Top Stories

  • Saudi Arabia and several other Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries members are rallying the international group to relax its current oil production curbs from 9.7 million barrels per day to 7.7 million bpd beginning in August, according to OPEC officials. Key members of OPEC and its allies plan to meet by web conference on Wednesday to debate future production, just months after Saudi Arabia prodded the group to cut its output as the coronavirus pandemic took its toll on oil prices. (The Wall Street Journal)
  • In an escalation of its sanctions on Venezuela, the United States is pressuring ship classification societies — which validate the maritime industry’s safety and environmental standards — to withdraw their service from oil tankers involved in the country’s oil trade, according to Elliott Abrams, special envoy on Venezuela. The United States aims to get classifiers to establish whether the vessels have defied sanctions regulations and ultimately withdraw certification and cause them to be in breach of commercial contracts, a U.S. official said. (Reuters)
  • Electric vehicle company Rivian Automotive LLC announced the close of its $2.5 billion funding round, led by funds and accounts advised by T. Rowe Price Associates Inc., which include Soros Fund Management LLC and others. The Michigan-based company plans to begin production of an electric SUV and pickup next year, as well as a large fleet of electric delivery vehicles as a part of a 100,000 vehicle deal with Amazon.com Inc. (Axios)

Chart Review

Events Calendar (All Times Local)

07/14/2020
Environmental and Energy Study Institute webinar: The Climate Crisis Report in Focus 12:00 pm
House Energy and Commerce Committee Hearing: Oversight of DOE During the Covid-19 Pandemic 12:00 pm
CSIS online event: Innovation in Advanced Nuclear Energy 1:00 pm
House Natural Resources Committee – Energy and Mineral Resources Subcommittee hearing: “Energy Infrastructure and Environmental Justice: Lessons for a Sustainable Future” 1:00 pm
07/15/2020
OurEnergyPolicy webinar: Building Electrification: the Politics, Economics, and Infrastructure Around Converting America’s Building Stock 12:00 pm
AU and American Lung Association event: Air Quality and COVID-19: Connections, Health Impacts, and Racial Disparities 4:00 pm
07/18/2020
Climate Reality Leadership Corps: Global Training
View full calendar

New Report: How the Pandemic Has Altered Expectations of Remote Work

COVID-19 is reshaping the future of work more rapidly than employers could have planned for.

As balancing business and safety needs becomes more complex and talent expectations evolve, employee work preferences and habits are also changing. Download the full report to learn what employers can do and expect as the new norm takes place.

General

Committee votes to block Trump’s ‘secret science’ EPA rule
Niv Elis, The Hill

The House Appropriations Committee on Friday voted to block a controversial Trump Administration transparency rule that the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) own independent board of science advisers criticized.

Biden features energy R&D in economic push
Ben Geman, Axios

Joe Biden is making it increasingly clear that he’ll push for a large increase in energy research, development and demonstration funding if he wins the White House.

Oil Drops on Signs OPEC+ Preparing to Taper Production Cutbacks
Low De Wei and Alex Longley, Bloomberg

Oil edged lower ahead of an OPEC+ meeting this week at which the group may announce plans to start tapering historic production cuts even as the coronavirus surges unabated in many parts of the world.

Oil and Natural Gas

Fracking Firms Fail, Rewarding Executives and Raising Climate Fears
Hiroko Tabuchi, The New York Times

Oil and gas companies are hurtling toward bankruptcy, raising fears that wells will be left leaking planet-warming pollutants, with cleanup cost left to taxpayers.

Shale boss says US has passed peak oil
Derek Brower, Financial Times

Parsley Energy CEO: ‘I don’t think I’ll see 13m barrels a day again in my lifetime.’

Libya to resume oil exports after 6-month blockade
David Sheppard and Andrew England, Financial Times

Decision comes at a difficult time for a wider market that has been hard hit by pandemic.

Frac-Sand Supplier Hi-Crush Files for Chapter 11 Bankruptcy
Jonathan Randles, The Wall Street Journal

Hi-Crush Inc., a supplier of sand used in fracking, is the latest company in the oil and gas sector to be pushed into bankruptcy by low crude prices and the disruption from the coronavirus pandemic that has roiled the energy industry.

Indigenous Protests Are Blazing a New Trail for How to Beat Big Oil
Yessenia Funes, Earther

Joye Braun was among the first to camp in the plains of North Dakota in defiance of the Dakota Access pipeline back in 2016. She was there to stand in solidarity with the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe. Indigenous people from around the world eventually arrived to gather in ceremony. Four years later, their prayers have finally been heard.

Russian Miner Behind Arctic Fuel Spill Reports Pipeline Leak
Anatoly Medetsky and Yuliya Fedorinova, Bloomberg

A Russian mining giant, which is already in a dispute with authorities over a fuel spill in the Arctic earlier this year, has suffered a leak in a pipeline.

Utilities and Infrastructure

Duke, AEP, FirstEnergy tell FERC future COVID-19 uncertainty presents ‘significant risk’
Catherine Morehouse, Utility Dive

Threats to utility credit and capital have yet to emerge, but investor-owned utilities and pipeline companies are still urging federal regulators to consider potential long-term capital risks from COVID-19.

Court upholds regulation boosting electric grid storage
Rachel Frazin, The Hill

A federal court on Friday upheld a regulation that removes barriers to electric grid-level batteries that store electricity. The regulation in question requires that grid operators treat storage similar to the way power plants are treated. It was promulgated in 2018 by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC).

Renewables

The Battery Billionaire Who’s Key to Tesla’s Future in China
Bloomberg

CATL chairman Zeng Yuqun’s partnership with Elon Musk could boost the Chinese company’s global market share at a time of falling battery sales.

Using AI-Powered Thermal Tagging to Prevent Summer Overheating Outages
Robert Henley, Power

Facing unprecedented conditions, including increasing and unpredictable demand, utilities are on high alert for overheating components.  Using drones, helicopters, or ground inspection crews, companies are collecting and analyzing thermal imagery.  Leading utilities are incorporating innovative technologies, including AI-powered thermographic tagging engines, to identify hot spots before they fail or cause outages.  

Hottest New Fuel Proves Hard to Handle
Jonathan Tirone, Bloomberg

European researchers are flocking to Austria’s second city to plug new hydrogen technologies into utility infrastructure.

Coal

Peabody Dragging Its Feet on Mine Cleanup, Navajos and Hopis Say
Tripp Baltz, Bloomberg Law

The last trainload of coal rolled out of Peabody Western Coal Co.’s Kayenta Mine on the Navajo Nation in August 2019, on its way to the mine’s only customer—Navajo Generating Station, which shut down three months thereafter.

Coal Giants’ Antitrust Hearing Starts With High Stakes for FTC
Victoria Graham, Bloomberg Law

The Federal Trade Commission’s antitrust enforcement strategy will be put to the test during a hearing in a federal district court in St. Louis as the agency looks to put the brakes on a coal mining joint venture between Peabody Energy Corp. and Arch Resources Inc.

Nuclear

Pandemic Allows for New Front in Fight Against Southwest Nuclear Waste Storage Contracts
Lisa Martine Jenkins, Morning Consult

Two proposals to send high-level spent nuclear fuel to sites in Texas and New Mexico are seeing renewed opposition as environmental activists, the oil and gas industry and lawmakers on both sides of the aisle have formed an unlikely and informal alliance leveraging the pandemic as a reason to delay. 

US senators urge agency not to allow funding of ‘risky’ nuclear projects
Joniel Cha, S&P Global Platts

Senators Edward Markey, Democrat-Massachusetts, and Bernie Sanders, Independent-Vermont, in a July 10 letter jointly urged US Development Finance Corp., not to “waste American tax dollars on risky international nuclear projects.”

Climate

Seagrass is good at storing CO2, but it’s vanishing
Alison Snyder, Axios

Meadows of seagrass on the ocean floor are among the planet’s most efficient ecosystems for absorbing and storing carbon. Climate change, industrial and agricultural run-off, and development along coastlines are threatening the world’s seagrass meadows.

For Effective Climate Change Activism, Focus on Supply
Gernot Wagner, Bloomberg

To affect change, climate activists need to pursue both divestment and limiting demand for carbon emissions.

She’s an Authority on Earth’s Past. Now, Her Focus Is the Planet’s Future.
John Schwartz, The New York Times

Columbia University is taking new steps to make climate change, which has been studied there for decades, an even more prominent part of the school’s mission. And Maureen Raymo is a big part of that.

Colorado Sued for Missing Climate Change Reduction Deadline
Tripp Baltz, Bloomberg Law

Colorado missed a July 1 deadline to ensure the state meets required greenhouse gas reduction targets, an environmental group alleged in a lawsuit filed in state court. Gov. Jared Polis (D) and his administration failed to publish a notice of proposed rulemaking setting forth the measures necessary to meet greenhouse gas reduction goals, according to the complaint filed Thursday in Denver District Court. The plaintiff, WildEarth Guardians, is seeking to compel the state’s compliance with the deadline.

Meet Biden’s climate rainmakers
Timothy Cama, E&E News

Climate change activists have emerged as some of presumptive Democratic presidential nominee Joe Biden’s most important donors, having hosted some of his biggest fundraising events. Climate Leaders for Biden, an ad hoc group of deep-pocketed donors, has brought in more than $12 million for Biden’s campaign against President Trump and for the Biden Victory Fund, a joint fundraising committee that directs money to the former vice president’s campaign, the Democratic National Committee and state parties.

Opinions, Editorials and Perspectives

Black Americans Care About Climate Change. Why Is No One Talking to Them About It?
Jared DeWese, Morning Consult

In climate discourse, Black voices are rarely amplified. But to make headway in addressing the climate crisis, policymakers must incorporate our views, perspectives and experiences to execute real and equitable climate solutions

Is the party finally over for US oil and gas?
Derek Brower, Financial Times

Cancelled pipelines and green ambitions point to declining role in energy mix.

Research Reports

 

The hidden value of large-rotor, tall-tower wind turbines in the United States
Ryan H. Wiser et al., Wind Engineering

The significant upscaling of wind turbine size (nameplate capacity, rotor diameter, and tower height) has, to date, been driven primarily by a goal of minimizing the levelized cost of energy. But with wind’s levelized cost of energy now comparable with that of other generating resources, other design considerations besides cost-minimization have grown in importance—particularly as wind’s increasing market penetration begins to impose challenges on the electric grid. 

Benefits to the Economy through the Direct Use of Natural Gas
American Gas Association

In addition to the 138 thousand individuals employed by natural gas utilities, companies that supply these utilities create associated natural gas jobs too, and the grand sum of all employed individuals encourages additional economic activity through the consumption of goods or services by individuals. These companies also provide a critical intermediate service for other businesses to operate. 

Morning Consult