek reports. “…The company behind the pipeline, Summit Carbon Solutions, has so far only filed for a route permit application for a 20 mile stretch in those two counties, running from the Green Plains ethanol plant at Fergus Falls, Minnesota, to the North Dakota state line… “Commissioner John Tuma asked if North Dakota’s recent decision to deny Summit a route permit would affect the company’s plans to cross into North Dakota… “Summit has requested that the North Dakota Public Service Commission reconsider its decision, but even if it has to start the permit process over in that state, it still could have a North Dakota permit before the Minnesota PUC makes its decision. Part of that is because of the length of time to complete the environmental impact statement in Minnesota — 280 days. Brusven noted that it has already been 11 months since Summit filled for a route permit in Minnesota. “Even a brand new application, we feel that we could make in North Dakota, very rapidly, based on the information we’ve already gathered and their process, start to finish, is still likely to be completed before yours is,” Brusven said.

Dakota Scout: Landowners turn to tribal history in fight against pipeline 
JOE SNEVE, 8/31/23

“South Dakota landowners doubling as property-rights advocates share a common enemy with historical preservationists: a pipeline,” the Dakota Scout reports. “Moody County farmers are teaming up with an eastern South Dakota Indian tribe in hopes of stopping a pipeline slated to cut through their pastures. Historians from the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and Egan-area landowners along the Big Sioux River this week surveyed parcels of land near Navigator CO2’s proposed pipeline route, hunting for remnants of burial sites and lodging formations still visible in the area… “The tribal historical office and the landowners are cooperating to document any artifacts or historical remnants still found on the plots. With a successful hunt this week, Childers said the next step is to bring historians from the South Dakota Historical Preservation Office and spiritual elders back to the sites to better determine what they’ve found. Though it’s too late to present their findings to the Public Utilities Commission that held a series of permit hearings on Navigator CO2’s project— which seeks to pump carbon emitted from ethanol plants to an underground storage location in Illinois — Childers told the Scout their work is not for naught. That’s because Navigator still must clear federal regulatory hurdles, particularly with regard to water crossings along its route. Childers told the Scout once a permit application is submitted to the Army Corps of Engineers, tribes have 30 days to respond. That’s when Childers says the information being documented on the homesteads will be presented, including that the current route runs through at least 12 homestead plots, Childers told the Scout. “They can grant them a permit,” she told the Scout, referring to the pending decision by the Public Utilities Commission that’s expected by Sept. 6. “But that doesn’t mean they can come through here.”

Bloomberg: Carbon pipeline operator Denbury considered over 28 proposals prior to ExxonMobil deal
Kevin Crowley, 8/31/23

“Denbury Inc. held talks with more than two dozen potential buyers and rejected two offers from ExxonMobil Corp. before finally agreeing to sell itself to the Texas oil giant for $4.9 billion in stock last month,” Bloomberg reports. “Executives and their advisers spoke with more than 28 parties, from international oil majors to pipeline operators, signing confidentiality agreements with 17 of them over a two-and-a-half year period, Plano, Texas-based Denbury said in a filing Tuesday. Eventually, Exxon’s third proposal won out after months of negotiations and due diligence by Dan Ammann, the former General Motors Co. executive now running the oil giant’s low carbon solutions business. “While a number of parties expressed various levels of interest at different points in time, ExxonMobil was the only party to provide an indication of interest above the current market price and submit a proposal to acquire Denbury,” the company said. Exxon’s takeover of Denbury, the country’s biggest carbon dioxide pipeline operator, is the largest single carbon-management investment since the Inflation Reduction Act passed in August. The law included landmark climate provisions, providing substantial tax incentives for companies to capture CO2 emissions and store them underground rather than pollute the atmosphere.”

RBN Energy: Permian Basin Production Growth Drives NGL Pipeline Build-Out
Todd Root, 8/31/23

“The Permian is in the midst of an NGL infrastructure boom as midstream companies are investing to keep up with strong production growth projected over the next several years,” RBN Energy reports. “Five pipeline projects are currently under construction or in planning which will increase NGL takeaway capacity out of the region by approximately 1.1 million barrels per day (MMb/d) by the end of 2025 (see chart below).  Until these new projects start-up, NGL pipeline capacity out of the Permian to the Gulf Coast is only going to get tighter. Targa Daytona Pipeline:  Targa Resources was the first mover among the midstream companies to announce an NGL pipeline expansion project in the Permian… “ONEOK West Texas NGL Pipeline Loop: ONEOK is completing the full looping of its West Texas NGL pipeline, which it initially started in 2018 but delayed during COVID… “EPIC Y-Grade Pipeline Expansion:  EPIC is adding up to 75 Mb/d of capacity on its 24-inch Y-grade pipeline from West Texas to Corpus Christi via additional pump stations and minor modifications to existing pump stations… “Enterprise Shin Oak Pipeline Loop: Enterprise Products, the big dog in Mont Belvieu, plans to expand its Shin Oak NGL pipeline system via looping and modification of existing pump stations… “MPLX BANGL J/V Pipeline Expansion:  MPLX is planning to expand its BANGL joint venture pipeline from 125 Mb/d to 200 Mb/d in the first half of 2025.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Press release: Biden-Harris Administration Announces Availability Of $350 Million In Grants To States To Cut Methane Emissions From Oil And Gas Sector
8/30/23

“In support of President Biden’s Investing in America agenda, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), U.S. Department of Energy (DOE), and DOE’s National Energy Technology Laboratory (NETL) announced today the availability of up to $350 million in formula grant funding to help monitor and reduce methane emissions, one of the biggest drivers of climate change, from the oil and gas sector and for environmental restoration of well sites. The funding, provided by the Inflation Reduction Act, will also help oil and gas well owners, as well as operators of applicable facilities, voluntarily and permanently reduce methane emissions from leaks and daily operations of low-producing conventional wells on non-federal lands. Through the Methane Emissions Reduction Program, EPA and DOE will help reduce inefficiencies of U.S. oil and gas operations, create new jobs in energy communities, and realize near-term emission reductions – helping reach the nation’s ambitious climate and clean air goals.” 

Marfa Public Radio: U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service considers protecting West Texas lizard, worrying oil and gas industry
Mitch Borden, 8/30/23

“The roads outside of Monahans are busy as semi trucks pull in and out of sand mines. Over the years, this area, known for its dunes, has become busy. First it was the rush to the Permian Basin to frack oil over a decade ago and then, more recently, mines began to dig up sand needed for drilling,” Marfa Public Radio reports. “But as these industries have thrived, the small dunes sagebrush lizard has become harder to find — pushing the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to propose designating it as an endangered species. According to Lee Fitzgerald, a biologist with Texas A&M University, protections for the lizard have been a long time coming. Fitzgerald has spent the last few decades researching the lizard and has seen their numbers plummet in that time. “Just before our eyes we saw the lizards disappearing,” he told MPR… “The Fish and Wildlife Service echoed this finding in their proposal to designate the species as endangered. The agency says the dunes sagebrush lizard is “functionally extinct” across nearly half of its range largely because of oil and gas activities. But oil and gas advocates, like Ben Shepperd, have their doubts. Shepperd’s the president of the Permian Basin Petroleum Association, which represents hundreds of companies. “I don’t believe they can tell you how many lizards there are today,” he told MPR. “How many lizards there were two years ago, 10 years ago, nor what distinguishes a healthy population.” Shepperd fears that if the federal government establishes protections for the lizard, it would mean companies would be required to obtain permits to operate where lizards may be found. He says that would slow down oil production. “What we’re talking about is shutting down drilling activity in the region,” he told MPR, “Laying people off, not completing pipeline projects, let alone the effects on ranching, farming and other activities.”

STATE UPDATES

RTO Insider: CARB Starts Mandated Carbon Capture, Storage Program
Elaine Goodman, 8/29/23

“The California Air Resources Board has started developing a program to manage carbon capture and storage in the state, as required by legislation passed last year,” RTO Insider reports. “Under one requirement of SB 905, the California Geological Survey will identify high-quality locations for CO2 injection wells…” 

Associated Press: California Panel To Vote On Increasing Storage At Site Of Worst US Methane Leak Despite Risks
8/30/23

“California officials are expected to vote Thursday on a proposal to increase storage capacity at the site of the nation’s largest known methane leak that sickened thousands of families and forced them from their Los Angeles homes in 2015,” the Associated Press reports. “The proposal for the Aliso Canyon Natural Gas Storage Facility has sparked protests from residents, environmentalists and politicians, but utilities and state regulators say its necessary to guard against fuel price spikes this winter.” 

High Country News: The long tail of toxic emissions on the Navajo Nation
Mark Armao, 8/30/23

“It was late February, and intermittent snow blew across the road. On the gray, high-desert horizon, a dark structure loomed above the piñon and juniper. “This is a new one!” Kendra Pinto said, pointing at the well site,” High Country News reports. “Pinto (Diné) grew up in this area, where sandstone mesas give way to shallow valleys and pale badlands of eggshell-colored clays. She watched the landscape change with the influx of fracking activity that peaked around 2014. Now, nearly a decade later, she is among the community’s most prominent critics of the industry. In 2017, she began volunteering for Earthworks, an environmental nonprofit focused on oil, gas and mining pollution. Now, she works for it as a thermographer, documenting air emissions using a specialized infrared camera designed to detect gas emission… “These little flares should be lit and combusting all the hydrocarbons, but when you put the camera on (a lit flare), a portion of those hydrocarbons are still venting out into the atmosphere and along this horizon,” she told HCN. “And that’s worrisome, because the air has no boundaries.” “…Across the region, wells suck crude oil and natural gas from shale formations thousands of feet below the surface. Some of the gas escapes, despite regulations to limit “venting and flaring” by operators. (Flaring is supposed to burn off the escaping methane, converting it to carbon dioxide, a less potent greenhouse gas.) At every juncture — from the wells extracting the hydrocarbons to the storage tanks, compressors and pipelines that convey the material — the system is rife with holes.”

EXTRACTION

Bloomberg: Europe’s Biggest Oil Company Quietly Shelves a Radical Plan to Shrink Its Carbon Footprint
Alastair Marsh and Will Mathis, 8/30/23

“Six months after becoming the chief executive at Shell Plc, Wael Sawan quietly ended the world’s biggest corporate plan to develop carbon offsets, the environmental projects designed to counteract the warming effects of CO2 emissions,” Bloomberg reports. “In an all-day investor event in June, Sawan laid out an updated strategy for the European oil major that included cutting costs and doubling down on profit drivers like oil and gas. As important was what he omitted: any mention of the company’s prior commitment to spend up to $100 million a year to build a pipeline of carbon credits, part of the firm’s promise to zero out its emissions by 2050.”

OilPrice.com: Canada’s Oil And Gas Industry Cuts Emissions While Boosting Output
Irina Slav, 9/1/23

“Canada’s oil and gas companies have managed to boost production from conventional resources while reducing carbon dioxide and methane emissions over the decade to 2021, the industry association CAPP has reported,” OilPrice.com reports. “Between 2012 and 2021, CAPP said, Canada’s oil and gas producers increased their total conventional hydrocarbon output by 21%, while emissions of carbon dioxide equivalent were reduced by 24%. Natural gas production over the period rose by 35%, with CO2 emissions falling by 22% and methane emissions cut by 38%. Oil production, meanwhile, declined by 9%, CAPP also said. “This track record of lowering emissions while growing production is a demonstration of why Canadian oil and natural gas should be the barrels of choice for the world’s energy needs,” CAPP president and chief executive Lisa Baiton said. “As long as the world needs oil and natural gas, Canada’s barrels should be a part of that supply.” “…In the period from 2009 to 2022, the oil sands industry reduced its emissions by 23%. Production this year is expected to top 5 million bpd for the first time and continued expanding over the next two years. Meanwhile, the Canada National Regulator has estimated that the country’s oil production could peak by 2026 if Canada and the rest of the world stuck to their transition goals and succeeded in fulfilling them.”

OPINION

Des Moines Register: Entrepreneurs are leading agriculture’s future through carbon capture
Tom Dorr, who operated a northwest Iowa family farming, grain elevator, seed, and livestock operation for 30 years, has served as president and CEO of the U.S. Grains Council, 8/31/23

“American ingenuity and a robust entrepreneurial spirit have always been unique to our country,” Tom Dorr writes for the Des Moines Register.  “…In some cases, like ethanol, these new opportunities did require supportive government policies. However, those policies addressed the demand for biofuels, but they did not subsidize its cost of production… “Carbon management and sequestration, whether you believe in it or not, has been defined, legislated, and embedded in the consumer marketplace… “Yet the government support for sequestering carbon is only guaranteed for a short time. So how will this happen? As always, entrepreneurs will step forward with their risk capital and that of investors who are willing to support them… “Of course, with any new technology there are obstructionists. It seems even more prevalent in today’s society where we see dark money groups pay protestors and agitators. These are the same organizations who have been hellbent on destroying agriculture and our way of life for decades. The same that started the food versus fuel debates back in the day are now trying to completely eliminate combustion engines altogether. They have always disdained production agriculture. This is nothing new for our industry. We should not be deterred. Carbon capture is the next step to opening new markets, expanding the agriculture industry, and growing rural Iowa. When you assess the social, political, and economic value of efforts by entrepreneurs in the history of our country you will find they have consistently enhanced the lives of the Americans impacted by their visions and efforts. One day we will look back and say the same for carbon capture and sequestration.”

Bloomberg: Our Addiction to Fossil Fuels Is Killing Baby Penguins
F.D. Flam, 8/30/23

“Around parts of Antarctica last year, whole colonies of emperor penguins lost all the chicks they stoically incubated through weeks of darkness, -50C temperatures, and 100 miles-per-hour winds,” F.D. Flam writes for Bloomberg. “This sad discovery came via a combination of commercial and government satellites that scientists adapted to spy on the penguins. These iconic birds depend on sea ice as a platform for breeding and raising chicks, but as the globe is warming, the ice is melting too early. The chicks, too young to swim, are drowning. Last year, the US Fish and Wildlife Service listed the emperor penguin as endangered. The fact that they and other penguin species are in trouble brings up a thorny philosophical question: Why should people care about disappearing species? Often when confronting the public with critically endangered frogs or disappearing rain forest plants, scientists will warn people that some useful compound, maybe a cure for cancer, could be lurking within them. But what if an animal doesn’t have any obvious use? What if penguins aren’t helpful to humans?”