Fossil Fuels - Haggard Earth

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Fossil Fuels; Hits: 77

World's biggest carbon capture project could 'essentially drain Alberta', experts warn. National Observer Darius Snieckus Rory White 18 Dec 2025 The world's largest carbon capture and storage complex planned for northern Alberta could use most of the surplus water in the giant Cold Lake-Beaver River basin, potentially forcing water rationing in the province. The $16.5-billion megaproject is a linchpin of the “grand bargain” energy deal signed by the Canadian government with Alberta last month. Many question marks hang over the project though, including how much water Pathways CCS — or any next generation carbon capture initiative — will actually consume. The impact of water use by CCS facilities would be “manageable,” according to modelling commissioned by the province earlier this year. But research from Lorenzo Rosa, a CCS specialist at Stanford University’s Carnegie Science Institute, paints a very different picture: the Pathways project could swallow up as much as 740 litres of water for every tonne of carbon dioxide (CO₂) captured. The CCS megaproject’s developer, Pathways Alliance, has never publicly revealed its forecasted water usage for the project. The vast complex would connect 20 onsite oilfield CCS plants capturing and piping CO₂ about 400 kilometres to a central storage hub in Cold Lake, northeast of Edmonton, for injection deep underground. Pathways Alliance, made up of petrogiants Canadian Natural, Cenovus, ConocoPhillips, Imperial and Suncor, forecasts curbing the release of CO₂ by 10 to 12 megatonnes a year from operations on projects around Fort McMurray, the sector’s heartland, by 2030. Oilsands operations currently emit about 89 megatonnes a year, according to 2023 data from Environment and Climate Change Canada. Experts on water use in CCS — much of which could be built around post-combustion, amine-based technologies that would be installed for the Pathways project — underscore the huge volumes of water needed for the energy-intensive CO₂ capturing operation.

Earlier this year, the Alberta government commissioned a study from WaterSmart Solutions, a US-owned, Calgary-based consultancy, to quantify the volumes of water that would be used by CCS projects in the province. The research came to a more optimistic worst-case scenario of 220 litres per tonne of CO₂. If that expectation held, then the total draw from the Beaver River Basin would be around 1.7 billion litres of water per year — a figure which the report acknowledges could “significantly impact water availability,” leading to “trade-offs within the water-energy-food nexus.” But many of the experts Canada's National Observer spoke with suspect the true freshwater use could be even higher. Lorenzo Rosa said while it is difficult to estimate, “for oil sands, the 740 [litres per tonne of CO2 captured] estimate is likely more representative.” This much higher volume, he said, aligned with results from work by his group on fossil gas and coal plants retrofitted with CCS.

‘No guaranteed upper limit’.......One of the engineers involved in the WaterSMART report, Steve Herman, clarified that estimates were based on lead-off engineering research work, known as FEED studies.“We are not trying to say that 220 litres/tonne [of CO₂] is literally the guaranteed upper limit,” he said in an email to Canada's National Observer. The FEED studies found that some CCS facilities would, in fact, produce more water than they used by employing a high-cost air cooling and closed-system water reuse. But the authors of this FEED work, based at the International CCS Knowledge Centre, an oil and gas industry thinktank, told Canada's National Observer that “extrapolating sector-wide water stress to 2050 based solely on these FEED studies may not be reliable.” Erica Pensini, a professor at the University of Guelph who previously worked in the petrochemical and fracking sectors, put it more bluntly: “If you make the projection based on the lowest numbers, you're going to essentially drain Alberta.” She added that climate change will both exacerbate water shortages and reduce the efficiency of the cooling systems required for the Pathways CCS project, pushing real-world water use well beyond “best-case assumptions.”The Pathways Alliance did not respond to a request for their data on predicted water use at the CCS project.

‘Some pretty major assumptions’ Bill Donahue, an independent environmental science consultant who previously held senior roles at Alberta Environment and Parks, echoed these warnings......https://www.nationalobserver.com/2025/12/18/analysis/pathways-carbon-capture-water-use?utm_source=National+Observer&utm_campaign=f21ea00c00-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_12_20_12_33_COPY_01&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_-9f497c89ee-277110094

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Fossil Fuels; Hits: 77

Oil Is a Leading Cause of War. Between one-quarter and one-half of interstate wars since 1973 have been linked to oil. Mother Jones Michael Klare 9 July 2014 Iraq, Syria, Nigeria, South Sudan, Ukraine, the East and South China Seas: wherever you look, the world is aflame with new or intensifying conflicts. At first glance, these upheavals appear to be independent events, driven by their own unique and idiosyncratic circumstances. But look more closely and they share several key characteristics—notably, a witch’s brew of ethnic, religious, and national antagonisms that have been stirred to the boiling point by a fixation on energy.

In each of these conflicts, the fighting is driven in large part by the eruption of long-standing historic antagonisms among neighboring (often intermingled) tribes, sects, and peoples. In Iraq and Syria, it is a clash among Sunnis, Shiites, Kurds, Turkmen, and others; in Nigeria, among Muslims, Christians, and assorted tribal groupings; in South Sudan, between the Dinka and Nuer; in Ukraine, between Ukrainian loyalists and Russian-speakers aligned with Moscow; in the East and South China Sea, among the Chinese, Japanese, Vietnamese, Filipinos, and others. It would be easy to attribute all this to age-old hatreds, as suggested by many analysts; but while such hostilities do help drive these conflicts, they are fueled by a most modern impulse as well: the desire to control valuable oil and natural gas assets. Make no mistake about it, these are twenty-first-century energy wars.

It should surprise no one that energy plays such a significant role in these conflicts. Oil and gas are, after all, the world’s most important and valuable commodities and constitute a major source of income for the governments and corporations that control their production and distribution. Indeed, the governments of Iraq, Nigeria, Russia, South Sudan, and Syria derive the great bulk of their revenues from oil sales, while the major energy firms (many state-owned) exercise immense power in these and the other countries involved. Whoever controls these states, or the oil- and gas-producing areas within them, also controls the collection and allocation of crucial revenues. Despite the patina of historical enmities, many of these conflicts, then, are really struggles for control over the principal source of national income. Moreover, we live in an energy-centric world where control over oil and gas resources (and their means of delivery) translates into geopolitical clout for some and economic vulnerability for others. Because so many countries are dependent on energy imports, nations with surpluses to export—including Iraq, Nigeria, Russia, and South Sudan—often exercise disproportionate influence on the world stage. What happens in these countries sometimes matters as much to the rest of us as to the people living in them, and so the risk of external involvement in their conflicts—whether in the form of direct intervention, arms transfers, the sending in of military advisers, or economic assistance—is greater than almost anywhere else.

The struggle over energy resources has been a conspicuous factor in many recent conflicts, including the Iran-Iraq War of 1980-1988, the Gulf War of 1990-1991, and the Sudanese Civil War of 1983-2005. On first glance, the fossil-fuel factor in the most recent outbreaks of tension and fighting may seem less evident. But look more closely and you’ll see that each of these conflicts is, at heart, an energy war.

Iraq, Syria, and ISIS,,,,,,The Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS), the Sunni extremist group that controls large chunks of western Syria and northern Iraq, is a well-armed militia intent on creating an Islamic caliphate in the areas it controls. In some respects, it is a fanatical, sectarian religious organization, seeking to reproduce the pure, uncorrupted piety of the early Islamic era. At the same time, it is engaged in a conventional nation-building project, seeking to create a fully functioning state with all its attributes.As the United States learned to its dismay in Iraq and Afghanistan, nation-building is expensive: institutions must be created and financed, armies recruited and paid, weapons and fuel procured, and infrastructure maintained. Without oil (or some other lucrative source of income), ISIS could never hope to accomplish its ambitious goals. However, as it now occupies key oil-producing areas of Syria and oil-refining facilities in Iraq, it is in a unique position to do so. Oil, then, is absolutely essential to the organization’s grand strategy.

Syria was never a major oil producer, but its prewar production of some 400,000 barrels per day did provide the regime of Bashar al-Assad with a major source of income. Now, most of the country’s oil fields are under the control of rebel groups, including ISIS, the al-Qaeda-linked Nusra Front, and local Kurdish militias. Although production from the fields has dropped significantly, enough is being extracted and sold through various clandestine channels to provide the rebels with income and operating funds. “Syria is an oil country and has resources, but in the past they were all stolen by the regime,” said Abu Nizar, an anti-government activist. “Now they are being stolen by those who are profiting from the revolution.” At first, many rebel groups were involved in these extractive activities, but since January, when it assumed control of Raqqa, the capital of the province of that name, ISIS has been the dominant player in the oil fields. In addition, it has seized fields in neighboring Deir al-Zour Province along the Iraq border. Indeed, many of the US-supplied weapons it acquired from the fleeing Iraqi army after its recent drive into Mosul and other northern Iraqi cities have been moved into Deir al-Zour to help in the organization’s campaign to take full control of the region.

In Iraq, ISIS is fighting to gain control over Iraq’s largest refinery at Baiji in the central part of the country. However the present fighting in northern Iraq plays out, it is obvious that there, too, oil is a central factor. ISIS seeks both to deny petroleum supplies and oil revenue to the Baghdad government and to bolster its own coffers, enhancing its capacity for nation-building and further military advances. At the same time, the Kurds and various Sunni tribes—some allied with ISIS—want control over oil fields located in the areas under their control and a greater share of the nation’s oil wealth. ed:.....and it's still happening especially in third world countries -wherever oil is in the ground violence, conflict will emerge.....read on https://www.motherjones.com/politics/2014/07/7-places-where-oil-fueling-conflict/

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Fossil-fuel firms receive US subsidies worth $31bn each year, study finds. Guardian Dharna Noor 9 Sept 2025Figure calculated by Oil Change International has more than doubled since 2017 but is likely a vast understatement. The US currently subsidizes the fossil-fuelindustry to the tune of nearly $31bn per year, according to a new analysis. That figure, calculated by the environmental campaign group Oil Change International, has more than doubled since 2017. And it is likely a vast understatement, due to the difficulty of quantifying the financial gains from some government supports, and to a lack of transparency and reliable data from government sources, the group says. These handouts pose a massive barrier to decarbonization, says the new report, which experts have long warned is urgently necessary to avert the worst consequences of the climate crisis. “These subsidies allow for new production that would not otherwise occur,” said Collin Rees, US program manager at Oil Change International and the primary author of the new analysis. “They also, to an enormous extent, line the pockets of shareholders and investors and fossil fuel executives.” For the analysis, Oil Change International totaled up tax breaks, lower rates to acquire land and other resources, direct appropriations, and other financial support from the US and government-funded groups, using the definition of fossil fuel subsidies established by the World Trade Organization. All told, US subsidies allow the sector to receive stunning 30,000% returns on investments, the authors found.

The Guardian has contacted the American Petroleum Institute, the nation’s fossil-fuel lobbying group, for comment.Among the biggest subsidies the US offers oil companies, the report found, is a federal tax rule allowing corporations to credit taxes and royalties they pay to foreign governments on overseas income against their domestic tax bills, to avoid being taxed twice. Another major support measure is a tax credit for capturing carbon, which is often framed as a climate solution but is primarily used to extract hard-to-reach reserves in a practice known as enhanced oil recovery. Amid pressure from campaigners and United Nations climate experts, at least 53 countries reformed their fossil-fuel subsidies between 2015 and 2020, according to the Swiss research group Global Subsidies Initiative. In 2021, Joe Biden also vowed to begin eliminating subsidies for planet-heating energy sources.

“Unlike previous administrations, I don’t think the federal government should give handouts to big oil,” Biden said following his inauguration in 2021. Yet the US is moving in the wrong direction on the issue, the new report found: Trump’s signature tax-and-spend bill, which the president signed in July, is poised to hand fossil-fuel companies an additional $4bn per year across the next decade, the analysis found.Among the biggest supports for the oil industry in the megabill are expanded credits for carbon capture and a lowering of already sub-market royalty rates for coal, oil and gas production on public lands. Those enhanced supports could end up being even more valuable to the oil industry in later years, Rees says. Another provision in the bill, for which oil companies lobbied, can allow those companies to avoid the corporate minimum tax which Biden established during his presidency......read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2025/sep/09/fossil-fuels-subisidies-study

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Where Do Emissions Come From? 4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector WRI December 5, 2024 Mengpin Ge, Johannes Friedrich and Leandro Vigna Global greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions grew by 51% from 1990 to 2021. These emissions are causing the planet to warm at an alarming rate and contributing to the increasingly devastating storms, floods, fires and heatwaves the world is now grappling with. But where exactly do emissions come from? WRI's Climate Watch platform publishes comprehensive emissions data for all countries, sectors and gases, offering insight into the root causes of the climate crisis and where the world must take action to solve it. We analyzed the data to explain what's causing the most greenhouse gas emissions globally......Today, greenhouse gas emissions can be traced back to five economic sectors:

• Energy
• Agriculture
• Industrial processes
• Waste
• Land use, land-use change and forestry

Greenhouse Gas Emissions Come from 5 Sectors........To understand where emissions come from, it's helpful to break them down by both sectors (such as energy or agriculture) and "end uses," or the specific activities that emit greenhouse gases. The energy sector produces the most greenhouse gas emissions by far, accounting for a whopping 75.7% worldwide. Agriculture is the second highest emitting sector after energy, accounting for 11.7% of global emissions. Major emitters in this sector include livestock farming and agricultural soils, such as methane from manure. Agriculture can also drive emissions through land-use change and energy use......keep on scrolling through the website......https://www.wri.org/insights/4-charts-explain-greenhouse-gas-emissions-countries-and-sectors

Details: Written by: Glenn and Rick; Category: Fossil Fuels; Hits: 92

No sign of promised fossil fuel transition as emissions hit new high. Despite nations’ pledges at Cop28 a year ago, the burning of coal, oil and gas continued to rise in 2024 l Guardian Daimian Carrington13 Nov 2024 Th There is “no sign” of the transition away from burning fossil fuels that was pledged by the world’s nations a year ago, with 2024 on track to set another new record for global carbon emissions. The new data, released at the UN’s Cop29 climate conference in Azerbaijan, indicates that the planet-heating emissions from coal, oil and gas will rise by 0.8% in 2024. In stark contrast, emissions have to fall by 43% by 2030 for the world to have any chance of keeping to the 1.5C temperature target and limiting “increasingly dramatic” climate impacts on people around the globe. The world’s nations agreed at Cop28 in Dubai in 2023 to “transition away” from fossil fuels, a decision hailed as a landmark given that none of the previous 27 summits had called for restrictions on the primary cause of global heating. On Monday, the Cop28 president, Sultan Al Jaber, told the summit in Baku: “History will judge us by our actions, not by our words.”The rate of increase of carbon emissions has slowed over the last decade or so, as the rollout of renewable energy and electric vehicles has accelerated. But after a year when global heating has fuelled deadly heatwaves, floods and storms, the pressure is on the negotiators meeting in Baku to finally reach the peak of fossil fuel burning and start a rapid decline.

Cop29 will focus on mobilising the trillion dollars a year needed for developing nations to curb their emissions as they improve the lives of their citizens and to protect them against the now inevitable climate chaos to come. The summit also aims to increase the ambition of the next round of countries’ emission-cutting pledges, due in February.The new data comes from the Global Carbon Budget project, a collaboration of more than 100 experts led by Prof Pierre Friedlingstein, at the University of Exeter, UK. “The impacts of climate change are becoming increasingly dramatic, yet we still see no sign that burning of fossil fuels has peaked. Time is running out and world leaders meeting at Cop29 must bring about rapid and deep cuts to fossil fuel emissions.”

Prof Corinne Le Quéré, at the University of East Anglia, UK, said: “The transition away from fossil fuels is clearly not happening yet at the global level, but our report does highlight that there are 22 countries that have decreased their emissions significantly [while their economies grew].” The 22 countries, representing a quarter of global emissions, include the UK, Germany and the US. The calculation of 2024 emissions is based on the data available up to October and estimates for the final months of the year, which have been accurate in the past. More than 37bn tonnes will be emitted in 2024, about 4m tonnes an hourGas emissions show the biggest annual increase, 2.4%, thanks to increased use in China and elsewhere. Oil burning increased by 0.9%, driven in particular by international flights, while coal emissions are expected to rise marginally by 0.2%.

The emissions of China, the world’s biggest polluter, are expected to rise slightly. “It has had another record year of growth in renewable power, but coal power also kept growing due to even faster growth in electricity demand from hi-tech industries and residential consumption,” said Jan Ivar Korsbakken, at Center for International Climate Research (Cicero) in Norway. Emissions from oil in China have probably peaked owing to the boom in electric vehicles.......read on https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/13/no-sign-of-promised-fossil-fuel-transition-as-emissions-hit-new-high

World's Biggest Carbon Capture Project could 'essentially Drain Alberta',

Oil Is a Leading Cause of War. Between one-quarter and one-half of Interstate Wars since 1973 have been Linked to Oil.

Fossil-fuel Firms receive US Subsidies worth $31bn each Year, study finds.

4 Charts Explain Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Sector

No Sign of Promised Fossil Fuel Transition as Emissions hit New High

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