David Suzuki: The climate is changing rapidly, but the oil industry isn’t


by David Suzuki on July 22nd, 2021 


The September 2019 Global Week for Future international climate strikes drew crowds to protest outside the Ontario parliament buildings in Toronto's Queen's Park.WIKIMEDIA COMMONS/VALA HOLMES

It’s easy to think we’re beyond denial over the climate crisis, now that even oil industry executives are talking about taking it seriously. But, as with many politicians, what industry leaders say publicly often belies what they’re doing behind the scenes.

An investigation by Greenpeace project Unearthed has drawn the curtain back on this duplicity. Investigators posing as recruitment consultants contacted two senior Exxon lobbyists who revealed the company’s ongoing campaign against efforts to address the climate emergency.

During a May Zoom call, Keith McCoy, a government affairs director in Exxon’s Washington, D.C., office, admitted the company’s public support for carbon pricing was little more than a talking point.

“Nobody is going to propose a tax on all Americans, and the cynical side of me says, yeah, we kind of know that but it gives us a talking point that we can say, 'Well what is ExxonMobil for? Well, we’re for a carbon tax,' ” he said.

Dan Easley, who left Exxon in January after working as chief White House lobbyist during the previous U.S. administration, talked about the company’s wins under Trump, including a corporate tax-rate cut, which was “probably worth billions to Exxon”.

Under our current system, money is more valued than life. We share a planet, fuelled by the sun, that provides everything we need to live and live well. But we invented a system based on profit and endless growth, one that encourages rapid exploitation of nature, avaricious accumulation, and rampant consumerism.

Early 20th century industrialists figured that if everyone drove around in inefficient gas-guzzling behemoths sold as “freedom”. it would be a win-win, providing endless profits for the auto and oil industries. And we were off! No worries that fossil fuels—concentrated stores of solar energy that took millions of years to form—are finite and should be used wisely. Who cares that burning them extravagantly creates pollution and drives climate disruption, putting our health and all life in peril?

There’s money to be made, the bulk of it concentrated in the offshore accounts of a few.

This summer, “heat domes” spread across western North America, coinciding with record low tides to wipe out billions of hardy intertidal plants and animals such as clams and mussels. June heat records broke worldwide, from northern Europe to India, Pakistan, and Libya.

Devastating European floods shocked even the climate scientists who have been predicting them. Parts of Tokyo were drenched by the heaviest rainfall since measurements began.

Last year, another global heat record was broken. If June’s record-breaking temperatures are any indication, this year will be among the top 10 hottest, with even hotter years looming.

What the hell are we doing?

Why are we letting industry get away with disrupting the climate past the point of survivability? Why are we letting governments subsidize and promote oil, gas, and coal with tax and royalty breaks, pipeline purchases, and nonsensical “war rooms” and inquiries? Why do we put up with major media outlets and industry continuing to spread dangerous climate misinformation when the science couldn’t be clearer? Why do we listen to deniers at all?

The only necessary conversations about the climate crisis now are about solutions. Because industry and governments have been yammering about a gradual transition for decades while doing as little as possible to transition at all, we’ve missed the opportunity for “gradual”.

Rapid change doesn’t mean total disruption or upheaval, if we do it right. In fact, many measures necessary to resolve the climate and biodiversity crises—shifting to renewable energy, electrifying almost everything, increasing energy efficiency, protecting carbon sinks like forests, wetlands, and grasslands—would also increase equality and fairness, reduce pollution, improve public health, create good jobs, and even prevent pandemics.

It’s all interconnected. That means what we do as individuals matters. But, as much as personal measures like conserving energy and switching from cars to active or public transport are important, what’s really needed is public pressure. Get involved with others in your community, join climate strikes and actions, write to or call your political representatives, and talk to people you know to help build momentum.

People who derive their wealth and privilege from continued, wasteful exploitation of fossil fuels are not going to change overnight. Now we have to.

David Suzuki is a scientist, broadcaster, author, and cofounder of the David Suzuki Foundation. Written with contributions from foundation senior writer and editor Ian Hanington. Learn more at davidsuzuki.org.

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Will Newfoundland offshore oil industry reboot with rising oil prices?

Recovery will come slowly as companies recoup 2020 losses

Barb Dean-Simmons · Journalist · Posted: July 9, 2021, 

The research/survey ship Ramform Atlas in Bay Bulls in June, 2021. — Contributed


The Norse Spirit left Whiffen Head near Arnold’s Cove just before noon on July 5, heading to the Hibernia platform 325 kilometres east of Newfoundland.

The 279-metre-long crude oil tanker, with a carrying capacity of 960,000 barrels of oil, loaded up with sweet crude pumped from the Hibernia field to transport it back to the Newfoundland Transshipment Limited.

That terminal was built in 1998 to store the crude from the offshore oil fields—Hibernia, Terra Nova, White Rose and Hebron. It can handle over 300 million barrels of oil in its six storage tanks.

Norse Spirit is one of three shuttle tankers that sail regularly between Whiffen Head and the offshore oil fields to collect the crude.

The trips have not been as frequent since 2020, the result of historically low oil prices due to the pandemic and resulting economic downturn. Last year oil prices dropped to below $20 a barrel.

INewfoundland and Labrador, the West White Rose extension project stalled, shutting down construction on a gravity-based platform at Argentia.

The West White Rose concrete gravity structure in December 2019 with all four of its lower quadrants in place. — Husky Energy

The floating production, storage and offloading vessel Terra Nova has been at anchor at Bull Arm since last summer.

Plans for a refit were delayed while a task force of government and industry assessed how best to spend the $320 million provided by Ottawa last fall to aid the offshore oil industry.

Now there are signs of a turnaround.

This week the value of Brent Crude surged to a six-year high of $76 a barrel.

The Terra Nova FPSO — Contributed

After 18 months of lockdowns and public health orders in the battle with COVID, people are on move again, eager to travel and get back to work. That means a higher demand for oil to gas up automobiles, fuel up airplanes and fire up manufacturing and service businesses as pre-COVID work and personal routines are restored.
But it may take some time before the oil companies reboot production and dust off long-term plans around exploration and development.

Paul Barnes is Director for Atlantic Canada and the Arctic for the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers (CAPP).

Paul Barnes, Atlantic Canada and Arctic director with the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers. — Contributed

He told SaltWire that it will take a while to recover from 2020, a year oil and gas companies operating in Newfoundland and Labrador ran up a lot of debt.

“It’s been a tough year,” he said. “With the cash flow from the current oil prices, they’re using that cash to pay down the large amount of debt they have accumulated and to pay dividends to their shareholders.

“So, for most of 2021, that’s what we’re witnessing with the industry generally.”

The industry is on a path to recovery, said Barnes, but it will be a slow process.

“It’s slow because we’re just starting the recovery (from COVID) and the thought was there would be a higher demand for oil than it currently is.”

That’s because in recovery from COVID worldwide has been slower than hoped; some countries are still dealing with the third wave of the pandemic.

This map outlines Equinor's offshore assets in Newfoundland and Labrador. — EQUINOR - File photo

Then there’s price uncertainty because the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) is considering an increase in production.

Still, Barnes said even if OPEC decides to increase production, causing a price drop, a price of around $50 to $70 a barrel is still profitable for producers.

The key for the oil industry, he said, is price stability. Wild fluctuations make it hard to plan.

“When there is a lot of volatility investment decisions are somewhat slower to be made, just because of the nervousness around the volatility,” said Barnes.

While some projects are still on hold, there was some exploration in the offshore this year.

The research ship Ramform Atlas sailed out of Bay Bulls a few weeks back to do work for the Chinese National Offshore Oil Corporation (CNOOC).

The research vessel Ramform Atlas was doing exploratory work in the Newfoundland offshore in June. - Contributed

Exxon also recently announced they’ll be doing some drilling work next year, said Barnes.

There are also two seismic ships doing some geophysical work in the Newfoundland offshore this year, acquiring data for companies to determine future exploration.

One of the largest recent discoveries in the offshore is the Bay du Nord field. Norwegian-based Equinor holds the lease on that reserve. Originally estimated to hold about 400 million barrels of recoverable oil, the Bay du Nord field is now estimated to contain one billion barrels of oil.

Earlier this year Equinor closed its office in Calgary and shifted its Canadian headquarters to St. John’s.

The company announced a $6.8 billion plan in 2018 to develop Bay du Nord but deferred the project last year thanks to COVID and the crash in oil prices.

Barnes said he expects the company could make an announcement on Bay du Nord by early 2022.

Eyes are also on Argentia and what might happen with the construction of the platform for West White Rose

.

An aerial view of the Port of Argentia. - Contributed

Cenovus told SaltWire the West White Rose project remains deferred for 2021 while the company continues to evaluate its options.

Another project on the pending list is an extension to Hibernia, said Barnes.

“That’s hopefully something that will be announced later this year as well,” he said.

The only word to describe 2020, said Barnes, is “disaster.”

Now he sees reasons to be optimistic for the Newfoundland and Labrador oil industry.

“It’s starting to recover.”

Barb Dean-Simmons is a business reporter for the SaltWire Network.
barb.dean-simmons@thepacket.ca

Are we being kept safe from ‘forever chemicals’ injected into fracking sites?

A bombshell exposé revealed that oil and gas firms are injecting PFAS chemicals into fracking sites, threatening groundwater

‘If the toxic chemistry of fracking remains obscured by regulatory design, the health effects are becoming gruesomely obvious.’ Photograph: Charlie Riedel/AP

David Bond
Wed 21 Jul 2021 

Not willing to rest their laurels on the theft of the future, the fossil fuel industry is now salting the earth with forever chemicals.

In a bombshell exposé from Physicians for Social Responsibility (PSR) and the New York Times last week it was revealed that per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) were readily used at fracking sites across the US.

PFAS never break down, a disconcerting fact that has led many to call them “forever chemicals”. Such durability comes with surprising mobility as these chemicals have proven preternaturally gifted at gliding through geological and geographic borders with ease. Oh, and they are toxic.

None of these worrisome properties proved sufficient to dissuade the fossil fuel industry from injecting PFAS into at least 1,200 fracking wells in the United States, including in states where wastewater from oil and gas operations is routinely sprayed on roads and farms.

This revelation comes days after Unearthed released a video of fossil fuel executives bragging about just how easy it has been to sabotage legislation aimed at addressing climate change and petrochemical pollution, including PFAS.

“They’re called forever chemicals,” one ExxonMobil executive said, “which basically means these chemicals never, never deteriorate.”

While most scientists agree that such toxic immortality warrants sensible restrictions on PFAS use, ExxonMobil disagrees. According to the videos, company executives launched a stealth campaign to undercut the scientific consensus and surging momentum to regulate PFAS. ExxonMobil’s preferred strategy of obstruction? Commission another government study.

In the meantime, 130 oil and gas companies (including ExxonMobil) have been dumping forever chemicals into fracking sites in at least six different states.

The use of PFAS in fracking “brings together two planetary emergencies”, said Barbara Gottlieb of PSR: contamination and climate. As climate change tips so much of the United States into a parched drought with inescapable heatwaves, what water remains is increasingly poisoned by PFAS.

“We already know that over 200 million people have PFAS in their drinking water. Add to that the additional number of people surrounded by fracking sites in their literal back yards, and you have the majority of the population affected by a dangerous class of PFAS chemicals,” Phil Brown, who directs a research center on PFAS contamination, told me.

At one Encana/Athlon fracking site in Glasscock county, Texas, it is estimated that drilling operators injected 324 pounds of PFAS in a single well. As Dusty Horwitt, the lead author of the PSR report explained, a minuscule amount of PFAS can render a titanic amount of water undrinkable. “One measuring cup of PFOA could contaminate almost 8bn gallons of water.”

As other sectors distance themselves from forever chemicals and the ungodly problems they pose, the fossil fuel industry is doubling down on PFAS in willful defiance of settled science. Business as usual, in other words. And those tasked with protecting our health may be doing more than turning a blind eye to such madness.

In the past few years, the Environmental Protection Agency issued urgent warnings about the diabolical threat PFAS pose to drinking water and public health. And yet, this week’s news revealed that the very same EPA was greenlighting requests by oil companies to dump PFAS into the environment at fracking sites across the United States.

By the EPA’s own account, fracking wells are far from a closed system (a fact viewers of the flammable tap water scene in Gasland will be familiar with). A 2016 report from the EPA on the “Hydraulic Fracturing Water Cycle” provided extensive documentation of alarming instances where fracking fluids leaked into groundwater. More than 8 million Americans get their drinking water from underground sources within one mile of a fracking well.

Beyond cracks in the bedrock or well-casing that allow drilling fluids to migrate into groundwater, there are more banal pathways of exposure. In 17 states (including New York), wastewater from oil and gas drilling is permitted to be sprayed on roads to keep dust down or melt ice, a reckless practice that elicits strong protests from scientists and communities.

Some states even allow drilling wastewater to be reused in agriculture, a practice many western farmers have come to rely on as drought coincides with groundwater depletion. Even as some states propose minimal processing of oil and gas wastewater before their application on roads and farms, no one is testing for PFAS.

However they enter the environment, once released PFAS never go away. And trace amounts of these chemicals have proven adept at poisoning drinking water, food systems and human health. PFAS chemicals are strongly linked to immune dysfunction, reproductive harm and a host of cancers at previously unimaginable levels of exposure: parts per trillion.

According to documents released this week, the EPA was fully aware of the ludicrous risks of introducing PFAS to fracking when it authorized their use. Agency scientists voiced strong concerns that PFAS would probably contaminate the land around fracking sites through leaks, post-drilling uses and even flaring as PFAS chemicals cannot be destroyed by fire.

Senior leadership at Obama’s EPA overrode these concerns and the precautions scientists recommended, like PFAS monitoring around fracking sites. At EPA headquarters in DC, safeguarding the reckless profits of oil and gas companies took precedence over safeguarding the health of vulnerable citizens. As has been well documented, poor neighborhoods and communities of color bear an outsized environmental burden from fracking.

If the toxic chemistry of fracking remains obscured by regulatory design, the health effects are becoming gruesomely obvious

“I am angered but not surprised to learn of EPA-approved use of PFAS in fracking,” Sara Wylie told me. Wylie, who works with communities protesting against fracking and has documented their struggles in her book Fractivism, continued: “This use of recognized toxics follows a familiar pattern: Safe Drinking and Clean Water Act exemptions already enable the use of hazardous chemicals in fracking that are regulated in other industries.”

In other words, one of the nastiest toxins ever dreamed up is escaping all efforts to restrict its use by participating in fracking and the ozone-sized hole in environmental regulations the Halliburton loophole gifted the fossil fuel industry.

If the toxic chemistry of fracking remains obscured by regulatory design, the health effects are becoming gruesomely obvious. Dozens of epidemiological studies have now confirmed what frontline communities knew all along: a host of health issues crop up when fracking comes to town, including: migraines, asthma, hospitalizations, birth defects, infant mortality and cancer. And that’s before PFAS was known to be in the mix.

“Living near frack sites is not good for your health,” summarized Linda Birnbaum, a former director of the National Institute of Environmental Health Sciences, at the PSR press conference.

The unholy union of PFAS and fracking should shatter any notion that those pursuing toxic profits can be gently persuaded of the prerogative of public health and human survival. As the PSR report and Unearthed video so aptly demonstrate, the fossil fuel industry is not bothered in the least by the rampant destruction rising in the wake of their operations.

It’s well past time for our elected leaders to cut through this nonsense and hold those who profited from PFAS pollution accountable. Along with passing strong prohibitions on PFAS, Congress should also require oil and gas companies to conduct extensive groundwater testing at every fracking site suspected of using PFAS chemicals.


David Bond is associate director, Center for the Advancement of Public Action (CAPA) at Bennington College. He leads the Understanding PFOA project and is writing a book on PFAS contamination

‘People Are Dying,’ US House Passes PFAS Action Bill

July 22, 2021
Eric Lloyd

Members of Congress from both parties are celebrating a major step forward in the fight against PFAS.

Wednesday the United States House passed the PFAS Action Act, sponsored by two Michigan representatives, it has been the Mitten State pushing hardest for action from the federal government

.

“No one should be drinking polluted water,” said Brad Jensen, executive director of Huron Pines, “This is a complex issue but that point is really simple.”

PFAS and other hazardous chemicals have been an issue for decades but just recently they are being discovered. Little is being done to clean them up because basically nobody has had to.

“In defending its inaction, the Air Force loves to point out that PFOA and PFOS, two of the main contaminants in our community, are not regulated under federal law,” said Tony Spaniola of Need Our Water.


That’s where the PFAS Action Act comes in. It creates federal drinking water standards, offers grants to pay for clean-up and designates these chemicals as officially hazardous.

“It has quickly been evident that this affects people around the state and around the country,” said Rep. Bill Huizenga.

This is how the bill is moving now, support from not just Michigan’s delegation.

“We have more PFAS contamination sites than any other state but that’s just because we’ve been looking for it,” said Rep. Dan Kildee, “So obviously as people discover more, we get more members of Congress wanting to join us.”

“We are going to see more and more sites, I would think,” said Jensen, “The cleanup and the tools to deal with that, it’s a difficult, expensive problem. That’s why they call them forever chemicals.”

Water moves, including polluted water. Contamination sites in one area spread to others and lawmakers say this bill shows urgency in stopping that spread.

“We need to,” said Rep. Debbie Dingell, “It’s just time. People are dying because the government is not acting.”


Reps. Kind, Gallagher introduce a bipartisan bill to help families test their private wells for 'forever chemicals

'
Laura Schulte
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel



In a rare moment of bipartisan agreement, two Wisconsin lawmakers introduced federal legislation aimed at testing private wells for contaminants such as "forever chemicals."

Republican U.S Rep Mike Gallagher and Democrat Ron Kind, alongside representatives from Michigan and New York, introduced the "Test Your Well Water Act" on Tuesday.

The legislation would create an online tool, managed by the Environmental Protection Agency, to help Americans with private wells find resources to test their water and analyze the results. The legislation would also provide funding for the tests, so the cost doesn't fall to those in need of testing.

The bill would also instruct the EPA to provide information on treatment options for wells, as well as information on financial assistance that is available to homeowners to support a treatment system, according to the bill.

The bill is aimed at helping people determine if their wells have been affected by PFAS, or per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances. The compounds, which spread easily through water and do not break down or degrade in the environment, have been found in wells across Wisconsin, including Milwaukee, Eau Claire, Madison and La Crosse.


"People deserve to know whether or not their water is contaminated by chemicals like PFAS,” Gallagher said in a news release. “This bill creates an easy-to-use tool that not only allows individuals to test their drinking water, but also allows local officials to develop a better understanding of where contamination may be.”

Nearly 42 million Americans get their drinking water from private wells or sources that aren't regulated by federal and state governments, according to the release. If passed, the bill would allow EPA to modernize access to resources to help people ensure the water they use for drinking and cooking is safe.


MORE:Town facing devastating 'forever chemical' contamination hopes to see aid from federal stimulus package

Kind, whose home is on French Island, a community outside La Crosse fighting large PFAS contamination, said he knows firsthand how costly it can get to test your own well because he and his family had to do it.

"A lot of families can't afford it," he said. "And unless you test, you're not going to know the levels in your well. We need to test to see how bad it is."
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It wasn't surprising to get support on both sides of the aisle for the bill, Kind said, because clean, safe water is so important.

"There is nothing more scary than a family thinking they're drinking contaminated water," he said. "That's why this is a nonpartisan issue. It's fundamental that people have access to safe water."

PFAS are a relatively new family of man-made chemicals used for their water- and stain-resistant qualities in products like clothing, carpet, nonstick cookware, food packaging and firefighting foam. The family includes 5,000 compounds, which are persistent, remaining in the body over time.

More:What are PFAS? Here's what you need to know about the emerging contaminant group known as 'forever chemicals'

PFAS have been linked to types of kidney and testicular cancers, lower birth weights, harm to immune and reproductive systems and altered hormone regulation and thyroid hormones.

In addition to being found in drinking wells across the state and in humans who consume that water, the contaminants have also made their way into animals, resulting in warnings from the state Department of Natural Resources to not consume the livers of deer from the area or fish harvested in certain water bodies in Marinette and Peshtigo, near a Tyco Fire Products facility that is the source of another contamination.

The federal government does not regulate PFAS, though Congress has taken up the PFAS Action Act, which would set drinking water standards and classify the contaminants as dangerous.

Wisconsin has attempted to regulate PFAS, but standards have not yet been approved by the state Legislature. The DNR is now working to develop standards for groundwater, drinking water and surface water for PFOA and PFOS — two of the most well-known and well-researched of the family of chemicals — as well as several other compounds. That process is expected to stretch on for at least another year.

Other laws regrading the chemicals have been attempted, too. The latest bill, which would provide grants to individuals or communities to test wells, provide an alternate water source or attempt to remediate spills, would bar the recipient from ever pursuing legal action against the company or organization responsible for the contamination.

Pushback was swift after the bill was introduced by state Rep. Elijah Behnke, R-Oconto, who represents one of the worst contaminations in the state in the Marinette and Peshtigo area.

Laura Schulte can be reached at leschulte@jrn.com and on Twitter at @SchulteLaura.

Efforts underway in Europe to ban PFAS compounds

BY REBECCA TRAGER

CHEMISTRY WORLD

23 JULY 2021


There is significant movement afoot to ban per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) in Europe – a class of persistent, highly mobile and potentially toxic compounds. The governments of Denmark, Germany, the Netherlands, Sweden and Norway have announced that by July 2022 they will formally propose to the European Chemicals Agency (Echa) that these chemicals be restricted under Reach (registration, evaluation, authorisation and restriction of chemicals) legislation.

The proposal aims to prohibit the production, marketing and use of these substances throughout Europe. Exceptions will be considered for certain established uses, such as medical applications. After summer 2022, Echa’s scientific bodies and socio-economic analysis committee will assess the Reach restriction dossier and deliver an opinion by 2023. A final agreement by EU member states could be possible as early as 2025.

PFASs are used in a wide range of products including fire-fighting foams, non-stick cookware and water-resistant fabrics.

The five European countries, which began this project to regulate PFASs in 2020, are proposing to ban the entire class of chemicals in one go, arguing that this prevents one group from being replaced by another that may also turn out to be harmful years later. Their proposal specifically defines PFASs as any chemical with at least one perfluorinated methyl group or at least one perfluorinated methylene group.

The nations are primarily concerned that this family of thousands of fluorinated substances is ‘extremely difficult to degrade in the environment’ and that their use can lead to groundwater and drinking water contamination, the Danish Environmental Protection Agency (MST) explained in a 19 July statement.

‘A comprehensive restriction is proposed, which includes a ban on the consumer use of substances, mixtures and articles as well as non-essential professional and industrial uses, as all use of PFAS potentially contributes to the accumulation of these extremely difficult-to-degrade chemical compounds in the environment,’ MST said.

The agency noted that toxicological data for PFASs are often limited but the health effects of a number of such substances have been described in the literature – including liver damage, immune system impairment, impairment of fertility and unborn children, as well as possible endocrine disrupting and carcinogenic properties.

Biomonitoring efforts have revealed that a number of PFASs are present in the blood of European citizens, and although such levels of the most prevalent and well-studied PFASs like perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) and perfluorooctanesulfonic acid (PFOS) are declining, levels of newer generation PFASs are rising, according to MST.

In the US, regulatory action on PFASs has been slow. Without federal action by the US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), many individual US states have adopted their own standards for PFASs. So far, six states have enforceable drinking water standards, and 10 have implemented guidance or notification levels for PFAS in drinking water, according to the US environmental group Safer Chemicals Healthy Families.

However, the regulatory landscape in the US with respect to these substances appears poised to change. President Biden has repeatedly indicated, starting during his campaign for presidency, that PFAS regulation is a top priority. In April, he announced the creation of a new council to accelerate and coordinate efforts aimed at reducing and remediating this class of chemicals.

There seems to be progress on the congressional front as well. On 21 July, the US House of Representatives approved legislation that would require the EPA to set a national drinking water standard for PFOA and PFOS within two years to protect public health. The bill would also designate PFOA and PFOS as hazardous substances within one year, and require the EPA to determine whether to list other PFAS compounds within five years. A companion bill in the Senate is reportedly under development.

Growing problems with orphaned, abandoned wells challenges oil industry

HIGHLIGHTS

Thousands of oil wells can become orphaned as bankruptcies occur

State and federal funding are limited for cleanup, plugging efforts

White House, lobbying groups propose cash injections, reforms


Author
Jordan Blum
Editor
Jeff Mower
Commodity
Natural Gas, Oil, Petrochemical

09 Jul 2021 | 


A growing number of orphaned and abandoned wells in the US is growing costlier by the day, challenging an oil and gas industry that is already negotiating the energy transition away from fossil fuels, according to critics, who are calling for reforms and new funding to clean up long-dormant, corroding sites.

The White House is aiming to inject major cash into well-plugging activities, and new groups in Texas, such as Commission Shift, have sprung up this year to help lobby and draw attention to the potential ticking time bombs of orphaned or undocumented wells. The Permian Basin has become dotted with more unnaturally-occurring phenomena, including the Wink Sinks sinkholes and the so-called Boehmer Lake from failed wells drilled decades ago.

There is also the fear that new drilling and hydraulic fracturing activity -- as well as the associated saltwater disposal wells -- increasingly will interfere with and rupture older well sites, threatening air quality and water supplies often without any visible problems above the surface, said Virginia Palacios, executive director of the new Commission Shift group focused on reforming and better funding the Texas Railroad Commission that oversees state oil and gas regulations.

Spurred by the shale revolution and led by Texas, US oil production boomed from 5.5 million b/d in 2010 to a record high of nearly 13 million b/d at the beginning of 2020, although output has since slipped to about 11.3 million b/d. But that surge in growth has not come without cyclical stops and starts, including busts in 2014 and 2020 and the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, and with each downturn came a wave of bankruptcies and consolidation.

"When these companies go bankrupt, we see more orphan wells going to the state to plug and clean up," Palacios said. "There's just ben a lot of activity out there in the Permian, and with that there's an issue brewing in our state with waste management."

Orphaned wells are those abandoned by companies that are no longer solvent. Texas currently counts about 6,200 orphaned, unplugged wells, while the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission adds up about 57,000 documented orphan wells nationwide.

The Commission Shift also is focused on the estimated 37,000 wells in Texas that have been inactive and unplugged for a decade or more, threatening to soon join the "orphan" list. The state counts almost 150,000 inactive wells overall.

During the pandemic last year, about 10,000 conventionally drilled wells in the Permian were shut-in and never returned, according to S&P Global Platts Analytics, which accounted for about 80,000 b/d of crude that was lost forever. Permian oil wells that are at least 50 years old still produce well more than 35,000 b/d.

Because so many wells are undocumented, including ones that are more than 100 years old, the US Environmental Protection Agency has estimated there may be more than 3 million abandoned wells nationwide, most of which are unplugged.

In Texas, the Railroad Commission is charged with plugging orphaned wells, which in part entails shutting them down and filling the wellbores with cement. Even then, some plugged wells can spring leaks without oversight, because the plugging rules were much more lax decades ago. Texas' well-plugging rules first went into effect in 1976 and have been amended more than 20 times since, ranging from plugging techniques to the types of cement, according to the Environmental Defense Fund.

The Railroad Commission is averaging plugging about 1,800 wells per year, and spokesman Andrew Keese noted that 83% of wells are plugged by their operators, even though the commission waived plugging requirements and fees last year amid the oil price crash and a slew of bankruptcies.

The American Petroleum Institute released updated well-plugging standards in June, and the industry-led Environmental Partnership has taken more steps to help detect and repair leaks on active operations.
Washington attention

President Joe Biden has proposed spending as much as $16 billion for "capping hundreds of thousands of orphan oil and gas wells and abandoned mines," although that much money is unlikely to be included in any bipartisan compromise. A bipartisan Senate bill provides $4.7 billion for such efforts, while a pending US House bill would set aside $8 billion for old wells and mines over 10 years. And, apart from the infrastructure and jobs plan, the president's overall fiscal year budget bill proposes almost $500 million total for the cleanup of wells, mines and decommissioned offshore oil and gas facilities.

In court, a recent federal ruling in the bankruptcy case of Fieldwood Energy said the Houston offshore producer could pass hundreds of millions of well cleanup costs in the US Gulf of Mexico to previous field owners and insurers, including BP and Shell. That ruling is pending on appeals, but could have implications for onshore producers.

Since 2015, more than 250 North American producers have filed for bankruptcy with half of them coming from Texas, including 45 upstream bankruptcies in 2020, according to the Haynes & Boone energy bankruptcy tracker. For instance, Fort Worth-based Weatherly Oil & Gas left 163 wells orphaned after it filed for bankruptcy in 2019, according to Commission Shift.

And now, bigger energy companies, such as Chevron, are attempting to sell more of their mature, conventional Permian assets, which critics fear could be sold to smaller producers more likely to go bankrupt and leave behind lots of orphan wells.


At a West Texas ranch

At the 22,000-acre Antina Cattle Company Ranch near Monahans, Texas, two Chevron sites sprung leaks in June from wells that were previously plugged in 1995 or prior.

Ranch owner Ashley Watt said she fears leaks from old plugged wells on her family's property have occurred for more than a decade, contaminating the water and, years ago, even bubbling up crude oil in a toilet.

Watt took to social media on Twitter to raise attention to her plight, even mocking a red plastic bucket that Chevron contractors initially utilized to unsuccessfully cover the leaking well that was spraying brackish water with high benzene concentrations, according to water samples she had taken.

"I'm scared," Watt said. "This problem is finally just bubbling to the surface. The water table is very, very shallow here."

Some of Watt's cattle have died recently, which she believes is from the well pollution. And, even though Chevron re-plugged the primary leak after 11 days, Watt said she still believes pressure levels indicate it is continuing to spew hydrocarbons into the water wells underground.

However, Chevron said in a statement that its tests showed the leaking water met applicable drinking water standards, including for benzene.

"While we cannot speak for the whole of industry, we believe the state's requirements, coupled with Chevron's practices, contributed to a prompt response to this incident," said Chevron spokeswoman Deena McMullen in a statement. "Chevron strives to protect people and the environment wherever we operate. Since arriving onsite on June 12, Ms. Watt has expressed several concerns, which we have addressed. We will continue to review thoroughly any concerns brought to our attention."

A recent Southern Methodist University earth sciences study published in December used satellite imaging to detect subtle surface changes over time, identifying thousands of unplugged and abandoned wells in the Permian, as well as many more emerging sinkholes near well sites. More active satellite imaging from regulators could help mitigate future damages and pollution, the researchers concluded.

Watt said she wonders if it is just a matter of when -- and not if -- leaks eventually occur from most of the other plugged wells on her property, and throughout the larger region.

"The state of Texas is failing the landowners," Watt said. "We're the ones who have to deal with the consequences -- the health and business consequences."

"If this is a preview of what every old oil well looks like, the Permian Basin will be absolutely uninhabitable in the next few decades. Terrifying," she later added.

Silos within the energy industry are coming down as companies confront the need to dramatically cut carbon emissions.

The so-called energy convergence is the idea that companies, policy makers and regulators need to be more collaborative across the energy spectrum.

Joe Brettell is a partner for strategic engagement at Prosody Group, which consults on energy, agriculture and financial services. We asked him about the rising importance of US regulators, climate-related investor pressures, and the changing focus of the US energy capital Houston as it adapts to the energy transition.

Stick around after the interview for the Market Minute, a look at near-term oil-market drivers.

A partial skeleton reveals the world’s oldest known shark attack

A man encountered the animal 3,000 years ago off the coast of Japan

A man buried near Japan’s coast around 3,000 years ago, whose skeleton is shown where it was excavated, is the oldest known victim of a shark bite, a new study finds.

LABORATORY OF PHYSICAL ANTHROPOLOGY/KYOTO UNIVERSITY

By Bruce Bower
JULY 23, 2021 

Somewhere off southeastern Japan’s coast around 3,000 years ago, a shark attacked and killed a man who was likely fishing or shellfish diving. Afterward, the victim’s fishing comrades presumably brought the body, minus its sheared off right leg and left hand, back to land for burial.

A new analysis of that unfortunate man’s partial skeleton, excavated around a century ago at a village cemetery near Japan’s Seto Inland Sea, has unveiled that grisly scenario. This individual from Japan’s ancient Jōmon culture (SN: 2/15/97) represents the oldest known human victim of a shark attack, say archaeologist J. Alyssa White of the University of Oxford and colleagues. Radiocarbon dating places his death from 3,391 to 3,031 years ago, the researchers report in the August Journal of Archaeological Science: Reports.

A roughly 1,000-year-old skeleton of a fisherman on Puerto Rico previously displayed the earliest signs of a shark encounter.

White’s group documented at least 790 gouges, punctures and other types of bite damage mainly confined to the Jōmon man’s arms, legs, pelvis and ribs. A 3-D model of these injuries indicates that the victim first lost his left hand trying to fend off a shark. Ensuing bites severed major leg arteries, rapidly leading to death.

After the man’s body was recovered, his mutilated left leg probably detached and was placed on his chest when he was buried, the researchers say.

Numerous shark teeth found at some Jōmon sites suggest that sharks were hunted, perhaps by drawing them to blood while fishing at sea. “But unprovoked shark attacks would have been incredibly rare as sharks do not tend to target humans as prey,” White says.

RIP

UT Austin Mourns Death of World-Renowned Physicist Steven Weinberg


Physicist Steven Weinberg, January 28, 2008. Credit: Larry Murphy, The University of Texas at Austin

Jul 24, 2021

AUSTIN, Texas — Nobel laureate Steven Weinberg, a professor of physics and astronomy at The University of Texas at Austin, has died. He was 88.

One of the most celebrated scientists of his generation, Weinberg was best known for helping to develop a critical part of the Standard Model of particle physics, which significantly advanced humanity’s understanding of how everything in the universe — its various particles and the forces that govern them — relate. A faculty member for nearly four decades at UT Austin, he was a beloved teacher and researcher, revered not only by the scientists who marveled at his concise and elegant theories but also by science enthusiasts everywhere who read his books and sought him out at public appearances and lectures.

“The passing of Steven Weinberg is a loss for The University of Texas and for society. Professor Weinberg unlocked the mysteries of the universe for millions of people, enriching humanity’s concept of nature and our relationship to the world,” said Jay Hartzell, president of The University of Texas at Austin. “From his students to science enthusiasts, from astrophysicists to public decision makers, he made an enormous difference in our understanding. In short, he changed the world.”

“As a world-renowned researcher and faculty member, Steven Weinberg has captivated and inspired our UT Austin community for nearly four decades,” said Sharon L. Wood, provost of the university. “His extraordinary discoveries and contributions in cosmology and elementary particles have not only strengthened UT’s position as a global leader in physics, they have changed the world.”

Weinberg held the Jack S. Josey – Welch Foundation Chair in Science at UT Austin and was the winner of multiple scientific awards including the 1979 Nobel Prize in physics, which he shared with Abdus Salam and Sheldon Lee Glashow; a National Medal of Science in 1991; the Lewis Thomas Prize for the Scientist as Poet in 1999; and, just last year, the Breakthrough Prize in Fundamental Physics. He was a member of the National Academy of Sciences, the Royal Society of London, Britain’s Royal Society, the American Academy of Arts and Sciences and the American Philosophical Society, which presented him with the Benjamin Franklin Medal in 2004.

Queen Beatrix of the Netherlands receives Nobel laureates: Paul Berg, Christian de Duve, Steven Weinberg, Queen Beatrix, Manfred Eigen, Nicolaas Bloembergen. Photo taken on 31 August 1983. Credit: Rob C. Croes / Anefo. Creative Commons Netherlands license.

In 1967, Weinberg published a seminal paper laying out how two of the universe’s four fundamental forces — electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force — relate as part of a unified electroweak force. “A Model of Leptons,” at barely three pages, predicted properties of elementary particles that at that time had never before been observed (the W, Z and Higgs boson) and theorized that “neutral weak currents” dictated how elementary particles interact with one another. Later experiments, including the 2012 discovery of the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider (LHC) in Switzerland, would bear out each of his predictions.

Weinberg leveraged his renown and his science for causes he cared deeply about. He had a lifelong interest in curbing nuclear proliferation and served briefly as a consultant for the U.S. Arms Control and Disarmament Agency. He advocated for a planned superconducting supercollider with the capabilities of the LHC in the United States — a project that ultimately failed to receive funding in the 1990s after having been planned for a site near Waxahachie, Texas. He continued to be an ambassador for science throughout his life, for example, teaching UT Austin students and participating in events such as the 2021 Nobel Prize Inspiration Initiative in April and in the Texas Science Festival in February.

“When we talk about science as part of the culture of our times, we’d better make it part of that culture by explaining what we’re doing,” Weinberg explained in a 2015 interview published by Third Way. “I think it’s very important not to write down to the public. You have to keep in mind that you’re writing for people who are not mathematically trained but are just as smart as you are.”

By showing the unifying links behind weak forces and electromagnetism, which were previously believed to be completely different, Weinberg delivered the first pillar of the Standard Model, the half-century-old theory that explains particles and three of the four fundamental forces in the universe (the fourth being gravity). As critical as the model is in helping physical scientists understand the order driving everything from the first minutes after the Big Bang to the world around us, Weinberg continued to pursue, alongside other scientists, dreams of a “final theory” that would concisely and effectively explain current unknowns about the forces and particles in the universe, including gravity.

Weinberg wrote hundreds of scientific articles about general relativity, quantum field theory, cosmology and quantum mechanics, as well as numerous popular articles, reviews and books. His books include “To Explain the World,” “Dreams of a Final Theory,” “Facing Up,” and “The First Three Minutes.” Weinberg often was asked in media interviews to reflect on his atheism and how it related to the scientific insights he described in his books.

“If there is no point in the universe that we discover by the methods of science, there is a point that we can give the universe by the way we live, by loving each other, by discovering things about nature, by creating works of art,” he once told PBS. “Although we are not the stars in a cosmic drama, if the only drama we’re starring in is one that we are making up as we go along, it is not entirely ignoble that faced with this unloving, impersonal universe we make a little island of warmth and love and science and art for ourselves.”

Weinberg was a native of New York, and his childhood love of science began with a gift of a chemistry set and continued through teaching himself calculus while a student at Bronx High School of Science. The first in his family to attend college, he received a bachelor’s degree from Cornell University and a doctoral degree from Princeton University. He researched at Columbia University and the University of California, Berkeley, before serving on the faculty of Harvard University, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and, since 1982, UT Austin.

He is survived by his wife, UT Austin law professor Louise Weinberg, and their daughter, Elizabeth.


With Steven Weinberg’s death, physics loses a titan

He advanced the theory of particles and forces, and wrote insightfully for a wider public


By Tom Siegfried
Contributing Correspondent


Steven Weinberg in his office at the University of Texas at Austin in 2018.

Mythology has its titans. So do the movies. And so does physics. Just one fewer now.

Steven Weinberg died July 23, at the age of 88. He was one of the key intellectual leaders in physics during the second half of the 20th century, and he remained a leading voice and active contributor and teacher through the first two decades of the 21st.

On lists of the greats of his era he was always mentioned along with Richard Feynman, Murray Gell-Mann and … well, just Feynman and Gell-Mann.

Among his peers, Weinberg was one of the most respected figures in all of physics or perhaps all of science. He exuded intelligence and dignity. As news of his death spread through Twitter, other physicists expressed their remorse at the loss: “One of the most accomplished scientists of our age,” one commented, “a particularly eloquent spokesman for the scientific worldview.” And another: “One of the best physicists we had, one of the best thinkers of any variety.”

Weinberg’s Nobel Prize, awarded in 1979, was for his role in developing a theory unifying electromagnetism and the weak nuclear force. That was an essential contribution to what became known as the standard model of physics, a masterpiece of explanation for phenomena rooted in the math describing subatomic particles and forces. It’s so successful at explaining experimental results that physicists have long pursued every opportunity to find the slightest deviation, in hopes of identifying “new” physics that further deepens human understanding of nature.

Weinberg did important technical work in other realms of physics as well, and wrote several authoritative textbooks on such topics as general relativity and cosmology and quantum field theory. He was an early advocate of superstring theory as a promising path in the continuing quest to complete the standard model by unifying it with general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity.

Early on Weinberg also realized a desire to communicate more broadly. His popular book The First Three Minutes, published in 1977, introduced a generation of physicists and physics fans to the Big Bang–birth of the universe and the fundamental science underlying that metaphor. Later he wrote deeply insightful examinations of the nature of science and its intersection with society. And he was a longtime contributor of thoughtful essays in such venues as the New York Review of Books.

In his 1992 book Dreams of a Final Theory, Weinberg expressed his belief that physics was on the verge of finding the true fundamental explanation of reality, the “final theory” that would unify all of physics. Progress toward that goal seemed to be impeded by the apparent incompatibility of general relativity with quantum mechanics, the math underlying the standard model. But in a 1997 interview, Weinberg averred that the difficulty of combining relativity and quantum physics in a mathematically consistent way was an important clue. “When you put the two together, you find that there really isn’t that much free play in the laws of nature,” he said. “That’s been an enormous help to us because it’s a guide to what kind of theories might possibly work.”

Attempting to bridge the relativity-quantum gap, he believed, “pushed us a tremendous step forward toward being able to develop realistic theories of nature on the basis of just mathematical calculations and pure thought.”

Experiment had to come into play, of course, to verify the validity of the mathematical insights. But the standard model worked so well that finding deviations implied by new physics required more powerful experimental technology than physicists possessed. “We have to get to a whole new level of experimental competence before we can do experiments that reveal the truth beneath the standard model, and this is taking a long, long time,” he said. “I really think that physics in the style in which it’s being done … is going to eventually reach a final theory, but probably not while I’m around and very likely not while you’re around.”

He was right that he would not be around to see the final theory. And perhaps, as he sometimes acknowledged, nobody ever will. Perhaps it’s not experimental power that is lacking, but rather intellectual power. “Humans may not be smart enough to understand the really fundamental laws of physics,” he wrote in his 2015 book To Explain the World, a history of science up to the time of Newton.

Weinberg studied the history of science thoroughly, wrote books and taught courses on it. To Explain the World was explicitly aimed at assessing ancient and medieval science in light of modern knowledge. For that he incurred the criticism of historians and others who claimed he did not understand the purpose of history, which is to understand the human endeavors of an era on its own terms, not with anachronistic hindsight.

But Weinberg understood the viewpoint of the historians perfectly well. He just didn’t like it. For Weinberg, the story of science that was meaningful to people today was how the early stumblings toward understanding nature evolved into a surefire system for finding correct explanations. And that took many centuries. Without the perspective of where we are now, he believed, and an appreciation of the lessons we have learned, the story of how we got here “has no point.”

Future science historians will perhaps insist on assessing Weinberg’s own work in light of the standards of his times. But even if viewed in light of future knowledge, there’s no doubt that Weinberg’s achievements will remain in the realm of the Herculean. Or the titanic.



 Tom Siegfried is a contributing correspondent. 

He was editor in chief of Science News from 2007 to 2012 

and managing editor from 2014 to 2017.


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DINGBAT JUSTICE MINISTER

'Unwarranted and ill-advised': Edmonton Police Association warns against legalizing pepper spray for self-defence

The president of the Edmonton Police Association says legalizing pepper spray for self-defence would cause more harm than good.

DID UCP CONSULT OF COURSE NOT

© Provided by Edmonton Journal Michael Elliott, president of the Edmonton Police Association, says introducing legal pepper spray will cause more harm than good.

Alberta Justice Minister Kaycee Madu penned a letter this week calling on the federal government to amend the Criminal Code to allow people to carry and use the substance, which is currently a prohibited weapon, as a means of defence amid a rash of hate-motivated attacks in the province.

“I truly appreciate and understand what Minister Madu is trying to achieve because I know the crimes that are occurring against the population are wrong,” said Michael Elliott in an interview. “But I do know that the introduction of pepper spray, or as we know it as OC spray, as a self-defence mechanism, I think, is unwarranted and ill-advised.”

Elliott said it could result in a significant increase in crime and potential attacks on other people, which would place further strain on an already overwhelmed EMS unit.

He added that when pepper spray is used, people can’t control where it’s going and it can affect other people in the area, including the person using it.

“I can tell you maybe the half a dozen times that I’ve deployed it, I’ve had the residual effects of it and it’s not fun at all,” he said.

Officers are only allowed to use pepper spray on duty if they are “lawfully placed” under the Criminal Code, otherwise they can be charged with assault with a weapon, Elliott said. Each time an officer uses it, they have to report to a supervisor who has to attend the scene to ensure it was used correctly.

“I often wonder who is going to train and make those responsible as a member of the public to use that,” said Elliott. “We had training and had to be exposed to it to understand the effects of it so we can help that person, or persons, that are affected while we wait for EMS or fire to attend.”

At an unrelated announcement Thursday, Premier Jason Kenney said he believes Madu’s proposed changes to the Criminal Code are reasonable and he agreed vulnerable people should be able to protect themselves.

“For example, if a vulnerable woman could have a small tool to help defend herself from a violent attack, I think we should absolutely permit that,” said Kenney.

“Obviously, anybody who uses something like that indiscriminately, or not for legitimate self-defence with themselves, would be potentially liable to assault charges. The law would continue to be the law, but a non-lethal tool for individuals to protect themselves from violent attacks, I think is perfectly reasonable.”

At Thursday’s Edmonton Police Commission meeting , Chief Dale McFee said he would need more details as to what the minister’s intent is and clarification on how it would be controlled.

“Certainly there’s some concerns around safety and distribution and I’m not sure if that’s been talked about at this point in time,” said McFee. “Basically how distribution will be controlled and preventions of keeping spray from getting into the wrong hands are obviously going to be of concern.”

The Alberta Association of Chiefs of Police also released a statement on Thursday, voicing its safety concerns and requesting additional information and dialogue with Madu.

– With files from Lisa Johnson and Dustin Cook

OLIGARCHS

Billionaires and a Hong Kong bank chief handed seats on powerful new election body
Nominations for the last remaining seats on a 1,500-strong body which will nominate and select election candidates and those wishing to run for the post of city leader to begin on August 6.

by RHODA KWAN

 23 JULY 2021


Hong Kong has added the CEO of HSBC Asia Pacific, billionaire business people and the president of the city’s pro-Beijing teachers’ union as ex-officio members of its 1,500-strong election committee.

The group is tasked with nominating, appointing, and electing the majority of the city’s legislators and its next chief executive under Beijing’s new electoral reforms which were introduced in March

.

HSBC. Photo: GovHK.

The 15 new appointments, made by a separate vetting committee, were gazetted on Friday.

HSBC Asia Pacific’s Peter Wong was appointed to represent the commercial sector while billionaire businesswoman Pollyanna Chu of Kingston Financial Group will represent the financial sector.

President of the pro-Beijing Hong Kong Federation of Education Workers Wong Kwan-yu was appointed as a representative for education. The group is the second biggest teachers’ union in the city, the largest being aligned with the pro-democracy camp.

Other appointments made include billionaire businessman Pan Su-tong to represent grassroots associations, and Apple supplier Biel Crystal Manufactory’s founder Yeung Kin-man to represent technology and innovation.



The 15 were approved by a seven-person vetting committee introduced as part of the election overhaul. The committee, appointed by the chief executive, is chaired by newly-promoted Chief Secretary John Lee. It includes three executive officials, including Secretary for Security Chris Tang, as well as pro-Beijing heavyweights Elsie Leung and Rita Fan.

On March 30, Beijing passed legislation to ensure “patriots” govern Hong Kong. The move reduced democratic representation in the legislature, tightened control of elections and introduced a pro-Beijing vetting panel to select candidates.

The government has said the overhaul would ensure the city’s stability and prosperity. But the changes also prompted international condemnation, as it makes it near-impossible for pro-democracy candidates to stand.
Election registration

Meanwhile, the nomination period to elect people to fill other seats in the election committee will take place from August 6 to 12, the Registration and Electoral Office announced on Friday.

Hong Kong’s elections for the 1,500-member election committee are set to take place in September. The committee will be made up of both ex-officio members as well as people who are nominated and elected

.

Registration and Electoral Office, and the Electoral Affairs Commission. Photo: Citizen News.

“A nominee must be a registered geographical constituency elector aged 18 or above who is a registered voter for the relevant electio committee subsector or has a substantial connection with that subsector,” a spokesperson said.

The number of people eligible to nominate people to the committee has dropped 97 per cent to 7,891 since 2016.