Message From the Editor

On Saturday, in Wilhelmshaven, Germany, a newly built jetty is due to welcome a 280-meter vessel capable of offloading cargoes of liquified natural gas.

The facility is the first of six such floating units slated to berth at various points along Germany’s coastline over the next year, where LNG will be converted back into a gas and fed into Germany’s gas grid. Up to three onshore equivalents will boost import capacity further.

German utilities argue that pivoting to LNG is the country’s only viable substitute for Russian pipeline gas, which accounted for more than half of imports before President Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine triggered a frantic search for alternatives.

Climate campaigners, however, see the new infrastructure as ominous signs that the gas lobby has finally achieved a long-standing goal to lock Germany into the $100 billion global LNG market – threatening to keep Europe’s biggest economy hooked on fossil fuels for decades to come.

That’s potentially very bad news for the climate: The huge amount of methane that leaks during the production, transportation, and storage of LNG means that the carbon emissions associated with importing the fuel could be up to ten times higher than for the equivalent amount of Russian pipeline gas, researchers say.

Senior Reporter Phoebe Cooke dives deep into the story as part of a DeSmog series on the influence wielded by the gas lobby in Europe. We think it makes the perfect weekend longread — let us know what you think!
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Thanks,
Brendan DeMelle
Executive Director

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Image credit: DeSmog

A New Era for Germany’s Gas Industry Fuels Climate Fears

— By Phoebe Cooke (10 min. read) —

For 150 years, heavy industry has been the lifeblood of the German port of Wilhelmshaven, a hub for shipbuilding, plastics, coal and steel. Now, the city is at the forefront of the country’s dash to break its dependence on Russian gas.

On Saturday, a newly built jetty is due to welcome the Norwegian-flagged Höegh Esperanza, a 280-metre vessel capable of offloading cargoes of natural gas supercooled into liquid form, then shipped across the ocean in specialised tankers.

Peak US Oil Production Looms as the Domestic Shale Boom Ends

— By Justin Mikulka (7 min. read) —

It appears that the U.S. fracking boom is ending far earlier than many industry experts and CEOs predicted. After an understandable dip in 2020 due to the pandemic, oil production still has not regained the record levels achieved in 2019, and predictions that the industry would set new records this year have not materialized, despite 2022’s high oil prices.

Pesticide Industry ‘Helped Write’ Disinformation Playbook Used by Big Oil and Big Tobacco, Report Reveals

— By Dana Drugmand (6 min. read) —

As regulators in the United States and European Union prepare to review and potentially reauthorize the controversial weedkiller glyphosate, a new report reveals the stealth tactics and narrative spin deployed by the chemical’s manufacturer to discredit inconvenient science and protect profits.

The report, published by Friends of the Earth and nonprofit investigative organization U.S. Right to Know, uses the case study of Monsanto (now owned by Bayer) and its widely used glyphosate-based product Roundup to illustrate the pesticide industry’s deceptive tactics and communications strategies — which mirror those of the tobacco and fossil fuel industries.

Pipeline Company Wants to Quietly Expand Gas Shipments in the Pacific Northwest

— By Nick Cunningham (6 min. read) —

Canadian pipeline company TC Energy is aiming to expand the volume of methane gas that it ships through a long distance pipeline in the Pacific Northwest, potentially locking in higher gas use despite laws in western states that chart a path away from fossil fuels in the years ahead.

TC Energy’s existing GTN pipeline carries methane gas from British Columbia down through much of the U.S. Pacific Northwest, passing through Idaho, Washington, and Oregon, and connecting to northern California.

Flagship EU Green Farming Reforms in Peril as Lobbyists Exploit Ukraine War

— By Clare Carlile and Hazel Healy (9 min. read) —

Europe’s leading farming lobby group Copa-Cogeca has used the war in Ukraine as a pretext to push back behind the scenes against bold EU laws to protect nature, DeSmog can reveal.

The meeting records reviewed by DeSmog are the latest evidence to emerge of a long-running effort by agribusiness lobby groups and pesticide firms to roll back rules aimed at safeguarding birds, bees, and butterflies.

From the Climate Disinformation Database: The Heartland Institute

The Heartland Institute is a Chicago-based free market think tank and 501(c)(3) charity that has been at the forefront of denying the scientific evidence for man-made climate change. The Heartland Institute has received at least $676,500 from ExxonMobil since 1998 but no longer discloses its funding sources. According to ExxonMobil’s worldwide giving reports, it appears to have stopped funding Heartland among other climate change denial groups around 2007. The Union of Concerned Scientists found that “Nearly 40% of the total funds that the Heartland Institute has received from ExxonMobil since 1998 were specifically designated for climate change projects.”
Read the full profile and browse other individuals and organizations in our Climate Disinformation Database and Koch Network Database.