Welcome to “Feet to the Fire: Big Oil and the Climate Crisis,” a newsletter in which we share our latest reporting on how the fossil fuel industry drives climate change and influences climate policy in five of the nation’s most important oil and gas-producing states. In addition, we shine a spotlight on the financing of the fossil fuel industry, holding banks and other financial institutions accountable for their role and providing you with updates on their activities.
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Oil Industry Goes on Offensive in California With $5 Million TV Ad Buy to Thwart Potential Regulations
One of California’s most powerful oil industry trade groups is spending $5 million on a prime-time TV ad campaign — more than it spent on lobbying in the first half of 2024 — to defeat a slew of legislative proposals to regulate the industry. The bills seek to plug low-producing wells, allow cities and counties to ban oil drilling and spur oil companies to clean up thousands of polluting idle wells. One of the campaign’s ads ran across the state during the Summer Olympics, the association’s vice president told Capital & Main’s Aaron Cantú.
Small New Mexico Town’s Air Quality Is Worse Than That of Downtown L.A.
Scientists monitoring air quality last year in Loving, a town in the middle of the Permian Basin, the most productive field in the nation, found high levels of air pollutants that exceed federal Clean Air Act guidelines. For example, its ozone levels exceeded the Environmental Protection Agency’s pollution threshold 31 times last year, as compared to the levels of ozone in downtown Los Angeles, which exceeded that threshold 23 times. Despite those findings, the EPA has not taken any action, such as cracking down on the oil and gas industry, which is responsible for most of the pollution in the area, reports Capital & Main’s Jerry Redfern.
California Races to Build Hundreds of Pipelines to Help Meet State Emission Goals
As its deadline looms to remove millions of tons of carbon dioxide by 2030, California is racing ahead with plans to lay miles of new pipelines through major cities to move the gas to the Central Valley and Sacramento delta for burial, reports Cantú. Overall, the state’s goal is to capture between 13 million and 20 million metric tons of carbon dioxide by the end of the decade. But that will require lots of infrastructure, including 1,150 miles of new pipeline and facilities that will pump the gas underground, according to a 2020 report by the nonprofit Energy Futures Initiative and Stanford University’s Center for Carbon Storage and Precourt Institute for Energy.
Environmentalists Blast Shapiro’s Carbon Capture Plan
As Pennsylvania sprints ahead with plans for carbon capture technology to reduce its greenhouse gas emissions, environmentalists are pushing back by claiming that the technology is untested and that the oil and gas industry is downplaying its risks and exaggerating its potential. Gov. Josh Shapiro recently signed legislation to establish the legal and regulatory framework for carbon capture and utilization, but critics say the bill “strips Pennsylvania landowners of their subsurface property rights, shifts liability to the state, and exposes everyone to a new and dangerous generation of fossil fuel infrastructure,” per a letter sent to Shapiro by 30 organizations, reports Capital & Main’s Audrey Carleton. Carbon capture technology would eliminate only 2.4% of global carbon emissions by 2030, according to the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change’s 2023 report.
Banks Not on Track to Achieve Net-Zero Goals, Says World Resources Institute
Using an online tracker to assess how a sample of 25 banks are making progress on implementing their net-zero commitments, the World Resources Institute concluded that “not only are banks off-track to meet net-zero targets, but many of their pledges are less ambitious than they seem at face value.” Per the International Energy Agency, the world will need to invest about $4 trillion per year in clean energy by 2030 in order to help cut greenhouse gas emissions. And much of the transition to a green economy will depend on banks’ lending and financial services.
Australia’s Biggest Bank Will Stop Financing Fossil Fuel Companies That Lack Emissions Plan
In a major step, Australia’s largest bank said that it will stop financing fossil fuel companies that fail to comply with climate goals set out by the Paris Agreement by the end of this year. Commonwealth Bank’s announcement raised eyebrows since the bank was previously described as “the worst offender on climate and lending to fossil fuel companies” by the climate group Market Forces. The bank also laid out for clients some new criteria, including an emissions reduction plan for 2035.
African Business Lobby Accuses Western Lenders of ‘Financial Apartheid’
One of Africa’s biggest business lobbies is accusing Western lenders of “financial apartheid” for refusing to finance the continent’s oil and gas projects, claiming it will make it harder for it to emerge from energy poverty. As a result of the lack of financing, owners and investors have had to put development plans on hold, said NJ Ayuk, the executive chairman of the African Energy Chamber.
Transition Bonds to Help Oil and Gas Producers Reduce Methane Emissions Are Exploding
At the upcoming COP29 annual climate conference in November, a global group of organizations plan to introduce new ways for oil and gas producers to obtain transition financing to help reduce their methane emissions. The group of organizations, including the Climate Bonds Initiative, also plans to certify methane reduction projects that meet its criteria. The use of transition bonds, which are sold by oil and gas producers to finance their emission-reduction efforts, has accelerated in recent years, with $20 billion worth issued so far this year, more than four times last year’s total, according to BloombergNEF.
