Energy once again dominated headlines this week. It was impossible to miss the fallout from the ransomware attack on Colonial Pipeline Co. — which controls one of the fossil fuel infrastructure’s main arteries, an oil pipeline carrying fuel from Texas and up the East Coast — but the nuances of the reaction were a bit more complicated, so I’ll recap the saga here.
About the fuel: While the pipeline remained shut down for four full days, it began its slow restart on Wednesday with limited shipments from North Carolina to Maryland. However, the damage to consumer impressions of the country’s fuel supplies had already been done. Consumers rushed out to buy fuel following news of the shutdown, causing gasoline prices to tick up dramatically on Tuesday and certain gas stations to run out of fuel.
But shortages persisted even once service restarted, causing President Joe Biden to implore the country’s drivers not to buy more gasoline than they need, despite persistent shortages resulting from the pipeline’s shutdown, calling the supply squeeze “temporary.”
About the government’s response: Colonial’s suspension caused the Biden administration to immediately take steps to prepare for supply disruptions concentrated in parts of the Southeast.
For instance, last Sunday, the Transportation Department enacted emergency powers to remove restrictions on fuel transportation by roads, citing “a need for immediate transportation of gasoline, diesel, jet fuel and other refined petroleum products.” DOT also temporarily waived the Jones Act, which prevents foreign ships from carrying products between U.S. ports, in the interest of facilitating fuel supply transport. And the Environmental Protection Agency enacted multiple fuel waivers allowing retailers in all or part of 12 states and Washington, D.C., to sell gasoline that does not meet certain environmental restrictions.
Citing the attack, Biden signed an executive order that has been in the works for months to improve the nation’s cybersecurity, which encourages better measures within the private sector, better safeguards for the software supply chain and better government response to significant attacks.
About the hackers: Monday dawned with news that the attack was carried out by the criminal group DarkSide, a fact that the Federal Bureau of Investigation confirmed. Possibly based in Russia but unaffiliated from the country’s government, the relatively new organization of hackers was apparently surprised at the level of disruption it caused, saying in a statement that its “goal is to make money and not creating [sic] problems for society.” On Thursday, DarkSide’s website went down and the group told associates it is shutting down operations entirely, according to security research firms.
In other news:
- The EPA released its “climate indicators” data for the first time since the Trump administration paused its publication in 2016, illustrating global warming-related changes to the U.S. landscape in recent years and marking the first time the agency has acknowledged the impact that humans have had on these changes. The report, which came alongside an updated website, described how the country has entered an unprecedented phase in warming, citing developments including the destruction of Alaska’s permafrost and an escalation of summer heat waves.
- The EPA has also begun the 30-day process of rolling back the Trump-era “cost-benefit rule,” which altered how the agency measured the economic implications of new rules aimed at reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions. The policy broke down the public health benefits of new regulations into direct and ancillary benefits, a move backed by the fossil fuel industry, which argued that the federal government’s formulas had overcounted these benefits and resulted in cumbersome pollution restrictions.
- As anticipated, the Interior Department authorized the construction of the Vineyard Wind LLC project, the first major offshore wind farm in federal waters. The 800-megawatt generation of the farm, which will be located near the coast of Massachusetts, is a major step in moving toward the Biden administration’s goal of installing 30 gigawatts of offshore wind developments by 2030.
- A World Bank report found that global gas flaring decreased by roughly 5 percent in 2020 because of the broader decrease in oil demand as a consequence of the coronavirus pandemic. China saw an increase and Russia flared more gas than any other country, while the United States saw a particularly dramatic drop of 32 percent, mainly due to new gas capture infrastructure.