Message From the Editor

In August, DeSmog revealed that North Dakota regulators were downplaying the size of an oil and gas industry spill which a whistle-blower showed was estimated at 11 million gallons — the size of the Exxon Valdez.

And in the wake of our reporting, regulators are still saying the spill wasn’t that big, defending their decision to list the spill at just 10 gallons for the past four years as they cleaned it up.

But then another whistle-blower came forward, this time publicly, about working at the site of that spill and at another gas processing plant. His reports lend credence to the spill’s size and show flawed construction and an “embarrassing” safety culture in the Bakken oil and gas fields.
Read what this second whistle-blower has to say in Justin Nobel’s latest investigation.

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

Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

Whistle-blower Reveals Flawed Construction at North Dakota Gas Plants Where Massive Spill Was Downplayed

— By Justin Nobel (11 min. read) —

Two North Dakota gas processing plants in the heart of the Bakken oil fields have shown signs of an eroded safety culture and startling construction problems, according to Paul Lehto, a 54-year-old former gas plant operator who has come out as a whistle-blower. He described worrisome conditions at the Lonesome Creek plant, in Alexander, and the Garden Creek plant, in Watford City, where DeSmog recently revealed one of the largest oil and gas industry spills in U.S. history had occurred. Both plants process natural gas brought via pipeline from Bakken wells and are run by the Oklahoma-based oil and gas service company, ONEOK Partners.

Washington Petrochemical Plant Subsidies Would Violate Federal ‘Double Dipping’ Rules Say Environmental Groups

— By Sharon Kelly (7 min. read) —

A plan to build a natural gas–fueled petrochemical plant in Kalama, Washington, ran into a new legal hurdle last week, as a coalition of environmental groups raised new objections to its construction.

The Port of Kalama methanol plant, if built on the Columbia River between Washington and Oregon, would expand North America’s capacity to export products produced by fracked shale gas wells, and is part of a $5.2 billion plan to develop methanol plants in this corner of the Pacific Northwest. It has applied for funding from a controversial Department of Energy “Advanced Fossil Energy Projects” program — an $8.5 billion fund offering taxpayer subsidies to the fossil fuel industry.

Will the Fracking Revolution Peak Before Ever Making Money?

— By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read) —

This week, the Wall Street Journal highlighted that the U.S. oil and gas shale industry, already struggling financially, is now facing “core operational issues.” That should be a truly frightening prospect for investors in American fracking operations, but one which DeSmog has long been warning of.

This one line from the Journal sums up the problems: “Unlike several years ago, when shale production fell due to a global price collapse, the slowdown this year is driven partly by core operational issues, including wells producing less than expected after being drilled too close to one another, and sweet spots running out sooner than anticipated.”

Will Rail Be Key to Exporting Canada's Tar Sands Oil to the World?

— By Justin Mikulka (6 min. read) —

While Canadians turned out en masse for large climate protests last week, the country's oil and gas industry continued its plans to ramp up and export its massive and polluting reserves of tar sands oil, also known as bitumen, to the rest of the world.

Several recent developments in the rail arena are setting up the tar sands industry to realize those plans in a major way.

Oil Industry Set Agenda During Climate Summit Meeting with Big Greens

— By Sharon Kelly (6 min. read) —

Last week, as climate activist Greta Thunberg addressed the United Nations Climate Action Summit, invited leaders from major environmental groups spent their day listening to the leaders of fossil fuel companies discuss how they want to respond to the climate crisis.

Depending on which room you were in, you would have heard two very different messages.

Thunberg’s widely watched speech evoked the urgency of acting on climate change.

Big Oil Pushes Back Against Minnesota Clean Car Announcement

— By Dana Drugmand (10 min. read) —

Minnesota Governor Tim Walz announced last week that the state would be adopting a pair of clean car standards following California’s lead, even as the Trump administration tries to revoke California’s authority to set stricter standards under federal law. But Minnesota’s move is already prompting pushback from oil industry defenders and organizations tied to the Koch network, which is unsurprising given that fuel-efficient and electric vehicles are a clear threat to the profits of petroleum producers and refiners.

It’s a fight that is playing out across the country — including in the Land of 10,000 Lakes.

Is Natural Gas the New Coal?

— By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read) —

At a recent natural gas industry conference in Houston, Woodside Petroleum CEO Peter Coleman warned his colleagues to avoid the fate of another fossil fuel, according to trade publication Natural Gas Intelligence.

“The industry really is at a critical juncture,” Coleman said. “We run the risk of being demonized like that other fossil fuel out there called coal.”

Oil Companies Sued by Baltimore Face Discovery in State Court

— By Karen Savage, Climate Liability News (3 min. read) —

A federal appellate judge ruled that Baltimore’s climate liability suit will proceed in state court, rejecting a motion by more than two dozen fossil fuel defendants to halt the suit while they try to convince the Fourth Circuit Court of Appeals that the case belongs in federal court.

In an order issued Tuesday, Judge James A. Wynn, Jr., refused to halt the case pending appeal of an earlier federal court decision sending the case back to state court. Chief Judge Roger L. Gregory and Judge Albert Diaz concurred with Wynn’s decision.

California Polluters May Soon Buy Carbon 'Offsets' From the Amazon — Is That Ethical?

— By Maron Greenleaf, Dartmouth College (6 min. read) —

Fires in the Brazilian Amazon have outraged the world. But what can people living far from the world’s largest rainforest do to save it?

California thinks it has an answer.

On September 19, the California Air Resources Board endorsed the Tropical Forest Standard, which sets the groundwork for electric utilities, oil refineries and other California polluters to “offset” their greenhouse gas emissions by paying governments in tropical forest areas not to cut down trees.

Could Climate Change Fuel the Rise of Right-wing Nationalism?

— By Joshua Conrad Jackson, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill and Michele Gelfand, University of Maryland (6 min. read) —

Two trends have defined the past decade and both have been on display at this year’s session of the United Nations General Assembly.

One has been the escalating effects of climate change, which were the focus of the United Nations’ Climate Action Summit. Forest fires, floods and hurricanes are all rising in their frequency and severity. Eight of the last 10 years have been the warmest on record. Marine biologists warned that coral reefs in the U.S. could disappear entirely by the 2040s.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: Isaac Orr

Isaac Orr is a former research fellow for energy and environment policy at the climate science-denying Heartland Institute. He currently works as a policy fellow at the Center of the American Experiment, a Minnesota-based right-wing think tank with Koch ties where he recently attacked Minnesota’s new clean car standards. According to Orr, Americans shouldn't worry about climate change, renewable energy subsidies must be eliminated, fracking cleans the air, the U.S. was right to withdraw from the Paris agreement, and the health consequences of fracking are “fabricated.” His Twitter handle is @TheFrackingGuy.

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