Greenpeace says Koch funds misinformation about global warming

LONDON - Great Britain’s The Guardian on March 30 reported on an investigation by environmental activist group Greenpeace that identifies privately owned U.S. oil company Koch Industries as the paymaster of global warming skeptics in the U.S. and Europe.
Greenpeace accuses Kansas-based Koch, which owns refineries and operates oil pipelines, of funding 35 conservative and libertarian groups, as well as more than 20 congressmen and senators. Between them, Greenpeace says, these groups and individuals have spread misinformation about climate science and led a sustained assault on climate scientists and green alternatives to fossil fuels.
Greenpeace says that Koch Industries donated nearly $48 million to climate opposition groups between 1997-2008. From 2005-2008, it donated $25 million to groups opposed to climate change, nearly three times as much as higher-profile funders such as ExxonMobil.
Koch also spent $5.7 million on political campaigns and $37 million on direct lobbying to support fossil fuels.
In a hard-hitting report, which appears to confirm environmentalists' suspicions that there is a well-funded opposition to the science of climate change, Greenpeace accuses the funded groups of "spreading inaccurate and misleading information" about climate science and clean energy companies.
"The company's network of lobbyists, former executives and organizations has created a forceful stream of misinformation that Koch-funded entities produce and disseminate. The propaganda is then replicated, repackaged and echoed many times throughout the Koch-funded web of political front groups and think tanks," said Greenpeace.
"Koch industries is playing a quiet but dominant role in the global warming debate. This private, out-of-sight corporation has become a financial kingpin of climate science denial and clean energy opposition. On repeated occasions organizations funded by Koch foundations have led the assault on climate science and scientists, 'green jobs', renewable energy and climate policy progress," it says.
The groups include many of the best-known conservative think tanks in the U.S., like Americans for Prosperity, the Heritage Foundation, the Cato Institute, the Manhattan Institute and the Foundation for Research on Economics and the Environment. All have been involved in "spinning" the "climategate" story or are at the forefront of the anti-global warming debate, says Greenpeace.

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DOT rules Weaver’s Cove Energy must recalculate LNG gas cloud

FALL RIVER, Mass. - A new Department of Transportation ruling requires Weaver’s Cove Energy to recalculate how far a possibly flammable cloud of escaped gas might travel.
The opinion, requested from the DOT by the city of Fall River, also states that the full length of a gas pipeline the company wants to build will be under DOT regulation.
Weaver’s Cove is planning to build an offshore berth just south of the Braga Bridge. Liquefied natural gas from tanker ships would be unloaded there and piped four miles up the Taunton River to the proposed tank site at Weaver’s Cove.
“The city asked for this ruling in November of 2009,” said Fall River Corporation Counsel Steven Torres. “I’m very pleased. This is a great way to start the year.
“The DOT has now said that all of the project is subject to their siting regulations and that any exclusion zones will run the whole length of the pipeline, including where it comes on shore,” Torres said.
“They were using disproven science to calculate thermal dispersion,” said Michael Miozza, vice president of anti-LNG organization The Coalition for the Responsible Siting of LNG. “They’re trying to misrepresent how far that cloud will travel.
The statement from the DOT said Weaver’s Cove Energy’s method for calculating how far a gas cloud would travel are “impracticable” and requires the company to come up with new method of calculating, though the DOT does not specify a proper method.

El Paso Partners buying stake in Southern LNG, Elba Express

SAVANNAH, Ga. - El Paso Pipeline Partners, L.P. on March 25 announced that it has agreed to acquire a 51 percent interest in both Southern LNG Co., LLC. and El Paso Elba Express Co., LLC. from El Paso Corp. for $810 million.
The acquisition, which is said to be the partnership's largest to date, would broaden its asset base with two high-quality assets. Upon completion, El Paso Pipeline Partners would become the majority owner in Southern LNG's Elba Island liquefied natural gas terminal at Savannah and El Paso Elba Express' pipeline which went into service on March 1.
The partnership, which was formed by El Paso Corp., currently owns Wyoming Interstate Co., an interstate pipeline system serving the Rocky Mountain region, a 58 percent interest in Colorado Interstate Gas Co. which operates in the Rocky Mountain region and a 25 percent interest in Southern Natural Gas Co. which operates in the southeastern region of the United States.
El Paso Pipeline said the transaction is expected to close by the end of March 2010 and is being mainly funded from $236 million of cash proceeds from its recent equity issuance. In a separate release, El Paso Pipeline Partners Operating, LLC, a wholly owned operating subsidiary of El Paso Pipeline Partners, announced its plans to issue $425 million of senior notes due 2020.

Enbridge plans natural gas liquids pipeline in Midwest U.S.

CALGARY, Alta. - Enbridge Inc., said on March 21 that it will build a new natural gas liquids pipeline to tap into markets in the Midwestern United States.
The new line will move the fuel from the Marcellus Shale in Southern Pennsylvania to existing facilities in the Chicago area, the company said in a news release.
Enbridge will develop, build, own and operate the pipeline, and plans to conduct an open season bidding process for access to the line in the second quarter of 2010.
Costs of the project were not disclosed.

Chevron installing massive solar system at Kern River

LOS ANGELES, Calif. - Chevron is adding a solar system to power the pumps and pipelines at its Kern River oil field.
The 7,700 solar panels are expected to produce about 740 kilowatts of electricity, according to Reuters.
Chevron is using an eight-acre site for “Project Brightfield,” a testing grounds. The company is testing various sizes of panels and types of technology from seven companies.
The goal is to see which types of solar will be best suited for applications at other Chevron facilities worldwide, the Los Angeles Times reports.
The company said it plans to spend more than $2 billion on renewable energy and related research over the next three years.

Texas towns sue over right to block gas pipeline eminent domain

DALLAS, Texas - Two local municipalities are seeking to protect their right to block natural gas companies use of eminent domain to construct pipelines across public property in the Barnett Shale.
"This will be a landmark decision in Texas," said Tom Hayden, a member of the Flower Mound Town Council. "It will decide whether a municipality trumps a utility or vice versa."
Both Flower Mound and Haltom City have been sued because they have failed to approve requests to run gas pipelines on municipal property.
In Flower Mound, Mockingbird Pipeline wants to run 500 feet of pipe through a 30-foot pipeline easement behind a fire station.
In Haltom City, Enterprise Texas Pipeline LLC wants to transport processed
gas to market by running a pipeline through the city, cutting across
parkland, several streets and acreage that may be a future nature area.
Haltom City Attorney Steven Wood said a pipeline would restrict use of the
public land. "You can't build on top of a pipeline," he said. "And you can't
imagine how many trees they'd have to tear down to get that pipeline in."
While the power of eminent domain is usually associated with government
bodies, other entities - such as electric and telephone companies - have
also been granted this authority because they provide a service for the
public.
In Texas, many pipeline companies are considered public utilities with
eminent domain power. Of the 34 pipeline companies in the Texas Pipeline
Association, more than half are public utilities and all have some public
utility assets, said executive director Patrick Nugent.
While condemnation lawsuits involving private property owners are not
uncommon, "I'm not familiar with any litigation filed between a pipeline and
a municipality," said Nugent.
For municipalities, the legal battle is over sovereign immunity and the
right to protect public property from unwanted encroachment.

Port Manatee signs $30 million deal for LNG terminal, pipeline

MANATEE, Fla. - A giant check for $425,000 presented on March 18 represented the downpayment on $2 million that Port Dolphin Energy will pay to Port Manatee in the near future.
The agreement the Manatee Port Authority board unanimously approved calls for Port Dolphin Energy leasing about 35 acres of port property and the right of way for a pipeline through the port.
This agreement continues the Port Authority’s commitment to creating jobs, board Chairman Larry Bustle said in a press release.
Port Dolphin Energy, a Delaware-based company, has been working on a plan since 2007 to build a deep-water port about 28 miles off Anna Maria Island for ships transporting liquefied natural gas (LNG).
The LNG would be converted to natural gas and piped under the Gulf of Mexico to Port Manatee, where the pipes will come ashore and the gas transmitted to markets throughout Florida.