Backsliding on Climate Action

Even as the world is enduring another season of wildfires, droughts, floods, and intense storms, there is political and economic pressure to return to oil and gas projects that may be applied to compensate for the reduction of Russian exports of these products to Europe while the war in Ukraine continues.

More gas and oil production?

Frances Willick of CBC News reports on renewed signs of interest in Goldboro and Bear Head gas projects in our region.

"The world has changed a lot since then," Pieridae CEO Alfred Sorensen told CBC News Tuesday. "We have to take advantage of all the work we've done already and try and see if we can move the project forward very quickly."

The company is now shifting its attention back to a land-based project because it would be able to produce more gas than a barge-based facility, and the federal government is interested in maximizing output, Sorensen said.

Asked what type of supports Ottawa is offering to Pieridae, Sorensen said, "hopefully more than prayers and hugs."

"I think it is going to be a combination of regulatory and financial support. There's no doubt about that." (Willick, 2022)

Cloe Logan of the National Observer reports on calls by environmental groups to require a proposed LNG facility in Nova Scotia to undergo environmental assessment. Mike Sawyer, executive director of the Citizens’ Oil & Gas Council, said it needs a federal assessment.

“The proposed Pieridae LNG export scheme is part of the Big Lie that natural gas, and therefore LNG, is environmentally friendly and will help combat climate change…” said Mike Sawyer, executive director of the Citizens’ Oil & Gas Council. (Logan & Fawcett, 2022)

Kenny Sharpe of CBC News notes that as Russian military aggression in Ukraine reaches the six-month mark, governments and energy industry lobbyists, including Canada's, are floating the idea that adding LNG capacity could help circumvent Europe's reliance on Russia's oil and gas supply. But there's backlash to the idea, with one demonstrator in Hamburg suggesting that to invest more in LNG would be "climate suicide," exacerbating already high levels of carbon in the atmosphere.

"In general there's the idea that Europe needs LNG to stay warm in the winter and this is really a lie," Toni Lux told CBC News from the site of a protest camp set up this week in northwest Hamburg.

Other Canadian oil and gas suppliers also say they're eager to expand further into Europe, with GNL Quebec saying it could help "Europe to diversify its energy sources."

Alberta-based Pieridae Energy has proposed a multibillion-dollar pipeline to ship natural gas from Western Canada to Nova Scotia, where it could then be sent across the Atlantic. (Sharpe & Burns, 2022)

The price we pay for increasing gas and oil production may include a more dangerous and  less habitable world for our children and grandchildren as the average earth temperature rises.

References

Logan, C., & Fawcett, M. (2022, August 12). Environmental groups call on feds to review proposed LNG facility in Nova Scotia. National Observer. Retrieved August 13, 2022, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/08/12/news/environmental-groups-call-feds-review-proposed-lng-facility-nova-scotia 

Sharpe, K., & Burns, A. F. (2022, August 14). Worried about a warming world, thousands of Germans reject using LNG — including Canada's. CBC. Retrieved August 15, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/world/germany-lng-energy-crisis-1.6549991 

Willick, F. (2022, May 11). 2 stalled LNG projects in Nova Scotia may be on the brink of revival. CBC. Retrieved May 11, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/2-lng-proposals-could-move-forward-bear-head-goldboro-1.6447671 

War, Energy Demand, and Climate Crisis

The war launched by Russia against Ukraine has brought economic sanctions against gas and oil previously imported to Europe.

Oil and gas

 

The increase in the price of these fossil fuels has stoked the embers of sunset industries of eastern Canada’s oil and gas production and heated up the pressure to build pipelines to export western resources to Europe. CBC News reports that Newfoundland and Labrador Premier Andrew Furey says his government is promoting the province's oil to NATO countries, as the war in Ukraine rages. He said his government is pushing Newfoundland and Labrador oil as an alternative to Russian fossil fuels.

"We have right here what the world needs as well, and that is to relieve some of our NATO partners of the tyranny of Russia and their stranglehold on the energy around the world," he said, when asked about the provincial government's efforts regarding the war. Furey said they're not trying to capitalize on what he noted is a humanitarian crisis, but did say his government is "making sure that our voice is heard internally and externally" with regard to the province's offshore oil industry.1

 

Michael Gorman of CBC News reports that the Goldboro Nova Scotia LNG project could be revived as a floating barge while demand grows for non-Russian gas.

Goldboro Nova Scotia

 

Pieridae Energy abandoned the land-based project last summer amid cost concerns.

There would not be a need for a 5,000-person work camp, for example, during construction, although Millar said the full-time workforce would be similar — about 150 people. He said the company would build a "small hotel" by the site to provide lodging. The construction that would be required includes a jetty and a spur of a pipe to connect the vessel to the Maritimes and Northeast Pipeline. While some barges have their own power supply, Millar said Pieridae has talked with officials at Nova Scotia Power about requirements if the barge it leases does not have its own power source.2

 

A report in the Economist asserts that climate change must be adapted to as well as opposed even as efforts to reduce its impact on lives and ecosystems are falling ever shorter.

Previous reports on impacts, vulnerabilities and adaptation relied on prediction. In this one the authors need only to look around them to catalogue increased flooding, more heatwaves, stressed ecosystems and millions of lives that have become harder to live. The “emissions gap” that dogs climate policy is well known. Though the reductions in emissions that the world’s countries have pledged themselves to make are steeper than they used to be, they still fall well short of those needed to give the world a good chance of keeping the rise in average temperature relative to pre-industrial levels well below 2°C. The new report highlights a parallel adaptation gap. Though efforts to reduce the impact of climate change on lives and ecosystems are greater than they once were, the extent to which they fall short of what circumstances require is increasing, as impacts pile up apace.3

Natasha Bulowski, News, Energy, Politics, Ottawa Insider with the National Observer writes that Steven Guilbeault, Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, is rebuking Alberta Premier Jason Kenney’s assertion Canada must “get some pipelines built” to help “defang” the Russian President.

“The solution to global energy problems is not to increase our dependency on fossil fuels,” said Guilbeault. The best way to improve the energy security of European countries is to simply reduce dependence on oil and gas “regardless of where it's coming from,” he said. Even if Canada could build more pipelines to increase oil and gas capacity, this would take “a number of years” and wouldn’t address the crisis people in Ukraine and Europe are now facing, he added. The real solution, he says, is to “quickly deploy renewables and cleantech” to reduce dependence on Russian oil and gas.4

 

Kathryn Harrison, a professor of political science at the University of British Columbia, reviews the idea that Europe will want to replace Russian oil and gas with fossil fuels from elsewhere.

If Europe does face a gas shortage, immediate solutions are needed and costly investments for new liquefied natural gas (LNG) terminals and similar projects will take years to get approved and built, she added. “Making investments in new fossil fuel facilities that won't be built in the time they need and then will be white elephants as the continent shifts away from fossil fuels is not an obvious solution for Europe,” said Harrison, referring to the European Union’s pledge to reduce emissions 55 per cent below 1990 levels by 2030.4

 

A press release from the Climate Action Network asserts that Canada’s oil and gas industry's current attempt to lobby for fossil fuel expansion should be recognized as the desperate ploy of an outdated industry that has never failed to capitalize on a crisis.

In the spring of 2020, Canada’s oil and gas industry used the pandemic as an excuse to press the federal government to water down or suspend environmental regulations and to delay the introduction of UNDRIP legislation. Its current attempt to lobby for fossil fuel expansion should be recognized as more of the same: the desperate ploy of an outdated industry that has never failed to capitalize on a crisis. This week’s IPCC report, cataloguing an “atlas of suffering,” underscored the dire consequences of the world’s addiction to fossil fuels and the urgent need to break the habit. As Svitlana Krakovska, the climate scientist heading Ukraine’s delegation to the IPCC, said when her team was forced to withdraw from the negotiations to move to bomb shelters: “Human-induced climate change and the war on Ukraine have the same roots: fossil fuels, and our dependence on them.”5

 

Cloe Logan, writing in the National Observer, reports that environmentalists, citizens and academics are urging the federal government to reject Newfoundland offshore oil project known as Bay du Nord.

“The Bay du Nord project poses significant environmental risks and it would undermine the urgent global effort to reduce emissions and protect climate stability. Instead of expanding oil production, our priority challenge right now is managing a wind-down of oil production that allows workers and communities to seize the benefits of the low-carbon energy transition,” said Carter. “Approving Bay du Nord would take Newfoundland and Labrador in the wrong direction — both in terms of the climate crisis and long-term economic security.”6

 

The time frame for building new LNG facilities and pipelines is long and the “just transition” for workers in Canada’s GHG producing industries needs immediate retraining for green energy careers. To delay GHG reduction action may eliminate the existing workforce from transition and exacerbate the consequences in more intense storms, fires, and floods in Canada.

 

References

1	(2022, March 3). Furey promotes NL oil as Russian invasion drives up fuel prices - CBC. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/nl-oil-russian-invasion-1.6370127
2	(2022, March 3). Goldboro LNG project could be revived as floating barge while .... Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/goldboro-lng-energy-project-gas-pieridae-1.6370827
3	(2022, March 5). Climate change must be adapted to as well as opposed. Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.economist.com/leaders/2022/03/05/climate-change-must-be-adapted-to-as-well-as-opposed
4	(2022, March 2). Environment minister rebukes claims Canadian oil and gas can fix .... Retrieved March 3, 2022, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/03/02/news/environment-minister-rebukes-claims-canadian-oil-and-gas-can-fix-europes
5	(n.d.). Climate Action Network. Retrieved March 4, 2022, from https://climateactionnetwork.ca/
6	(n.d.). Environmentalists, citizens and academics urge feds to reject .... Retrieved March 5, 2022, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2022/03/03/news/environmentalists-citizens-and-academics-urge-feds-reject-newfoundland-offshore-oil

 

Climate Progress Update

As world leaders prepare to meet for the 26th UN Climate Change Conference of the Parties, or COP26, in November, a report by John Woodside in the National Observer comments that Quebec has rejected a $14B LNG project over environmental concerns.

Check on government action

 

It “was proposed on the premise of supplying fracked gas to the world as a climate solution, and Quebec's government showed a lot of leadership by saying that's completely untrue,” said Julia Levin, senior program manager for climate and energy at advocacy group Environmental Defence. “This will lock those countries into continued dependence on fossil fuels at a time when we have to be moving in the opposite direction.” After a groundswell of opposition to GNL Québec’s multibillion-dollar natural gas project, the provincial government has rejected the plan. Now advocates say it’s time for other governments to follow suit. #cdnpoli #LNG Levin called the rejection of the facility a “people-powered victory” against the notion fracked gas should be used as a bridge fuel. The idea “Canada can help global decarbonization by doubling down on fracked gas (is) a lie,” Levin said. “It's irresponsible for premiers in other parts of the country to continue to latch onto that lie.” Levin called it a form of climate denial by defining denialism as a failure to act at the scale required by the crisis, even when understanding the crisis is real. “So if you're continuing to approve LNG projects, like the premier of British Columbia, it's hard to not say you're a climate denier,” she said.1

A Post Media editorial comments on a recently published piece led by Joel Balyk that looked at what kind of mixes of EVs/mode switching/efficiency etc would be required to hit 2035 transport emissions targets in Canada. Sara Hastings- Simon thought the editorial was highly misleading. 

I worked on a recently published piece led by Joel Balyk that looked at what kind of mixes of EVs/mode switching/efficiency etc would be required to hit 2035 transport emissions targets in Canada.
Postmedia wrote a highly misleading editorial about it:https://t.co/QkIkNpOJCi pic.twitter.com/1e5F0wmmF8

— Dr Sara Hastings-Simon (@S_HastingsSimon) July 21, 2021

2

The study, “Driving Ambitions: The Implications of Decarbonizing the Transportation Sector by 2030” by four researchers notes, “this paper does not make any inference towards the new target as no material such as emissions modelling or reports have been published by the federal government as yet … “The federal government could facilitate understanding by the Canadian public and members of industry by publishing the more detailed projections (i.e., by sub-sector and province) that we assume underlie its sector-level projections.” But that’s not the purpose of Trudeau’s ever changing climate plans which from the beginning have treated Canadians like mushrooms — covering them with manure and keeping them in the dark — while making unrealistic promises which make no sense to anyone who can do math.3

Fiona Harvey Environment correspondent with the Guardian reports a new alliance urges governments to work together to deliver a just transition to a green economy

Ilhan Omar, a US congresswoman for Minnesota, said the recent extreme weather in the US and around the world should serve as a warning. “Climate change is here and it is an existential threat to humanity. We have already seen the horrifying repercussions of failing to act – wildfires raging across the west coast [of the US], extreme hurricanes, heatwaves in Australia, massive flooding around the world. Natural disasters like these will only get worse unless we act as a global community to counteract this devastation.” Paola Vega, Costa Rican congresswoman and president of the special permanent commission for the environment of the legislative assembly of the Republic of Costa Rica, said a green deal would require a transformation of the way governments treat ecological problems, and in the way people live. “Unless our countries, and the diverse alliances and range of powers that govern them, create enough pressure for collective action that changes the rules of the game, we will fall short of the urgent measures that we need to be able to address the massive challenges that we face today,” she said. “It’s important that we are clear that this means an absolute change of paradigm: a change in the way we live, the way we consume and produce.”4

These articles on the progress being made to treat the climate emergency as an existential threat to humanity indicate that the full engagement of Government and Private Enterprise is still lacking.

 

References

 

1	(2021, July 21). Quebec rejects $14B LNG project over ... - National Observer. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/07/21/news/climate-advocates-push-quebec-reject-14-billion-lng-project
2	Hastings-Simon, S [@S_HastingsSimon]. (2021, July 21 ) I worked on a recently published piece led by Joel Balyk that looked at what kind of mixes of EVs/mode switching/efficiency etc would be required to hit 2035 transport emissions targets in Canada.  Postmedia wrote a highly misleading editorial about it: https://cdhowe.org/public-policy-research/driving-ambitions-implications-decarbonizing-transportation-sector-2030 [tweet]. Twitter. https://twitter.com/S_HastingsSimon/status/1417974413509595138
3	(2021, July 20). EDITORIAL: Study blows hole in PM's climate plan | Toronto Sun. Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://torontosun.com/opinion/editorials/editorial-study-blows-hole-in-pms-climate-plan
4	(2021, July 19). Politicians from across world call for 'global green deal' to tackle .... Retrieved July 22, 2021, from https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2021/jul/19/politicians-from-across-world-call-for-global-green-deal-to-tackle-climate-crisis

 

Goldboro Risk or Reality?

 Articles in the energy press point to some uncertainty in the plans of the German utility company Uniper to develop an LNG terminal to receive natural gas from the LNG facility planned by Pieridae Energy Limited for Goldboro Nova Scotia.

https://youtu.be/x63nhPkLo_I

Reuters has reported that Canadian energy company Pieridae Energy Ltd continues to work toward making a final investment decision (FID) by June 30 to build its proposed Goldboro liquefied natural gas (LNG) export plant in Nova Scotia.

Pieridae has a 20-year agreement to sell all the LNG from Goldboro’s first liquefaction train - about 5 millions tonnes per annum (MTPA) or 0.66 billion cubic feet per day of natural gas - to German utility Uniper SE.1

Evaluate Energy reports that Uniper plans to make Wilhelmshaven a hub for climate friendly hydrogen. Originally, Uniper explored the idea of constructing a floating import terminal for liquefied natural gas (LNG) at the Wilhelmshaven site.

 

In October 2020, a market test to show binding interest proved that there is currently not enough interest in the LNG sector in terms of booking large, long-term capacities for LNG regasification in Germany.2

The risk of government money from Nova Scotia or Canada in this development requires serious consideration of a dream of short term construction jobs being shattered by decline in the use of natural gas as the world works to mitigate the climate emergency.

References

1	(2021, April 15). Pieridae still plans FID on Nova Scotia LNG export plant by late June. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/pieridae-energy-goldboro-lng/pieridae-still-plans-fid-on-nova-scotia-lng-export-plant-by-late-june-idUSL1N2M82CF
2	(n.d.). Search results for "Uniper SE" - Evaluate Energy. Retrieved May 25, 2021, from https://www.evaluateenergy.com/Universal/View.aspx?type=Search&query=Uniper%20SE

Struggle with Wording of Fossil Fuel Facts

 

Recent articles on the struggle between the oil and gas industry and organizations attempting to meet the emission reduction goals required to mitigate the effects of the climate emergency point out the need to critically think about the language used to influence opinion.

Electricity or Fossil Fuel?

 

CBC host Laura Lynch of the program “What On Earth” explored research from Harvard about the language of climate change used in public documents of ExxonMobil.

 

New analysis from Harvard measures how ExxonMobil used language to make individuals feel responsible for climate change, similar to the strategy used by tobacco companies in the past. Aired: May 16, 20211

Justin Worland, writing in Time magazine, reports on the study that concludes ExxonMobil wants you to take responsibility for Climate Change.

 In addition to shifting the responsibility individuals, one of the firm’s recent key strategies has been to emphasize what researchers call “climate risk” framing. Instead of using the term “climate change” in public communications, the company often refers to “climate risk,” along with related phrases like “potential risks” and “long-term risk.” The risk phrasing suggests there is uncertainty about if and how climate change will play out, without explicitly questioning the science. Researchers found this framing prevalent externally but not internally.2

The Journal, One Earth, reports the article by Geoffrey Supran and Naomi Oreskes of Harvard that is a rhetoric and frame analysis of ExxonMobil's climate change communications.

 

•ExxonMobil's public climate change messaging mimics tobacco industry propaganda

•Rhetoric of climate “risk” downplays the reality and seriousness of climate change

•Rhetoric of consumer “demand” (versus fossil fuel supply) individualizes responsibility

•Fossil Fuel Savior frame uses “risk” and “demand” to justify fossil fuels, blame customers3

Seth Klein, writing in the National Observer, notes that E&E News has exposed leaked documents that revealed many of North America’s major gas companies have been scheming to block electrification.

 

the consortium notes: “Natural gas (fossil fuel) in for fight of its life.” They are right about that. Hopefully, anyway. But they have no intention of going quietly into the night. Rather, consortium members are exhorted: “Everyone needs to contact legislators in favour of NG (natural gas),” and “Renewable Natural Gas is coming (likely will save NG business).” The slide says partners “have to continue to work together to grow this market.” The messages here cannot be accused of subtlety. They rightly see efforts, particularly at the municipal level, to ban or phase out the use of natural gas in buildings as an existential threat. “The fear of losing market share to non-fossil alternatives terrifies the gas companies,” Greenpeace climate campaigner Keith Stewart wrote in a post about the revelation, “but it should delight the rest of us.” “It’s going to be an ugly fight,” says Kai Nagata, communications director with the non-profit action group Dogwood, which campaigns on climate issues and has run workshops encouraging people to fuel-swap. (Full disclosure: I’m on Dogwood’s board.) “Fortis is a cornered animal. That’s what the consortium documents reveal. But it’s them or us. It’s their shareholders or our kids. Their future requires more houses tying into gas lines and our future requires the opposite.” The simple reality is this — if the number of new buildings tying into gas and the number of existing buildings upgrading their gas systems continues to be larger than those switching to electric heat pumps or other non-carbon fuel sources, then we’re not going to hit our climate targets. With trends like this, we’re fried.4

Benjamin Storrow, E&E News reporter, identifies some of the upcoming battlegrounds where some companies will transform, some will consolidate, and some will go away.

 Massachusetts looks like the next battleground. The state recently enacted a climate law to eliminate greenhouse gases by 2050. That will require zeroing out emissions associated with heating and cooling buildings, which accounted for roughly 27% of the state's greenhouse gases in 2017, according to the most recent Massachusetts data. When Massachusetts regulators mapped out a path to zero emissions late last year, they concluded that swapping out oil- and gas-fueled furnaces, boilers and water heaters for electric alternatives constituted the most cost-effective strategy. That represents a potential threat to companies like Eversource, which last year paid $1.1 billion to acquire the Massachusetts-based assets of Columbia Gas, a subsidiary of NiSource Inc. "None of these companies want to write their own obituary," said Deborah Gordon, a former petroleum engineer who now serves as a senior principal at RMI, a think tank that favors electrification. "If you're going to bend this curve, and we bend it quickly, there are going to be casualties. Some will transform, some will consolidate, some will go away."5

Joan Baxter, writing in the Halifax Examiner, reports on the Goldboro Gamble as Germans and Canadians join to oppose a proposed Nova Scotian liquid natural gas plant that “nobody needs."

 

The Examiner asked Hughes Larry Hughes, professor at Dalhousie University and founding fellow of the MacEachen Institute for Public Policy and Governance, whether he viewed the project as positive for Nova Scotia, and if not, what the disadvantages were. He replied: First, the project is for the export of natgas [natural gas], so Nova Scotians will not benefit from the natgas. There will undoubtedly be short-term (~5 year) employment benefits during the construction phase. Once the plant is operating, the numbers will fall sharply. The promise of jobs in a depressed economy is music to any politician’s ear … However, both the construction and operating phases of the project are emissions intensive. This will affect Nova Scotia’s attempt to reduce its emissions by 53% from 2005 levels by 2030. The 2030 target is about 11 megatonnes and once operating, Pieridae will be emitting 3.7 megatonnes. Without some form of carbon offsetting, the province will exceed its 2030 target. Positive in the short-term, negative in the long-term. The province needs to ask itself, what is more important?6

Reuters Staff reports that Pieridae still plans a final investment decision (FID) by June 30 on the Goldboro LNG export plant.

 

Pieridae said engineering firm Bechtel Corp plans to deliver a fixed-price proposal to build the plant by the end of May.There are currently 13 projects in North America, including Goldboro, that have said they plan to make FIDs in 2021. Analysts, however, expect only one or two projects will actually go forward this year. One project many analysts expect to go forward this year is Venture Global LNG’s Plaquemines plant in Louisiana. Goldboro is designed to produce about 10 MTPA. Pieridae plans to source the gas for Goldboro from its production in Alberta and transport it via existing pipelines, including the Maritimes & Northeast Pipeline from New England to New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, which passes near the Goldboro site.7

https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/wp-content/uploads/2020/10/PHOTO-08-Pieridae-corporate-presentation-showing-pipeline-route.png 

The marketing effort to delay action to reduce fossil fuel emissions by promising short term gain for long term pain is a strategy that requires critical study by Nova Scotians who are concerned about the environment that our children and grandchildren will inhabit.

 

References

 

1	(n.d.). What On Earth with Laura Lynch | Live Radio | CBC Listen - CBC.ca. Retrieved May 16, 2021, from https://www.cbc.ca/listen/live-radio/1-429-what-on-earth
2	(2021, May 13). How ExxonMobil Has Shifted Climate Change Messaging | Time. Retrieved May 16, 2021, from https://time.com/6048162/exxonmobil-climate-change/
3	(n.d.). Rhetoric and frame analysis of ExxonMobil's climate change .... Retrieved May 16, 2021, from https://www.cell.com/cms/10.1016/j.oneear.2021.04.014/attachment/0cf34a0c-453f-44fa-b7b8-5774b67eefd6/mmc1.pdf
4	(2021, May 17). Time to stop playing nice with fossil fuel companies | Canada's .... Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.nationalobserver.com/2021/05/17/opinion/time-stop-playing-nice-fossil-fuel-companies-blocking-climate-action
5	(2021, May 3). Leaked docs: Gas industry secretly fights electrification ... - E&E News. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.eenews.net/stories/1063731537
6	(n.d.). The Goldboro Gamble Part 2 - Halifax Examiner. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.halifaxexaminer.ca/province-house/the-goldboro-gamble-2/
7	(2021, April 15). Pieridae still plans FID on Nova Scotia LNG export plant by late June. Retrieved May 18, 2021, from https://www.reuters.com/article/pieridae-energy-goldboro-lng/pieridae-still-plans-fid-on-nova-scotia-lng-export-plant-by-late-june-idUSL1N2M82CF