Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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caltrek
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Phantom Forests: Why Ambitious Tree Planting Projects Are Failing
by Fred Pearce
October 6, 2022

Introduction:
(Yale Environment 360) Every year, “millions of dollars” are spent on reforesting landscapes, according to Lalisa Duguma of World Agroforestry, an international research agency in Nairobi, Kenya. Yet “there are few success stories.” Typically only a minority of seedlings survive, he says, because the wrong trees are planted in the wrong places, and many are left untended, in part because ownership and management of trees is not handed over to local communities.

Such failures often go unnoticed, believes Duguma, because performance indicators measure planting rates not survival rates, and long-term oversight is minimal because projects typically last three years or less. The result is “phantom forests.”

The record for restoring mangroves along coastlines, often in an effort to hold back coastal erosion from storms and rising tides, is especially bad. An analysis last year by the Netherlands-based NGO Wetlands International, which had previously sponsored mangrove planting, concluded that “while many tens of millions of euros have been spent on mangrove restoration in recent years, the majority of these restoration projects has failed. With success rates ranging between 15-20%, a lot of conservation funding has gone to waste.” It blamed poor planting methods and the wrong species planted in the wrong places.

Most planting across Southeast Asia has been of Rhizophora red mangroves. Their cuttings are easy to harvest from existing trees and to plant. Typically, they are planted in tidal mudflats, which ensures no competing land uses, but most are starved of oxygen or washed away by constant inundation at high tide, according to an analysis by Shing Yip Lee of the Chinese University of Hong Kong.
Read more here: https://e360.yale.edu/features/phantom ... te-change
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weatheriscool
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Biden to release 15M barrels from oil reserve, more possible
Source: AP
WASHINGTON (AP) — President Joe Biden will announce the release of 15 million barrels of oil from the U.S. strategic reserve Wednesday as part of a response to recent production cuts announced by OPEC+ nations, and he will say more oil sales are possible this winter, as his administration rushes to be seen as pulling out all the stops ahead of next month’s midterm elections.

Biden will deliver remarks Wednesday to announce the drawdown from the strategic reserve, senior administration officials said Tuesday on the condition of anonymity to outline Biden’s plans. It completes the release of 180 million barrels over six months authorized by Biden in March. That has sent the strategic reserve to its lowest level since 1984 in what the president called a “bridge” until domestic production could be increased. The reserve now contains roughly 400 million barrels of oil.

Biden will also open the door to additional releases this winter in an effort to bring prices down, but administration officials would not detail how much the president would be willing to tap and the conditions under which he would do so.

Biden will also say that the U.S. government will restock the strategic reserve when oil prices are at or lower than $67 to $72 a barrel, an offer that administration officials argue will increase domestic production by guaranteeing a baseline level of demand even if prices fall. Yet the president is also expected to renew his criticism of the profits reaped by oil companies — repeating a bet made this summer that public condemnation would matter more to these companies than shareholders’ focus on returns.
Read more: https://apnews.com/article/2022-midterm ... 9401d8369b
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Nitrogen boundaries exceeded in many world regions
https://phys.org/news/2022-10-nitrogen- ... gions.html
by Wageningen University
It has long been known that humanity is exceeding planetary boundaries for nitrogen use. Scientists have now mapped those exceedances regionally for the first time. Whereas countries in north-western Europe and parts of India and China are emitting far too much nitrogen, there is actually room for intensification of nitrogen use across much of Africa and South America. The research was published today in Nature.

In 2009, Nature published an opinion article introducing the concept of planetary (global) boundaries. In the article scientists identified nine boundaries within which humanity must navigate to ensure the stability of the Earth system, including climate change, biodiversity decline and nitrogen inputs.

Six years later, an article in Science based on new data concluded that three of these boundaries, including the threshold for nitrogen, have been exceeded. However, those estimates did not take into account regional differences in the sensitivity of ecosystems to nitrogen pollution and in nitrogen losses from agriculture and other sources.

Better distribution across world

In this new study, the scientists compared regional nitrogen surpluses and losses with regional limits for effects on nature and water quality, such as decrease in biodiversity, degradation of drinking water quality and algal bloom in surface water. This shows that nitrogen is a many-headed monster.
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Shell 3Q earnings double, stir debate on energy profit tax
Source: ABC News

LONDON -- Shell’s earnings more than doubled in the third quarter, fueling the debate over taxes on energy producers’ windfall profits as they have benefited from high oil and natural gas prices following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Adjusted earnings, which exclude one-time items and fluctuations in the value of inventories, jumped to $9.45 billion from $4.13 billion in the same period last year, Shell said Thursday. The London-based energy giant also announced a $4 billion share buyback and plans to increase its fourth-quarter dividend by 15%.

“We are delivering robust results at a time of ongoing volatility in global energy market,” Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said in a statement. “At the same time we are working closely with governments and customers to address their short and long-term energy needs.”

[snip]

The U.K., Spain and Italy have already imposed taxes on the windfall profits of energy producers as high oil and gas prices — which have fallen from summer highs — squeeze homes and businesses. The European Union passed such a levy last month.
Read more: https://abcnews.go.com/Business/wireSto ... t-92179348
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U.S. warns western states it may impose Colorado River water cuts
Source: Reuters
(Reuters) - The U.S. government warned on Friday that it may impose water supply cuts on California, Arizona and Nevada to protect the Colorado River and its two main reservoirs from overuse, drought and climate change.

The U.S. Bureau of Reclamation unveiled three possible action plans: one to impose cutbacks, another to allow western states to work out a reduction plan on their own, or a third and least likely option of taking no action.

Besides protecting drinking water supplies, the proposed federal action might also preserve hydroelectric production at the country's two largest reservoirs.

The bureau, part of the Department of Interior, had previously set a mid-August deadline for seven western states to negotiate their own reductions or possibly face mandatory cutbacks.
Read more: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/u-s-w ... 6f7e1eb2af
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Global oil giants rake in massive profits in third quarter
Source: Reuters

Global oil-and-gas giants including Exxon Mobil (XOM.N), Chevron (CVX.N) and Equinor (EQNR.OL) posted huge profits in the third quarter, benefiting from surging energy costs that have boosted inflation around the world and hit consumers hard.

Oil companies booked billions of dollars in profits as prices for crude, natural gas and fuels like gasoline hovered near record levels during the quarter. Global supplies remain tight due to output cuts stemming from the COVID-19 pandemic, and market disruption following Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

The soaring profits are feeding criticism from consumer groups in the United States and Europe as inflation climbs. U.S. President Joe Biden has told oil companies they are not doing more to bring down energy costs, while in Britain and the European Union, there are calls for further windfall taxes on energy companies.

Exxon Mobil, the largest U.S. major, reported nearly $20 billion in revenue, exceeding expectations and surpassing its previous record set in the second quarter.
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 022-10-28/
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caltrek
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Geothermal Could Become Workhorse of the Energy Transition
October 31 , 2022

Introduction:
(EurekAlert) CAMBRIDGE, MA--Geothermal energy—the heat deep below our feet—has the potential to become the workhorse of the energy transition as it grows from supplying just 0.4 percent of the world’s energy today to upward of 20, 30, and even 50 percent by 2050. That’s according to the co-founder and CEO of a company working to tap the mother lode of that energy who presented at the SOSV Climate Tech Summit 2022 held October 25-26. SOSV is a global venture capital firm.

Carlos Araque of Quaise Energy made those remarks during a panel discussion titled, “Is this geothermal’s moment?” Quaise is developing a unique drilling technique to reach the hot rock some two to 12 miles beneath the Earth’s surface. Araque was joined by Kathy Hannun, co-founder and president of Dandelion Energy, a firm working on a different “flavor” of geothermal, or using it to heat and cool residential homes today. The Dandelion process uses established technology that doesn’t require such deep drilling.

“I didn’t know much about geothermal until I started diving into [it] for this panel,” said Moderator Candice Ammori, founder of The Climate Vine, which advises climate tech startups. “I’m excited to say now that I’m a believer in geothermal. I think there’s a fair amount of hype…but I actually think that there probably should be more hype.”

Araque and Hannun went on to not only describe the biggest barriers to scaling up their businesses for the world, but also what other geothermal problems they are “itching for people to solve,” according to Ammori.

First, however, the two described why geothermal could be so important. In addition to being clean and global, geothermal provides a baseload energy source that’s available 24/7, even if it’s cloudy out or there’s no wind. It’s also “the most powerful and abundant renewable on Earth,” said Araque, “much more so than wind, solar, nuclear, and all fossil fuels combined.”
Read more here: https://www.eurekalert.org/news-releases/969756
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BP joins rivals with bumper $8.2 bln profit
Source: Reuters
BP (BP.L) more than doubled its third-quarter profit from a year earlier to $8.15 billion and expanded its share buybacks by $2.5 billion, joining rivals in reporting bumper profits that have sparked renewed calls for energy companies to pay more taxes.

London-based BP joins rivals including Shell (SHEL.L), Exxon Mobil and TotalEnergies (TTEF.PA) which also reported bumper profits last week that also saw the sector pay out a record $29 billion to shareholders.

U.S. President Joe Biden on Monday called on major oil companies who are bringing in big profits to stop "war profiteering", threatening to hit them with higher taxes if they don't increase production...
Read more: https://www.reuters.com/business/energy ... 022-11-01/
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The US Northeast Is Hurtling Toward a Winter Heating Crisis
Source: Bloomberg / Yahho News

(Bloomberg) -- In the most densely populated corner of the US, temperatures are about to drop after a stretch of unusually warm weather. And the signs of a winter crisis are already multiplying.

Heating oil delivered to New York is the priciest ever. Retailers in Connecticut are rationing it to prevent panic buying. New England's stockpiles of diesel and heating oil -- the same product, taxed differently -- are a third of normal levels. Natural gas inventories are also below average. A Massachusetts-based utility is imploring President Joe Biden to prepare emergency measures to prevent a gas shortage.

Add some cold to the mix, and in the best-case scenario, Northeast consumers will shoulder the highest energy bills in decades this winter. The Biden administration, under pressure to tame prices ahead of the midterm elections, is considering ways to stash more diesel and gasoline in New England. In the worst-case scenario, a cluster of states with a combined economy bigger than Japan's will run out of fuel to keep the lights on and heat homes and businesses.

"It's going to be pretty bad," said Marcus McGregor, head of commodities research at Conning Inc. "Diesel, heating oil and natural gas prices are through the roof. When you're on a fixed salary, how does it impact your overall budget? It has to be bad."
Read more: https://news.yahoo.com/us-northeast-hur ... 07857.html
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Germany keen to discuss natural gas pact with UK amid supply risk
Tue 8 Nov 2022 13.04 GMT

Germany is keen to talk to Britain about a solidarity pact that would allow Europe’s largest consumers of natural gas to bail each other out if an extreme cold snap were to create shortages this winter, German officials have said.

Such an agreement could be mutually beneficial for both London and Berlin, the German civil servant in charge of rationing in the case of a supply crisis told the Guardian in an interview.

“With its long coastline, the UK has a geographic advantage when it comes to infrastructure for importing liquid natural gas [LNG],”, said Klaus Müller, the head of the federal network agency for utilities, Bundesnetzagentur. “But the experience of the last few weeks has also shown us that the size of the gas network also matters. The larger the network, the easier to adjust temporary deficits.”

While the legal consequences of Brexit mean an emergency aid scheme between London and Berlin could not replicate “security of supply” (SoS) deals struck between European Union member states, Müller and German government spokespeople indicated a willingness to cooperate outside existing regulation.

“Legally, Great Britain has left European solidarity mechanisms, but the pipelines between the countries are still there,” said Müller, a member of the Green party and former environment minister in the northern state of Schleswig-Holstein.
https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/ ... upply-risk
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