ECX September Highlights:
TRADING VOLUMES: With traders back at their desks, ECX September volumes totalled 432 Mt or 19.6 Mt Average Daily Volume, a 63% increase year-on-year. CER volumes doubled compared to August levels and Average Daily Volume in the ECX T+1 (spot-like) Futures reached over 400,000 tonnes which was nearly 20% of the total exchange spot market.
OPEN INTEREST: Total Open Interest stands just shy of 800,000 contracts (800 Mt). The September 2009 EUA and CER contracts expired on Monday, with 118,000 EUAs and 1,010,000 CERs going to delivery through ICE Clear Europe.
PRODUCTS & SERVICES: EUAs and CERs are now accepted as collateral by ICE Clear Europe and can be posted against any ICE Futures Europe oil/energy contract, with a haircut of 25%. New EUA and CER March 2013 Futures contracts were introduced on 16th September – the underlying unit of trade for the CER March 2013 contract is EU ETS Phase II CERs.
MEMBERSHIP: ICE Futures Europe & ECX welcome two new members: SAEN Options BV and CarbonDesk Limited.
http://bit.ly/tfctR
The Senate Bill Tinkers With Touchy Issue -- Carbon Offsets
CHRISTA MARSHALL of ClimateWire
Call it carbon offsets, round two.
http://bit.ly/PiU9G
**JK - A nice rundown on the offsets section of the bill including this major departure from ACES. The Senate bill limits international offsets to 25% of the projects, rather than 50% allowed by the House bill.
U.S. Prepares More Regulatory Moves in Case Climate Bills Stall
Peter Behr - ClimateWire
The Obama administration holds several potential trump cards if Congress ultimately deadlocks over climate legislation, current and former officials said yesterday. They cited existing powers of the federal government to push forward parts of the climate and clean energy agendas on its own.
http://bit.ly/3Rb6pV
Cap and Trade: Will The Senate Go For Carbon Tariffs, Too?
Keith Johnson - Wall Street Journal
In the new Senate energy and climate bill, there are plenty of details left to be hashed out later—starting with how the bill would actually build a cap-and-trade program in the first place. But one area yet to be fleshed out, in particular, has the potential to make or break the bill: How the U.S. deals with the intersection of climate change and international trade.
http://bit.ly/eeCsF
PSEG, FPL Say Free-Emission-Permits Plan May Unravel in Senate
Daniel Whitten - Bloomberg
Public Service Enterprise Group, FPL Group Inc. and other utilities that won free carbon-pollution allowances in climate legislation passed by the House may have to start lobbying all over again now that the Senate has started debating its version.
http://bit.ly/2HFVUo
Senate Climate Bill May Impress World, But Not Lawmakers
Sean Higgins - Investor's Business Daily
Democratic senators are racing to advance a climate change bill in time for the president's trip to December's global summit in Copenhagen, but conceded that it faces a very hard road in the Senate.
http://bit.ly/FWhRT
Washington Post Editorial: The Senate Climate Bill
AFTER MONTHS of meetings, Sens. John Kerry (D-Mass.) and Barbara Boxer (D-Calif.) released their long-awaited climate bill with great fanfare. But missing from the 800-page Clean Energy Jobs and American Power Act is a cap-and-trade system. That's disappointing, since Ms. Boxer announced earlier this year that the Environment and Public Works Committee would start from scratch on devising a system of capping greenhouse gas emissions and issuing a declining number of pollution allowances to covered industries. Instead, she and Mr. Kerry released a bill that is being called a starting point
http://bit.ly/4iEUfK
Earth to Obam: You can't negotiate with the planet.
Bill McKibben - The New Republic
It's been a long year--Barack Obama has faced, in rough order, John McCain, global financial collapse, Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Blue Dogs, the Progressive Caucus, the Gang of Six, Glenn Beck, Representative Joe Wilson (R-Hissy), and the third of Republicans convinced he was born somewhere else. Of course, minus the birth certificates, roughly the same has been true for Hu Jintao and Nicolas Sarkozy, for Angela Merkel and Manmohan Singh. That's what politics is--a series of challenges, which are rarely won or lost completely. You get part of what you wanted (everyone with health insurance), and maybe you leave other stuff for another day (the public option). That's why we call politics the pursuit of the possible.
http://bit.ly/4A8Jhu
Cooling Down the Cassandras
George F. Will - Washington Post
In this headline on a New York Times story about the difficulties confronting people alarmed about global warming, note the word "plateau." It dismisses the unpleasant -- to some people -- fact that global warming is maddeningly (to the same people) slow to vindicate their apocalyptic warnings about it.
http://bit.ly/s39Jf
EPA Moves to Regulate Smokestack Greenhouse Gases
DINA CAPPIELLO - Associated Press
WASHINGTON--Proposed regulations would require power plants, factories and refineries to reduce greenhouse gases by installing the best available technology and improving energy efficiency whenever a facility is significantly changed or built.
http://bit.ly/Lp5r
E.P.A. Moves to Curtail Greenhouse Gas Emissions
John M. Broder - The New York Times
Unwilling to wait for Congress to act, the Obama administration announced on Wednesday that it was moving forward on new rules to regulate greenhouse gas emissions from hundreds of power plants and large industrial facilities.
http://bit.ly/DrOsn
What the EPA announcement did (and did not) say
David Roberts - Grist
The EPA made an announcement today that lots of folks seem to be misinterpreting as “proposed regulations on power plants.” That’s not what they are.
http://bit.ly/1JYegW
**JK - Nice quick clarification from Grist.
EPA Reconsiders 'Johnson Memo' on Carbon Emissions
Robin Bravender - Greenwire
U.S. EPA yesterday launched a formal reconsideration of a Bush-era memorandum detailing when the government should regulate carbon dioxide emissions from industrial facilities.
http://bit.ly/Y3067
US moves to limit industrial greenhouse gas emissions
AFP
The US government has taken a harder line on greenhouse gas emissions produced by factories, refineries and power plants by mandating energy efficient means for expansion, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
http://bit.ly/U1qPc
EPA to exempt small business from greenhouse rule
Steve Gorman and Peter Henderson - Reuters
LOS ANGELES - The Obama administration moved on Wednesday to exempt small businesses from new industrial smokestack controls on emissions of carbon dioxide and other planet-warming greenhouse gases.
http://bit.ly/11RTQI
Do U.S. Chamber Defections Reflect New Dynamic in Climate Debate?
Alex Kaplan - Greenwire
Recent high-profile departures from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce over its position on climate change may be more than a short-term, public-relations hit for the lobbying powerhouse, according to supporters of cap-and-trade legislation.
http://bit.ly/hJXqQ
NATO chief warns of climate change security risks
AFP
Climate change has "potentially huge security implications" and NATO countries should use the alliance as a forum to address the challenges it creates, the new NATO chief said Thursday.
http://bit.ly/kCf5p
Will Rich Countries Come Clean on Land Use, Land-Use Change, and Forestry?
Steve Zwick - Ecosystem Marketplace
Poor countries say rich countries have been cooking the books on greenhouse gas emissions from land-use under the Kyoto Protocol by picking and choosing which emissions they account for and which they ignore. Rich nations even concede the point – but say they can't do it any other way. On Thursday, the rich countries are supposed to make their case in Bangkok.
http://bit.ly/3WHSFh
Poor hit back at rich over new carbon emission demands
David Fogarty - Reuters
BANGKOK - Developing countries are standing their ground against demands by rich nations to add steps to curb carbon emissions into a formal registry or appendix as part a broader pact to fight climate change.
http://bit.ly/3akwPI
Solar Panel Tariff May Further Strain U.S.-China Trade
Keith Bradsher - The New York Times
Companies that import solar panels to the United States are facing up to $70 million in unexpected tariffs.
http://bit.ly/2yUuSh
Wind, solar execs eye U.S., China for growth
Gerard Wynn and Victoria Bryan - Reuters
LONDON - U.S. and China markets are driving recovery in the global clean energy industry, after a sharp fall in investment this year, but uncertainty over government support is clouding the 2010 outlook.
http://bit.ly/Sh2pV
Cap-And-Fade
Investor's Business Daily
Climate Change: The Senate has finally rolled out its long-awaited cap-and-trade bill to slash carbon dioxide. Looking at its draconian restrictions on the U.S. economy, it's hard to believe its supporters are serious.
http://bit.ly/ITwx0
**JK - More garbage from IBD: The rebuke from two weeks ago. Treasury memo hysteria shows media incapable of screening out junk - Grist -http://bit.ly/n2nff
THE REPORT
The Economic Effects of Legislation to Reduce Greenhouse-Gas Emissions
Congressional Budget Office
http://bit.ly/r2SrV
How Aviation Can Come Clean
Advanced technology won't be enough for the industry to meet its own greenhouse-gas targets.
Kevin Bullis - MIT Technology Review
Last week the global aviation industry called on the United Nations to establish a single, worldwide policy for reducing aviation greenhouse-gas emissions, in an attempt to avoid a costly network of regional regulations. The industry proposed two primary goals--that by 2020 it should stop increasing its greenhouse emissions, and that by 2050 it should cut its emissions by 50 percent compared to 2005 levels.
http://bit.ly/ltKbs
Sempra Gen Aims To Build, Sell 500 MW Of Solar Power
Cassandra Sweet - Dow Jones
Sempra Energy's (SRE) merchant generation unit is looking to build up to 500 megawatts of new solar-power plants over the next few years, the unit's top executive said Wednesday.
http://bit.ly/4FF30h
Can Libreville's Electric Company Save Gabon's Mbé Watershed?
Emilie Filou - EcoSystemMarketplace
As mining and logging spread across Gabon's Mbé watershed, they threaten the river that nourishes the capital city, Libreville, and also drives the city's turbines.
http://bit.ly/1Ui4tU
China Discovers 35 Billion Tons Of "Flammable Ice"
The Business Insider
China has discovered a big block of methane hydrate, or as it is more awesomely known, flammable ice, Caijing reports.
The discovery is of 35 billion tons, which could be pulled in the next 10 to 15 years. Not exactly something to get thrilled about now, but a nice find for down the road: http://bit.ly/4yV6kz
US
U.S. ethanol from corn could double by 2030: group
Reuters
WASHINGTON - U.S. farmers could grow enough corn to produce 25 billion gallons of ethanol in 2030, twice as much as this year's target of 12 billion gallons, said the leader of a U.S. corn group on Thursday.
http://bit.ly/CdcL
Texas uses wind power to stay world energy capital
Sheila McNulty - Financial Times
For years now, Houston has been known as the energy capital of the world. When renewables started to appear on the horizon, many in the Lone Star State feared Texas’s days in that leadership capacity were numbered. People increasingly said they no longer wanted to rely on fossil fuels and particularly oil - the stuff Texas was famous for.
http://bit.ly/2P2CrN
**JK - Hats off to Texas - woohoo!
Walmart Saves Tens of Millions of Dollars on Green Energy Push
Josie Ling and Shiyin Chen - Bloomberg
Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world’s largest retailer, has saved “tens of millions” of dollars in the U.S. since starting a push to reduce energy use, Chairman S. Robson Walton said.
http://bit.ly/1a7RR2
First Solar to join S&P 500, shares jump 5.7 pct
Reuters
Standard & Poor's on Thursday said First Solar Inc (FSLR.O) will join its flagship S&P 500 stock index .SPX, causing shares of the solar power company to jump 5.7 percent in after-hours trading.
http://bit.ly/21PoR7
2 Duke Energy wind projects now running
AP
Power company Duke Energy said Thursday that wind power projects in Wyoming and Pennsylvania are now up and running.
http://bit.ly/60MBC
FPL buys wind projects from Babcock & Brown
Reuters
NEW YORK - FPL Group Inc's green-energy unit on Thursday said it agreed to buy three wind projects from Babcock & Brown Power for about $352 million.
http://bit.ly/2pHVY
APS, Starwood end Arizona solar power purchase deal
Reuters
NEW YORK - Arizona Public Service said late Wednesday Starwood Energy Group Global LLC terminated a long-term power purchase agreement on Starwood's proposed 290-megawatt concentrating solar power plant in Arizona.
http://bit.ly/yELrH
San Antonio nears key vote on nuclear expansion
Eileen O'Grady - Reuters
HOUSTON - San Antonio's municipal utility will make a key decision next week on whether to invest billions of dollars to expand Texas' largest nuclear power station, with the city's mayor raising cost concerns.
http://bit.ly/28yYb8
Spills, Looming Regulations Spur Natural Gas Industry Toward Disclosure
Katie Howell - Greenwire
The natural gas industry is moving to disclose information about chemicals used in controversial extraction technologies in the wake of spills at drilling sites in Pennsylvania and as New York is proposing new regulations.
http://bit.ly/GMlbp
Schwarzenegger leads governors’ summit on global warming
Daniel B. Wood - The Christian Science Monitor
Some 1,200 representatives from more than 70 states, provinces, and countries are meeting here this week for California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s Global Climate Summit 2.
Three years after Governor Schwarzenegger won global attention for signing legislation committing the world’s eighth largest economy to reduce its greenhouse gases 25 percent by 2020, the gathering is trying to pave the way for a United Nations conference in Copenhagen, Demark, in December to establish new, worldwide emissions targets.
http://bit.ly/5lGmM
Canada
EnCana spinoff plans new oil sands project
Jeffrey Jones - Reuters
The oil company set to emerge from the split-up of EnCana Corp plans a multibillion-dollar oil sands project that will employ new technology to coax the project's heavy crude to the surface, executives said on Thursday.
http://bit.ly/P5XZv
EnCana oil spinoff to build new oilsands project near Christina Lake
Lauren Krugel - CP
CALGARY — The oil-focused firm that will emerge from EnCana Corp.'s split is proposing to build a new oilsands project that will use a combination of steam and solvents to draw bitumen to the surface - the first commercial-scale project to use this method.
http://bit.ly/UlXVD
TransCanada OK'd for Ontario plant
Lisa Schmidt - Calgary Herald
CALGARY - TransCanada Corp. received the nod to build a $1.2-billion power plant in southern Ontario, adding to its growing suite of electricity generation in that province.
http://bit.ly/ZGN5T
B.C. minister says carbon footprint of torch relay worth it to include Canadians
James Keller - CP
VANCOUVER, B.C. — The fuel feeding the Olympic flame won't be the only thing burning when the torch relay begins at the end of October, with its 45,000-kilometre journey by air, land and water into every corner of Canada generating its own share of carbon emissions.
http://bit.ly/qU2hb
Europe
Germany: Experts fear green setbacks
UPI
Observers fear that Germany's new government will draft an energy policy at the expense of resource and climate protection.
http://bit.ly/37IK9i
Germany's FDP aims to cut solar subsidies: paper
Reuters
Germany's Free Democrats (FDP), designated coalition partner in a new centre-right government with Chancellor Angela Merkel's conservatives, are taking aim at the country's lush state aid for solar energy, a German newspaper reported on Thursday.
http://bit.ly/2bTSNq
*RL - A break at last for the taxpayers of Germany?
UK Cash Boost For Ocean Energy
RenewableEnergyWorld
Wave and tidal energy developers have been invited to bid for £22 million (US$33 million) in new government funding to accelerate the commercial development of marine energy in the UK.
http://bit.ly/SxH2P
UK publishes emissions guidance for businesses
NewNet
The UK’s Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs (Defra) have published guidelines to help large and small businesses measure and reduce greenhouse gas emissions.
http://bit.ly/Ck240
Lithuania says nuclear deal due in 2010
AFP
Lithuania said Wednesday it aimed in the first six months of 2010 to sign a key investment deal in a four-nation nuclear power project to replace a Soviet-era plant set to shut down within months.
http://bit.ly/3N4IB
GDF Suez agrees to energy and environmental efficiency joint venture with China’s Chongqing Energy Investment
NewNet
France’s GDF Suez has signed an agreement with Chongqing Energy Investment Group for the establishment of a 40/60 joint venture dedicated to energy and environmental efficiency in Chongqing, in Western China.
http://bit.ly/qFclp
Tunisia Online News
As part of Clean Development Mechanism (CDM) and the PROSOL program related to the Kyoto protocol, the first agreement for carbon credits sale in the energy sector was penned on Monday in Tunis, between the Tunisian National Agency for Energy Management (ANME) and a major French joint-venture ORBEO ( a merger between Rhodia and Société Génerale).
http://bit.ly/FIj9c
Czechs sell 20 million carbon credits to Japan
AFP
The Czech Republic on Wednesday signed a deal to sell 20 million carbon credits to Japan after selling twice as many there earlier this year, the Czech environment ministry said on its website.
http://bit.ly/4kpMOq
Asia
Australian energy company Hot Rock targets Chilean geothermal market
NewNet
Australian geothermal provider Hot Rock Limited (HRL) has commenced active involvement in the geothermal energy sector in Chile with the registration of the company’s Chilean subsidiary based in Santiago, Chile.
http://bit.ly/RGqmL
China's First 10-MW Ground Mount Solar System Connects to the Grid
RenewableEnergyWorld
Suntech Power Holdings Co. Ltd. announced the completion and grid connection of the first 10-megawatt (MW) utility-scale solar power project in China. Located in Shizuishan, Ningxia Autonomous Region, the 10-MW ground mount solar system is the first phase of a 50-MW solar plant.
http://bit.ly/2jyEHz
Biogas brings 'green revolution' to rural Nepal
AFP
Nepalese villager Khinu Darai used to have to walk about five kilometres (three miles) every day to collect firewood so she could cook meals for her family.
http://bit.ly/1lynyI
India plans massive nuclear energy boost
UPI
India aims to boost its nuclear energy capacity by 12,000 percent by 2050.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, in making the announcement Tuesday at a New Delhi conference on peaceful uses of nuclear power, predicted that India could produce 470 gigawatts of nuclear power.
http://bit.ly/3JfmuD
India's 1.1 Billion Move to Feed-in Tariffs
Paul Gipe, RenewableEnergyWorld
The world's largest single political jurisdiction to date, India, has made a strategic move to use a comprehensive system of feed-in tariffs to develop its renewable energy potential.
http://bit.ly/17MnCb
Southeast Asia gains climate clout after typhoon
Danny Kemp - AFP
BANGKOK – A deadly typhoon that scythed through Southeast Asia has underscored the area's vulnerability to climate change -- but it may have also finally given regional nations a voice at crucial environment talks.
http://bit.ly/yMolQ
Africa/Middle East
Ausra wins solar steam boiler contract for 100MW Jordan thermal project
NewNet
California concentrated solar developer Ausra has been awarded a contract to supply a solar steam boiler supplier for the JOAN1 100MW concentrated solar project under development in Ma’an, Jordan by German developers MENA Cleantech.
http://bit.ly/JAbiL
Latin America
Caribbean sees biofuels as a way ahead
UPI
Cash-strapped Caribbean countries are seeking energy independence through bioenergy development but are hamstrung by poor organization and limited initiatives.
http://bit.ly/2AcSvb
Other
Seven Weeds That Could Power Your Car
Tina Casey, Gas2.0
With the attention on first generation corn ethanol fading, the next big thing on the sustainable fuel horizon is nonfood biofuel crops.
http://bit.ly/eZY7L
Kofi Annan launches musical climate change petition
AFP
PARIS – Former UN chief Kofi Annan on Thursday launched a "musical petition" involving some 60 world celebrities in the name of climate change ahead of a key Copenhagen summit.
http://bit.ly/qwgob
