Read the full story in Wired.
Oil rigs, turbines and other megastructures are shedding tonnes of plastic-laden paint into the ocean. This company has a fix.
Category: Oil and gas industry
A historically Black town stood in the way of a pipeline – so developers claimed it was mostly white
Read the full story in The Guardian.
When residents in Union Hill, Virginia, decried the pipeline as a form of environmental racism, the energy company insisted it wasn’t.
Adapt to Survive: Why Oil Companies Must Plan for Net Zero and Avoid Stranded Assets
Carbon Tracker’s fifth annual analysis of the risk of investing in oil and gas producers – warns investors that companies have not woken up to the “seismic implications” of the International Energy Agency’s finding that no investment in new oil and gas production is needed if the world aims to limit global warming to 1.5°C.
In this report we primarily focus on modelling the International Energy Agency’s Sustainable Development Scenario (SDS), associated with 1.65°C of warming. We also show the implications of the IEA’s new, more stringent Net Zero Emissions by 2050 Scenario (NZE), which targets 1.5°C of warming. Both scenarios result in net zero emissions, but at different times and through different means. For comparison, we also include the Stated Policies Scenario (STEPS), which we use to represent a high-demand or business-as-usual pathway resulting in 2.7°C of warming.
The gassing Of Satartia
Read the full story from the Huffington Post.
A CO2 pipeline in Mississippi ruptured last year, sickening dozens of people. What does it forecast for the massive proposed buildout of pipelines across the U.S.?
EPA urges FERC to use social cost of carbon in gas project reviews
Read the full story at Utility Dive.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), in a pair of August letters, urged federal regulators to revise draft environmental reviews for two natural gas projects, to include a social cost of carbon calculation in order to better understand their impacts.
Columbia Gulf Transmission has proposed new gas facilities in Louisiana that EPA says would cause “over $205 million dollars in climate damages per year.” Separately, Iroquois Gas Transmission has a proposed Northeast project that could do more than $144 million in annual damage, the agency said.
The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is independent and does not have to follow EPA’s recommendations, according to Gillian Giannetti, an attorney with the Natural Resources Defense Council. But the agency is “extremely influential” and using the carbon cost calculation could help meet President Joe Biden’s plans to decarbonize the U.S. economy.
Surface water vulnerable to widespread pollution from fracking, a new study finds
Read the full story at Inside Climate News.
The research suggests that the impacts of the fracking boom may have outrun the science documenting its effects.
Oil producers used Facebook to counter President Biden’s clean energy message, a study shows.
Read the full story from the New York Times.
Soon after Joseph R. Biden Jr., then a presidential candidate, released his $2 trillion climate plan last year that promised to escalate the use of clean energy in the United States, the world’s major oil and gas dialed up their presence on Facebook.
Overnight on Facebook’s U.S. platforms, 25 of the biggest oil and gas producers, industry lobby groups and advocacy organizations unleashed a surge in ads promoting fossil fuels, according to ad spending data analyzed by InfluenceMap, a London-based watchdog that tracks corporate influence on climate policy.
A Hot Fracking Mess: How the Lack of Regulation of Oil and Gas Production Leads to Radioactive Waste in Our Water, Air, and Communities
Oil and gas extraction activities, including fracking, drilling, and production, can release radioactive materials that endanger workers, nearby communities, and the environment. The United States has known about these dangers for at least 30 years, ever since an EPA report revealed the health risks of unregulated radioactive oil and gas waste. Since then, additional research has confirmed those findings. Yet, even as oil and gas exploration and production have boomed across the United States, the country continues to lack any specific federal regulations governing the handling and disposal of radioactive waste and materials generated from these activities, leaving Americans reliant on spotty and loophole-ridden state oversight.
To protect public health and communities from the dangers of radiation, Congress must close federal gaps, states should enact their own comprehensive regulations, and the oil and gas industry must provide worker and community protections.
EPA approved toxic chemicals for fracking a decade ago, new files show
Read the full story in the New York Times.
The compounds can form PFAS, also known as “forever chemicals,” which have been linked to cancer and birth defects. The E.P.A. approvals came despite the agency’s own concerns about toxicity.
Reporter’s Toolbox: Drilling for data on offshore wells
Read the full story from the Society for Environmental Journalists.
The decades-old controversy that has raged over offshore drilling flared anew recently as a federal judge blocked the Biden administration’s temporary halt to new leases on federal land (including those on the outer continental shelf).
So to help cover the ongoing debate, it may be useful to know about the database of information on offshore wells from the Bureau of Ocean Energy Management.
While not all data about leasing and drilling on federal lands is available or easily accessible — this much is. And it can show some meaningful patterns and tell some meaningful stories.
