BBC (May 24)
“Climate protesters stormed Shell’s annual shareholder meeting in London, with security having to step in to protect board members.” The protestors, activists and other “campaign groups are looking to ramp up the pressure on Shell and other energy companies to bring forward those targets to absolute carbon emissions cuts by 2030 and focus more resources on renewables.” The proposed targets were, however, “rejected in a vote by shareholders at the meeting.”
Tags: 2030, Activists, Annual meeting, Board members, Carbon emissions, Climate, Energy, London, Pressure, Protect, Protesters, Rejected, Renewables, Resources, Security, Shell, Targets, Vote
Washington Post (May 11)
The EPA is proposing “the tightest limits ever on power plants’ planet-warming pollution” in order “to meet President Biden’s pledge to halve U.S. emissions by 2030 compared with 2005 levels.” The proposal “would encourage gas- and coal-fired plants nationwide to meet tighter emission-reductions standards by either closing or adopting technology to run cleaner, accelerating one of the fastest transitions underway in energy.”
Tags: Biden, Cleaner, Coal-fired plants, Emission reductions, Emissions, Energy, EPA, Gas, Pledge, Pollution, Technology, Transitions, U.S.
New York Times (January 8)
“It is not just fusion. The advance of wind and solar and battery technology remains a near miracle. The possibilities of advanced geothermal and hydrogen are thrilling. Smaller, modular nuclear reactors could make new miracles possible…. Clean, abundant energy is the foundation on which a more equal, just and humane world can be built.”
Tags: Abundant, Advance, Advanced, Battery technology, Clean, Energy, Fusion, Geothermal, Hydrogen, Just, Miracles, Nuclear, Possible, Solar, Thrilling, Wind
Washington Post (September 29)
“Climate change is rapidly fueling super hurricanes. An unprecedented number of storms rated Category 4 or stronger have lashed the U.S. shoreline in recent years.” Factors include “the warming waters…that give hurricanes more energy to release through crushing winds and pounding waves.” Moreover, climate change may be slowing the movement of storms, giving them “a greater opportunity to strengthen and destroy as long as day-to-day conditions remain ripe.”
Tags: Category 4, Climate change, Energy, Factors, Fueling, Hurricanes, Shoreline, Storms, Super hurricanes, U.S., Unprecedented, Warming, Waters, Waves, Winds
Forbes (August 24)
“Europe’s worst drought and heatwave in half a millennium is also a disaster in the realm of energy.” Though unspeakable suffering has followed in its wake, “it is the drought, especially the drying of European rivers, which should worry everyone the most…. Rivers are Europe’s economic and transportation backbone, and their drying will drive up energy and commodity prices” and stifle logistics and energy production. “Rivers form an invisible but vital infrastructure to every part of the European economy, and energy is no exception.”
Tags: Backbone, Commodity prices, Disaster, Drought, Drying, Energy, Europe, Heatwave, Logistics, Millennium, Rivers, Suffering, Transportation, Worst
Bloomberg (May 31)
“Power-hungry, fossil-fuel dependent Japan has successfully tested a system that could provide a constant, steady form of renewable energy, regardless of the wind or the sun.” The Kairyu prototype is designed to harness the Kuroshio current. “The advantage of ocean currents is their stability. They flow with little fluctuation in speed and direction, giving them a capacity factor…of 50-70%, compared with around 29% for onshore wind and 15% for solar.”
Tags: Capacity factor, Dependent, Energy, Fossil fuel, Japan, Kairyu, Kuroshio current, Ocean, Power-hungry, Prototype, Renewable, Solar, Steady, Tested, Wind
New York Times (May 11)
The weak yen, coupled with soaring food and energy costs, “are posing yet another challenge for the world’s third-largest economy as Japan trails other major nations in emerging from the economic blow of the pandemic. The rise in prices has spooked Japanese consumers used to decades of stability, and the weak yen is starting to look as if it will depress demand at home more than stimulate it abroad.”
Tags: Challenge, Consumers, Costs, Economy, Energy, Food, Japan, Pandemic, Prices, Soaring, Spooked, Stability, Weak yen
CNN (April 25)
“Oil prices fell sharply Monday as lockdowns in China stoked concerns that the country’s zero-Covid strategy will sap energy demand in the world’s second-largest economy.” The concerns over China “could create one positive for consumers: They may ease pressure on prices at the pump.” On Monday, “US oil dropped as much as 6.7% to a two-week low of $95.28 a barrel.”
Tags: China, Concerns, Consumers, Demand, Ease, Energy, Lockdowns, Oil prices, Positive, Prices, Pump, Zero COVID
New York Times (March 9)
“A week after a chorus of Western executives from Exxon Mobil, BP, Shell and other companies… pledged to pull their companies out of Russian ventures, it appears the turbulence for Russia’s energy industry has only begun.” The industry now looks poised to undergo a “wrenching reworking…. because Russian oil and gas have suddenly become toxic to many buyers.”
Tags: BP, Energy, Exxon Mobil, Gas, Oil, Pledged, Reworking, Russia, Shell, Toxic, Turbulence, Ventures, Western, Wrenching
Wall Street Journal (March 7)
“Oil and gas revenue makes up about half of the Kremlin’s budget and is critical to financing Vladimir Putin’s bloody war on Ukraine.” The trouble is “sanctions on Russian energy could also harm the world economy and especially Europe,” which depends on Russia for a quarter of its oil and 40% of its natural gas. “Unless the West is willing to grasp this nettle, the world will continue to finance the Putin war machine.”
Tags: Budget, Critical, Economy, Energy, Europe, Financing, Kremlin, Natural gas, Oil, Putin, Revenue, Sanctions, Ukraine, War
