April, 24 2019, 12:00am EDT
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Hydraulic Fracturing Scorecard: Concerns Remain Regarding Disclosure of Water and Chemicals Management
OAKLAND
Shareholder advocacy group As You Sow and investment advisory firm Boston Common Asset Management released today Disclosing the Facts 2019: Transparency and Risk in Water & Chemicals Management for Hydraulic Fracturing Operations. This report is the next installment in a series of scorecard reports designed to promote improved disclosure and corporate responsibility in the oil and gas sector.
The report's authors reviewed the 30 largest publicly traded producers of oil and gas in North America in an effort to identify those companies using and disclosing current best management practices. Key findings include:
- Top scoring companies included: Southwestern Energy (NYSE: SWN), Apache (NYSE: APA), Anadarko (NYSE: APC), and Range Resources (NYSE: RRC)
- Bottom scoring companies included: Gulfport Energy (NYSE: GPOR), Continental Resources (NYSE: CLR), Total (NYSE: TOT), and EOG Resources (NYSE: EOG)
- Areas most disclosed by companies include: information on "near misses" or close calls; practices for maintaining well integrity; and percentages of water recycled in each operating area/region
- Companies most often failed to disclose information on: reductions in chemical toxicity and pre- and post-drilling water quality monitoring practices
"Our report shows that smart use of water and chemicals continues to evolve, but more needs to be done," stated Steven Heim, managing director and director of environmental, social, and governance (ESG) research at Boston Common Asset Management. "Proactive companies adopt, develop, and disclose current best practices outlined in our report such as reducing freshwater use. This enables investors to assess and compare how well companies are reducing costs and risks -- including how well they manage environmental and community impacts resulting from their hydraulic fracturing operations."
Water is a vital resource, the availability of which has extensive impacts across the economy. Investors' increasing focus on water and chemicals reflects the role this resource has on companies' ability to operate, as well as the impact companies have on water availability and water quality in areas where they are located.
"As climate change increases water scarcity in certain regions, investors need assurance that companies are responsibly managing the amount of water they use to protect communities, the environment, and other water users," said Danielle Fugere, president at As You Sow. Climate change and the potential for drought, can negatively impact areas such as Texas where 51 percent of wells are in high or extremely high stressed water regions.
"The best companies are increasing their water efficiency, re-using water from operations, using non-potable waste streams, and even treating wastewater," said Lila Holzman, energy program manager at As You Sow.
The process of hydraulic fracturing also uses a range of chemicals, raising the risk of unintended toxic releases that could result in water contamination. "The potential for water contamination has appropriately been one of the major concerns affecting companies' social license to operate," said Fugere. "People's lives are at stake, so company practices matter, both in preventing problems in the first instance and acting responsibly when problems occur." Eliza Griswold's Amity & Prosperity, which recently won a Pulitzer Prize, highlights how badly things can go wrong when these principles are not followed.
The deep well injection of large volumes of wastewater at high pressure increases the risk of induced seismic activity. Disclosing the Facts 2019 seeks to highlight the importance of comprehensive water management and disclosure to inform investors how companies are addressing such risks.
In the Permian basin, which is expected to produce roughly a third of total U.S. oil production this year, water is becoming the largest challenge to field development. Even with 100 percent water reuse for completions, which is unlikely, it is predicted that the current salt water disposal infrastructure in the Permian is expected to hit capacity in the near future. Failure to address this critical issue could increase costs and cause lost production.
Richard Liroff, senior advisor for the report added, "Water is a critical resource on which communities, the environment, and businesses depend. It is encouraging to see improvement by many oil and gas companies in disclosing their water protection and chemical management practices. On the other hand, low-scoring companies continue to leave investors in the dark as to how, or if, they are responsibly using and disposing of water."
As You Sow is the nation's non-profit leader in shareholder advocacy. Founded in 1992, we harness shareholder power to create lasting change that benefits people, planet, and profit. Our mission is to promote environmental and social corporate responsibility through shareholder advocacy, coalition building, and innovative legal strategies.
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Critics Warn Manchin-Barrasso Permitting Bill 'Is Taken Straight From Project 2025'
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Climate and environmental defenders on this week implored U.S. senators to block a permitting reform bill introduced this week by Sens. Joe Manchin and John Barrasso that one campaigner linked to Project 2025, a conservative coalition's agenda for a far-right overhaul of the federal government.
Common Dreamsreported Monday that Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Barrasso (R-Wyo.)—respectively the chair and ranking member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee—introduced the Energy Permitting Reform Act of 2024.
The Natural Resources Defense Council (NRDC) noted that although the proposal "includes several positive reforms for the accelerated development of transmission projects," it also advocates "limiting opportunities for communities to challenge projects, loosening oversight for drilling and mining projects, extending drilling permits and fast-tracking [liquified natural gas] permits, and several other provisions friendly to fossil fuel giants."
"This dangerous bill doesn't deserve a floor vote."
These are nearly identical policies to what's proposed in Project 2025's Mandate for Leadership. The plan, which was spearheaded by the Heritage Foundation, calls for "unleashing all of America's energy resources," including by ending federal restrictions on fossil fuel drilling on public lands; limiting investments in renewable energy; and rolling back environmental permitting restrictions for new oil, gas, and coal projects, including power plants.
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Hartl added that "to preserve a livable planet," Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) "must squash this legislation now."
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NRDC managing director of government affairs Alexandra Adams said Wednesday that "this bill is a giveaway for the oil and gas industry that will ramp up drilling and environmental destruction at a time when we need to be putting a hard stop to fossil fuels."
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Sudan's military is blocking United Nations aid trucks from entering at a key border crossing, causing severe disruptions in aid in a country that experts fear may be on the brink of one of the worst famines the world has seen in decades, The New York Timesreported Friday.
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Last week, Linda Thomas-Greenfield, the United States ambassador to the U.N., said that the SAF's obstruction of the border was "completely unacceptable."
Both warring parties in Sudan continue to perpetrate brazen atrocities, including starvation of civilians as a method of warfare. This piece focuses on the SAF's ongoing obstruction of essential aid. The situation is catastrophic. The policy is criminal. https://t.co/FKhqQh3EI9.
— Tom Dannenbaum (@tomdannenbaum) July 26, 2024
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An unnamed senior American official told the Times that the looming famine in Sudan could be as bad as the 2011 famine in Somalia or even the great Ethiopian famine of the 1980s.
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The U.S. last week announced $203 million in additional aid to Sudan—part of a $2.1 billion pledge that world leaders made in April, which some countries have not yet delivered on.
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The International Service for Human Rights on Friday warned that both the SAF and RSF were engaged in wrongful killings and arrests, especially targeted at lawyers, doctors, and activists. The group called for an immediate cease-fire.
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After days of condemnation from critics including actress Jennifer Aniston and Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, U.S. Sen. JD Vance was given the opportunity on Thursday to clarify his remarks from 2021 in which he said the Democratic Party was run by "childless cat ladies."
Instead, the Ohio Republican and running mate of former President Donald Trump assured SiriusXM host Megyn Kelly on "The Megyn Kelly Show" that while he has "nothing against cats," he meant what he said in terms of "the substance" of his argument.
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The comments in question were made by Vance to then-Fox News host Tucker Carlson when Vance was running for the Senate.
Calling out Buttigieg—who, the secretary disclosed this week, was struggling at the time to adopt a child with his husband—and Vice President Kamala Harris, a stepmother of two and the Democratic Party's presumptive presidential nominee, Vance said people without biological children "don't really have a direct stake in" the future of the country and therefore shouldn't hold higher office.
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In his interview with Kelly on Thursday, Vance attempted to pivot away from his own comments, saying his point was to criticize "the Democratic Party for becoming anti-family and anti-child" and claiming without evidence that the Harris campaign had "come out against the child tax credit"—a signature policy of the Biden-Harris administration.
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Vance and Kelly went on to lament the anxiety "hardcore environmentalists" and progressive lawmakers such as Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) have expressed about the damage fossil fuel extraction is doing the planet, accusing them of pushing people to forgo having families—but said nothing about Republican policies that have made child-rearing less accessible.
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Under Republican abortion bans, numerous stories have cropped up of pregnant people who have been forced to carry pregnancies to term despite finding out that their fetuses had fatal abnormalities and would die soon after birth—as have stories of children who were forced to give birth or had to cross state lines in order to get abortion care.
As with his position that nonparents should be "punished" for not having children, "who else does 'pro-child/family' Vance think should 'face consequences and reality' by way of curtailing choices, rights, and freedoms?" asked writer Alheli Picazo. "Women and girls who become pregnant through rape/incest."
University of North Carolina law professor Carissa Byrne Hessick said that one could test "empirically" Vance's claim that Democratic policies are anti-family.
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