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RED STATES LEAD THE SWITCH TO RENEWABLES: State energy regulators in Republican strongholds are forcing utilities to look at the improved economics of solar and wind, facilitating the switch to an electric grid that is reliant on mostly renewable energy.
“If you look at wind development, it is the middle of the country, the midwestern, solidly red states, that have made most of the investment in wind energy, and to me that is completely a non-political issue,” said Devashree Saha, a senior associate with the World Resources Institute, a nonpartisan environmental think tank based in Washington, in an interview with John.
Saha published an analysis on Monday detailing signs of the nation’s clean energy future panning out, even without a federal climate policy in place or a Green New Deal.
For her, it is purely a matter of economics, and what makes the most sense given the costs state energy commissions must weigh in approving the construction of new power plants.
The red states of Iowa and Texas lead the nation as the largest generators of electricity from wind.
Right now, however, natural gas power plants are dominating, and that will likely continue because of the low cost of shale gas compared to many other resources. Natural gas is also lower in carbon emissions and other pollutants than coal power plants, which makes it even more important for states looking to cut their emissions through 2050.
Nevertheless, in places like the coal-heavy state of Indiana, state commissions are beginning to second guess the natural gas boom, and are making the decision to transition to more renewables, the analysis showed.
In April, state regulators rejected a utility company’s proposal to build a $780 million natural gas power plant, stating that the dramatic cost reduction in renewable energy could make a large gas-fired plant a stranded asset.
Coal was officially dethroned as the nation’s top power provider in 2016 when natural gas took its place as the dominant fuel for electricity production. “But that may be about to change,” Saha wrote.
“Natural gas faces intensifying pressure from wind and solar power combined with storage technologies,” she explained. Both solar and wind will outpace natural gas development over the next two years, with solar and wind growing at 17% and 14%, respectively.
Other states are following in Indiana’s path, with Arizona placing a moratorium on new natural gas plants in order to take into consideration the cost reductions coming from solar and wind energy. State energy regulators in Colorado, Virginia, California, and others have taken similar steps to promote energy storage devices like big batteries combined with solar and other low-cost renewable energy.
Even President Trump said on Monday that he supports solar energy, during a speech meant to demonstrate his support for environmental progress.
“I’m a believer in solar energy,” Trump said from the East Room of the White House. “It hasn’t fully developed. It’s got a long way to go, but it’s really got a tremendous future.”
Nevertheless, Trump continued his stance that the previous administration’s climate and environmental regulations were “misguided,” and his administration is justified in revising them to the benefit of the U.S. economy.
“The United States does not have to sacrifice our own jobs to lead the world on the environment,” the president added.
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INSLEE SAYS TRUMP ‘DEEPLY VULNERABLE’ ON ENVIRONMENTAL RECORD DESPITE BOASTS: Presidential candidate Jay Inslee took aim at Trump’s environmental record Monday after Trump delivered a boastful speech touting improvements in traditional criteria for air pollution.
“Our drinking water isn’t ‘crystal clear,’ but one thing is clear: Donald Trump knows that he is deeply vulnerable on issues of clean air, clean water and the climate crisis,” Inslee said.
US SET TO FALL SHORT OF PLEDGE TO PARIS CLIMATE ACCORD: Assuming no major policy changes, the U.S. is projected to fall short of the greenhouse gas emissions reduction target set by the Obama administration under the Paris climate change accord.
The U.S. is on track to cut emissions 12% to 19% below 2005 levels by 2025, according to a report released Monday by the Rhodium Group. That is well below the Paris agreement goal of reducing emissions 26% to 28% in that time frame.
Gas could do more harm than good: Power sector emissions will continue to fall through the 2020s, with the coal fleet expect to shrink by nearly a third by 2025, as it loses out to cheaper natural gas and renewables.
However, if natural gas prices stay low (at around $2.65 per MMBtu or lower) through the mid-2020s, that could pose a “serious” threat to climate goals over time, Rhodium projected. Sustained low natural gas prices, with only moderate reductions in renewable costs, could cause solar capacity and wind deployment to grow more slowly, and also harm nuclear power.
In a worse-case scenario, Rhodium says, with low natural gas prices, 45% of the nuclear fleet could retire by 2025, equaling 12% of the zero-carbon capacity on the U.S. power grid today.
Cheap natural gas could also cause industrial emissions to rise, with low prices encouraging more activity in energy-intensive industries, including steel, cement, chemicals, and refineries.
Methane emissions that come from the oil and gas sector could increase nearly 30% by 2025 if the Trump administration weakens methane regulations.
Transportation emissions remain a problem: Rhodium also projects emissions from transportation — the highest emitting sector today — to decline only modestly through 2025, even if the cost of buying an electric vehicle falls dramatically. The group says low oil prices (assuming prices remain below $55 per barrel) will encourage drivers to continue a recent trend of buying larger, higher-emitting vehicles.
By 2025, EVs sales would represent just 16% of all light-duty sales and transportation emissions would fall by only 12% below 2005 levels, even under the most optimistic scenario where EV battery costs decline significantly.
US OIL PRODUCTION SURPASSES 12 MILLION BARRELS PER DAY FOR FIRST TIME: U.S. production of crude oil surpassed 12 million barrels per day for the first time in April.
The milestone, reported by the Energy Information Administration Monday, comes less than a year after the U.S. hit the 11 million per day marker for the first time.
Most of the oil production increase is coming from Texas, as the state reached rates of 4.97 million barrels per day on April. The prolific Permian Basin in western Texas is responsible for 63% of the state’s oil production.
The EIA projects Permian production will average 4.4 million barrels per day in 2019, a 920,000 barrels per day increase from what the region produced on average last year.
CLIMATE ACTIVIST TOM STEYER ANNOUNCES PRESIDENTIAL BID: Tom Steyer, a Democratic megadonor and climate change activist, launched a presidential bid Tuesday, vowing to spend $100 million on the race for his party’s nomination.
“If you think that there’s something absolutely critical, try as hard as you can and let the chips fall where they may. And that’s exactly what I’m doing,” Steyer, 62, said in an announcement video.
In the video, the billionaire hedge fund manager and environmentalist seemed to frame his candidacy as a populist and an outsider set to take on the corrupting influences of corporations and special interests on the country’s political system.
“If you look at climate change, that is people who are saying we would rather make money than save the world,” he said of fossil fuel companies.
The Rundown
New York Times 24 governors call on Trump to halt rollback on rules for clean cars
Wall Street Journal Fire up the grill: propane prices have tumbled
Bloomberg The race to fuel the buses of the future is on
The Guardian Sanders and Ocasio-Cortez move to declare climate crisis official emergency
Calendar
TUESDAY | July 9
July 9-10, Denver. The Energy Department’s Advanced Research Projects Agency – Energy, or ARPA-E, holds its annual Innovation Summit.
WEDNESDAY | July 10
5:30 p.m., 1030 15th Street NW. Atlantic Council hold forum on “Green Banks: Financing the Low-Carbon Future.”
THURSDAY | July 11
9:30 a.m., The Environmental and Energy Study Institute holds its 2019 Congressional Clean Energy Expo and Policy Forum.
10 a.m., 1324 Longworth. The House Natural Resources Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy and Mineral Resources holds an oversight hearing on “The Future of the Federal Coal Program.”
10 a.m., 366 Dirksen. Energy and Natural Resources Committee holds a hearing on evolving global natural gas markets, the increasingly important role of U.S. liquefied natural gas, and the competitive outlook.
FRIDAY | July 12
9:30 a.m., 2123 Rayburn. The House Energy and Commerce Committee’s Subcommittee on Energy holds a hearing entitled “Keeping The Lights On: Addressing Cyber Threats To The Grid.”
