In this edition, costly impact from current EU carbon markets as “U.K. to Pay $172 Million to Compensate for Carbon Price,” Bloomberg reports. Elsewhere, “Goldman Sachs Eyes Japan Renewable Energy Investments”.

In this edition, two pieces on carbon pricing in Australia Cuts Carbon Price Forecast for 2015 by More Than Half and a blog posting that argues RGGI Still Falls Short of Real Carbon Pricing. Elsewhere, Secretary of State John Kerry apologies in Sweden for slow U.S. climate action.

In this edition, all eyes on the global airline industry and its role in the future of carbon markets. Elsewhere in carbon coverage, Project aims to track big city carbon footprints, reports the AP, while Huffington Post blogs Oh Frack, B.C.’s Carbon Footprint Likely Greater Than Reported.

Correction: A comment in the March 13 E/E incorrectly linked RIN contracts to ISE, the International Securities Exchange. RIN contracts are traded on ICE, the IntercontintentalExchange.

In this edition, market developments in Carbon Champions Undeterred by Kyoto Dead-End, EU Envoy Says and in EU’s carbon crisis blows back on Australia. And, on the development front, Renewable Power Could Be Stored as Liquid Air, U.K. Lobby Says.

In this edition, more buzz out of the U.S. suggesting that the best Kyoto rewrite will come with ditching a multilateral agreement in favor of country plans. Australia is bristling over European market impact on its carbon tax and market policies. And, from The New York Times, A Call for Quid Pro Quo on Keystone Pipeline Approval.

JLN Environmental/Energy: European carbon market in trouble, EU Pollution Push in Disarray on Debt Crisis Distraction, EEX Trading Results in April, How Gore Got Romney-Rich With $200M After Defeat

May 7, 2013

Website – http://jlne.ws/918A1G
Newsletter Archive – http://jlne.ws/JVLLW9
Reports – http://jlne.ws/Kf5YEO
Events – http://jlne.ws/KbtfJb

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Sponsors:

CME Group – http://ads.marketswiki.com/EMNnCME
Eurex – http://ads.marketswiki.com/EMNnERX
ICE – http://ads.marketswiki.com/EMNnICE
Financial and Energy Exchange Group – http://ads.marketswiki.com/EMNnFEX

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Summary

In today’s edition, the global focus on the EU ETS and carbon policy is continuing, led by the Washington Post’s “European carbon market in trouble.” There was also a sizable merger in the nat gas space with the NY Times piece “Crestwood to Merge With Inergy to Create $7 Billion Firm” and four pieces on state renewable energy standards.

Quote of the Day:

“With a carbon price of nil, coal is by far the most attractive option. One of the purposes of the ETS was to give long-term direction to investors. With climate policy seen to be in disarray, there is no such direction.”

–Chris Davies, a U.K. member of the assembly’s environment committee in Bloomberg’s “EU Pollution Push in Disarray on Debt Crisis Distraction.”

Lead Stories
European carbon market in trouble
Anthony Faiola – Washington Post
The collapsing price of carbon in Europe is darkening the outlook for a greener future in a part of the world that was long the bright spot in the struggle against climate change.
http://jlne.ws/YA8tfJ

EU Pollution Push in Disarray on Debt Crisis Distraction
Ewa Krukowska & Alex Morale
The situation “reflects a sea-change against climate policy,” said European Green Party Co-Chair Reinhard Buetikofer, who supported the plan. The effort to limit carbon gases “is not being perceived as an opportunity by industry but rather a burden,” he said, adding that the decision “destroyed the foundation of common European climate policy.”
http://jlne.ws/YA929g

Everybody chill out a little, carbon trading will be fine
David Roberts – Grist
First off, the ETS is not a mess/broken/dying, it’s working like it’s supposed to. The goal of a cap-and-trade system is not to create a high price on carbon, or a low price on carbon, or any particular price on carbon. It is to reduce carbon emissions along a pathway specified by a series of targets (17 percent by 2020, etc.). The EU is on that pathway. Emissions are expected to come in under the cap, which means the cap-and-trade program is working. http://jlne.ws/10k3NWo
**JK – Some interesting comments from Dave Roberts. But people love to blame the markets.

German climate talks: ‘Waiting not an option,’ says Merkel
Deutsche Welle
Merkel also called for a complete restructuring of economic measures that were designed as an incentive for companies to take upon climate-friendly changes themselves. The price of carbon trading certificates has fallen drastically in recent years, and an attempt to limit the amount of certificates in an effort to stimulate prices failed last month in the European Parliament.
http://jlne.ws/10k27MK

EEX Trading Results in April
Press Release
In April 2013, the total volume traded in power derivatives on the European Energy Exchange (EEX) amounted to 90.3 TWh which is a year-on-year increase of 85 percent compared to April 2012 (48.7 TWh). The Power Derivatives Market volume contained 38.4 TWh from OTC clearing.
http://jlne.ws/10kapEf

Crestwood to Merge With Inergy to Create $7 Billion Firm
By MICHAEL J. DE LA MERCED – NY Times
As the boom in drilling continues to foster deal-making, Crestwood Midstream Partners L.P. agreed to buy control of a fellow gas pipeline operator, Inergy L.P., on Monday to form a company with a combined enterprise value of about $7 billion.
http://jlne.ws/10k5YJO

Oil drilling technology leaps while clean energy lags
Brennan Linsley – The Associated Press
Technology created an energy revolution over the past decade — just not the one we expected.
By now, cars were supposed to be running on fuel made from plant waste or algae — or powered by hydrogen batteries that burned nothing at all. Electricity would be generated with solar panels and wind turbines. When the sun didn’t shine or the wind didn’t blow, power would flow out of batteries the size of tractor-trailers.
http://jlne.ws/YAa9G2

EU to Slap Tariffs on Chinese Solar Panels
MATTHEW DALTON – Wall Street Journal
BRUSSELS—The European Union is poised to slap import duties on solar-panel equipment made in China, sparking one of the largest trade battles of recent decades.
The duties are intended to protect European solar companies reeling from a flood of imported Chinese solar panels. Dozens of European manufacturers have filed for bankruptcy as solar-panel prices have plummeted; the industry says unfairly priced imports from China are the cause.
http://jlne.ws/10hZdgh
**JK – EU stands up to Chinese-style capitalism.

How Gore Got Romney-Rich With $200M After Defeat
By Ken Wells and Ari Levy – Bloomberg
In 1999, Al Gore, then U.S. vice president and a Democratic candidate for president, sold $6,000 worth of cows. http://jlne.ws/YAc4uf
**JK – How Al Gore went from selling cows for $6,000 to multi-millionaire. Good read.

What To Watch For At The 2013 National Mitigation & Ecosystem Banking Conference
Jemma Penelope – EcoSystem Marketplace
NEW ORLEANS – The National Mitigation & Ecosystem Banking Conference is the country’s biggest gathering of market movers in the wetland & stream mitigation and species & habitat banking worlds. It kicks off here on Tuesday and runs through Friday, and we’ll be covering the conference all week here at Ecosystem Marketplace, on our blog, and via Twitter, so be sure to check back with us often.
Here’s a quick look at the top five issues that we expect to be following:
http://jlne.ws/15sU5J7

Bill in Legislature would cut loopholes out of Nevada’s renewable energy standards
Andrew Doughman – Las Vegas Sun
U.S. Sen. Harry Reid might get his way with Nevada’s renewable energy industry.
In February, he called for the state Legislature to strip “loopholes” out of Nevada’s Renewable Portfolio Standard, which mandates that 25 percent of Nevada’s energy will come from renewable sources by 2025.
http://jlne.ws/10kcVup
**JK – And four renewable energy standard stories from Nevada, Ohio, Connecticut and Colorado

Energy policy debate looms; Ohio standards for renewable energy may be overhauled
Andrew J.Tobias – Dayton Newspapers
Groups say changes could undermine growth in jobs and investment in green energy, including this solar array at Cedarville University.
http://jlne.ws/11cIHzF

Senate passes renewable energy changes
Brad Kane – Hartford Business Journal
Legislation to change Connecticut’s definition of renewable power to include large-scale hydro-generated electricity from Canada appears headed for approval, although the change will have less of an impact in keeping electricity bills in check than backers had hoped.
http://jlne.ws/11cJ9Op

Fate of oil bills rests with Guv
Peter Marcus -The Colorado Statesman
Another energy bill that dominated the conversation this week was Senate Bill 252, which would raise the state’s rural renewable energy standard to 20 percent by 2020.
The original bill had sought a standard of 25 percent. But the House amended the legislation to only raise the standard to 20 percent from its current 10 percent.
http://jlne.ws/11cKxAD
**Scroll down for this part of the story.
Events

Navigating Our Water Future: A Course for Industry
Ecolab Chairman Doug Baker
Chicago
May 16
http://jlne.ws/16kYUDB

World Environmental & Water Resources Congress
Cincinnati, Ohio
May 19-23
http://jlne.ws/ZnwHsU

New York Energy Week
New York, NY
June 24 -28
http://jlne.ws/ZB89bL

Carbon
Australian companies to benefit from carbon market-focused international alliance
Press release
Global emissions trading organisation, the International Emissions Trading Association (IETA) and Australia’s leading industry body for carbon market professionals, the Carbon Market Institute (CMI), are excited to announce a strategic alliance between the two membership-based organisations.
http://jlne.ws/YA9Fjc

EIA Urges Japan not to use Bogus Carbon Offsets from Destruction of HFC-23
Published on May 6, 2013 at 8:02 AM
Environmental Investigation Agency, On April 19, 2013, the Japanese Cabinet approved the revision of its fluorocarbon regulations that will fundamentally change the way high global warming fluorocarbons are produced, used and disposed in Japan.
http://jlne.ws/YAb7Ch

Governments And Oil Firms Aren’t Acting Like Climate Change Is A Problem
The Economist
If governments were determined to implement their climate policies, a lot of that carbon would have to be left in the ground, says Carbon Tracker, a non-profit organisation, and the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change, part of the London School of Economics. Their analysis starts by estimating the amount of carbon dioxide that could be put into the atmosphere if global temperatures are not to rise by more than 2°C, the most that climate scientists deem prudent. The maximum, says the report, is about 1,000 gigatons (GTCO2) between now and 2050. The report calls this the world’s “carbon budget”.
http://jlne.ws/YAbuMX

New crowdfunding site for carbon offsets forges unique path
Kristine A. Wong
Based on the belief that storytelling is the most effective way to capture hearts and minds, a new crowdfunding site for carbon offsets aims to use its platform to go beyond engaging concerned individuals.
CarbonStory wants to get companies on board to launch employee engagement programs — and perhaps even the customers of company brands — through offsetting projects of their choice within a gamification framework.
http://jlne.ws/10k88sI

Natural Gas/Coal/Alternative Fuels
Ottawa strikes back at Al Gore’s remarks on oil sands as ‘open sewer’
SEAN SILCOFF -The Globe and Mail
Natural Resources Minister Joe Oliver will make the Harper government’s case for the Alberta oil sands in Europe this week. But before he can begin, he finds himself contending with inconveniently timed comments from Al Gore about Canada’s climate-change record.
Mr. Oliver is none too happy about it.
http://jlne.ws/10k2tTy

U.S. Wind Set to Rebound as Lobby Pursues Tax Credit
Christopher Martin – -Bloomberg
The U.S. wind-power industry is expecting a tough battle in Congress as it seeks another extension of a federal tax credit that received a one-year renewal at the last minute in January.
“Keeping the production tax credit is our top priority,” Tom Kiernan, incoming chief executive officer of the American Wind Energy Association, said at the trade group’s annual conference today in Chicago. “The political climate in Washington is getting tougher.”
http://jlne.ws/10k8L5B

Foresight Issues $93.5 Million Solar Bond as U.K. Deals Rise
Marc Roca – Bloomberg
Foresight Group LLP, a British asset manager, issued a 60 million-pound ($93.5 million) bond to refinance U.K. solar plants and support plans to invest 250 million pounds within a year.
http://jlne.ws/10k9FPw

Power

E.ON SE : German Regulator Sees No Urgency for New Power Market Design
Hendrik Varnholt
BONN–Germany’s network regulator doesn’t see an immediate need to redesign the power generation market even as the market is plagued by historically low wholesale electricity prices, overcapacity and shrinking margins, partly due to competition from renewables.
http://jlne.ws/10k4kb7

India Court Approves Protest-Hit Nuclear Plant – WSJ.com
India’s Supreme Court has cleared for operation a Russia-backed nuclear power plant that has been the subject of widespread protests by locals in the southern state of Tamil Nadu.
http://jlne.ws/10k5JOI

CleanTech
Fusion Scientists See Progress as Obama Shows No Ardor
Bloomberg Markets Magazine
Chris Bishop paces as he beams the world’s biggest laser at a peppercorn-sized fuel pellet, a crucial step toward fusing hydrogen atoms to replicate the explosive power of the sun, stars and thermonuclear weapons.
http://jlne.ws/ZJj3zJ
Reports
Extreme Weather and Climate Change in the American Mind April 2013 (Posted May 1, 2013)
Yale Project on Climate Change
http://jlne.ws/ZWPD1Z

Clearing the Air: Reducing Upstream Greenhouse Gas Emissions from U.S. Natural Gas Systems (Posted April 8, 2013)
World Resources Institute
http://jlne.ws/10M9Um3

The State of Green Business 2013 (Posted February 12, 2013)
GreenBiz.com
http://jlne.ws/12K3WYL

Can the US Get There from Here? (Posted February 6, 2013)
WRI
http://jlne.ws/X5PgyQ

The Billion Euro Aviation Bonanza – Aviation’s Participation in the EU ETS (Posted January 22, 2013)
http://jlne.ws/WHQez7

View all reports >

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In this edition, coverage from the UN talks as a UN agency releases a report on Arctic ice loss. From the Carbon section, Bloomberg reports EU Factories Used Fewer Carbon Offsets Than Expected in 2012 and Germany’s EON tops Arcelor as Biggest UN Carbon-Offset User in 2012.

In this edition, The Economist weighs in on the ETS in this month’s magazine. Yale is out with a new report on the how the population links extreme weather and climate change. From the water space, the New York Times reports on
Safe Storage of Water? Go Underground.

In this issue, Reuters and Bloomberg cover the decline in European power trading. The Hill reports Ex-climate czar Browner predicts Obama will regulate existing power plants.The Atlantic’s May issue asks: What If We Never Run Out of Oil? The Financial Times says More US cities join push to sell off fossil fuel investments.

In this edition, a look at carbon policy inaction impact on utilities use of coal and power prices. A New York Times political feature says Obama’s second term is off to a slow start for the environment. And, U.S. House Plans Hearings on Federal Ethanol Mandate This Year.