The US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) announced today that it is not “appropriate and necessary” to regulate emissions of mercury and other hazardous air pollutants from coal- and oil-fired power plants.
A US federal judge canceled a key permit on Wednesday for the Keystone XL oil pipeline that’s expected to stretch from Canada to Nebraska.
The Anglo-Dutch oil giant Royal Dutch Shell has today announced that it intends to reach net zero by 2050 or sooner by selling more green energy to reduce its carbon emissions.
BP’s Deepwater Horizon rig spilled around 4.9 million barrels of oil after a methane explosion on April 20, 2010, in the Gulf of Mexico — the largest marine oil spill in history. And a decade later, scientists are finding oil from that spill in the livers of fish, and on the deep ocean floor.
On Sunday, oil-producing nations agreed to the largest production cut in history. Whether that will stabilize oil prices and the industry as a whole remains to be seen.
A Harvard University study at the T.H. Chan School of Public Health, which was updated on April 5, has confirmed that there is a direct correlation between long-term exposure to air pollution and a higher coronavirus death rate.
With 3 billion people sheltering from the global pandemic, oil demand has plummeted. Crude storage locations are filling up. US drillers are shutting down production. And some producers are paying customers to take their oil. In a glimpse into a future when nearly all vehicles run on electricity, some crude prices are experiencing rollercoaster-like dips, rapid ascents, and plunges to nearly zero.
Equinor is quitting the oil lobbying group Independent Petroleum Association of America (IPAA).
The Norwegian oil and gas giant officially recognizes that climate change is real, and publicly states that it intends to align with the Paris Agreement. It says it will “grow renewable energy capacity tenfold by 2026, developing as a global offshore wind major.”
The British Medical Journal is calling for warning labels to be placed where consumers buy fossil fuels. The US and British health experts that authored the article explain that more than 118 countries use stark warnings on cigarette packages to change behavior related to smoking. Similar warnings should be placed on gas pumps because burning fossil fuels are linked to 3.5 million premature deaths per year.
While the US is focused on the coronavirus crisis, states are quietly redefining fossil-fuel infrastructure as critical in order to prevent protests such as the Dakota Access pipeline demonstrations. The idea is to make civil disobedience more difficult.
The US Senate has unanimously passed the $2 trillion stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. It’s the largest emergency aid package in US history. And the green energy sector didn’t get anything, as expected… but neither did Big Oil.
Russell Hardy, the CEO of Dutch energy and commodities company Vitol, the world’s largest independent oil trader, spoke with Bloomberg Markets: European Open this morning about the impact of the coronavirus on the oil markets as Congress finalizes the latest stimulus bill. What will energy get?
Senate Democrats and Republicans disagree about the latest stimulus package in response to the coronavirus pandemic. They are now frantically negotiating and aiming for a noon Eastern time vote. Here’s where energy and transport stand.
Volkswagen’s chief strategist this week said that even a yearlong slump in oil prices will not slow down the company’s shift to EVs. VW and nearly every other major automaker have environmental goals that eclipse any short-term impacts from lower prices at the pumps. And the only way to achieve reduced emissions is with electric powertrains.
Russia refused to cut oil output quotas by up to 1.5 million barrels per day at a failed meeting on Friday between OPEC and non-OPEC nations. So in retaliation, Saudi Arabia will produce 2 million barrels per day at $6 to $7 a barrel into an already oversupplied global market. As a result, oil prices have dropped by a third today.
ExxonMobil held its investor day at the New York Stock Exchange (NYSE) yesterday, and its CEO, Darren Woods, dismissed carbon targets as a “beauty match” with other companies.
JP Morgan, the world’s largest financier of the fossil-fuel industry, announced yesterday that it will end fossil-fuel loans for Arctic oil drilling and phase out loans for coal mining.
Arizona governor Doug Ducey (R) signed House Bill 2686 into law on Friday. The new law declares that a “utility provider’s authority to operate and serve customers is a matter of statewide concern.”
In other words, the new law removes the power of every town, city, and county in Arizona to choose their own energy infrastructure.
The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) has proposed leasing two-thirds of Slickrock for oil and gas drilling, even though it has very low potential to produce.
The world-famous, nearly 11 mile-long, mountain-biking Slickrock trail near Moab, Utah, takes e-bike and non-e-bike riders over stunning petrified sand dunes and sea bed remnants.
More than 600 gallons of diesel were dumped into the water in the Galapagos Islands after a ship was capsized by a falling container and crane.
Natural gas prices plummeted at the end of November due to a glut of supply. It’s also looking as though a warmer December is going to keep demand down.
And finally, the fossil fuel is being increasingly banned in US cities and towns for environmental and safety reasons.
The International Energy Agency (IEA) released its annual report yesterday. The Paris-based intergovernmental organization points to electric vehicles as instrumental in curbing global emissions. Unfortunately, those gains are being fundamentally undercut by the dramatic rise in SUVs.
In today’s Electrek Green Energy Brief (EGEB):
CNBC moderated a panel on Monday at the Abu Dhabi International Petroleum Exhibition & Conference (ADIPEC). The panel consisted of heads of Big Oil and Big Gas. The CEOs spent their time defending their efforts to reduce carbon emissions and intimated that environmental groups pushing for a faster transition to green energy were being unrealistic and overly emotional.