fossil fuels

December 2, 2024

Postcard from California: Two refineries to close but fenceline communities still besieged by pollution

By Bill Walker

Next year, people in Wilmington and Carson, Calif., neighboring communities in south Los Angeles County, will breathe a bit easier thanks to a decision by Phillips 66 to shut down its gasoline refineries in those communities by the end of 2025.

For more than 100 years, the twin refineries – five miles apart and connected by a pipeline – have emitted air pollutants that increase cancer risk, trigger asthma and other respiratory illnesses, form toxic smog, and lead to heart attacks and strokes. They emit millions of tons each year of climate-heating greenhouse gases, which also contribute to respiratory problems.

California is not usually thought of as an oil state, but it ranks third in the US in crude oil refining capacity. Hundreds of thousands of Californians are exposed daily to pollution from gasoline refineries. Most are people of color who live in lower-income industrial suburbs where refineries are clustered, but too often are kept in the dark about what happens inside the refinery gates.

As the state moves toward its legally mandated goal of virtually eliminating fossil fuel use in 20 years, and electric car sales continue to rise, more refineries are likely to close. Meanwhile, fenceline communities continue to pay the price for our dependence on gasoline.

Wilmington, with 53,000 residents, is part of Los Angeles. Carson, population 91,000, is its own city. About 90% of Wilmington residents are Latino, about 60% of Carson residents are Latino or Black, and both are state-designated disadvantaged communities.

November 27, 2024

Outcry over Texas plastics plant points to broader industry issues

By Shannon Kelleher

As world leaders work on a global treaty to address mounting harms from plastics pollution, a Texas plastics plant seen as a “serial” corporate polluter is in the crosshairs of environmentalists who say the operation provides a prime example of the need for a halt to petrochemical development.

The Formosa Point Comfort Plant on the Central Texas Coast has achieved notoriety for its persistence in defying efforts to rein in pollution, illegally dumping plastic pellets into area waterways for decades, environmental advocates say.

The facility racked up more than $23 million in fines as of Nov. 12 for failure to comply with a 2019 consent decree requiring it to achieve “zero discharge” of plastic waste and clean up nearby waterways, according to records provided by the San Antonio Bay Estuarine Waterkeeper.

The records indicate that the plant has committed more than 700 violations of the consent decree and the restrictions of its state permit by discharging plastic waste since the consent decree went into effect, including over 140 violations this year alone.

“We can confidently say that they’re discharging plastic every single day into the bay,” said Diane Wilson, a Waterkeeper member and former fisherwoman who was arrested in August for protesting at Formosa’s US headquarters in New Jersey. “And if Formosa’s doing it, you can bet that all the other plastic plants out there, they’re discharging plastic,” she said.

Protesters plan to gather outside the Texas Formosa facility next week to highlight the plant’s ongoing environmental violations and to urge President Biden to issue a moratorium on petrochemical development in the final days of his term. Activists also are planning a similar rally outside the Formosa Plastics US headquarters in New Jersey. They also plan to march outside the branch locations of Bank of America, Chase, and Wells Fargo to highlight their “financing of major plastic polluters.”

The activists are also opposing a proposed expansion of the facility in Point Comfort, as well as a planned PVC plant expansion in Baton Rouge, Louisiana and a huge petrochemical complex the Formosa plans to build in St James Parish, Louisiana, a community infamously nicknamed “Cancer Alley” for its high cancer rates. Additionally, they are calling for an independent study to assess any lingering pollution from a Formosa chemical spill in Vietnam, and the release of Vietnamese activists who spoke out after the incident.

Maine Photo by Stephen Crane on Unsplash

November 26, 2024

Citing “catastrophic climate effects,” Maine joins in litigation against oil companies

By Dana Drugmand

Maine on Tuesday became the latest government entity to bring legal claims against several major oil and gas companies, alleging the companies and their chief trade association, the American Petroleum Institute, have deliberately misled the public about the climate consequences of burning fossil fuels.

Maine is the ninth US state to take legal action against the industry over climate concerns, joining other states that include New Jersey and California in similar lawsuits. In all, more than two dozen climate deception lawsuits have been brought against fossil fuel companies by cities, counties, states, and Tribal governments over the last seven years.

“For decades, big oil companies have made record profits, taking billions out of the pockets of Maine people while deliberately deceiving them about the harmful impacts of fossil fuels – impacts that Maine people see and feel every day,” Maine Governor Janet Mills said in a statement.

The lawsuit details the costly climate change impacts the state is already experiencing, such as more frequent flooding and warming ocean waters. These impacts have become more costly and severe, according to the state, due to the “successful climate deception campaign” orchestrated by the industry as a strategy to delay the transition away from their products and protect their profits.

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September 24, 2024

Fossil fuel planned expansions could thwart efforts to slow climate change, report finds

By Dana Drugmand

Plans for an expanded footprint of US fossil fuel-derived chemical production facilities would unleash millions of tons of heat-trapping emissions that could undermine efforts to confront the climate crisis, according to a report issued Tuesday.

The analysis by the Center for International Environmental Law (CIEL) determined that 70 projects in various stages of development would create total annual emissions exceeding that of US commercial aviation, and on par with the annual emissions of 39 coal plants.

“The planned petrochemicals buildout in the United States is a profound threat to the climate,” the CIEL report warns. “If built, these petrochemical facilities will generate huge greenhouse gas emissions and lock in fossil fuel production for decades.”

The petrochemical sector in the US already emits about 335 million metric tons of CO2-equivalent pollution annually – more than the annual emissions of entire countries like Spain – and the planned expansion is estimated to add at least another 153.8 MMT of annual emissions, the analysis finds.

As the new report explains, the petrochemical sector is a growing yet underrecognized source of climate pollution, set for rapid expansion as fossil fuel usage in the energy sector starts to wane. The International Energy Agency projects that petrochemicals will be the biggest driver of global oil demand, accounting for nearly half of the demand growth through 2050.

American Fuel & Petrochemical Manufacturers (AFPM), the chief US trade association for the petrochemical industry, did not immediately respond to a request for comment. AFPM says on its website that it “supports the aspiration of the Paris Accord to address climate change through global cooperation and greenhouse gas emissions reductions” and that greenhouse gas emissions from the fuel and petrochemical industries are subject to federal and state regulations.

September 13, 2024

Scientists urge US officials to reject LNG export expansion

By Dana Drugmand

More than 125 scientists have issued a stern warning to US officials over a rapid expansion of natural gas production, saying the moves threaten to exacerbate the climate crisis and risk further environmental and public health harms.

The scientists delivered their message in a September 12 letter addressed to US Secretary of Energy Jennifer Granholm and Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen, pushing back against industry claims that expanding natural gas production and consumption is compatible with US and international climate goals.

The concerns from the scientific community come as the US Department of Energy prepares to update an evaluation of liquified natural gas (LNG) export approvals, and as the Treasury Department reviews the climate impacts of various forms of hydrogen production, including production from fossil gas, as it determines tax credit values. The Biden administration paused new LNG export approvals earlier this year to further evaluate their climate impacts.

“The stakes could not be higher,” the scientists wrote. “The choices that you make relating to modeling assumptions for the heat-trapping potential of natural gas will determine if the federal government will make decisions based on climate science or wishful thinking. The science is clear… that the continued use of gas at current global levels will add to global warming and climate damages.”

The letter follows the July release of a study by two groups advocating for natural gas that concluded 2022 global greenhouse gas emissions would have been much higher without US LNG exports. That study did not look at emissions reductions that could have been achieved with a shift to renewable energy or other lower carbon alternatives, however.

In the scientists’ letter to US officials, the group said the fossil fuel industry was falsely asserting that an expansion of natural gas production and consumption is consistent with climate goals. The industry is “advocating for flawed modeling assumptions that would hide the true climate impact of gas,” the scientists wrote, calling it “imperative” for the government to reject the industry.

“Trying to prove whether US gas is better or worse for the climate than other fossil fuels is like debating whether the water in the Titanic’s swimming pool is the right temperature. It misses the bigger point, which is that increasing supplies of fossil fuels from anywhere will undermine global progress toward science based climate goals,” the letter states.

In response to the letter from scientists, Hinson Peters, a spokesperson for the Natural Natural Gas Supply Association and Center for LNG, said US LNG exports “remain a vital tool for countries looking to replace dirtier fuels, increase renewable energy deployments, and strengthen their energy security.”

August 6, 2024

Postcard from California: Big Oil is not dead yet

By Bill Walker

As California advances toward its goal of virtually eliminating the use of fossil fuels in 20 years, the state has dealt the oil and gas industry a barrage of body blows.

Four years ago, Gov. Gavin Newsom ordered a ban on the sale of new gasoline-powered cars and trucks starting in 2036, while diesel-powered freight trucks will be outlawed by 2042. A 2022 law banned new oil and gas drilling near homes, schools and hospitals, and Newsom has directed regulators to end to all drilling in the state by 2045.

Last year, California also established a watchdog agency to monitor the state’s petroleum industry for alleged price-gouging at the pump, among other consumer protection provisions. And State Attorney General Rob Bonta filed a sweeping lawsuit against five of the world’s biggest oil companies for their decades-long coverup of the climate impact of burning fossil fuels.

The industry whines that the Newsom administration wants to put it out of business, and headlines declare that it faces the “end of the road” in California.

But Big Oil is not dead yet.

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August 1, 2024

Legal battle over fossil fuels and climate heats up

By Dana Drugmand

As climate change fuels increasingly damaging extreme weather events across the United States, litigation is growing against fossil fuel companies accused of being to blame for the devastation. But a series of recent legal moves by the industry and mixed judicial decisions underscore the challenges that local and state government plaintiffs face in the multi-billion-dollar battle.

Just last month, the industry scored a significant win when a Maryland circuit court judge tossed out a six-year-old climate liability case against more than two dozen of the world’s largest fossil fuel companies. The case, filed in 2018 by Baltimore officials, accused the companies of hiding the climate-harming impacts of their products, causing rising sea levels, severe storms, flooding, heatwaves and other “dire effects on the world.”

The fossil fuel companies successfully argued, however, that because the legal claims center on global greenhouse gas emissions, they stretch beyond the bounds of state laws. Greenhouse gas emissions from fossil fuels are regulated by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), and federal law – particularly the Clean Air Act – preempts state law claims pertaining to those emissions, according to the industry.

“Regulation of interstate and international greenhouse gas emissions is beyond the role of state law,” Phil Goldberg, special counsel for an industry initiative working to combat climate litigation, said in a statement.

July 16, 2024

A battle in rural Midwest as farmers fight carbon capture pipeline

By Nina Elkadi

Kathy Stockdale and her husband have spent almost 50 years working the land in central Iowa. As a family farmer raising corn and soybeans, Stockdale knows how to deal with harsh weather, poor crop prices, and an array of other challenges that come with a making a living in agriculture.

But the operation she has spent a lifetime cultivating now faces a threat unlike any Stockdale has previously faced: Developers are planning to carve through her property with a pipeline carrying hazardous CO2 gas from ethanol plants, and there is little she can do to stop them.

The pipeline would run a mere 700 feet from Stockdale’s front doorstop and would create a barrier between the home she shares with her husband and the nearby home where her son lives. The farm’s soils and wetlands would be forever altered by the pipeline intrusion, and if the pipeline were to rupture, the damage could be catastrophic, Stockdale fears.

“It consumes your thoughts. You don’t sleep. You ask any of the landowners who have been fighting this, it’s been hard, it’s been stressful,” she said.

The Stockdales are among many farm families in Iowa and four other Midwestern states fighting to kill the pipeline, which was proposed three years ago by Summit Carbon Solutions (SCS) as the “world’s largest carbon capture and storage project.” SCS had initially planned to start operating the 2,500-mile pipeline network, dubbed the Midwest Carbon Express, this year. But opposition across the rural Midwest has delayed the project.

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May 31, 2024

“Taking on Big Oil”; Vermont enacts Climate Superfund Act

By Dana Drugmand

Vermont has enacted a first-in-the-nation law that holds major fossil fuel companies financially responsible for the climate pollution associated with their products, a move applauded by environmental advocates.

Following passage by the legislature earlier this month, Vermont Gov. Phil Scott allowed the bill to become law on Thursday without his signature. He cited several concerns in a letter to the state senate secretary, warning that “Taking on Big Oil should not be taken lightly.”

The measure, dubbed the Climate Superfund Act, aims to recover climate-related costs incurred by the state from large oil and gas companies whose production of carbon-based fuels ultimately resulted in over a billion metric tons of atmospheric greenhouse gas emissions between 1995 and 2024 – pollution that is wreaking havoc on communities across the country in the form of deadly heat waves, catastrophic flooding and storms, and other extreme weather events.

Vermont experienced its worst flooding in nearly a century last summer when heavy rains caused rivers to overflow their banks, wiping out floodplain crops, washing out roads and bridges, and damaging homes and small businesses throughout the state.

“In order to remedy the problems caused by washed out roads and houses, downed electrical wires, damaged crops, and repeated flooding, the largest fossil fuel entities that have contributed to climate change should also have to contribute to fixing the problem they caused,” Vermont state representative Amy Sheldon of Middlebury said from the House floor on May 3.

In passing the new law, Vermont is taking the first step in shifting some of the cost burden of responding and adapting to such climate-related disasters from taxpayers and onto the corporate polluters whose products are driving climate breakdown, according to environmental advocacy groups.

“The ‘polluter pays’ principle is the bedrock of the environmental movement,” said Johanna Miller, energy and climate program director at the Vermont Natural Resources Council. “With the enactment of the Climate Superfund Act, Vermont is demonstrating that it values Vermonters and their pocketbooks over Big Oil profits.”

April 22, 2024

EPA announces $7 billion to make solar more accessible

By Shannon Kelleher

The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) said on Monday that it will provide $7 billion to create or expand low-income residential solar programs across the country, a move the agency said will lower energy costs for roughly 900,000 households in communities that might otherwise struggle to access the alternative energy source.

The grants will be awarded to 60 recipients made up of the state agencies, Tribes and nonprofits selected through a grant competition funded by the Inflation Reduction Act. The program includes services to help communities overcome barriers to switching to solar, including assistance with siting and permitting solar projects and connecting to the grid. according to an EPA press release.

In at least 25 states and territories, the agency says the grants will launch new programs “where there has never been a substantial low-income solar program before.”

“The United States can and must lead the world in transforming our energy systems away from fossil fuels,” said US Sen. Bernie Sanders (D-VT) said in a statement.

The “Solar for All”, which Sanders introduced, “will not only combat the existential threat of climate change by making solar energy available to working class families, it will also substantially lower the electric bills of Americans and create thousands of good-paying jobs,” Sanders said.