EXTRACTED: Daily News Clips 8/12/26

PIPELINE NEWS

• E&E News: Fuel companies fund proposal for first pipeline carrying gasoline into California

• E&E News: Proposed USDA rule overhaul spills over to energy projects

• Inside Climate News: Neighbors Live in Fear After Pipeline Leak in ‘Unleashing American Energy’ Era

• WUWM: Wisconsin tribe continues legal fight against Enbridge pipeline

• Pipeline Fighters Hub: Exxon Whistleblower and Carbon Capture Expert Lindsey Gulden Joins Indiana Action Team Virtual Meeting [VIDEO]

• Grist: They’re making record profits, but oil companies still won’t ‘drill, baby, drill’

• Boyle Heights Beat: East L.A. businesses lost revenue after oil spill — only one got reimbursed

• Pipeline & Gas Journal: California Resources to acquire 2,000 miles of pipeline assets for $63 million

WASHINGTON UPDATES

• Common Dreams: Scale of Trump’s Raid on National Parks Funds for White House ‘Vanity Projects’ Revealed

• Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Mapping it out: onX tool connects Montanans to public land comment opportunities

STATE UPDATES

• Colorado Newsline: These Colorado ranchers want fossil fuel companies held accountable

EXTRACTION

• Axios: AI could help unlock more oil — and emissions

• Bloomberg: Oman Handles Oil Slick More Than Six Times the Size of Manhattan

OPINION

• Northern Ag Network: Don’t let Burgum and Interior Department Silence Split-estate Landowners

• Ohio Capital Journal: Fracking is not ‘responsible development’ of Ohio’s state parks and public lands
  

PIPELINE NEWS

E&E News: Fuel companies fund proposal for first pipeline carrying gasoline into California
Noah Baustin, 8/12/26

“A trio of energy companies — Phillips 66, Kinder Morgan and HF Sinclair Corp. — announced Tuesday that they had made their final investment decision to move forward with the proposed Western Gateway Pipeline system,” E&E News reports. “It’s a significant milestone,” Don Baldridge, a Phillips 66 executive vice president, told E&E. The companies have “signed definitive documents that now fund this project going forward.” Why it matters: The pipeline has the potential to eliminate California’s historic position as a fuel island. Under the current system, Californians must refine gasoline and other fuel products within the state or import them on a ship.”

E&E News: Proposed USDA rule overhaul spills over to energy projects
Kelsey Tamborrino, 8/11/26

“A relatively under-the-radar proposal from the Trump administration to overhaul a disclosure law providing transparency into foreign ownership of farmland is raising concern for both the renewable energy and fossil fuel sectors,” E&E News reports. “The proposed rule from late June would expand the definition of ‘agricultural land’ and the types of investments that must disclose to the federal government when foreign ownership exceeds a specific threshold. The new rule would add pipelines and renewable power generation to the mix of traditional farming, ranching, forestry and other land subject to disclosure to the federal government — with potentially costly compliance impacts… “The law firm Wiley recently wrote that the proposal will affect not only foreign persons with interests in agricultural land, but also certain U.S.-organized companies with direct or indirect foreign ownership, agribusinesses leasing land, renewable energy and pipeline developers, conservation land holders and investors using layered ownership structures… “Easements and rights of way granted to pipeline operators across agricultural land would be subject to the reporting under the proposal.”

Inside Climate News: Neighbors Live in Fear After Pipeline Leak in ‘Unleashing American Energy’ Era
Marianne Lavelle, 8/11/26

“...From their front yard, they pointed to work crews finishing four new holes in their street, the latest of 44 wells drilled in Mount Eyre Manor. The driller is one of the nation’s largest and most politically connected oil and gas companies, Energy Transfer,” Inside Climate News reports. “The company is using the wells to determine how far and how deep an unknown quantity of petroleum fuel has spread into drinking water supplies from a rupture in its 68-year-old pipeline beneath this neighborhood just north of Philadelphia, a mile uphill from the Delaware River. By the time Energy Transfer and its subsidiary Sunoco found the leak in its 105.5-mile pipeline in January 2025, 16 months after residents first complained of a gasoline smell and taste in their drinking water, jet fuel was floating in the wells of six Mount Eyre Manor homes. The company replaced the cracked segment and got the pipeline running again immediately, delivering fuel to a terminal near Newark Liberty International Airport. Residents were left with the aftermath. Other wells, in 28 homes to date, have tested positive for toxic fuel components like benzene and xylenes since the crisis began. And now, thousands of gallons of fuel—how much is hotly contested—remain in the groundwater that the neighborhood relies on. “We don’t know where it is, that’s the scary part,” Casina-Harper told ICN. “Is it just slowly seeping through and eventually going to get to us?” Energy Transfer unveiled its cleanup plan this summer—a vacuum extraction system—but it arrived far later than residents hoped and delivers less than the permanent clean-water solution they are seeking. The Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection is providing oversight, using its limited authority under state law. But missing from the scene almost entirely are federal regulators… “The community’s plight has laid bare many long-standing gaps in environmental protection law at both the state and federal level—especially for those who rely on private drinking water wells, which are not covered by the Safe Drinking Water Act. “

WUWM: Wisconsin tribe continues legal fight against Enbridge pipeline
Susan Bence, 8/11/26

“Last month, the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals issued a decision on the ongoing battle over Line 5 in northern Wisconsin. The Bad River Band of Lake Superior Chippewa has been fighting to get a portion of the crude oil and gas pipeline off tribal land for over a decade,” WUWM reports. “...There’s about 12 miles that goes through the reservation, through land that’s owned either by the band or band members. And several of those parcels need tribal consent before an easement can be renewed,” Stefanie Tsosie, a senior attorney with EarthJustice who represents the tribe in the case, told WUWM. “But all of those expired in 2013. And since that time, Enbridge has been trespassing. But the Seventh Circuit kind of stopped short of saying when or how or who is going to enforce that remedy,” She told WUWM the case will go back to federal district court in Wisconsin “to fashion some remedies consistent with that decision.” The tribe’s concerns don’t end there… “While Enbridge’s reroute would move the pipeline outside tribal land, the Bad River Band and environmental groups argue the pipeline would still fall within the region’s stream- and wetland-rich landscape… “Circuit court judge John P. Anderson will take up the case starting on Aug. 13 at the Bayfield County Courthouse.”

Pipeline Fighters Hub: Exxon Whistleblower and Carbon Capture Expert Lindsey Gulden Joins Indiana Action Team Virtual Meeting [VIDEO]
Mark Hefflinger, 8/11/26

“Hoosiers opposed to risky “carbon capture, utilization & storage” (CCUS) boondoggle projects will host guest speaker Lindsey Gulden, a climate and data scientist originally from Indiana who, along with her co-worker Damien Burch, blew the whistle in 2019 on over 10 billion dollars worth of fraud at ExxonMobil after discovering the deliberate overvaluation of an oil and gas asset in the Permian Basin,” the Pipeline Fighters Hub reports. “Gulden is also an expert on the topic of carbon capture and storage, and has worked on Class VI carbon sequestration well permit application reviews and appeals to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. Gulden authored a recent report in Environmental Science & Policy titled “Tracing sources of funds used to lobby the US government about carbon capture, use, and storage,” and will speak about the risks of CO2 sequestration, as well as the 45Q tax credits underpinning the CCS industry. The Indiana Action Team plans to oppose the state’s forthcoming “primacy” application before the U.S. EPA, which by statute will include a process with a public hearing and comment period. Bold’s other Easement Teams in Iowa, South Dakota and North Dakota have been organizing landowner opposition to the Summit CO2 pipeline for years. Bold’s Easement Teams are helping fund attorneys who have represented landowners at agency hearings that resulted in pipeline permit rejections in North Dakota and South Dakota, and the most-contested project in the history at the Iowa Utilities Commission, where landowners with the Iowa Easement Team also continue to challenge Summit’s pipeline route approval in the courts.”

Grist: They’re making record profits, but oil companies still won’t ‘drill, baby, drill’
Austin Corona, 8/11/26

“Over the last two weeks, oil companies have announced eye-popping profits from the spring quarter,” Grist reports. “Exxon Mobil pulled in $14.5 billion. Chevron landed $12 billion, its highest quarterly profit on record. Shell posted $9.8 billion — more than twice its earnings from the same time last year. These profits are largely a product of supply constraints brought on by the war in the Middle East… “But companies aren’t using those profits to drill lots of new wells or explore untapped oil fields. Instead, they’re pocketing the cash and paying their shareholders, experts told Grist. What was once an industry defined by the “drill, baby, drill” ethos is now defined by another term: “capital discipline.” It’s a phenomenon in which rampant drilling and production growth has given way to tightened belts and bigger payouts to investors… “The Trump administration’s focus on “unleashing” U.S. energy is running headlong into oil companies’ growing commitment to financial discipline… “Oil and gas companies respond more to financial incentives than they do to political signaling,” Clark Williams-Derry, an energy finance analyst at the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis, told Grist. “They’re going to be looking at their finances first rather than politicians’ demands.” “...Rather than rewarding aggressive production growth, they pushed companies to focus on lower-cost drilling, restrain spending, and return more cash to shareholders.”

Boyle Heights Beat: East L.A. businesses lost revenue after oil spill — only one got reimbursed
Laura Anaya-Morga, 8/10/26

“Two months after an oil spill shut down streets in East Los Angeles and disrupted businesses along the Cesar E. Chavez Avenue corridor, many owners are still waiting for reimbursement,” Boyle Heights Beat reports. “The May spill forced street closures after crews punctured an underground pipeline, sending more than 25,000 gallons of crude oil onto nearby streets and into storm drains. Along the commercial corridor, owners of restaurants, barbershops, and bike shops had to cancel appointments, delay deliveries, or close their doors for a week as cleanup crews worked in the area. In the days following the spill, a survey of nearly 50 businesses near the intersection of East Cesar E. Chavez and Eastern avenues found a 70% to 75% loss in revenue, according to Kelly LoBianco, director of the LA County Department of Economic Opportunity… “As of Tuesday, 19 businesses had filed claims. Only one had been approved, while three others were close to approval, LoBianco told the Beat… “What lies ahead are months of soil testing and excavation to remove contaminated soil from the site of the spill, which county officials say could continue into January 2027. Neither Avila nor Ramos knew about the remaining work and worried about how additional street closures could affect their business again.”

Pipeline & Gas Journal: California Resources to acquire 2,000 miles of pipeline assets for $63 million
8/11/26

“California Resources Corporation (CRC) has agreed to acquire Crimson Midstream Holdings from CorEnergy Infrastructure Trust for $63 million in cash, expanding its crude oil pipeline network across California,” Pipeline & Gas Journal reports. “The acquisition includes approximately 2,000 miles of pipeline infrastructure with combined transportation capacity of up to 400,000 bpd. Assets include the SoCal Pipeline Network, IVEC Line, San Pablo Bay Pipeline, KLM Pipeline and other infrastructure across the state. CRC said the acquisition will improve connectivity between its California production and key markets while increasing transportation flexibility and flow assurance.”

WASHINGTON UPDATES

Common Dreams: Scale of Trump’s Raid on National Parks Funds for White House ‘Vanity Projects’ Revealed
Brad Reed, 8/10/26

“Internal documents from the US National Park Service reportedly show that massive sums of money have been diverted to fund assorted projects commissioned by President Donald Trump,” Common Dreams reports. “According to a Sunday report from journalist Scott MacFarlane, NPS records show that $323 million has been rerouted to fund projects on the White House grounds this year alone, representing an increase of nearly 5,000% from the amount spend on such projects in 2024… “At the same time, the records show ‘multimillion-dollar reductions’ in funding for several famous national parks, including Yellowstone, Yosemite, and Grand Canyon… “Let’s ask the American people,” wrote Democrats on the US House Ways and Means Committee in a social media post, “would you rather have your nearest national park preserved and protected or another monument to Trump?”

Bozeman Daily Chronicle: Mapping it out: onX tool connects Montanans to public land comment opportunities
Leah Veress, 8/10/26

“On Aug. 3, Montana-based outdoor mapping company onX launched a free tool to help people across the country navigate public comment opportunities regarding federal management of public lands,” the Bozeman Daily Chronicle reports. “As ownership and use of public lands continue to be debated in the legislature and media, the Public Land Comment Hub provides a centralized resource for users to identify and submit feedback to federal agencies… “The tool pulls real-time information, including geographic data, from public notices published on the Federal Register and agency websites… “Agencies must consider relevant public comments as part of certain decision-making processes, including those conducted under the National Environmental Policy Act. Comments should be specific and relevant to the proposed action.”

STATE UPDATES

Colorado Newsline: These Colorado ranchers want fossil fuel companies held accountable
Sharon Sullivan, 8/11/26

“Every three days, Kathleen Sullivan Kelley hauls water from the town of Meeker to fill a 500-gallon tank at her ranch in Rio Blanco County. Kelley’s horses used to drink from ponds on the property, but there’s no longer any surface water, and she and her husband, Reed, sold the last of the 200 cows they once raised. Kelley, 71, is concerned that the ranch could eventually be cut off from the city water source due to worsening drought,” Colorado Newsline reports. “...In July, Kelley joined six other ranchers in filing a brief with the U.S. Supreme Court in support of a lawsuit brought by the city of Boulder and Boulder County against three Suncor Energy entities and Exxon Mobil. Boulder is seeking monetary damages for costs incurred responding to wildfires, repairing transportation infrastructure, restoring watersheds and other harm related to climate change. The county is not seeking to regulate emissions or fossil fuel production. It only wants the fossil fuel companies to help pay for harms the county contends were caused, in part, by the activities of Suncor and Exxon… “Ranchers are not interested in imposing new regulations on the oil and gas industry. The group only wants fossil fuel companies to pay a share of costs that have occurred from harms caused by wildfires, floods and other extreme weather events… “That’s the impetus of these ranchers getting behind this,” Macnab told Newsline. “It’s the responsibility of fossil fuel companies to support these impacted communities. We’re very concerned about the future.” Macnab told Newsline she recognizes the critical role that fossil fuel development has played in society. “But now the science is clear, and the technology available and we can begin a more rapid transition to a more sustainable future,” she told Newsline. “It’s important that people understand we have to protect our food production, and food producers, and local agriculture. Not only people’s livelihoods are at stake, but also food production.”

EXTRACTION

Axios: AI could help unlock more oil — and emissions
Amy Harder, 8/11/26

“Move over, data centers. AI’s climate impact may extend well beyond the electricity it consumes. A new peer-reviewed study finds AI could help produce more oil and natural gas — and produce a climate impact the authors argue could far outweigh the technology’s benefits for renewable energy,” Axios reports. “The research, just published in a Nature journal, concludes AI’s role in boosting oil and gas production would outweigh its climate benefits from accelerating renewable energy, leading to a net increase in emissions under a range of scenarios… “Holly Alpine and Will Alpine, former Microsoft employees who founded the nonprofit initiative Enabled Emissions Campaign in 2024, co-led the study with researchers from Purdue University and an independent researcher. AI can help oil companies find new resources and recover more from existing fields. It can also help renewable energy by improving forecasting and operations. The new study argues the fossil-fuel gains are likely to dominate. By the numbers: The researchers estimate AI could add emissions equal to roughly 1% to 5% of the global energy sector’s 2024 emissions under the scenarios they modeled. The study estimates those emissions would be roughly three to 13 times the International Energy Agency’s estimate of current data-center emissions.”

Bloomberg: Oman Handles Oil Slick More Than Six Times the Size of Manhattan
Charles Gorrivan and Julian Lee, 8/10/26

“Oman is dealing with a widening oil slick covering about six-and-a-half times the land area of Manhattan after a tanker ran aground off an island near the country’s southeastern coast,” Bloomberg reports. “The spill covers about 390 square kilometers (150 square miles) and occurred after the Caroline Bezengi was grounded off the Hallaniyat Islands, according to a report from the state-run Oman News Agency citing the sultanate’s Environment Authority… “The ship appears to have been stranded for about seven weeks, according to satellite images from the European Union’s Copernicus browser, reviewed by Bloomberg… “The images show an elongated slick trailing from the area around the grounded vessel and stretching across the surrounding waters in the time since. It was unclear how the ship became stuck, but it was hauling about 1 million barrels of Russia’s Urals crude loaded in mid-May… “Streaks of apparent pollution have extended further away from the ship, dispersing to the north and northeast. The slick is projected to advance about 121 kilometers over the next 48 hours, according to the report. That spread may change depending on wind, currents and sea conditions. The ​nearest point of the spill is within about seven kilometers of the shoreline.”

OPINION

Northern Ag Network: Don’t let Burgum and Interior Department Silence Split-estate Landowners
Donald Nelson is a longtime member of Dakota Resource Council, the founder of Salted Lands Council, and a split-estate landowner from Keene, North Dakota, in the Dakota Prairie Grasslands.

“I am a third-generation farmer and rancher caring for land near Keene in western North Dakota. Like many of my neighbors, I’m a split-estate landowner. That means I own the surface of my property, but the federal government owns some of the minerals beneath it. Most people don’t realize what that means until it’s too late,” Donald Nelson writes for the Northern Ag Network. “Imagine getting a call from an oil company telling you it has leased to drill beneath your property. They want to talk about where they’ll build roads, well pads, pipeline, and other infrastructure. It’s the first you’ve heard about the lease because no one told you the government was planning to lease it. You never had a chance to ask questions or object. By then, the decision has already been made. That’s the future Secretary Doug Burgum is proposing for thousands of landowners across the West. The Interior Department wants to eliminate a simple but important protection in the Bureau of Land Management’s 2024 Onshore Oil and Gas Leasing Rule. Today, split-estate landowners receive notice before the federal government leases the minerals beneath their land. Burgum’s proposal would require notification only after the lease has already been sold, when our opportunity to participate has effectively disappeared. The administration says notifying landowners places an unnecessary burden on the oil and gas industry. I see it differently. The real burden falls on the families who have to live with the consequences. Drilling can bring heavy truck traffic, dust, noise, impacts to water, and disruptions that affect ranching operations for years. Those aren’t inconveniences; they are costs to our livelihood and changes to the places we call home… “Rural Americans deserve a voice, not fewer rights. The protections in the 2024 leasing rule should remain in place so split-estate landowners like me have an opportunity to be heard before our future is decided.”

Ohio Capital Journal: Fracking is not ‘responsible development’ of Ohio’s state parks and public lands
Melinda Zemper is a board member at Save Ohio Parks, a statewide, nonprofit organization that educates Ohioans about the health, environmental and planet-warming harms of fracking under Ohio’s state parks and public lands, 8/11/26

“Ohio’s oil and gas industry continues to spread one of its cruel, bald-faced lies. Industry spokespeople claim fracking oil and gas from state parks and wildlife areas is “responsible development” of Ohio public lands,” Melina Zemper writes for the Ohio Capital Journal. “But parks don’t belong to one supermajority political party to lease, industrialize, monetize, and destroy. Ohio public lands belong to all Ohioans across generations. We have a collective responsibility to steward them wisely… “Wind and solar are now cheaper, reliable with battery storage and have zero-carbon footprints. This is great for Ohio pocketbooks, renewable energy jobs and hope for a livable planet. It’s not great for a greedy industry eager to lock in fossil fuel energy markets allowing them to power polluting AI data centers for the next 20 to 30 years… “Gov. Mike DeWine and Republican Party lawmakers captured by gas and oil and their 19th-century fossil fuels energy policy and are beginning to be exposed. Save Ohio Parks research shows Ohio’s supermajority quashed the equivalent of 5.3 GW of renewable energy over the last 12 years while simultaneously creating or amending energy laws to expand natural gas fracking. This is intentional. And it’s killing our state and planet… “The public is just realizing fracking’s true, irrevocable harms: billions of gallons of toxic, radioactive wastewater are inexplicably deposited each year into U. S. injection wells for storage… “Frack waste now poses a serious threat to drinking water aquifers for tens of thousands of people in Marietta and surrounding communities— while lawmakers and regulators remain willfully oblivious to the looming catastrophe. Instead, the industry and lawmakers hope the toxic waste will stay underground. But it doesn’t… “To claim fracking public lands is “responsible” is a horrifying lie.