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Climate Is Taking On a Growing Role for Voters, Research Suggests
The number of Americans who feel passionately about climate change is rising sharply, and the issue appears likely to play a more important role in this year’s election than ever before, a new survey shows. That’s more, despite the turmoil caused by overlapping national and global crises, support for action to curb climate change has not diminished. Backing for government to do more to deal with global warming, at 68 percent in May of 2018, was at the same level in 2020, according to the survey, issued Monday. [ read more … ]
Solar Energy
Mont. high court sides with solar developers in lawsuit
The Montana Supreme Court on Monday sided with solar power developers and environmentalists who had accused regulators and the state’s largest utility of trying to kill renewable energy projects. Justices in a 4-3 opinion upheld a lower court ruling from last year that said members of the Montana Public Service Commission knew their actions would hinder solar development when they suspended a federal law requiring companies to buy power from alternative energy sources. [ read more … ]
Transmission
Invenergy to expand available wind power in Missouri, Kansas
A company planning a high-voltage power line carrying wind energy across the Midwest says it will distribute more of the electricity in Missouri and Kansas after running into regulatory delays in Illinois. Invenergy Transmission said Tuesday that it plans to increase its delivery capacity in Missouri and Kansas to as much as 2,500 megawatts, which is nearly two-thirds of its planned total capacity of 4,000 megawatts. The company had previously announced only that 500 megawatts of power would go to Missouri.
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Hydrogen
Eighty Years After Hindenburg, Startup Pitches Hydrogen Flight
The plan is to start the transition with a better way to transport hydrogen and store it in the airplane, like a gas tank in a car. Using hydrogen-powered fuel cells for aircraft isn’t a new idea. NASA already does and manufacturers have experimented for years with running small planes on them. But to become a viable business, planes would require a hydrogen fueling infrastructure that does not exist now – the same problem that has held back fuel-cell cars. Airports accustomed to loading planes with jet fuel lack the hydrogen pipelines and storage facilities to make that vision work. [ read more … ]
Green Hydrogen Set to Be Competitive With Fossil Fuels by 2040
Hydrogen made from renewable power will be compete on price with producing the gas from fossil fuels within two decades, according to analysis by research firm Wood Mackenzie Ltd. The cost of green hydrogen will drop 64% by 2040, the researchers said. Hydrogen is seen as key to cutting global greenhouse gases as it could eliminate the use of polluting fuels in industry and transport. [ read more … ]
Senate Climate Proposal
U.S. Senate Democrats unveil $400 billion-a-year plan to tackle climate change
Senate Democrats on Tuesday unveiled a plan to tackle climate change that calls for the U.S. government to spend more than $400 billion a year to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The plan is the latest in a series of blueprints from Democrats detailing how the United States can combat global warming. None are likely to proceed in the current Republican-controlled Senate but could get traction if the chamber flips to Democratic control after November’s election. [ read more … ]
5 takeaways from Democrats’ climate report
Senate Democrats punctuated their goals on climate change yesterday by rolling out a list of policy recommendations ahead of an election that promises to dictate the nation’s direction on emissions reductions. It’s now official: The House, Senate and Democratic presidential nominee have all released lengthy plans to tackle climate change. [ read more … ]
Senate democrats map out climate agenda
Democrats in both the House and Senate, as well as the Democratic presidential nominee, have now all laid out agendas to tackle climate change, giving the party footing to enact policy should Democrats win back control come November. On Tuesday, Senate Democrats released a new 260-page report that calls for boosting federal spending on the problem to 2 percent of gross domestic product, while creating 10 million new jobs and ensuring 40 percent of the benefits from new federal spending be directed toward “communities of color and low-income, deindustrialized, and disadvantaged communities. [ read more … ]
GOP attacks Green New Deal, ‘job-killing regulations’
Speakers focused on “radical environmentalists” and “job-killing regulations” during the second night of the Republican National Convention yesterday as supporters of President Trump attempted to make the case for his reelection based on fears of what a Biden administration would do. “They want to ramp up the job-killing regulations,” said Larry Kudlow, director of the National Economic Council. “They want to decimate the American energy renaissance that we’ve experienced these last four years. And it will crater our economy.” [ read more … ]
Markets
Oil demand may not recover until 2022 — report
The coronavirus pandemic could hobble oil demand well into next year, a trend that will have an outsize effect on the U.S. oil industry, the consulting firm IHS Markit said. Demand for oil worldwide is bouncing back, but it will level off between 92% and 95% of pre-pandemic levels and likely stay there until the end of March, Jim Burkhard, vice president and head of oil markets at the firm, said in a research note. [ read more … ]
Note: News clips provided do not necessarily reflect the views of coalition or its member governors.