Energy & the Environment News and Discussions

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U.S. crude oil falls below $70 a barrel, closing at the lowest level since June

PUBLISHED WED, DEC 6 202311:48 AM EST
UPDATED 44 MIN AGO

By Spencer Kimball

U.S. crude declined 4% on Wednesday, closing at the lowest level since late June with retail gasoline prices hitting the lowest point since January just ahead of the holiday shopping and travel season.

The West Texas Intermediate contract for January fell $2.94, or 4.07%, to settle at $69.38 a barrel, while the Brent contract for February declined $2.90, or 3.76%, to settle at $74.30 a barrel.

U.S. crude and the global benchmark have fallen for five straight days, despite efforts by OPEC+ to boost prices by promising to slash supply in the first quarter of 2024.

Prices at the pump in the U.S., meanwhile, have followed oil prices lower to hit $3.22 a gallon on average as of Wednesday, the lowest price since Jan. 3, according to AAA.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2023/12/06/us-crud ... h-low.html

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[firestar464]

AMERICA ARE YOU FUCKING STUPID?

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[wjfox]

AEMO’s jaw dropping prediction for coal power – all but gone from the grid in a decade

15 December 2023

The Australian Energy Market Operator is predicting that the country’s remaining coal fired generators are likely to close much quicker than expected, saying they are becoming less reliable, more difficult to maintain and less able to compete with the growing share of renewables.

AEMO’s draft 2024 Integrated System Plan, the latest version of its 30-year planning blueprint, suggests coal fired generation will be gone from Queensland and Victoria within a decade – by 2033/34 – and that the last coal unit will close in NSW by 2038.

The prediction accelerates the exit of coal by five years from the previous ISP, and is part of a broad reassessment of the state of the energy transition, which includes a growing recognition of the central role of households, who will install a lot more rooftop solar, and electrify their homes much quicker than thought.

“Our updated analysis shows that Australia’s coal power stations are likely to close earlier than planned, and Australians are electrifying their homes and businesses at a faster rate,” CEO Daniel Westerman says in a statement accompanying the report.

https://reneweconomy.com.au/aemos-jaw-d ... -a-decade/

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[raklian]

[wjfox]

The fossil fuel industry is heading for the mother of all shakeups in the 2030s. We're talking many trillions of dollars in stranded assets. I believe this could dwarf all previous economic disruptions in history. And the impacts will go beyond finance – affecting careers, culture, politics, lobbying, etc. However, this transition will ultimately lead to a better world, with less conflict, less volatility, greater energy abundance, a cleaner environment.

[erowind]

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[caltrek]

Fossil Fuel Giants to Lavish Shareholders With Record Paydays Even as Climate Crisis Deepens
by Julia Conley
January 1, 2024

Introduction:

(Common Dreams) The year 2023 was marked by weather events that made it increasingly clear that the Earth has entered what United Nations Secretary General António Guterres called the "era of global boiling," with wildfires and prolonged heatwaves impacting millions of people and scientists confirming their suffering was the direct result of fossil fuel extraction and planetary heating.

But for the world's five largest oil giants, the year marked record profits and the approval of several major new fossil fuel projects, allowing the companies to lavish their shareholders with payouts that are expected to exceed $100 billion—signaling that executives have little anxiety that demand for their products will fall, said one economist.

The companies—BP, Shell, Chevron,ExxonMobil, and TotalEnergies—spent $104 billion on shareholder payouts in 2022, and are expected to reward investors with even more in buybacks and dividends for 2023, The Guardian reported.

Shell announced plans in November to pay investors at least $23 billion—more than six times the amount it planned to spend on renewable energy projects—while BP promised shareholders a 10% raise in dividends and Chevron could exceed the $75 billion stock buyback it announced early last year.

Read more here: https://www.commondreams.org/news/foss ... holders/

[wjfox]

UK use of gas and coal for electricity at lowest since 1957, figures show

Wed 3 Jan 2024 00.01 GMT

The amount of electricity generated by the UK’s gas and coal power plants fell by 20% last year, with consumption of fossil fuels at its lowest level since 1957.

Not since Harold Macmillan was the UK prime minister and the Beatles’ John Lennon and Paul McCartney met for the first time has the UK used less coal and gas.

The UK’s gas power plants last year generated 31% of the UK’s electricity, or 98 terawatt hours (TWh), according to a report by the industry journal Carbon Brief, while the UK’s last remaining coal plant produced enough electricity to meet just 1% of the UK’s power demand or 4TWh.

[...]

Carbon Brief found that gas and coal power plants made up just over a third of the UK’s electricity supplies in 2023, while renewable energy provided the single largest source of power to the grid at a record 42%.

It was the third year this decade that renewable energy sources, including wind, solar, hydro and biomass power, outperformed fossil fuels, according to the analysis. Renewables and Britain’s nuclear reactors, which generated 13% of electricity supplies last year, helped low-carbon electricity make up 55% of the UK’s electricity in 2023.

https://www.theguardian.com/business/20 ... renewables

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