Think for a minute how much the world's energy profile has changed in the past decade. Wind and solar have finally begun to shake their slumber. Big Coal is in tatters.
<p> And stunningly, for a fleeting moment this spring, there was such an oversupply of oil that its per-barrel price briefly <a href="https://www.oilandgas360.com/historic-plunge-in-oil-to-negative-37-wti/" target="_blank">went negative </a>—oil suppliers would pay others to take the stuff off their hands.</p><p>The pipeline industry is the latest sector on the defensive. On July 6, a federal judge temporarily shut down the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL), citing <a href="https://apnews.com/be393de49dae81a2198ef30976212290" target="_blank">inadequate environmental review</a> by the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers. </p><p>Years of protests led by the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe, backed by years of litigation, stopped DAPL's flow of diluted bitumen, a particularly toxic form of heavy oil.</p><p>In the southeast, the yet-unbuilt 600 miles of the Atlantic Coast Pipeline will never be built. Its owners, Dominion Energy and Duke Energy, had hoped to pump natural gas from West Virginia and Pennsylvania, to serve its customers in Virginia and North Carolina. But the rising costs and delays of pipeline construction ran headlong into protests, environmental laws, and market forces, so Duke and Dominion <a href="https://slate.com/human-interest/2020/07/atlantic-coast-pipeline-canceled-victory-lawsuits-appalachia-virginia-north-carolina.html" target="_blank">pulled the plug </a>on the project on July 5. Construction crews won't be tunneling under the iconic Appalachian Trail after all.</p><p>Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette <a href="https://www.reuters.com/article/us-usa-pipelines-brouillette/u-s-energy-secretary-blames-activists-for-big-pipeline-setbacks-idUSKBN24722E" target="_blank">knew an enemy when he saw one</a>: The First Amendment. Brouillette pinned the blame for these pipeline setbacks squarely on the Native Americans, environmentalists, farmers, ranchers and property rights advocates whose hell-raising has made pipeline-building a bad economic bet. </p><p>"I'm not quite sure what (activists) are cheering except for perhaps the loss of jobs all throughout America," he said during an interview on the Fox Business Network. </p><p>The Secretary, a lobbyist who replaced Rick Perry, the newest member of the Board of DAPL's parent company, isn't the only one alarmed by the protests. Seven states have passed laws to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2019/jul/08/wave-of-new-laws-aim-to-stifle-anti-pipeline-protests-activists-say" target="_blank">crack down on pipeline protests</a>, while six more states have bills pending. All are the handiwork of the American Legislative Exchange Council (ALEC), an anti-regulatory bill factory that delivers cut-out bills to pliant legislators.</p><p><span></span><a href="https://www.ehn.org/chesapeake-energy-stock-2646322691.html" target="_self">As I wrote last week</a>, fracking titans like Chesapeake Energy are also on the ropes. But none of this should lead us into an assumption that Big Oil will soon dry up and blow away.<br></p><p>Coal is hurting in the U.S., but it's still thriving in much of the developing world—climate change concerns be damned. And as the world's billion-plus cars and trucks will still largely run on fossil fuels for years to come, there won't be a death watch for petroleum for a while.</p><p>We're only three years beyond Exxon's recently-retired CEO, Rex Tillerson's, brief spin as Secretary of State. You may recall that Rex T.'s career as fourth in line of succession to the presidency lasted barely a year before relative decency and humanity disqualified him from further service to the Trump White House.</p><p>(Permit me a digression into a now-forgotten moment of extreme irony. Back in 2014 while he was still ExxonMobil's CEO, <a href="https://www.usatoday.com/story/money/business/2014/02/22/exxon-mobil-tillerson-ceo-fracking/5726603/" target="_blank">Tillerson joined his neighbors</a> in their wealthy Bartonville, Texas, enclave in a lawsuit to halt a nearby fracking project, citing noise, aesthetics and a decline in property values. Tillerson quit the suit when the bad optics of a major oil CEO suing a small fracking jobber made headlines.)</p><p>My thoughts return to the thousands of citizens who rebelled against the government's wishes to build a pipeline through the heart of the old Confederacy. </p><p>Under different circumstances, the president might love to see them on a monument.</p>
<p><em>Peter Dykstra is our weekend editor and columnist. </em></p><p><em>His views do not necessarily represent those of Environmental Health News, The Daily Climate or publisher, Environmental Health Sciences.</em></p><p><em><em><em>Contact him at </em><em><a href="mailto:pdykstra@ehn.org" target="_blank">pdykstra@ehn.org</a> </em><em>or on Twitter at </em><em><a href="https://twitter.com/pdykstra?ref_src=twsrc%5Egoogle%7Ctwcamp%5Eserp%7Ctwgr%5Eauthor" target="_blank">@Pdykstra</a></em><em>.</em></em></em></p><p><em>Banner photo: A Dakota Access Pipeline protest in 2016. (Credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/40969298@N05/29451803336/in/photolist-LSyc3G-KYzE28-LNzCek-RcstS4-LVAn4F-KYAKvc-LVAcjk-LSynhj-KYoRKb-MTNB3C-RjAEAW-RXLjN2-KYsca7-LNvzhr-Lu7r7w-LNvwnP-RV8A9Q-Q9ptyc-LVzPVi-LSxZzb-Q9ptF6-RjAEHu-RjAEDm-LVzX7n-Q9ptnR-AN34bq-RjAEFq-Q6CbGE-Q6CbyJ-PhH6hK-RjAEwh-PexMvE-PhH2HF-PexPos-RjAEuU-PfNfAg-PexL4w-EG1pCg-PedNj1-RXLkcD-P4NVqU-PhH4c2-P4P3kq-Phojdc-PexH1h-PedQBN-RLUXaa-Phokzk-PcAJrE-EG1r8R" target="_blank">Joe Brusky/flickr</a>) </em></p>
Elon Musk, Greta Thunberg, Rishi Sunak, Donald Trump — trees suddenly have an eclectic mix of fans, all drawn to the apparent simplicity of their carbon-locking power. Now Big Oil has joined the party, in a big way.
More than 80% of the nation — 265 million people — will sweat through highs above 90, and another 45 million will swelter in triple-digit temperatures.
Climate investment goals, green job targets and key decarbonization deadlines were missing from an environmental platform published yesterday by a joint team of Joe Biden backers and Sen. Bernie Sanders supporters.
U.S. greenhouse gas emissions dropped 18 percent from March 15 to June 15 because of the coronavirus pandemic, according to researchers at Rhodium Group. But there's a cost.
The report outlines health problems of people living near fracking wells. The Environmental Health Project says it's about time public health take center stage.
By 2030, emissions from McDonald’s restaurants and offices will need to drop 36%, compared to 2015, to meet the company’s science-based targets. This new restaurant now open at Walt Disney World Resort in Florida is one step toward that goal.
Signature progressive programs like “Medicare for all” and the Green New Deal did not make it into the recommendations. But Senator Bernie Sanders’s allies pushed some policies to the left.
The report found White House pressure led to NOAA’s rebuke of forecasters who contradicted Mr. Trump’s inaccurate claim that Hurricane Dorian would hit Alabama.
Four of the fellows who participated in the program this year will discuss their ongoing research, activism, and experiences with publishing their ideas in the public sphere.
With job loss and stifled development in the renewable energy sector, economists, politicians, and advocates say policy action is necessary to stay on track.
The pandemic has put public health officials in a perilous place—caught between the common good and the often-toxic American drive for personal freedom.
