International Energy Agency (IEA) will host an online summit with representatives from countries representing 80% of the world’s emissions. They will discuss a “sustainable recovery plan” to the recession spurred by the pandemic. Watch it live July 9th.
Texas RR Commission denies request for oil production cuts, arguing that the free-market should be left to determine how much oil is economical. They say that oil will not recover until the pandemic is behind us. However, the commissioners unanimously decided to relax “various fees including ones that help hire inspectors and plug abandoned wells; gave operators more leeway in cleaning up dirty oil and gas pits in ways that could lower administrative fees for lawbreakers; suspended automatic hearings for some oil and gas operations; and expanded the sorts of underground material in which operators could store crude oil.”
Republican Politicians are using the economic fall out from COVID-19 to claim that any environmental expenses are unnecessarily burdening an already struggling economy.
This article discusses the adoption of labor concerns by the environmental movement in an attempt to win over unionized workers in the fossil fuel industry to support a “just transition.”
This article is discussing how the massive bust after the pandemic is reshaping people’s perception of the viability of working in the fossil fuel sector. Many young, educated workers (even those in petroleum engineering) in the energy sector are preferring the steady work of renewables over the boom and busts of the oil economy.
Normally, 80 to 90 percent of petroleum engineering graduates have job offers by their final semester, but neither he nor the majority of his classmates had jobs lined up, he said. Although he has begun to see petroleum engineering jobs posted again, he hasn’t had any luck. He plans to hone his digital skills and has started looking at engineering jobs with pipeline companies as an alternative.
“I always joked that I would be graduating in a downturn, but I never in my wildest dreams thought it would be this bad,” Mangum said. “It’s only been about a month since I’ve graduated so I’m not in desperate straits yet, but I can definitely feel the pressure mounting to find employment of some kind.”
Utilities are using “accounting orders” that often amount to rate increases for their customers in order to maintain their bottom lines.
“At least 35 states either have granted utilities these writs or are poised to do so. The accounting orders encompass a broad range of costs associated with COVID-19 — but, primarily, the rising “bad debt” associated with unemployed customers who cannot pay their bills. An accounting order stands as a regulator's pinky swear that a utility's other customers, not its shareholders, will pick up that tab.”
“Electric and gas utilities' fortunes should be tied to the wider economy. Shuttered office buildings and small businesses mean fewer kilowatt-hours sold, and mass unemployment leaves ratepayers unable to pay what they owe to the power company. Yet, increasingly, utilities' returns are divorced from the rest of the economy. That is because government regulation of these monopolies — often imagined as protecting consumers — often does more to keep intact utilities' bottom line. Indeed, in the midst of COVID-19, a low-key bailout of these companies already has begun and, unfortunately for utility ratepayers, it's happening on their dime.”
Results from a survey of 168 energy firms show that “Of the oil producers and service companies that responded, only 3% said drilling activity will recover to pre-pandemic levels by the end of the year, while 39% said it will take to 2022 or later and 16% — roughly 1 in 6 energy firms — said it will never recover. The Dallas Fed carried out the survey from June 10-18.”
California is reconsidering it s “cap and trade” approach to energy transition/decarbonization. “Launched in 2013, California’s cap and trade program sets an overall cap on greenhouse gas emissions each year but offers flexibility in how companies achieve it by allowing them to buy and sell pollution credits in auctions. … California’s nonpartisan Legislative Analyst’s Office said that its possible this could become a trend: Future auctions might continue to flatline because of the recession and too many pollution credits floating around the market. … The Legislative Analyst’s Office warns too many credits might interfere with reaching California’s 2030 climate goals. … A think-tank analysis published in January suggested altering the minimum price at which cap-and-trade credits are sold, recommending that the price rise and fall in response to rising and falling emissions. … As California’s leadership haggled over the budget, Wieckowski’s proposal was scrapped. Blumenfeld said in his letter that California needs more time to understand the long-term consequences of the pandemic.”