05 Monday Jun 2023
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Economics, Insanity, Local Reporting, Politics, Saving the Earth
Remember all the fanfare about Governor Tim Walz’ Climate Subcabinet? Apply today!
I applied. Thought I could bring perspective. But did they really want perspective?
I guess it was an easy job?
That Annual Report certainly looks to be running late… by a couple years now.
Yep. First and last.
Another nothing burger financed by taxpayer funds?
A boondoggle for friends to gather and pretend they were working?
No wonder we’re seeing things go downhill fast?
Who is really doing anything?
24 Monday Apr 2023
Tags
CELDF, climate change, Covid, COVID-19, Enbridge, Guantanamo, Keystone, Lies, Line 3, Line 93, Miscarriage, mRNA, Propaganda, Stillbirth, Vaccine, Walker Brook
It’s hard to say what has been most frustrating about my life as an activist but perhaps it’s the freaking absurdity of what continues to sell like hotcakes? Against all logic. Even though the deception can be discovered with the least bit of scrutiny? 🧐
Natalie sings of our situation…
Regardless of whether it is Big Pharma, our government, or Big Oil, my concerns about the players are finding themselves on solid ground. The proof continues to emerge on Enbridge’s Line 93 construction failures (while state agencies continue to remain silent on these as-yet-unreported concerns) and data keeps coming to light on the adverse impacts of the mRNA vaccines.
While it can be difficult to face the blowback from those who are not yet discerning the bullshit, I’ll continue to speak truth as I discover it. And I’ll be ever grateful for those who are willing to discuss life matters openly… to find truth together.
This past week shows recent concerns being wrangled:
1. The news on vaccines continues to come. None of it good, sadly, for those who’ve been inoculated with mRNA.
2. Even the Aspen Institute is now a Propaganda Program!! For crying out loud. Next thing you know Fox News will be telling more truth than MPR? 🧐 Lots of shake ups in MSM this week, eh? Feels collapse is nearer every day and we’ll only know about it if we’re watching alternative media. Perhaps you can check out these tidbits to learn more?
3. Industry failures that result in Environmental damages:
4. How capitalism works…
Why the rich keep getting richer and the poor keep dying. Poor die at a rate of 500/day… Just because they are poor. Being poor is REALLY EXPENSIVE. SO MANY RULES that create strive for the poor while giving more help to the rich. Guess the rich got better bootstraps? 
And that’s to not even mention Guantanamo, the Canadian Kids, or Earth Day celebrations.
I’ll see you Monday! {Unless, like Tucker, my producer kills my show!!} 😬
26 Monday Dec 2022
Posted in Being Yourself, Family, Insanity, Musings
Tags
complex, industrial, Listening, Men, military, Poetry, Power, prison, Relationship, Women
“I didn’t listen again, did I? I’m sorry.”
Fuck
I always think it’s gonna be different
And here we are again
Fuck fuck fuck is this frustrating
Just like the rest of the world
A microcosm of the system writ large
Yet just an everyday occurrence
Here’s what you get little lady!
That’s how it is.
Sorry it’s not to your liking.
Carry on!
Don’t bother saying anything about it because you can’t undo what’s been done
This is just how it is.
This is just how it always has been.
This is just what you get.
Deal with it
On your own
In my head I swirl with possibilities
Responses unsaid as they’ve been given before to no avail
Ways I could have made it different
Fantasies of a future that might have been
Reasons its my fault
Always reasons its my fault
Yet its never my fault
It is just the way it is
I could have said something earlier
[Like in the past when it didn’t work]
I could have said STOP
[By the time I did it was too late]
I could ask for resolution
[I’m far too triggered for that now]
Instead I spiral in the silence
I’m tired of feeling powerless
I’m tired of going through this same thing again
I’m tired of it not being the way I want it
I’m tired of not getting what I want as I watch you get the things you need
I’m tired of my perspective not being a concern
I’m tired of my feelings being ignored
I’m tired of my wishes not even being a part of the plan
I’m tired of being invisible
Immaterial
Irrelevant
I’m mad at myself
I don’t want to cry about this
Fuck!!!!!!!!
I wasn’t going cry about this
Not ever again
But here I am
crying
Fucking great
When will I be able to go through this without crying
When will I be able to not be affected by this
When will I be able to simply laugh at the absurd consistencies of this life
Let alone the horrific inconsistencies
Why is it ok
Why do we let it happen
And when it happens why do we ignore it
Why don’t we even talk about it
We just go on as of nothing has happened
As if no harms were incurred
As if this is an event that didn’t ever exist
Because if it did
And someone was hurt
Shouldn’t we talk about it
Wouldn’t that at least let me know someone cares
Someone else sees that it’s not how things should be
Someone else sees that we need a change
Someone else wants to help
Someone else doesn’t ever want me to hurt like this again
It’s not just me
Being crazy
When a little girl is raped do we think it more horrible than rape of an older woman
Why are we so horrified for the little girl
Why are we often dismissive of the woman
Or worse yet blame her for her fate
Do we sometimes blame the little girl
She shouldn’t have been so pretty
Such a distraction an attraction
She should have said NO
One more time
Then maybe
She could
Hold on
To her
Chastity
and her
dignity
her
self
When will we get a voice
When will things be done aligned to common goals
When will power heed the voices of innocence
When might we be able to say No
And be heard
And heeded
For good
When might I not feel like I’m so tired of this that an end might be better
When might I be able to simply not feel all the history of my past
In these times when I am again
Unheeded
Mother Earth alone comforts my pain
She and I together
Will continue
Our paths
Similar
Sad
Until all awaken
Until we are legion
The source of this poem is so sadly everyday. Yet it helps me better understand the ways I carry pain, how my past is so often jumping into my present, and how easily doubts can derail. Simply writing and reading this work to a friend has opened me to freedom from some of the trauma. I am hopeful it helps you similarly.
28 Monday Nov 2022
Posted in Coronavirus, Health, Human Extinction, Insanity
Tags
cleavage, Coronavirus, Covid, Covid Origins, Fauci, furin, John Campbell, lab origin, natural cause, Peak Prosperity, SARS-CoV-2, Senate Report, Vaccine, virus, Wuhan
Taking a moment today to look back on some of what we’ve learned in the last few years from our experience with Coronavirus.
Had formal lockdowns continued, today would be day 1001 of lockdown here at The HARN.
On a promised 21-day resolution. Remember that?!?
[Trevor Noah does… and he speaks to it in his new special, which we watched last night.]
The Good News is that truth is beginning to come to light, which brings a sense of sanity as we realize we were right all along… about so much of it.
To start, based on all the data, this now clearly seems a lab-manipulated virus that somehow escaped, not something that occurred naturally or transferred from people to animals at a wet market.
This first photo below shows the online searches for flu-like symptoms in China in late 2019, indicating the case prevalence was not the wet market, but more likely a result of October issues with lab workers. [Feel free to read my ongoing blog on this debate.]
While this is not conclusive, what is conclusive is that we see no evidence of mutation evolution or any identification of an intermediate host for SARS-CoV-2, as is typical of natural spillover events with other viruses. As with Avian Influenza A H7N9 in 2019, there were multiple introductions over a wide geographic region. While this was also found with MERS, it was not seen with SARS-CoV-2, which appears to have a single origin that spread from Wuhan, and no plausible zoonotic evidence of origin.
If that’s not enough evidence for you, please look no further than the polybasic furin cleavage site. Those who vociferously claimed that this was a virus of natural origin noted, “Obtaining related viral sequences from animal sources would be the most definitive way of revealing viral origins.” [Yeah? Well, then can someone PLEASE TELL ME WHY has this NEVER HAPPENED? There are NO fully formed or evolutionary intermediates! SARS-CoV-1 had a KNOWN animal reservoir AND evolutionary intermediates while SARS-CoV-2 has none of this.]
First came the Lancet piece (still available online, though discredited now) written by a long list of “scientists” who noted: “We stand together to strongly condemn conspiracy theories suggesting that COVID-19 does not have a natural origin.”
[This letter, engineered by Fauci and others in behind-the-scenes emails and meetings, was reported to have been an early attempt to quash reports of a possible Lab Origin.]
Subsequent to this propaganda, Nature Medicine published The proximal origins of SARS-CoV-2, also still available online though subsequently refuted as false. That this piece has had influence is shown by its almost 6 million views and its use as justification in 2,627 subsequent papers.
Pertinent to its inaccuracies and omissions:
Meanwhile, the Senate Report An Analysis of the Origins of the COVID-19 Pandemic showed “the emergence of SARS-CoV-2 that resulted in the COVID-19 pandemic was most likely the result of a research-related incident.” While they note, “This conclusion is not intended to be dispositive,” we have more and more evidence coming out that refute the natural-origin claim.
To prevent future pandemics, it is important that we understand whether SARS-CoV-2 spilled over directly from animals to people, or indirectly in a laboratory accident. The genome of SARS-COV-2 contains a peculiar pattern of unique restriction endonuclease recognition sites allowing efficient dis- and re-assembly of the viral genome characteristic of synthetic viruses. Here, we report the likelihood of observing such a pattern in coronaviruses with no history of bioengineering. We find that SARS-CoV-2 is an anomaly, more likely a product of synthetic genome assembly than natural evolution.”
Endonuclease fingerprint indicates a synthetic origin of SARS-CoV-2
With the vaccine injuries we’ve heard reported, I’m really glad we avoided that whole vaccination fiasco entirely. I’m sorry for friends and family who didn’t realize the deception involved (brought to you by our corporatized systems) or who bowed to pressure. I’m sorry for any who may have suffered and I’m hopeful that few have. While some may have benefitted from vaccination, there is no way to know whether the risks imposed, particularly by mRNA vaccinations, might be a problem now… as well as in the future.
There is much chatter about vaccine injuries and growing concern about how accumulation of mRNA in the body might bring impacts. While mainstream narrative has largely belittled and negated these ideas, with the growing numbers of unexplainable excess deaths, we might want to be cautious about COVID vaccinations. This is especially true for those groups who have little risk from COVID infection, notably young people.
This idea that we risk vaccinating our children to protect the aged and infirm has been a BIG RED FLAG for me from the beginning. And now we have more data that seems to support my concerns.
In September 2021 vaccinated people accounted for 23% of coronavirus fatalities, while in January and February 2022, this percentage grew to 42% of coronavirus fatalities. It now seems the “help” of vaccines was completely oversold as 58% of August Covid victims were reported as vaccinated, leading Kaiser Family Foundation vice president Cynthia Cox to formally admit, “We can no longer say this is a pandemic of the unvaccinated.”
And then there’s this… from March 2021. In 35 seconds, the former CDC Director admits the most likely scenario was from a laboratory escape. Dr. Redfield also notes that normal zoonoic to human transmission “takes a while” and this doesn’t “make biological sense”. At three minutes, he admits to the gain-of-function work on Coronavirus. The CNN piece notes several things which now are not so surprising to many. Terribly, we failed to heed this reporting and it became a one-off lost in time. Though perhaps it was too late in the game to change much anyway?
I know this is a controversial topic yet perhaps we can continue discussions, hopefully without censorship? And by giving serious eye to data, to determine reality, rather than some truthy make-believe world where vaccines don’t actually prevent transmission of illness anymore? And, as hard as it may be to admit, come to the conclusion that we’re not being told the whole truth?
I’m grateful for those who continue to work at finding the truth, no matter the criticism. I can tell you from my personal experience, this is NOT an easy task.
Thanks for listening. Miigwech bizindaawiyeg.
12 Monday Sep 2022
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Community, Death, Human Extinction, Insanity
We failed to maintain our water systems… and are realizing it at just the moment the climate is bringing a big surge in what it’s sending us in the way of floods.
Exponentials never were our forte. ⚠️
05 Monday Sep 2022
Posted in Citizenship, Climate Change, Community, Death, Insanity, Local Reporting, Preventing Line 3
Tags
Accountability, climate change, Climate Crisis, Line 3, Line 5, Line 93, MN PUC, MNDNR, MPCA, Pipelines
Snowden, Manning, & Assange showed, by our own definitions, that the U.S. is guilty of war crimes. They have been imprisoned for revealing these truths.
Water Protectors and Land Defenders too have been charged and locked up for trying to tell the hard truths.
The unrelenting news of flooding, fires, drought, and ecological devastation shows little pause in the fray towards… “progress”.
At what point do humans come to understand that their own comforts [mostly enjoyed by the elite, mostly white, citizens] are the very destruction of the air on which they are dependent?
The water is being controlled, disregarded, and poisoned. The air and land are being polluted indiscriminately.
What are we doing to preserve the land, air, and water… on which we depend for the essentials of life?
Are we simply running towards our own deaths… and bringing death for so many more in the process?
We ignore truth to our own peril.
We of Waadookawaad Amikwag continue to work to uncover the truth. Help us spread the word?
Tim Walz 800-657-3717
AG Ellison 800-657-3787
Minnesota Pollution Control Agency (800) 657-3864 [I usually call Deputy Commissioner Peter Tester at 651-757-2013… though he doesn’t usually answer. Or return calls. Maybe that’s the MPCA way? 🤔]
Minnesota Department of Natural Resources 888-646-6367
And if you’ve given up on the state, as many of us have found them to be non-responsive… maybe try these folks:
US Army Corps of Engineers 651-290-5882
US Environmental Protection Agency 312-353-2000
Miigwech.
22 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in Being Yourself, Citizenship, Coronavirus, Death, Economics, Health, Human Extinction, Insanity
Tags
“My sources are more scientific than your sources” seems where America lives these days.
And the truth is becoming harder to find every day. As the scripted MSM focuses us where they want us to look… and think tanks explain it all to us.
If you tell a lie big enough and keep repeating it, people will eventually come to believe it. The lie can be maintained only for such time as the State can shield the people from the political, economic and/or military consequences of the lie. It thus becomes vitally important for the State to use all of its powers to repress dissent, for the truth is the mortal enemy of the lie, and thus by extension, the truth is the greatest enemy of the State.”
~ unattributable
… and we find ourselves unfriending long-term associates after too many frustrated communications. 😶 Perhaps we can no longer Agree to Disagree?
Can’t argue though… with the HUGE AMOUNT of excess deaths we’ve seen since Covid was released upon us. About a quarter of our dead each day are attributed to Covid it seems, so there’s SOMETHING that we might want to address, eh?
Here’s the latest (and pretty scary) link from Dr. Pierre Kory – of Deleted Senate Subcommittee Hearing fame. He and his group of Frontline Doctors – those responsible for ERs in major metro areas links during Covid days – have struggled to secure almost any public debate on facts with state authorities (and by state I mean both state and federal). Yet these Physicians – trying from the beginning to tell us what was happening – have been largely censored from easily accessible public domains… accused of providing “disinformation”.
What claim of “disinformation” can be credible without providing the details discrediting said information? Especially when this proposed “disinformation’ is notably dissenting from the mainstream narrative? Especially when the approved national narrative is based on deviating from established norms and protocols of scientific review? Even Fauci’s failed AZT vaccine for Aids was pulled after a few dozen deaths. But not these Covid vaccines, for which they continue to eschew any review for adverse events, no matter how numerous. [See above review on Pfizer’s pregnancy safety data – just released.] What reason can the Feds give for removing the video of Kory’s Senate hearing – a public forum? Unless it’s about controlling the narrative to promote a (designed) Vaccines Only Solution?
Throughout the Covid-19 debacle, I’ve based my information on discernment from a variety of credible sources (Dr. Hong, Dr. Martenson [still so true 2 years later…], Dr. Campbell, among others) I’ve been watching for a couple years now, and correlating that information to the data in the landscape. I’ve read sooo many medical papers, analyzed so much genetic information, and listened to hours upon hours of medical explanations while perusing thousands of data records in my attempts to understand our situation.
I’ve watched as my sources have been confirmed and wondered often at the censored response to successful campaigns. And, perhaps most telling of all: No mention by CDC of Vitamin D as a critical element for our immune systems, something for years the powers that be encouraged with a Does a Body Good campaign? [Yeah, that wasn’t based on science either, eh? Just sales. And, Jesus, do we have to sexualize fkn everything? FFS. I wonder how much these old commercials drove my development.]
There remain so many unanswered questions.
How can one demonize a group of Frontline physicians (who have saved thousands of lives throughout Covid) as we concurrently watch the CDC continue to change paths, making little to no progress but lots of profits for Big Pharma, in the absurdity they call their National Covid Response?
How are humans so convinced of vaccine safety and efficacy as we watch continuous Covid infections (what the fuck is the definition of a vaccine if not to prevent spread of the disease you’ve supposedly been inoculated for???), and why on earth would you expose a developing child to this formula, without knowing the long-term implications? Especially as children have been so minimally impacted by Covid-19 with regard to hospitalizations and death?
I guess it’s the same crowd who has been convinced to work the best hours and days of their life, sacrificing their children’s plays, games, and TIME – their children’s literal milestones – to give themselves to The Man… for some ready cash. These who are largely unaware of the wage slavery to which they are beholden. Who trust their government enough to inject their children with a concoction that may very well be increasing rates of infertility and spontaneous abortion in pregnant women (thus, doing God knows what to our developing generations… our grandchildren… our grand nieces and nephews).
Meanwhile…. air pollution…. kills 7M each year… and we’re hearing fuck all on that (let alone doing anything about it).
We’ve had three known nuclear meltdowns at power plants… so can we now admit humans might not be as smart as we try to storytell we are… in this concocted reality we call life?
We only know what we know because of those who have been willing to sacrifice themselves to their causes. Watch Meltdown: Three Mile Island and then think about your pandemic response teams?
I also found this interesting item this week… Tulsi on a Bill for Snowden & Assange.
Here’s to the Whistle Blowers.
The real truth tellers. Risking all to keep us informed. I’d say we owe them a listen.
Don’t forget to shine.
Remember your soul is the one thing you can’t compromise.”
David Gray Shine
15 Monday Aug 2022
Posted in Climate Change, Economics, Insanity
Tags
Corporate Rule, fossil fuel industry, oligarch, oligarchs, Pigs at the Trough, Regulatory Capture, Taxpayer, Taxpayer Liability
Originally published on Pipeline Fighters Hub. Note some highlights are mine.
This blog explains how the Inflation Reduction Act is a HUGE WINDFALL whose design may well serve to reinvigorate the coal industry… forcing taxpayers to give more big profits to players in an already bloated industry… as we literally pay them to pollute our world.
Here’s his close, which is just as good as an opener (in case you’re short on time or lack will to read deeper):
The 45Q program is a means for CO2 emitters and their oligarch investors to claim to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously supporting the next wave of oil development and paying no taxes. By indiscriminately ramping up the 45Q program’s carbon credits by 70% across the board, the IRA threatens to hand out tens of billions of dollars in windfall tax credits to oligarchs and provide decades of public subsidies to all fossil fuel industries, while running roughshod over the local communities across America that would be subject to eminent domain for pipeline development. The IRA’s 45Q amendments are a remarkable example of Congressional corruption and inequity that supports the global rich at the cost of harming everyday Americans.
Now, on to Paul’s analysis…
The Inflation Reduction Act May Save the Fossil Fuel Industry
The Inflation Reduction Act of 2022, HR 5376, (IRA) is moving through Congress, and there is not much time to understand the importance of its amendments to the 45Q tax credits and their implications for the fossil fuel industries.
If you are not familiar with tax credits, as a starting point, I suggest reading my blog posts on how the existing 45Q tax credit program works.
Why the IRA’s Amendments to the 45Q Tax Credit Program Is Inequitable, Corrupt, and Wasteful
The federal 45Q tax credit program allows participants to reduce their federal taxes based on the amount of carbon dioxide (CO2) they are able to extract from the air pollution that comes from smoke stacks. Under existing law, for each metric ton (2,204.6 pounds) of carbon captured, the existing program provides $50/metric ton if the carbon is simply pumped underground (sequestered) and $35/metric ton if the carbon is used in enhanced oil recovery operations (EOR). The use of carbon dioxide in EOR is based on the fact that liquid carbon dioxide is a very good solvent, so it can be used to dissolve oil that is trapped in rock deep underground.
The IRA would increase the 45Q program tax credits to $85/metric ton for sequestration and $60/metric ton for EOR, a 70% increase. For most people, these are just abstract numbers. But, they are very important to the U.S. Congress and their oligarch supporters, so it’s important for us to understand how this increase in tax benefits will affect our country and environment. This blog post explains the significance of the IRA’s proposed increase in 45Q tax credits.
One of the most significant flaws in the 45Q program, made all the more glaring by the IRA, is that it provides fixed tax credits regardless of the cost of capturing carbon. The problem with this approach is that the costs of capturing carbon vary widely depending on industry. For example, the levelized break-even cost of carbon capture at ethanal plants is reported as $25-$35/metric ton. It may cost even less at natural gas processing plants. In contrast, the levelized break-even costs at coal power plants is reported to be in the range of $37-$55/metric ton, and at natural gas power plants $49-$114/metric ton. Yet, the 45Q program provides the exact same tax credit regardless of the actual costs of capture. The tables below show the range of estimated break-even costs needed to pay for carbon capture facilities at coal and natural gas power plants. Tax credits in excess of break-even costs can be turned into profit.
| COAL POWER PLANTBreak Even Costs | Average/ Representative ($/metric ton) | Low ($/metric ton) | High ($/metric ton) | ||||
| CO2 Capture at Coal Power Plants | 47 | 37 | 55 | ||||
| Pipeline Transportation (Onshore 10 Mt/year) | 3 | 2 | 4 | ||||
| Storage | 5 | 1 | 13 | ||||
| Total Capture, Transportation, and Storage | 55 | 40 | 72 |
| NATURAL GAS POWER PLANTBreak Even Costs | Average/ Representative ($/metric ton) | Low ($/metric ton) | High ($/metric ton) | ||||
| CO2 Capture at Natural Gas Power Plants | 76 | 49 | 114 | ||||
| Pipeline Transportation (Onshore 10 Mt/year) | 3 | 2.3 | 3.8 | ||||
| Storage | 5 | 1 | 13 | ||||
| Total Capture, Transportation, and Storage | 84 | 52.3 | 130.8 |
Even though the levelized cost of capture at an ethanol plant might be just $25/metric ton and transportation and sequestration costs might add $5/ton more, the owner of the capture equipment would still receive tax credits worth $85/metric ton. The 70% increase in this one-size-fits-all tax credit means that low-cost carbon capture projects will win the lottery.
By way of example, the following table shows the annual maximum possible 45Q tax credits generated by the three carbon pipelines currently under development in the Midwest, both before and after the IRA’s boost of the 45Q credits by 70%, based on their claimed annual maximum pipeline capacities. It is important to understand that the developers of these pipelines considered these projects to be economically viable and profitable without the IRA’s proposed 70% increase.
| Project | Maximum Pipeline Capacities (metric tons per year) | Existing Annual Maximum Tax Credits at $50/MT | HR5376 Annual Maximum Tax Credits at $85/MT | Net Annual Maximum Tax Credit Increase Due to the IRA (Windfall) | |||||
| Summit | 12,000,000 | 600,000,000 | 1,020,000,000 | + 420,000,000 | |||||
| Navigator | 15,000,000 | 750,000,000 | 1,275,000,000 | +525,000,000 | |||||
| ADM/Wolf | 12,000,000 | 600,000,000 | 1,020,000,000 | +420,000,000 | |||||
| Total | 39,000,000 | 1,950,000,000 | 3,315,000,000 | +1,365,000,000 |
The IRA would provide, just for these three CCS projects, up to $1.365 billion dollars per year in windfall tax credits that are pure pork. How is this not tremendously wasteful and inequitable? While these pipelines are unlikely to operate at full capacity at startup, such that the actual amounts of tax credits claimed at first might be, say, 2/3 of the rated capacity, the point here is that by providing a one-size-fits-all tax credit, the IRA amendments to the 45Q program would provide grossly excessive tax credits for low-cost CCS projects. Even if these CCS projects operate at 2/3 capacity, the IRA, at a minimum, would provide these CCS projects hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits per year above the levels necessary for construction and operation.
In contrast, the Canadian government is considering tax credits to cover 50% of CCS costs. This approach is similar to the IRA’s proposed Investment Tax Credit for solar that would cover just 30% of the costs of building solar plants… Taking all tax and depreciation benefits for solar projects into account, the federal government subsidizes about 44% of the capital costs of solar projects. The remainder of the cost of solar is ultimately paid for by sale of the electricity generated. A percentage approach at least avoids granting grossly excessive tax credits to lower-cost projects.
In contrast, the $85/metric ton sequestration credit appears to provide tax credits in excess of 200% of the capital costs of CCS at ethanol plants, and possibly in excess of 150% of the costs of CCS at coal power plants. Since simply sequestering carbon does not generate cash, the 45Q tax credits must be high enough to pay for the entire cost of capture and sequestration projects. This being said, CCS projects may also receive cash from California’s low carbon fuel program or from selling CO2 to EOR projects, meaning that CCS projects might make earn money in addition to the tax credits.
So, who would receive these windfall tax credits? Only very large corporations and the super-rich have enough income to need huge amounts of tax credits. For example, investors in the Summit Carbon Solutions project include, but are not limited to, the Public Investment Fund of Saudi Arabia; SK holdings, a South Korean company fined over 70 million dollars for defrauding the US Army, and Harold Hamm of fracked oil fame. This list indicates that the three Midwestern CCS projects will primarily benefit major corporations and the global oligarchs, such as Senator Joe Manchin, because nobody but them needs such massive amounts of tax credits.
Why the IRA Could Revitalize the Coal Industry
Now, let’s consider how the IRA would impact the coal industry. To create example of potential tax credits available to the coal industry, I prepared a spreadsheet (attached) calculating examples of the maximum potential annual 45Q tax credits that could be claimed by 26 large Midwestern coal power plants (each with emissions of greater than 1 million metric tons of CO2 per year), if they installed carbon capture equipment and captured 100% of their 2020 emissions (emissions data from USEPA FLIGHT database). Again, it is unlikely that these coal power plants would capture 100% of emissions, and it would take years to develop CCS projects, but the estimates are intended to provide a sense of the scale of the financial benefits that could be provided to coal power plants and the potential for grossly excessive one-size-fits-all tax credit awards due to variations in carbon capture costs at different plants.
The estimates show that the maximum annual tax credits would range from $85 million to $1 billion, per year, per plant, depending on the size of the plant. Given the variable costs of carbon capture, the 45Q program could provide tax credits 18% to 113% above breakeven costs, or, depending on the size of the plant, roughly $13 million to $500 million per year, per plant, above the cost of the break-even CCS projects. This analysis indicates that the IRA would make CCS economically viable at a large proportion of coal plants in the US and potentially provide tax benefits far in excess of CCS project costs, meaning the 45Q tax credit could directly subsidize the coal industry.
When Congress first created the 45Q program, it limited tax credits to just the first 75 million tons of carbon captured, and this cap limited the financial impact of the program. In 2018, Congress removed this cap, meaning that the 45Q program has no legal dollar limit. As a result of the elimination of this cap and the IRA’s 70% increase in tax credit amount, the majority of coal power plants nationwide might now be financially able to install CCS and collect tens if not hundreds of millions of dollars in tax credits per year, per plant. Yes, it would take years to install all of the necessary carbon capture equipment, but once projects are announced and operational and billions have been invested in capture facilities and pipelines, it would be very difficult if not impossible to shut them down – or shut down the coal plants that produce the captured carbon dioxide.
How Does the 45Q Program’s Size Compare to the Tax Credits That Would Be Provided to Wind and Solar?
Let’s compare the 45Q program’s potential financial benefits to those provided by the current wind energy production tax credit, based on a study by the Congressional Research Service entitled, The Renewable Electricity Production Tax Credit: In Brief, Updated April 29, 2020. Table 3 of this report on page 7 (pdf page 10) provides estimates of total nationwide federal renewable energy production tax credit expenditures, meaning the taxes lost due to PTC tax credit claims. Congress has estimated that the highest annual amount for total national PTC tax credit claims was $5.1 billion in 2019. Even considering that the IRA would provide enhanced PTC benefits, if the three Midwestern CCS projects start operations, they alone could be awarded tax credits worth up to $3.3 billion per year. If the 26 example coal plants captured 100% of their emissions, they would receive about $9.5 billion in tax credits. However, many more CCS projects are being planned.
The entire size of the “tax equity market,” meaning the total amount of tax credits claimed for renewable energy, affordable housing, etc., was estimated for 2020 to be between $17 and $18 billion dollars. Since Congress failed to impose a limit on the size of the 45Q program and all large CO2 emitters including coal power plants, natural gas power plants, oil refineries, natural gas processing plants, fertilizer plants, etc., may capture and claim 45Q credits, it seems likely that the IRA would result in the 45Q tax credit program growing in size to far exceed the renewable energy tax credit program.
Therefore, it would appear that IRA could provide potential tax benefits to facilities that emit carbon dioxide that could dwarf the benefits provided to renewable energy. Moreover, given the potential for windfall tax credits, there may be a risk that tax credit investors would prefer to invest in CCS projects over wind and solar projects, because the return on investment at CCS projects could be much higher.
Isn’t CCS Necessary to Stop Climate Change?
One of the primary arguments made by CCS advocates is that CCS is necessary to achieving net zero CO2 emissions by 2050, particularly from industries for which there are not good clean energy alternatives, such as steel production. The IRA’s supporters claim that it sets the carbon credit amount at $85/metric ton specifically to make CCS economic at such hard-nut-to-crack industries, but the IRA makes this high tax credit amount available to all CO2 emitting industries, regardless of the availability of clean energy alternatives or the carbon capture costs.
CCS advocates also claim that the IPCC states that CCS will be a “key” component of global CO2 emission reductions, but these advocates completely fail to consider that the order in time in which we fund carbon mitigation options and the relative costs of options are both critically important factors. We should fund the less expensive, higher bang-for-the-buck options first, before pouring cash into expensive CCS at “hard nut” industries. The following table excerpts data from Figure SMP7 (attached) from the April 2022 IPCC report. The data shows that CCS for energy and industry are among the most expensive mitigation options and that at most they would reduce global CO2 emissions by a relatively small amount, as compared to much lower cost clean energy, efficiency, conservation, and other options.
Select Climate Change Mitigation Option Amounts and Costs from IPCC 2022 Figure SPM.7
The IPCC data indicates that global climate change mitigation efforts should first spend money on renewable energy, energy efficiency, conservation, and a variety of other lower-cost options before seeking to crack the expensive “hard nut” industries via CCS. The justification for the 45Q program focuses on “hard nut” mitigation needs, which are the most expensive, least bang-for-the-buck mitigation options and should be lower priority. Even worse, the vast majority of the 45Q tax credits would almost certainly not be used to crack the “hard nuts,” but rather would be spent to continue operation of CO2 emitting industries that could be displaced by clean energy options. If the IRA is enacted, the oligarchs would likely first invest in CCS projects that provide windfall tax benefits, such as at ethanol and natural gas processing plants, before investing in expensive low-profit CCS projects at steel plants and other “hard nut” industries. The IPCC data indicates that CCS is not a key near-term climate mitigation solution, but rather should be funded after better mitigation options are fully exploited. The 45Q program is an example of spending a massive amount of money on the exact wrong thing.
Does the 45Q Tax Credit Program Deprioritize Enhanced Oil Recovery (EOR)?
Enhanced oil recovery (EOR) is a process whereby fluid CO2 is pumped underground to dissolve oil out of rock. It turns out the fluid CO2 is good at dissolving oil out of the rock pores in legacy oilfields, but huge amounts of it are needed for the EOR process to work. CO2 EOR can increase the amount of oil pumped from suitable legacy oilfields by 50% or more, which could result in a huge amount of additional crude oil being pumped and burned, both in the US and globally. Typically, the emissions from burning the oil exceed the amount of CO2 left in the ground after EOR operations end, often by a ratio of at least 2 tons of oil-based carbon to 1 ton of stored carbon.
Given that the 45Q tax credit program provides a tax credit worth $85/metric ton if the CO2 is simply sequestered underground, and just $60/metric ton if the CO2 is used in EOR, some might think that this means CCS projects would prioritize sending the CO2 to sequestration sites. However, the 45Q program actually creates an incentive to use the CO2 in EOR, because EOR operators are expected to pay a fee for the CO2 of approximately $25 to $40/metric ton that would be in addition to the tax credit. Thus, if a coal plant captured carbon and sold it to an EOR operation, it would receive $60/metric ton in federal tax credits plus $25 to $40/metric ton from the EOR operator. To beat out sequestration, EOR operators would just need to pay at least $25/ton or more for the CO2.
In the alternative, an oil company could simply own some or all of the carbon capture equipment at a coal plant, oil refinery, etc., and therefore own the right to decide where to ship its share of the CO2. Moreover, the oil company could snarf up any windfall tax credits generated by the CCS project and in effect subsidize the cost of the CO2, thereby increasing the profitability of its EOR operation.
The oil industry sees CO2 EOR as its next major development wave that will grow as fracking declines. The primary obstacle to increased development of CO2 EOR is not economics or technical challenges – it is a lack of access to huge amounts of liquid CO2. CO2 has been used in EOR for decades, but the EOR industry has primarily used natural underground CO2 deposits that are now pretty much fully exploited. The only way to make huge amounts of CO2 available to the EOR industry is to capture CO2 at industrial facilities and ship it to oilfields. The oil industry needs federally subsidized carbon capture projects to keep the oil flowing. This is why the CEO of Exxon recently described carbon capture the “holy grail” and called for the 45Q program tax credit to be increased to $100/metric ton. Carbon capture certainly is the holy grail for converting federal tax credits into future oil industry profits.
Bottom Line
The IRA is being rushed through Congress, yet it has the potential to provide truly massive subsidies and eyewatering windfall tax benefits to CO2 emitting industries. It’s not clear that those who are advocating for the IRA have adequately assessed the amount of potential tax credit benefits that an unlimited 45Q program could provide to CO2 emitters, especially when one considers that the coal, oil, and natural gas industries could all develop CCS projects and receive substantial financial benefits. Further, if tens or even hundreds of billions of dollars are spent to construct capture equipment and carbon pipelines, CO2 emitting industries would likely use these investments as arguments for why their CCS projects – and the facilities that emit the captured CO2 – should be kept in operation indefinitely. And, this would keep the federal gravy train rolling indefinitely.
The 45Q program is a means for CO2 emitters and their oligarch investors to claim to be reducing greenhouse gas emissions while simultaneously supporting the next wave of oil development and paying no taxes. By indiscriminately ramping up the 45Q program’s carbon credits by 70% across the board, the IRA threatens to hand out tens of billions of dollars in windfall tax credits to oligarchs and provide decades of public subsidies to all fossil fuel industries, while running roughshod over the local communities across America that would be subject to eminent domain for pipeline development. The IRA’s 45Q amendments are a remarkable example of Congressional corruption and inequity that supports the global rich at the cost of harming everyday Americans.
04 Monday Jul 2022
Posted in Citizenship, Community, Happiness in Life, Human Extinction, Insanity, Police Violence, Racism
LIsten to the essay first if you’d like… for an interesting perspective.
I particularly like #4 in his list… of a new vision:
A New Conception of Progress
Here is what that new story and new conception of progress might look like:
☆ Real security comes not through control, but from relationship and belonging.
☆ Nature has a fundamental tendency toward complexity and wholeness. Our destiny is to participate in the coming alive of the cosmos, to be part of the unfolding of complexity and beauty into new domains.
☆ Now is the time to turn the technologies of control toward a new purpose: to serve life and beauty on earth. That starts with healing the damage we have done.
☆ No technology is inevitable. We have the power to collectively choose how we will develop. We can choose technologies that conform to our emerging values of beauty and life.
☆ More is not necessarily better, because reality will always escape the primal cognitive technologies of control called labeling and measuring. In the future, we learn the limits of quantitative reasoning, and turn our main energies toward qualitative enrichment.
☆ Life and earth are sacred. When we reduce them to a finite value, we commit sacrilege. All resources of the earth are therefore meant for sacred use. When we use them, we always ask whether this will contribute to more beauty, more love, more wonder, and more life.
☆ Labor is also sacred; meaningful labor is necessary for human well-being. Therefore, technology should seek not to replace it, but to extend its creative powers.
☆ Because we humans are not the sole possessors of intelligence, order, and purpose, we can achieve much more by allying ourselves with an intelligence larger than ourselves than we can relying on our own power to control the world through force.
Portion of the Charles Eisenstein list on A New Conception of Progress from his essay “Reinventing Progress“
Comment Exchange:
alwayscurious Apr 22 This is very thoughtful, optimistic and spiritual. However, as Aquinas would say, you can’t have good without evil, as you can’t have light without darkness. Control is more than a need to connect, it is fundamental to narcissism and psychopathy. |
My reply:
I LOVE your name! I too am always curious…
Response on Charles Eisenstein post on Reinventing Progress
Agree on your closing [“Control is more than a need to connect, it is fundamental to narcissism and psychopathy.”], as I’ve been learning MUCH about narcissism in recent days.
Excellent point.
Though on Aquinas’ point, it feels to me like there is black in white and white in black – as is shown in the Tao. I see the “evil” in me – the fear-based pull for control. Though I also see it’s far more engaging and enlightening to work within my community to allow what is… which I call “good”… as I work to make minimal negative impact on those around me.
Not easy work!!
We can’t understand light without knowing darkness. This is true? As far as I can see.
Though I am working to understand that There is No Bad. What is IS.
And what I learn from this is my journey.
May your journey be blessed.
i urge you to consider what progress means to you.
Is it the “convenience” items that make your life easier, faster, more full?
Or do you long for a progress that makes life more beautiful, delicious and connected?
Is satisfaction found in a “Happy” Meal? Or the PB&J made with homemade jam, from berries picked in the local wood and peanut butter made fresh at the local co-op?
Is convenience delivered in tiny plastic cups and Styrofoam packaging? Or is that packaging actually what is making it harder to breathe each day? Not being able to breathe isn’t very convenient, is it?
Do you find joy in racing to and fro to practice, lessons, games, and the all-important shopping? Or is joy found in the walk around the block, greeting neighbors and discovering a new tree or bug or flower friend?
Progress is what we call “forward movement toward a destination”.
Consider where you’re headed today?
17 Monday Jan 2022
Tags
Aquifer, Aquifer Breach, Breach, Clearbrook MN, DNR, Enbridge, Line 3
How screwed up is a species that allows the destruction of forests and water bodies for the creation of a tar sands pipeline?
So screwed up they’ll also allow the destruction of the Boundary Waters for a nickel or copper mine?
And so addicted to oil they will allow a CO2 pipeline, full of gas that can kill in minutes, to be built… only so ‘enhanced oil recovery’ can continue… thus further poisoning the atmosphere with carbon?
All this with no accountability for cleaning up our messes?
Interior’s analysis found there are more than 130,000 documented orphaned wells in the United States — far more than the 56,600 tallied in a report by the Interstate Oil & Gas Compact Commission in 2019. Many more wells exist that were drilled before regulators began requiring documentation in the mid-1900s.
The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency estimates that there are more than 3 million total abandoned oil and gas wells. About 2 million of those are estimated to be very old and never properly plugged. The agency believes such wells are responsible for most of the methane emitted from abandoned wells.
U.S. says more than half of states will seek oil well cleanup funds
When will enough be enough?
When we obliterate the very sources of life itself? Clean land, air, and water? When the last fish has been eaten? The last tree culled?
This is how screwed up: Around the world, humans are struggling to survive raging wild fires, flooding, tornados, ice storms… and all these in unexpected places and/ot during atypical times.. Yet, as our systems are failing, we continue… business as usual.
But there is a better way.
The aquifer breach Enbridge created almost a year ago now, is a calamity that should never have happened. Had there been proper oversight by the state agencies, the many problems created in our lands during the building of Enbridge’s new Line 3 might never have occurred. (Enbridge named this new pipeline “Line 93”.)
If agencies had bothered listening to those of us warning of the dangers, especially of believing Enbridge lies, perhaps they would have denied this project and our trees would still be standing.
Or, if the DNR hadn’t given Enbridge the benefit of the doubt, trusted them to be forthcoming, trusted their “independent” environmental monitors (almost half of whom are previous Enbridge employees!?!?!) to be unbiased observers. If they’d visited the work sites more or even simply bothered to READ the reports on the project, we might have avoided these issues? Had they bothered to look at this land, and realize this is no place for a tar sands pipeline from the beginning, we would not have drilling mud embedded at so many rivers across Minnesota and ww could have avoided this year of dewatering at this aquifer breach in Clearwater County. So many failures of the DNR.
Perhaps their mission should have been a red flag? With its focus on “commercial use” of our land, air, and waters, perhaps they for the part that says, “in a way that creates a sustainable quality of life”? As we hear often, and seems more evident every day, it’s all about the Benjamins?
The mission of the Minnesota Department of Natural Resources (DNR) is to work with Minnesotans to conserve and manage the state’s natural resources, to provide outdoor recreation opportunities, and to provide for commercial uses of natural resources in a way that creates a sustainable quality of life.
DNR Mission Statement
[This soooo reminds me of that question I asked DNR Commissioner Sarah Strommen back in 2019 around what her department does besides simply keep an account of who is buying all our natural resources.]
As the DNR protocols to evaluate projects showed a failure to fact check the inputs by Enbridge, which might have saved so much, had it been done. DNR has not been cautious. They have seemingly colluded with Enbridge to allow continued construction… even when it was discovered Enbridge had completely violated their construction permit. And failed to report it for months!
So what can they do now? The DNR can come clean on why they allowed such egregious violations to go without repercussions to the applicant. They can open their processes to public scrutiny and engage with Native and scientific voices to assure our natural resources are protected, not just sold off to the most readily available bidders.
It’s time. If ever there was a time for action, it is now. As we are observing the exponential changes in weather, climate, and risks… all of which mean more losses and more costs with a business as usual approach.
Let’s change the systems that currently decide our future. The lawsuit filed by Mark Toso against the MPCA gives hope that some from our Agencies are courageous enough to challenge the current culture.
Let’s hold them accountable and assure this kind of atrocity NEVER HAPPENS AGAIN.
Let’s ask the DNR to fix Clearbrook Aquifer.
Retired at 45 