Post Tags: big oil & gas

Broad Coalition Backs National Trust in Fracking Fight With Ineos

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Food

Brussels and Washington, D.C. — Citing concerns over climate change, protecting sensitive ecological sites, and preserving local control of lands, a diverse coalition of groups and academics from the United Kingdom and the United States released a letter to Prime Minister Theresa May supporting the National Trust’s efforts to prevent the petrochemical company Ineos from making the first steps towards fracking in one of England’s most treasured environmental areas.

The letter is supported by Food & Water Watch, Food & Water Europe, Oil Change International and academics from both countries, including the Marine Conservation Society, Scientists for Global Responsibility, Campaign to Protect Rural England, World Wildlife Foundation, Greenpeace, Frack Free United, Friends of the Earth and UK Youth Climate Coalition. The letter was also signed by individuals and academics including fashion icon Vivienne Westwood and her son Joe Corré, Cornell Professor Robert Howarth, Dr. Sandra Steingraber, Prof. Nick Cowern and Prof. Peter Strachan.

“Ineos’s fracking dreams are a nightmare for communities on both sides of the Atlantic, and that’s why so many anti-fracking campaigners are speaking up to stop them,” said Wenonah Hauter, executive director of Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Watch Europe. “Anyone who cares about the climate crisis, the increasing burden of global plastics pollution, and the air and water pollution associated with petrochemical manufacturing should get active in the fight to stop Ineos from fracking the UK–and anywhere else for that matter.”

Ineos currently is the major shale license holder in the UK, and is attempting to force its way into the National Trust’s Clumber Park, a sensitive and historically significant site that attracts hundreds of thousands of visitors every year. After blocking access to land surveyors, Ineos has responded by taking legal action against the National Trust.

With facilities around the globe, Ineos’s environmental violations and history of air pollution have come under increased scrutiny. The petrochemical giant is pursuing drilling in the United Kingdom in order to supply its facilities with fracked hydrocarbons that can be used to produce plastics. Their corporate vision comes at a time in history when global warming and the plastic pollution of our oceans and shorelines are the most critical issues of our generation, and the ones to come.

The company’s ambitions are relevant to battles over fracking in the United States. Ineos developed a fleet of “dragon ships” to carry gas liquids from Pennsylvania to its facilities in Scotland and Norway. Those shipments are likely to increase if the massive Mariner East 2 pipeline is completed. But that pipeline — a project of Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners — has been a source of intense controversy, with construction causing drilling spills and water contamination. Most recently, a series of sinkholes caused state regulators to halt operations on the existing Mariner East 1 pipeline.

Ineos’s fracking plans across the United Kingdom have been running into determined local opposition. As the letter to Prime Minister May notes, opinion polls show strong public opposition to fracking, which suggest that the public understands the array of risks associated with the practice. And the Scottish government, in response to overwhelming public opposition, announced its decision to ban fracking last year.

As the letter to Prime Minister May puts it, “Climate change is one of the most urgent and complex threats to the British countryside today. Fracking poses significant risks to the natural environment through loss or fragmentation of habitat, disturbance of wildlife and potential pollution of watercourses that support sensitive ecosystems and biodiversity and as driver of climate change.”

Download the letter here

 

 

Over 100 US. & International Groups Tell Wolf: Shut Down Mariner East Pipeline

Sunoco’s Controversial Gas Liquids Pipeline
Poses Threats in US and UK


Philadelphia — Dozens of US and international organizations released a letter to Governor Tom Wolf encouraging him to bring a halt to Sunoco’s Mariner East 2 pipeline.

The groups point out that the pipeline puts residents on both sides of the Atlantic at risk: Communities in eastern Pennsylvania that will bear the burden associated with fracking, the communities along the pipeline route endangered by spills and explosions, and those living near the petrochemical facilities in Europe that will use the gas liquids carried by the pipeline.

“This effort links the local battles against Sunoco with the vibrant anti-fracking movement in Europe that is focusing on the environmentally disastrous record of Ineos, the petrochemical colossus that is seeking to benefit from fracking in the US and the UK,” said Food & Water Watch Executive Director Wenonah Hauter. “The dangers posed by this project are serious, and require immediate action from Governor Wolf, who is the only the person with the power to protect all of these communities.”

The massive Sunoco project has been plagued by drilling spills and water contamination, which eventually led the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to suspend construction permits. But weeks later, the Wolf administration settled with Sunoco, clearing the way for construction to resume.

Governor Wolf has long been an ardent supporter of Sunoco’s project, and pushed to expedite construction permits.

“Since the Wolf administration’s approval the Mariner East 2 pipeline one year ago, the call for him to stop it has grown to include organizations from across the United States, Scotland, England, and Europe,” said Karen Feridun, the founder of Berks Gas Truth. “These groups stand in solidarity with communities whose health, safety, private water supplies, quality of life, and property rights are threatened by bad actors like Sunoco/Energy Transfer Partners on this side of the Atlantic and Ineos in the UK and Europe. Governor Wolf can and must stop this pipeline right now and become the climate leader Pennsylvania needs. His choice will be his legacy.”

The letter, organized by Food & Water Watch, Food & Water Watch Europe and Berks Gas Truth was signed by US groups like Oil Change International, Progressive Democrats of America, Friends of the Earth, the Center for International Environmental Law and the Center for Biological Diversity. They are joined by organizations in Europe like Frack Free United (UK), Friends of the Earth EWNI (England, Wales and Northern Ireland), Talk Fracking (UK), Friends of the Earth Scotland, Frackwatch and Our Forth Against Unconventional Gas (Scotland), Not Here Not Anywhere (Ireland) and Ecologistas en Acción (Spain).

“From both sides of Scotland- East and West – we join our voices to those calling on Governor Wolf to protect his state and people from fracking and pipelines,” read a joint statement from Scottish groups Frackwatch Glasgow and Our Forth Against Unconventional Gas. “We feel fortunate that our government has banned fracking – but we feel sad that our country is destination for most of the gas piped through the dirty and dangerous Mariner East pipeline as it is finally transported via Dragon Class Ships, to travel up and down the Firth of OUR FORTH and pass perilously close to the capital city into the heart of Scotland.  Here, most of the gas will be used to make throwaway plastic to pollute our oceans and add to greenhouse gas emissions. We need some real changes, on both sides of the Atlantic, to move forward in a positive way! The fact is that leaders – real leaders – must now start planning for and working with communities for – a very different economic future.”

The letter closes with this message to Governor Wolf: “It is time to put a stop to this dangerous pipeline, and to move to a full ban on fracking. Your decision to do this will benefit our communities and our health, and it would protect residents of the state of Pennsylvania.”

Contacts:

US
Peter Hart, Food & Water Watch, [email protected], 732-839-0871
Karen Feridun, Berks Gas Truth, [email protected]

EU/UK
Andy Gheorghiu, Food & Water Europe, [email protected]
Penny Cole, Frackwatch Glasgow, [email protected]
Callum McLeod, Our Forth Against Unconventional Gas, [email protected]

Energy Committee Dismisses Effort of 18 MEPs to Stop Fossil-Fuel-Favoring Infrastructure Priority List

BRUSSELS — Today, the Energy Committee of the European Parliament rejected a motion for an objection to the third list of energy “projects of common interest” (PCIs) which was proposed to parliamentarians by the European Commission in November 2017. The PCI list is a priority list for infrastructure projects which benefit from advantages for permit granting and environmental impact assessments and which are eligible for CEF funding.

The objection, submitted by an initial number of 18 MEPs from 5 political groups (ALDE, EFDD, GUE, Greens and S&D), highlights the high proportion of fossil fuel infrastructure, notably gas projects, on this priority list. In today’s Committee votes, only 15 Members voted in favour of an objection, while 44 opposed it, with 2 abstentions.

“This list is the first PCI list that was drafted after the Paris Agreement came into force. Instead of aligning the list with international climate commitments, the European Commission proposed an amount of gas projects that remains as high as in the last years with. At the same time, the amount of electricity projects in the list is stagnating. This is unacceptable and incompatible with aiming at keeping global warming below 1.5 or even 2 degrees, says Frida Kieninger from Food & Water Europe.

In the objection, MEPs pointed out to the risks of investing into stranded assets since gas infrastructure constructed now is designed to last until 2060 or beyond. By then, commitments to phase out greenhouse gas emissions will have made most pipelines, compressor stations and LNG terminals irrelevant and unneeded. The PCI list, so the objection, will lock Europe into a new fossil fuel dependence if adopted in its current form and therefore it needs to be reviewed.

An objection is the only possible action for MEPs to show they are dissatisfied with the current form of the PCI list. The European Parliament and the Council can only reject the entire list, including gas and electricity projects, otherwise the list automatically enters into force since the Council already confirmed its support.

“Main aim of the objection is to align the PCI list with climate and energy targets and the Paris Agreement. It asks the Commission to draft a new list in favor of more electricity projects which are crucial to integrate renewable energy as well as other projects supporting a phase out of fossil fuels”, says Frida Kieninger. This list can’t remain serving corporate interests instead of public interest.”

This is the first time since the European Parliament is using its right of scrutiny on the PCI List. The European Commission will have to take it into account that the public will watch its every step when the next PCI List is drafted.

After today’s rejection of motion for an objection, there is still a possibility to submit the objection to the plenary. If at least 38 of the 751 Members of the European Parliament support the objection, it will likely be voted in mid-March.

 

Contact: Frida Kieninger, Food & Water Europe, Campaign Officer, Rue d’Edimbourg 26, Brussels 1050, Belgium, +32 487 24 99 05, fkieninger(at)fweurope.org

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Notes to the editor:

Motion for an Objection:

http://www.michele-rivasi.eu/assets/uploads/2018/01/PCI-Objection-20180131.pdf

Proposal for a 3rd PCI list:

https://ec.europa.eu/energy/sites/ener/files/documents/annex_to_pci_list_final_2017_en.pdf

Explosion at Austrian Baumgarten Gas Hub and Shutdown of Forties Pipeline System Shows Europe’s Vulnerability

Brussels/Washington – An explosion yesterday forced operator Gas Connect Austria to shut down a major European gas hub at Baumgarten, taking one life and injuring 21 others. Italy depends on gas deliveries via Baumgarten and declared a state of emergency – although gas supplies are expected to be guaranteed by storage for the time being. Nonetheless, Italian gas price almost doubled to Eur45/MWh following the blast.

The fatal accident in Austria follows Monday’s shutdown of the key North Sea Forties Pipeline System (FPS) after the discovery of a widening crack. UK gas prices rose immediately and the price for Brent crude oil jumped over $65/barrel – its highest level in more than two years. The FPS was recently bought by Ineos, and feeds the company’s Grangemouth, Scotland petrochemical plant. Ineos transports fracked gas liquids from the United States to produce plastic.

Both incidents feed new fears about the energy security supply of Europe and rising gas prices in the middle of a winter that has just begun.

In response, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:

“The explosion at Europe’s gas hub in Austria and the shutdown of the Forties Pipeline System in the North Sea shows Europe’s true vulnerability – it’s strong and systemic fossil fuel addiction. The only way to gain its independence and to guarantee access to abundant clean energy for Europe’s citizens is to swiftly move off of fossil fuels and finally put major investment and public money into 100% renewables and energy efficiency measures.

“But instead of identifying centralized, big fossil fuel infrastructure as a security problem, EU policy makers are going all out for gas, with around 90 new gas infrastructure projects planned. Some of this gas is being exported from fracked communities in the United States. This is taking both continents in the wrong direction at a time when climate chaos lingers at our doorsteps.”

Despite Commission promise, new list of energy infrastructure ‘projects of common interest’ prioritises climate-wrecking fossil gas

Categories

Food

350.org, Corporate Europe Observatory, Counter Balance, PowerShift, Gastivists, Justice and Environment, Food & Water Europe

BRUSSELS —Today, the European Commission presented its third “Projects of Common Interest” (PCI) list composed of energy infrastructure projects. It contains around 90 gas infrastructure projects. This is even more than the list of 2015 and directly contradicts Climate and Energy Commissioner Miguel Arias Cañete’s claim that the new PCI list was moving away from gas.[*]

“Supporting more climate-killing gas infrastructure is definitely not in the common interest of Europeans, and even less in the interest of communities worldwide that are already heavily impacted by climate change. Providing EU tax-payer money for many of these “priority” projects is a step into the past and a big step away from the Paris Agreement. It also further closes the short gap of time we still have to combat climate change” says Frida Kieninger from Food & Water Europe.

Projects on the PCI list are given the highest national priority and benefit from accelerated permits and streamlined environmental impact assessments. Many of them receive granting from the Connecting Europe Facility (CEF) – EU tax payer’s money.

“We can clearly see the gas industry’s fingerprints on the design of this years’ PCI list. Unfortunately, in EU institutions as well as in Member States departments, the gas industry lobby is still setting the agenda. The PCI process itself has been led by the gas industry through the central role of industry lobby group ENTSO-G [the European Transmission System Operators for Gas] in deciding which projects are eligible or needed”, says Pascoe Sabido from Corporate Europe Observatory. “It is obvious that ENTSO-G will never work towards its own abolishment, so involving it so closely in the PCI process undermines much needed climate action.”

The European Parliament now has two months to object to the list, otherwise it will be automatically approved. The Parliament has no ability to vote on single projects or on gas PCIs alone, and must decide on the PCI list as a whole.

Besides a number of electricity and some oil and smart grid projects, the 90 gas projects mean that for the third time in a row, the Commission has not managed to reduce the amount of fossil fuel projects to even close to 50, as stipulated by the TEN-E regulation.[*]

However, the European Commission claims it is supporting fewer gas projects through the PCI list, because it has clustered many together to count them as single projects. “Clustering projects to artificially lower their number is nothing but a cheap accounting trick and changes nothing about the fact that the PCI list still supports far too much gas infrastructure”, says J&E Board Member Birgit Schmidhuber.

The current list not only contains a host of mega-pipelines such as the $45bn Southern Gas Corridor pipeline, the Baltic Pipe and the “Eastring”. Meanwhile, demand has been declining for over a decade. Also on the list is a number of new LNG terminals to import costly, climate damaging liquefied gas from all over the globe. Terminals in Sweden, Ireland, Croatia and Poland get EU support while the EU-wide use of such terminals was at less than one fifth of their capacities in the past.

So far, gas PCIs eligible for funding received twice as much money – over €1bn – as electricity projects, despite the CEF regulation stipulates that electricity PCIs should receive the majority of CEF funding. Over €3bn of the €4.7bn foreseen for gas and electricity PCIs from 2014-2020 still remains unspent. It is still unclear whether the trend of favouring gas project funding will be turned for the benefit of electricity projects in the next three years.

 

End notes

[*] Cañete told Ends Europe in November 2017 “In the [PCI] list we will publish at the end of November, you will see there is a big shift from gas to electricity” (behind a paywall)
[*] TEN-E regulation

Ineos’ Court Injunction Won’t Stop UK Anti-Fracking Movement

Categories

Food

Washington/Brussels/London—Today, the High Court of the United Kingdom upheld an injunction sought by petrochemical giant Ineos intended to stifle protest against the company’s plans to frack sites in the UK.

In response, Food & Water Watch and Food & Water Europe Executive Director Wenonah Hauter issued the following statement:

“This decision undermines our basic democratic rights to protest and defend our communities.

“Ineos is facing sustained protests for a reason. The company has amassed an atrocious environmental record across Europe, from chemical leaks and substantial pollutant releases to fires and explosions. If this company is being allowed to frack the UK, more pollution and more accidents are likely to follow.”

“The public knows the dangers fracking poses to our clean air and water, and that’s why activists in England are taking bold action to protect their communities against these threats. Ineos would like to stifle this movement, and unfortunately this High Court injunction has given the company a potentially powerful tool to threaten those advocating for a healthy climate and a livable world. If Ineos thinks a court injunction will stop the movement to protect our water, climate and communities from fracking, they are in for a surprise.“