Energy News Beat

BOSTON — After more than three years of considering the future of the natural gas industry in Massachusetts and what role it can play in the state’s efforts to significantly reduce its greenhouse gas emissions over the next three decades, the Department of Public Utilities issued an order Wednesday meant to signal to gas utilities that it won’t be business as usual going forward.

With Order 20-80, DPU aims to “guide the evolution of the natural gas distribution industry to clean energy” with an eye toward the state’s goal of getting to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050 while still protecting ratepayers and ensuring energy reliability. It is the culmination of a process that got underway in October 2020 and included input from dozens of “institutional and individual stakeholders.”

The policy aims to discourage gas system expansions by requiring gas distribution companies to evaluate whether there are non-gas alternatives — things like electrification, networked geothermal or targeted energy efficiency — available that would make additional gas infrastructure investment unnecessary. In order for a gas utility to receive full cost recovery for a gas system expansion, it will “bear the burden of demonstrating that [non-gas alternatives] were adequately considered and found to be non-viable or cost prohibitive,” DPU said in the order.

“It is fair to say that a different lens will be applied to gas infrastructure investments going forward. The Department will be examining more closely whether such additional investments are in the public interest, given the now-codified commitment toward achieving Commonwealth’s target of achieving net-zero GHG emissions by 2050 and the urgent need to address climate change,” the order says. “In this ‘beyond gas’ future, we will be exploring and implementing policies that are geared toward minimizing additional investment in pipeline and distribution mains and achieving decarbonization in the residential, commercial, and industrial sectors.”

DPU is also going to require distribution companies to file Climate Compliance Plans every five years (starting in 2025) to outline their plans for transitioning to clean energy and to ensure their compliance with the state’s emissions limits, and the agency also will no longer allow gas distribution companies to recover costs for the promotion of natural gas use.

“As Massachusetts moves towards net zero emissions by 2050, the DPU must develop a regulatory structure for the gas sector befitting that requirement,” DPU Chair James Van Nostrand said. “We are pleased to unveil a forward-thinking framework that charts a path for moving toward clean energy and enhancing the state’s ability to achieve its climate goals while ensuring a fair, equitable, and orderly process.”

The home construction industry and others, including former Gov. Charlie Baker, have cautioned for years that restricting natural gas could stall housing production — one of Gov. Maura Healey’s main priorities — and add unnecessary expenses for residents.

DPU said its Wednesday order shouldn’t have major impacts on housing affordability, but conceded that it could make it slightly harder for customers to install natural gas furnaces in new housing. But, the department said, that’s the direction Massachusetts needs to go if it is going to achieve its greenhouse gas reduction targets.

In general, the order that DPU issued Wednesday does not directly address affordability. Instead, the department said it plans to launch another proceeding by the end of this year focused specifically on affordability and “energy burden,” or the amount of a household’s income that is spent on home energy bills.

“As in the case of the transition to clean energy in the electricity sector, the decarbonization of the natural gas industry may result in higher costs being imposed on ratepayers. Given the urgency of addressing the climate crisis, however, we are reluctant to slow the pace at which the transition must occur due to concerns about affordability for low- and moderate-income utility customers,” DPU said in the order. “Rather, the Department will address these issues in a separate proceeding, to be commenced later this year, dedicated toward examining innovative solutions to address the energy burden and affordability, such as capping energy bills by percentage of income or offering varying levels of low-income discounts, that have been implemented in other jurisdictions.”

The department said it is confident that it can develop a solution to address both decarbonization and affordability, but foreshadowed that getting there “likely will require a change in our statutory authority.”

Last year, the final report from the Commission on Clean Heat recommended that Massachusetts develop and implement a “clean heat standard” that could incentivize cleaner heating technology and promote the electrification of building stock, encourage joint natural gas and electric system planning, and reorganize existing energy efficiency and clean energy transition programs to be more user-friendly for residents, businesses and contractors, among other proposals.

The residential and commercial building sector-specific sublimits established in keeping with the state’s 2021 climate law require a 28% reduction in emissions by 2025 and a 47% reduction by 2030, all compared to the baseline of 1990 emissions. As of 2020, the commission said, emissions for the residential and commercial buildings sector were 18% below 1990 levels.

Source: Atholdailynews.com

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Energy News Beat
South America’s offshore oil boom is set to make the region a major play in global oil markets, challenging OPEC’s dominance.
The combined efforts of Guyana and Brazil alone are expected to add nearly three million barrels per day of oil production by the end of the decade.
Brazil aims to boost its oil production to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029 while Guyana is expected to be lifting at least 1.2 million barrels by 2027.

In Guyana’s territorial waters, after Exxon’s swathe of world-class petroleum discoveries, gigantic ships called floating production storage and offloading (FPSO) vessels are sucking crude oil from reservoirs up to four miles below the Earth’s surface. Since then, it has been estimated the former British colony of just over 800,000 possesses at least 11 billion barrels of recoverable oil resources. These discoveries not only garnered the attention of energy supermajors, notably Exxon, Chevron, and TotalEnergies but heralded a new oil era for South America. Those developments coupled with Brazil’s push to become the world’s fourth-largest producer see South America once again on the cusp of becoming a leading oil-producing region with the potential to challenge OPEC’s dominance.

After the spectacular two-decade-long implosion of Venezuela’s hydrocarbon sector, it is Guyana’s massive oil boom, which only keeps getting bigger, that is garnering considerable attention from big oil and will propel South America’s oil production higher. In a mere five years, Guyana went from first discovery to first oil. This is an incredibly short timespan that is unprecedented in a global energy sector where it can take a decade or longer to develop billion-dollar world-class oil discoveries and bring them to production. Guyana is now a major regional petroleum producer, pumping an average 350,000 barrels per day at the end of September 2023, and described by industry analysts as the world’s most exciting frontier oil play.

The 6.6-million-acre Stabroek Block, where Exxon has made more than 30 discoveries since 2015 which are estimated to contain 11 billion barrels, is pivotal to tiny Guyana’s mega-oil boom. Exxon, Hess, and CNOOC make up the consortium controlling the block holding 45%, 30%, and 25% working interests respectively. The consortium is investing heavily to develop world-class oilfields across the acreage. So far, the partners have approved the development of five projects and are evaluating a sixth project, the nearly $13 billion offshore Whiptail development, with the final investment decision (FID) expected during the first quarter of 2024. As each of those operations is commissioned and reaches capacity, Guyana’s oil production will grow at a solid clip. In October 2023, U.S. supermajor Chevron announced plans to acquire Hess in a $53 billion all-stock deal. In the announcement, Chevron cited the Stabroek Block as a key reason for the deal describing it as an “extraordinary asset with industry-leading cash margins and low carbon intensity that is expected to deliver production growth into the next decade.”

Industry analysts estimate Guyana will be lifting at least 1.2 million barrels by 2027, which based on 2022 production data will rank the tiny South American country as the world’s 16th largest producer, ahead of OPEC member Algeria. It is increasingly apparent that Guyana’s oil output could exceed that number with the FPSOs Exxon is installing capable of producing greater than nameplate capacity as various operational efficiencies are implemented. Those developments have sparked speculation Guyana’s expanding oil production, which analysts expect to peak during 2035 at around two million barrels per day, will diminish OPEC’s ability to control global oil prices.

Brazil, which is Latin America’s largest oil producer and economy, is on track to significantly expand production by the end of the decade at a time when many OPEC countries are facing potential declines. The regional giant was once a marginal oil producer, but output skyrocketed after a series of world-class oil discoveries in the offshore pre-salt layer were made nearly two decades ago in what is now the prolific Santos Basin. The first supergiant discovery was the mammoth Tupi oilfield in the Santos Basin. According to data from the National Agency for Petroleum, Natural Gas and Biofuels (ANP – Portuguese initials), Tupi is pumping 497,000 barrels daily making Brazil’s largest oilfield responsible for 16% of total production. Meanwhile, the prolific Santo Basin, where three out of five of Brazil’s top-producing oilfields including Tupi are located, accounts for 28% of the country’s petroleum output.

Due to the extent of those world-class discoveries and their rapid development, with foreign energy investment inflows surging since 2008, Brazil is now Latin America’s largest oil producer along with being the region’s most powerful economy. The federal government in Brasilia plans to rapidly expand oil production to 5.4 million barrels per day by 2029. If that lofty target is achieved, Brazil will become the world’s fourth largest oil producer after Canada and before Russia, based on 2022 global production data.

There is considerable speculation among analysts that Brasilia’s ambitious target may be unattainable. Data from the ANP shows September 2023 production hit a record 3.67 million barrels per day, while overall hydrocarbon output, including natural gas, hit an all-time high of 4.67 million barrels of oil equivalent per day. For petroleum output to reach 5.4 million barrels daily, Brazil’s production must grow by 47% or 1.73 million barrels over the next six years.

To achieve such an ambitious target Brazil’s government, in the capital Brasilia, launched the Potencializa Exploration and Production program. This forms a key plank in Brazil’s Ministry of Mines and Energy’s strategy to make the country the world’s fourth-largest oil producer by encouraging investment in frontier, mature, and marginal oil basins. This initiative will attract further domestic and foreign energy investment with Brasilia’s 2031 Energy Expansion Plan (PDE – Portuguese initials) forecasting a total investment of $428 million to $474 million for oil and gas exploration and production.

Brazil’s national oil company Petrobras, in its Strategic Plan 2023 – 2027, committed to investing $78 billion over that period, with 83% budgeted for upstream operations which will see nearly $65 billion spent on exploration and production activities. The national oil company plans to spend 67% of its upstream budget on pre-salt assets. Those operations are believed to offer the greatest potential to boost output because of low lifting costs and the high-grade and medium-grade sweet oil they produce, which is popular among refiners, especially in Asia. By the end of 2027, Petrobras anticipates that pre-salt assets will be responsible for 78% of oil production.

As part of that strategic plan, Petrobras will drill 42 exploration wells with 24 planned for Brazil’s Southeast Basins, another 16 in the Equatorial Margin, and 2 for offshore Colombia. Brazil’s national oil company will also deploy 16 FPSOs, between 2023 and 2027, with 11 destined for the Santos Basin and the remainder for the Campos Basin.

Importantly, six of the 11 production units bound for the Santos Basin will be deployed to the Búzios field, which as the world’s largest deepwater oilfield and responsible for 8.7% of Brazil’s production is a key focus of Petrobras’ development efforts. By 2027, Petrobras estimates that operated production from the Santos and Campos Basins will reach 4.4 million barrels daily. Petrobras’ strategic plan along with growing foreign energy investment will help to revitalize exploration and production in frontier as well as mature offshore basins to achieve Brasilia’s 2029 production target of 5.4 million barrels daily.

By the end of the decade, it is estimated that Guyana and Brazil combined will add nearly three million barrels per day of oil production, significantly boosting South America’s oil output. This once again will make the continent a leading global oil producer which is attracting considerable attention from big oil. Regional production will grow further because of Washington’s decision to ease sanctions against Venezuela and there is also rising output from Argentina’s massive unconventional hydrocarbon boom, where production hit an all-time high for March 2023. Those developments will challenge OPEC’s dominant role as a global price maker while bolstering nearby supply to U.S. refineries further diminishing the need for petroleum imports from OPEC. That will reduce Washington’s exposure to geopolitical risks in the Middle East and reliance upon Saudi Arabia, where Riyadh has taken a less cooperative approach to U.S. energy needs.

Source: Oilprice.com

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It has become all too common in the media, especially every time another United Nations climate conference like COP28 takes place, to blame every problem on climate change. The media and their go-to climate pundits reach far and wide to connect whatever tragic event is trending in the news to the modest warming of the past hundred or so years, and they do it no matter how tenuous the connection.

Some claims immediately stand out as ridiculous to even the casual observer, like the claim that the oceans are boiling, which is so stupid only someone who has blind trust in favored authorities bordering on pathological would believe it.

Other claims have the appearance of plausibility, at least at first glance, because the logic is relatively straightforward. Even then, existing data often contradicts the climate attribution. Taking a hypothesis, testing it, and then revising it based on the results used to be a thing called the “scientific method,” but apparently many in the media find that too boring and choose to spread unverified claims instead.

One of the common claims made by climate hucksters recently is that climate change is increasingly harming human health.

On the surface this might sound true. One of the examples often cited is that an increase in pollen will torment allergy sufferers. It is true that more plants due to carbon dioxide fertilization and longer stretches of plant-friendly weather certainly results in more pollen from some species. However, alarmism regarding this claim misses the broader point; better growing conditions means a lusher planet that better sustains human and animal life. Allergies are a misery, true, but they are manageable. Starvation is not so easily managed.

Voice of America (VOA) posted an article that pushes several other common claims about the supposed threat that climate change poses to human health, including extreme heat, air pollution, infectious diseases, and mental-health issues.

VOA reports that the World Health Organization (WHO) has declared climate change the “single biggest health threat facing humanity.”

The first category highlighted is extreme heat.

Again, on the surface, this sounds possible. VOA writes that this year is “expected to be the hottest on record,” and cites a study that claims by 2050 five times more people will die of heat each year if 2°C warming occurs.

However, some of the data used to make the “hottest month/year” claim is suspect, due in part to the urban heat island effect, and a variety of natural factors, like increased water vapor from a massive volcanic eruption, the onset of a powerful El Niño, and increased solar activity.

Concerning the health impact of heat, the clear evidence and data show that cold temperatures kill far more people than hot temperatures and, as a result, overall deaths related to non-optimum temperatures have declined significantly.

Air pollution is next; the WHO asserts that outdoor air pollution driven by fossil fuel emissions kills millions, particularly in the form of particulate matter. This figure is refuted by real world data. Worse still for the claim, they admit that deaths from air pollution have fallen over time, even as fossil fuel use increased. Even the U.N.’s climate body does not connect  global warming to “air pollution weather,” or temperature inversion conditions that may cause ground level ozone.

The claim that infectious diseases are on the rise due to climate is also unsubstantiated by data. VOA claims that because of animal migration, the risk of infectious disease will spread, especially those spread by mosquitos.

More than a dozen peer-reviewed studies show that temperature alone is not enough to guarantee migration or longer survival of mosquitoes or mosquito-borne illnesses like malaria.

One scientist from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention said in a paper that it’s “facile” to attribute regional resurgences of malaria to climate change.

Looking at other animal sources of disease outbreaks like the Bird Flu, the exotic animal trade and wet markets where animals are crammed in close quarters are a much more likely candidate. The WHO of all groups should know this.

VOA devotes only a small section to the final category, mental health, writing that worrying about warming “provoked rising anxiety, depression and even post-traumatic stress — particularly for people already struggling with these disorders[.]”

The blame for this health effect falls squarely on the media’s alarmist reporting. The mainstream media has increasingly used words like “catastrophe” and “uninhabitable” to describe the condition of the planet. This is despite the fact that data show weather is not getting worse.

Creating climate anxiety is explicitly the goal of media climate reporting. Bombarding their audiences with scare stories, facts to the contrary be damned, is aimed at motivating people into “taking action” and supporting severe restrictions on fossil-fuel use. Survivors of a natural disaster may also struggle with PTSD or similar ailments, but it doesn’t mean that climate change is the cause. VOA reporting that climate anxiety is a result of climate change itself is frankly disgusting.

In the end, objective scientific data does not show that human health is being negatively impacted by climate change, and it is certainly not the biggest health threat facing humanity.

It is also worth noting how suspicious it is that the WHO is jumping on the climate change alarm train, given their preference for parroting the Chinese Communist Party’s talking points. China also happens to have a near monopoly on “green” tech manufacturing, and stands to gain a lot from the West’s “transition.” I’d argue that the greatest human health threat is actually climate policy, because it is destabilizing the electric power grid, increasing food insecurity, and encouraging the world’s people to be increasingly reliant on the good will of the Chinese Communist Party. Climate change itself doesn’t even break the top 10 of humanitarian or health threats facing the world.

Source: Americanthinker.com

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One of the biggest challenges with heating homes from renewable sources is the reliability of energy supplies during different seasons and types of weather – yet geothermal heat has much to offer.

The main misconception about geothermal heat is that it is reliant on steam rising from geysers as famously seen in Iceland. In fact, there are three main sources of geothermal heat – hot rocks, heat from aquifers, and heat from water in abandoned mines. It is heat from mine water that holds significant potential in Scotland.

Much progress is being made in the roll-out of heat pumps and scale-up of heat networks to decarbonise heating, but the vast potential of geothermal mine water remains relatively untapped. To harness the dormant assets of flooded mines throughout Scotland, considerable research is under way – along with some hugely promising demonstrator projects.

Harnessing geothermal heat sources in Scotland

The mines that were once the heartbeat of UK communities could soon make a major contribution to the energy transition through geothermal heat, as well as regenerating industries in towns that may not been present since the mines closed.

In Scotland, there is a potential 600km3 of disused mineworkings available in the Midland Valley. This could theoretically meet 8% of Scotland’s domestic heating requirements and up to 40% of Glasgow’s heat demand. If this potential is realised, it could make Scotland a world leader in the sector.

Research by the UK Coal Authority suggests that these flooded shafts could hold 7,920 petajoules of untapped heat. For context, natural gas was used to produce 1,080 petajoules to heat UK homes in 2020, according to UK Government data.

Shallow mines with depths down to 200m typically have water temperatures of 10˚C–25˚C. To use this in a heat network, a borehole is used to access mine water. A heat pump then extracts the heat and boosts it to the required temperature. Hot water is then circulated to household or business customers for heating, while another loop carries cold water back to the source for reheating.

Using mine water for geothermal energy storage

Flooded mines could also be used to store thermal energy. A persistent issue with wind energy is turning the turbines off when the generation capacity peak is reached. Researchers believe that in East Ayrshire, an estimated 120GW is effectively going to waste from unused wind.

To address this, the STEaM thermal storage project aims to use mine water to thermally store excess wind energy. Described as a giant immersion heater, the project team believe it is possible to establish high-volume storage of thermal energy that is consistent year-round, regardless of the season or weather.

Professor Zoe Shipton from the University of Strathclyde leads the STEaM thermal storage project. Shipton also led the HotScot project, bringing together academics, local government, industry and the social sector to establish Scotland’s abandoned mines as assets.

“We have got holes in the ground. They are big and underneath cities. The question with STEaM is if we fill them with heat and then take it out again multiple times a year, can we do that safely and effectively?” says Shipton.

“We think we can, but we need to do the research to investigate that. STEaM is a research project, but the results should unlock a really exciting opportunity, not just for Scotland but globally.”

Geothermal storage potential in Scotland

In the UK, there are 177,000 known mine entries. It is not yet known what proportion of these are suitable for storage. Older, shallower shafts are typically lined with brick or wood, with the newer shafts deeper and generally lined by concrete. STEaM is undertaking assessments to determine the structural integrity of these mine shafts under cycles of temperature.

However, if only 1% of these mine entries were capable of holding 20,000m3 of water, Shipton suggests that they could store 1,900GW-hours of thermal energy from curtailed wind. This would be enough to provide heating for 2.8 million, or 10%, of UK homes during a worst-case weather week with plunging temperatures and no wind.

Much more research is required to prove these projections in real-world settings. The goal of the project is to see if water temperatures of 55°C can be reached and safely sustained in mine water. If this is possible, researchers predict that the storage site can connect to a heat network without the need to boost the water temperature from heat pumps. Importantly, this would reduce the electrical load from the grid, contributing to grid stability during times of high demand for electricity for heating elsewhere – such as heat pumps in homes.

Studies of thermal storage in mine workings in Europe are in their early stages and small in scale. STEaM is the first project to explore storage within a shaft rather than lower-volume mineworkings.

Nevertheless, the STEaM team is committed to understanding the safe operating temperatures and avoiding chemical reactions that could potentially negatively impact the environment or the wider heat network.

The plan is to start experiments at a physical site in 2024, continuing into 2025. The team is analysing water chemistry and taking temperature samples to characterise the water and determine the baseline. Detailed analysis will be completed during and after heat injection to assess the effect of heating and cooling cycles on the water body.

Energy from wind turbines in Scotland could be stored underground in mine water. 

Reusing heat from the dancefloor

To fully harness the potential of geothermal energy, a range of different innovative projects are under way in Scotland. Perhaps the most eye-catching project is the BODYHEAT system, which stores heat from people dancing in the SWG3 nightclub in Glasgow. Developed by Scottish geothermal start-up TownRock Energy, heat pumps powered by renewable energy extract heat from the dancefloor and send it for storage in 12 U-shaped boreholes that are 200m underground.

When the energy is needed for heating or cooling, heat is pumped back up to the heat pumps and upgraded to the correct temperature before reuse. The system can even capture heat and use it for cooling during the same event. The project was developed with funding and support from the Scottish Government, the UK Community Renewal Fund and the William Grant Foundation.

“BODYHEAT at SWG3 is a world first – quick response borehole thermal energy storage for a multi-use arts venue across two buildings,” says David Townsend, founder and CEO of TownRock Energy. “We were developing the technology, as well as fundraising and permitting for three years prior to turn-on, nearly entirely during the height of the Covid pandemic.”

According to Townsend, the success of the project has led to global interest in the concept from a range of different businesses.

“TownRock Energy has received an abundance of enquiries from all over the world thanks to the global media attention over the past two years, not just from venues but also from diverse customers such as data centre operators and farmers,” he adds. “We are working on rolling it out, and some of the main challenges include retrofitting existing buildings, permanency of building use and ownership.”

Support for Scottish geothermal projects

Despite the immense potential for geothermal energy, several issues must be resolved before it can be adopted more widely. At present, there remains uncertainty as to who owns geothermal heat. The Scottish Government is ahead of the other nations in drafting legislation for heat, with further clarity surrounding geothermal expected.

To further the understanding of geothermal processes in Scotland, the British Geological Survey’s Glasgow UK Geoenergy Observatory offers essential research capabilities. The site has 12 boreholes equipped with 319 advanced sensors for testing between 16m and 199m deep to study the environmental impact and changes in the chemistry of shallow, low-temperature mine water. Various types of environmental monitoring are available, with open data available for research.

The facility can be used by industry, academia and public sector organisations. Project partnerships are also available. “It is an amazing platform for experimentation, and for validating new products such as sensors,” comments Shipton.

There is also a push in Scotland to make full use of the transferrable skills from the oil and gas industry. Geothermal could benefit greatly from extensive domestic experience in areas such as drilling, corrosion management, underground modelling and data analytics.

A further useful resource is the Mine Water Geothermal Resource Atlas, an online mapping feature that identifies a total of 370.3km2 of sites in Scotland that are potentially suitable for geothermal mine water developments.

Funding for geothermal projects in Scotland

Funding remains one of the main obstacles for geothermal. To address this in Scotland, there are a range of potential grants and other types of financial support available.

Scotland’s Heat Network Fund has a total of £300m ($379.93m) available in capital grants to support heat projects throughout Scotland. All projects must be based in Scotland, of large scale, reduce emissions, and deliver societal and economic benefits.

Furthermore, the Green Heat Innovation Support Programme from Scottish Enterprise has a total pot of £17.6m available from November 2022 to March 2026 to support the roll-out of low-carbon heating solutions, which include geothermal.

Scottish Enterprise can also help companies access funding for green energy projects within Horizon Europe after the UK was recently readmitted.

“If we can sufficiently research those first few projects and allow the academics to get in and pull apart some of the issues and demonstrate things such as how to model where the heat goes, how to monitor the water chemistry and develop mitigation measures for the unlikely event of problems – all of that will really help unlock the potential of the industry,” adds Shipton.

Source: Investmentmonitor.ai

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India and China have not signed the global renewable and energy efficiency pledge at this year’s Conference of Parties (COP28) climate summit, held in Dubai.

The pledge was to triple the global renewable energy target by the year 2030.

Meanwhile, a total of 118 nations have pledged to triple green energy.

The Global Renewables and Energy Efficiency Pledge commits to tripling worldwide installed renewable energy generation capacity to at least 11,000 GW and to double the global average annual rate of energy efficiency improvements to more than 4 percent by 2030.

Nearly 1,00,000 delegates from 198 countries are participating in the global conference, which commenced on Thursday and will run through December 12.

On Friday, Prime Minister Narendra Modi proposed to host the UN climate conference in India in 2028. He also launched a ‘Green Credit Initiative’ focused on creating carbon sinks through people’s participation.

Participating in multiple high-level events on the second day of the UN climate conference (COP28) in Dubai, the Prime Minister said rich nations should completely reduce their carbon footprint “well before” 2050 and give all developing countries their fair share in the global carbon budget.

He also urged countries to deliver a concrete outcome on finance to help developing and poor nations combat climate change at COP28.

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Global investments using “woke” environmental, social, and governance (ESG) standards led to trillions of dollars of losses in a two-year span, especially in the U.S., according to a recent report.

The biannual assessment by the Global Sustainable Investment Alliance (GSIA) showed the absolute value of reported sustainable investing ESG assets — such as those addressing social justice, climate change alongside biodiversity and nature loss — dropped from $35.3 trillion in 2020 to $30.3 trillion in 2022, a 14% decline.

The decline was no more apparent than in the U.S., where governors in Republican-led states have pushed to block ESG investments at the state and local level. Congress also earlier this year moved to nullify a new Department of Labor rule that allows retirement plan managers to incorporate ESG standards into their investment decisions. But President Joe Biden vetoed Congress’ action and the new rule has survived court challenges.

The GSIA assessment showed ESG investments in the U.S. went from $17 trillion in 2020 to $8.4 trillion in 2022, a drop of 50.5%. The only other region that showed a loss was Canada which declined 2.7% from $2.423 trillion to $2.358 trillion. Europe, Australia and New Zealand and Japan saw substantial gains.

“The market for ESG bonds decreased significantly in the past two years as state leaders from across the country have fought back against the injection of woke politics into the bond market,” Will Hild, executive director of Consumers’ Research, told the Daily Mail.

Assets under management in ESG funds in the U.S. declined from $339 billion in the second quarter of 2023 to $315 billion by the end of September, CNN reported in October.

“ESG investing … entering the final quarter of 2023 continues to be a story of declining flows and assets under management,” Robert Jenkins, head of global research at Lipper, a U.S. financial services firm, told CNN.

Jenkins said ESG investment had a fairly stable growth line before the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Then the pandemic supercharged them, and everyone started jumping on board,” he said.

But the boom appears to be slowing as investors are souring on the concept. The S&P Global Clean Energy Index has dropped 30.4% this year and investors reportedly expect the downturn to continue into 2024.

Jenkins said the ESG concept doesn’t work and going forward, he will be abandoning the concept and its measurements altogether. He said the problem with ESG investing is that it’s based on feelings and opinions and not concrete factors.

“We saw ratings from various companies, ours included, that made no intuitive sense,” he said. “When you have a fracker getting an ‘A+’ on the environment and you have a company like Netflix getting a ‘D-‘ on the environment, that makes no sense.”

Source: Newsmax.com

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Top EU officials met Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on Thursday for their first in-person summit in four years to discuss issues ranging from trade imbalances to Ukraine, with an agenda full of tough rhetoric but light on deliverables.

During the meeting, Xi urged the EU to work with China to provide global stability, enhance mutual political trust and “eliminate all kinds of interference” in the bilateral relationship, according to state broadcaster CCTV.

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, European Council President Charles Michel and EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell will also meet Chinese Premier Li Qiang on their one-day visit.

It will be their last chance to get face time with top Chinese officials before the European Parliament elections kick off next year, triggering changes in the bloc’s leadership.

Both sides have sought to play down expectations ahead of the summit, with Chinese foreign minister Wang Yi warning Beijing-based diplomats from EU member states on Monday that Europe should choose “peace and stability” over a “new Cold War.”

A European official told journalists in Brussels earlier this week that “there’s not a single outstanding deliverable that will be crowning the summit,” adding that there will not be a joint statement.

In another blow to EU-China relations, member state Italy officially informed China “in recent days” that it is leaving the Belt and Road Initiative championed by Xi, Italian government sources told Reuters Wednesday.

A string of EU Commissioners have visited Beijing since China lifted pandemic border restrictions this year, including the bloc’s trade and climate chiefs, but little progress has been made on core irritants in the relationship. Most recently, Borrell’s chief of staff and senior EU diplomat Enrique Mora visited in November.

The European Union wants Beijing to use its influence on Russia to stop the war, and a main focus of the trip will be urging Xi to stop Chinese private companies exporting European-made dual-use items to Russia for its war efforts. Brussels initially left these Chinese firms off its latest Russia sanctions package unveiled last month, European officials said.

The bloc is also concerned about what it considers “imbalanced” economic relations, saying its near 400 billion euro ($431.7 billion) trade deficit with China reflects restrictions on EU businesses.

China has previously pushed back against an EU anti-subsidy investigation into Chinese electric vehicles and the EU’s “de-risking” policy to reduce its reliance on Chinese imports, particularly of critical raw materials.

Last month, foreign minister Wang told visiting French Foreign Minister Catherine Colonna the biggest risk is “the uncertainty brought by broad politicization,” and that “the dependency most in need of reduction is protectionism.”

During Colonna’s visit, China also offered visa-free entry to citizens of the EU’s five largest economies in a bid to boost post-pandemic tourism and improve China’s image in the West after ties deteriorated during the Covid pandemic.

EU officials say the two sides could cooperate more on action to combat climate change and to promote biodiversity.

Source: Cnbc.com

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​Charlotte-based NASCAR, like so many of its Fortune 500 advertisers, has lofty goals to reduce its carbon footprint and invest in renewable energy.

But just as stock-car racing has long held prominence in the Southeast, so too have electric utility monopolies. And unlike in neighboring Virginia, which has its own share of speedways, large customers in North Carolina can’t buy renewable energy in a competitive wholesale market.

That’s why the Clean Energy Buyers Association — whose members include NASCAR, Lowe’s, Walmart, and dozens of other major employers in the state — is wading into the debate over Duke Energy’s long-term plan for zeroing out carbon emissions by midcentury.

“In the absence of a competitive wholesale market, it’s where you can get the biggest bang for your buck,” said Katie Southworth, a deputy director of market and policy innovation for the association. “It will determine whether or not over 100 customers that are located in Duke’s territory can buy clean energy.”

Even as a right-wing backlash against climate-conscious investing and so-called “woke” companies ripples across the country, the economic realities of renewable energy remain undeniable in corporate boardrooms. Volatile fossil fuel prices and the costs of remediating toxic byproducts like coal ash make ever-cheaper renewables more attractive, Southworth says.

“Companies that are making billion-dollar investments are forecasting the cost of the asset over its lifetime, and they’re choosing to procure competitive, clean energy because of economic considerations,” Southworth said. “It is least-cost, and it just so happens to also be clean.”

Combined with pressure from customers, that has pushed hundreds of companies to set and pursue climate targets often more ambitious than those of their servicing utilities. The association overall aims for a 90% carbon-free electric grid nationwide by 2030; Duke’s goal is to zero out emissions by 2050.

As the number of corporations dedicated to speeding up the clean energy transition grows, so too does their imperative to prove that they’re truly decarbonizing the grid — not just taking credit for wind and solar farms already up and running.

The association claims its members have procured 71 GW of carbon-free energy since 2014 through power purchase agreements, direct ownership, and other means. The figure accounts for roughly a third of all U.S. clean energy capacity today, according to data from the Energy Information Administration.

But the vast bulk of these procurements have been outside the Southeast, Southworth says, for a simple reason: the region is blanketed with regulated monopolies that disallow many voluntary purchase arrangements.

Regulators approved Duke’s 2022 Carbon Plan largely without edits, despite scores of critics who said it low-balled solar, energy efficiency and wind while relying on as-yet commercially unproven technologies like small modular nuclear reactors and hydrogen to meet its midcentury climate targets.

In its draft 2024 plan, Duke presents only one pathway to cut emissions 70% by 2030. The utility’s preferred route is to meet the 70% target by 2035, leaning again on nuclear and gas.

“We’re generally disappointed at the lack of ambition that we’re seeing from Duke and what they’ve proposed,” Southworth said. “I think there are some good reasons for the commission to question many of the assumptions that Duke has made around natural gas fuel cost.”

Plus, even if Duke reached the 70% target by the end of the decade, Southworth’s organization has a 90% goal by that time. So, the group also hopes the Carbon Plan process will help dissolve barriers to members’ investment in clean energy and, at the very least, build an argument for increased market competition.

“We’re a state that doesn’t provide America’s largest employers an opportunity to buy the kind of energy they want,” said Chris Carmody, executive director of the Carolinas Clean Energy Business Association, a consortium of renewable energy producers. But, he said, “I think there’s several opportunities within the Carbon Plan for more competition.”

One concerns a cap on the amount of solar Duke can connect to its grid each year. In its first Carbon Plan the company proposed, and regulators accepted, adding about 1,000 MW of solar per year — a pace critics said was far too slow. In this draft, the company suggests a minimum of 1,350 MW.

This interconnection limit doesn’t just impact how much solar Duke adds to the grid for its own generation portfolio. It also restricts the size and number of solar farms that companies can build and access through pass-through arrangements like Duke’s Green Source Advantage program.

“This is one huge problem,” said David Rogers, deputy director for the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. “If Duke makes a deal with Google or the Department of Defense to build a bunch of solar, that just comes out of the 1,350 [MW cap].”

Unlike some other barriers to clean energy for large customers, there’s no other docket so far in which to contest the annual cap. “This artificial limitation that Duke has placed on solar interconnection,” said Carmody, “that’s a specific Carbon Plan feature.”

The Carbon Plan process also offers the Clean Energy Buyers Association the chance to push for more competition in the Carolinas, which it and other experts believe will result in more clean energy and lower costs.

Though the 2021 law requiring Duke to decarbonize requires the utility to own 55% of new solar and 100% of other renewables added to the grid, experts say third parties could still vie to build renewables in a competitive process, then transfer ownership to the company.

Another popular idea among many clean energy experts: a wholesale regional marketplace that would allow large customers to buy wind, solar, and other energy sources directly at competitive prices.

A regional transmission organization could save the Southeast hundreds of billions of dollars and cut emissions 37%, according to a 2020 study by Vibrant Clean Energy and Energy Innovation. A Brattle Group analysis commissioned by the South Carolina legislature concluded the state alone could save $360 million a year in such a wholesale market.

“One thing the commission should and can do is promote competition in procurement and require Duke to model expanded market options,” said Southworth.

Related is the question of Duke’s reserve margin. A stable of power plants that can ramp up to meet peak demand, the most recent reserve margin was targeted at 17%. The company now proposes hiking it to 22%.

Rather than build more gas plants that may fail in extremely cold temperatures — as they did nearly a year ago during Winter Storm Elliott — Southworth says Duke should consider tapping power reserves from other utilities in the region. That, too, would lower costs and make more room for clean energy.

“They ought to be working with their neighbors to address these reliability issues versus trying to fix the world themselves,” Southworth said of Duke. “They should evaluate reserve sharing. Sharing is caring.”

Still, while evaluation and study are possible, few observers believe regulators would direct Duke to join a wholesale regional market without explicit legislative direction. Some said the ultimate impact of the Clean Energy Buyers Association’s involvement in the Carbon Plan might be to achieve just that.

“These are certainly the companies that could get something done in the legislature,” said Steve Kalland, executive director of the North Carolina Clean Energy Technology Center.

And while Charlotte-based NASCAR and Mooresville-based Lowe’s aren’t likely to exit North Carolina altogether, other companies could, or choose to invest heavily elsewhere.

“They’re setting goals, and they need to meet them,” Southworth said last month on a conference panel hosted by the North Carolina Sustainable Energy Association. “They’ll leave if they can’t get the clean energy they need. They’ll go to Oklahoma.”

But on that same panel, Duke’s deputy general counsel, Jack Jirak, pushed back.

“We certainly respect and value very much the perspective of customers who desire clean energy. That’s a high priority for us,” Jirak said. “North Carolina for two years in a row was the number one state for economic development. I think that shows there’s something we’re doing right.”

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The UN’s climate chief has urged countries to lift “tactical blockades” to a deal to phase out fossil fuels.

Speaking 24 hours before the COP28 climate summit draws to a close, Simon Stiell called on Monday for delegates to remove obstacles to sealing a deal at the meeting in Dubai.

“First, clear the unnecessary tactical blockades out of the way,” he said, citing the need to reduce greenhouse gas emissions and support the transition of less developed countries.

“Any strategic landmines that blow it up for one, blow it up for all,” he told reporters.

Talks have intensified over calls to phase out fossil fuels, the top culprit in the planet’s worsening crisis, but oil producers led by Saudi Arabia have put up tough resistance.

As the official end of COP28 approached, work on finding the right language to achieve a consensus among nearly 200 countries had raised hopes of a new draft deal on Monday morning.

Stiell sought to maintain the momentum, calling on countries to remain ambitious as they seek a way to preserve the goal of checking global warming at no more than 1.5 degrees Celsius (34.7 degrees Fahrenheit) above pre-industrial levels.

“I urge negotiators to reject incrementalism. Each step back from the highest ambition will cost countless millions of lives,” Stiell said.

“The reality is the highest-ambition outcomes are the only way for all governments to leave Dubai with a win under their belt,” he said.

“One thing is for certain: ‘I win, you lose’ is a recipe for collective failure. Ultimately, it is eight billion people’s security that is at stake.”

The annual Conference of the Parties, or COP, has rarely finished on schedule in its 28-year history, but COP28 President Sultan al-Jaber has called on countries to wrap things up on time on Tuesday.

Al-Jaber, the head of the national oil company of the United Arab Emirates, has repeatedly promised to deliver a historic deal and urged countries to find a “consensus and common ground” on fossil fuel.

“Failure is not an option,” he said on Sunday.

China, the world’s biggest emitter, was also initially seen as hostile to a phase-out but has since been working to find a compromise.

Chinese climate envoy Xie Zhenhua recalled on Saturday that the United States and China issued a joint statement last month agreeing on the need to speed up the deployment of renewable energy to gradually substitute the use of oil, gas and coal.

A deal drafted on Friday included similar language on the need to triple renewable energy capacity by 2030 to “displace fossil fuel-based energy”.

Countries are waiting for the new draft deal before putting all their negotiating “chips” on the table, said a source close to the COP28 presidency, quoted by the AFP news agency.

Talks intensify over calls to phase out fossil fuels, as oil producers led by Saudi Arabia put up tough resistance.

​

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Dynagas LNG Partners, the owner of six LNG carriers which operate under long-term charters, reported a drop in its net income for the July-September period.

The NYSE-listed limited partnership formed by shipowner Dynagas posted a net income of $1.4 million for the three months ended September 30, 2023.

This marks a decrease of $6 million, or 81.1 percent, compared to the same period last year, the LNG shipper said in a statement.

Net income also dropped compared to $14.4 million in the prior quarter.

Dynagas LNG attributed this drop in net income mainly due to the increase in vessels’ operating expenses, as well as to the dry-docking and special survey costs attributable to the scheduled dry-docks of the company’s three LNG carriers.

The LNG shipping firm completed dry-docks for Yenisei River in August, and for Lena River and Arctic Aurora in September.

Dynagas LNG also attributed the drop in net profit to the decrease in interest rate swap gains and the increase in the interest and finance costs.

The company said that its adjusted net income decreased 31.1 percent to $3.1 million in the third quarter mainly due to increase of interest and finance costs compared to the corresponding period of 2022.

Voyage revenues for the three-month period reached $37 million, up by 23.7 percent compared to the same quarter last year.

Dynagas LNG said voyage revenues rose due to the increase in the non-cash deferred revenue amortization relating to the new time charter party agreement of Arctic Aurora with Equinor as well as the increase in available days of Amur River and Ob River.

The partnership reported gross of commissions of about $68,800 per day per vessel in the three-month period, compared to about $61,560 per day per vessel for the corresponding period of 2022.

The partnership’s vessels operated at 99.8 percent fleet utilization during the three-month period.

Also, vessel operating expenses were $10.6 million, which corresponds to a daily rate per vessel of $19,288 in the three-month period, as compared to $7 million, or a daily rate per vessel of $12,743, in the corresponding period of 2022.

This increase is mainly attributable to the increased engine overhauling costs on Arctic Aurora, Yenisei River, and Lena River incurred during the three-month period ending September 30, Dynagas LNG said.

Chief executive Tony Lauritzen said all six LNG carriers in the company’s fleet are operating under their respective long-term charters with international gas companies with an average remaining contract term of about 7.2 years.

“Barring any unforeseen events, the partnership will have no contractual vessel availability until 2028,” he said.

Lauritzen said the company’s estimated contract backlog currently stands at about $1.16 billion equating to some $193 million per vessel as of December 7, 2023.

He said Arctic Aurora was delivered under a new three-year time charter party agreement with Equinor in September, and “we expect her to continue to generate solid cash flow contribution to the partnership.”

“We strongly believe in the long term role of natural gas as a vital energy source. Part of its sustained demand stems from its comparatively low emission profile upon combustion and its capacity to generate power swiftly and effectively as and when needed,” he said.

“This is further supported by the existence of a well-developed global infrastructure facilitating its production, transportation, storage, and consumption,” Lauritzen said.

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