Message From the Editor

This week, we take a look at the liquefied natural gas industry’s attempts to market itself as climate friendly. Several proposed LNG projects in Canada promise carbon neutrality for their gas exports. But the claims lack detail and appear mostly designed to defang opposition to the gas rush. Nick Cunningham reports.

Meanwhile, earlier this summer an oil and gas conference was held in which the industry tried to reckon with the growing demand for environmentally and socially responsible investing. This comes among a persistent lack of funding for the unprofitable fracking industry. Yet, as one panelist joked: “I kind of remind people, I personally think oil is a renewable, it just takes a little bit longer.” Justin Mikulka has the story.

And in Mikulka’s latest analysis, he debunks the false hope promised by the fracking industry’s “new religion”. As he writes, the U.S. oil fracking industry is asking investors to have faith that bigger is better to try to lure them back into risky shale investments. But after more than a decade of oil production, the newly proposed fix for the shale industry’s financial problems is business 101: “establishing a profitable business.” Read more here.

Have a story tip or feedback? Get in touch: [email protected].

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

P.S. Readers like you make it possible for DeSmog to hold accountable powerful people in industry and government. Even a $10 or $20 donation helps support DeSmog’s investigative journalism.

LNG Projects Make Claims of ‘Net-Zero’ to Ease Way for Expansion

— By Nick Cunningham (12 min. read) —

Under growing pressure to rein in greenhouse gas emissions, developers of liquefied natural gas (LNG) are turning to questionable claims about “carbon neutrality,” “net-zero,” or “green LNG,” in order to pass muster with governments, investors, and society, who are becoming increasingly anxious about the climate crisis.

However, while on the surface it may appear to be a positive shift towards lowering the greenhouse gas impact of their projects, the rhetoric about carbon-neutral LNG is mostly hollow, in another attempt to greenwash new fossil fuel projects into existence.

Bankers Eager to Continue Funding Oil and Gas

— By Justin Mikulka (4 min. read) —

“I kind of remind people, I personally think oil is a renewable, it just takes a little bit longer,” said Mari Salazar, senior vice president and manager of Energy Financial Services for BOK Financial, an Oklahoma-based bank that caters to the oil and gas industry.

Salazar made this analogy at the Hart Energy 2021 Energy Capital Conference this summer on a panel discussion about banking loans for the oil and gas industry. The main focus of the conference was the current hesitancy to provide funding to the struggling industry.

Fracking’s ‘New Religion’ Offers False Hope

— By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read) —

After the shale oil and gas industry lost a half trillion dollars in what the Wall Street Journal recently called the “unprofitable American oil boom” and investors started fleeing, the U.S. shale industry is now telling investors that industry consolidation is the answer to its financial troubles — but this old adage is being disguised as a new approach, even though it didn’t solve anything in the past.

In February, the Financial Times wrote about the U.S. shale industry’s “new religion,” which is supposed to convince investors to have faith in shale.

‘Code Red for Humanity’: IPCC Report Warns Window for Climate Action Is Closing Fast

— By Jake Johnson at Common Dreams (3 min. read) —

A panel of leading scientists convened by the United Nations issued a comprehensive report Monday that contains a stark warning for humanity: The climate crisis is here, some of its most destructive consequences are now inevitable, and only massive and speedy reductions in greenhouse gas emissions can limit the coming disaster.

Assembled by the International Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) — a team of more than 200 scientists — the new report represents a sweeping analysis of thousands of studies published over the past eight years as people the world over have suffered record-shattering temperatures and deadly extreme weather, from catastrophic wildfires to monsoon rains to extreme drought.

Oil & Gas UK Says It ‘Backs’ IPCC Report While Claiming Sector Can Be Part of the Solution

— By Adam Barnett (3 min. read) —

The UK’s offshore oil and gas industry body has been accused of “sneakily” blocking action to cut carbon emissions after claiming it supports a major new report on climate change – but adding that oil and gas should continue “to 2050 and beyond”.

Oil & Gas UK released a statement saying it “backs” Monday’s report by the United Nations Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) “for adding new impetus to the transition to low-carbon energy”.

CO2 Storage Plans Risk Leaving Future Generations with ‘Carbon Bombs’, Energy Expert Warns

— By Tracy Keeling (4 min. read) —

Developing carbon capture and storage (CCS) capacity is a key feature of the UK’s strategy to reduce emissions and hit its climate targets. And as the latest report by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) noted, emissions pathways that limit global warming to 2°C or below generally assume that some form of carbon dioxide removal, such as CCS, is necessary, alongside reducing emissions.

A number of big polluters, including fossil fuel companies, support and are involved in the UK’s CCS plans.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The Institute of Economic Affairs

The Institute of Economic Affairs (IEA) is a London-based free-market thinktank and educational charity founded in 1955 by the late Sir Antony Fisher and Lord Harris with the mission “to improve understanding of the fundamental institutions of a free society by analysing and expounding the role of markets in solving economic and social problems.” The IEA played a significant role in advocating a “hard” Brexit and is a member of the Atlas Economic Research Foundation, a Washington-based umbrella organization supporting over 450 “free market” groups around the world.

Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.