April 2012 Climate Change Summary Report

 

April 2012 Climate Change Summary Report

 

“Enviros counter claims of palm oil supporters”

April 30, 2012: Greenwire reports: “Environmental groups are urging U.S. EPA to reject industry’s call to allow palm oil into the renewable fuel standard. In public comments to be filed today with the agency, a coalition of environmentalists say that palm-oil-based biodiesel and renewable diesel actually emit more greenhouse gases than traditional petroleum. They are pushing for EPA to hold strong on its January decision to nix palm-oil-based biofuels from the standard. ‘Allowing these palm-oil-based biofuels to qualify under the RFS would undermine the goals of the RFS, make the U.S. fuel supply dirtier, and of course do substantial damage to peat forests in Indonesia and Malaysia,’ Jeremy Martin, a senior scientist with the Union of Concerned Scientists, said yesterday on a conference call.”

“EU Biofuels’ Indirect Carbon Emissions Debate To Move Forward”

April 30, 2012: Dow Jones reports: “Top European Union policy makers will next week be faced with one of Europe’s most controversial climate policies, as they consider whether biofuels do more harm than good when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions.  The 27 European commissioners will for the first time discuss the issue all together at a regular meeting Wednesday, after diverging views among some members of the college put the EU in a deadlock and delayed action for months.  Brussels has been debating whether biofuels are better for the climate than conventional fuels, with some environmentalists calling for a radical rethink of EU policy that mandates a 10% use of renewable energy –mainly biofuels– in transport by 2020.”

“Merkel’s Green Jobs Ambition Stalls With Cuts for Solar”

April 30, 2012: Bloomberg Businessweek reports: “German Chancellor Angela Merkel’s effort to create jobs in renewable energy is faltering as subsidy cuts and competition from Chinese manufacturers forces the industry to stop hiring for the first time in eight years. Employment in Germany’s clean energy industry probably will “stagnate” this year after creating about 31,600 jobs a year since 2004, said Claudia Kemfert, senior energy analyst at the DIW economic institute in Berlin. Four German solar companies filed for protection from creditors since December including Q- Cells SE, once the world’s biggest cell maker.”

“CAFE Standards Kill”

April 27, 2012: Scripps Howard columnist Deroy Murdock writes in an column distributed to 400 newspapers around the nation: “As Washington keeps yanking money from Americans’ wallets, car prices are set to rise beyond the reach of low-income drivers. And from there, things grow deadly. At fault is a regulatory regime called Corporate Average Fuel Economy, commonly called CAFE standards. Congress mandated these rules in 1975, during a seemingly decade-long energy crisis. Washington generally has hiked CAFE standards in an ongoing effort to boost automobile efficiency. Lacking magic wands, car manufacturers spend money to obey these laws. And then — surprise! — up go sticker prices. The National Automobile Dealers Association calculated April 12 that a Chevrolet Aveo, the most affordable vehicle it studied, would climb from $12,700 to $15,700 by 2025. (SS: Most of this increase will be due to inflation.) This $3,000 hike (in 2010 dollars) would prevent 6.8 million humble drivers from qualifying for car loans.…’Fuel-standard lethality is as obvious as a smashed windshield,’ J. R. Dunn observed in The American Thinker. He chillingly has detailed the mayhem that CAFE standards have unleashed: ‘According to the Brookings Institution, a 500-lb weight reduction of the average car increased annual highway fatalities by 2,200-3,900 and serious injuries by 11,000 to 19,500 per year. USA Today found that 7,700 deaths occurred for every mile per gallon gained in fuel economy standards. Smaller cars accounted for up to 12,144 deaths in 1997, 37% of all vehicle fatalities for that year.’”

“Earth’s ‘safety mechanisms’ keep fractures in check – study”

April 27, 2012: EnergyWire reports: “Ever since the documentary Gasland showed water from a tap catching on fire, people have been increasingly worried about hydraulic fracturing contaminating water supplies with flammable methane. Now, researchers have found that fracturing, or fracking, at least 2,000 feet below an aquifer will minimize chances of contamination in the United States …Studying data from five natural gas fields in the United States, Davies and his colleagues found that the largest recorded vertical crack in an oil and gas field is only 2,000 feet long. This does not present a problem since wells are typically fracked below 7,000 feet, while water aquifers are present above 1,000 feet.”

 “CO2 data conflicts overshadow shale oil and gas”

April 26, 2012: Reuters reports: “More data on the greenhouse gas emissions impact of shale oil and gas is needed to pinpoint their climate impact, something which recalls a controversy over Canadian tar sands where opposing lobby groups were said to have cherry-picked data. Shale gas has revolutionised the U.S. energy industry, pressuring prices while tight (also called shale) oil production is on a steep upward curve. Each was enabled by advances in horizontal drilling technology. The greenhouse gas (GHG) impact of shale gas is uncertain but likely not much more than conventional gas, but next to zero research has been made into emissions from tight oil.”

High oil costs are cited for global food-price inflation
Food prices worldwide jumped in the first quarter, thanks to elevated oil prices, rising demand from Asia and extreme weather events in parts of the U.S., South America and Europe, the World Bank said. The World Bank’s food-price index showed that food prices rose 8% from December to March, and are just 6% below the record set in February 2011. Prices could go higher if food production in the 2012-2013 marketing year fails to match expectations, the World Bank warned. Reuters (4/25)

 

Study shows impact of global warming on corn market
Climate change contributes more to corn-price volatility than energy policies and oil-market fluctuations, according to a recent study. “U.S. corn-price volatility exhibits higher sensitivity to near-term climate change than to energy policy influences or agriculture-energy market integration,” the study showed. “The likelihood of increasing occurrence of severe hot events in response to increasing global greenhouse-gas concentrations poses a particular risk for field crops.” Bloomberg Businessweek (4/23), The Christian Science Monitor (4/23)

 

“Disconnects in public discourse around ‘fracking’ cloud earthquake issue”

April 23, 2012: EnergyWire reports: “Here are the facts: ‘Fracking’ does not cause big earthquakes. The underground injection of industrial wastewater can, and sometimes does. Bill Ellsworth is frustrated at how difficult it is getting people to understand this. The senior U.S. Geological Survey geophysicist is on the cutting edge of new research linking earthquakes to the injection of oil and gas drilling waste (EnergyWire, March 29). But at last week’s earthquake conference here, he seemed to spend as much time trying to resolve the ‘fracking’ confusion as he did explaining his findings. … ‘I was greatly surprised to see how words were being used in the press in ways that were inappropriate,’ Ellsworth said as the annual meeting of the Seismological Society of America wrapped up. ‘We don’t see any connection between fracking and earthquakes of any concern to society.’”

 

“EPA fracking rule seen as proxy for climate law”

April 23, 2012: Greenwire reports: “U.S. EPA is using a rule intended to deal with toxic and smog-forming emissions from hydraulic fracturing as a shortcut to its real goal of reducing emissions linked to climate change, gas advocates said this week. The updated New Source Performance Standards for volatile organic compounds (VOCs) that EPA unveiled on Wednesday would require all new and ‘refracked’ hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, gas development operations to use so-called green completion technology to capture emissions that otherwise would be vented into the air. The rule phases in by 2015, but EPA provides incentives for gas developers to move to green completion technology more quickly.”

“Stung by the Keystone XL, Canada Looks Westwards”

April 23, 2012: OilPrice.com reports: “Given that the Keystone XL pipeline is apparently dead in the water at least until after the next presidential election, Canada is seeking new export markets in Asia for its booming oil and natural gas production. …But now, the Conservative government of Prime Minister Stephen Harper, stung by the Keystone XL pipeline debacle, is looking westwards for future energy production exports, particularly to China. Harper has made this shift in priorities explicit, on 2 April at the Woodrow Wilson International Center for Scholars in Washington D.C., ‘We cannot be in a situation where really our one and only energy partner can say no to our energy products. The very fact that a no can be said underscores to our country that we must diversify our energy export markets.’”

 

“E.U. could be inflating its climate policy successes”

April 19, 2012: ClimateWire reports: “The European Union has received international attention for its ambitious climate policies, but some say it’s using creative calculations to reach its goals. Through international trade, an estimated 7 percent of Europe’s carbon emissions could be outsourced to the developing world, and E.U. leaders have reportedly pushed for certain energy efficiency savings to be ‘double counted.’”

Scientists develop process to convert electricity into a liquid fuel
Scientists at the University of California, Los Angeles, have discovered a way to use sunlight to convert electrical power into a liquid fuel, allowing for the possibility that vehicles could obtain fuel from electricity in the future. “The current way to store electricity is with lithium ion batteries, in which the density is low, but when you store it in liquid fuel, the density could actually be very high,” said lead researcher James Liao. AOL Energy (4/18)

“THE AMERICAN: Rethinking America’s Energy Policy”

April 17, 2012: An op-ed by Congressman Fred Upton in The American (online magazine of the American Enterprise Institute) states: “U.S. energy policy needs a reboot – a broad reassessment of our strategies –because much of what we thought we knew has either dramatically changed or turned out to be plain wrong. When I first became involved in these issues, President Jimmy Carter told us our domestic energy supplies were running out and a foreign cartel would determine everything from the cars we drove to the temperatures in our homes. The future he painted looked bleak. Consider oil and natural gas. Not long ago, many believed supplies had peaked and it was only a matter of time until we were left with nothing but dry holes in the ground and increased dependence on foreign imports. Based on this belief, Washington decided that American taxpayers needed to spend dramatically on developing alternative supplies to replace hydrocarbons.”

“U.S. Greenhouse Gas Emissions Headed Up Again”

April 17, 2012: The New York Times reports: “After dropping for two years during the recession, emissions of the gases blamed for global warming rose in 2010 as the economy heated up, the Environmental Protection Agency reports. Output of carbon dioxide and other heat-trapping gasses were up 3.2 percent from 2009 as the nation climbed slowly out of the deepest economic downturn since the Great Depression, the E.P.A. said. ‘The increase from 2009 to 2010 was primarily due to an increase in economic output resulting in an increase in energy consumption across all sectors, and much warmer summer conditions resulting in an increase in electricity demand for air conditioning that was generated primarily by combusting coal and natural gas,’ the agency reported in its annual inventory of greenhouse gases.”

 

“Can natural gas help stop global warming?”

April 16, 2012: The Washington Post editorial board states: “The fact that burning natural gas produces about half the carbon emissions as coal means the fuel could be an attractive, affordable alternative, giving lower-carbon energy options more time to become less expensive. But extracting and transporting all that natural gas, which is mostly methane, also results in fuel leaks. When methane leaks, it has a shorter-lived but much stronger global warming effect as the carbon dioxide released when the same amount of methane is burned. Particularly on relatively short time frames of 10 or 20 years, too much methane leakage can make the fuel less attractive than even dirty old coal, some critics warn.”

Sen. Nelson: Renewables can help lessen oil dependence
The U.S. can wean itself off of foreign oil and protect itself from oil-price shocks by increasing its reliance on renewable fuels, expanding domestic energy output, improving fuel-economy standards and cracking down on excessive speculation in energy markets, writes Sen. Bill Nelson, D-Fla. “The only way America can get off foreign oil and not fall victim to outside forces in the market is to continue to produce more energy here at home — and eventually [turn to] alternative fuels,” Nelson points out. Politico (Washington, D.C.) (4/15)

“Nearly 7M consumers couldn’t afford new cars under standards – study”

April 13, 2012: Greenwire reports: “Despite current rising sales of fuel-efficient vehicles with higher gas prices, the nation’s auto dealers are warning that federal fuel economy standards could raise vehicle prices so much that millions of potential drivers would be forced out of the new-car market. In a report released today, the National Automobile Dealers Association found that 6.8 million drivers would not qualify for a new car loan if vehicle prices rose $3,000 by 2025. That number would rise to more than 10 million drivers if the price went up by $5,000, as estimated by the auto dealers in a previous study.”

Biofuels will account for up to 25% of energy use by 2050, exec says
Industry experts are predicting that biofuels will account for 15% to 25% of the world’s energy consumption by 2050, according to Mark McHugh, president and CEO of consulting firm Cenam Energy Partners. Advanced biofuels are not yet competitive with first-generation biofuels, but the Renewable Fuel Standard and other policies ensure that there is enough demand to keep the industry growing, McHugh said. “Supply is constrained, but there is a substantial demand,” he added. The Energy Report (4/12)

 

Report: Uncertain policies are pushing down spending on renewables
Investment in renewable energy worldwide dropped to $27 billion in the first quarter, down 28% from the fourth quarter of 2011 and the lowest quarterly total since the first three months of 2009, according to a report from Bloomberg New Energy Finance. The report cited uncertain tax policies in the U.S. and spending cuts in the EU for the slump. “The weak first-quarter number reflects the destabilizing uncertainty over future clean-energy support in both the European Union, driven by the financial crisis, and the U.S., driven by the expiry of stimulus programs,” BNEF CEO Michael Liebreich said. Bloomberg Businessweek (4/12), The Hill/E2 Wire blog (4/12)

 

NASA project uses plastic bags to cultivate algae
NASA is developing a method that uses floating plastic bags filled with wastewater to grow algae. The system is aimed at lowering the cost of algae-based fuel production by making it possible to grow algae near sewage facilities without having to build expensive artificial ponds. MIT Technology Review online (4/11)

 

“Canada says 2010 greenhouse gas emissions stable”

April 12, 2012: Reuters reports: “Canada’s emissions of greenhouse gases were almost unchanged from the year before in 2010, even though the economy of the major oil producer grew by 3.2 percent, the government said on Wednesday. The right-of-center Conservative government – which green groups say is ignoring the environment to focus on the needs of the energy industry – is aiming to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 17 percent below 2005 levels by 2020. ‘While our continued economic recovery remains our government’s top priority, today’s news demonstrates that our work to balance the need for a cleaner and healthier environment while protecting jobs and growth is working,’ Environment Minister Peter Kent said in a statement.”

 “Ethanol, It’s Actually Bigger Than Ever”

April 12, 2012: Forbes reports: “Five years ago, the government projected that by 2012, ethanol production would reach 11.2 billion gallons, and comprise 30 percent of the nation’s corn supply. In 2011, the actual numbers were 13.9 billion gallons, and 40 percent of the corn supply, Dwyer says. One single refinery, Carbon Green Bioenergy, outside Lake Odessa, Mich., helps tell the story. ‘This was built as a 40 million plant,’ says the owner, Mitch Miller. ‘We’re running at 50 million gallons a year. So, we have not reduced capacity at all.’”

 

“Chu: Climate change evidence mounting”

April 12, 2012: The Hill reports: “Energy Secretary Steven Chu said Wednesday that scientific evidence of climate change is getting more and more powerful, comments that come as global warming legislation remains moribund in Congress and Environmental Protection regulations are facing ongoing GOP assaults. ‘Over the last couple of years, the dispassionate, hard science evidence has been mounting, increasing,’ said Chu, speaking at an energy forum hosted by The New York Times. Chu noted that ‘we don’t understand everything’ and that in past years scientists have actually underestimated the pace of some changes, including sea level rise.”

“Putin Says Russia Needs to Rise to U.S. Shale-Gas Challenge”

April 11, 2012: Bloomberg reports: “Russian President-elect Vladimir Putin urged energy producers from the world’s biggest natural- gas exporter to ‘rise to the challenge’ of a changing market as the U.S. increases output of shale gas.  U.S. shale gas production may ‘seriously’ restructure supply and demand in the global hydrocarbons market, Putin said today in an address to the Russian lower house of parliament.  The U.S. overtook Russia as the biggest producer of gas in 2009 as it extracted fuel trapped in shale rocks. That has cut prices and led nations from China to Poland to explore for such resources, potentially cutting their reliance on Russian gas.”

 

“Iran-fueled oil price spike biggest threat to economy”

April 11, 2012: CNN reports: “An oil price spike caused by a confrontation with Iran is now seen as the biggest threat to the U.S. economy.  That’s according to nine out of 18 economists surveyed in a recent CNNMoney poll, who say rising oil prices now outweigh the risks posed by the European debt crisis, ongoing gridlock over the budget in Washington and fears of a slowdown in China. ‘An Iranian disruption of oil supplies could send oil prices to $200 a barrel,’ said Lynn Reaser, chief economist at the Fermanian Business & Economic Institute. ‘It’s something we’re really concerned about,’ said Chris Lafakis, an economist at Moody’s Analytics. ‘A military confrontation could push prices to $180 a barrel, which would precipitate a recession.’”

 “Very few of the above”

April 9, 2012: In a New York Post column, Jonah Goldberg states: “President Obama says he’s in favor of an all-of-the-above energy policy — but that hasn’t slowed him down in his pursuit of his very-few-of-the-above policy. Back in 2008, then-Sen. Obama explained that under his energy plan, electricity prices would ‘necessarily skyrocket.’ …Just the other day, Vice President Joe Biden insisted that ‘our energy policy’s the best it’s ever been.’ Why? Because, he said, we’re doing ‘everything,’ i.e., all of the above, to make energy affordable. Except that’s simply not true. It’s not remotely true. A new rule from the Obama administration’s EPA will, according to an Associated Press analysis, force 32 mostly coal-fired power plants to shut down and threatens to close 36 others. Moreover, the new ‘blackout’ rule will effectively prevent the creation of any new coal-fired plants in America unless they adopt new technologies that will make it unprofitable to burn coal at all. So there’s that.”

 

“The Cost of Higher Fuel Economy”

April 6, 2012: The New York Times reports: “Electric cars, hybrids and high-mileage versions of some vehicles are more efficient but also more expensive than similar offerings from the same brand. Even given high gas prices, it may take years to earn back the additional cost.”

 

“As Carbon Prices Sink, Unease Rises”

April 5, 2012: The Wall Street Journal reports: “The market for carbon emissions is running out of gas. Prices of emission allowances, which award the holder the right to release carbon dioxide into the atmosphere, have tumbled this week to a record low. They are down 11% from the start of the year and now trade at less than one-fourth of their July 2008 value. The latest blow came Monday, when the European Union released preliminary data showing its carbon emissions fell by a larger-than-expected amount last year. While decreasing amounts of pollution out of Europe are a boon for the environment, it raises questions about the viability of a market that was hailed as a forerunner for the rest of the world.”

 

“E.U. ministers will meet to discuss weak carbon market”

April 5, 2012: ClimateWire reports: “The European Union’s environment ministers will hold an April 19 meeting in Denmark to discuss the bloc’s troubled carbon market, according to an announcement this week. The meeting has been scheduled so ministers can have ‘an open and frank debate’ about falling carbon prices, said Martin Lidegaard, the Danish climate minister. An overabundance of carbon credits and a struggling European economy have led to a 60 percent decline in the market’s value over the past year. It hit a record low of €6.14 ($8.10) on Monday.”

 

“Cleaner Fuels, Cleaner Cars”

April 5, 2012: An editorial in The New York Times states: “In late December, the Environmental Protection Agency drafted a set of rules that would force petroleum refiners to reduce the amount of sulfur in gasoline by two-thirds. That change would enhance the effectiveness of catalytic converters in both old and new cars, resulting in substantial cuts in soot and smog-forming pollutants from automobile tailpipes.  The proposal resembles a similar measure adopted by California for cars sold inside that state. It has received strong support from other state regulators and the automobile companies, who say that it will be easier to make cleaner cars if they have cleaner gasoline to work with. But the rules are on hold because the White House has yet to review them. The reason is largely political.”

 

“Abrupt climate-change reversal”

April 4, 2012: A Washington Times editorial states: “The injection of politics into the global-warming hypothesis has made it difficult to know where facts end and falsehoods begin. While alarmists have been blaming their fellow man for every hurricane, tornado and other ill wind whipped up by Mother Nature, science is now concluding that the cause of these damaging storms has nothing to do with human activity…. Accordingly, there is no evidence that weather extremes are on the rise globally, much less that they’re increasing because of human activity.”

 “Subsidy cuts will nearly kill Germany’s solar industry, Citigroup says”

April 3, 2012: ClimateWire reports: A massive reduction in solar subsidies enacted by the German Parliament last week will all but shut down the photovoltaic market in that country starting next year, Citigroup analysts said in a research note. One of the first victims was Q-Cells, once the world’s largest solar-cell maker, which filed for insolvency yesterday after a German court’s ruling cast doubt on its efforts to negotiate with its creditors. Germany installed 7.5 gigawatts of solar panels last year, or 27 percent of the total world market of 27.65 GW, according to the European Photovoltaic Industry Association. After being the top market globally in 2010 and 2009, it was surpassed last year by Italy, which installed 9 GW of solar.”

 

“Truth about Obama’s energy claims”

April 3, 2012: An op-ed in The Washington Times Sen. David Vitter (R-La.) states: “But the federal government owns and completely controls almost 2.5 billion acres of land and offshore zones, including our Outer Continental Shelf, an area that is actually larger than the entire land mass of the United States. What’s been happening with oil production there? … So when Mr. Obama says oil production is up, he’s right – and utterly misleading. It’s up because of private-sector activity on nonfederal land that Mr. Obama and the federal government have very little say over (though they’re trying to change that in significant ways). Almost everywhere they play a major role, production is down.”

 

“Neb. pipeline corridor identified”

April 3, 2012: AP reports: “The developer of the Keystone XL pipeline has identified a new corridor through Nebraska that avoids the environmentally sensitive Sandhills, but a spokesman says the company won’t yet release its proposal. TransCanada spokesman Shawn Howard told The Associated Press the Canadian pipeline company has identified a rough corridor, but not a specific route, through which the pipeline could run. Howard said the proposal will be revealed during public hearings set by the Nebraska Department of Environmental Quality, if a state review is allowed to proceed.”

 

“Canada will send oil to Asia even if Keystone XL pipeline proceeds, Harper says”

April 3, 2012: The Toronto Star also reports: “Prime Minister Stephen Harper upped the ante for the Alberta oilsands Monday, telling a Washington audience that Canadian oil will be heading for Asian markets regardless of whether the United States okays the controversial fuel. Harper, speaking on the heels of a one-day North American Leaders Summit at the White House, said the mere fact that cancellation of the long-delayed Keystone XL pipeline is possible leaves Ottawa with no choice but to aggressively pursue other export markets to safeguard Canada’s economic future. Harper stressed that with U.S. public opinion ‘pretty overwhelmingly’ in favour of Keystone, he remains confident the project to as much as double the southern flow of Alberta bitumen will ultimately win approval from Washington

 

“Heartland Institute attacks critics with a book, finds its funding cut off from GM”

April 2, 2012: ClimateWire reports: “A new book published by the Heartland Institute compares societal belief in climate change to a prophecy that instructed a tribe to massacre its livestock, resulting in the death of 35,000 people and slavery for the survivors. A similar ‘economic suicide’ is looming for the United States if Americans continue to pursue policies restricting the use of fossil fuels in order to avoid a false climate ‘apocalypse,’ warns the 113-page book, which was mailed to about 2,000 journalists last week. The paperback, titled ‘Roosters of the Apocalypse,’ blames extremist environmentalists and scientists for seducing the public with the idea that society must enter a period of sacrifice if it is to break free of its destructive habits.”

 

“War on coal escalates”

April 2, 2012: An op-ed in The Washington Times by Iain Murray, vice president at the Competitive Enterprise Institute, states: “Mr. Obama’s cap-and-trade program crashed on a shoal of popular hostility. Recognizing that, as he put it, he had to find another way of “skinning the cat,” the president decided to circumvent Congress by directing regulatory agencies to implement his green agenda. The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) found a perfect proxy for coal – the mercury that only coal-fired power plants emit. In December, the EPA issued its 2011 Mercury and Air Toxics Standards (MATS) rule, which imposes stringent new controls on power-plant emissions of mercury, acid gases and other hazardous air pollutants (HAPs). According to the EPA, utilities will have to spend $9.6 billion in 2016 alone to comply. This enormous cost will increase everyone’s power bills. That might make sense if the pollutants subject to the rule posed significant risks to public health. They don’t. The rule is aimed primarily at mercury emissions, but mercury is not a health hazard in the atmosphere. Negative health effects can result when it gets into water and accumulates in the bodies of fish.”