Subscribe today to the Washington Examiner magazine and get Washington Briefing: politics and policy stories that will keep you up to date with what’s going on in Washington. SUBSCRIBE NOW: Just $1.00 an issue!
A SHIFT IN JAPAN: Japan is set to get in on the trend of committing to net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050.
New Prime Minister Yoshihide Suga plans to announce the target in his first address to parliament next week after taking office last month, the Japanese outlet Nikkei reported.
This would be a big first step from Suga, signaling that he will prioritize energy and climate policies in a way that his predecessor Shinzo Abe did not.
Japan’s post-Fukushima history: Japan has seen its fossil fuel consumption and emissions rise in the past decade after the country shut down its nuclear power plants in response to the Fukushima accident. It is the only developed country of the G7 still building coal plants at home. Its electric power carbon intensity is among the highest in the world, right behind China and India, according to BloombergNEF.
Restoring nuclear is key to course shift: Japan has begun to revise its policies in recent years to diversify its energy mix, with investments in renewable energy and carbon capture while setting goals to cut greenhouse gas emissions by 26% between 2013 and 2030 and 80% by 2050, according to the International Energy Agency.
Perhaps most importantly, it has restarted some of its nuclear plants with plans to bring even more online, which is essential to meeting its emissions goals.
As essential as investing in renewables and other clean technologies is, “it would be very difficult for Japan to achieve a deeper emissions cut in the power sector without nuclear,” Jane Nakano, senior fellow in the Energy Security & Climate Change Program at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, told Josh.
The country is looking into shutting down some old coal plants as part of its 2030 target, but it has not yet vowed to stop new construction or retire higher-efficiency units.
Japan will have to present a coal phase-out plan to make its expected 2050 target a reality, facing a similar challenge to China, which recently announced a carbon neutrality goal for 2060.
Global ‘momentum’: Nat Keohane, senior vice president at the Environmental Defense Fund, said Japan’s target adds “momentum” to global support for net-zero emissions, with the European Union establishing its own goal and Joe Biden pledging to do so in the U.S. if he’s elected.
“We’re seeing a fundamental shift in expectations that is establishing net-zero globally as the end point, not just in language in the Paris agreement but in the policies of the world’s largest emitters,” Keohane told Josh. “It will start driving much bigger shifts in investment [to cleaner alternatives] in major sectors like power, transportation, and industry.”
Welcome to Daily on Energy, written by Washington Examiner Energy and Environment Writers Josh Siegel (@SiegelScribe) and Abby Smith (@AbbySmithDC). Email [email protected] or [email protected] 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.
OIL CAN’T FIND ITS FOOTING: U.S. oil demand tumbled last week, dropping to 18.1 million barrels per day from 19.5 b/pd the week prior, the Energy Information Administration reported today in its Weekly Petroleum Status report. Oil demand is 14% less than the same period last year.
Gasoline, jet fuel, and diesel consumption were down across the board.
EIA also reported a 1 million barrel decrease in commercial crude inventories, after the American Petroleum Institute reported a slight increase for the week ending Oct. 16.
ANOTHER ONE: Pioneer Natural Resources announced yesterday it bought Parsley Energy for $4.5 billion, the latest consolidation deal as oil companies look to survive the price collapse.
The all-stock deal strengthens Pioneer’s position as one of the largest producers in the Permian Basin. Parsley, a mid-sized oil producer, had previously indicated its low cost operations would allow it to quickly return to normal production levels, although it did unsuccessfully push for Texas regulators to force output cuts.
The new deal came a day after U.S oil major ConocoPhillips announced it would buy Concho Resources for $9.7 billion, the largest energy deal since the pandemic. Devon Energy and Chevron have also pounced on merger deals.
Slow your roll: But there aren’t many oil producers out there left considered financially healthy enough to attract buyers.
“The long-anticipated string of transactions is expected to continue for healthier companies in the country’s most prolific oil fields, investors said, while many smaller, debt-burdened companies that are hoping for a deal may draw few offers,” the Wall Street Journal reports.
FOSSIL FUEL WINNINGS FROM PANDEMIC RELIEF PROGRAM: Loans to fossil fuels through the Federal Reserve’s Main Street program more than doubled in September to $181.6 million — about 15% of the program’s new lending — from $83 million the previous month, according an analysis this morning by liberal groups BailoutWatch, Public Citizen, and Friends of the Earth.
Since the program’s launch, fossil fuels have received 24 loans totaling $265 million, about 11.5% of the total distributed through the program.
By comparison, renewable energy companies received six loans totaling $59 million and made up about 2.5% of the loans.
Remember that? The growth of loans given to fossil fuel companies comes after the Trump administration made changes to the Main Street program, after pressure from oil interests, in a way that critics said could benefit indebted drillers.
The changes enabled lenders to use the new cash infusion to pay off old loans, while giving companies with higher debt-to-earnings ratios access to more types of loans.
AD WARS FIND SUSAN COLLINS: The Alaska Wilderness League launched a Facebook ad in Maine yesterday targeting Republican Sen. Susan Collins for her 2017 vote to allow drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, as part of the GOP tax bill.
The ad features testimonials from Maine residents who say they used to support Collins before her vote on ANWR, but no longer do. Collins, a centrist who is facing an uphill battle to retain her seat, voted to protect the refuge in the George W. Bush administration.
Environmental groups that endorsed Collins in the past have flipped to support Democrat Sara Gideon.
DEMOCRATS WANT TO TAKE BAN ON GAS CAR SALES NATIONAL: New legislation, led by Sen. Jeff Merkley and Rep. Mike Levin, would replicate on a national scale California’s recently announced requirement for all new car sales to be zero-emissions by 2035.
The bill, known as the Zero-Emissions Vehicle Act, would also set interim targets, requiring 50% of new car sales to be zero-emissions by 2025. That requirement would then increase 5% each year to 100% by 2035. Like California’s requirement, the legislation would apply only to new car sales, leaving used gas-powered cars still on the market.
BONUS… OTHER STATES LIKE CALIFORNIA’S POLICY TOO: New York and New Jersey have both taken steps in recent weeks to advance California’s zero-emissions vehicle requirement in their own states.
Just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom’s announcement, New York Democratic state Sen. Pete Harckman introduced a bill mirroring California’s new targets. That includes both requiring all new car sales to be zero-emission by 2035 and all new medium- and heavy-duty truck sales to be zero-emission by 2045.
Last week, as part of a sweeping climate plan to reduce New Jersey’s emissions 80% by 2050, the state’s environmental regulators recommended the state adopt a similar target as California’s. The New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection suggests targeting an average adoption of at least 111,000 new electric cars each year through 2025, with a goal for all new car sales to be electric by 2035.
BLUE WAVES: More than a dozen House Democrats, led by Natural Resources Committee Chair Raul Grijalva and Climate Crisis Committee Chair Kathy Castor, unveiled a sweeping oceans climate bill Tuesday, with an eye toward quick action on climate legislation next year if Democrats have both chambers of Congress.
The bill seeks a significant expansion of offshore wind power over the next decade, setting requirements for the Interior Department to permit at least 12.5 gigawatts of offshore wind by 2025 and at least 25 GW by 2030. The bill also would ban offshore oil and gas leasing in the Outer Continental Shelf and require shipping vessels to measure and report their annual greenhouse gas emissions.
In addition, the legislation would set a national goal to conserve 30% of the oceans by 2030, and it would boost restoration of blue carbon ecosystems, such as mangroves and salt marshes, that have the potential to store carbon dioxide.
MICROSOFT AND OTHERS WANT MORE FROM DOMINION ON CLEAN ENERGY: A group of eight corporations, including Microsoft, Adobe, and Unilever, is calling on Virginia-based Dominion Energy to include an even greater focus on energy efficiency and clean energy in its proposed 2020 integrated resource plan.
The 15-year plan, which the utility unveiled in May, is its first since Virginia passed legislation to achieve carbon-free power by 2045. Dominion has set its own goal to reach net-zero emissions by 2050. The utility’s plan includes a ramp-up of renewable energy, but it also would add gas-fired power and keep natural gas plants online to balance out the grid.
“Maintaining or making unnecessary investments in natural gas plants or other costly projects that, through testimony on this proposed IRP, have been demonstrated to lack ratepayer value risk overburdening ratepayers with the costs of underutilized assets,” the companies wrote in their Tuesday comment letter on Dominion’s plan.
MEET GM’S ALL-ELECTRIC ‘SUPERTRUCK’: The Detroit automaker made a big splash with a new ad during the World Series on Tuesday night, showcasing an age-old classic updated, the Washington Examiner’s Spencer Neale reports.
General Motors plans to release the new resurrected Hummer line, which will include pickup and SUV versions, ahead of Tesla’s electric Cybertruck scheduled to be released in 2021.
The Hummer is the centerpiece of GM’s plan to spend more than $20 billion through 2025 on the creation of autonomous and all-electric vehicles.
“Our ad spotlights the eye-popping torque and horsepower, among the many reasons we believe electric trucks will be a true mark of progress toward a world with zero emissions,” General Motors President Mark Reuss said in a statement.
STORM CHASING: Tropical Storm Epsilon is expected to strengthen into a hurricane later this week as it barrels northwest in the Atlantic Ocean, the Washington Examiner’s Zachary Halaschak reports.
Epsilon is named for the fifth letter of the Greek alphabet because the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season used up all the available names.
Bermuda has been placed under a tropical storm watch, with winds from Epsilon potentially affecting the island before the weekend. Epsilon is the earliest storm to be the 26th name in history. The season is two storms away from edging out 2005’s record-shattering season and becoming the most active season in history.
The Rundown
Wall Street Journal US broadens sanctions to thwart completion of Russian gas pipeline
Bloomberg Trump administration moves at ‘warp speed’ to scrap ESG rule
Reuters Green is the color of money for funds betting on Biden win
New York Times Belching cows and endless feedlots: Fixing cattle’s climate issues
Calendar
WEDNESDAY | OCT. 21
2 p.m. The Global CCS Institute and U.S. Energy Association, with the support of the Department of Energy’s Office of Fossil Energy, will host two days of virtual panels exploring opportunities to deploy carbon capture projects in Texas. Register for Oct. 21 and Oct. 22.
FRIDAY | OCT. 23
11 a.m. The United States Energy Association will host a virtual press briefing to examine energy after the 2020 election.
