General
Scientists flee USDA as research agencies move to Kansas City area
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill
Staff have until midnight Monday to decide whether to uproot and join the department as it moves its research branches from Washington, D.C., lured by $26 million in promised incentives from state and local officials.
Wheeler: Obscure air provision behind Paris withdrawal
Jean Chemnick, E&E News
EPA did not respond to requests for clarification or comment. But Clean Air Act experts from both the environmental and industry sectors agree that Section 115 would not have amounted to a “constraint” on Trump’s abandonment of President Obama’s Paris pledge, as Wheeler seemed to suggest last week.
‘Toxic Stew’ Stirred Up by Disasters Poses Long-Term Danger, New Findings Show
Christopher Flavelle, The New York Times
New research shows that the extreme weather and fires of recent years, similar to the flooding that has struck Louisiana and the Midwest, may be making Americans sick in ways researchers are only beginning to understand.
Judge lowers Monsanto damage award to Sonoma man by $55 million
Bob Egelko, San Francisco Chronicle
U.S. District Judge Vince Chhabria of San Francisco lowered the award from $80.2 million to $25.2 million for a Sonoma County man who sprayed the weed-killer on his property for more than 26 years before becoming ill.
Oil firms as U.S. supply concerns ease but Iran tension lingers
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin, Reuters
Oil prices rose on Tuesday as a resumption of output in the Gulf of Mexico after Hurricane Barry and a boom in U.S. supply due to shale oil countered tensions in the Middle East.
Oil and Natural Gas
Energy Transfer Weighs Sale of Rover Pipeline Stake
Rachel Adams-Heard and Kiel Porter, Bloomberg
The Dallas-based pipeline operator has hired an adviser to pursue a potential sale of its operated interest in the Rover pipeline, said the people, who asked not to be named because the information isn’t public. The stake could fetch as much as $2.5 billion, one of the people said.
Pipe spills oilfield wastewater in Missouri River tributary
James MacPherson, The Associated Press
Cleanup is underway after 21,000 gallons of brine oilfield wastewater leaked from an underground pipeline in western North Dakota and into an unnamed tributary of the Missouri River, the state Health Department said Monday.
Chevron Seeks to Turn Canada LNG Plan Into All-Electric Design
Natalie Obiko Pearson, Bloomberg
Chevron Corp. is seeking approval to modify its plans for a liquefied natural gas export facility on Canada’s Pacific Coast to an all-electric design that it says will result in the lowest greenhouse-gas emissions per ton of LNG of any large project in the world.
Los Angeles is finally ditching coal — and replacing it with another polluting fuel
Sammy Roth, Los Angeles Times
Critics say Los Angeles and other Southern California cities have no business making an $865-million investment in gas, especially when the state has committed to getting 100% of its electricity from climate-friendly sources such as solar and wind.
Fossil Fuels Are Far Less Efficient Than Previously Thought
Luke McGrath, Bloomberg
Oil, coal and natural gas have generally returned energy at a ratio of 25:1, meaning that for every barrel of oil used in production, 25 barrels have been made. But that measurement, called energy return on investment (EROI), has traditionally been taken when fossil fuels are removed from the ground, and fails to account for energy used during the refining process.
More than half of US Gulf of Mexico oil, gas output remains shut after Barry: BSEE
Meghan Gordon, S&P Global Platts
About 1.3 million b/d, or 69%, of oil production and 1.7 Bcf/d, or 61%, of natural gas output in the Gulf of Mexico remains shut as drillers start returning to platforms evacuated ahead of Hurricane Barry, the US Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said Monday.
Shale Fracklog Keeps Falling as Drillers Face Investor Pressure
Stephen Cunningham, Bloomberg
The number of drilled but uncompleted wells, or DUCs, fell by 41 to 8,248 in June, according to the Energy Information Administration’s Drilling Productivity Report. That’s down from a record high of 8,315 in February.
Houston oil executive gets 18 years in prison for defrauding investors
Erin Douglas, Houston Chronicle
A Houston oil executive was sentenced to state prison for defrauding investors who thought they were paying for the drilling and testing of wells — but instead paid the executive’s mortgage.
America’s Hottest Shale Play Is Slowing Down
Ryan Collins, Bloomberg
The almost relentless thrust that has doubled crude output from the Permian Basin in three years is showing some signs of waning.
Utilities and Infrastructure
NV Energy will utilize power shutoffs to reduce wildfire risks
Robert Walton, Utility Dive
In order to reduce the risk of sparking a wildfire, NV Energy has instituted a Public Safety Outage Management (PSOM) program to potentially shut down power in three high-risk areas, including Mount Charleston near Las Vegas.
PG&E Braces for Power Cuts; Tesla, Others See an Opening
Katherine Blunt, The Wall Street Journal
PG&E Corp. ’s plan to pre-emptively turn off power in parts of California to limit wildfire risks is creating business opportunities for alternative energy companies that say they can keep the lights on.
Renewables
Electric Airplanes Start to Take Off
Mike Cherney, The Wall Street Journal
Aerospace giants and startups are developing electric aircraft that can navigate autonomously and take off and land vertically, and potentially shuttle thousands of commuters around cities and suburbs in coming decades. Uber Technologies Inc. even plans to launch a transportation service using electric, vertical-takeoff aircraft in 2023.
US deputy energy official says DOE focused on grid-scale storage, micro-reactors
Andre Coffman Smith, S&P Global Platts
During an international nuclear energy conference, the U.S. deputy energy secretary told delegates that the Trump administration is focusing on research and development of advanced nuclear and nonlithium grid-scale storage technologies to help provide greater grid resilience.
Tesla drops cheapest Model X, S variants, cuts prices to simplify lineup
Yilei Sun and Norihiko Shirouzu, Reuters
To simplify its offerings, the automaker on Tuesday limited variants of its Model X sport-utility vehicle and Model S sedan to “Long Range” and the more expensive “Performance”. It also trimmed the price of its now entry-level Long Range variants.
Coal
Coal plant operators stick to closure plans despite Trump’s changes to CO2 rules
Taylor Kuykendall et al., S&P Global Platts
Power plant owners with plans to retire the most coal-fired capacity in the next several years said they would not change course based on the Trump administration’s scaled-back replacement of the Obama-era Clean Power Plan.
With more than half of short-term funds depleted, Blackjewel’s hunt for money stalls
Camille Erickson, Casper Star Tribune
A federal bankruptcy judge said last week the court could reconvene as soon as Monday if Blackjewel LLC, the company that sent shock waves across coal company by closing its mines two weeks ago, secured long-term financing over the weekend. That did not happen, according to a Monday status report from the company.
Nuclear
Small explosion and fire at Columbia nuclear plant bring more federal scrutiny
Sammy Fretwell, The State
A federal report shows that a lid blew off the drum, dispersing some contents from the barrel and leading to the fire. The drum contained contaminated mop heads, filters, rags and laboratory waste that smoldered, before paper in the drum ignited, the report shows.
Climate
Earth just had its hottest June on record, on track for warmest July
Jason Samenow and Andrew Freedman, The Washington Post
According to data released Monday by NASA, the global average temperature was 1.7 degrees Fahrenheit (0.93 Celsius) above the June norm (based on a 1951-to-1980 baseline), easily breaking the previous June record of 1.5 degrees Fahrenheit (0.82 Celsius), set in 2016, above the average.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Harmful Gasoline Emissions Threat to Public Health
Doug Durante, Morning Consult
The reality is this: Recent reports show worsening air quality in the U.S. can be attributed to hundreds of millions of gasoline vehicles on American roadways emitting significantly more harmful emissions than being reported.
Offshore Oil Is Crucial for U.S. Security
Jim Webb and Jim Nicholson, The Wall Street Journal
Offshore oil exploration has become the strategic bull’s-eye of America’s energy debate. A recent federal court decision blocked the Trump administration’s reversal of President Obama’s late-term executive order that withdrew certain areas in Alaska from offshore oil exploration.
Research Reports
Understanding climate change from a global analysis of city analogues
Jean-Francois Bastin et al., PLOS One
Combating climate change requires unified action across all sectors of society. However, this collective action is precluded by the ‘consensus gap’ between scientific knowledge and public opinion. Here, we test the extent to which the iconic cities around the world are likely to shift in response to climate change.
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