Boy oh boy. A guy can’t go on vacation for a couple of weeks without the world turning up side down. Yeah, after a year and a half barely leaving my house and now that the whole family is fully vaccinated, we took a nice break on the beach for a couple of weeks. It sure felt good! Fishing, tennis, bowling, swimming and walking on the beach.
Meanwhile, so much has happened! Remember the children’s book that is the title of this article? Well, that’s not for us. We had a great vacation. It’s for the oil and fossil fuel business.
I want to muddle around in the minutiae first about a topic very important to our collective health and then get to the recent headlines. Btw, I received very positive feedback about the new format from many of you. Thanks to all who responded.
I’ve written a few times about the Supreme Court case and decision about the Clean Water Act in Maui, Hawaii. Here are the links:
https://franklytalking.com/6553-2/
You may recall that the Court held that even if a facility emitted pollution (was a point source) that DIDN’T go directly into a navigable water (river, stream, lake or ocean) that it would be a violation of the Clean Water Act for which it could be held liable IF the water migrated into one of these bodies of water and it could be directly linked to the facility. The sticky issue is how to interpret this into regulations and enforcement. They are still working through that in Maui.
“if the release is the “functional equivalent of a direct discharge” from a point source to a navigable water”
“There appears to be no dispute that LWRF is a ‘point source’ or that the Pacific Ocean is a ‘navigable water,'”
“The case, Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, turns on the question of whether pollution that moves through groundwater on its way to a navigable water — the Pacific Ocean in this case — is subject to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program under the Clean Water Act.”
“”The present motions therefore turn on whether the LWRF’s discharge of treated wastewater into its injection wells that then makes its way to the Pacific Ocean is the ‘functional equivalent of a direct discharge’ from the LWRF into the Pacific Ocean.””
Remember…those of us who live here in the Chicago area have a great deal at stake on this issue. We love to swim, fish, sail, kayak, boat and get our drinking water from The Lake. It’s imperative that we protect this vital resource and every drop of water on the planet.
In other news this past few weeks, in case you missed it, oil had some pretty big shocks. As I have been saying would occur, the future of the oil industry is on the wane.
WSJ
Shell Ordered by Dutch Court to Cut Carbon Emissions
https://www.wsj.com/articles/shell-ordered-by-dutch-court-to-cut-carbon-emissions-11622038961
May 26, 2021
“A Dutch court on Wednesday ruled that Royal Dutch Shell RDS.A -0.52% PLC is partially responsible for climate change and ordered the company to reduce its carbon emissions, a first-of-its-kind ruling that adds fresh pressure on oil-and-gas companies already facing heightened scrutiny from governments and investors.
The ruling…found Shell must curb its carbon emissions by 45% by 2030, compared with 2019 levels.”
CNBC
Engine No. 1 Wins at Least 2 Exxon Board Seats as Activist Pushes for Climate Strategy Change
https://www.cnbc.com/2021/05/26/engine-no-1-gets-at-least-2-candidates-elected-to-exxons-board-in-win-for-the-activist.html
Pippa Stevens May 26 2021
““What the Board needs are directors with experience in successful and profitable energy industry transformations who can help turn aspirations of addressing the risks of climate change into a long-term business plan, not talking points,””
Billionaire Trader: Seismic Shift Is Taking Place In Houston Oil Patch
https://oilprice.com/Latest-Energy-News/World-News/Billionaire-Trader-Seismic-Shift-Is-Taking-Place-In-Houston-Oil-Patch.html
“There’s been seismic shift in the Houston energy industry of late…”While most of the talk in Houston’s energy scene last year was about oil and gas and a denouncement of renewables, now the tables have turned”…
“Three-quarters of discussions now are about wind, solar, batteries, transmission, lithium, cleantech, etc. Even those who are not ideological believers are taking the cues from the financial markets, which have no interest in oil production growth anymore,”
Bloomberg: A New Climate Report Challenges Exxon and BlackRock (Column)
May 24, 2021
“It’s a coincidence that the International Energy Agency released its net-zero roadmap barely a week before a proxy showdown at Exxon Mobil Corp.’s annual meeting. Nonetheless, the report throws down a gauntlet not just to Exxon but also its largest shareholders, BlackRock Inc. in particular. The single most important line in the IEA’s 200-plus-page report is this one: There is no need for investment in new fossil fuel supply in our net zero pathway. It’s not important because the IEA has dreamed up a net-zero scenario; many others have done so already. It’s not important because the IEA’s long-term projections are bound to work out; we can’t know that, and long-term projections, especially ones this ambitious, are often wrong.
Read More “
THE WASHINGTON POST
Opinion: A New Study Shows Getting to Net-Zero Emissions is Doable. Here’s how.
Opinion by the
Editorial Board
May 23, 2021
The International Energy Agency (IEA), a reputable international outfit of energy wonks, released last week a wide-ranging report arguing that such a transition is possible. It would just be very hard.
The agency rejects fantasies that everyone will suddenly eschew air conditioning and walk to work, figuring that behavioral change will drive only 4 percent of emissions cuts. Moreover, some 785 million people lack access to electricity. For them, the priority is getting this essential service, not how that happens. The goal must be to advance living standards everywhere while cutting the environmental impact.
Bloomberg News
May 19, 2021
Banks may finally be cleaning up their act.
Their traditional support for oil, gas and coal may be over as green bonds and loans exceed the value of fossil financing year to date. JPMorgan is a bellwether of the climate-focused shift now underway.
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What’s happening: Lenders have poured more than $3.6 trillion into fossil fuels since the Paris agreement — almost three times more than into bonds and loans for green projects. But 2021 is different. Bloomberg data show at least $203 billion bonds and loans to renewable projects through May 14, compared with $189 billion to businesses focused on hydrocarbons.
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What it signifies: The change adds to signs that politicians and business leaders are getting serious about climate change. Banks know they can make money from the change—they’re earning higher fees of about 0.6% for underwriting green bonds and loans, 6 bps more than similar deals for energy companies.
Investors call for ‘virtually eliminating’ methane emissions
May 13, 2021
E&E News, Nick Sobczyk
“Nearly 150 major oil and gas investors are pressing the Biden administration to adopt stringent methane standards for the sector.
Investor groups representing $5.35 trillion in assets — including Allianz SE, the California State Teachers’ Retirement System (CalSTRS) and the New York State Common Retirement Fund — signed on to a statement today calling for policies to curb flaring and tackle all significant sources of oil and gas methane emissions.”
Managers of Monster Endowments Promote Net-Zero Portfolios
May 7, 2021
E&E Coorbin Hiar
“The Net Zero Endowments initiative, a coalition of top university endowment managers and socially responsible investment experts, launched an effort yesterday to build support for climate-friendly portfolio commitments.
Harvard and Stanford universities and nine other institutions with endowments collectively worth over $107.7 billion have committed to ensuring their portfolios reach net-zero emissions by 2050 — the decarbonization timeline that scientists say is needed to have a chance of avoiding the worst impacts of climate change.”
(I wonder if University of Chicago is on this list)
The Guardian
‘Insanely Cheap Energy’: How Solar Power Continues to Shock the World
Australian smarts and Chinese industrial might made solar power the cheapest power humanity has seen – and no one saw it coming
Royce Kurmelovs
April 24, 2021
https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/2021/apr/25/insanely-cheap-energy-how-solar-power-continues-to-shock-the-world?mc_cid=ecccd2077c&mc_eid=8f4760cc57
“”Every time you double producing capacity, you reduce the cost of PV solar by 28%.
“We’ve got to the point where solar is the cheapest source of energy in the world in most places. This means we’ve been trying to model a situation where the grid looks totally different today.”
This rapid radical reduction in the price of PV solar is a story about Chinese industrial might backed by American capital, fanned by European political sensibilities and made possible largely thanks to the pioneering work of an Australian research team.””
Axios
ExxonMobil and Dow Join Latest Corporate Push for Carbon Taxes
Ben Geman
May 20, 2021 – Energy & Environment
The Alliance for Market Solutions, a group trying to get political traction for carbon taxes, is launching a new advocacy campaign that counts ExxonMobil and Dow among its backers.
“ExxonMobil and Dow’s willingness to help our efforts by supporting AMS Action, our 501(c)(4), sends an important signal that corporate American wants Republicans to engage on climate policy,”…
two K Street behemoths — the American Petroleum Institute and the U.S. Chamber of Commerce — have recently come around on the idea.
And these headlines are only a sampling. It is almost incomprehensible how fast the tables are turning. But in a way, not surprising as I’ve been predicting all along. Follow the money. Once it’s obvious that fossil fuels are a financially losing proposition, who in their right minds is going to give that industry any funding??? And since everyone in the world, except the Republican Party, realizes that climate change a real, man made crisis and that we need to take drastic measures NOW, this has been predictable. Thank goodness it’s actually occurring!
Judge: High court ruling calls for more info on Maui fight
Pamela King, E&E Reporter
May 28, 2021
A federal judge said yesterday that she needed more information to decide whether discharges from a Hawaii wastewater treatment plant meet the Supreme Court’s test for a Clean Water Act permit.
The Hawaii Wildlife Fund and other green groups had asked Senior Judge Susan Oki Mollway of the U.S. District Court for the District of Hawaii to block releases from Maui County’s Lahaina Wastewater Reclamation Facility (LWRF), in a legal challenge that made its way to the nation’s highest bench last year.
The county likewise asked the judge to find that the environmental challengers had not provided sufficient evidence to support their claims.
In an order issued yesterday, Mollway said she first needed the parties to fill out an 11-question survey.
“There appears to be no dispute that LWRF is a ‘point source’ or that the Pacific Ocean is a ‘navigable water,'” wrote Mollway, a Clinton appointee.
She later added: “The present motions therefore turn on whether the LWRF’s discharge of treated wastewater into its injection wells that then makes its way to the Pacific Ocean is the ‘functional equivalent of a direct discharge’ from the LWRF into the Pacific Ocean.”
The case, Hawaii Wildlife Fund v. County of Maui, turns on the question of whether pollution that moves through groundwater on its way to a navigable water — the Pacific Ocean in this case — is subject to the National Pollutant Discharge Elimination System permitting program under the Clean Water Act.
In a 6-3 ruling last term, the Supreme Court decided that it is — if the release is the “functional equivalent of a direct discharge” from a point source to a navigable water (Greenwire, April 23, 2020).
Justice Stephen Breyer’s majority opinion offered some factors that may be considered when determining whether a discharge meets the “functional equivalent” test, including the time and distance pollutants travel before they reach a jurisdictional water.
Those factors shaped Mollway’s questionnaire. The parties’ responses are due by June 9.
Under the Trump administration, EPA issued guidance to help regulated entities make sense of the Supreme Court test.
The agency may consider a formal rulemaking under President Biden (Greenwire, May 3).
