• The Bureau of Land Management is likely to lose most of its Washington, D.C.-based staff under the agency’s westward relocation effort, according to sources within and outside of BLM, who said some employees have asked for extensions on a 30-day window to decide whether to move. Other employees, sources said, have agreed to relocate only as a means to buy themselves time to find other D.C.-based positions. (E&E News)

• The Environmental Protection Agency formally issued a pair of guidance documents modifying the agency’s implementation of the New Source Review program. Under the changes, the EPA narrowed its interpretation of “adjacent” for permitting purposes and will allow state and federal permitting agencies not to require monitoring of the air near emitting facilities if their owners prevent the public from accessing their properties. (Washington Examiner)

• Carbon dioxide emissions are projected to grow to 36.8 billion tons this year, marking a 0.6 percent increase from 2018, according to a report from the Global Carbon Project. However, the paper also estimated that U.S. emissions would drop 1.7 percent in 2019 following last year’s increase, as natural gas and renewables continue to replace coal generation. (The Washington Post)

EPA Official Says No Need Now to Limit Carbon Dioxide at Gas Plants
Amena H. Saiyid, Bloomberg Environment

The Environmental Protection Agency has no immediate plans to propose carbon dioxide limits for natural gas-fired electricity plants, even though natural gas is increasingly being used across the nation to generate power, an agency official said Dec. 3.

Trump: I think about climate change ‘all the time’
Owen Daugherty, The Hill

Speaking to the media alongside Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau at the NATO summit in London, Trump said “climate change is very important to me.”

Supreme Court seems skeptical that Superfund landowners can seek more extensive cleanup than EPA approves
Robert Barnes, The Washington Post

The Supreme Court on Tuesday seemed to suggest that the Environmental Protection Agency must make the ultimate decisions on cleaning up toxic waste sites, and that landowners’ attempts to use state courts to get additional compensation from companies requires the agency’s approval.

Murkowski’s delicate balancing act on mining
Geof Koss, E&E News 

For years Murkowski has pushed legislation — S. 1317 being the latest iteration — to boost domestic production of minerals like graphite. It’s part of an effort to wrest control of the global market from countries like China, which leads graphite production.

Oil rises 1% before OPEC meeting to discuss output pact
Noah Browning, Reuters

Oil gained on Wednesday ahead of meetings this week where OPEC and its allies are expected to extend production curbs to support the market, while industry data showing that U.S. crude stockpiles fell more than expected helped to lift prices.

US adds PDVSA-linked crude, products tankers to sanctions list
Brian Scheid, S&P Global Platts

The US, which recognizes opposition leader Juan Guaido as Venezuela’s legitimate president, has said it will not lift sanctions on PDVSA until Maduro is removed from power.

OPEC gearing up for deeper oil cuts, Russia yet to agree
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin et al., Reuters

OPEC is gearing up to deepen production cuts later this week but still needs to agree with allies such as Russia over details of a deal to support oil prices and head off a looming oil glut next year.

OPEC+ Sends Mixed Signals About Deeper Oil-Output Cuts
Grant Smith et al., Bloomberg

Iraq, which has the worst record among major producers of implementing the group’s current supply deal, pushed for steeper cutbacks. 

BP faces ‘greenwashing’ complaint over advertising campaign
Harry Dempsey and Anjli Raval, Financial Times

Lawyers begin case against potentially misleading impression on low-carbon credentials.

Natural Gas Rush Drives a Global Rise in Fossil Fuel Emissions
Nicholas Kusnetz, InsideClimate News

A surge in natural gas has helped drive down coal burning across the United States and Europe, but it isn’t displacing other fossil fuels on a global scale. Instead, booming gas use is fueling the global growth in greenhouse gas emissions, according to a new study by researchers at Stanford University and other institutions.

Gas Pipeline Caught in Cuomo Standoff Pulls N.J. Applications
Naureen S. Malik and Gerson Freitas Jr., Bloomberg Environment

Pipeline developer Williams Cos. took an “administrative step” to withdraw the New Jersey applications for its Northeast Supply Enhancement project, spokeswoman Laura Creekmur said in an email.

Overpowered: PJM market rules drive an era of oversupply
Stephanie Tsao and Richard Martin, S&P Global Market Intelligence

For many decades one of the centers of the U.S. coal industry, Ohio is undergoing a transformation triggered by a shift in demand to other energy sources — primarily natural gas. Today, at least six natural gas plants are in some phase of planning or development in the state, and more than $25 billion is being spent to build new power plants, nearly all of them natural gas, across the Appalachian Basin states of Ohio, Pennsylvania and West Virginia. The eastern half of Ohio also lies atop the Utica and Marcellus formations, two of the richest shale gas deposits on earth. 

Record Deal Signed for Offshore Wind Power
Will Mathis, Bloomberg

Orsted A/S signed a deal to sell 100 megawatts of power from a German wind farm in the North Sea to Covestro AG, in what the companies said is the biggest corporate purchase agreement for offshore wind.

Solar Industry May Not Get Relief It Expected From Trump Tariffs
Brian Eckhouse, Bloomberg

The duties, currently at 25%, are scheduled to fall to 20% in 2020. But the Solar Energy Industries Association says the White House may curtail that cut as part of a review of the tariffs.

Coal plants close as they get too costly to operate
L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle

U.S. coal-fired electric generating capacity peaked at nearly 318 gigawatts in 2011 but declined to 257 gigawatts in 2017. One gigawatt provides enough electricity for about 700,000 homes.

Activists denounce ‘zombie’ Bellefonte Nuclear Plant as regulators consider license transfer for new owner to finish facility
Dave Flessner, Chattanooga Times Free Press

Former Chattanooga developer Franklin L. Haney, who is trying to become the first individual American to finish and own a commercial nuclear plant, submitted additional information this year in his attempt to gain the first transfer for a construction permit of an unfinished nuclear plant in the United States. 

Federal utility fined $145K for inaccurate nuke plant info
Jonathan Mattise, The Associated Press

Federal regulators have fined the nation’s largest public utility $145,000 for submitting incomplete and inaccurate information on a backup system at its Watts Bar Nuclear Plant.

German authorities search Volkswagen offices in diesel probe
The Associated Press

German authorities have searched Volkswagen offices as part of their investigation into the automaker’s manipulation of diesel emission tests to defeat environmental regulations.

Investors urge Big Oil to follow ‘poster child’ Repsol’s climate pledge
Ron Bousso and Simon Jessop, Reuters

The world’s top oil and gas companies are under heavy pressure, not only from environmental groups but also from institutional investors, to fall in line with targets set in the 2015 Paris climate agreement to limit global warming.

Climate Change Is Accelerating: ‘Things Are Getting Worse’
Henry Fountain, The New York Times

Seas are warming and rising faster, putting more cities at risk of tidal flooding or worse. Glaciers are melting at a pace many researchers did not expect for decades. 

Shipping Faces New Headwinds in Meeting Emissions Rules
Costas Paris, The Wall Street Journal

With weeks to go before a landmark mandate for ships to burn cleaner fuels goes into effect, a zero-carbon future for the maritime sector may be growing more distant.

An Acting Director and a Permanent Move
Tim Stretton and Emily Sorkin Smith, Morning Consult

It has been more than 1,000 days since the Bureau of Land Management has had a permanent, Senate-confirmed director. In that almost three-year period, four acting directors have cycled through the Bureau of Land Management, including current acting-director William Perry Pendley. 

It’s possible that Trump doesn’t actually know what climate change is
Philip Bump, The Washington Post

First of all, Trump’s suggestion that clean air and clean water are “a big part of climate change” is accurate only with a remarkably generous interpretation of his comments. 

Obsessed With Efficiency: The 2020 Forbes 30 Under 30 In Energy
Christopher Helman, Forbes

Many of the young stars who make up our Forbes 30 Under 30 in the Energy sector share a drive to abandon fossil fuels, reduce carbon emissions and improve efficiency in the world all around us. They know our homes, cars and workplaces suck up a lot of energy—but they don’t have to. 

5 Emerging Energy Technologies to Watch Out For in 2020
Jason Deign, Greentech Media

At the same time, though, more radical breakthroughs might be needed to solve longer-term grid decarbonization challenges, such as how to deal with intermittency and seasonal weather variations in regions with very high penetrations of renewables.

Climate resilience will come from prioritizing humans—not what we’ve built
Akshat Rathi, Quartz

 Humans are finally discovering the limits of our own resilience. And to find a way out of this climate crisis, we’ll need to redefine how we go about addressing large-scale threats to our species’ survival.

Global Carbon Budget 2019
Pierre Friedlingstein et al., Earth System Science Data

Accurate assessment of anthropogenic carbon dioxide (CO2) emissions and their redistribution among the atmosphere, ocean, and terrestrial biosphere – the “global carbon budget” – is important to better understand the global carbon cycle, support the development of climate policies, and project future climate change. Here we describe data sets and methodology to quantify the five major components of the global carbon budget and their uncertainties.