In this edition, Big Oil, a big deal, a big Washington player and the bigger role of looming energy decision-making on renewables and power, in Clinton Cites Energy in Diplomacy From Oil to Climate, Rosneft to become world’s largest oil producer, Texas landowners take a rare stand against Big Oil and Oil-and-gas group questions EPA fracking study.
Quote of the Day:
“The whole economy is still bad. Many thermal power plants have been temporarily shutting production.”
–Liu Dongna, a coal analyst with Shandong-based energy consultancy Chem99, in The Wall Street Journal’s “China’s Power-Output Growth Slows in September”
Lead Stories
NZ policy seen as barrier to joining Europe’s ETS
Radio New Zealand
New Zealand looks unlikely to follow Australia and join the world’s biggest emissions trading scheme.
http://jlne.ws/T26tDr
Climex to Hold Reverse Auction for Voluntary CO2 Offset Buyer
Bloomberg
Climex BV, the Amsterdam-based auction platform for emissions permits and offsets, will host a reverse auction of Verified Emission Reductions on Nov. 9.
http://jlne.ws/XvkH4M
China’s Power-Output Growth Slows in September
The Wall Street Journal
China’s power output grew at a slower pace in September on the back of a sluggish economy, reflecting third-quarter gross domestic product growth that was at its slowest since the first quarter of 2009.
http://jlne.ws/Wuk0uh
Energy producers caught off guard by demand slump
The Age
Electricity prices and the power sector have probably never been more in the news. And no wonder. Households have been slugged by a 50 per cent surge in power prices over the past five years. The arrival of the carbon price in the last few months has intensified the debate and added to the bill shock.
http://jlne.ws/RL44Bq
Renewables – beyond subsidies
FT blog
Why are renewables losing out? According to the International Energy Agency, renewables, excluding biomass but including hydro, currently provide just 8 per cent of global electricity supply and 3 per cent of total energy demand. By 2035 on the IEA’s main scenario those figures will rise to just 15 and 7 per cent respectively. That represents some serious growth but not a breakthrough. Hydrocarbons on all the IEA scenarios will still be providing well over 60 per cent of final energy. The figure could be higher if shale gas and tight oil developments spread from the US and if coal prices fall further.
http://jlne.ws/RYOH5v
Clinton Cites Energy in Diplomacy From Oil to Climate
Bloomberg
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton today promoted energy as a foreign-policy priority, citing Iran and the South China Sea as oil-rich expanses where diplomacy and economics converge.
http://jlne.ws/Vguw9g
Rosneft to become world’s largest oil producer
Financial Times
The chief executive of Rosneft will on Thursday finalise a deal with BP that will turn the Russian national champion into the world’s largest publicly traded crude oil producer.
http://jlne.ws/S6QmYL
Texas landowners take a rare stand against Big Oil
AP
Oil has long lived in harmony with farmland and cattle across the Texas landscape, a symbiosis nurtured by generations and built on an unspoken honor code that allowed agriculture to thrive while oil was extracted.
http://jlne.ws/Th4Wzz
Oil-and-gas group questions EPA fracking study
The Hill’s E2 Wire
An oil-and-gas industry group said the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) water testing at a Wyoming natural gas drilling site raises concerns about the agency’s national study on hydraulic fracturing.
http://jlne.ws/WGxG41
EU grid project needs feat of organization: Wynn
Reuters
A European Union strategy to expand power transmission across borders and seas requires closer coordination of operators and regulators to mobilize investors.
http://jlne.ws/S6ND1k
German power grid fees to rise 10 pct in 2013-price monitor
Reuters
Fees for Germany’s power grid will rise by about 10 percent next year, a portal that monitors prices said on Thursday, raising pressure on Chancellor Angela Merkel to stop private consumers bearing the brunt of the cost of a shift to renewable energy.
http://jlne.ws/OMx3Ep
Why David Cameron’s tariff intervention was anything but smart
Business Green
As luck would have it, at the same time as David Cameron was yesterday emulating a mid-ranking Soviet official circa 1974 and detailing how energy companies will be forced to give customers their lowest tariffs, I was on the Isle of Wight finding out precisely why Number 10′s plan is not only unworkable, but could also do immense damage to the future of the energy sector and the UK’s efforts to cut carbon emissions.
http://jlne.ws/Th9YvX
NGOs Square Off Over REDD in California
Kelli Barrett and Selene Castillo – Ecosystem Marketplace
Indigenous groups across Latin America are exploring the use of carbon finance to save their forests and provide income. Some NGOs, however, fear mechanisms like REDD will backfire – resulting in higher rates of both deforestation and poverty. The two opposing views are converging this week in California, and each side accuses the other of not playing fair.
http://jlne.ws/R2ZFXH
John Hoffman, a Force in Energy Efficiency, Dies at 62
The New York Times
John Hoffman, who helped shape an international treaty in the 1980s to protect the ozone layer and later developed the Energy Star program, a widely recognized government stamp of approval for energy-efficient products, died on Sept. 24 in Washington. He was 62.
http://jlne.ws/R7eoD7
Events
EMA 2012 Fall Meeting
**Keynote speaker is Richard Sandor
October 24 – October 26, 2012
Santa Monica, CA
http://jlne.ws/NIFCwM
Carbon
Groser says government may ban some foreign carbon credits
New Zealand Business Desk
Climate Change Minister Tim Groser has thrown a small bone to critics of the government’s weakening of the emissions trading scheme, promising a review of low-quality foreign-sourced carbon credits that slipped through the cracks of an earlier ban.
http://jlne.ws/RbRuJ8
Carbon tax helps cut emissions in Australia’s power generation
Utility Products News
The carbon tax has helped to cut emissions intensity of Australia’s power generation with the closing of coal-fired stations, their mothballing and driving down sale of electricity.
http://jlne.ws/WuqNEw
Natural Gas/Coal
Insight: U.S. taxpayers poised to subsidize Asian coal demand
Reuters
Asian economies, hungry for coal, stand to gain from a U.S. program meant to keep domestic power cheap and abundant.
http://jlne.ws/PF50bh
CSX ponders long-term coal declines
Financial Times
CSX, operator of the largest railroad network in the eastern US, is examining whether recent coal volume falls represent a permanent change in the market, after it warned investors that declines would continue into the new year.
http://jlne.ws/RL6Fv8
TransCanada Temporarily Halts Keystone Pipeline
The Wall Street Journal
TransCanada Corp. TRP.T -0.67% said Thursday it idled its Keystone pipeline for three days for repairs after detecting an undisclosed “anomaly” on the line, a significant conduit for Canadian oil into U.S. markets.
http://jlne.ws/S6OyPi
Chile GasAtacama sees over $4 bln in LNG power deal with miners
Reuters
Chilean energy firm GasAtacama sees miners paying over $4 billion for 20 years of power stemming from a liquefied natural gas (LNG) project it plans to launch in the country’s copper-rich north, CEO Rudolf Araneda told Reuters on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/R5j9uy
Australia Oil Producers See Quarterly Boost
The Wall Street Journal
Woodside Petroleum Ltd.and Santos Ltd. each reported record quarterly revenue Thursday, pushing their shares up and reassuring investors that Australia’s resources boom may have further to run.
http://jlne.ws/OMy7rS
Power
U.K. Energy Rules to Include Measures Spurring Nuclear
Bloomberg
U.K. Energy Secretary Ed Davey promised to give industry more clarity about power market reforms due next month, seeking to allay the concerns of renewable and nuclear power developers that ministers are bogged down in analysis of the problem.
http://jlne.ws/OMxvCv
Biofuels industry presses congressional leaders to maintain fuel rule
The Hill’s E2 Wire
Biofuels groups pressed congressional leadership Thursday to maintain a biofuels mandate when lawmakers consider drought-relief legislation.
http://jlne.ws/T28C1V
CleanTech
Start-Ups Shifting to Clean-Tech Services
The Wall Street Journal
Many entrepreneurs who once envisioned their fledgling clean-tech start-ups becoming the next big thing are now downsizing their dreams.
http://jlne.ws/TzxjUa
Water
KMPG: Businesses failing to tackle water risks
Business Green
None of the world’s largest 250 companies report on the water footprint of their entire supply chain, despite the fact that the majority of them have started to look at how water risks could impact their operations.
http://jlne.ws/RL4Dv0
Reports
The EU Emissions Trading System (Posted Oct. 17, 2012)
Environmental Defense Fund
http://jlne.ws/R5RSKM
Energy Water Nexus: Coordinated Federal Approach Needed to Better Manage Energy and Water Tradeoffs (Posted Oct. 17, 2012)
GAO
http://jlne.ws/T2epJe
Carbon Markets and Carbon Policy in China (Posted Oct. 15, 2012)
The Climate Institute/Climate Bridge
http://jlne.ws/T2mHma
The Carbon Emissions of Server Computing for small- to medium-sized organizations (Posted Oct. 15, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/Rp3Jk5
The Hidden Costs of Electricity: Comparing the Hidden Costs of Power Generation Fuels (Posted Sept. 19, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/PCt372
CDP Global 500 Climate Change Report (Posted Sept. 11, 2012)
Carbon Disclosure Project
Beyond the bluster: Why wind power is an effective technology (Posted Aug. 30, 2012)
IPPR
http://jlne.ws/UeZB9b
Carbon Tax Revenue and the Budget Deficit: A Win-Win Solution? (Posted Aug. 27, 2012)
MIT
http://jlne.ws/Ri3So8
The 21st Century Corporation: The Ceres Roadmap for Sustainability (Posted Aug. 21, 2012)
Ceres
http://jlne.ws/ONwe8M
EPA REGULATIONS AND ELECTRICITY (Posted Aug. 16, 2012)
GAO
http://jlne.ws/NHwlos
European Power & Renewables Deals: Quarterly M&A outlook (Posted August 15, 2012)
Pricewaterhousecoopers
http://jlne.ws/TFZjaV
Advancing Technology for America’s Transportation Future (Posted August 6, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/MA2U6I
Benchmarking Air Emissions Of the 100 Largest Electric Power Producers in the United States (Posted July 31, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/QbRr0J
Per capita CO2 emissions in China reached European level (July 18, 2012)
http://jlne.ws/NAjBQQ
The Interim Regulation of Voluntary Greenhouse Gases Emission Trading in China (Posted July 10, 2012)
The Climate Group
http://jlne.ws/Mhv62s
Measure for Management: C40 Cities (July 9, 2012)
Carbon Disclosure Project
http://jlne.ws/L9LC37
