General
EPA chief of staff under investigation in document destruction
Daniel Lippman, Politico
The Environmental Protection Agency’s inspector general is investigating whether chief of staff Ryan Jackson was involved in destroying internal documents that should have been retained, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Iowa senators, governor push EPA to change plan on ethanol
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill
Iowa’s senators and governor are asking the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to abandon its plans to use a formula that corn farmers argue won’t ensure ethanol is blended into the nation’s fuel supply.
Fed Says $500 Billion in Losses Show the Economic Threat of Climate Change
Alister Bull, Bloomberg
Climate change is a threat that risk managers can’t ignore, warned a senior official from the U.S. central bank.
New Orleans Battle Fought Anew: Fossil Fuel vs. Clean Power
Ivan Penn, The New York Times
Utility companies are investing tens of billions of dollars in natural-gas plants, insisting that renewables aren’t ready to serve as the primary source of electricity, while environmentalists and many states are pushing back against that argument.
GM sells shuttered Ohio plant to EV truck start-up
David Shepardson, Reuters
General Motors Co confirmed on Thursday it has sold its shuttered Lordstown Assembly plant in Ohio to a start-up that has an ambitious plan to begin building electric pickup trucks by the end of 2020.
Oil Falls Amid Uncertainty Over Trade War and OPEC Supply Cuts
Ann Koh and Grant Smith, Bloomberg
Oil fell as traders awaited more concrete signs that the U.S. and China are resolving their trade dispute, and amid concerns that OPEC and its partners won’t deepen output curbs to prevent a glut.
Oil and Natural Gas
OPEC and its allies consider production cuts as the Aramco IPO complicates its December meeting
Dan Murphy, CNBC
Saudi Arabia, Russia and their oil-producing allies are considering a range of options to maintain stability in the oil market just weeks ahead of a critical December meeting.
Saudi Aramco bankers dangle prospect of bonus payouts
Simeon Kerr and Anjli Raval, Financial Times
IPO investors wooed with annual dividend that could exceed $100bn.
Potential tariffs rollback stirs hope among US LNG exporters
Harry Weber, S&P Global Platts
US LNG export developers welcomed a statement by Chinese officials Thursday that Washington and Beijing have agreed to roll tariffs back on one another’s goods incrementally as the two sides continue to negotiate towards a trade deal.
Rare permit for Keystone oil pipeline in spotlight after spills
Devika Krishna Kumar and Laila Kearney, Reuters
The massive Keystone pipeline has been transporting oil from Canada to the United States at a higher-than-standard level of pressure since it started operating in 2010, thanks to a special permit granted by U.S. regulators on the condition operator TC Energy Corp would monitor the line closely.
Repsol buys Equinor’s Eagle Ford shale stake for $325 million
Robert Perkins, S&P Global Platts
Spain’s Repsol has agreed to buy Equinor’s equity position in US Eagle Ford shale basin for $325 million in a deal giving it 100% control and operatorship of the shale assets, the companies said late Thursday.
Leaking ‘legacy’ oil wells pollute Calif. beaches, stir fears
Heather Richards, E&E News
Drillers punched hundreds of shallow wells in the California seafloor off Santa Barbara County at the turn of the 20th century — only to abandon them in the early 1900s.
Brazil Oil Auction Ends in Disappointment
Jeffrey T. Lewis and Luciana Magalhães, The Wall Street Journal
Brazil’s second oil auction in two days ended in disappointment, just like the first, with no U.S. or European major oil companies even bidding and only one of the five blocks on offer being sold, to Brazil’s state-controlled Petróleo Brasileiro SA and a Chinese partner.
Utilities and Infrastructure
Keystone oil pipeline expected to be partially restarted early next week: sources
Devika Krishna Kumar, Reuters
TC Energy Corp estimates the Keystone oil pipeline can be partially restarted anytime from Sunday to Tuesday, pending regulatory approval, after a more than 9,000-barrel leak in rural North Dakota, shippers on the line said on Thursday.
Renewables
No wind? No sun? This power plant solves renewable energy’s biggest problem
Hanna Ziady, CNN
Virtual power plants could solve one of renewable energy’s most vexing challenges: the weather. By supplying electricity from renewable sources even when the sun isn’t shining and the wind isn’t blowing, virtual power plant technology could help tackle the climate crisis.
Coal
Natural Resource Partners sees tough coal conditions ahead
Olivia Kalb, S&P Global Platts
Natural Resource Partners expects a rough road ahead on challenging metallurgical and thermal coal market conditions and after bankruptcies from four of its lessees this year, with a fifth expected to follow soon.
Nuclear
Idaho, Energy Department sign deal on spent nuclear fuel
Keith Ridler, The Associated Press
Idaho granted a conditional waiver Thursday to the U.S. Department of Energy that could allow research quantities of spent nuclear fuel into the state after years of blocking such shipments.
Climate
Trump Is Still Sending a Team to World’s Biggest Climate Summit
Jennifer A. Dlouhy, Bloomberg
President Donald Trump may be withdrawing the U.S. from the international Paris accord to fight global warming, but he’s still sending a delegation to the world’s largest climate change summit next month.
Trump campaign considers shift on climate change to win reelection
Josh Siegel, Washington Examiner
President Trump’s reelection campaign is feeling pressure on the issue of climate change. It plans to adopt pro-environment messaging to win key states such as Florida and appease important voter demographics that are moving toward Democrats.
Once a critic, Chamber of Commerce now backs Paris Climate Agreement
Amy Harder, Axios
Ahead of President Trump’s move this week to complete America’s withdrawal from the Paris Climate Agreement, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce quietly updated its position to support it.
A $1 Trillion Fund Faces Activist Future With Green Agenda
Mikael Holter and Sveinung Sleire, Bloomberg
Norway’s political establishment has started debating whether to use the world’s largest sovereign-wealth fund as a tool that could help shape the global agenda on green investing.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
The Climate Crisis in Terms Trump Can Understand
Ban Ki-moon and Patrick Verkooijen, The New York Times
Our climate emergency does not respect borders. California’s forest fires will not burn less fiercely, and rising sea levels will not spare Miami or Mar-a-Lago, just because Mr. Trump has chosen to opt out of a treaty of nearly 200 nations that represents our best and only chance of saving humanity from the catastrophic effects of rising temperatures.
Wind and Solar Power Have Become Amazingly Affordable
Peter R. Orszag, Bloomberg
In the midst of otherwise depressing developments in the progress of climate change, one bit of good news shines through: The economics of renewable energy have been improving fast — especially those of onshore wind and utility-scale solar power. A new analysis of the levelized cost of energy from Lazard, the company I work for, shows that over the past year the cost of generating energy from wind projects fell by 4% and large solar projects by 7%.
Research Reports
New natural gas pipelines are adding capacity from the South Central, Northeast regions
U.S. Energy Information Administration
The United States is expected to add between 16 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) and 17 Bcf/d of natural gas pipeline capacity in 2019, most of which was built to provide additional takeaway capacity out of supply basins. Of the 134 active natural gas pipeline projects the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) tracks, 46 have entered or are expected to enter service in 2019.
|
