General
Biden Energy Dept orders sweeping review of Trump energy rules
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill
The Biden administration will review several of the Trump administration’s most controversial energy rules, teeing up a possible reversal of policies that eased or erased efficiency regulations for lightbulbs, showerheads and more.
His Lights Stayed on During Texas’ Storm. Now He Owes $16,752.
Giulia McDonnell Nieto del Rio et al., The New York Times
As millions of Texans shivered in dark, cold homes over the past week while a winter storm devastated the state’s power grid and froze natural gas production, those who could still summon lights with the flick of a switch felt lucky. Now, many of them are paying a severe price for it.
Texas Blackouts Point to Coast-to-Coast Crises Waiting to Happen
Christopher Flavelle et al., The New York Times
Even as Texas struggled to restore electricity and water over the past week, signs of the risks posed by increasingly extreme weather to America’s aging infrastructure were cropping up across the country.
Texas Failed Because It Did Not Plan
Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic
America’s second-largest state was brought to its knees by winter weather. How could this have happened?
Days Before Blackouts, One Texas Power Giant Sounded the Alarm
Naureen S. Malik and Rachel Adams-Heard, Bloomberg
Vistra Corp., one of the largest power generators in Texas, said it warned state agencies days before cascading blackouts plunged millions into darkness that internal forecasts showed electricity demand was expected to exceed supply.
Inside GM’s Plans to Convert Its Factories for EVs
Mike Colias, The Wall Street Journal
Planning for this transformation at the factory level is the responsibility of Gerald Johnson, a GM lifer who took over global manufacturing operations in 2019, and who is spearheading a $2.2 billion gut rehab of a factory in Detroit, recently renamed Factory Zero, to serve as GM’s electric-vehicle hub. Two more conversions of North American factories for production of electric vehicles, or EVs, are in the works.
Oil prices rise with storm-hit U.S. output set for slow return
Noah Browning, Reuters
Oil prices rose on Monday as the slow return of U.S. crude output cut by frigid conditions served as a reminder of the tight supply situation, just as demand recovers from the depths of the COVID-19 pandemic.
Oil and Natural Gas
Saudis, Russia Differ Again on Oil Strategy Before OPEC+ Meeting
Grant Smith et al., Bloomberg
In private, the kingdom has signaled it would prefer that the group broadly holds output steady, delegates said. Moscow, on the other hand, is indicating that it still wants to proceed with a supply increase.
Arctic drilling plan in Alaska hits roadblock
Yereth Rosen, Reuters
Plans for seismic surveys to help find oil in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge have fizzled due to a lack of protection for polar bears, according to a brief statement Saturday from the Department of the Interior.
Texas oil refiners will take weeks to recover, boosting U.S. gasoline prices
Laila Kearney, Reuters
Texas oil refineries shut by cold-weather disruptions may take several weeks to resume normal operations, industry experts said on Friday, helping to push up fuel prices.
U.S. Report Allows Russian Pipeline Project to Proceed, for Now
Brett Forrest, The Wall Street Journal
The State Department in a report to Congress didn’t name new companies as targets for sanctions related to an $11 billion pipeline designed to transmit Russian natural gas to Germany, allowing work on the pipeline to continue unabated for now.
Utilities and Infrastructure
Michigan, Maryland governors to testify on new U.S. infrastructure push
David Shepardson, Reuters
Michigan Governor Gretchen Whitmer, a Democrat, and Maryland Governor Larry Hogan, a Republican, will be among those testifying at the Senate Environment and Public Works (EPW) hearing titled “Building Back Better: Investing in Transportation while Addressing Climate Change, Improving Equity, and Fostering Economic Growth and Innovation.”
How Texas’ Drive for Energy Independence Set It Up for Disaster
Clifford Krauss et al., The New York Times
Texas, the nation’s leading energy-producing state, seemed like the last place on Earth that could run out of energy. Then last week, it did.
Rep. McCaul defends Texas power grid: ‘We’re not used to this type of weather’
Eleanor Mueller, Politico
Rep. Michael McCaul (R-Texas) defended his state’s independent power grid Sunday, telling CNN’s Dana Bash that “we’re not used to this type of weather” and pointing to a decade-old report on winterization as the way forward.
State of Texas should pay for enormous energy bills after power outages, Houston mayor says
Emma Newburger, CNBC
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner on Sunday called on the state of Texas to pay for the enormous electric bills that scores of Texans reported after severe winter weather knocked out power and rose energy prices.
After Texas Crisis, Biden’s Climate Plan Hangs on Fragile Power Grid
Brian Eckhouse, Bloomberg
The millions of people who struggled to keep warm in Texas, with blackouts crippling life inside a dominant energy hub, have laid bare the desperate state of U.S. electricity grids. To fix nationwide vulnerabilities, President Joe Biden will have to completely reimagine the American way of producing and transmitting electricity.
Renewables
Houston mayor: Blaming renewables for Texas blackouts “disingenuous”
Axios
Houston Mayor Sylvester Turner said Saturday that blaming this week’s mass power outages on renewable energy is “disingenuous.”
Biden squeezed between promises to go green and bolster unions
Eric Wolff and Rebecca Rainey, Politico
As the renewable energy industry expands, unions and their allies in Congress are determined to unionize more of the jobs or, at the very least, require the payment of union-equivalent wages. But the industry says such moves would cripple some of their operations.
Coal/Nuclear
The Activists Who Embrace Nuclear Power
Rebecca Tuhus-Dubrow, The New Yorker
Today, the looming disruptions of climate change have altered the risk calculus around nuclear energy. James Hansen, the NASA scientist credited with first bringing global warming to public attention, in 1988, has long advocated a vast expansion of nuclear power to replace fossil fuels.
Climate
Kerry warns the US has 9 years to avoid worst climate consequences
Rachel Frazin, The Hill
Special Envoy for Climate John Kerry warned Friday that there are just nine years left for the U.S. to evade the worst possible climate change consequences.
Rejoining Paris was easy. Here’s where the climate fight gets awkward.
Zack Colman, Politico
The U.S. got cheers as it rejoined the Paris Agreement Friday, a long-expected move under President Joe Biden that the administration nonetheless packed with all the pomp and circumstance the Zoom-era can muster. But after the (virtual) confetti falls, the real work begins — and the world has few clear answers for tackling runaway climate change, much as when nations banded together to sign Paris in 2015.
Texas and California built different power grids, but neither stood up to climate change
Eric Wolff et al., Politico
The two sprawling, politically potent states have devoted massive sums to their power networks over the past two decades — California to produce huge amounts of wind and solar energy, Texas to create an efficient, go-it-alone electricity market built on gas, coal, nuclear and wind. But neither could keep the lights on in the face of the type of brutal weather that scientists call a taste of a changing climate.
A Message From Environmental Defense Fund:
What’s the most powerful tool companies have to fight climate change? Their political influence.
The Climate Authenticity Meter assesses how specific actions by companies and industry groups support or obstruct progress on climate policy. Investors, employees, customers and other stakeholders are increasingly demanding that companies make climate policy advocacy a top priority. This tool highlights how corporate climate lobbying activities measure up against the AAA Framework for Climate Policy Leadership, endorsed by the major environmental groups that work with business.
Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives
Wind power is not to blame for Texas blackout
The Editorial Board, Financial Times
Outage shows perils of underestimating the impact of extreme weather.
Why Texas Republicans Fear the Green New Deal
Naomi Klein, The New York Times
Texans are living through the collapse of a 40-year experiment in free-market fundamentalism, one that has also stood in the way of effective climate action. Fortunately, there’s a way out — and that’s precisely what Republican politicians in the state most fear.
Research Reports
The Cost of Climate: America’s Growing Flood Risk
First Street Foundation
New research from First Street Foundation quantifies the financial impact of flood risk carried by American homeowners and how those dangers are growing as flood risks worsen due to a rapidly changing climate. First Street Foundation found that there are nearly 4.3 million residential homes (1–4 units) across the country with substantial flood risk (1% annual) that would result in economic damage.
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