A Japanese ship that ran aground on a coral reef off Mauritius may have changed course to get a mobile data signal for a birthday celebration on board. imo.un / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
A Japanese ship that wrecked off the coast of Mauritius in July and sparked one of the worst environmental disasters in the country's history may have run aground because of birthday celebrations on board at the time.
<p>That's according to a statement from the Panama Maritime Authority (AMP), in the latest development from the July 25 wrecking of the Panama-flagged and Japanese-owned M.V. Wakashio, a bulk carrier. The ship, bound for Brazil from Singapore, was sailing through Mauritian waters when it ran aground on a coral reef and <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/mauritius-grapples-with-worst-environmental-crisis-in-a-generation/" target="_blank">leaked almost 1,000 tons</a> of fuel oil.</p><p>In its <a href="https://amp.gob.pa/notas-de-prensa/delegacion-panamena-de-expertos-en-accidentes-maritimos-asiste-en-investigaciones-sobre-el-accidente-de-la-embarcacion-wakashio-en-isla-mauricio/" target="_blank">statement</a> published in Spanish on Sept. 7, the AMP, which is collaborating in the investigation into the accident, said the ship diverted its navigation plan, possibly in relation to "the celebration of the birthday of one of the crew members."</p>
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<p>"[T]he change of course is produced by indications of the captain of the boat, who gave instructions to approach about 5 miles away from the coast of Mauritius, looking for a telephone and internet signal, so that the crew members could communicate with their families," the AMP said.</p><p>The Wakashio's captain was taken into custody on Aug. 18 for endangering safe navigation. According to the government, the ship had failed to respond to several calls from the Mauritian Coast Guard.</p><p>Mauritius's environment minister, Kavydass Ramano, called it an "unprecedented" crisis, and the prime minister declared a national emergency on Aug. 7, a day after oil began leaking from its tank.</p><p>The AMP said its investigation into the cause of the grounding was still in the preliminary phase. It also raised questions about the use of the electronic navigational chart (ENC). "It seems that the wrong chart was being used and with the wrong scale, which made it impossible to properly verify the approach to the coast and shallower waters," the AMP said.</p>
<p><span style="background-color: initial;">Satellite data analysis reported by Forbes shows the ship </span><u style="background-color: initial;"><a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/nishandegnarain/2020/08/09/how-satellites-traced-the-fateful-journey-of-the-ship-that-led-to--mauritius-worst-oil-spill-disaster/#8c542495b428" target="_blank">changed course</a></u><span style="background-color: initial;"> on July 21, putting it on a direct collision path with the island. The outlet also reported that weather conditions in the days leading up to the crash were not adverse, discounting bad weather as a possible explanation for the move.</span><br></p><p>Some observers say the missteps could be linked to the stress that ship crews are under in the upheaval caused by the COVID-19 shutdowns. It has become challenging for shipping operators to make crew changes, leading many seafarers to be stranded at sea, away from their families for long periods.</p><p>The Wakashio ran aground on the reef close to at least three ecologically important sites: a Ramsar wetland, a coral island hosting rare and endemic birds, and a marine protected area. Environmentalists say they fear the spill will have lasting effects on the coral reefs, mangroves and fisheries in the region.</p><p>Last week, Mitsui O.S.K. Lines (MOL), the Japanese company operating the ship, pledged 1 billion yen ($9.5 million) for environmental preservation efforts and to shore up local fisheries.</p><p>Nagashiki Shipping, the owner of the Wakashio, will also be contributing to this initiative, called the Mauritius Natural Environment Recovery Fund. The money will go toward mangrove recovery, coral reef protection and safeguarding Mauritius's rare flora and fauna, and for research work.</p>
<p>The Japanese government has also offered aid, but the value of its commitment is undecided. Japanese media have reported that Mauritius is seeking 1.34 billion Mauritian rupees ($34 million) from Tokyo.</p><p>Mauritius is also seeking compensation from Nagashiki Shipping. It has started the process of collecting claims from residents impacted by the crash and the spill.</p><p>Mauritian authorities have come under increasing scrutiny at home for letting the ship remain on the reef for more than 10 days, even as choppy waters damaged the vessel and ultimately led to a breach in the fuel tank. The ship broke into two on Aug. 15.</p>
<p>A controversial <u><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/08/mauritiuss-plan-to-dump-part-of-wrecked-ship-sparks-controversy/" target="_blank">decision</a></u> to sink the front half of the ship on Aug. 25, and the beaching of dozens of dolphins and whales days just days later, fueled further discontent. The causes of the deaths of the cetaceans are yet to be determined.</p><p>On Aug. 29, <u><a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/mauritians-take-to-the-street-over-oil-spill-and-dolphin-and-whale-deaths/" target="_blank">thousands of people</a></u> marched in the streets of the capital, Port Louis, to protest what they see as the government's mishandling of the crisis. Another protest was held in Mahebourg, an important fishing village, on Sept. 12.</p><p>Meanwhile, the stern of the broken vessel remains lodged on the reef. Efforts are underway to remove it before the Indian Ocean storm season starts in November.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://news.mongabay.com/2020/09/birthday-party-on-ship-may-have-led-to-oil-spill-in-mauritius-panama-regulator-says/#:~:text=A%20Japanese%20ship%20that%20ran,flag%20the%20vessel%20was%20sailing." target="_blank">Mongabay</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
- 17 Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore in Mauritius Near Oil Spill - EcoWatch ›
- Mauritius' First Major Oil Spill Poses Environmental Crisis - EcoWatch ›
- Mauritius Arrests Captain of Ship Behind Devastating Oil Spill ... ›
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OPEC remains only a pale shadow of its past glory. Pxfuel
By Ashutosh Pandey
In 1973, a handful of oil-rich countries, led by Saudi Arabia, Iran and Iraq, brought the mighty U.S. economy to its knees by slapping an oil embargo on Washington and its allies. The suspension of oil shipments from the Middle East to the U.S. and steep production cuts in retaliation for the Americans' support of Israel during the Yom Kippur War wreaked havoc on the U.S. economy, leading to fuel shortages and causing oil prices to go through the roof.
<p><br/></p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/opec-saudi-arabia-russia-united-states-peak-oil-covid-19/a-54875289?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647641514#/" target="_self"></a></p>
<p>The ban was lifted within months following hectic negotiations, but not before it pushed the U.S. economy into its worst recession since World War II. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC), which until then had maintained a relatively low profile, mainly negotiating higher oil prices from major oil companies for its members, had emerged as a force to reckon with.</p><p>Nearly five decades later, OPEC remains only a pale shadow of its past glory, weakened by infighting within its ranks, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/us-shale-oil-forecasts-too-optimistic-even-iea-agrees/a-46296507" target="_blank">the rise of the United States as a major oil exporter</a> thanks to a shale boom, and a global push for renewable sources of energy amid climate change worries. </p><p>"OPEC is significant primarily as a political club. It fails economically as a cartel, but it does boost the prestige and standing of its members, most of whom would not otherwise have a seat at the table in world affairs," said Jeff Colgan, a professor at Brown University who authored the book <em>Petro-Aggression: When Oil Causes War.</em> "A functional cartel needs to set tough limits to production and stick to them. OPEC sets easy targets and still often fails to meet them," he told DW.</p><p>The bloc has seen its market share progressively diminish over the years, in part thanks to its efforts to artificially boost oil prices by holding back its own production. OPEC's share of the global oil market has fallen to around 30% from above 50% in 1973. It has also been hurt by involuntary losses in war-torn Libya and the fallout from <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/iran-tankers-come-to-the-rescue-of-oil-starved-venezuela/a-53586364" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">U.S. sanctions in both Iran and Venezuela</a>. </p><p>It was OPEC's weakness amid the rise of the U.S. as a major oil producer that prompted the once exclusive club to join hands with <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/coronavirus-oil-shock-tests-saudi-arabia-russia-coalition/a-52292320" target="_blank">Russia and some other oil producers to form OPEC+ and attempt to balance the oil markets.</a> The alliance's inception in 2016 was preceded by a disastrous campaign by the Saudi-led bloc to force weaker U.S. shale players out of business, which caused oil prices to collapse to around $30 a barrel. U.S. shale players then proved to be more resilient than the Saudis had expected — strong enough to push the U.S. to become the world's biggest oil producer. </p>
Peak Oil Debate Heats Up Amid COVID-19 Crisis
<p>The bloc's waning influence has coincided with oil's fall from grace. The fossil fuel has seen its share in the global energy mix diminish to about 33% from a peak of 50% in 1973, according to estimates by BP, as governments and companies shift to cleaner energy sources to combat climate change. By contrast, renewables, mostly from solar and wind, have seen their share rise, accounting for over 40% of global energy growth last year, according to BP's data.</p><p>"Oil isn't as significant or visible as it used to be. For example, do you know who the head of Exxon is? Probably not. Do you know who the head of Tesla is? Yes, Elon Musk," said Philippe Benoit, from consultancy Global Infrastructure Advisory Services 2050. </p><p>The COVID-19 pandemic has further dimmed oil's prospects. Global lockdowns brought cars, planes and trains to a screeching halt, causing oil consumption to drop by a quarter and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/oil-prices-collapse-with-biggest-drop-since-1991-gulf-war/a-52687503" target="_blank">oil prices to crash to multiyear lows,</a> even trading below $0 a barrel in the US at one point. Transportation accounts for close to a third of the global oil demand. </p><p>Experts don't see the automobile and aviation sectors returning to their pre-pandemic levels for the next 3-5 years at least. The airline industry was touted to be the biggest growth engine for oil, riding on demand from people getting richer, but that now looks unlikely, especially over the next few years. </p><p>Oil industry leaders, including BP's chief executive, Bernard Looney, and Royal Dutch Shell's boss Ben van Beurden, have said the current crisis may cause the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/when-will-peak-oil-hit-global-energy-markets/a-51367939" target="_blank">oil demand to peak sooner than expected.</a></p><p>"The backdrop of declining demand means that the Kingdom [of Saudi Arabia] and its Gulf allies would find it increasingly difficult to manipulate supply and boost prices for any length of time," Jason Tuvey, of Capital Economics, wrote in a note to clients. "If prices are kept artificially high for an extended period, oil demand will end up declining at an even faster pace and the nimbleness of U.S. shale production means that non-OPEC supply will expand." </p>'OPEC Is a Saudi Mouthpiece'
<p>OPEC was founded in Baghdad in September 1960 by Iran, Iraq, Kuwait, Saudi Arabia and Venezuela. The bloc, which has expanded and contracted over the years, has been plagued by squabbles over strategy and regional power struggles, which have occasionally turned into full-blown conflicts like the Iran-Iraq war and Iraq's invasion of Kuwait in 1990. </p><p>Saudi Arabia, which produces a third of OPEC's oil, has remained the de facto leader of the bloc since the 1990s, when conflicts, corruption and poor management wrecked production in other member countries, including regional rivals Iran and Iraq. </p><p>Riyadh has oscillated between propping up crude oil prices and shielding its market share, often unilaterally. "OPEC is a Saudi mouthpiece," Colgan said. In March, when OPEC+ negotiations to cut output in response to the pandemic collapsed, Saudi Arabia launched a price war against Russia — much to the dismay of <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/oil-price-war-saudi-arabia-russia-us-nigeria-angola/a-52718595" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">weaker OPEC members such as Nigeria and Angola,</a> already bleeding due to low oil prices caused by Riyadh's 2015-16 misadventure. </p><p>Despite all its sway, Saudi Arabia has struggled to rein in the <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/will-coronavirus-oil-shock-rein-in-opec-cheaters/a-53277101" target="_blank">bloc's so-called cheaters, including Nigeria and Iraq,</a> which have been notorious for failing to comply with pledged output cuts aimed at propping up oil prices. Riyadh, which is more vulnerable to low oil prices than other major oil producers with its break-even oil price exceeding $80 a barrel, has ended up doing much of the heavy lifting to ensure overall compliance.</p><p>Tuvey of Capital Economics says in the medium-term Saudi Arabia will scale back its efforts to prop up oil prices and revert to the strategy of shielding its market share at any cost to avoid leaving substantial quantities of oil stranded amid falling demand. </p><p><span></span>"Such a shift in policy, particularly if it were sudden and unexpected, would put some downward pressure on oil prices. But this is unlikely to be too troubling for the kingdom, and the government has proven its willingness to impose harsh fiscal austerity," Tuvey said. "Saudi policymakers won't have much sympathy for other producers that fail to adjust their economies to low oil prices."</p>Bigger Role for OPEC?
<p>Yet it may be too early to write an obituary for the bloc, <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/saudi-arabia-considering-breaking-up-opec-report/a-46226353" target="_blank">which has survived many crises in the past 60 years,</a> eliciting comparisons to the proverbial cat with nine lives. Oil is likely to remain the world's most important commodity for years to come.</p><p>"Paradoxically, OPEC as an aggregator, a point of meeting for many producing nations, could potentially play a bigger role in managing the tensions of a contracting market among those oil producers," Benoit said. </p>
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A new study finds only 10% of global energy utility companies are expanding their renewable energy capacity at a faster rate than their gas or coal-fired capacity. jwvein / Needpix
By Jo Harper
Only 10% of global energy utility companies are expanding their renewable energy capacity at a faster rate than their gas or coal-fired capacity. That is the main finding of a study by Galina Alova from the Smith School of Enterprise and the Environment at the University of Oxford.
<p>The study, published in research journal <em>Nature Energy</em>, found that of the 3,000 utilities studied most remain predominantly invested in fossil fuels. And of those prioritizing renewable energy growth, 60% had not halted expansion of their fossil fuel portfolios.</p><p>The companies with the slowest transition tended to be larger and from outside Europe, Alova told DW. "The renewables-prioritizing cohort of utilities that I identified comprises companies that are overall larger and own a larger market share in the countries where they operate, compared to the other companies," she said. "The key issue is that the majority of these companies continue in parallel to expand their fossil fuel-based capacity, although they do so at a slower rate."</p><p>Her research highlights a gap between what is needed to tackle the climate crisis and "the actions being taken by the utility sector," she added. These companies face the risk of carbon lock-in, given that a third of their fossil fuel capacity has been added in the last 10 years, so is here to stay for decades. "Unless it is retired early, it will render significant shares of their portfolios stranded," Alova said.</p><p>"Although there have been a few high-profile examples of individual electric utilities investing in renewables, this study shows that overall, the sector is making the transition to clean energy slowly or not at all," she said.</p><p>Alova believes inertia in the electricity industry is one key reason for the slow transition.</p>
The Matter of Gas
<p>The report found that 10% of utilities favored growth in gas-fired power plants, dominated by the US utilities exploiting the country's shale gas reserves, followed by Russia and Germany.</p><p>"Renewables and natural gas often go hand in hand," Alova said, adding that companies often choose both in parallel. "So, it might be just in media reports we are getting this image of investing in renewables, but less coverage on continued investment in gas." </p><p>It might also be the case that gas is viewed as a transition fuel, relatively less carbon emitting and providing load-balancing services to intermittent renewables generation, Alova said.</p><p>Dave Jones, senior electricity analyst for independent climate think tank Ember, agrees with Alova that utilities have hindered the transition by "misunderstanding the future of gas." Utilities have a mindset to build big centralized power plants, replacing a coal power plant with a gas power plant, he said. "Fortunately, most of the gas hype across the world is now dying down, as wind and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/cheap-solar-energy-prices-explained/a-53590607" target="_blank">solar now provide cheaper options</a> for generating electricity," Jones said.</p>Green Movement Taking Place
<p>Over a fifth of Europe's energy was generated by solar panels and wind turbines in the first half of 2020, according to a report by Ember. Denmark came out on top, generating 64% of its energy from these renewable sources, followed by Ireland (49%) and <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/renewables-make-up-over-half-of-germanys-power-mix/a-52986924" target="_blank">Germany</a> (42%).</p><p>In Ember's half-year review released in July, renewables exceeded fossil fuel generation for the first time ever, producing 40% of the EU's power, with fossil fuels contributing 34%. However, globally only a tenth of all energy was generated by these sources during the first half of 2020. </p><p>Last year saw the use of coal to generate electricity around the world fall by a record 3%. In part due to COVID-19, coal generation in the first half of 2020 again broke records with a drop of 8.3%. In the EU, the drop was higher, as coal energy generation fell by nearly a third.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzgzODcwOS9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTYwOTM5NTQ2Mn0.uKpwljXeUk2jEe8I6p2UqRx9U9kR6tAtXPvcD3KTW1U/img.png?width=980" id="ddf6f" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="7430067a3d895332e32bf4f45ff8ddc6" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" /><p>With many projects delayed by the pandemic, the global capacity to produce electricity from renewable sources is predicted to drop by up to 13% overall this year according to the International Energy Agency.</p>
Slowly Getting There?
<p>Utilities have been slow to understand how quickly wind and solar would drop in price, and also how quickly governments would want to move away from coal. "Many utilities have been caught off guard by the speed of the transition, and have suffered financially ever since," said Jones.</p><p>The world this year has generated one-tenth of its electricity from wind and solar, double from the 5% in 2015, and that increase has led to a fall in market share of coal generation, Jones added. </p><p>Valentina Kretzschmar from consultancy Wood Mackenzie says BP's recently announced strategy has created a new industry benchmark. BP plans to increase investment in its low-emission businesses, including renewable energy, by tenfold in the next decade to $5 billion (€4.5 billion) a year, while cutting back oil and gas production by 40%.</p><p>In July, Royal Dutch Shell won a deal to build a wind farm off the coast of the Netherlands, while France's Total has agreed to make several large investments in solar power in Spain and a wind farm off Scotland. Total also bought an electric and natural gas utility in Spain. Shell has said it will <a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mexico-sells-rights-to-19-offshore-oil-fields-for-over-500-million/a-42393559" target="_blank">delay offshore oil fields in the Gulf of Mexico</a> and in the North Sea.</p><p>US giants like Exxon Mobil and Chevron, however, have been slower than their European counterparts to commit to climate goals.</p><p>"I have seen a substantial shift between companies in the fossil fuel clusters toward renewables," Alova said. "This signals that the companies that have been growing fossil fuel portfolios in the earlier time periods might be switching to renewables more recently."</p>
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The corner of Jefferson and 7th in Hoboken, N.J., is flooded on Oct. 30, 2012 following Superstorm Sandy. Alec Perkins / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Kenny Stancil
The city of Hoboken on Wednesday filed a lawsuit against multiple Big Oil players—including ExxonMobil, incorporated in New Jersey—joining an increasing number of state and local governments using litigation in efforts to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for defrauding the public about foreseen climate crisis damages and to make companies "pay their fair share" of the costs of mitigating greenhouse gas emissions and adapting to a warming planet.
<p>The <a href="https://payupclimatepolluters.org/uploads/media/Hoboken-v-Exxon-et-al_Complaint_9-2-20.pdf" target="_blank">lawsuit</a> argues that the defendants—ExxonMobil, Shell, Chevron, BP, ConocoPhillips, and the American Petroleum Institute—knew that "their production, marketing, and sale of fossil fuels would cause global climate change," but they engaged in a massive "disinformation campaign" to protect their profits, which would diminish in conjunction with decreased fossil fuel use.</p><p>Big Oil began redesigning its own assets to adapt to rising sea levels at the same time it was "telling the world that climate change was a hoax," the lawsuit states. </p><p>According to the Center for Climate Integrity (CCI), Hoboken is the 20th community to take fossil fuel giants to <a href="https://payupclimatepolluters.org/cases/" target="_blank">court</a> to "recover billions of dollars in damages caused by the oil and gas industry's deception about climate change."</p><p>Richard Wiles, executive director of CCI, said in a statement that "with climate costs surging everywhere and local budgets depleted, more and more communities are turning to the courts as their only recourse to make polluters pay for their fair share of the wreckage they knew their products would cause."</p>
<p>Wiles continued:</p><blockquote>Exxon and their co-conspirators can't run from this growing wave of climate lawsuits. Thanks to Hoboken, for the first time, Exxon will have to defend its shameful record of climate damages, disinformation, and denial on its home turf. It takes guts to sue the most ruthless, deceitful, and unapologetic climate polluters on the planet. Hoboken's elected leaders should be applauded. <br></blockquote><p><a href="https://patch.com/new-jersey/hoboken/hoboken-files-lawsuit-against-oil-companies-over-climate-change" target="_blank">According to</a> local reporters, Hoboken Mayor Ravi Bhalla's announcement of the legal action came one month after "the low-lying city suffered two flooding events that theoretically should have occurred once in 50 years." </p><p>In addition, residents remember the devastating <a href="https://www.nj.com/news/2020/09/nj-city-makes-history-is-1st-to-sue-oil-giants-for-climate-change-damages.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">impact</a> that Superstorm Sandy had in 2012, when a 14-foot storm surge overwhelmed outdated sewer systems to cause over $100 million in damage in the city. </p><p>At Wednesday morning's <a href="https://www.facebook.com/Hoboken" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">press conference</a>, Bhalla described his intentions to get Hoboken off the list of coastal communities at risk of becoming inundated within the next five decades. </p>
<p>The mayor <a href="https://www.hobokennj.gov/news/hoboken-sues-exxon-mobil-american-petroleum-institute-big-oil-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">said</a>:</p><blockquote>At the same time we've invested hundreds of millions of dollars adapting to the realities of climate change, Big Oil companies have engaged in a decades long campaign of misinformation that has contributed to global warming which has disproportionately impacted our residents. We cannot stand idly by and allow Big Oil to continue profiting at the expense of Hoboken residents. It's time these companies pay their fair share and be held accountable for their actions.<br></blockquote><p>Over the past decade and in response to rising sea levels, Hoboken has invested $140 million in climate change adaptation, including several projects that are part of its Rebuild by Design comprehensive water management strategy, according to a <a href="https://www.hobokennj.gov/news/hoboken-sues-exxon-mobil-american-petroleum-institute-big-oil-companies" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">statement</a> from the city.</p><p>Hoboken's lawsuit aims to "recover funds to pay for the costs that the city is undertaking, and will undertake as a result of the substantial impacts of climate change, which has been exacerbated by Big Oil."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/09/02/city-hoboken-files-climate-suit-against-exxon-most-ruthless-deceitful-and" target="_blank">Common Dreams.</a></em></p>From Your Site Articles
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A man scoops leaked oil from the Japanese-owned MV Wakashio that ran aground near Blue Bay Marine Park off the coast of Mauritius on August 8, 2020. Jean Aurelio Prudence / L'Express Maurice / AFP / Getty Images
By Seerat Chabba
Mauritius has asked Japan to pay close to 3.6 billion yen (€28.5 billion, $34 million) in order to support local fishermen whose livelihoods were adversely impacted by an oil leak last month, according to a Mauritian government document accessed by Japanese news agency Kyodo News.
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<p>The spill occurred when Japanese bulk carrier MV Wakashio, owned by Nagashiki Shipping Co., crashed into a reef off southeastern Mauritius in July. More than 1,000 tons of oil spilled into waters that are home to mangrove forests and endangered species, causing Mauritius to declare a "state of environmental emergency" on August 7.</p><p>As the island nation attempts to control the spread of the fuel, there has been considerable debate over who will pay for the damage inflicted on sea life and those who are dependent on it for their livelihoods.</p>
<p>According to the document cited by Kyodo, Mauritius has estimated a cost of over $30 million for constructing 100 fishing boats, while over $240,000 would be used for providing training to 475 fishermen and 60 skippers who may not have experience fishing in rough seas.</p><p>Over $3 million has been requested for renovating Mauritius' Albion Fisheries Research Center, which was built in the 1980s with Japanese assistance.</p><p>According to the Japanese agency, an official from the Embassy of Japan in Mauritius confirmed that various requests had been received. The official said, "It is true that we are currently receiving various requests. Japan is working to promptly do all that it can."</p>
<p>Over the weekend, Mauritius saw large scale demonstrations in the capital, the biggest protests the country has seen in 40 years. Close to 75,000 protesters marched against Prime Minister Pravind Jugnauth's inaction in dealing with the crisis, calling for the leader and many top officials to step down.</p><p>Signs such as "Your incompetence is destroying our island," "You have no shame," and "I've seen better Cabinets at IKEA" were carried by protesters, who were also outraged over the alarming discovery of dozens of dead dolphins in recent days.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.dw.com/en/mauritius-oil-spill-japan-asked-to-pay-34-million-support-local-fishermen/a-54789180?maca=en-VAM_volltext_ecowatch-28485-html-copypaste" target="_blank">Deutsche Welle</a>.</em><a href="https://www.ecowatch.com/r/entryeditor/2647435775#/" target="_self"></a></p>From Your Site Articles
- Protesters March Against Oil Spill 'Incompetence' in Mauritius as ... ›
- Mauritius Rushes to Contain Oil Spill Before Ship Breaks Apart ... ›
- 17 Dead Dolphins Wash Ashore in Mauritius Near Oil Spill - EcoWatch ›
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President Donald Trump’s Climate Change Record Has Been a Boon for Oil Companies, and a Threat to the Planet
02 September
Climate
Two weeks before the start of the Republican convention in late August, President Trump rolled back Barack Obama's last major environmental regulation, restricting methane leaks. Gage Skidmore / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 2.0
By Vernon Loeb, Marianne Lavelle and Stacy Feldman
In the middle of his 44th month in office, two weeks before the start of the Republican convention in late August, President Trump rolled back Barack Obama's last major environmental regulation, restricting methane leaks.
<p>The move represented an environmental trifecta of sorts for the president, who had handed the oil and gas industry another gift in his quest for "American energy dominance," thumbed his nose yet again at climate change and came close to fully dismantling his predecessor's environment and climate legacy.</p><p>It had been a busy four years, and a breakneck 2020, as Trump and <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/01/14/climate/fossil-fuel-industry-environmental-policy.html" target="_blank">the former industry executives and lobbyists</a> he'd placed in control of the Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of the Interior raced to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/31032020/fuel-efficiency-rollback-trump-administration-california-cafe-climate-change-tailpipe-emissions" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rollback auto emissions standards</a>, weaken the nation's <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/09012020/trump-nepa-environmental-review-changes-climate-change-infrastructure-pipelines" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">most important environmental law</a>, open the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26082020/trump-administration-alaska-oil-drilling-mining-projects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling</a> and <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14042020/air-pollution-epa-covid-pm2.5-secret-science-rule-health-fuel-standard-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reject stronger air pollution</a> standards, even as <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24072020/how-harvard-covid-19-study-became-center-partisan-uproar" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">research showed a link</a> between those pollutants and an increased risk of death from Covid-19.</p><p>"I applaud and strongly support President Trump's continued support for the oil and gas industry," Oklahoma Gov. Kevin Stitt said after the administration proposed its rollback of the Obama methane rules. "During these uncertain times, it makes no sense that we would be placing additional regulatory burdens on our vital industries which are not supported by sound science and do not consider economic impact." </p>
<p>Environmental lawyers and climate activists who've been battling Trump since day one are in agreement that Trump, beginning with his decision to lead the nation out of the Paris climate accord, has done more to roll back and weaken environmental laws and regulations than any president in history.</p><p>Trump extolled the accomplishment and put a different spin on the superlative during a White House speech in July, saying, "We have removed nearly <a href="https://www.whitehouse.gov/briefings-statements/remarks-president-trump-rolling-back-regulations-help-americans/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">25,000 pages of job destroying regulations</a>, more than any other president by far in the history of our country." </p><p>A few days earlier, as his Democratic rival, Joe Biden, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/14072020/joe-biden-climate-plan-coronavirus-build-back-better" target="_blank">unveiled a $2 trillion plan</a> to combat climate change, Trump promoted what he called a "very dramatic" series of revisions to the National Environmental Policy Act, the foundation of environmental protection in the United States that had been signed into law by President Richard M. Nixon 50 years ago.</p><p><span></span>Environmentalists have used the law to block everything from pipelines to the destruction of natural habitats. Trump has now limited environmental reviews under the act to between one and two years and relieved federal agencies from having to consider a project's impact on climate change during the review and permitting process.</p><p>"While our world is burning, President Trump is adding fuel to the fire by taking away our right to be informed and to protect ourselves from irreparable harm," Gina McCarthy, Obama's EPA administrator who now serves as president and CEO of the Natural Resources Defense Council, said of weakening the act.</p><p>By late summer, Columbia University's Sabin Center for Climate Change Law had counted 159 actions since Trump took office "to scale back or wholly eliminate climate mitigation and adaptation measures." Many have been slowed or blocked by the courts. </p>
Trump's Long Focus on 'American Energy Dominance'
<p>When Trump delivered his <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/27052016/donald-trump-republican-party-election-fossil-fuels-coal-oil-gas-fracking-climate-change-paris" target="_blank">first major energy speech in the fracking fields of North Dakota</a> as a candidate in May 2016, he called for American domination of global energy supplies.</p><p>"We are going to turn everything around," Trump declared. "And quickly, very quickly."</p><p>Once in office, Trump pursued a policy of unfettered support for fossil fuel development. He immediately signed memorandums to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/24012017/keystone-xl-dakota-pipeline-donald-trump-executive-order" target="_blank">revive the Keystone XL and Dakota Access pipelines</a>, projects blocked by Obama. </p><p>In early March 2017, his administration ordered the Environmental Protection Agency to <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/03032017/scott-pruitt-environmental-protection-agency-methane-greenhouse-gas-climate-change" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">stop gathering data from oil and gas companies</a> needed to rein in leaks of methane, a potent short-lived climate pollutant. Fossil fuel infrastructure adds to greenhouse gas emissions, in part by leaking methane into the atmosphere. </p><p>He followed up, at the end of March, by issuing <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28032017/trump-executive-order-climate-change-paris-climate-agreement-clean-power-plan-pruitt" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">a sweeping executive order</a> directing all federal agencies to target for elimination any rules that restrict U.S. production of energy. He set guidance to make it more difficult to put future regulations on fossil fuel industries and he moved to discard the use of a rigorous "social cost of carbon," a regulatory measurement that puts a price on the future damage society will pay for every ton of carbon dioxide emitted. </p><p>As his first year in office came to a close, Trump and Alaska's Republican senators inserted a provision into his signature tax cut legislation that called for opening the coastal plain of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for drilling.</p><p>In 2018, domestic oil production hit a record high. The result of this, among other things, was the <a href="https://rhg.com/research/preliminary-us-emissions-estimates-for-2018/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">reversal of three consecutive years of declining U.S. carbon emissions</a>.</p><p>Many of Trump's regulations have also been tailored to favor the coal industry, often at the expense of cheaper, cleaner energy. <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/11102017/climate-denial-coal-industry-global-warming-robert-murray-energy" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">Robert Murray</a>, founder of the <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/29102019/coal-bankruptcy-bob-murray-energy-chapter-11-trump-regulations-rollback" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">now-bankrupt coal company Murray Energy</a> and one of Trump's closest industry allies, gave the president a "wish list" early on that became a virtual template for the administration's rollback of regulations. </p><p>The administration swiftly lifted an Obama moratorium on new coal leases on federal lands, to no real benefit. The decline of coal continued unabated, but Trump remained an unapologetic champion of the dirtiest fossil fuel. </p>Trump's War on Science
<p>When U.S. government scientists released their latest volume of the <a href="https://science2017.globalchange.gov/" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">National Climate Assessment in November 2018, </a>it revealed much about the robust, sobering scientific consensus on climate change.</p><p>It also revealed the striking disconnect between Trump and essentially every authoritative institution on the threat of global warming.</p><p>The president rejected the assessment's central findings—based on thousands of climate studies and involving 13 federal agencies—that emissions of carbon dioxide are caused by human activities, are already causing lasting economic damage and have to be brought rapidly to zero.</p><p>"I don't believe it. No, no, I don't believe it," Trump told a reporter after the assessment's release. </p><p>In almost every agency overseeing energy, the environment and health, people with little scientific background, or strong ties to industries they would be regulating, were appointed to scientific leadership positions. </p><p>One of the administration's first actions was to order scientists and other employees at EPA and other agencies to halt public communications. Several federal scientists working on climate change have said they were silenced, sidelined or demoted. The words "climate change" have been purged from government reports and other reports have been buried. </p><p>The administration's mistrust of scientists and its tendency toward science denialism would also become a prominent feature of its response to the coronavirus pandemic, when the president <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/05/20/politics/coronavirus-travel-alert-cdc-white-house-tensions-invs/index.html" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">muzzled scientists at the Centers for Disease Control </a>and chafed at the dire predictions of many epidemiological models for Covid-19 deaths. </p><p>With the nation in a state of emergency over the pandemic, Andrew Wheeler, a former coal industry lobbyist who serves as Trump's administrator of the Environmental Protection Agency, <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/23032020/trump-epa-health-secret-science-coronavirus" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">moved in late March</a> to fast-track the "Strengthening Transparency in Regulatory Science" rule. Wheeler replaced Scott Pruitt, an Oklahoma Republican who served as Trump's first EPA administrator before resigning in 2018 amid an ethics scandal. </p><p>Critics call Wheeler's transparency proposal Orwellian and say it would actually <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/07042020/epa-secret-science-coronavirus-covid" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">limit the use of human health science</a> in environmental decision-making, by eliminating studies that rely on patients' anonymous medical data.</p><p>While Trump and his conservative allies contend that the reliance on such studies amounts to "secret science," scientists and leading medical authorities respond that it is standard practice to honor patient confidentiality in peer-reviewed studies. </p><p>Numerous studies, including one based on health data from 60 million Medicare recipients, have shown that one of the signature pollutants from the burning of fossil fuels, microscopic particles less than 2.5 microns in width—known as PM 2.5—kill as many as 52,100 Americans prematurely each year.</p><p>Less than a month later, as much of the nation remained locked down to halt the spread of Covid-19, a respiratory disease, the Trump administration rejected a recommendation from government scientists to strengthen the national air quality standard for particulate matter. Trump chose instead to maintain the current PM 2.5 standard, handing the fossil fuel industry a major victory.</p>A 'Concerted Attack' on Alaska, Public Lands
<p>The Trump administration knew no bounds for its fossil fuel agenda, pursuing drilling from the outset on pristine public lands in Alaska and the lower 48 states, where oil companies have long sought access. </p><p>Less than four months after taking office, Trump moved <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/28042017/doanld-trump-arctic-offshore-drilling-ban-obama-executive-order" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">to lift Obama's offshore Arctic drilling ban</a> and, then, in July 2017, gave Italian oil company Eni a quick green light to drill exploratory wells. </p><p>In March 2018, the Trump administration proposed a resumption of leasing in Alaska's Beaufort Sea. President Obama, shortly before leaving office, had "permanently" withdrawn from drilling there. </p><p>By then, Trump had also carved 2 million acres of land from the Grand Staircase-Escalante and Bears Ears national monuments in southern Utah in what amounted to the most sweeping reductions in protections for public land in U.S. history. </p><p>In September 2018, the Interior Department finalized a <a href="https://www.blm.gov/sites/blm.gov/files/Final%20Rule%20-1004-AE53%20-%20%20Ready%20for%20OFR%209.18.18_508%20%281%29.pdf" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">rule</a> that loosens methane requirements for oil and gas operations on federal lands. A month later, the administration proposed a regulation to streamline and expedite oil and gas permits on national forest lands. </p><p>The following summer, the administration proposed weakening protections under the Endangered Species Act for threatened species and critical habitat. Shortly thereafter, the Interior Department commenced the public comment period on its plan for oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge that had been included in the 2017 tax bill. </p><p>In early August 2020, the president signed the Great American Outdoors Act appropriating $900 million a year to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and $9.5 billion over five years to reduce maintenance backlogs in the national parks. </p><p>The bipartisan legislation was sponsored by a House Democrat, but Trump extolled its passage as the most significant act in support of parklands since Teddy Roosevelt.</p><p>Still, the administration was preparing, on the eve of the Republican convention, to start selling leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The sale was <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/26082020/trump-administration-alaska-oil-drilling-mining-projects" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer">one of six pending projects</a> in which Trump was pursuing more drilling, logging and mining in Alaska.</p><p>One environmentalist called it the most "concerted attack" in 30 years on Alaska's natural resources. </p><p>All six of the Trump initiatives could still be blocked or rolled back in the courts, or undone by a new Biden administration working with a Democratic Congress. But for now, they are proceeding, with enormous consequences for Alaska's environment, and global climate change.</p>One by One, Obama's Main Climate Accomplishments Fell
<p>The same could be said for President Obama's environment and climate legacy: Trump's relentless attacks could be wholly or partially undone by a new administration and Congress. But for now, Trump has accomplished his mission: a near total elimination of his predecessor's most significant measures.</p><p>After countless piecemeal rollbacks during Trump's first two and a half years in office, the administration in June 2019 launched its long-awaited attack on Obama's signature plan to tackle climate change. Designed to cut emissions from coal-fired power plants, Obama called it the Clean Power Plan.</p><p>While the plan was challenged by industry and 27 states and blocked by the U.S. Supreme Court before Obama even left office, it encouraged many states to begin a process of planning for a transition away from coal-fired electricity at a time when cheaper natural gas and renewable energy already were forcing coal plants to shut down. </p><p>Next came Trump's rollback of Obama's 2012 automobile fuel efficiency standards, the single largest step any nation had taken to address global warming by cutting carbon emissions from cars and trucks. The weakened Trump plan will allow automakers to deploy fleets that average just 40 miles per gallon by 2025, instead of 54 mpg.</p><p>If Trump's standard ultimately survives legal challenges, cars and trucks in the United States would emit nearly a billion tons more carbon dioxide during their lifetimes than they would have under the Obama standards. </p><p>Finally, in mid-August, Trump <a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13082020/trump-epa-methane-emission-rollbacks" target="_blank">proposed the rollback</a> of the methane rules, the last major Obama environmental regulation still standing. Methane, a super-pollutant, is 86 times more potent in warming the planet than carbon dioxide over a 20-year period.</p><p>The Obama rule required oil and gas companies to monitor methane leaks and fix them. The Trump replacement weakens those requirements, allowing companies<a href="https://insideclimatenews.org/news/13082020/trump-epa-methane-emission-rollbacks" target="_blank" rel="noopener noreferrer"> to release 4.5 million metric tons more pollution each year. </a></p><p>In the climate realm, Obama is best known, of course, as the driving force behind the 2015 Paris climate accord. </p><p>Trump first announced in a Rose Garden speech in June 2017 that the U.S. would withdraw from the accord in three years, as soon as the treaty allowed. </p><p>So, right on cue, two years later, on Nov. 4, 2019, Secretary of State Mike Pompeo notified the United Nations of the formal exit of the United States, activating the final one-year waiting period. </p><p>The actual U.S. withdrawal is set for Nov. 4, 2020, one day after the presidential election.</p>From Your Site Articles
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San Juan National Forest in Colorado is an example of the national forests that will be vulnerable to oil and gas drilling. Paxson Woelber / Wikimedia Commons / CC by 4.0
The Trump Administration released a proposed rule allowing oil and gas drilling on millions of acres of protected national forests, The Houston Chronicle reported.
<p>The new rule would allow drilling without public review or environmental reviews that would analyze the impact of industrial actions, <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2020/sep/01/trump-administration-rule-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">The Guardian</a> reported.</p><p>"By undermining the public participation and environmental review required by the National Environmental Policy Act, this proposed rule puts the interests of the fossil fuel industry ahead of the public interest," Will Fadely, a senior government relations representative for The Wilderness Society, said in a <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/new-rule-aims-escalate-oil-and-gas-drilling-our-national-forests" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>So far, the U.S. Forest Service allows drilling and exploration in roughly one-third of its protected forests, or about three percent of its lands. Now, a new analysis from <a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/blog/new-rule-aims-escalate-oil-and-gas-drilling-our-national-forests" target="_blank">The Wilderness Society</a> finds that the proposed rule will transfer control of the lands from the Forest Service to the Bureau of Land Management, which will then open up drilling on millions of acres in Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, Nevada, Utah and Wyoming, The Guardian reported.</p>
<p>The Forest Service would experience a drastically reduced role, with its duties limited to protecting specifically named natural resources.</p><p>Although the rule mostly targets forests in the West, the proposed rule could also affect national forests on the East Coast, according to The Guardian. This means more forests could share the fate of Allegheny National Forest, now home to thousands of abandoned oil and gas wells, which taxpayers must pay to clean up, <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/experts/josh-axelrod/trump-administration-eyes-forests-oil-and-gas-drilling" target="_blank">The National Resources Defense Council</a> (NRDC) reported.</p><p>As <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/administration-relaxes-rules-oil-and-gas-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">the National Audubon Society</a> pointed out, national forests play an important role in storing carbon dioxide and combatting the climate crisis. By eliminating the necessary environmental review, the new leases will have free reign to cleave habitats with roads and pollute pristine lands.</p>
<p>"The administration really outdid itself with a proposal that has the Forest Service walking away from its responsibilities for managing our national forests and grassland while closing the door on public oversight," Nada Culver, vice president of public lands and senior counsel for the National Audubon Society, said in a <a href="https://www.audubon.org/news/administration-relaxes-rules-oil-and-gas-drilling-national-forests" target="_blank">statement</a>. "This is not just a conservation issue, it's putting our communities at risk. Replacing forested areas and grasslands with drill pads and access roads not only means fewer birds like Mallards and Prairie Warblers, but also degrades our lands and natural spaces, and threatens water supplies for millions of people."</p><p>The NRDC took exception to how the proposed rule will allow drilling near the lands of Indigenous people. The NRDC noted that despite industrialization and relocation policies, Indigenous people have been stewards of the land and a model of the economic and emotional benefits that healthy forests provide.</p><p>"Tens of millions of Americans hike, camp, fish, hunt, bike and run in our national forests each year," Sharon Buccino, senior director of lands for the Nature Program at NRDC, said in a statement. "This rule would sideline their voices in favor of the fossil fuel industry. We won't allow the Trump administration to shut down public review of drilling in our national forests that the American people don't want and that the climate can't afford."</p>
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Trump Admin Proposes 'Vicious' Plan for Fossil Fuel Lease Sales in California Amid Historic Wildfires
31 August
Politics
Local residents sit next to a vineyard as they watch the LNU Lightning Complex fire burning in nearby hills on August 20, 2020 in Healdsburg, California. Justin Sullivan / Getty Images
By Andrea Germanos
Especially given the climate-fueled wildfires ravaging the region, conservationists sounded alarm Thursday in response to a Trump administration proposal for an oil and gas lease sale in California, which would be the state's first such federal auction in eight years.
<p>At issue are over 4,300 acres of public land in Kern County, an area recently <a href="https://www.latimes.com/environment/newsletter/2020-08-06/boiling-point-heat-waves-should-get-names-too-boiling-point" target="_blank">dubbed</a> "the oil industry's political power center." The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2000634/510" target="_blank">released</a> a draft environmental assessment of the plan Wednesday for the sales, which would occur by the end of the year.</p><p>A BLM <a href="https://www.blm.gov/press-release/bureau-land-management-bakersfield-field-office-seeks-input-assessment-oil-and-gas" target="_blank">statement</a> announcing the proposal notes that California allows fracking—much to the <a href="https://sign.moveon.org/petitions/governor-gavinnewsom-stop-fueling-forest-fires-with-fracking" target="_blank">ire</a> of environmental groups. </p><p>The proposal comes as California <a href="https://calmatters.org/environment/california-wildfires/2020/08/california-wildfires-help-neighbors/" target="_blank">continues</a> to reel from massive wildfires that have stretched firefighting resources thin and <a href="https://www.cnn.com/2020/08/25/us/california-fires-tuesday/index.html%20" target="_blank">burned</a> over 1.25 million acres <a href="https://www.nbcnews.com/news/us-news/disaster-inside-disaster-california-wildfires-covid-19-form-twin-crises-n1238031" target="_blank">amid</a> a heatwave and the coronavirus pandemic.</p>
<p>"It's breathtakingly vicious for the Trump administration to expand drilling and fracking while California battles historic wildfires driven by climate change," Clare Lakewood, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity, said in a <a href="https://biologicaldiversity.org/w/news/press-releases/trump-administration-proposes-first-oil-lease-sale-california-eight-years-2020-08-27/" target="_blank">statement</a>.</p><p>Lakewood said that if the sales go through, adverse impacts on the climate will be guaranteed.</p><p>"More oil wells mean more greenhouse gases, more air pollution, and more destroyed habitat," she said, and warned that "selling this public land to oil companies will do significant harm to our environment, despite the administration's ridiculous claims."</p>
<p>Drilling leases haven't been offered in the state since a federal judge <a href="https://www.ksbw.com/article/judge-feds-violated-law-in-monterey-oil-leases/1051409" target="_blank">ruled</a> in 2013, based on a legal challenge from the Center for Biological Diversity and the Sierra Club, that BLM acted unlawfully in issuing oil leases in Monterey County without considering the environmental impacts of fracking.</p><p>Other bids by the federal government to open public lands in California to fossil fuel drilling have <a href="https://earthjustice.org/cases/2015/defending-federal-land-in-california-from-fracking" target="_blank">suffered</a> similar fates. The Trump administration's <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2019/10/05/merging-loyalty-oil-industry-and-grudge-against-california-trump-opens-725000-acres" target="_blank">proposals</a> <a href="https://www.sacbee.com/news/politics-government/capitol-alert/article238321848.html" target="_blank">last year</a> to offer up over 1 million acres of public land to oil drilling are the subject of ongoing litigation, the Center for Biological Diversity noted. </p><p>"We've blocked any new federal leasing in California in court for eight years now, and we'll fight this too," said Lakewood.</p><p>The <a href="https://eplanning.blm.gov/eplanning-ui/project/2000634/510" target="_blank">public comment period</a> on BLM's plan ends September 25.</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://www.commondreams.org/news/2020/08/28/trump-rebuked-breathtakingly-vicious-plan-fossil-fuel-lease-sales-california-amid?cd-origin=rss" target="_blank">Common Dreams</a>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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Trending
Pollution From Oil Wells and Industrial Sites Hit by Hurricane Laura Remains Unknown
28 August
Climate
An LNG processing plant is seen in Cameron, Louisiana on August 26, 2020. Andrew Caballero-Reynolds / AFP / Getty Images
The full extent of the damage wrought by the storm formerly known as Hurricane Laura will only continue to grow as the weakened storm continues inland and pollution from petrochemical plants and other industrial sites is discovered.
<p>More than 1,400 active oil wells sit in the path Hurricane Laura carved through Louisiana's coastline, some of which are decades old and especially vulnerable due to the state's receding coastline. </p><p>"I have a lump in my throat thinking about them," Bob Bea, a specialist in catastrophic risk management and former well manager for Shell, told the New Orleans Advocate. </p><p>The environmental damage caused by leaking wells, as well as from pollution spread from other damaged industrial sites, may not be discovered for days as officials focus on search and rescue tasks in the wake of the storm.</p>
<p>The storm's rapid intensification, fueled by exceptionally warm sea-surface temperatures, likely made matters worse but overconfidence from regulators and oil companies is also to blame, according to Bea. </p><p>"When it comes to how we manage our platforms, pipelines, and wells, we here in the U.S. are not world leaders in risk management," he said. </p><p>"We're not Canada or Norway. We're not even a Third World country." </p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://www.nola.com/news/business/article_8106c25c-e86b-11ea-a890-fb56159b024e.html?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94133008&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-_VLOWHPFC592Gm_5D57qGB9LRL98MiRz3oGxdSpC7qsuf2cd_S4qAmA5Ps3kfhIcCRgU5Ia0C1DuRpa5L2RCX2SZb4dxbFgw9OUG6YFovxlBT8l3E&utm_content=94133008&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New Orleans Advocate</a>; Potential industrial pollution: <a href="https://apnews.com/1887dbe11dec8c0db2f41988599382fc?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94133008&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-9dhp6AZcLb4AA5AUQRI20P8OFVHGu_7tB-IXKvNWtCzHjNPK8eOi1FpDpKWgIC_sH8pDi3bD6OqZciElqQ4Se8wxi0v6_cgxaeYTeHPGbCLsFHgLA&utm_content=94133008&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">AP</a>, <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/27/climate/hurricane-laura-fire-pollution.html?searchResultPosition=3&utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94133008&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8esde0511EKliwyNlN6Ts0ewK1sJvLLsOr8ximeb95eof33jzMzW6aI3DpdD7vZjU4-D0X4w-O1IrmO0_okgfQ5axh0I7uZw-BYBnRs122VkMadJI&utm_content=94133008&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">New York Times</a>, <a href="https://www.wsj.com/articles/americas-energy-corridor-narrowly-averts-direct-hit-from-hurricane-laura-11598539350?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94133008&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--wHrEUgGUYgpBwo_asKLbIC1xgahQH9DJyFcU4-r-Ubq-FZFycnVnewxrJRTFguz6q9t7y7NDVUxyfDPXQdF95XWB4Wd0dfwIrhOFMpkU6vWhRo1c&utm_content=94133008&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Wall Street Journal</a>, <a href="https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/emmanuelfelton/hurricane-laura-could-lead-to-an-environmental-disaster-on?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=94133008&_hsenc=p2ANqtz--v564n6L9bIwptZCCIdB--FxYL_N3AV4pZ2JheOXD4p8NYUEFAvhIHBG2rldHsPGQ82vP9y-RCUwsFDd9isz3-L6coCQiq4fe2XFhHhK0N0pqwCto&utm_content=94133008&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">Buzzfeed</a><br/></p><p><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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EPA Has Granted More Than 3,000 Pollution Monitoring Exemptions to Oil and Gas Industry
26 August
Climate
Environmental regulators across the country granted more than 3,000 requests from polluting oil and gas operations, government facilities, chemical plants, and other facilities to stop pollution monitoring. PxHere / CC0
Environmental regulators across the country granted more than 3,000 requests from polluting oil and gas operations, government facilities, chemical plants, and other facilities to stop pollution monitoring and other procedures intended to protect human health and the environment, an expansive two-month AP investigation revealed.
<p>The Trump administration, under pressure from the oil and gas industry, allowed for the exemptions in late March because of the coronavirus pandemic. </p><p>"It's like saying, 'We're going to remove the radar guns and remove speedometers, but you still have to comply with the speed limit,'" said Eric Schaeffer, now head of the Environmental Integrity Project advocacy group. "That doesn't make sense." </p><p>While EPA claims the monitoring waivers do not constitute a license to pollute at will, without effective monitoring there is no way to know. </p><p>As a whole, the skipped leak inspections could be endangering oil and gas workers and allowing thousands of tons of greenhouse pollution to be emitted into the atmosphere, a former oil and gas engineer told the AP.</p>
<p>The investigation's findings run counter to statements made by the EPA in June that the coronavirus was not impacting compliance and monitoring, and that the industry was not seeking relief. </p><p>In fact, the industry actors aggressively sought and were granted exemptions, as early as March, to skip inspections of smokestacks, tank seals, flare stacks, and emissions monitoring systems, which could raise the risk of explosions. </p><p>"As surely as night follows day there are going to be an increased number of deaths from those causes," Philip J. Landrigan, director of the Program for Global Public Health and the Common Good at Boston College, told the AP.</p>
<p><strong>For a deeper dive:</strong></p><p><a href="https://apnews.com/3bf753f9036e7d88f4746b1a36c1ddc4?utm_campaign=Hot%20News&utm_medium=email&_hsmi=93878362&_hsenc=p2ANqtz-8llXBR1XSIHnBMwvxjlxSTzAmU1Yd25iuXcsHj4vE8oBH169XOVGeDGxaAruzlCNLYkhcXGNC0FJFTnyKho_GYG7zgOD__m50Rvc-lLDpvzw2fuhM&utm_content=93878362&utm_source=hs_email" target="_blank">AP</a></p><p><a href="https://www.mediamatters.org/broadcast-networks/three-years-corporate-broadcast-news-hurricane-coverage-failed-mention-specific" target="_blank"></a><em>For more </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/climate-change-news/" target="_blank"><em>climate change</em></a><em> and </em><a href="http://ecowatch.com/business/renewables/" target="_blank"><em>clean energy</em></a><em> news, you can follow Climate Nexus on </em><a href="https://twitter.com/ClimateNexus" target="_blank"><em>Twitter</em></a><em> and </em><a href="https://www.facebook.com/ClimateNexus/" target="_blank"><em>Facebook</em></a><em>, and sign up for daily </em><a href="http://climatenexus.us4.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=d1f5797e59060083034310930&id=7c84c08aaa" target="_blank"><em>Hot News</em></a><em>.</em></p>
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Trump Greenlights Drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, but Will Oil Companies Show Up?
24 August
Energy
By Scott L. Montgomery
The Trump administration has announced that it is opening up the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development – the latest twist in a decades-long battle over the fate of this remote area. Its timing is truly terrible.
<p>Low oil prices, a pandemic-driven recession and looming elections add up to highly unfavorable conditions for launching expensive drilling operations. In the longer term, the climate crisis and an ongoing shift to a lower-carbon economy raise big questions about future oil demand.</p><p>I've <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=dCRySjIAAAAJ&hl=en" target="_blank">researched the U.S. energy industry</a> for more than 20 years. As I see it, conservative Republicans have backed oil and gas production in ANWR since the 1980s for two overriding reasons. First, to increase domestic oil production and reduce dependence on "foreign oil," a euphemism for imports from OPEC countries. This argument now is largely dead, thanks to the <a href="https://www.marketwatch.com/story/fracking-revolution-thats-made-the-us-the-top-global-oil-producer-is-boosting-the-economy-and-curbing-emissions-too-2019-03-22/" target="_blank">fracking revolution</a>, which has greatly expanded U.S. oil and gas production.</p><p>The other motive for drilling in ANWR, I believe, is to score a major, precedent-setting victory over government policies that prioritize conservation over energy production and environmental advocacy groups that have fought for years to protect ANWR as "<a href="https://www.wilderness.org/articles/article/why-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_blank">one of the finest examples of wilderness left on Earth</a>." Capturing ANWR and transforming it into a locus of fossil fuel extraction would be a massive physical and symbolic triumph for politicians who believe that resource extraction is the <a href="https://theconversation.com/dems-and-the-gop-are-miles-apart-on-yet-another-issue-public-lands-65772" target="_blank">highest use of public lands</a>.</p><p>President Trump seems to understand this, based on his recent comment that "<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2020/08/17/climate/alaska-oil-drilling-anwr.html" target="_blank">ANWR is a big deal that Ronald Reagan couldn't get done and nobody could get done</a>." But global, national and oil industry circumstances are overwhelmingly arrayed against Trump getting it done.</p>
<span style="display:block;position:relative;padding-top:56.25%;" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="acfdbc74ce6214af4b64f1f77bd82b45"><iframe lazy-loadable="true" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/bTdOrHxIto4?rel=0" width="100%" height="auto" frameborder="0" scrolling="no" style="position:absolute;top:0;left:0;width:100%;height:100%;"></iframe></span>
Years of Debate
<p>ANWR is inarguably an ecological treasure. With 45 species of mammals and over 200 species of birds from six continents, the refuge <a href="https://www.amnh.org/explore/science-bulletins/earth/documentaries/reading-the-rocks-the-search-for-oil-in-anwr/essay-northern-alaska-rich-in-wildlife-and-oil/" target="_blank">is more biodiverse</a> than almost any area in the Arctic.</p><p>This is especially true of the 1002 <a href="https://www.fws.gov/refuge/arctic/wildlife_habitat.html" target="_blank">coastal plain portion</a>, which has the largest number of polar bear dens in Alaska. It also supports <a href="https://theconversation.com/scientist-at-work-tracking-muskoxen-in-a-warming-arctic-70378" target="_blank">muskoxen</a>, Arctic wolves, foxes, hares, migrating waterfowl and Porcupine caribou, which calve there. Most of ANWR is designated as wilderness, which puts it off-limits for development. But this <a href="https://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33872.pdf" target="_blank">does not include the 1002 Area</a>, which was recognized as a promising area for energy development when the refuge was created in 1980 and left that way after a 1987 study confirmed its potential.</p><p>Climate change is causing <a href="https://theconversation.com/100-degrees-in-siberia-5-ways-the-extreme-arctic-heat-wave-follows-a-disturbing-pattern-141442" target="_blank">especially rapid warming in the Arctic</a>, with probable negative effects for many of these species. Environmental advocates argue that fossil fuel production in ANWR will <a href="https://www.nrdc.org/protect-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge" target="_blank">add to this process</a>, damaging habitat and impacting the <a href="https://www.alaskapublic.org/2019/07/02/in-arctic-village-gwichin-leaders-say-the-fight-to-stop-drilling-in-the-arctic-refuge-isnt-over/" target="_blank">Indigenous people who rely on the wildlife</a> for subsistence. But the situation is complex: There are also <a href="https://www.ktoo.org/2019/07/02/in-the-alaska-village-where-anwr-is-the-backyard-many-see-drilling-as-an-opportunity/" target="_blank">Indigenous groups who support ANWR development</a> for the jobs and income it would bring.</p><p>Energy companies' interest in ANWR, meanwhile, has risen and fallen over time. The discovery of oil at <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prudhoe_Bay_Oil_Field" target="_blank">Prudhoe Bay</a> in 1968, followed by <a href="https://www.cfr.org/timeline/oil-dependence-and-us-foreign-policy" target="_blank">two oil shocks in the 1970s</a>, sparked support for exploration and production in the region. But this enthusiasm faded in the late 1980s and '90s in the face of fierce political and legal opposition and years of low oil prices.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NjgzMi9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY0NzAxNzY4MH0.vWNpbGQIFsOi5KclugxDJn1zOdFvnMZjregD-L2-R1k/img.png?width=980" id="c43dd" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="21bad02c37ee46a4c84f7ef33adabd67" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
A majority of Americas of all political leanings believe the U.S. should develop alternative energy sources rather than expanding production of oil, coal and natural gas. Pew Research Center, CC BY-ND
<p>Scientists performed two major assessments of oil reserves in the 1002 Area in <a href="http://dggs.alaska.gov/webpubs/usgs/b/text/b1778.pdf" target="_blank">1987</a> and <a href="https://pubs.usgs.gov/fs/fs-0028-01/" target="_blank">1998</a>. The latter study concluded that ANWR contained up to 11 billion barrels of oil that could be profitably recovered if prices were consistently high. But when prices rose between 2010 and late 2014, companies chose to focus instead on areas to the west of the refuge, where new discoveries had been made.</p><p>In the <a href="https://www.congress.gov/115/bills/hr1/BILLS-115hr1enr.pdf" target="_blank">Tax Cuts and Jobs Act of 2017</a>, a Republican-controlled Congress directed the Trump administration to open the 1002 Area to leasing. The bill required one lease sale within four years, and at least two sales within a decade. But as the Interior Department tried to comply, it was hampered by <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2018/12/15/us/ryan-zinke-interior-secretary.html" target="_blank">political controversies</a> and environmental assessment requirements.</p><p>The <a href="https://www.doi.gov/pressreleases/secretary-bernhardt-signs-decision-implement-coastal-plain-oil-and-gas-leasing-program" target="_blank">new Record of Decision</a>, released on Aug. 17, 2020, determines where and how leasing will occur. It represents the Trump administration's last chance to bring forward a well-designed leasing plan, and is certain <a href="https://www.arctictoday.com/with-arctic-refuge-drilling-approved-focus-shifts-to-legal-battles-and-market-forces/" target="_blank">to spark legal challenges</a> from environmental and wildlife organizations.</p>
Is ANWR Oil Worth It?
<p>Today the oil industry is facing its greatest set of challenges in modern history. They include:</p><ul><li>A collapse in oil demand and prices due to the global pandemic, with a sluggish and <a href="https://www.iea.org/reports/oil-market-report-august-2020" target="_blank">uncertain recovery</a></li><li>Companies canceling and reducing activity worldwide, with bankruptcies in the U.S. shale industry and <a href="https://energynow.com/2020/08/u-s-oil-gas-rig-count-falls-to-record-low-for-14th-week-baker-hughes/" target="_blank">drilling rig counts</a> falling back to 1940 levels</li><li>New uncertainty about future global oil demand as climate concerns push public interest and government policy toward electric vehicles, and automakers respond with new EV designs</li><li>The growing possibility of Democratic victories in the November 2020 elections, which would likely lead to policies reducing fossil fuel use</li><li>Increasing <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-climate-change-barclays/barclays-pressured-by-shareholders-to-cut-fossil-fuel-financing-idUSKBN1Z700F" target="_blank">investor pressure</a> on banks and investment firms to reduce or eliminate support for fossil fuel projects.</li></ul><p>All of these factors compound the challenges of leasing and drilling in ANWR. Well costs there would be among the highest anywhere onshore in the U.S. Only one well has ever been drilled in the area, so new drilling would be purely exploratory and have a lower chance of success than in better-studied areas. Under these conditions, it would make more sense for companies that are active on Alaska's North Slope to pursue sites they currently have under lease, which pose much lower risk.</p><img lazy-loadable="true" src="https://assets.rebelmouse.io/eyJhbGciOiJIUzI1NiIsInR5cCI6IkpXVCJ9.eyJpbWFnZSI6Imh0dHBzOi8vYXNzZXRzLnJibC5tcy8yMzU3NjgzMy9vcmlnaW4ucG5nIiwiZXhwaXJlc19hdCI6MTY1NDYxODU1OX0.Hio5lx25UgfA_LlmK8SAiPCXI3yM1YMMeRj67Kcc390/img.png?width=980" id="d7d17" class="rm-shortcode" data-rm-shortcode-id="77bcfa6e07ee6840f82cceccbe0a2af7" data-rm-shortcode-name="rebelmouse-image" />
<p>
<a href="https://theconversation.com/profiles/scott-l-montgomery-102115" target="_blank"><em>Scott L. Montgomery</em></a><em> is a Lecturer, Jackson School of International Studies, University of Washington.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Disclosure statement: Scott L. Montgomery does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</em>
</p><p>
<em>Reposted with permission from <a href="https://theconversation.com/trump-greenlights-drilling-in-the-arctic-national-wildlife-refuge-but-will-oil-companies-show-up-144715" target="_blank">The Conversation</a>.</em>
</p><iframe height="1" src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/144715/count.gif?distributor=republish-lightbox-advanced" width="1"></iframe>Alaska's North Slope outside of ANWR remains rich in oil, according to the latest U.S. Geological Survey assessment. USGS
<p>What's more, as I have <a href="https://theconversation.com/large-scale-fracking-comes-to-the-arctic-in-a-new-alaska-oil-boom-75683#comment_1264055" target="_blank">argued previously</a>, it's not clear that there's a need to drill in ANWR. Energy companies have made new discoveries elsewhere south and west of Prudhoe Bay – most recently, the <a href="https://www.rigzone.com/news/pantheon_resources_makes_alaska_north_slope_discovery-13-apr-2020-161730-article/" target="_blank">Talitha Field</a>, which could yield 500 million barrels or more.</p><p>Companies that pursue leases in ANWR also will have to weigh the prospects of litigation, investor anger and a tarnished brand – especially large firms with public name recognition. Shell's experience in 2015, when it <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-mix/wp/2015/09/28/shell-backtracks-on-controversial-arctic-drilling-plan/" target="_blank">abandoned plans to drill offshore in the Arctic</a> under heavy pressure, indicate what other companies can expect.</p><p>If Trump is voted out of office, I expect that a Biden administration would quickly move to <a href="https://yaleclimateconnections.org/2020/06/most-trump-environmental-rollbacks-will-take-years-to-be-reversed/" target="_blank">reverse</a> the directive for leasing in ANWR. In my view, this contested area will have far more meaning and value as a wildlife refuge in a warming world that is starting to seriously move away from hydrocarbon energy.</p>
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An example of abandoned oil pumps and well. Martina Birnbaum / Getty Images
By Ray Levy-Uyeda
A farmer for most of his life, Sam Stewart bought farmland in Montana about 35 years ago. Since then, he's planted and harvested his wheat and other crops around 16 open oil wells on this land, which he estimates were dug in the 1920s.
<p><br/></p>
<p>Maneuvering around the wells is not an arduous process, per se, but it requires seeding the same area twice, which is wasteful and can slow his process. The real nuisance is the invisible methane wafting into the air—a greenhouse gas with an impact 10 times that of carbon dioxide. "You don't want loose gas being just emitted," Stewart says.</p><p>Unplugged wells in Montana and across the country <a href="https://www.americanprogress.org/issues/green/reports/2020/04/29/484158/congress-can-help-energy-states-weather-oil-bust-coronavirus-pandemic/" target="_blank">leak thousands of metric tons</a> of <a href="https://graphics.reuters.com/USA-DRILLING/WELLS/gjnpwylaapw/USA-DRILLING.jpg" target="_blank">greenhouse gases each year</a>. They can also leach toxins into groundwater and surface water systems, contaminating aquifers. More often than not, these wells simply aren't being cleaned up. That's in part because a lack of funding and political will has stymied the state's cleanup efforts, and in part because there's uncertainty around ownership. "I didn't know they were actually abandoned," Stewart says of the multiple orphaned wells on his property. "I thought the oil company was responsible."</p><p>A foundation formed in 2019 could finally help clean up some of these abandoned oil wells, including those on Stewart's property. "The operator who is responsible is long gone," says Curtis Shuck, founder of the Well Done Foundation. "Our focus is doing the right thing, leaving it better than the way we found it."</p>
Abandoned Wells
<p>The first oil wells in Montana were drilled at the turn of the century, and the industry <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">experienced its first boom</a> in the 1920s. <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">Energy demands of World War II</a> spurred a second boom; between 1942 and 1945, <a href="https://scholarworks.umt.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=6881&context=etd" target="_blank">oil production in the Elk Basin region</a> increased from 16,000 to 940,000 barrels annually. When those wells no longer produced oil, companies could just leave. The Oil and Gas Conservation Commission of Montana, tasked with identifying and plugging abandoned wells, wasn't created until 1954, and by that time an untold number of wells had already been drilled, produced, and abandoned. </p><p>As more companies moved into Montana, oil and gas production grew into an increasingly important part of local and state economies; by 2015, it<a href="https://montanapetroleum.org/about-us/economic-impact/" target="_blank"> made up 5.6%</a> of the state's general fund. But the industry that once was a cornerstone of Montana's economy is now in a nosedive: a yearslong decline in global oil production and demand compounded by the <a href="https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063049965" target="_blank">pandemic-induced economic slowdown</a> has produced some of the worst oil <a href="https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2020-04-07/oil-companies-warn-kansas-city-fed-of-widespread-insolvencies" target="_blank">production conditions in recent years</a>.</p><p>In 2016, the most recent year for which he was able to provide data, 4,713 oil and gas wells were in operation in the state and 204 had been abandoned, according to Allen Olson, executive director of the Montana Petroleum Association, a trade organization that works on behalf of the businesses. But that's a <a href="https://montanapetroleum.org/wp-content/uploads/2017/03/MPA-Booklet.pdf" target="_blank">fraction of the tens of thousands</a> that have been drilled in Montana in the past century. </p><p>Data on abandoned wells remain incomplete, which further complicates cleanup efforts. Plus, state legislatures have drastically different policies on how to address abandoned wells. One thing remains certain: The issue is enormous and far-reaching. A 2018 report from the <a href="https://www.epa.gov/sites/production/files/2017-06/documents/6.22.17_ghgi_stakeholder_workshop_2018_ghgi_revision_-_abandoned_wells.pdf" target="_blank">Environmental Protection Agency </a>estimated that the country has 3.2 million abandoned oil and gas wells. </p><p>Abandoned wells in Montana—left by companies that filed for bankruptcy, for example, default to the state. Theoretically, a state-run fund pays for well adoption and closure, but even under state control, the wells often lay unplugged, because plugging abandoned wells and restoring the surface land is expensive. Olson believes that the "state regulatory agency here is doing an excellent job staying on top" of plugging wells. But the <a href="http://www.mtrules.org/gateway/ruleno.asp?RN=36%2E22%2E1308" target="_blank">state's plugging plan</a> doesn't explicitly address the issue of abandoned oil wells, and also neglects to lay out a time-bound plan for plugging wells. </p><p>It's not just that states like Montana don't have a legislative apparatus to hold corporations accountable, says Mitch Jones, the climate and energy program director at Food & Water Watch, a nonprofit that pushes for corporate and government accountability. He says that the lack of governmental action is by design. When wells are abandoned, Jones says, "the costs of doing business are passed on to the public instead of being paid by the shareholders in the industry."</p><p>Nationwide, the federal government's own agency in charge of plugging abandoned wells, the Bureau of Land Management, has openly acknowledged that it <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/701450.pdf" target="_blank">doesn't have the financial resources</a> to tackle the issue of plugging wells on federal land. There was no federal <a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/sites/climatecrisis.house.gov/files/Climate%20Crisis%20Action%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">nationwide bond requirement</a> to cover the cost of reclaiming wells until the 1950s, and the required value for bonds has not increased since then. </p><p>That's right: the amount required to cover the cost of cleanup has not been increased or adjusted for inflation for nearly 70 years, so the federal amount is <a href="https://www.gao.gov/assets/710/701450.pdf" target="_blank">woefully ineffective.</a> Bond standards of a couple thousand dollars often don't address wells that cost tens of thousands to plug, another cause for wells to be abandoned. </p><p>Jones believes that extractive companies are harming the environment and then escaping culpability by declaring bankruptcy. "Not pointing fingers isn't really an option in order to win this fight against climate change," he says. Identifying the sources of harm holds polluting industries accountable for supporting solutions and provides a pathway for legislation that protects the planet, Jones says. The <a href="https://climatecrisis.house.gov/sites/climatecrisis.house.gov/files/Climate%20Crisis%20Action%20Plan.pdf" target="_blank">House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis, </a>for example, just proposed a $2 billion remediation program for orphaned wells in June, though given the political climate, that legislation has a rocky future.</p>
A Boost or a Burden?
<p>Kirk Panasuk, a lifelong Montanan, farmer, and member of the Northern Plains Resource Council's Oil and Gas Task Force, remembers growing up with oil wells on his grandparents' farm. Panasuk says "once you've leased the land you've lost control." An oil company would lease the mineral rights—not the surface land but the profitable oil below. That lease might expire, the company would leave, and another company would come in to start the process again.</p><p>Agriculture is a difficult industry, and Panasuk says what seems like "free money" at the outset can lead to problems down the road. Water systems are connected, which means that an oil leak in Montana has the potential to leach chemicals into bodies of water such as the Yellowstone River that flows into other states through the Missouri River, a <a href="https://www.nwd-mr.usace.army.mil/" target="_blank">river crucial</a> to municipal, industrial, and agricultural function. </p><p>Panasuk now volunteers with the NPRC to lobby state legislators on practices that would hold resource extraction companies accountable by mandating water testing and treatment. He admits that he's made money off of these companies by leasing mineral rights to oil producers who then sell the oil at market. Despite the environmental fallout, Panasuk believes that oil companies' leasing of land actually "saved a lot of small farms from failure [and] bankruptcy."</p><p>Olson of the Montana Petroleum Association says that in 2019, when oil was $60 per barrel, a company might produce 100 barrels per day and pay a royalty fee of 12.5%, which could garner a farmer $750 per day for leasing their land. Today, with prices and production down, the payoffs look different. In April, oil prices went into the <a href="https://billingsgazette.com/news/local/oil-price-collapse-hits-billings-area-businesses-hard/article_df10e954-3e0c-5b6c-9641-135208d4ad2c.html" target="_blank">negative</a>, and in August, they're <a href="https://www.oilmonster.com/crude-oil-prices/central-montana-price/159/228" target="_blank">hovering around $30 per barrel</a>. </p><p>While an oil lease might benefit a farmer initially, Jones says that oil companies are well-versed in this practice. "The oil and gas industry takes advantage of the inequities in our agriculture system to prey upon farmers and get them to sign leases for drilling on their land," Jones says, which can "undermine agricultural activity that's taking place."</p><p>In other farming communities around the country, where oil and gas companies produce natural gas through <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/poor-communities-bear-greatest-burden-from-fracking/" target="_blank">hydraulic fracturing</a>, farmers and members of the local community often bear the brunt of water pollution. Not to mention that farming is dependent on a predictable and healthy climate, which is being threatened by resource extraction. </p>A Foundation Is Formed
<p>In early 2019, Curtis Shuck was in the northern town of Shelby, about 15 miles south of the Canadian border, meeting with farmers about agricultural transportation. More than three decades in the oil and gas industry hadn't prepared him for what he saw—abandoned, methane-leaking, unplugged oil wells.</p><p>He walked the area with the farmers and learned how they worked around the wells, most of which had stopped producing oil decades earlier. What was left were remnant pipes strewn across the fields and a sulfuric stench like rotten eggs. </p><p>On his journey home to Bozeman, Shuck couldn't stop thinking about what he had seen, knowing that each open well was responsible for tons of emissions. On that drive, the idea for the Well Done Foundation was born. </p><p>Just over a year after that first trip north, the Well Done Foundation plugged its first three wells and expanded beyond the Montana pilot program into dozens of other states. Shuck says that he hopes the foundation can also gather the concrete data that the government lacks, such as the number of orphaned wells and their emissions, which makes it difficult to develop solutions.</p><p>Shuck says he can acknowledge the state's shortcomings in their cleanup efforts while building relationships with those who make regulatory decisions. The "state fund is grossly underfunded," Shuck says, but "why should the public bear the burden of this orphaned well issue?"</p><p>The Well Done team identifies abandoned oil wells around the state, and then posts a financial bond to the state's Oil & Gas Conservation Commission, a way for the state to track and partially fund the plugging. In doing so, the state is holding up its end of the bargain, but without this push from Well Done, it might take the state years to accomplish what the Foundation does in months. </p><p>The foundation researches individual well emissions for about nine months as well as studying the construction of a well, how deep it goes, and the materials that are required to plug it. Shuck says it's important that the foundation does its due diligence to identify wells that have collapsed in on themselves or have an obstruction that needs to be addressed before plugging. </p><p>Then the foundation works with county commissions, private entities, and those who own the surface land to develop and execute a "plugging plan," which so far has been funded by private or anonymous donors. The actual plugging of the well takes only a few days, and then the Foundation works to restore the surface land to its "pre-drilling condition," which allows a farmer to seed the land and grow crops. </p><p>Shuck is adamant that the foundation's work is not about fighting corporations, but about taking responsibility for one's community. The foundation has built partnerships with both conservation organizations and oil and gas companies. Shuck says that abandoned wells are a "bit of a black eye to the industry," so plugging the orphaned wells demonstrates their environmental responsibility and develops a partnership that may come in <a href="https://www.rigzone.com/news/orphan_well_stimulus_would_employ_displaced_workers-04-jun-2020-162291-article/" target="_blank">useful as the industry quickly changes</a>.</p><p>"There are plenty of folks that want to blame Big Oil, little oil, or oil in general," he says. But the work, to him, is not about pointing fingers. Neither the left's demonization of fossil fuels nor the right's push for energy independence are relevant to the work, in Shuck's view. </p><p>In late April, the foundation successfully plugged its first well—a 96-year-old well called Big West Anderson #3 in Toole County that it had "adopted" by taking over legal responsibility from the state. The well, which hadn't produced oil since the 1980s, had been releasing 6,600 metric tons of carbon dioxide per year. For comparison, one car on the road releases about <a href="https://nepis.epa.gov/Exe/ZyPDF.cgi?Dockey=P100U8YT.pdf" target="_blank">4.6 metric tons of carbon dioxide</a> per year. </p><p>Just one day after the foundation plugged Big West Anderson #3, its greenhouse gas emissions were nonexistent.</p><p>Shuck says, "What's exciting about this is that we can make an impact one well at a time."</p>
<p><em>Reposted with permission from </em><em><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/environment/2020/08/13/pollution-oil-wells-montana/" target="_blank">YES! Magazine</a>.</em></p><p><a href="https://www.yesmagazine.org/authors/ray-levy-uyeda/" target="_blank"><em>Ray Levy-Uyeda</em></a><strong><em> </em></strong><em>is a Bay Area-based freelance writer who focuses on gender, politics, and activism.</em></p>From Your Site Articles
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The MV Wakashio is seen on August 15, 2020 after the ship's mid-section broke in two, three weeks after running aground off the coast of southeast Mauritius. Stringer / AFP / Getty Images
The Japanese cargo ship that hit a coral reef near Mauritius and spilled thousands of metric tons of fuel into the island nation's turquoise waters split in two over the weekend, The Guardian reported.
<p>"At around 4.30 p.m., a major detachment of the vessel's forward section was observed," the Mauritius National Crisis Committee said in a statement regarding The MV Wakashio. "On the basis of the experts' advice, the towing plan is being implemented."</p><p>The ship ran aground near Blue Bay Marine Park, a designated conservation area that is home to dozens of unique coral and fish species. To protect the area, crews used floating dams to cordon it off and divert the oil. India is helping the effort by sending 28 tons of material, including dams and barges to help lessen the oil spill impact, <a href="https://www.npr.org/2020/08/16/903013734/japanese-cargo-ship-splits-in-two-off-mauritius-coast" target="_blank">NPR</a> reported.</p><p>Tug boats are trying to haul the ship hundreds of miles into the Indian Ocean in order to sink it, but NPR reported that bad weather is hampering plans to remove it.</p>
<p>It's estimated that at least 1,000 tons from the ship's 4,000 tons of oil spilled into the Indian Ocean, and by the time the ship split, nearly all of the remaining fuel had been removed, except for 90 tons that couldn't be reached since it was mostly leakage residue, <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/mauritius-oil-spill-tanker-breaks-in-two-leaving-titanic-job-to-clean-oil-from-coast/" target="_blank">CBS News</a> reported.</p><p>The Mauritius National Crisis Committee said that booms had been placed near the ship as it broke apart to absorb any of the remaining fuel leakage.</p><p>The ship's owner, Nagashiki Shipping, will consider compensation requests from Mauritius, the <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-53797009" target="_blank">BBC</a> reported. The Japanese environment minister, Shinjiro Koizumi, said that Japan would send a team of officials and specialists to assess the damage, the Guardian reported.</p>
<p>While the full impact of the oil spill is still unfolding, the damage could severely harm Mauritius' tourism-based economy for decades, The Guardian reported.</p><p>Besides the hit to tourism, scientists noted that the damage could affect the local ecosystem for just as long.</p><p>"This oil spill occurred in one of, if not the most, sensitive areas in Mauritius," oceanographer Vassen Kauppaymuthoo <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-mauritius-environment/massive-poisonous-shock-scientists-fear-lasting-impact-from-mauritius-oil-spill-idUSKCN2592Z6" target="_blank">told Reuters</a>. "We are talking of decades to recover from this damage, and some of it may never recover."</p>
From Your Site Articles
- The Mauritius Oil Spill: An Environmental Catastrophe That Could ... ›
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