Welcome to the ODAC Newsletter, a weekly roundup from the Oil Depletion Analysis Centre, the UK registered charity dedicated to raising awareness of peak oil.
There was much to welcome in the new coalition's energy policy. In particular, ODAC supports the commitment to a “huge increase” in anaerobic digestion; raise renewables targets; the "full establishment" of feed-in-tariffs while maintaining the existing banded ROCs to ensure continuity for big renewables investors; a shift of aviation duty from people to planes; scrap Heathrow's third runway and block new ones at Stanstead and Gatwick.
Some policies are little different to the previous government's (smart meter roll-out, green investment bank, no new coal without CCS), and some lack detail so far (provision of home improvement paid from savings in energy bills, measure to encourage marine energy etc). The Tories got their way on nuclear - yes, but without public subsidy - and Lib Dem Chris Huhne landed the ticklish job of fronting this policy as the new Energy and Climate Change Secretary.
In his first TV interview in post, Mr Huhne toed the party line, but maintained that no new nuclear stations had been built without subsidy for decades, clearly hoping the industry would walk away, whereas early reaction from power company bosses suggests the contrary. But the coalition has also committed to establishing a floor under the carbon price in Britain — which ODAC supports — and this may well be the territory on which the nuclear issue is fought out by proxy.
The UK carbon floor is Tory policy, and the Lib Dems oppose the idea precisely because they fear it will make nuclear economically viable, despite the fact it would also help renewables. The argument will probably by thrashed out in private, but if you encounter the curious spectacle of the Tories arguing for a higher carbon price — making their friends in business bleat — and the вЂradical' Lib Dems arguing for lower, what they're really fighting about is nuclear.
In the US this week attempts to build a coalition on climate change policy continue to struggle. Senators Kerry and Lieberman unveiled their cap and trade climate bill this week, but despite significant compromises it looks unlikely to receive any Republican support.
The bill was hastily rewritten this week to reflect the changing attitudes to off-shore drilling as the BP Gulf of Mexico oil spill disaster worsens. The Obama administration is applying more weight to the 'boot on BP's neck' with plans to raise its liability cap from $75m to $10bn retrospectively, and to levy an industry-wide tax to help recoup clean up costs. But unless the President is willing to confront Americans' fossil fuel addiction, he will have to live with deepwater drilling. Only time will tell whether the incident becomes a watershed in American public opinion. But if it does, Stanford Professor Mark Jacobson has a plan to move to 100% renewables.
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OilBarack Obama plans to punish BP with tax hike as Gulf spill worsensUS oil industry watchdog to be broken up IEA warns against US oil spill over-reactionTread carefully, Mr Obama. You need big oilOil production hit for decades after BP spillShell's Alaska plans at risk after oil spillCrude Oil Tumbles to 12-Week Low as Dollar Climbs Against Euro Tar sands crude is reaching British petrol stations, Greenpeace saysIraqIraq violence set to delay US troop withdrawalGasIraq announces date for gas fields auctionBG pays $950m in latest US shale gas deal with ExcoCanada home to a century's worth of natural gasNuclearNorth Korea reports nuclear fusion successRenewablesQ&A: Mark Jacobson on 100% renewable energySolar to generate 25% of world's electricity by 2050, IEA predictsUnderwater 'kite' captures tidal energyOffshore wind farms agreedUKCoalition sets out plans on runways and nuclearUK nuclear power groups eager to press onWhat the coalition means for environmental policiesClimateSenate Gets a Climate and Energy Bill, Modified by a Gulf Spill That Still GrowsEurope to examine case for bigger CO2 cuts OilBarack Obama plans to punish BP with tax hike as Gulf spill worsensJacqui Goddard, Miami, The Times, 14 May 2010View original article
Oil companies face an immediate tax rise of 1 cent per barrel to help to pay for the clean-up in the Gulf of Mexico under proposed legislation rushed out by the White House yesterday.
The measure, unveiled as BP began a new attempt to contain the ruptured well that has leaked millions of gallons of crude oil into America's southern coastal waters, would put an extra $500 million (ВЈ340 million) over ten years into the Oil Spill Liability Trust Fund, which covers damage caused by such disasters...
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US oil industry watchdog to be broken up BBC Online, 11 May 2010View original article
The Obama administration is to break up an interior department agency that oversees offshore drilling, in response to the Gulf Coast oil spill.
Interior Secretary Ken Salazar proposes dividing the Minerals Management Service, which inspects oil rigs at the same time as overseeing drill leases...
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IEA warns against US oil spill over-reactionCarola Hoyos in London, Financial Times, 13 May 2010View original article
The International Energy Agency has warned US law makers against making rash decisions in the wake of BP's oil spill off the coast of Louisiana .
"A knee-jerk reaction by regulators, banning new offshore licensing altogether, as some are proposing, risks pushing companies to ever more precarious locations in search of hydrocarbons. The law of unintended consequences may apply," the IEA, the rich countries' energy watchdog, said in its monthly market report released on Wednesday...
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Tread carefully, Mr Obama. You need big oilCarl Mortished, The Times, 10 May 2010View original article
The Obama White House is taking a tough line on big oil. At least, that is how it appeared as pictures of the first oil-soaked birds in the Gulf of Mexico filled TV screens. Ken Salazar, the US Interior Secretary, said he would "keep the boot on the neck of BP" over the Deepwater Horizon oil spill. But he needs to be careful. If he treads too hard, his other boot will land on the neck of Joe Plumber and every American who objects to $3 gasoline.
Until the market mayhem over Greece took the shine off the oil price, American petrol prices were hovering at that critical $3 a gallon number, which causes blue-collar rage. Oil analysts are seeing demand destruction, the point at which the price begins to alter motorist behaviour. Between January and March, consumption of road fuel began to decline much as it did in 2008 when American eyeballs were popping at $4 gallons. When prices are too high, Americans drive fewer miles, not helpful when the world is on a cliff-edge of debt, insolvency and possibly a new recession...
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Oil production hit for decades after BP spillDavid Strahan, The Independent, 09 May 2010View original article
Even as the first oil from BP's stricken Macondo well in the US Gulf of Mexico washed ashore this weekend, and as the clamour mounts, experts claim the slick will be nothing like as catastrophic as forecast — for either the environment or the oil industry. However, some analysts warn the accident could still seriously hurt global oil supply later this decade.
The fate of the Louisiana coastline is in the hands of BP engineers working to place a cofferdam, or 100 tonne steel and concrete funnel, over the worst leaks, using remote-controlled submarines a mile down on the seabed. If the operation succeeds early next week, as BP hopes, it should capture around 85 per cent of the leaking oil, sharply reducing the potential impact. "Once they have the cofferdam in place they're almost home and dry", says Dr Simon Boxall, an oil spill expert from the University of Southampton, "if they succeed, this won't even make it into the top 100 oil spills by volume"...
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Shell's Alaska plans at risk after oil spillSheila McNulty in Houston, Financial Times, 13 May 2010View original article
Royal Dutch Shell's $3bn (ВЈ2bn) investment in looking for oil in Alaska is at risk after the massive oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico...
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Crude Oil Tumbles to 12-Week Low as Dollar Climbs Against Euro Mark Shenk, Bloomberg.com, 13 May 2010View original article
Crude oil tumbled to a 12-week low in New York as the strengthening dollar curbed the appeal of commodities to investors amid above-average U.S. supplies.
Oil slipped 1.7 percent as the U.S. currency climbed against the euro after Portugal announced austerity measures, spurring concern that fiscal tightening across Europe will limit economic growth. The Energy Department said yesterday that crude supplies at Cushing, Oklahoma, where the New York-traded West Texas Intermediate oil is stored, rose to a record...
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Tar sands crude is reaching British petrol stations, Greenpeace saysTerry Macalister, The Guardian, 09 May 2010View original article
British motorists are unwitting users of diesel and petrol derived from the tar sands of Alberta, Canada, where carbon-heavy production methods make extraction particularly damaging to the environment, Greenpeace claims.
The environmental group is calling for action by the European commission to strengthen fuel-quality directive regulations to restrict the import of petroleum products made in a carbon-intensive way...
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IraqIraq violence set to delay US troop withdrawalMartin Chulov in Baghdad, The Guardian, 12 May 2010View original article
The White House is likely to delay the withdrawal of the first large phase of combat troops from Iraq for at least a month after escalating bloodshed and political instability in the country.
General Ray Odierno, the US commander, had been due to give the order within 60 days of the general election held in Iraq on 7 March, when the cross-sectarian candidate Ayad Allawi edged out the incumbent leader, Nouri al-Maliki...
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GasIraq announces date for gas fields auctionAFP, 07 May 2010View original article
Iraq on Thursday invited international energy firms to submit bids in a September 1 auction of three gas fields, in a third major tender aimed at developing the war-torn state's oil and gas sectors.
Oil Minister Hussein al-Shahristani also announced that a long-running row between Iraq and the autonomous northern region of Kurdistan over oil revenues had been resolved, in a further boost to the government's energy sector...
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BG pays $950m in latest US shale gas deal with ExcoSean Farrell, The Daily Telegraph, 10 May 2010View original article
The UK company will pay $800m in cash and $150m towards Exco's drilling costs for a half share of access to 654,000 net acres in the US Appalachian Basin.
BG and Exco formed an alliance in June to work on development and production of shale gas - a natural gas stored in organic-rich rocks...
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Canada home to a century's worth of natural gasNathan VanderKlippe, Globe & Mail, 13 May 2010View original article
Canada has enough natural gas to maintain its current output for a full century, according to new data compiled by the Canadian Society for Unconventional Gas.
In a country that consumes 2.6 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of natural gas a year, 4,000 tcf of the fuel are buried beneath Canada's foothills, plains and lowlands, the society found after conducting a broad, coast-to-coast survey...
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NuclearNorth Korea reports nuclear fusion successJohn Sudworth, BBC Online, 12 May 2010View original article
North Korea has announced that it has made significant progress towards the development of thermo-nuclear power.
It is a claim that is likely to be met with some scepticism...
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RenewablesQ&A: Mark Jacobson on 100% renewable energyFinancial Times, 12 May 2010View original article
Mark Jacobson, a Stanford professor of engineering, has drawn a lot of attention with the article he wrote together with Mark Delucchi for Scientific American last year, about how the world could move to 100 per cent renewable power...
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Solar to generate 25% of world's electricity by 2050, IEA predictsEurActiv, 12 May 2010View original article
Solar power could provide up to a quarter of the world's electricity needs by 2050 if countries put in place long-term policies to support early deployment and sustained technology innovation, according to the International Energy Agency (IEA).
The IEA yesterday (11 May) released technology roadmaps for solar photovoltaic (PV), which generates electricity using solar panels, and concentrating solar power (CSP), which collects sunlight with giant mirrors and focuses it on a liquid to produce steam that then drives a turbine...
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Underwater 'kite' captures tidal energyEmily Laut - Discovery News, msnbc, 10 May 2010View original article
A small "kite" that's flown under water is boldly going where no tidal turbine has gone before.
"Deep Green" looks like someone's flying kites from the sea floor. With its 39-foot wingspan and 328-foot cable tethering it to the ocean floor, all it's missing is a colorful tail...
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Offshore wind farms agreedBen Gill, Financial Times, 12 May 2010View original article
Plans for companies to build more offshore wind farms that would double the UK's wind energy capacity and power 1.4m homes were announced yesterday. The Crown Estate, which manages property for the exchequer, has approved the extension of seven sites, with additional capacity totalling 2,000 megawatts...
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UKCoalition sets out plans on runways and nuclearRoger Harrabin, BBC Online, 12 May 2010View original article
The UK's new coalition government has cancelled controversial plans to build a third runway at London Heathrow airport.
It will also refuse extra runways at London's other two main airports, Gatwick and Stansted...
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UK nuclear power groups eager to press onEd Crooks, Financial Times, 14 May 2010View original article
Energy companies are determined to press ahead with tens of billions of pounds of investment in new nuclear power stations, in spite of the appointment of the Liberal Democrats' Chris Huhne as energy secretary, industry executives said on Thursday...
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What the coalition means for environmental policiesAdam Vaughan, The Guardian, 12 May 2010View original article
Nuclear power
This is a major point of disagreement between the two parties. The Conservatives are in favour of building new nuclear reactors, and the Liberal Democrats are against.
Simon Hughes, previously the Liberal Democrats' energy spokesman, has said: "A new generation of nuclear power stations will be a colossal mistake, regardless of where they are built. They are hugely expensive, dangerous and will take too long to build." The Lib Dem leader Nick Clegg reiterated a similar line in the leaders' debates...
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ClimateSenate Gets a Climate and Energy Bill, Modified by a Gulf Spill That Still GrowsJohn M. Broder, New York Times, 12 May 2010View original article
The long delayed and much amended Senate plan to deal with global warming and energy was unveiled on Wednesday to considerable fanfare but uncertain prospects.
After nearly eight months of negotiations with lawmakers and interest groups, Senators John Kerry, Democrat of Massachusetts, and Joseph I. Lieberman, independent of Connecticut, produced a 987-page bill that tries to limit climate-altering emissions, reduce oil imports and create millions of new energy-related jobs...
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Europe to examine case for bigger CO2 cutsRoger Harrabin, BBC Online, 11 May 2010View original article
Europe's climate commissioner Connie Hedegaard is to set out the case for a unilateral 30% EU cut in CO2.
At the end of May she will unveil research examining the consequences to Europe's economy of outdoing the current 20% target...
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Gulf spill won’t dampen U.S. appetite for oilAn American Chernobyl
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