The world's best thinkers on energy and climate
The Trump administration on Monday, April 2, took steps to ease pollution and efficiency rules for new passenger cars and trucks, giving automakers a reprieve from more stringent Obama-era standards. But in the process, the move could yield global leadership in the auto sector to the Chinese. … [Read more...]
With President Trump’s announcement this week to slap a 30 percent tariff on imported solar cells and modules, the solar industry once again finds itself in the firing line, targeted by the political whims of elected officials. … [Read more...]
On Monday, FERC issued its long-awaited final order on the grid resilience docket. In a clear repudiation of Secretary Perry, who issued the original Notice of Proposed Rulemaking, FERC closed the docket on the DOE NOPR, opting to not take any action. … [Read more...]
China has indicated it is set to launch a crude oil futures contract in yuan, which could be a significant step towards the de-dollarization of the global economy. It is a sign of China’s growing confidence – and the U.S.’s declining influence, writes Friedbert Pflüger, Director of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security (EUCERS). … [Read more...]
On Friday, a well-respected energy industry observer posed an important question on Twitter. … [Read more...]
In their efforts to discredit renewable energy and support continued fossil fuel burning, many anti-environmentalists have circulated a dual image purporting to compare a lithium mine with an oilsands operation. It illustrates the level of dishonesty to which some will stoop to keep us on our current polluting, climate-disrupting path (although in some cases it could be ignorance). … [Read more...]
President Donald Trump has agreed to meet representatives of the U.S. oil refining industry and oil-supporting lawmakers to discuss the Renewable Fuel Standard Program—a meeting that could set the stage for negotiations over the U.S. biofuels policy that has been pitting the oil refining industry against the Midwest farm lobby. … [Read more...]
On November 10th this year, the German energy regulator BNetzA published its annual monitoring report about the current state of the energy sector in Germany (BNetzA 2017). The recent report collected and analyzed data from 2016. … [Read more...]
When the U.S. Dept. of Energy’s long-awaited staff report on grid reliability came out in August, a lot of observers didn’t know what to make of it. … [Read more...]
If his goal was to stimulate a conversation with a rapid approach to concluding action, Energy Secretary Rick Perry has scored a victory with his recently proposed Grid Resiliency Pricing Rule. … [Read more...]
The European Commission’s “Clean Energy for All Europeans” package of legislation puts “Efficiency First.” Generally praised by energy efficiency advocates, this principle evokes fear in the renewable energy sector. Does Efficiency First mean that renewable energy takes the back seat? Will Efficiency First slow down the remarkable expansion of renewable energy in recent years? … [Read more...]
Secretary of Energy Rick Perry – whose agenda as governor of Texas was squarely focused on states’ rights and free markets – is now pushing for a federal plan that could disrupt organized electric markets. Perry’s proposal to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) aims to prop up uneconomic coal at the expense of Americans’ health and wallets. … [Read more...]
Proposal to subsidize coal and nuclear reverses 20 years of regulatory restructuring. The EPA’s recent moves to euthanize the Clean Power Plan (CPP) have generated a lot of news. However, ever since last November’s election many who work in the energy and climate arena have been mollified by the belief that even without the CPP, or membership in the Paris accords, carbon emissions in the US power sector would continue to decline. … [Read more...]
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