Chevron Doctrine - The Chevron Doctrine -- what is often referred to as “Chevron deference” – is based on the precedent set by the Supreme Court about four decades ago, which some argue has overly empowered the...more
Oregon’s most populous county, and home to Portland, sued more than a dozen oil, gas, and coal companies for over $50 million in damages related to a 2021 “heat dome” the county alleges was caused by the defendants’...more
Today, the US Environmental Protection Agency released its long-awaited proposal for New Source Performance Standards for Greenhouse Gas Emissions from New, Modified, and Reconstructed Fossil Fuel-Fired Electric Generating...more
January 5, 2023: Evolution Markets, a provider of strategic financial and transactional services intended to serve the global environmental and energy markets, was acquired by Xpansiv for an undisclosed amount on January 5,...more
The International Energy Agency has released its 2022 Coal analysis and forecast. It is sobering. By the time 2022 is over, world-wide coal consumption will have exceeded 8 billons tonnes for the first time. In other words,...more
The Supreme Court ended its 2021 term with a much-anticipated decision in West Virginia v. EPA.1 The 6-to-3 decision held that the Environmental Protection Agency (“EPA”) does not have the authority under Section 111(d) of...more
Blocking funding for gas energy projects in Africa may seem like sensible climate policy. But is it? Although the generally accepted ultimate goal is to replace fossil fuels entirely, there is a strong case for starting by...more
Two new developments of enormous significance passed under the radar last week, buried by the growing threat of an outright Russia/Ukraine war and governmental encroachment on democracy in Canada. These developments, however,...more
Decarbonising Natural Gas and LNG - Natural gas and liquefied natural gas (“LNG”) have long been hailed as one of the winners of the current energy transition when compared to other fossil fuels. Carbon dioxide (“CO2”)...more
If 2020 was the year of the great energy disconnect, 2021 was the year the people carrying out the energy debate appeared to be living on different planets, floating aimlessly through time and space and never intersecting...more
Russia Chooses Not to Raise Natural Gas Supplies to Europe Despite Putin’s Pledge to Help - "Highly anticipated auction results showed Russia’s state gas giant Gazprom had not booked additional gas transit capacity for...more
California AG Rob Bonta, New Mexico AG Hector Balderas, New York AG Letitia James, and Washington AG Bob Ferguson sent a letter to the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (“BLM”) urging it to consider the full social and...more
A Bad Day for Big Oil - "ExxonMobil, Chevron lose key shareholder votes and Dutch court orders Shell to cut emissions faster." Why this is important: Issues related to climate change embroiled three oil companies this...more
The swearing-in of Michael Regan as EPA Administrator means that open questions on policy, agenda-setting, and prioritization for the Agency will soon be answered. Issues that have risen to the top of the new EPA...more
M-RETS Develops First Hourly Renewable Energy Certificate Retirement - On March 1st, M-RETS announced that it had completed the first-ever hourly Renewable Energy Certificate (REC) retirement. The hourly REC retirement system...more
Welcome to Currents, our weekly publication providing insights to the latest energy news and U.S. EIA statistics. Currents is different from other e-newsletters in that it not only provides current energy articles, but it...more
FACEBOOK AND CARNEGIE MELLON PARTNER TO USE AI FOR STORAGE SOLUTIONS - On 14 October 2020, Facebook and Carnegie Mellon University released publicly a dataset of 1.3 million electrocatalyst simulations, a result of a...more
Noble Energy Shareholders OK $4.1B Sale to Chevron - "The addition of Noble will boost Chevron's U.S. shale oil holdings, making it the No. 2 producer behind EOG Resources, according to data from Rystad Energy." Why this is...more
Trump Administration Approves Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for Land Leasing, Oil Drilling - "The Trump administration continues to roll back environmental protections and opening doors for the fossil fuel industry in...more
China Resumes LNG Imports from the U.S. - "Chinese buyers have resumed imports of liquefied natural gas from U.S. exporters, as Beijing started granting waivers to a 25% import tariff." Why this is important: In the...more
Energy-Related CO2 Emissions ‘Flatlined’ Last Year, IEA Says, Raising Hopes About Climate - "Global emissions remained at approximately 33 gigatonnes in 2019 despite the world economy growing by 2.9%, the IEA said." ...more
Energy Infrastructure Attacks are ‘Probable’: Oil Traders Fear Supply Disruptions in the Middle East - "A dramatic escalation of geopolitical tensions will most likely result in an unplanned oil supply shortage in the...more
FBI Eyes How Pennsylvania Approved Pipeline - "The FBI has begun a corruption investigation into how Gov. Tom Wolf’s administration came to issue permits for construction on a multibillion-dollar pipeline project to carry...more
Why Everything They Say About California Fires — Including That Climate Matters Most — is Wrong - "'We’ve looked at the history of climate and fire throughout the whole state, and through much of the state, particularly...more
In a move that will have a significant impact on Pennsylvania's power producers, Governor Tom Wolf signed an executive order on October 3rd directing the state's Department of Environmental Protection (PADEP) to create...more