Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

[weatheriscool]

Saudi Arabia and Russia are cutting oil supply again in bid to boost prices
Source: AP

Published 10:10 AM CDT, July 3, 2023

LONDON (AP) — Saudi Arabia and Russia are extending cuts to the amount of oil they pump to the world in a bid to prop up prices, showing how two of the world’s largest oil producers are scrambling to boost income from the fossil fuel even as demand has weakened with the economy.

The decision gave a slight boost to oil prices Monday and comes after the Saudis announced a large cut in output for July at the latest meeting of the OPEC+ coalition of oil producers — raising concerns that gasoline prices for U.S. drivers could start ticking up.

The Saudi Energy Ministry said it would extend July’s cut of 1 million barrels per day through August to support “the stability and balance of oil markets.” That will keep the Gulf nation’s output at 9 million barrels per day.

Meanwhile, Russian Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak said his country will cut production by an additional 500,000 barrels a day in August, according to Russian news reports.

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/oil-prices-s ... c8a0bab3c2

[caltrek]

Top Climate Groups Took Millions from Billionaire Oil and Gas Investors
by Kiran Stacey
July 4, 2023

Introduction:

(Mother Jones) Some of the world’s best-known climate campaign groups have taken millions of dollars in donations from a foundation run by billionaire hedge fund bosses whose investment fund has invested in fossil fuel companies, the Guardian has learned.

Groups including the European Climate Foundation, the Carbon Tracker Initiative, and the World Wide Fund for Nature (WWF) have taken millions of dollars worth of grants over the past two years from Quadrature Climate Foundation, according to filings with the Charity Commission. WWF told the Guardian on Tuesday it would investigate the donation.

Quadrature Climate Foundation was set up by Quadrature Capital, a multibillion-pound investment fund founded by the enigmatic billionaires Greg Skinner and Suneil Setiya. Quadrature Capital has stakes worth more than $170 million in fossil fuel companies, according to filings with US regulators.

Quadrangle Capital held a $24 million stake in ConocoPhillips, which the Guardian named as one the world’s worst corporate polluters.
The fund’s most recent filings with the US Securities and Exchange Commission show that as of the end of March, Quadrature had stakes in 45 fossil fuel companies, mostly in North America.

They included a $24 million stake in ConocoPhillips, the multinational oil and gas company named by the Guardian in 2019 as one of the world’s most polluting companies. The fund had also invested more than $26 million in Cheniere Energy, a major US producer of liquified natural gas for export. And it had a $20 million stake in Cenovus Energy, a Canadian company that was recently reprimanded by regulators after diesel leaked into a fishing lake in Alberta.

Read more here: https://www.motherjones.com/environmen ... onations/

caltrek’s comment: A couple of interesting aspects to all of this.

First, are these organizations influenced by their fossil fuel company holdings?

Partly a matter of whether it is true organizations even realized they had such holdings, given the complexity of their investment network. This ignorance seems to be the main response of these executives when asked about their holdings.

Second, NPR had an interesting story in which it was pointed out that such influence can flow both ways. That is that green stockholders of brown stocks can encourage these companies through their corporate holdings to pursue diversifying strategies. The argument goes that, because of their institutional understanding of the energy sector, brown companies are well positioned to best benefit and institute such diversification. Of course, if one is not even aware of one’s corporate holdings, one is not likely to be engaged in such a strategy.

[weatheriscool]

Nearly all Texas beaches contaminated with bacterial pathogens dangerous to swimmers, report says
ARIEL WORTHY | POSTED ON JULY 10, 2023, 3:10 PM

As Texans head to local beaches this summer, a new report from nonprofit Environment Texas warns that more work is needed to ensure that all waters are safe for swimming. Ninety percent of Texas beaches were found to be contaminated with bacterial pathogens on at least one day last year.
In its report, Environment Texas examined whether detected levels of fecal bacteria on Texas beaches exceeded what the EPA considers to be dangerous to swimmers. It found that eight beaches in the state, including Seawall Boulevard in Galveston and Texas City Dike, exceeded these levels on over a quarter of days last year.
Luke Metzger, director of Environment Texas, says dilapidated wastewater infrastructure in areas of the state is partially to blame.
“A lot of our sanitary and sewage systems are really old and failing, and so we need to invest money to fix the leaks and make sure there’s sufficient capacity to handle the volume of wastewater, including during kind of big rainy events.”

More here
https://www.houstonpublicmedia.org/arti ... port-says/

[weatheriscool]

Texas solar and wind are setting records, and the state's grid can't handle it
https://electrek.co/2023/07/13/texas-solar-wind-grid/

Texas solar and wind are going to double by 2035, but if the state’s grid isn’t upgraded, then all that power is going to go to waste, according to the US Energy Information Administration (EIA).

The EIA’s analysis released this month, A Case Study of Transmission Limits on Renewables Growth in Texas, found that if Texas doesn’t expand ERCOT’s electrical transmission network, congestion and curtailments are going to rise. (ERCOT, or the Electric Reliability Council of Texas, operates the state’s electrical grid.)

The study states that the “curtailments are due to both inadequate transmission capacity and surplus generation during high availability periods of variable renewable generation.” So, the grid operators need to find a balance between electricity supply and demand to achieve reliability.

[Time_Traveller]

Grant Shapps earmarks £20bn for new fleet of nuclear reactors in UK

Tue 18 Jul 2023 17.46 BST

Grant Shapps has condemned the neglect of Britain’s nuclear industry as a “colossal mistake” as he earmarked £20bn for a fleet of new reactors – but admitted it would take six years to even make a decision on giving projects the green light.

The government formally launched Great British Nuclear (GBN), an independent body designed to aid the delivery of new projects, on Tuesday.

In a delayed speech to industry at the Science Museum in London, Shapps noted that opposition had grown against nuclear power in the 1980s and “eventually that mood even percolated its way into government itself”.

He said: “By the early 1990s, just four decades after Britain had led the world by building the first ever commercial nuclear power station at Calder Hall in Cumbria, our nuclear industry was firmly in decline.

“That was a colossal mistake, consigning us to decades more reliance on fossil fuels … We are heralding the beginning of a new nuclear age, a renaissance in Britain’s nuclear industry.”

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... tors-in-uk

[raklian]

The world is finally spending more on solar than oil production
The International Energy Agency just released its annual investment report. Here’s where the money is going.

The International Energy Agency just published its annual report on global investment in energy, where it tallies up all that cash. The world saw about $2.8 trillion of investments in energy in 2022, with about $1.7 trillion of that going into clean energy.



...

To keep global warming below 1.5 °C over preindustrial levels and avoid the worst impacts of climate change, we need to reach net-zero emissions around 2050. If we’re going to hit that goal, according to the IEA, annual investment needs to reach $4.5 trillion in 2030—nearly triple current spending.

https://www.technologyreview.com/2023/0 ... 7laudaplyu

[weatheriscool]

[Time_Traveller]

Leaked UK government plan to protect against climate heat ‘very weak’

Mon 17 Jul 2023 14.00 BST

The government’s plan to cope with the climate crisis has been condemned as “very weak” by experts, who say not enough is being done to protect lives and livelihoods.

Responding to the document, which was leaked to the Guardian, one highlighted its failure to adequately protect people in the UK from extreme heat. The heatwave in 2022, when temperatures surpassed 40C for the first time, led to the early deaths of more than 3,000 people, wildfires, buckled rail lines and farmers struggling with drought. Southern Europe is in the grip of a searing heatwave.

Another expert said there was a “yawning gap” in measures to restore nature, which is a vital part of adapting to climate change.

The National Adaptation Programme is expected to be published on Tuesday by the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra), which is required by law to produce a plan every five years. In March, the government’s official advisers, the Climate Change Committee, said its publication would be a “make-or-break moment”.

Ministers have been criticised for years over the failure to make adequate plans for the impacts of global heating. The CCC said in March that the UK was “strikingly unprepared” and that there had been a “lost decade” in action on adaptation. It said heatwaves, droughts, floods and storms would intensify in the coming years until carbon emissions reached net zero.

https://www.theguardian.com/environment ... -very-weak

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

Supreme Court paves way for construction of Mountain Valley Pipeline to resume
Source: CBS News

Washington — The Supreme Court on Thursday paved the way for construction of the controversial Mountain Valley Pipeline project to resume, granting a request to lift lower court orders that halted the project and delayed its completion. The court's brief order vacates stays issued by the U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit in cases brought by environmental organizations opposed to the 303-mile Mountain Valley Pipeline that will transport natural gas from West Virginia to Virginia. There were no noted dissents.

Construction for the project was approved by the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, or FERC, in 2017. But since then, the project has been entangled in numerous legal challenges to federal approvals for its construction and operation brought by environmental groups. The pipeline, however, is nearly completed, and all that remains is construction of a 3.5-mile stretch through the Jefferson National Forest and stream crossings.

Before the Supreme Court are two of those disputes, the first brought by the Wilderness Society and the second from a coalition of 10 environmental groups. They sought review from the 4th Circuit of authorizations issued this year by the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service, Bureau of Land Management and the U.S. Forest Service allowing the pipeline segments in Jefferson National Forest.

The groups argue pipeline construction will harm endangered species and allege the approvals from BLM and the Forest Service violate numerous environmental statutes.

Read more: https://www.cbsnews.com/news/supreme-co ... struction/