New York Times (June 30)
China now dominates “even clean energy industries the United States had once led. In 2008 the United States produced nearly half of the world’s polysilicon, a crucial material for solar panels. Today, China produces more than 90 percent. China’s auto industry is now widely seen as the most innovative in the world, besting the Japanese, the Germans and the Americans.”
Tags: Auto industry, China, Clean energy, Dominates, Germany, Innovative, Japan, Polysilicon, Solar panels, U.S.
New York Times (May 20)
The Chinese century “may already have dawned, and when historians look back they may very well pinpoint the early months of President Trump’s second term as the watershed moment when China pulled away and left the United States behind.” China “already leads global production in multiple industries — steel, aluminum, shipbuilding, batteries, solar power, electric vehicles, wind turbines, drones, 5G equipment, consumer electronics, active pharmaceutical ingredients and bullet trains.” China is “laser-focused on winning the future.” In contrast, “Mr. Trump is taking a wrecking ball to the pillars of American power and innovation. His tariffs are endangering U.S. companies’ access to global markets and supply chains. He is slashing public research funding and gutting our universities, pushing talented researchers to consider leaving for other countries. He wants to roll back programs for technologies like clean energy and semiconductor manufacturing and is wiping out American soft power in large swaths of the globe.”
Tags: 5G, Aluminum, Batteries, Bullet trains, Chinese century, Clean energy, Consumer electronics, Drones, Electric vehicles, Endangering, Global markets, Innovation, Laser-focused, Manufacturing, Pharmaceutical ingredients, Research, Semiconductor, Shipbuilding, Solar power, Steel, Supply chains, Tariffs, Trump, Wind turbines, Wrecking
CNBC (October 28)
In what may prove a seminal for Big Oil, activist Dan Loeb is “calling for the breakup of Royal Dutch Shell into a legacy oil and gas company and separate business for renewable energy.” The activists battle with Shell lies “at the heart of how an energy giant of the future shapes its business model during the energy transition and balances higher return fossil fuel projects with clean energy investment.”
Tags: Activist, Big oil, Breakup, Business model, Clean energy, Dan Loeb, Fossil fuel, Gas, Legacy, Oil, Renewable energy, Royal Dutch Shell, Transition
Houston Chronicle (July 15)
“The $3.5 trillion budget proposed by top Democrats represents the biggest move yet by President Joe Biden to attack climate change, including provisions such as clean energy standards for power grids, fees on methane emissions from oil and gas drilling, and increased incentives for electric cars.” If enacted, the legislation, “would set in motion a historic shift from fossil fuels and deliver a blow to the oil and gas producing regions across Texas, which have powered the nation’s economy for a century.”
Tags: $3.5 trillion, Biden, Clean energy, Climate change, Democrats, Drilling, Emissions, EVs, Fees, Fossil fuels, Gas, Historic, Methane, Oil, Power grids, Shift, Texas
Washington Post (December 1)
“Experts have known for years what the United States must do: place a strong and steadily rising price on carbon dioxide emissions, invest heavily in clean-energy research and development, and make climate a top priority in international diplomacy. President Trump is instead denying the problem.”
Tags: Clean energy, Climate, CO2, Denying, Diplomacy, Emissions, Experts, Invest, Price, Priority, Trump, U.S.
The Economist (July 6)
A profound “energy transition is under way: from fossil fuels to clean energy. Of all the oil majors, Shell’s attempts to navigate it…are the most intriguing.” With a $52 billion acquisition of BG Group, Shell became “the biggest listed gas producer” while its oil reserves have dropped “lower than those of its Western peers…. Shell is bolder than its rivals in forecasting huge global demand for clean power over the next 30 years. And it is the only firm to link its executive’s pay to progress in reducing emissions across its operations.”
Tags: BG Group, Clean energy, Clean power, Energy, Executive pay, Fossil fuels, Gas, Oil majors, Reserves, Shell, Transition
LA Times (December 4)
China “has been quick to size up the environmental implications of a Trump victory, and officials in Beijing are contriving to cast China in a fresh role, to project the country as a—perhaps the—global leader on climate change.” The U.S. looks “poised to become the new climate-action outcast.” In contrast, “China is betting that clean energy and green technology will be what powers the global economy of the 21st century.”
Tags: Beijing, China, Clean energy, Climate change, Economy, Environment, Global leader, Green technology, Outcast, Trump, U.S.
Bloomberg (October 10)
“Clean coal is far from real…. In the near future, carbon capture promises to be of little help in the fight against climate change—especially compared with natural gas, the increasing supply of renewable power, and the clean energy that nuclear plants produce.”
Tags: Carbon capture, Clean coal, Clean energy, Climate change, Natural gas, Nuclear, Renewable power
USA Today (August 10)
Much of the U.S. is experiencing another summer heat wave. It should be a reminder. “Too often, climate change is discussed as something to be worried about far off into the future… Both the latest global data and the USA’s sweltering summer suggest, however, that the future might be now.” The newspaper believes “a prudent society would begin moving aggressively to reduce carbon emissions and to develop cleaner energy sources.”
