EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 9/19/24

PIPELINE NEWS

• Reuters: Energy Transfer pipeline fire burns for a third day in La Porte, Texas

• WSLS: Texas pipeline explosion prompts concerns from critics of Mountain Valley Pipeline

• KWTX: ‘I’m frustrated’: Residents in Gatesville participate in session for proposed natural gas pipeline project

• KMID: Powering the Permian – DeLa Express LLC to construct 600-mile-long pipeline across West Texas

• Minnesota Public Radio: Gas pipeline approved near pipestone quarry sacred to Indigenous people, with conditions

• Mother Jones: Indigenous Activists Haven’t Forgotten Walz’s Promises to Oppose Line 3

• Charleston Gazette-Mail: Ground broken on $60M, 4-story TC Energy building in downtown Charleston

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Bloomberg: Oil Industry Yet to Prove Carbon Capture Viable: Kerry

• Common Dreams: Big Oil to Benefit From Biden’s Carbon Capture Tax Credits: Report

• E&E News: Democrats Block Pro-Fracking Bill In The Senate 

• Reuters: Harris Understands Fracking Ban Raises Energy Costs, Industry Execs Say 

• E&E News: Would Harris kill the green dream of banning drilling on public lands?

• Reuters: Chevron CEO hits Biden’s natural gas policies, says fuel is crucial for AI

• E&E News: Biden Admin Asks Court For More Time To Study Offshore Drilling Risks 

STATE UPDATES

• Carbon Herald: NTEC Gets $6.5M From DOE To Explore Carbon Capture At Four Corners Power Plant

• Law360: Cleanup Worker Wants Full 5th Circ. To Review BP Spill Suit 

• New York Times: How Colorado Cowboys And Conservationists Joined Forces To Stop Drilling 

• Cowboy State Daily: Feds Say Wyoming Farmers, Miners Not Entitled To Relief From New Lease Rule 

• Louisiana Illuminator: Company plans to turn garbage and wood into biofuels at $1.35 billion Louisiana plant

• Capital and Main: New Mexico Shakes, State Cancels Dozens of Planned Wastewater Injection Sites

EXTRACTION

• New York Times: ‘Red Flags’ On Climate: U.S. Methane Emissions Keep Climbing 

• Canadian Press: Feds fund health study for Indigenous communities downstream of oilsands

• DeSmog: Canada’s Oil Patch Blames Anti-Greenwashing Law for Delayed Sustainability Reports

• Bloomberg: Low Carbon Prices in Oil Sands Home Seen Slowing Emission Reduction

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

• WTOV: Bay Six Project’s brown bag diner boosted by TC Energy workers and food donations

• Enbridge: ‘A Group of Dreamers Determined To Make a Difference’

OPINION

• Corporate Knights: Why this investor advocate quit filing oil and gas shareholder proposals
  

PIPELINE NEWS

Reuters: Energy Transfer pipeline fire burns for a third day in La Porte, Texas
9/18/24

“Energy Transfer said a fire at its natural gas liquid (NGL) pipeline in La Porte, Texas, which started on Monday, continued to safely burn itself out on Wednesday with the flame having diminished overnight,” Reuters reports. “The pipeline was isolated for residual product to burn off, after a massive fire knocked out power to thousands of homes and businesses and prompted an evacuation of the area. “When isolation equipment is installed, we will purge a short section with nitrogen, which will extinguish the fire, and begin repairs,” the company said. The fire started after a car crashed into an above-ground pipeline valve, and it is suspected to involve the Justice pipeline, a 20-inch Y-grade line that connects with Energy Transfer’s Liberty and West Texas Gateway pipelines, researchers for investment firm Tudor, Pickering, Holt & Co said in a note. Y-grade refers to a mix of NGLs, including ethane, propane, butane, isobutane, and natural gasoline, which are extracted from the raw natural gas stream.”

WSLS: Texas pipeline explosion prompts concerns from critics of Mountain Valley Pipeline
9/18/24

“Environmental advocates say the pipeline explosion just outside Houston is a reminder of the potential dangers of a pipeline in our own backyard,” WSLS reports. “…The pipeline was carrying similar materials as the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline which passes through several counties in southwest Virginia… “Roberta Bondurant, who is with the group Preserve Bent Mountain, told WSLS safety remains a concern. “Given the explosion in Houston, given the appearance of other explosions, we have some idea of what to expect in an explosion on the Mountain Valley Pipeline,” Bondurant told WSLS. The pipeline failed during water testing earlier this year, adding to concerns… “In response to ongoing concerns about erosion and other impacts, the company told WSLS the MVP project team conducts a standard review each quarter with the Virginia Department of Environmental Quality. “It’s important to note that Mountain Valley agreed to unprecedented oversight and transparency of project work,” wrote a spokesperson from the pipeline in response to questions from WSLS. “Since 2018, this has included more than 47,800 state, federal and third-party environmental inspections and more than 72,000 inspections by MVP’s internal environmental team. If an issue is identified, the project team moves quickly to address it.”

KWTX: ‘I’m frustrated’: Residents in Gatesville participate in session for proposed natural gas pipeline project
Madison Herber, 9/18/24

“The process of getting a natural gas pipeline to stretch from west Texas to Lake Charles, Louisiana is trekking forward,” KWTX reports. “DeLa Express LLC is proposing the pipeline, a subsidiary of Moss Lake Partners LP an independent energy infrastructure company… “According to the lines they’ve projected at this point shows it being like 22 feet away from my bedroom window,” Leslie Smith, a Gatesville resident, told KWTX. Smith has lived in Gatesville for more than a decade and he told KWTX he already had five lines running through or around his property. He has attended every session in town regarding this new pipeline trying to get answers from project leaders. “I’m even more frustrated. They don’t have any idea what’s going where or how it’s going to be done,” Smith told KWTX… “FERC has done nearly a dozen of these scoping sessions which could help DeLa Express LLC get one step closer to formally submitting its application to move forward with the project.”

KMID: Powering the Permian – DeLa Express LLC to construct 600-mile-long pipeline across West Texas
Chris Talley, 9/18/24

“The DeLa Express LLC. Pipeline is set to be constructed in 2028, running across the state of Texas,” according to KMID. “Officials with the project sent a statement detailing how this affects West Texas. “The Project is a proposed long-haul pipeline for liquids-rich natural gas transportation. It will serve to safely ship critical natural gas and liquids supply from the prolific Permian Basin of West Texas to high-demand consumer markets in the U.S. Gulf Coast and international export markets. By aiming to provide much needed natural gas and liquids takeaway capacity, the project will reduce flaring and emissions in the Permian, and by transporting natural gas and liquids in a single mainline, it will minimize the need for right-of-way clearing and have a significantly lower environmental impact,” said a spokesperson for DeLa Express LLC… “The deadline to submit your concerns is September 23, 2024.”

Minnesota Public Radio: Gas pipeline approved near pipestone quarry sacred to Indigenous people, with conditions
Melissa Olson, 9/18/24

“Regulators issued a permit to Magellan Pipeline Company at a hearing last week, keeping in view the objections of several tribal nations who say the pipestone quarried at the national monument and the surrounding areas are central to the spiritual practices of tribes across the continent,” Minnesota Public Radio reports. “It’s just too much of a risk,” Upper Sioux Community tribal historic preservation officer Samantha Odegard told the commission. Pipestone National Monument was created in 1937 to protect the rights of Indigenous people to quarry pipestone — or catlinite, a soft, red stone used to make pipes and works of art. The National Park Service consults with 23 tribal nations with documented ties to the quarry on the monument’s activities… “The PUC approved the permit along an alternate route first proposed by the Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe — one of several tribal nations who voiced opposition to the line… “During the hearing, representatives of several tribal nations including the Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe and the Yankton Sioux Tribe, located in South Dakota, voiced opposition to all the proposed routes… “According to CoriAhna Rude-Young, a spokesperson for the PUC, before construction can begin along the permitted route, Magellan must comply with the following conditions: A full cultural and archaeological survey for RA-01(Route Alternative-01) in coordination with Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Upper Sioux Community, Yankton Sioux Tribe and Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. Once the full survey is complete, Magellan must send the results for feedback to the tribal nations who currently consult with the National Park Service at Pipestone National Monument and engage in additional consultation with Mille Lacs Band of Ojibwe, Upper Sioux Community, Yankton Sioux Tribe and Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe. At a minimum, tribal consultation should include at least one in-person meeting with tribal representatives to occur no later than 30 days after completion of the full cultural and archaeological survey.”

Mother Jones: Indigenous Activists Haven’t Forgotten Walz’s Promises to Oppose Line 3
ARTIS CURISKIS, 9/19/24

“When Governor Tim Walz was announced as Kamala Harris’ running mate, Ben Jealous, the Sierra Club’s executive director, released a statement hailing him as someone who “has worked to protect clean air and water, grow our clean energy economy, and see to it that we do all we can to avoid the very worst of the climate crisis.” But to a group of Indigenous environmental activists familiar with Walz’ record in Minnesota—particularly their view he broke a promise to block the construction of Line 3, a cross-state oil pipeline—such a ringing endorsement of his green credentials rings hollow,” Mother Jones reports. “A few days after her home state’s governor joined the ticket, Tara Houska, an attorney and Indigenous rights activist, expressed that point of view in an Instagram video post where she said he had led “a brutal, multi-year campaign to suppress Indigenous people and allies trying to stop Line 3 tar sands.” It showed a clash between protesters and police at a Line 3 pipeline construction site over a soundtrack of rising drums. In the final scene, Houska is being escorted away by police while in restraints… “During a contested Democratic primary, Walz advocated against Line 3 by criticizing its harm to Native communities and lands. “Any line that goes through treaty lands is a nonstarter for me,” he wrote on Twitter, adding that “every route would disproportionately and adversely affect Native people. Unacceptable.” “…After Walz took office in early 2019, he said he would continue Dayton’s lawsuit, but in public remarks seemed to lay the groundwork to wash his hands of the issue, suggesting the project’s fate laid with an appeals court’s review of the commission’s decision. He explained he would not use executive powers to stop the pipeline “as a protection against the checks and balances being weakened.” “…Houska told Mother Jones Walz passed the buck. “The reality is his administration could’ve stopped Line 3,” she argues, by upholding treaty obligations—specifically the Ojibwe nation’s unique right to harvest wild rice, which activists warned was threatened by the pipeline… “Walz’ administration did not respond to a request for comment. But in August 2021, just after a thousand Line 3 protestors picketed at the state capitol, Walz defended the project, by saying that while “we need to move away from fossil fuels… in the meantime if we’re gonna transport oil, we need to do it as safely as we possibly can with the most modern equipment.”

Charleston Gazette-Mail: Ground broken on $60M, 4-story TC Energy building in downtown Charleston
Sierra Marling, 9/19/24 

“A long, wooden box of dirt located at 200 Kanawha Blvd. E., in Charleston, marked the spot where a shiny, new building will be built,” the Charleston Gazette-Mail reports. “The ceremonial groundbreaking, complete with dignitaries and chrome-plated shovels, was held Wednesday… “By November 2026, the property will host 450 employees from TC Energy’s existing Charleston office, just across the Kanawha River in the historic Columbia Gas building at 1700 MacCorkle Ave. SE. This new development, built by Canadian-based Remington Development Corp., will cost about $60 million… “No one from TC Energy spoke at the event…”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Bloomberg: Oil Industry Yet to Prove Carbon Capture Viable: Kerry
Kevin Crowley, 9/18/24

“John Kerry, the Biden administration’s former top climate diplomat, said the oil and gas industry must prove carbon capture can play a meaningful role lowering emissions or face a quicker-than-expected transition away from fossil fuels,” Bloomberg reports. “Carbon capture utilization and storage is one of the oil industry’s favored decarbonization tools because it professes to continue the use of fossil fuels while removing their emissions. But it’s expensive and largely unproven at the vast scale needed to reach net zero without phasing down oil and gas. “If you’re in oil and gas, and you can go out there and capture the emissions, hallelujah,” Kerry said at the Gastech conference in Houston on Wednesday. “But if you can’t do that we’re going to have a bigger and faster transition than people think.” “…Climate groups have claimed that it’s merely a ruse to prolong the life of fossil fuels and have said it would be better to move straight to cleaner forms of energy. Kerry appeared to express sympathy with this view. “Both Stanford and MIT climate experts, professors, people whose life is wrapped up in making these decisions, right now do not believe that storage, that CCUS is going to be scalable and affordable,” he said. “So it’s up to the industry to prove that it is…If gas and oil are not able to capture the emissions at a scalable and affordable rate, they are not going to be part of that winning side.”

Common Dreams: Big Oil to Benefit From Biden’s Carbon Capture Tax Credits: Report
OLIVIA ROSANE, 9/18/24

“As the U.S. moves to invest in climate solutions, is the money going toward projects that will meaningfully reduce emissions and transition the nation’s energy system away from fossil fuels?,” Common Dreams reports. “A report released Wednesday by worker-owned corporate accountability and environmental justice research organization Empower found that just 34 carbon capture and storage (CCS) projects in Texas could receive between $3.2 billion and $33 billion in annual tax subsides. At the same time, most of the carbon dioxide pipelines in the state are managed by the major oil and gas companies like Kinder Morgan, Occidental Petroleum, and ExxonMobil that played a disproportionate role in creating the climate crisis in the first place. “Carbon capture and storage is the most expensive and least effective carbon mitigation solution. It’s really not where we need to be investing our money,” said Paige Powell, the policy manager at Commission Shift, at a press briefing announcing the new research. “And the public dollars coming from the federal government to fossil fuel companies are our dollars, our taxpayer dollars that could be better spent elsewhere.” “I think it’s important for us to ask ourselves, if carbon capture is receiving so much public dollars, why is there little public input?” For its report, Empower turned up 98 carbon dioxide-related projects in the state of Texas, including 47 pipelines and 13 Class VI Geological Storage projects. These projects are currently primarily funded through tax breaks and U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) subsides; the report authors found little evidence of any private investments. “Our report clearly lays out the way carbon capture tax credits rig the system in favor of the oil and gas industry to the tune of billions of dollars,” Empower’s Samuel Rosado said in a statement. “Public funding and tax breaks are the largest sources of revenue for CCS projects. Without the massive federal investment, the private sector deems most CCS projects unprofitable.” “…Community organizations in the Lone Star State are petitioning the EPA to reject the Texas Railroad Commission’s request to have primary oversight over CCS projects in the state.”

E&E News: Democrats Block Pro-Fracking Bill In The Senate 
MANUEL QUIÑONES, 9/19/24

“Senate Democrats on Wednesday blocked Republican legislation to prevent the president from declaring a moratorium on hydraulic fracturing for oil and gas,” E&E News reports. “Sen. Markwayne Mullin (R-Okla.) requested unanimous consent to approve H.R. 1121, the ‘Protecting American Energy Production Act,’ which passed the House in March. Mullin said the bill would ‘bolster American energy production’ and pointed to Vice President Kamala Harris’ policy switch on the issue. The Democratic presidential nominee once supported a ban. Sen. Jeff Merkley (D-Ore.), one of the Senate’s most environmentally conscious members, objected to quick passage of the bill, citing climate change and other pollution. “If we care about our rural areas, we have to tackle climate chaos,” Merkley said and argued the legislation would go too far in limiting the president’s authority.”

Reuters: Harris Understands Fracking Ban Raises Energy Costs, Industry Execs Say 
Curtis Williams, 9/17/24

“U.S. Vice President Kamala Harris understands natural gas prices will rise if fracking is banned, industry executives told Reuters on Tuesday, explaining their confidence that the Democratic candidate will not ban the production method if she becomes president… “Harris opposed fracking as a U.S. senator from California, but now she says she would not ban it on federal lands as president. “I think she is changing her views,” Baker Hughes oil field services Chief Executive Officer Lorenzo Simonelli told Reuters… “The head of the largest U.S. liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporter told Reuters Harris had to pivot to being more open to fracking, because natural gas prices would be much higher without it. Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco, whose Sabine Pass facility in Louisiana is the largest U.S. LNG export plant, told Reuters he trusts Harris’s support of fracking unless proven otherwise and wants cooler heads to prevail on the energy transition debate.”

E&E News: Would Harris kill the green dream of banning drilling on public lands?
Heather Richards, 9/19/24

“Kamala Harris wants voters to know that she helped expand oil leasing on public lands,” E&E News reports. “The vice president boasted in the recent presidential debate that the Biden administration’s 2022 climate law opened new leasing on federal land. It was the second time she made the claim about the public oil patch in prime time as proof that she no longer supports a ban on fracking. “I cast the tie-breaking vote that actually increased leases for fracking,” Harris said in an August interview with CNN. That campaign rhetoric is a dramatic pivot for Democrats, who included a commitment to end oil permitting on public land in their 2020 platform. That goal is missing from the 2024 version unveiled last month, and Harris has since made clear she sees fossil fuel production — particularly oil and natural gas — as part of the country’s energy future. That does not bode well for the decadeslong movement to phase out drilling on public lands, suggesting that the idea has lost resonance with Democratic Party strategists — and likely the bully pulpit of the White House… “What it says is that the [political] support for what needs to be done on climate is slipping away,” Pat Parenteau, a professor of law emeritus and senior fellow for climate policy at the Vermont Law and Graduate School, told E&E… “I’m frankly mystified. It feels to me like her strategy team is operating with a playbook from 2010,” Anthony Leiserowitz, director of Yale University’s Program on Climate Change Communication, told E&E.

Reuters: Chevron CEO hits Biden’s natural gas policies, says fuel is crucial for AI
Sabrina Valle, 9/18/24

“Chevron CEO Michael Wirth on Tuesday criticized U.S. President Joe Biden’s administration for what he described as “attacks on the natural gas” industry and emphasized the crucial role of Permian natural gas in powering the rapid growth of artificial intelligence (AI),” Reuters reports. “…Wirth defended leveraging low-carbon gas over coal to meet the increasing energy demands of the AI sector. “AI’s advance will depend not only on the design labs of Silicon Valley, but also on the gas fields of the Permian basin,” Wirth said at Gastech conference in Houston… “Wirth said the Biden administration’s approach to pause liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports “elevates politics over progress.” “…Instead of imposing a moratorium on LNG exports, the administration should stop the attacks on natural gas,” he added. Switching from coal to gas, he suggested, could be “the single greatest carbon reduction initiative in history.” “The case for natural gas is so strong that only politics can get in the way,” he said.

E&E News: Biden Admin Asks Court For More Time To Study Offshore Drilling Risks 
NIINA H. FARAH. 9/18/24

“The Biden administration is asking a federal judge to wait until next spring before tossing out its analysis of how offshore oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico is affecting a critically endangered whale,” E&E News reports. “On Monday, NOAA Fisheries submitted a request to the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, asking for expedited reconsideration of its deadline for scrapping the agency’s 2020 biological opinion of the Rice’s whale and other marine life. The agency said it would not be able to complete a new analysis before the court-ordered Dec. 20 deadline and asked the judge in the case to wait until May 21, 2025, to vacate the analysis. Then, the agency said, it would have enough time to complete its new biological opinion, which is required for offshore oil and gas drilling to proceed. A continuation of the current timeline would result in “substantial disruption to ongoing permitted activities across the Gulf of Mexico with potential knock-on effects to domestic energy production and species conservation,” the agency told the court.”

STATE UPDATES

Carbon Herald: NTEC Gets $6.5M From DOE To Explore Carbon Capture At Four Corners Power Plant
Theodora Stankova, 9/19/24

“The Navajo Transitional Energy Company (NTEC), a minority owner of the Four Corners Power Plant in New Mexico, has received $6.5 million from the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) to explore retrofitting the coal-fired power station with carbon capture technology,” the Carbon Herald reports. “The funding, provided by the DOE’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations (OCED), will support a Front-End Engineering and Design (FEED) study that will help estimate project costs, timelines, and risks and will lay the groundwork for potential implementation. NTEC owns about 13% of the Four Corners Power Plant, which operates seasonally and is set to close by 2031. If carbon capture proves to be viable, NTEC plans to implement amine-based post-combustion technology to extract carbon dioxide (CO2) from the flue gas, potentially extending the plant’s operation beyond 2031, the company said in a statement last week… “Installing carbon capture technology could save over 600 jobs and prevent an annual economic loss of $183 million to the Navajo Nation.”

Law360: Cleanup Worker Wants Full 5th Circ. To Review BP Spill Suit 
Mike Curley, 9/18/24

“A worker who alleges that he was exposed to toxic substances while cleaning up the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010 is urging the full Fifth Circuit to review a decision to dismiss his case, saying the panel that upheld the dismissal misconstrued precedent in finding that he needed to show that the discovery he sought was enough to defeat summary judgment,” Law360 reports. “In a petition filed Tuesday, Jerome Clyde Smith told the court that his claims against BP Exploration and Production Inc. and BP America Production Co. should proceed, as the three-judge panel’s decision conflicts with the circuit court’s 2023 decision in January v. City of Huntsville.”

New York Times: How Colorado Cowboys And Conservationists Joined Forces To Stop Drilling 
Zoë Rom, 9/18/24

“The drilling leases in a pristine corner of Colorado seemed like a done deal. But then an unlikely alliance of cowboys and environmentalists emerged. And things changed,” the New York Times reports. “The members of the group — a self-described ragtag organization that included ranchers, cyclists and snowmobilers — had little in common aside from a desire to protect the expanse, almost a quarter-million acres of public land known as the Thompson Divide. But they ultimately developed a novel legal strategy that helped win a 20-year pause on new oil and gas development across the area. That strategy could serve as a model for future conservation efforts. “It’s an incredible story of how it all came together,” Zane Kessler, the founding executive director of the group, the Thompson Divide Coalition, told the Times. 

Cowboy State Daily: Feds Say Wyoming Farmers, Miners Not Entitled To Relief From New Lease Rule 
Clair McFarland, 9/17/24

“The federal government denies that its new policy withdrawing federal grazing, mining and other lands from public use is unlawful, and insists that a handful of Wyoming farmers and other industry groups are not entitled to relief from the rule,” the Cowboy State Daily reports. “The Wyoming Farm Bureau Federation, Natrona County Farm and Ranch Bureau and several Western and national agriculture and energy groups first sued the U.S. Department of the Interior and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in July, claiming the BLM’s new ‘conservation’ rule for withdrawing federal lands is unlawful and unfair. On Friday, the federal agencies responded with a blanket denial, saying the groups have no standing to sue, haven’t been hurt by the new rule and haven’t shown that it’s illegal.”

Louisiana Illuminator: Company plans to turn garbage and wood into biofuels at $1.35 billion Louisiana plant
WESLEY MULLER, 9/17/24

“A Toronto-based energy company announced plans Tuesday for a new facility in Louisiana that would burn wood and garbage to produce what it considers “renewable” biofuels, though some critics question their sustainability,” the Louisiana Illuminator reports. “Woodland Biofuels Inc., announced a planned $1.35 billion investment at the Port of South Louisiana in St. John the Baptist Parish to establish one of the world’s largest biofuel production facilities. It would burn waste biomass, such as industrial wood scraps and residential and commercial garbage, to produce natural gas and hydrogen, according to a Louisiana Economic Development (LED) news release… “Although Woodland Biofuels labels its products as “renewable natural gas” and “green hydrogen,” biomass is a relatively old form of energy that critics say is essentially just the burning of trees.” 

Capital and Main: New Mexico Shakes, State Cancels Dozens of Planned Wastewater Injection Sites
Jerry Redfern, 9/10/24

“‘Guzzler.’ ‘Bottomless Pit.’ ‘Deep Thirst.’ ‘Big Swig.’ More like: ‘No Dice.’ The thirsty well names reflected the hopes of companies to fill them with oilfield wastewater, a problematic and toxic byproduct of the oil trade. But a series of earthquakes in the Permian Basin of New Mexico has prompted the state’s Oil Conservation Division to cancel these four and 71 other waste injection wells planned along the state’s southern border with Texas,” Capital and Main reports. “In addition, recent research by the state’s seismology lab has uncovered thousands of previously uncatalogued quakes in the area, further clarifying the link between wastewater injection and seismic activity. Meanwhile, a state agency’s plans to allow that wastewater to be used outside the oilfield took a beating. The canceled wells were planned in the County Line Seismic Response Area, covering roughly 500 square miles of some of the most lucrative acreage in the Permian Basin, the country’s most productive oil basin. Earlier quakes in the area led to the creation of the zone and the state’s Seismicity Response Protocol in late 2021 that laid out how and when to reduce or halt wastewater injections following local temblors. Up to 2.3 million barrels of so-called produced water a day would have been injected into the now-canceled wells. That water is oilfield waste, pumped from wells along with the oil and natural gas. In New Mexico, on average, about four barrels of the wastewater are produced for each barrel of oil extracted. The water is extremely briney, laced with hydrocarbons, often spiked with drilling chemicals and regularly contains radioactive isotopes. And nobody really wants the stuff. While some companies do use produced water to drill new wells, most pay to have it hauled away and pumped it into underground formations. These formations are not empty rooms just waiting to be filled with brine: They are porous rock. Injecting produced water increases the pressure in that rock and, in turn, in the surrounding formations. That often leads to earthquakes as the rocks shift under the pressure.”

EXTRACTION

New York Times: ‘Red Flags’ On Climate: U.S. Methane Emissions Keep Climbing 
Max Bearak, 9/19/24

“The United States’ booming fossil-fuel industry continues to emit more and more planet-warming methane into the atmosphere, new research showed, despite a U.S.-led effort to encourage other countries to cut emissions globally,” the New York Times reports. “Methane is among the most potent greenhouse gases, and “one of the worst performers in our study is the U.S., even though it was an instigator of the Global Methane Pledge,” Antoine Halff, the co-founder of Kayrros, the environmental data company issuing the report, told the Times. “Those are red flags.” “…Kayrros focused on fossil fuel facilities, where the practices of “venting,” or the intentional release of large quantities of methane, and “flaring,” which is when it is intentionally burned off, are both common. Kayrros used satellite data combined with artificial intelligence analysis of the data to draw its conclusions… “The American fossil fuel sector today emits less methane per unit of energy than in years past. However, production has ramped up so significantly that methane emissions overall have increased. The United States is now, by far, the world’s leading gas producer and exporter.”

Canadian Press: Feds fund health study for Indigenous communities downstream of oilsands
Mia Rabson, 9/19/24

“More than three decades after Indigenous leaders in northern Alberta began asking for funding to better understand if pollution from the oilsands was making their people sick, the federal government is funding a study to do just that,” the Canadian Press reports. “This should have been done 32 years ago, maybe 40 years ago,” Mikisew Cree First Nation Chief Billy-Joe Tuccaro told CP. “We know that there is something going on in this community. We can’t pinpoint it or anything in regards to what’s actually going on.” Studies have previously shown higher rates of cancers in the communities along the shores of Lake Athabasca. The lake is fed by the Athabasca River, which runs through the region where most of Canada’s oilsands mines are located. In 2009 an Alberta Health study identified a potential problem but said more investigation was needed and could not pinpoint a cause. Other studies have found unsafe levels of arsenic, mercury and hydrocarbons in the area’s water, as well as in its fish, sediments and surrounding wildlife. Environment Minister Steven Guilbeault told CP that the study, which will be funded with $12 million over the decade, will trace potential contaminants from oilsands operations to better understand the long-term health and environmental impacts. “I’ve heard loud and clear community members need to know what impacts of living downstream from the oilsands means for them,” he told CP. “I’ve heard stories of health troubles, very high cancer rates, a concern about contaminants in the water, and since the Kearl mine those concerns have been exacerbated.”

DeSmog: Canada’s Oil Patch Blames Anti-Greenwashing Law for Delayed Sustainability Reports
Mitch Anderson, 9/18/24

“The truth will set you free, but first it will piss you off.” These words were coined to help individuals overcome alcoholism and other addictions, but they may be just as apt to describe the hyperbolic reaction to new truth-in-advertising requirements recently passed into law by the Canadian government from the oil patch and their surrogates,” DeSmog reports. “The Financial Post declared Bill C-59 should be renamed the “oil & gas company cancellation act.” Alberta Premier Danielle Smith described the new requirements for companies to back up their green claims with evidence as “draconian legislation that will irreparably harm Canadians’ ability to hear the truth about the energy industry and Alberta’s successes in reducing global emissions.” Calling the new federal law “absurd authoritarian censorship,” Smith further opined that it was “part of an agenda to create chaos and uncertainty for energy investors for the purpose of phasing out the energy industry altogether.” Several oil sands companies including Cenovus and Canadian Natural Resources (CNRL) even delayed their environmental, social, and governance (ESG) reporting to investors, blaming the uncertainty associated with the new law. CNRL stated in their second quarter report to investors, “…the Canadian Government amended the Competition Act and due to uncertainty on how this new legislation will be interpreted and applied, we are unable to provide an environment and climate update at this time.” “…Whether the oil patch likes it or not, a powerful global momentum is building to legally require companies to be prescriptively transparent with their investors around climate-related liabilities. How frightened is the oil lobby of this coming change? An indication is seen in the flurry of public comments to proposed arcane accounting standards from oil-funded surrogates of climate denial such as the Friends of Science and International Climate Science Coalition. Apparently recognizing the dangers posed to the Alberta oil patch by more rigorous financial reporting standards, their submissions called for the draft standards to be gutted by ignoring tailpipe (scope 3) emissions, or simply denying they were needed because “no evidence supports the claim that we are in a climate emergency…”

Bloomberg: Low Carbon Prices in Oil Sands Home Seen Slowing Emission Reduction
Robert Tuttle, 9/19/24

“Falling prices for carbon credits in the Canadian province of Alberta are threatening to become a drag on efforts to slash emissions from the oil industry, the country’s top source of greenhouse gases,” Bloomberg reports. “Credits and offsets in Alberta’s carbon market are trading at about C$40 per metric ton, half of the effective industrial carbon tax price of C$80 per ton, Albert Ho, manager of the TIER business line at Carbon Assessors, a price tracker, told Bloomberg. The weak carbon-credit prices — caused by factors ranging from early successes slashing emissions to Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s uncertain political future — threaten a key source of revenue that companies rely on for costly decarbonization projects. That’s already making some companies more cautious in proceeding with such ventures and casting doubt on Canada’s ability to meet its climate targets… “While the federal carbon price is set to continue rising to C$170 ($125) a ton by 2030, the price of TIER credits is being depressed by the risks that Alberta won’t adhere to the scheduled carbon price increases or that more credits will be created than companies need to offset their emissions, Grant Bishop, founder and self-professed chief nerd at KnightFork, an energy and carbon markets data start-up, told Bloomberg.” 

TODAY IN GREENWASHING

WTOV: Bay Six Project’s brown bag diner boosted by TC Energy workers and food donations
Skylar Sobansky, 9/18/24

“On Wednesday, the Bay Six Project in Mingo Junction that focuses on meeting the basic needs of the community, had some special guests serving their brown bag diner meal,” WTOV reports. “… A group of TC Energy workers volunteered and donated hamburgers and hot dogs as well as other items to fill the brown bags. “They are a gas company, but I think letting people know that they care about the community,” Bay Six Project co-founder Bobby Westfall told WTOV. “They are not just providing a service; they care about the people in the community. So doing things like this helps get the word out.”

Enbridge: ‘A Group of Dreamers Determined To Make a Difference’
9/18/24

“…Gabby’s story is an example of the lengths to which the Empower Me Center will go to help people with disabilities live their life to the fullest,” according to Enbridge. “…Enbridge recently contributed a $7,500 Fueling Futures grant to ensure participants can access Empower Me Center’s inclusive programming. Our hope is this contribution will help children and adults with disabilities forge friendships and develop their independence and self-esteem. People of all abilities add to the vibrancy of the Wilson County community.”

OPINION

Corporate Knights: Why this investor advocate quit filing oil and gas shareholder proposals
Matt Price is executive director of Investors for Paris Compliance, a shareholder advocacy organization holding Canadian companies accountable to their net-zero commitments, 9/18/24

“Did you ever pass a construction site where you saw several big guys leaning on their shovels watching a little guy dig a hole? That’s been our experience filing shareholder proposals with Canadian oil and gas companies while large investors sit on the sidelines,” Matt Price writes for Corporate Knights. “Let’s name the elephant in the room: Bay Street and Calgary are on a collision course on net-zero. Large Canadian banks, insurance companies and pensions have declared they will reach net-zero in financed emissions in their portfolios by 2050. Fearing loss of investment, Canada’s major oil and gas companies declared that they too are committed to net-zero. But, any rudimentary analysis shows that simply isn’t true… “The industry has proposed carbon capture and storage as the solution, but only if taxpayers foot the bill while it continues to make billions… “Over the past few years we’ve filed shareholder proposals at companies like Enbridge, Suncor and Cenovus to expose the risks that their failure to transition pose to investors in those companies, which includes most large Bay Street actors like RBC Global Asset Management and TD Asset Management, which act on behalf of millions of Canadians. Nearly all of these major investors say that they are “engaging” with high-carbon investees in their portfolios in order to advance net-zero, setting this up as a binary choice against divestment. Some of them voted for our proposals, the bare minimum to live up to their commitments. Some didn’t, calling into question their seriousness… “We decided that our oil and gas work was providing these investors with an excuse to not do their own. As long as “somebody else” was stepping up, they could stay on the sidelines. The result is that our oil and gas companies continue to go in the opposite direction to net-zero. So we quit. Kind of. We’ll stop filing proposals with oil and gas companies but will continue to track whether investors are living up to their climate commitments, including their promises to transform their high-carbon investees. A secure economy, and a decent return on investment, depends on it.”