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U.S. expected to end 2018 as world’s top oil producer: EIA
U.S. crude oil output growth was expected to slow slightly for this year compared with previous forecasts, the Energy Information Administration said on Tuesday, but at a record 10.88 million barrels per day, the nation will end 2018 as the world’s top producer. Output this year was forecast to rise 1.53 million bpd to 10.88 million bpd, down from the EIA’s previous estimate of an increase of 1.55 million bpd. The current all-time U.S. annual output peak was in 1970 at 9.6 million bpd, according to federal energy data. [ read more … ]
Policy & Politics
Offshore transmission seeks second wind
A critical, open question is whether the states will see a greater value in a multistate offshore transmission backbone like the Atlantic project, permitting a large-scale but more targeted sharing of offshore energy, or approve separate lines coming in from the wind farms off their separate coastlines, said Kevin Knobloch, president of New York OceanGrid LLC. [ read more … ]
How to prepare the U.S. electric grid for more extreme weather
The grid’s precariousness has attracted the attention of a bipartisan group of 18 governors — the Governors’ Wind & Solar Energy Coalition — who in a recent letter urged the head of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission to help integrate and modernize the nation’s power grids. [ read more … ]
Mass. port gets $15M grant in boost for offshore project
The offshore wind industry in Massachusetts will get a boost from federal transportation funds as part of an expansion of the major fishing port in the city of New Bedford. The $15.4 million announced last week by the Department of Transportation will pay for about two-fifths of the expansion, which includes a new site for “staging” — the term for storing and fitting together the heavy components of turbines and other equipment before they’re hauled out to sea for installation. [ read more … ]
Industry wants taxpayer help to fix pollution problem
Some of the world’s biggest fossil-fuel producers are calling on taxpayers to help them kick their pollution habit. The world’s biggest oil, natural gas and mining companies are stepping up their campaign to deploy carbon capture and storage, or CCS, as a way to slow global warming. But with a potential $90-billion-a-year price tag, it’s too rich for them to do it on their own. [ read more … ]
Turbines vs. eagles debate continues amid new science
The sometimes lethal interactions between eagles and wind turbines have given flight to an important technical debate that’s about to press the Fish and Wildlife Service a little harder. Environmentalists worry officials could understate wind turbine dangers. Some want more data. All recognize the real-world implications of adjusting the academic-sounding “collision risk model,” used to predict the number of eagles that may be killed at new wind facilities. [ read more … ]
Green New Deal
Hill weighs common ground, hurdles in new Congress
The obstacles to a bipartisan deal are many, but possible areas of agreement on an infrastructure package in the 116th Congress are starting to emerge — including on policies that meet the top Democratic demand of curbing climate change. While President Trump’s campaign pledge to enact a $1 trillion infrastructure package went nowhere over the last two years, lawmakers from both parties are gearing up for a focus on roads, bridges and energy projects in the new year. [ read more … ]
‘Green New Deal’ efficiency goals ‘reasonable’ — feds
Energy efficiency goals in the proposed “Green New Deal” are “reasonable,” representatives from the Department of Energy and other federal agencies told House lawmakers yesterday. The thumbs-up to the proposal, which Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and other Democrats are pushing on Capitol Hill, came during an exchange with Rep. David McKinley (R-W.Va.) during a House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy hearing on public-private partnerships to boost efficiency in federal facilities. [ read more … ]
Reports of the Green Party’s death were exaggerated
The Green Party — an also-ran in national elections — is showing some life these days on Capitol Hill. Consider the “Green New Deal” — legislation proposed by House progressives for spurring America toward 100 percent clean energy. While the push is associated with Rep.-elect Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-N.Y.) and the youth-driven Sunrise Movement, the plan is actually one that the Green Party has been promoting for more than a decade. [ read more … ]
Some details emerge about select climate change committee
Next year’s likely House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) huddled with incoming committee chairs this morning to pitch them on a climate change select panel after weeks of bickering over the issue in the Democratic caucus. Most details are still being finalized, but two lawmakers who were at the meeting said she proposed a select panel with 15 members and little, if any, legislative power. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.