PFLUGER TALKS LNG BILL: House Republicans are prepared to vote as early as Friday on the Unlocking Domestic LNG Potential Act, the bill that would undo President Joe Biden’s LNG export pause, which Republicans say unfairly punishes domestic producers that have spent years working to reduce their carbon footprints.
Ahead of the vote, we caught up with the bill’s sponsor, Rep. August Pfluger, to discuss his motivations for taking up the bill, expectations for bipartisan support, and concerns that the LNG pause will harm producers—including those in his congressional district in Texas, which spans much of the Permian Basin, the highest-producing U.S. oilfield, accounting for roughly 40% of domestic oil production and 15% of natural gas production.
Pfluger and others in the caucus argue that the industry has spent years working to reduce its emissions, noting that oil and gas producers are already subject to stringent regulations—including, most recently, the EPA’s final methane emissions rule that will require operators to perform comprehensive monitoring, establish new emissions reduction standards for certain equipment, and eliminate routine methane flaring over the next two years.
By halting the export of gas, “we would be handing a gift to Putin” and allowing Russia to “produce dirtier gas that’s worse for the environment,” Pfluger said. “This decision is weakening us, and it’s honestly giving us a black eye around the world.”
By the numbers: As it stands, U.S. gas has cleaned up its act in recent years—and is getting cleaner. A report published this month in MIT Technology Review found that regulation, investments, and voluntary actions are poised to reduce methane emissions from the LNG sector by more than 80% by 2030.
Republicans argue that pausing new LNG export hubs therefore actually be worse for the environment, if it forces allies to return to coal-fired plants or to obtain LNG suppliers from parts of the world where ships or export facilities might be older or less regulated than in the U.S., such as Russia or Iran.
Russia, for example, primarily relied on piped gas exports prior to the war and the explosion of the Nord Stream 1 pipeline, meaning any LNG export facilities and ships—which are pricey and take years to build out—are likely much dirtier than the U.S., Arvind Ravikumar, the co-director of the University of Texas at Austin’s Sustainable Energy Development Lab and author of the MIT report, told us in an interview.
Pfluger also hit on this point: “It’s well established that Russian gas is about 40% to 41% dirtier over [its] lifecycle than U.S. gas,” he told us. “So if you really care about emissions and you really care about the environment, then you wouldn’t [halt] the production of gas.”
That view is shared by at least some Democrats in the House. “As of now, I expect and hope that there will be double digit votes from the Democrat side,” Pfluger said.
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment writers Breanne Deppisch (@breanne_dep) and Nancy Vu (@NancyVu99). Email bdeppisch@washingtonexaminer dot com or nancy.vu@washingtonexaminer dot com for tips, suggestions, calendar items, and anything else. If a friend sent this to you and you’d like to sign up, click here. If signing up doesn’t work, shoot us an email, and we’ll add you to our list.
WHITE HOUSE LOOKS TO EXPAND SEWAGE INFRASTRUCTURE AID: The Biden administration is beefing up efforts to help poor and rural towns gain access to sewage infrastructure, The Hill reports.
In an announcement on Tuesday, the administration stated it would broaden out a pilot initiative to an additional 150 communities – increasing the figure from 11 at its start – to help them access federal wastewater funds.
“We really can make a difference for those over two million people again are still living without the basics,” Radhika Fox, the Environmental Protection Agency’s top water official, told reporters and The Hill.
A staggering stat: About 2 million people in the U.S. don’t have adequate wastewater and drinking water infrastructure, according to the EPA. Read more on that here.
GOOGLE AND EDF PARTNER UP TO MAP METHANE: Google is partnering with the Environmental Defense Fund to measure, track, and map methane emissions through a satellite in space, the tech company announced in a blog post on Wednesday.
The satellite from EDF, called the MethaneSAT, is expected to launch in early March on a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, and will orbit the Earth 15 times a day. During that time, it will measure methane levels in prominent oil and gas regions – but will also measure both high-emitting and small sources of methane spread over a wide area.
The initiative will also create a map of oil and gas infrastructure to understand which parts contribute the most to emissions, and to map methane leaks.
The information collected will be available on MethaneSAT’s website, and accessible through Google Earth Engine – the technology company’s planetary-scale environmental monitoring platform. The tech company mentioned that the data can be used in combination with other data sets – such as land cover, forests, and water – to track methane emissions in a given area over time. Read the announcement here.
BLACKROCK ESG ASSETS ARE THRIVING DESPITE GOP ATTACKS: BlackRock’s ESG assets are largely doing well, Bloomberg reports – going against the grain of the larger landscape of environmental, social and governance investing as the framework faces attacks from Republicans and experiences declining returns and decreased client interest.
From the start of 2022 through the end of last year, BlackRock’s ESG-related assets under management have swelled 53%, according to data provided by Morningstar Direct. The broader ESG fund market only grew 8% over the same period – and saw a mass exodus of U.S. investors for the first time during the first few months of 2023.
By the numbers: While the global fund market lost $2.5 billion of ESG client cash last year, BlackRock experienced net inflows of $4.7 billion, and saw $5.6 billion in new money flow into passive ESG strategies – compensating for approximately $900 million that flowed out of active strategies.
Why that’s important: The growth in BlackRock’s ESG assets are surprising considering the backlash from the GOP, which has characterized ESG as “woke” and anti-capitalist. BlackRock CEO Larry Fink has distanced himself from the term, deeming the word as too “weaponized” to use. Read more on that here.
GLOBAL DEMAND FOR LNG EXPECTED TO GROW, PER SHELL: Demand for natural gas is still expected to grow significantly for the next 16 years as Eastern countries continue to use the fuel to support their economic growth, according to Shell’s annual report released on Wednesday.
The report projects global demand to rise more than 50% by 2040, with demand expected to reach around 625-685 million tons per year.
The report also lays out that demand for natural gas has peaked in regions like Europe, Japan, and Australia in the 2010s, but will continue to rise globally.
This year’s report has figures that are lower than Shell’s 2023 estimates, which were for global demand to increase to 700 million tonnes by 2040.
Why is this important: The report goes against other estimates that show a slower rate of growth over the next few decades. The International Energy Agency’s World Energy Outlook, released last October, forecasted that global demand for oil, natural gas, and coal will peak by 2030, as more countries opt for cleaner forms of energy. But Shell’s report is comparable to OPEC’S estimate, which is for global demand to grow significantly in the next decades, reaching 116 million barrels per day by 2045.
RUNDOWN
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