EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 9/10/26

PIPELINE NEWS

• WTVB: Whitmer urges Enbridge to shut down Line 5, look for alternatives

• Bloomberg: Oil Sands Now Has Policies Needed to Boost Output, Canada Says

• The Deep Dive: Canada Removes Pipelines and Oil Sands From IAA Project List

• Reuters: Canada’s Enbridge to buy Tallgrass crude oil business for $2.55 billion

• Reuters: US Pipeline Operator Kinetik Exploring Potential Sale

• KTUU: Oily sheen reappears in Cook Inlet during pipeline test by Hilcorp

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Washington Times: Oil and gas prices surge as GOP convenes for midterm convention to tout ‘affordability’ solutions

• Politico: Key oil benchmark tops $100 a barrel for first time since July, as midterms loom

• New York Times: States File 2 Lawsuits Over Trump’s Cuts to Endangered Species Act

• Financial Times: Donald Trump’s US coal revival push fails to reverse fuel’s long decline

STATE UPDATES

• Inside Climate News: Utahns Support Protecting National Monuments That Trump Downsized

• KSJD: Lands removed from Bears Ears to open to mining claims September 11

• Colorado Sun: BLM ignored wildlife migration when it leased Colorado land for oil and gas drilling, lawsuit claims

• Lufkin Daily News: Forest Service plan could open nearly 500,000 Texas acres to oil and gas leasing

• Texas Observer: 1.2 Million Oil Wells Are Buried Underneath Texas. Do You Live on Top of a Dangerous One?

EXTRACTION

• CBC: Health study begins examining potential oilsands impacts on Fort Chipewyan

• Reuters: Alberta landowners take regulator to court over oil well cleanup

• Nevada Public Radio: A new study shows public opposition to data centers could change if people felt they were benefitting, too

• Bloomberg: Carbon Removal Pioneer Climeworks Increases CO2 Capture Sixfold

• Bloomberg: Largest Carbon Capture Project in Canada Set to Open in January

• Heated: We asked Big Tech about AI’s fossil fuel problem. The responses were atrocious.

• DeSmog: Fossil Fuel-Tied PR Agency Supporting U.N. Climate Conference

• Al Jazeera: Why US-Iran war over Hormuz is threatening the Gulf’s waters

OPINION

• Post Register: Republicans abandon public lands protections
  

PIPELINE NEWS

WTVB: Whitmer urges Enbridge to shut down Line 5, look for alternatives
Michael Arney, 9/10/26

“Governor Gretchen Whitmer is urging Enbridge to shut down its Line 5 oil and natural gas pipelines and seek alternatives,” WTVB reports. “She says the state needs to consider the impact of a Michigan Supreme Court decision on permits issued in July for Enbridge’s proposed pipeline tunnel under the Straits of Mackinac. Whitmer sent a letter to Enbridge CEO Gregory Ebel, calling on the Canadian company to stop treating the tunnel idea as the only alternative to the existing pipelines on the lakebed along the Straits of Mackinac.”

Bloomberg: Oil Sands Now Has Policies Needed to Boost Output, Canada Says
Robert Tuttle, 9/9/26

“Canadian oil sands producers now have what’s needed policy-wise from the federal government to raise production enough to fill major new oil pipeline capacity, the country’s energy minister says,” Bloomberg reports. “The government on Wednesday revealed plans to remove federal environmental reviews of energy projects, including oil and gas pipelines, natural gas plants and oil sands projects. Those are the latest shifts from Ottawa in the last year to signal greater backing for energy production and speed up regulatory approvals. More than 2 million barrels of crude export pipeline capacity are planned over the coming decade (Canada currently produces just more than 5 million barrels a day of oil). That includes a proposed million-barrel-a-day line to the British Columbia coast that’s backed by both the Alberta and Canadian federal governments… “The industry has complained about environmental policies placed on it under the previous government of Justin Trudeau, and haven’t meaningfully invested in expansion projects in more than a decade… “The Canadian and Alberta governments are continuing to negotiate terms for a major carbon capture project with the five major oil sands producers (Canadian Natural Resources Ltd., Suncor Energy Inc., Cenovus Energy Inc., ConocoPhillips Canada and Imperial Oil Ltd.). Those talks involve possible incentives to encourage investment in new greenfield production, as well as the money needed to build the carbon storage project that altogether industry insiders and analysts say would require north of C$100 billion ($72.5 billion).”

The Deep Dive: Canada Removes Pipelines and Oil Sands From IAA Project List
ER Velasco, 9/9/26

“Canada has cut the expected number of major projects entering the federal Impact Assessment Act process by 20% to 30%, but the government’s own analysis suggests the biggest practical change is a reassignment of reviews rather than their elimination,” The Deep Dive reports. “The regulations guidelines removes international and interprovincial pipelines, transmission lines, certain Canada Energy Regulator-regulated offshore and oil and gas facilities, in situ oil sands projects, and fossil fuel-fired power plants from the federal Project List… “For pipelines and other CERA-regulated projects, federal review does not disappear… “Under the new rules, the CER becomes the sole federal regulator. Its statute requires consideration of environmental, health, social, economic, and Indigenous-rights effects, while the Governor in Council remains the final public-interest decision-maker for large pipelines and international transmission lines. The government says removing CERA-regulated categories is cost-neutral for businesses and government because proponents still face CER review costs and federal expenses shift from a shared IAAC-CER process to the CER… “The larger change is the removal of fossil fuel-fired generating facilities and specified in situ oil sands projects from automatic IAA designation. Fossil power projects accounted for 20% of initial project descriptions received under the IAA, according to the regulatory analysis, but all were ultimately screened out before a comprehensive federal assessment. The government says those projects, along with in situ oil sands facilities, will remain subject to provincial reviews and applicable federal regulatory regimes.”

Reuters: Canada’s Enbridge to buy Tallgrass crude oil business for $2.55 billion
Pooja Menon, 9/9/26

“Enbridge said on Wednesday it will acquire Blackstone-owned Tallgrass Energy’s crude oil business for $2.55 billion in ​cash, expanding its U.S. liquids pipeline network by buying a majority ‌stake in the Pony Express Pipeline and other assets,” Reuters reports. “The Canadian pipeline operator said the deal would strengthen its presence in key U.S. crude-producing regions, including the Bakken, Powder River and ​Denver-Julesburg basins, while creating operational synergies with its existing Express-Platte pipeline ​system. Enbridge will acquire a 75% interest in the Pony Express Pipeline, ⁠a 1,050-mile (1,690-km), 460,000-barrel-per-day (bpd) crude system that links production in the Rockies to ​the Cushing, Oklahoma, storage hub and provides access to about 500,000 bpd of ​refining capacity… “The acquisition, expected to close later in 2026, subject to ​regulatory clearance, also includes a 51% stake in the Powder River Gateway pipeline system, nearly 8.4 ‌million ⁠barrels of storage across nine crude terminals connected to Pony Express, and the crude marketing business Stanchion Energy.”

Reuters: US Pipeline Operator Kinetik Exploring Potential Sale
David French, Pooja Menon, 9/10/26

“U.S. pipeline operator Kinetik Holdings is in the early stages of exploring a potential sale of the company, three sources familiar with the matter said on Wednesday,” Reuters reports. “…Kinetik focuses on transporting natural gas and crude oil from wells in the Delaware portion of the Permian basin of Texas and New Mexico. It has more than 4,600 miles of pipelines, as well as associated compression and processing infrastructure, according to its website.”

KTUU: Oily sheen reappears in Cook Inlet during pipeline test by Hilcorp
Joey Klecka, 9/9/26

“Weeks after a reported oil spill could not be found by state regulators in the waters near Anchorage, a new oily sheen popped up Wednesday morning during a deliberate test by the state’s top oil and gas company,” KTUU reports. “The original sheen was first reported Aug. 24 when a pilot flying over Cook Inlet spotted what appeared to be a five-mile stretch of oil about five miles south of Tyonek… “Wednesday’s test by Hilcorp Alaska produced an oily sheen after engineers with the company, the state Department of Environmental Conservation and the U.S. Coast Guard restarted an outfall pipeline from the Granite Point Tank Farm near Tyonek on the western shores of Cook Inlet… “Hilcorp said it shut down the Granite Point test about 15 minutes later, followed by a response boat moving in to contain the spill… “The oil leak is particularly concerning as Cook Inlet is home to a myriad of Alaska marine life, including belugas, sea otters, migratory birds and five species of Pacific salmon.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Washington Times: Oil and gas prices surge as GOP convenes for midterm convention to tout ‘affordability’ solutions
Tom Howell Jr., 9/9/26

“Diesel fuel prices hit a record high Wednesday while gas prices jumped another 7 cents in a single day, and the stock market headed for another sell-off because crude oil prices rose above $100 per barrel again,” the Washington Times reports. “The timing could not be worse for Republicans, who have gathered in Dallas to fine-tune their message ahead of midterm elections that are focusing on the cost of living. The Republican National Committee said it will contrast the Democrats’ ‘radical policies’ with their efforts to lower costs and establish energy dominance. However, the Republican message is undercut by a midweek surge in costs tied to President Trump’s war against Iran… “The average price of gas was $4.22 per gallon Wednesday, up 7 cents from Tuesday and 42% from the start of the war in late February, according to AAA. Diesel set a record of $5.94 per gallon Wednesday, an increase that could raise prices of other goods as shippers pass along higher fuel costs… “Key races in typical Republican strongholds, including the Senate races in Texas and Iowa, are suddenly competitive as Democrats hammer Republicans over the high cost of living that is vexing voters.”

Politico: Key oil benchmark tops $100 a barrel for first time since July, as midterms loom
Elleiana Green, 9/9/26

“Global oil prices reached the highest mark since July on Wednesday, as the Iran war continues to drag on and the U.S. barrels toward the midterm elections,” Politico reports. “The price of Brent crude — a key global benchmark for oil — was just over $100 per barrel on Wednesday for the first time in six weeks. The soar in prices comes as Saudi Arabian officials said the Iran-backed Houthi rebel group attacked Saudi Arabian oil facilities and wounded 73 early Tuesday, marking a significant escalation in the conflict between the U.S. and Iran. After about a month without the U.S. and Iran exchanging fire, direct conflict between the two countries has also picked up in the last couple weeks. On Tuesday, U.S. Central Command said it destroyed five Iranian oil tankers in response to Iran targeting an American Navy ship with ballistic missiles twice. Tuesday’s strikes against Iranian oil tankers comes after the U.S. destroyed three other Iranian oil tankers on Saturday.”

New York Times: States File 2 Lawsuits Over Trump’s Cuts to Endangered Species Act
Maxine Joselow, 9/10/26

“Twenty states and the District of Columbia sued the Trump administration on Wednesday over what they called the most severe cuts to protections for wildlife in the half-century since the passage of the Endangered Species Act,” the New York Times reports. “Two lawsuits filed in federal court in California challenged a series of regulatory changes that opened the habitats of imperiled animals to drilling, farming, logging and other commercial activities… “But the Trump administration tossed out that longstanding interpretation and instead finalized a rule that said degrading the habitat of an endangered species would no longer be illegal. The change, which the Interior Department and the Commerce Department finalized in July, could allow oil drillers, farmers, loggers, home builders and others to disturb or even destroy the habitats of vulnerable species. The second lawsuit challenged two regulations issued by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, part of the Interior Department. One rule eliminated automatic protections for all species that are newly classified as threatened under the Endangered Species Act. The other allowed the government to consider economic factors, such as lost revenue for businesses, before designating areas as critical habitat for endangered species. Both complaints argued that the changes violated the Administrative Procedure Act, the Endangered Species Act and the National Environmental Policy Act.”

Financial Times: Donald Trump’s US coal revival push fails to reverse fuel’s long decline
Martha Muir, 9/10/26

“Coal’s long decline as a US fuel source is deepening despite Donald Trump’s high-profile push to revive it, as plant operators dial back ageing units and cheaper rivals take market share,” the Financial Times reports. “In the first half of 2026, coal-fired electricity generation fell 11 per cent compared with the same period last year, according to data from the US Energy Information Administration. The president has signed two executive orders intended to boost the industry and hosted multiple events at the White House with industry executives and miners. He has extended the lives of seven plants that were due to retire and opened up new public lands for mining, saying coal was ‘certainly the best’ form of energy and ‘beautiful’ and ‘clean’… “But analysts say that despite Trump’s efforts to prop up the industry, the growth of cheaper power sources such as renewables and natural gas is still displacing demand for coal… “The plants Trump has saved from closure have burned coal at a markedly decreased rate, falling from 4.8mn short tons to 1.6mn between the first halves of 2025 and 2026.”

STATE UPDATES

Inside Climate News: Utahns Support Protecting National Monuments That Trump Downsized
Wyatt Myskow, 9/9/26

“Two-thirds of Utah voters support restoring the boundaries of Bears Ears and Grand Staircase-Escalante national monuments to the previous boundaries they had before President Donald Trump reduced them to less than a quarter of their original size,” Inside Climate News reports. “That’s according to new polling commissioned by the Grand Canyon Trust, a nonprofit dedicated to protecting the Four Corners region, and conducted by New Bridge Strategy, and comes as the Trump administration’s actions prompt the reignition of major lawsuits from environmental organizations, conservation groups and outdoor apparel maker Patagonia… “The polling found 69 percent of Utahns opposed terminating that coalition, and 82 percent say tribal voices are important for managing the sites. Nearly three-quarters of Utah voters support presidents’ authority to designate national monuments under the Antiquities Act, a long-standing piece of legislation that Republicans have targeted, and 81 percent of Utahns oppose selling public lands to private interests, which Utah Republicans have advocated for.”

KSJD: Lands removed from Bears Ears to open to mining claims September 11
LP McKay, 9/9/26

“Lands removed from Bears Ears National Monument will become available for new mining claims beginning Friday, September 11th, according to President Trump’s recent proclamation that reduced the monument’s boundaries,” KSJD reports. “…President Donald Trump reduced Bears Ears National Monument by about 90%, from approximately 1.36 million acres to about 121,100 acres, through a proclamation signed on July 13th. The proclamation cited the potential availability of uranium, vanadium, copper and other minerals among its reasons for removing federal protections from the lands… “The reduction is also facing legal challenges. On September 2, conservation organizations asked a federal court to reopen litigation originally filed following Trump’s 2017 monument reduction to allow them to challenge the new proclamation.”

Colorado Sun: BLM ignored wildlife migration when it leased Colorado land for oil and gas drilling, lawsuit claims
Mark Jaffe, 9/10/26

“Two environmental groups are suing to overturn the June federal oil and gas lease sales in Colorado and Wyoming, arguing the U.S. Bureau of Land management failed to take into account vital migration corridors for elk, pronghorn and mule deer,” the Colorado Sun reports. “…BLM’s EA for the Colorado lease sale did not analyze the impacts of leasing on big game habitat or migration corridors,” the complaint said. “As a result, BLM’s leasing decision ignored significant environmental impacts.” “…The conservation groups contend that the Federal Land Policy and Management Act still requires a balancing of uses with ‘preference criteria’ to direct oil and gas development away from areas where it would conflict with wildlife habitat.”

Lufkin Daily News: Forest Service plan could open nearly 500,000 Texas acres to oil and gas leasing
Ruben Ibarra Jr., 9/10/26

“The U.S. Forest Service has approved a plan that could allow future oil and gas leasing across nearly 500,000 acres of federally owned land in Texas, including portions of the Angelina and Davy Crockett national forests,” the Lufkin Daily News reports. “…The place covers about 499,800 acres where the Forest Service manages the land and the federal government owns the minerals underneath it. About 490,000 acres could be considered for future leasing, while roughly 9,700 of those acres could be closed… “The Forest Service considered five alternatives, including one that would have closed all 499,800 acres to new leasing. The agency found that option would provide the greatest environmental protection but would not satisfy the federal government’s state purpose of determining where mineral development could occur… “If development reaches the levels studied by the Forest Service, it could disturb as many as 600 acres and use about 168 million barrels of water over 20 years, or about 7.06 billion gallons.”

Texas Observer: 1.2 Million Oil Wells Are Buried Underneath Texas. Do You Live on Top of a Dangerous One?
Saul Elbein, 9/9/26

“This spring, a Permian Basin pastor got an unpleasant surprise: a geyser of more than 1.5 million gallons of toxic brine gushing up through the parking lot of the First Baptist Church in Grandfalls. It was a “zombie well”—what happens when the plug on one of the state’s hundreds of thousands of old wells fails, releasing poisonous gas and water onto the property above,” the Texas Observer reports. “…But the spills are only the visible part of the problem. Every oil and gas well, once drilled, is a hazard someone has to keep sealed forever. And Texas has a lot of wells… “During the Barnett Shale fracking boom of the 2000s and early 2010s, oil and gas exploration companies, working at a frenzied pace with minimal regulation or oversight, drilled some 21,000 wells around the Metroplex, each producing thousands of tons of solid waste… “The Railroad Commission has around 1.2 million wells on its books, some 300,000 of them plugged. From those records we built a profile of the ones most likely to fail… “Put together, this analysis flagged more than 25,000 plugged wells across the state at critical risk of failure—50 times more wells at risk of going zombie than had previously been reported, as the Houston Chronicle noted when it covered our findings last month.”

EXTRACTION

CBC: Health study begins examining potential oilsands impacts on Fort Chipewyan
Vincent McDermott, 9/10/26

“After repeated pleas from community members over more than two decades, a federally funded study will begin examining the health impacts of the oilsands on residents in Fort Chipewyan, an Indigenous community in northern Alberta,” the CBC reports. “Many people in the community, located more than 200 kilometres north of Fort McMurray, have long believed there are links between cancers in Fort Chipewyan and the industrial developments upstream along the Athabasca River… “Researchers will examine current and historical health data, study local disease patterns and monitor people and the environment. They will also examine how environmental changes impact the community’s culture and daily way of life… “The study will be carried out by third-party researchers and overseen by the Métis Nation, the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation (ACFN) and the Mikisew Cree First Nation (MCFN). The federal government will play an observer role… “Alberta doesn’t currently maintain community-specific statistics about cancer for rural areas of the Regional Municipality of Wood Buffalo (RMWB) and other parts of northern Alberta, according to a spokesperson for Alberta Primary and Preventative Health Services… “Dr. John O’Connor, who has been raising his concerns about cancer in Fort Chipewyan since 2006, told CBC News he is happy the study is taking place… “The urgency with which it needs to be taken on and completed, I think, does require a shorter time frame,” O’Connor told CBC. “Just the number of people that I managed myself as a physician was quite alarming.”

Reuters: Alberta landowners take regulator to court over oil well cleanup
Amanda Stephenson, 9/8/26

“A group of Alberta landowners are going to court to argue that the province’s energy regulator has chronically and knowingly underfunded a program meant to protect the public from the cost of cleaning up abandoned oil and gas wells,” Reuters reports. “The legal action is the culmination of years of simmering tension between farmers and ranchers and oil and gas producers in Canada’s main energy-producing province, which has struggled to cope with the thousands of so-called “orphan” wells that dot Alberta’s rural landscape. It puts the Alberta Energy Regulator’s willingness to enforce environmental rules under scrutiny at a time when both the Canadian and Alberta governments are keen to expand domestic oil production in the face of an escalating trade war with the U.S. Alberta has approximately 7,300 inactive oil and gas wells which in most cases have been left behind in the wake of company bankruptcies… “In an application filed in an Alberta courtroom on Tuesday, two landowners along with the Alberta Surface Rights Federation and the Polluter Pay Federation requested a judicial review of the Alberta Energy Regulator’s legal responsibility to ensure the burden of cleaning up orphan wells is borne by industry, not taxpayers. Lawyer Susanne Calabrese, who represents the landowners, told reporters Tuesday the Alberta Energy Regulator has consistently set the levy oil and gas companies pay to fund the Orphan Well Association’s work at too low a level.”

Nevada Public Radio: A new study shows public opposition to data centers could change if people felt they were benefitting, too
Yvette Fernandez, 9/8/26

“Public opposition to data centers is high regardless of political affiliation. A new report from university researchers at Yale finds that opposition could change if people saw a win-win,” Nevada Public Radio reports. “…One strong reason for the opposition revolves around concerns that data centers might cause household utility bills to go up. But 74% of survey respondents said they would be more supportive of data centers if developers somehow helped offset their home electricity costs… “This tells us that a lot of the concern is not just knee-jerk resistance to growth itself or development itself. It’s really opposition to a bad bargain, where communities are asked to absorb the costs while somebody else gets the benefit,” Kristin Eberhard, vice president of policy with the advocacy non-profit, “Rewiring America,” which collaborated on the report, told NPR. Eberhart pointed to incentives that data center developers or local governments could provide to help lower consumer energy bills. For example, heat pump upgrades, rooftop solar panels, weatherization, home batteries and smart controls.”

Bloomberg: Carbon Removal Pioneer Climeworks Increases CO2 Capture Sixfold
Akshat Rathi and Alastair Marsh, 9/9/26

“The world’s largest direct air capture plant is sucking more carbon dioxide from the atmosphere at a lower cost, an improvement for a sector struggling to scale economically as global warming surpasses dangerous levels,” Bloomberg reports. “Swiss carbon-removal company Climeworks said its Mammoth facility in Iceland removed 675 tons of carbon dioxide in the first half of this year, almost six times as much as a year earlier. The cost of running the plant has fallen by more than half, the company said in a statement, without disclosing the actual expense… “Several billion tons of carbon removal may be required annually by mid-century to keep temperatures below 2C above pre-industrial levels, researchers led by Matthew Gidden of the International Institute for Applied Systems Analysis wrote in a 2024 report… “In recent years, more than 100 direct air capture startups have formed, with projects that could total 4.5 million tons of annual capacity by 2035, according to BloombergNEF. But many of those projects are unlikely to materialize, according to the researcher.”

Bloomberg: Largest Carbon Capture Project in Canada Set to Open in January
Robert Tuttle, 9/9/26

“Canada’s largest carbon capture and storage project is set to begin operation in January as the country moves to spur investment in the emissions reduction technology,” Bloomberg reports. “Enhance Energy’s Origins Carbon Capture Storage Hub near Clive, Alberta, will have the capacity to store as much as 1.5 million metric tons of carbon dioxide a year, equal to taking 500,000 cars off the road each year, Natural Resources Canada said in a statement on Wednesday… “Enhance Energy’s Origins was one of about two dozen proposed carbon-storage hubs selected by Alberta’s government in 2022 to move forward… “The use of carbon capture and storage as a means of cutting emissions was a central part of a broader bargain struck last year between Alberta and Canada’s Prime Minister Mark Carney to gain federal support for the construction of a new oil pipeline to the British Columbia coast.”

Heated: We asked Big Tech about AI’s fossil fuel problem. The responses were atrocious.
Emily Atkin, 9/9/26

“…Oil giants like ExxonMobil, Chevron, and BP are working with Microsoft, Google, and Amazon to develop custom AI tools that help them boost production,” Heated reports. “The use of these AI tools could trigger 3.3 to 13.3 times more climate pollution than the emissions from AI data centers, the study found. Importantly, the study also found that the fossil fuel industry’s use of these tools will almost always outweigh the climate benefits AI provides to renewable energy. Unfortunately, I’m disappointed to report that the companies responsible for building custom AI for Big Oil are not taking the research seriously… “To its credit, Amazon was the only company to provide a response to my questions… “Instead, the company claimed its custom technology is helping oil companies become less carbon intensive. But “Carbon intensity” is a greenwashing term: It measures pollution per barrel, allowing oil companies to claim climate progress even as rising production drives up total overall emissions. In other words, Amazon may be helping oil companies lower carbon intensity. That doesn’t mean it’s helping oil companies lower carbon emissions… “Amazon’s Climate Pledge only measures emissions from its own operations—it does not count the emissions enabled by its business deals. ”That’s exactly the accountability gap we’re pointing to: a company can be truthful about its operational net-zero progress while contracts that materially expand global oil and gas production sit entirely outside what gets measured or disclosed,” she told Heated. “Growth and sustainability not being in opposition, on paper, is only possible because the accounting was never built to see this part of the business at all.”

DeSmog: Fossil Fuel-Tied PR Agency Supporting U.N. Climate Conference
TJ Jordan, 9/9/26

“New York-based public relations agency Teneo is advising the organisers of this November’s United Nations COP31 climate conference in Antalya, Turkey, despite its close ties to the fossil fuel industry,” DeSmog reports. “The same agency came under fire two years ago for promoting COP29 host nation Azerbaijan as a climate champion, even as the country was expanding oil and gas production. The previous year, Teneo earned $1.6 million advising the oil-rich United Arab Emirates on its leadership of COP28 — a fee paid for by the state-owned Abu Dhabi National Oil Company (ADNOC) via its renewables arm Masdar. Teneo has worked with U.S. oil giant ExxonMobil, British oil and gas developer EnQuest and Australian coal and steel mining giant BHP within the past two years, according to research by DeSmog and campaign group Clean Creatives… “Teneo’s services this year include developing the climate conference’s external messaging and providing Turkey’s COP31 team with media training and PR crisis management, according to a $3.9 million contract filed with the U.S. Department of Justice under laws that require American companies to report on work for foreign governments.”

Al Jazeera: Why US-Iran war over Hormuz is threatening the Gulf’s waters
Alia Chughtai and Marium Ali, 9/9/26

“…The tit-for-tat attacks have turned Hormuz into a potential environmental tinderbox. With tankers carrying millions of barrels of crude oil and petroleum products passing through or waiting around the waterway, a successful strike could trigger a fire, sinking, or a major oil spill,” Al Jazeera reports. “…That — 1.76 million cubic metres of crude oil — is roughly 11.1 million barrels of oil, and is equivalent to about 11 percent of the world’s daily oil demand, enough to fill roughly 714 Olympic-sized swimming pools… “A major tanker strike or sinking could release millions of litres of oil into the Gulf, potentially contaminating coastlines, fisheries and fragile marine ecosystems… “On September 5, CENTCOM said its forces struck three Iranian oil tankers — one off Kharg Island, Iran’s main oil-export hub; another near Jask; and a third, an unladen tanker, in the Gulf of Oman after its crew was ordered to abandon ship… “Oil has been leaking from the Caroline Bezengi since it ran aground about 22 nautical miles (41km) off Oman’s coast after its crew reported a suspected explosion in early June. The Reuters news agency estimates the tanker was carrying 800,000 barrels of oil. Oman’s Environment Authority warned that the spill could affect about 40km (25 miles) of coastline near Ras Madraka, as well as Masirah Island.”

OPINION

Post Register: Republicans abandon public lands protections
Lauren Necochea is the Idaho Democratic Party chair, 9/8/26

“In decades past, Idahoans elected leaders who worked to preserve public lands for future generations,” Lauren Necochea writes for the Post Register. “Sixty-two years ago, Democratic Sen. Frank Church helped pass the Wilderness Act, the most significant land protection law in American history. It now safeguards more than 111 million acres nationwide… “Last year, Republicans in Congress tried to use their disastrous budget bill to put millions of acres of public land up for sale. One Senate proposal would have sold up to 3.3 million acres. Mike Crapo and Jim Risch voted against an amendment to prevent those sales. They retreated only after outraged Idahoans mounted fierce opposition… “Idaho Democrats are using public office differently. Sen. James Ruchti helped advance Senate Joint Memorial 111 opposing large-scale public land sales and transfers. Democratic Leader Ilana Rubel pushed bipartisan legislation to preserve tens of millions of dollars for replacing state lands sold into private ownership. Democrats have shown what Idahoans can make possible. This November, Idahoans can elect leaders who share their commitment to public lands for the generations still to come.”