In today’s edition: Reuters reports “EU OKs 3 states to keep free CO2 permits,” while Bloomberg quotes Polish officials arguing that “EU Carbon Price Increases Would Intensify Crisis.” The Sydney Morning Herald, meanwhile, offers: US official says ETS remains ‘one option’
Quote of the Day:
“The focus really is on what should we be doing to both avoid the unmanageable by reducing emissions, as well as manage the unavoidable by focusing on adaptation. [U.S. ETS] continues to be considered as one possible option.”
–Jane Lubchenco, who heads up the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), in the Sydney Morning Herald’s “US official says ETS remains ‘one option’”
Lead Stories
EU OKs 3 states to keep free CO2 permits
Reuters
Bulgaria, Romania and the Czech Republic can continue to provide power firms with free carbon emission allowances from 2013 onwards on condition their utilities spend an equivalent amount to upgrade power plants, the European Union executive said.
http://jlne.ws/OmyO5X
EU Carbon Price Increases Would Intensify Crisis, Poland Says
Bloomberg
The European Union should avoid measures to prop up carbon market prices because they would lead to higher energy costs and could aggravate the economic crisis in the region, Poland’s environment minister said.
http://jlne.ws/MaFyZk
UN urges countries to impose global taxes to boost aid
Reuters
The United Nations on Thursday urged countries to impose international taxes to raise more than $400 billion a year, such as a carbon tax, a currency transaction tax and a billionaires tax, to offset cutbacks in aid by many countries amid global economic turmoil.
http://jlne.ws/LHp7PL
US official says ETS remains ‘one option’
The Sydney Morning Herald
A leading United States climate official says there’s no doubt global warming is real but whether emissions trading is the best way to tackle the problem is less clear.
http://jlne.ws/LX52aH
EU Ministers to Discuss Funding Climate Change Adaptation, Water
Bloomberg
European Union ministers will discuss water management and financing of adaptation to climate change, whose costs to the region are estimated at 20 billion euros ($25 billion) in 2020, at an informal meeting this weekend.
http://jlne.ws/NzKTFD
Duke Energy’s CEO move sparks anger, questions
Charlotte Observer
Pressure is building on Duke Energy to explain why it ousted Bill Johnson as CEO this week, as former Progress Energy board members break their silence and express outrage at what they term a calculated deception.
http://jlne.ws/Ne9gdE
Intrigue Behind Ouster at Duke Energy
The Wall Street Journal
The surprise dethroning of Duke Energy Corp.’s DUK -3.41% chief executive set off angry responses Friday, with former directors at Progress Energy Inc. saying they never would have approved the $26 billion merger of the two utilities if they had known what would happen with the top job.
http://jlne.ws/N9ufMF
IEA predicts 40 per cent boost in renewables capacity by 2017
Business Green
The next five years will see a rapid expansion in renewable energy capacity, according to a major new report from the International Energy Agency (IEA) that predicts total power generation from renewable sources will increase by over 40 per cent.
http://jlne.ws/MOosAp
Petrobras Seeks to Stem Fuel Losses by Adding Ethanol
Bloomberg
Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) plans to stem losses from fuel imports using cheaper Brazilian-made biofuels as analysts forecast profit will decline to an eight-year low.
http://jlne.ws/OLH5UE
US ethanol output falls to 10-mo low, drought darkens outlook
Reuters
U.S. ethanol production dropped to its lowest level in 10 months last week as dwindling pre-harvest corn stocks crushed profit margins, while a deepening drought in the Midwest threatens to extend the pain into next year.
http://jlne.ws/N9ypUP
Commentary: The Great Ethanol Scam
Bloomberg/Businessweek
More than one major transportation-based industry in America besides Detroit is on the ropes. For the fourth time in our history the ethanol industry has come undone and is quickly failing nationally.
http://jlne.ws/MUbiBb
Events
Carbon Forum North America
October 1-2, 2012
Washington, DC
http://jlne.ws/zDe43B
Sustainability Summit – Innovation Challenge
October 9, 2012
New York
http://jlne.ws/wKbX7U
Carbon
Tory MP calls for personal carbon-trading scheme
EurActiv
The chair of the British Parliament’s energy and climate change committee has called for the launch of a pilot personal carbon allowance (PCA) trading scheme, which could be based in his own constituency, and funded by the private sector and possibly the EU.
http://jlne.ws/L9VWYD
Companies receive nod for carbon efforts
Tico Times (Costa Rica)
Businesses that have made efforts to measure and reduce their carbon emissions in Costa Rica got some recognition last week from the Environment Ministry (MINAET).
http://jlne.ws/Pw963G
Commentary: Carbon reporting key to company fortunes
Financial Times
Last month’s UN Conference on Sustainable Development in Rio de Janeiro, Rio+20, will probably have escaped the notice of most readers. The best description one investment bank analyst could muster was “messy, incremental and unco-ordinated – best defined as ‘messy-lateralism’ ”.
http://jlne.ws/LX9lD0
Emissions trading: Compromise proposed on pollution law
Financial Times
The diplomatic row about the inclusion of airlines in the EU’s carbon emissions trading scheme could be defused by limiting its impact to European airspace, according to Airbus.
http://jlne.ws/NzU8pv
Carbon broker banking on winds of change
The Age
AS SMALL business owners grapple with what a carbon price means for them, others are asking a different question: what will it mean if the scheme is repealed?
http://jlne.ws/NzOcws
Maldives eyes $100 million tourist tax for CO2 plan
Reuters
A voluntary tax on tourists who visit the luxury resorts and white sands of the Maldives could raise up to $100 million a year towards the country’s aim to become carbon neutral by 2020, President Mohamed Waheed said.
http://jlne.ws/MTqgaL
Natural Gas/Coal
Boehner faintly praises highway bill, vows more Keystone efforts
The Hill’s E2 Wire
House Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) offered limited praise for the sweeping transportation bill that President Obama signed Friday and pledged to continue pushing for authorization of the Keystone XL oil sands pipeline, which was omitted from the legislation.
http://jlne.ws/NzQADx
U.S. Navy moves ahead on biofuels despite congressional ire
Reuters
The Pentagon is pushing ahead with a $420 million effort to build refineries to make competitively priced biofuels, despite anger in Congress over the price the Navy paid for alternative fuel to test a carrier strike group this month.
http://jlne.ws/LA0QQb
Corker says Obama administration trying to push coal out of energy mix
Kingsport Times-News
Coal as a natural resource “sure has a lot stacked against it now,” U.S. Sen. Bob Corker said in a meeting with members of the Times-News Editorial Board.The Tennessee Republican, a member of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has argued coal-fired utilities need additional time to comply with federal clean air regulations — known as the “Utility MACT” rule — to avoid higher energy prices that might harm consumers and businesses.
http://jlne.ws/OnKlC6
Power
Suzlon to Build Brazil Plant as Turbine Loans Blocked
Bloomberg
Suzlon Energy Ltd. (SUEL), India’s biggest wind-turbine maker, agreed to build a components factory in Brazil as the country’s state development bank suspended loans to developers buying the machines from foreign companies.
http://jlne.ws/NzL8AK
GE Wins Wind-Turbine Patent Case Brought by Mitsubishi Heavy
Bloomberg
General Electric Co. (GE) didn’t infringe a patent owned by Mitsubishi Heavy Industries Ltd. over a way to control the angle of wind-turbine blades to reduce wear and tear, a federal judge said.
http://jlne.ws/MeULoD
RECs
A 5-step guide to buying RECs and carbon offsets
GreenBiz.com
McDonough Braungart Design Chemistry (MBDC) recently went through the process of reviewing its own purchases of renewable energy certificates (RECs) and carbon offsets, and learned some lessons along the way. As it can be an involved process, we’d like to share what we took away from the process — and hope you will benefit from our experience in the marketplace.
http://jlne.ws/Nec5eK
CleanTech
Environment: Airlines begin to realise green fuel is a complex proposition
Financial Times
Jeremy Woods, a lecturer in bioenergy at Imperial College in London, has created a chart that describes pathways you might follow if you were working to produce a biofuel. It is a mess of labels and lines, showing a range of feedstocks – from algae to eucalyptus to sugar cane – technologies and possible final products.
http://jlne.ws/MaNzgV
Miscellaneous
Top U.S. Science Official: ‘Climate Change Is Under Way. It’s Having Consequences In Real Time’
Climate Progress
One of America’s top science officials says the current onslaught of extreme weather in the U.S. is raising awareness of climate change among Americans.
http://jlne.ws/NeaQfB
Soot Pollution Standards Pose Challenge to Cities
The New York Times
In a laboratory at Rice University, a small machine hums, drawing in outside air through a tube and analyzing its soot content.
http://jlne.ws/PBtSQI
Reports
Characterizing Pivotal Sources of Methane Emissions from Unconventional Natural Gas Production (Posted June 4, 2012)
API, ANGA
http://jlne.ws/M6RzMQ
Vulnerability of US and European electricity supply to climate change (Posted June 4, 2012)
Nature Climate Change
http://jlne.ws/L3Slcb
Developing Dimension: State of the Voluntary Carbon Markets 2012 (Posted May 31, 2012)
Ecosystem Marketplace
http://jlne.ws/JQ18Bv
Tackling exposure: placing disaster risk management at the heart of national economic and fiscal policy (Posted May 22, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/JArFwf
Fossil fuel price shocks and a low carbon economy (Posted May 21, 2012)
Oxford/DECC
http://jlne.ws/JgVKG9
Using the Allowance Value from California’s Carbon Trading System: Legal Risk Factors, Impacts to Ratepayers and the Economy (Posted May 17, 2012)
Next10
http://jlne.ws/KEYcW5.
Inclusive Green Growth: The Pathways to Sustainable Development (Posted May 9, 2012)
World Bank
http://jlne.ws/IJXP8B
Meeting Canada’s 2020 Climate Change Commitments (Posted May 8, 2012)
Office of Auditor General
http://jlne.ws/K9Lxvd
