Summary
Nope! You won’t escape the primaries! In today’s edition, learn how climate visions clash in Iowa caucuses. Also, Canada admits there’s no chance it’ll reach its climate change targets — not even close. Bummer. Finally, in the Carbon Section, an expert panel advising Japan’s Ministry of Environment on long-term climate policies has recommended the government set up an emissions trading scheme and introduce a tax on carbon emissions.
Quote of the day
“Rural Iowans are almost climate activists without even knowing it, and they’re doing much more than the rest of us.”
Jeff Biggers, who oversees the Climate Narrative Project at the University of Iowa, in the ClimateWire’s story Climate Visions Clash in Iowa Caucuses
Lead stories
Climate Visions Clash in Iowa Caucuses
By Evan Lehmann – ClimateWire
The struggle to expand or restrict the nation’s action on climate change in the next presidency intensifies today in Iowa.
http://jlne.ws/1m8L8hu
Republicans reject climate change fears despite rebukes from scientists
By Alan Yuhas – The Guardian
They have bloviated about carpet bombing, bickered about walls, and waxed anti-Muslim and -migrant, but over more than 16 hours of debate, the Republican candidates for president have almost entirely ignored what most of the world fears most: the rising tides and temperatures of climate change.
http://jlne.ws/23EIH8t
How to Finance a Trillion-Dollar Climate Change Opportunity
By Danny Kennedy and Ken Locklin – gtm
Pulling the world back from the brink of catastrophic climate change cannot be done for free. Changing the way the world is powered means big spending — and huge investment opportunities — as new clean energy infrastructure is built across the world.
http://jlne.ws/1NMLcd3
Canada Admits There’s No Chance It’ll Reach Its Climate Change Targets — Not Even Close
By Justin Ling – Vice News
In statistics released on Friday evening — a prime time to break bad news — the Canadian government admitted that it was way off its already modest CO2 emission targets.
http://jlne.ws/1RW5Mzw
Events
EUEC 2016 Conference & Expo
Feb 3 – Feb 5, 2016
San Diego Convention Center, CA
http://www.euec.com/
Carbon
Expert panel recommends ETS, carbon tax for Japan -media
Carbon Pulse
An expert panel advising Japan’s Ministry of Environment on long-term climate policies has recommended the government set up an emissions trading scheme and introduce a tax on carbon emissions to help the country meet its target of cutting GHG emissions 80% below 1990 levels by 2050, the Japan Times reported.
http://jlne.ws/1SyGPsw
Anglo American pressed on climate change disclosure
By Sophia Grene – Financial Times
Shareholders owning 5 per cent of Anglo American’s voting stock have united to table a resolution calling for increased transparency on how the mining group deals with climate change.
http://jlne.ws/1SyEVIC
Direct Action plan for carbon emissions will deliver value for money, Alan Finkel says
By Francis Keany – ABC
Australia’s new chief scientist says there are merits to the Federal Government’s Direct Action plan to tackle carbon emissions.
http://jlne.ws/1TxznPe
Natural gas / coal
Federal Coal Sales Moratorium Shakes Industry Stronghold
By Mead Gruver and Matthew Brown – Associated Press
Like a trusty pickup truck, Gillette has bounced through tough times before and pulled through, thanks to coal.
http://jlne.ws/1SoiAz9
Monthly coal use for U.S. power fell to 35-year low in November: EIA
Reuters
U.S power generation from coal fell to the lowest monthly level in 35 years in November 2015 as generators switched to cleaner and cheaper natural gas, according to federal data.
http://jlne.ws/203x8Ty
Kentucky coal output hits six-decade low
By Timothy Cama – The Hill
Kentucky coal mines produced their smallest amount of coal in 62 years last year, a figure that’s likely to keep falling.
http://jlne.ws/1Soj5cu
Natural gas may drop to a more than 20-year low
By Myra P. Sarfong – MarketWatch
Futures prices for natural gas could drop to levels not seen in more than two decades as resilient production levels, hefty U.S. inventories and weaker demand combine to pull prices down to $1.50 or lower.
http://jlne.ws/20CjetR
Just how big is the natural gas leak in California?
By Elizabeth Shockman – PRI
It’s been more than two months since inspectors uncovered a colossal natural gas leak in California’s Aliso Canyon, and it will take at least another month, possibly two, to plug it up, according to Southern California Gas Company’s latest estimates.
http://jlne.ws/1SojsDP
Power
Power producer Dominion to buy Questar in natural gas push
By Swetha Gopinath and Anet Josline Pinto – Reuters
Dominion Resources Inc said it would buy Questar Corp for about $4.4 billion in cash, the latest power producer to bet on stable revenues from natural gas distribution at a time when power demand is waning.
http://jlne.ws/1TxAMFH
National Power Grids Increasingly Targeted in Cyber Attacks
By Doug Bernard – Voice of America
Ukraine’s electric power grid is once again under cyberattack, just one month after a similar incident successfully brought down portions of the system and left millions in the dark.
http://jlne.ws/1RW7FvY
Puerto Rico Power Authority’s Debt Is Rooted in Free Electricity
By Mary Williams Walsh – The New York Times
To understand how Puerto Rico’s power authority has piled up $9 billon in debt, one need only visit this bustling city spread along a bay on the northwest coast.
http://jlne.ws/1TxBcvK
Clean tech
Tesla’s biggest bull axes price target on carmaker
Financial Times
Tesla’s biggest cheerleader has tempered his enthusiasm for shares in the electric carmaker.
http://jlne.ws/1WY6L1q
***LB: Also in this story “Adam Jonas, an analyst at Morgan Stanley, on Monday lowered his price target on Tesla by 26 per cent to $333 and maintained his “overweight” recommendation. That represents a more than 70 per cent premium to the current trading price of about $193.87. At his most bullish, last October, Mr Jonas had a price target of $465.”
AFC Energy achieves milestone power output from KORE fuel cell system in Germany
By Rhea Healy – gasworld
AFC Energy, an industrial fuel cell power company, has successfully delivered gross electrical output in excess of 200kW at its KORE fuel cell power plant in Stade, Germany.
http://jlne.ws/1UDVO3N