Welcome to Volume 5, Issue 11 of Currents. As we begin a new month. I'll remind everyone that we are continually looking to write about different topics... In Shift, Oil Industry Group Backs Federal Price on Carbon - ...more
World's Largest Coal Miner Coal India Bets on Solar, Eyes Further Mine Closures - "Pramod Agarwal said its joint venture with state-run NLC India Ltd plans to invest around 125 billion rupees ($1.73 billion) in solar...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
Industry Expert Insights - We reached out to one of our Lex Mundi partners and a well-known expert in Poland in the energy and legal industries to get his thoughts on the current energy climate. Radoslaw Wasiak is a...more
Industry Expert Insights - We reached out to one of our Lex Mundi partners and a well-known expert in France in the energy and legal industries to get his thoughts on the current energy climate. Michel Guénaire is a...more
On 12/5/19 the California Environmental Justice Alliance, Sierra Club, Defenders of Wildlife and the Public Advocates Office submitted an application for rehearing and clarification of D.19-02-007. The parties allege that the...more
Cancelled Teck Oil Sands Project Underscores Global Climate-Energy Policy Tension - "The Frontier project became the latest casualty in oil-producing countries with robust environmental movements agitating to cut...more
The UAE Gets Green Light to Operate the Arab World’s First Nuclear Power Plant - "The project, which national officials describe as a strategic and economic imperative for the UAE, is more than a decade in the making and...more
South Africa's Integrated Resources Plan 2019 ("IRP") continues to espouse the need to balance supply and demand on a least-cost basis, and gives limited guidance in relation to the "Where from here?"...more
Crisis in Middle East Should Remind Us of the Importance of Fracking - "Oil prices are likely to spike in the short-term aftermath of the attack on Saudi Arabia, but, as Clifford Krauss and Stanley Reed of The New York...more
U.S. Energy Policy Must Support Natural Gas in Appalachia and West Texas - "And it shows how quickly the U.S. shale revolution since 2008 has transformed domestic and global energy markets, with always improving...more
Analysts Say U.S. Coal Merger Not Anti-Competitive- "The proposed 'extraordinary' joint venture between U.S. coal majors Peabody Energy and Arch Coal will be structurally beneficial, rather than anti-competitive for U.S....more
Trump to Sign Order Seeking to Clear Gas Pipeline Hurdles - "The administration, which is pushing a policy it calls energy dominance, has been considering an order that would push back against states, including New York,...more
Romney Helps GOP Look for New Path on Climate Change - "But a group of Republicans -- Romney and Sens. Lamar Alexander and Lindsey Graham, who worked with Democrats in 2009 and 2010 to cap carbon emissions, as well as others...more
New Fortress Energy LNG Plant Demonstrates New York Insanity - "For those unfamiliar with the facility, the plant is a gigantic $800 million investment that will take in natural gas from the Marcellus Shale and liquefy it...more
WV Supreme Court Mulls Marcellus Shale Mass Litigation Case from Harrison, WV - "While the case centers on Harrison County, where the surface owners live and the Marcellus Shale operations are underway, the case could have...more
U.S. to Give Eight Nations Oil Waivers Under Iran Sanctions, Official Says - "The U.S. has agreed to let eight countries - including Japan, India and South Korea - keep buying Iranian oil after it reimposes sanctions on the...more
How DC Unleashed Fossil-Fuel Exports Despite Climate Worries - "Since Donald Trump took office in 2017, exports of LNG and crude oil have surged, rivaling the likes of Saudi Arabia and Russia." Why this is important: The...more
As Storm Looms, 4th Circuit Reverses Ruling Against Dominion on Coal Ash Pollution at Chesapeake Site - "Water pollution from a coal ash landfill and settling ponds at a closed power plant in Chesapeake is not a violation of...more
Federal Agency Halts All Work on Atlantic Coast Pipeline After Judges Revoke Permits - "The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission sent a letter to Dominion Energy, the company leading construction of the 600-mile pipeline,...more
EPA Chief Looks to Distinguish Himself from Pruitt in Agency-Wide Memo - "The new head of the EPA sent a staff-wide memo laying out steps the agency is taking to increase transparency, a move that's seen as an effort to...more
U.S. Agencies Agree to Slash Approval Times for Infrastructure Projects - "More than a dozen federal agencies agreed to slash the time needed for environmental reviews and permitting on major infrastructure projects, a...more
Trump Official Tells Coal Group He's 'an Advocate for the Coal Industry' "'The good news is I'm with the federal government and I'm here to help,' Doug Matheney, a special adviser in the Energy Department's Office of...more
EPA Hosts Public Hearing in Charleston on Clean Power Plan - "Those who favored repeal cited coal jobs and economic concerns, saying they fear if the plan were implemented, it would negatively affect coal jobs and along...more
Environmental and Policy Focus - BP pays record $18.7 billion to settle claims in Gulf oil spill Bloomberg - Jul 2: BP Plc reached a record $18.7 billion agreement to settle all federal and state claims from the 2010...more