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Information on banks’ financing of fossil fuels from the Rainforest Action Network: Banking on Climate Change: Fossil Fuel Finance Report Card 2018

From Nebraska to Federal Court, the Sierra Club Keeps Up the Fight on Keystone XL

In March 2018 West Roxbury Massachusetts Lateral Pipeline protest arrests, Defendants Acquitted Based on Climate Necessity Defense

According to TransCanada spokeswoman, Keystone Pipeline Leak In South Dakota About Double Previous Estimate

Introduction of anti-protest bills in Louisiana, Pennsylvania, and Minnesota: These states want to make planning a pipeline protest a crime

Kinder Morgan’s proposed expansion of the Trans Mountain pipeline is framed in the context of a Myth of The Asian Market for Alberta’s Oil

 

© Thom Ayres

Fracking

Hydraulic fracturing (also fracking, fraccing, frac’ing, hydrofracturing or hydrofracking) is a well stimulation technique in which rock is fractured by a pressurized liquid.

The process involves the high-pressure injection of ‘fracking fluid’ (primarily water, containing sand or other proppants suspended with the aid of thickening agents) into a wellbore to create cracks in the deep-rock formations through which natural gas, petroleum, and brine will flow more freely.

When the hydraulic pressure is removed from the well, small grains of hydraulic fracturing proppants (either sand or aluminium oxide) hold the fractures open. [1]

Fracking poses a number of risks, including air pollution, water contamination, and public health effects. [2]

[1]: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Well_stimulation

[2]: https://frackfreeil.wordpress.com/compendium-of-fracking-risks/

 

© Thom Ayres

 

Pipelines

• A North Dakota regulatory board accuses a private security firm hired by the Dakota Access pipeline developer of operating in the state without a license. (Forum News Service)

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) maintains a list of pending natural gas pipeline projects [3]

[3]: https://www.ferc.gov/industries/gas/indus-act/pipelines/pending-projects.asp

 

© Thom Ayres

 

Oil and Gas Companies

Suncor promises not to explore for oil. The WSJ wrote about Suncor Energy’s (NYSE: SU) unusual strategy to curry favor with investors. Suncor, Canada’s largest oil producer, promised not to reinvest in new upstream projects for the “foreseeable future.” Suncor has spent large sums in Alberta oil sands, but it now promises to fork over cash to shareholders rather than spend it on growth, a strategy that has been greeted warmly by investors. The move comes after several oil majors exited Canada’s oil sands earlier this year. The oil sands are expensive and dirty, and take years and billions of dollars to develop. Needless to say, they face an uncertain future. So, Suncor’s strategy, for now, is to not spend any more money on greenfield projects. (7/4/17 Oilprice.com Intelligence Report)