Natural Gas
Environmentalists in California are upset that Los Angeles will build a new 840-megawatt natural gas plant to replace a 1,800-megawatt coal plant. The coal plant has been crucial to the economic development of Millard County, Utah.
Los Angeles Times
On Tuesday night, the City Council of Berkeley, Calif., unanimously voted to ban natural gas infrastructure from new buildings starting next year, the first city in the U.S. to pass such an ordinance. Fifty cities in the state could be next.
San Francisco Chronicle
The "War on Coal" is back, in the form of a new grassroots political campaign bankrolled by Bloomberg Philanthropies to decarbonize power generation by targeting existing coal power plants and halting the growth of natural gas replacements.
The New York Times
Last month, the Paris-based International Energy Agency released its annual "Global Energy & CO2 Status Report." Energy consumption grew 2.3 percent with fossil fuels accounting for 70 percent on the increase. CO2 emissions jumped 1.7 percent.
The Washington Post
The U.S. Department of Energy, in partnership with the California Energy Commission and the South Coast Air Quality Management District, awarded $18 million to nine companies and universities to advance natural gas technology for trucks.
Climatewire
Oil independence, a goal set by President Nixon in the depth of the 1973 energy embargo, was achieved in the last week of November thanks to a fluke in record keeping as well as an "unprecedented boom in American oil production."
Bloomberg News
A new report from the International Energy Association projects that petrochemicals will be the largest driver of oil consumption, greatly increasing greenhouse gas emissions and offsetting the effect of electric vehicles on oil demand.
Reuters
Falling costs for renewable energy may lead some to believe that coal and other mainstays have been replaced, but they haven't. Adoption of renewables is not yet outpacing growth in demand for energy.
Axios
At the NATO Summit in Brussels last Wednesday, President Trump charged that Germany was captive to Russia because of its dependence on Russian natural gas, and a new, controversial pipeline from Russia to Germany will exacerbate its dependency.
The Washington Post
The region spanning Ohio, West Virginia, and Pennsylvania is claiming a new name.
WOSU
A new natural gas power plant promises a revolution in carbon capture.
Vox
Coal plants will retire faster than analysts had figured under the Clean Power Plan, which the Trump administration is repealing, yet the Department of Energy proposes to make building new coal plants a centerpiece of its energy policy.
Forbes
The International Energy Agency found that China and India were responsible for 40 percent of the increased energy demand. The biggest decrease in carbon dioxide emissions came from the U.S., largely due to increased use of renewables.
International Energy Agency
Opponents cite environmental risks, supporters hope the facility will boost the economy of a struggling community.
Pittsburg Post-Gazette
“It has to be one of the greatest wastes of money in any state’s history,” Alan Greenblatt writes.
Governing
A one-year suspension of an Obama-era rule to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas drilling on Federal and Indian lands will increase global warming and reduce federal revenue. Trump took action after Congress failed to repeal the rule.
The Washington Post
Anti-fracking activists in New York who helped ban fracking and construction of a natural gas pipeline in the Empire State now have to contend with trucks transporting compressed natural gas from fracking operations in Pennsylvania.
The Oneonta Daily Star
Nations have sunk billions of dollars into carbon capture and storage for coal plants and have little to show for it. A new natural gas demonstration plant outside Houston is confident it is up to the task — without using federal grants.
NPR
Next month the Los Angeles County Metropolitan Authority will decide what type of buses to purchase to replace 1,000 aging diesel buses. Two op-eds in the Los Angeles Daily News present alternative viewpoints.
Los Angeles Daily News
While Congress is attempting to roll back a federal regulation on methane emissions, the California Air Resources Board approved a landmark rule that regulates methane emissions from onshore and offshore oil and gas production and storage facilities.
San Francisco Chronicle
