BREAKING: Bill to Keep Fossil Fuels in the Ground Launched in Congress

Friends,

Today, a game-changing climate bill was introduced in the U.S. Congress by Sens. Jeff Merkley and Bernie Sanders, along with five of their colleagues.¹

It's game-changing because it's the first bill to cut to the heart of the issue and keep fossil fuels underground, by cutting off all sales of coal, oil and gas from publicly owned lands. That's 450 gigatons of carbon that would be kept underground -- half of the fossil fuels in the entire United States, representing enough carbon to take us past major climate tipping points.

Because the climate movement has fought tirelessly for years to stop projects like Keystone XL, fracking, and Arctic drilling, Senators are lining up to demand that we keep fossil fuels in the ground. This is the new measure of climate leadership.

It's crucial that we show that movement energy is turning the tide in Washington. Can you share this announcement on Facebook and help us spread the good news?

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In short, this bill says that if it is wrong to wreck the planet, it is wrong for our government to be in the business of digging up coal, oil and gas from publicly-owned land. It also lays down a marker for both President Obama and whomever ends up being the next President: if you want to be a climate champion, keep fossil fuels in the ground.

Most climate legislation nibbles at the edge of the fossil fuel industry's power -- making them pay a little more here, financing some clean energy there. This one clearly states the scientific reality that we must keep 80% of fossil fuel reserves underground to avoid climate disaster. If we are going to avoid the worst effects of climate change, we need to keep publicly-owned fossil fuel reserves off-limits.

As this bill starts to make its way through Congress today, it's important to note that President Obama has the power to make this happen too. An executive order would accomplish the same goal -- banning fossil fuel extraction on public lands, and keeping all that carbon in the ground. The President could show his climate leadership and support for this bill by taking executive action now. 

Keeping fossil fuels in the ground wasn’t even acceptable to talk about just a few short years ago; now it’s a bill in Congress with a long list of co-sponsors. A lot more is suddenly possible, and politicians everywhere should be taking note.

Keeping publicly owned fossil fuels off-limits would be an enormous victory, and the fact that it's even on the table is an enormous testament to our movement's growing power.

Let's keep it up,

Jason

P.S. Want to keep that movement momentum growing on the international stage? At the end of this month, there’s a huge global mobilization to send a message to UN climate negotiators sitting down to meet in Paris. Keeping 80% of fossil fuels in the ground should be on the international agenda too.Click here to find or start an action on the weekend of November 28th-29th.

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 1. "Keep It In the Ground" Bill co-sponsors: Sen. Barbra Boxer - CA, Sen. Ben Cardin - MD, Sen. Kristen Gillibrand - NY, Sen. Patrick Leahy - VT, Sen. Jeff Merkley - OR (Lead Sponsor), Sen. Bernie Sanders - VT, Sen Elizabeth Warren - MA

BREAKING: TransCanada asks for KXL application "suspension"

Letter from Bill McKibben 350.org

Dear friends,

Well, somewhat astonishing news tonight. Transcanada—the company that was so sure it would be building the Keystone Pipeline that it mowed the 1700 mile route and stockpiled the necessary pipe across the Midwest—tonight said it wanted to suspend its application.

This is—make no mistake—a massive victory for people power. You emailed, you phoned, you marched, and in record numbers you went to jail. That’s what it took to persuade the arrogant oil industry they simply couldn’t prevail in their plan to pump the world’s filthiest oil across the heart of the continent.

They’re clearly pursuing a gambit—knowing they’ve lost, they’re trying to ask for some extra innings from the umpire, on the theory that they’ll re-submit a new route for the pipeline after the next election. President Obama shouldn’t give it to them. He should finally break his silence on Keystone and say the most important thing: it fails the climate test that he laid out. It will help cook the planet. It’s a bad idea no matter what route it takes, because it’s a fuse to one of the planet’s nastiest carbon bombs.

If President Obama rejects this pipeline once and for all, he’ll go to Paris with boosted credibility—the world leader who was willing to shut down a big project on climate grounds. Truthfully, though, we know it was a movement that shut it down: First Nations and Indigenous Peoples, climate scientists, farmers and ranchers, ministers and rabbis, young people and old people.

Tell President Obama not to let TransCanada play for time. It’s time to reject this pipeline once and for all.

They told us it was a done deal. We are an inch away from undoing it completely. And in the process, we’ve helped build a movement ready to take down hundreds of other fossil fuel projects and keep fossil fuels where they belong—underground.

Thank you all for your relentlessness. Let's not stop now.

Onward,

Bill, Sara, Jason, Rae, Jamie, Deirdre and the rest of 350.org's KXL team

Our River Raisin, Creeks and Drains are Filthy and Unsafe for Recreational Activities Thanks to Local Factory Farms

The Environmentally Concerned Citizens of South Central Michigan (ECCSCM) completed its fifth round of water monitoring tests for our 2015 Water Monitoring Project on October 27, 2015.  They monitored 10 sites in the Bear Cr./Black Cr./Raisin and lower (MI) Bean Cr./Tiffin/Maumee watersheds this year.  ECCSCM sampled 8 of these sites on 10.27.15.

This is what they found:

Numbers in bold either meet or exceed MI water quality standards or the EPA-recommended maximum levels.

We noted widespread manure application in all of these areas on the days immediately preceding our sample collection.

Of special concern is Shierson Drain, with extremely high levels not only of E. coli, but also of phosphorus, nitrates, and ammonia.  A DO reading was not taken on that drain.

The E. coli result at Shierson Drain on Ridgeville Rd. (county catch basin which was flowing and nearly full) was 150000/100mL.  At the Deline Drain on Tomer Rd., the E. coli count was 91000/100mL.  At the tributary to Lime Cr. on Ingall Hwy. (just north of Packard Rd.), the E. coli count was 5500/100mL.  At Silver Cr. on Mulberry Rd. (which is the outlet for Shierson Dr.), the E. coli count was 1200/100mL. The MI limit for partial body contact - E. coli is 1000/100mL.

My comment: Think about it: Shierson Drain has 150 x as many E. coli than the MI limit for partial body contact - as in going into the water with a pair of waders! My aquatic ecology students and I repeatedly measured E. coli values of 70,000 and up from the River Raisin near the confluence with Wolf Creek, Island Park and Laberdee Rd. close to the confluence with the North Branch of the River coming from Tecumseh. These values are now confirmed by these insanely high values measured by the ECCSCM. 

All eight sites had excessive phosphorus levels, with Shierson Dr. at the highest.  Multiply the orthophosphate (PO4) result by .3262 to obtain P.  Michigan does not have water quality standards for phosphorus for non-point sources, but it is <1 mg/L (ppm) for point sources (industry, municipal wastewater treatment plants).  The safe level for aquatic life is <.05 mg/L, and the danger level is .1 mg/L.

Two sites, Carter Dr., Silver Cr., and Shierson Dr., had nitrate levels that were either at or above the MI water quality standard.

Three sites, Rice Lake Dr., Medina Dr., and the tributary to Lime Cr. on Ingall Hwy. had dissolved oxygen levels that were below the MI water quality standard for warmwater streams, as  dangerously low as .23 mg/L.  DO readings were not taken for Shierson Dr., Carter Dr., or Silver Cr., due to equipment issues.

The test results at six of our 8 sites showed the presence of ammonia, and the highest level, 6 ppm, at Shierson Drain, was the highest level that ECCSCM has ever recorded..

You can download an Excel spreadsheet with all data - including the exact GPS coordinates of the sample sites here.

And all this shit (literally) goes into Lake Erie and contributes to the toxic algae blooms we see almost every year! Maybe it is time to re-think if you really need to consume gallons of milk and meat on a daily basis that is produced at such costs for the environment and causes unbelievable hardship and suffering to the animals abused in these factory farms! Everybody who continues to live this absurd lifestyle is guilty of crimes against our "Common Home" and crimes against our Fellow Beasts.

Feds: Proposed Pipeline Rules Could Have Prevented Accidents

New federal rules proposed for pipelines that carry oil and other hazardous liquids could have prevented more than 200 accidents since 2010, including a Michigan rupture that ranks as the costliest onshore spill in U.S. history, federal officials said.

• By MATTHEW BROWN, ASSOCIATED PRESS
 

BILLINGS, Mont. — Oct 2, 2015, 3:25 AM ET

In this July 29, 2010 file photo, a worker monitors the water in Talmadge Creek in Marshall Township, Mich., near the Kalamazoo River as oil from a ruptured pipeline, owned by Enbridge Inc, is vacuumed out the water. The U.S. Department of Transportation wants to expand rules for pipelines carrying oil, gasoline and other hazardous liquids inspections requirements to include rural areas that are currently exempt, and for companies to more closely analyze the results of their inspections. (AP Photo/Paul Sancya, File)
Read the entire story here: http://bigstory.ap.org/article/71815ea93ad74dd8a083fc258c83035c/feds-proposed-pipeline-rules-could-have-prevented-accidents

15 people on a hunger strike at FERC until 9/25, the day after the people's pope speaks to Congress

15 people on a hunger strike at FERC until 9/25, the day after the people's pope speaks to Congress


The reason they are fasting:

"We are fasting because the movement which we are representing has tried every other means available to get FERC to stop being a rubber-stamp agency for fracked gas infrastructure (pipelines, compressor stations, storage and export terminals)." http://ecowatch.com/2015/09/11/fasting-for-no-new-permits/


Today's update: http://tedglick.com/future-hope-columns/september-25th-at-ferc/

September 19, 2015 September 25 th at FERC By Ted Glick
It's the morning of the twelfth day that I haven't been eating. The only things I've been putting into my body are lots of water, salt, potassium and a multi-vitamin.
How do I feel? Weak, very weak, as do most of the others— about 15 as I write—who are also fasting and intend to do so until September 25th, the day after the people's pope speaks to Congress. 11 of the 15 are also, like me, on the twelfth day of water-only.
We're physically weak mainly because of the water-only diet but also because we've been conducting this hunger strike on the sidewalk in the hot sun in front of FERC, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, from 7 am to 6 pm every work day. We've been leafletting and talking to FERC employees, including, several days ago, Norman Bay, the chairperson. We've been leafletting and talking to passers-by and people who come to visit, as have Tim DeChristoper, Medea Benjamin, "No Impact Man" Colin Beavan, local high school students, and more.
We've been using white boards to make signs that we change as the days go by. We've been putting up quotes from Pope Francis and Gandhi. Every morning part of our routine is to change the number of the days that we've been fasting on the signs that say, "Day ___ of 18-Day Hunger Strike for No New Permits for Fossil Fuel Infrastructure."
We've also been traveling around DC. We've gone to important local demonstrations, several times to the site of a sister fast being conducted by the Franciscan Action Network, and meetings.
All of these activities are taking a physical toll, adding to the impact of not eating.
Spiritually, however, we're a very strong group. Every day we gather together outside of FERC in the morning and the afternoon to meet and go over everything that has happened or is happening that day. We always begin by going around our sacred circle with each faster reporting on how they are doing. Sometimes individual fasters have reported problems, some pretty serious, as far as how they are doing. So far we have been able to help everyone in those situations to get over them and continue on, sometimes aided by local nurses who have volunteered their services for free.
At the end of each meeting, we join hands for a minute or more of silent breathing together and communal strengthening, and it always works.
Two-thirds of the way through this ordeal, we're seeing the end of it. We're starting to talk about how to come off the fast in a way that doesn't do damage to your digestive system. I shared yesterday my nine-day plan—one day of transitioning back for every two days of fasting-- for how to do so based on my past fasting experiences.
The fast will end this coming Friday, September 25 th, at 12 noon in front of FERC, the day after Pope Francis speaks before Congress. We will end it by breaking and sharing bread together—a very small piece for each of us—and with the many hundreds or more people we hope will join us. We are inviting people who do so who can to bring a healthy loaf of bread to share so that, together, we will break bread together there on First St. NE, affirming life and community and our determination to keep at it until we have won.
We need people to join us on the 25th not so much to support us but to make a strong statement to FERC, and all those who will learn of our action, about the need for FERC to heed our demand: No New Permits for Fossil Fuel Infrastructure.
Some of the fasters got into the monthly meeting of the FERC Commissioners a few days ago, the meetings BXE has been attending and speaking out at for a year. One of them stayed throughout it, and he reported on how t he Commissioners were talking about how electrical power companies need to be making plans to switch to gas as their fuel source going forward. Much of that would be fracked gas. This is consistent with the EPA's Clean Power Plan projections and the very serious economic problems being experienced by the coal industry.
The Commissioners did not talk about the need for power companies to get serious about switching to wind or solar energy as their power source, even though 1) they are price-competitive with coal and gas, 2) they are actually clean and non-polluting, no water contamination, no poisoning of the air and land, and 3) they don't leak methane, a greenhouse gas 86 times more powerful than CO2 over a 20 year period.
It has become very clear that a, if not the, central battle to prevent worldwide climate catastrophe is the battle over whether natural gas, increasingly fracked gas, or renewables is going to become the primary electrical power source in the next decade. FERC Commissioners are going all-in on an expansion of fracking infrastructure and exporting the stuff around the world.
This decision must not go unchallenged, and it is not. There is a growing and connecting national movement, centered along the east coast right now, that is taking on FERC, in DC and in the scores and scores, maybe hundreds, of local communities where people are organizing to fight new fracking infrastructure. Many more need to join this fight, and now.
Let's make September 25 th at FERC in DC, following upon the big Climate Justice rally September 24 th on the mall as the Pope speaks to Congress, the next major manifestation of our determination to prevent FERC from continuing to poison local communities and our threatened climate. In the words of Pope Francis, "There is an urgent need to develop policies so that, in the next few years, the emission of carbon dioxide and other highly polluting gases can be drastically reduced, substituting for fossil fuels and developing sources of renewable energy."
Wake up FERC!
Ted Glick is the National Campaign Coordinator of the Chesapeake Climate Action Network.

Solar owners who want to feed into grid may not be able to use their own energy under Senate proposal | MLive.com

http://www.mlive.com/lansing-news/index.ssf/2015/08/solar_owners_may_not_be_able_t.html


Sent from my iPhone

FERC: NEXUS frackers may be too fragile to fulfill the requirements off a new a gas pipeline

This was posted to FERC on Monday.

FERC must consider that NEXUS’ binding shipper agreements were signed over a year ago and that FERC must evaluate the current soundness of these agreements and companies.

 

NEXUS must present FERC with “legally binding precedent agreements showing that the pipeline will be FULLY or NEARLY FULLY (85%) subscribed for a minimum of TEN YEARS.”http://www.naruc.org/Grants/Documents/ICF-EISPC-Gas-Electric-Infrastructure-FINAL%202014-12-08.pdf

FERC, it is doubtful that many NEXUS shippers are financially sound enough to fulfill this requirement.

 

Many Marcellus/Utica E&P companies are predicted to go BANKRUPT (unless they sell themselves or otherwise sell off major assets). Here is a “ DEATH LIST” report listing very RISKY companies and their unacceptably high debt-to-earnings ratios:

ANTERO Resources (4.99), EV Energy Partners (6.54), HALCON Resources (7.81), MAGNUM HUNTER Resources (52.29), REX Energy (5.06), VANTAGE Drilling (6.16), and WARREN Resources (5.50). http://www.investorvillage.com/uploads/77263/files/OXFORD19CODEBTHITLIST.pdf?cmpid=verticalcontent

 

RANGE RESOURCES and CHESAPEAKE Energy also have very high debt levels and are burning through their cash reserves at unsustainable rates.

 

Analyst predict CHESAPEAKE Energy is at high risk of bankruptcy because of a high debt-to-equity ratio (1.29) and a poor quick ratio (0.70) indicating an inability to avoid short-term cash problems.http://www.thestreet.com/story/13280330/1/chesapeake-energy-chk-stock-climbs-after-deal-to-lower-costs.html?puc=yahoo&cm_ven=YAHOO

Credit downgrades abound:

“The E&P firms ASCENT Resources-Marcellus LLC, EXCO Resources Inc. and PENN VIRGINIA Corp. were all cut one notch, to SGL-4, indicating increased risk that the companies will violate their debt covenants.” https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/article.aspx?ID=33728071&KPLT=4

 

ASCENT (formerly American Energy Appalachia Holdings) was recently downgraded by Moody’s to the LOWEST (probable DEFAULT) credit rating of Caa2. (See McClendon’s Marcellus Misadventure Exposes Lenders to More Pain  http://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2015-08-17/mcclendon-s-marcellus-misadventure-exposes-lenders-to-more-pain )

 

 

It is predicted that 5 to 13 gas and oil E&P companies will go bankrupt in the next 12 months and 3 to 7 afterwards.

“In September, banks will make one of their periodic reassessments of drillers' reserves. If the companies' assets are found to be less valuable than their outstanding debt, drillers will be forced to come up with a way to cover the gap between their reserve value and debt load. That could mean asset sales, restructurings and the like—or bankruptcies.” http://www.cnbc.com/2015/06/16/oil-and-gas-drillers-may-face-wave-of-bankruptcies-this-year.html

 

Low oil and natural gas prices continue to create doubt that some highly leveraged exploration and production companies will repay the billions they borrowed according to Moody's.https://www.snl.com/InteractiveX/article.aspx?ID=33626001&KPLT=4

 

Furthermore, oil and gas prices are expected to stay LOW for 3 years. This will put extreme “pressure on credit ratings because of inability to meet COVENANTS, limited availability on revolving credit facilities and unsustainable capital structures.”*

http://marcellusdrilling.com/2015/08/moodys-says-oil-gas-prices-staying-low-another-3-years/

 

 

FERC needs to do more evaluation of the Certificates of Need policy:

“The Commission balances the public benefits against the potential adverse consequences. … the applicant's responsibility for UNSUBSCIBED capacity, the avoidance of unnecessary disruptions of the environment, and the unneeded exercise of eminent domain in evaluating new pipeline construction.” http://www.ferc.gov/legal/maj-ord-reg/PL99-3-000.pdf

 

Given that considerable environment, quality of life and billions of dollars are at stake, it would be a travesty for FERC to approve a pipeline that would later be greatly underutilized or ABANDONED because of your neglectful disregard of risky shipper financials.