Quote of the Day
“The weak first-quarter number reflects the destabilizing uncertainty over future clean-energy support in both the European Union, driven by the financial crisis, and the U.S., driven by the expiry of stimulus programs. There is no sign of a rapid turnaround in either of these regions.”
New Energy Finance Chief Executive Officer Michael Liebreichin Businessweek’s “Renewable-Energy Investment Plunges in Quarter to Three-Year Low.”
Lead Stories
Indigenous Tribe Earns Validation for Landmark Forest Carbon Project
MarketWatch
Indigenous Tribe Earns Validation for Landmark Forest Carbon Project
First-of-its-kind project sets the bar for socially and environmentally sustainable forest carbon projects, preserving forest livelihoods and charting a course for other indigenous tribes in Brazil.
http://jlne.ws/Ijtuyg
**JK – Steve Zwick from Ecosystem Marketplace is impressed by this project and says it’s an example to follow.
Renewable-Energy Investment Plunges in Quarter to Three-Year Low
Businessweek
Spending on new wind farms, solar parks and other renewable projects fell to $27 billion in the first quarter, a 28 percent slump from the last three months of 2011 and a 22 percent drop from the same quarter a year earlier, New Energy Finance said today in a statement. That’s the lowest quarterly total since the $20 billion recorded in the first three months of 2009.
http://jlne.ws/IMPTpK
**JK – Subsidy programs running out on renewables.
With a $5 Billion Pipeline Project, Canada Looks to Bypass U.S. for Asia
Wall Street Journal
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP KMP +1.11% said Thursday it will begin a $5 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, nearly tripling the capacity of crude oil it can ship to Canada’s west coast—the latest project aimed at moving the country’s rising oil production to markets outside the U.S.
http://jlne.ws/Ik8gjY
**repeats in Canada
Mexican lower house clears climate bill
Point Carbon
Mexico’s lower house of Congress passed a comprehensive climate change law Thursday by an overwhelming majority, pushing the bill one step closer to signature by the president before he leaves office in July.
http://jlne.ws/HBvKVA
**repeats in Latin America
Morocco secures cash to develop CO2 markets
Point Carbon
Morocco is the latest country to have secured seed cash under a World Bank-steered scheme to help launch pilot carbon markets, while five other countries are likely to get money by the end of May, a bank official said Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/I7oFZY
**repeats in Africa/Middle East
Kazakhstan to launch carbon market next year
Point Carbon
Kazakhstan expects to launch a domestic emissions trading scheme next year as the carbon-intensive country seeks to be an early mover in a regional race to link with CO2 markets in the EU and Japan.
http://jlne.ws/I7p8LI
**repeats in Asia
US tops global clean energy investment rankings
BBC News
The table, published in a report by the Pew Charitable Trusts, showed that US invested more than $48bn (£30bn) in the sector, up from $34bn in 2010. China slipped to second place, the authors reported, with investment only increasing by $0.5bn to $45.5bn.
http://jlne.ws/HxGsHC
EU Carbon-Permit Set-Aside Requires Change of Law, Poland Says
Bloomberg
European Union law doesn’t allow withholding carbon allowances from the market and would need to be changed to enable temporary curbs of supply, according to a senior Polish government official.
http://jlne.ws/IAVv6T
Qatari Bright Lights Prompt EU’s Hedegaard to Urge Climate Plan
Bloomberg
European Union Climate Commissioner Connie Hedegaard said she’s pushing Qatar to adopt a green growth program before it hosts the annual round of United Nations climate treaty talks in November.
http://jlne.ws/HyKPSE
RPT-INSIGHT-China’s coalbeds spur unconventional gas supply boom
Reuters
After more than a century ripping out its insides to supply coal to the rest of the country, the heavily mined and polluted province of Shanxi in northern China is in the midst of a gas boom.
http://jlne.ws/HMZXzx
Carbon Industry Votes The CarbonNeutral Company Best Offset Retailer for the Second Year Running
Energy Digital
The CarbonNeutral Company has been voted Best Offset Retailer 2012 in a survey by Environmental Finance. It’s the second consecutive year that the retailer has received the industry nominated award, in recognition of its work in the carbon markets over the past twelve months.
http://jlne.ws/HzBA4S
Energy Services Analysis: An Alternative Approach for Identifying Opportunities to Reduce Emissions of Greenhouse Gases
Rand
The authors introduce Energy Services Analysis, explain how it differs from conventional approaches, and how this type of analysis can be conducted. They analyze how changes in the way two services are provided might reduce greenhouse gas emissions and provide estimates of the potential reductions in two areas, written news and personal mobility.
http://jlne.ws/HAN2C5
US
Keystone XL Bill Approved By Nebraska Lawmakers
AP
A bill that would relaunch a state review of the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline won final approval from Nebraska lawmakers Wednesday, although the project’s strongest opponents said they will likely challenge it in court.
http://jlne.ws/IsWicl
America’s energy job machine is heating up
Fortune
A renewed surge in deepwater production in the Gulf of Mexico has led to one of those periodic booms that have marked the oil-rich region ever since the first well, at Spindletop, just south of Beaumont, blew its top in January 1901.
http://jlne.ws/IzwFlj
Solar industry fears massive tax increase
The Tennessean
The Republican-sponsored legislation would increase the taxable value of solar equipment from 0.5 percent of the purchase price to 33.33 percent of the installed cost.
http://jlne.ws/IsRPpX
U.S. Solar Developer Withdraws Its IPO
Wall Street Journal
BrightSource Energy Inc.’s decision to cancel a planned IPO may have been a logical response to stock-market conditions, but the move adds to recent disappointments for the clean-technology industry.
http://jlne.ws/HE8xCV
House GOP hopes to revive Keystone fight with tie to highway bill extension
The Hill’s E2 Wire
House Republican leadership will take another crack at forcing approval of the Keystone XL oil pipeline on legislation extending federal transportation funding for another 90 days.
http://jlne.ws/IrE9KE
LNG Export Plant Verges on U.S. Approval Amid Shale Glut
Bloomberg
Cheniere Energy Inc. (LNG), the natural gas importer that lost $1.2 billion in a decade, is poised to become the sole U.S. exporter of fuel from the shale bonanza that’s turned the nation into the world’s biggest gas producer.
http://jlne.ws/IuBy3W
Canada
With a $5 Billion Pipeline Project, Canada Looks to Bypass U.S. for Asia
Wall Street Journal
Kinder Morgan Energy Partners LP KMP +1.11% said Thursday it will begin a $5 billion expansion of its Trans Mountain pipeline, nearly tripling the capacity of crude oil it can ship to Canada’s west coast—the latest project aimed at moving the country’s rising oil production to markets outside the U.S.
http://jlne.ws/Ik8gjY
**repeats in Leads
Oil-Sands Riches Sparking Alberta Election Spending Spree
Bloomberg
Alberta’s political leaders are promising to loosen the province’s purse strings as they woo voters with oil-sands wealth and predictions of crude prices rising to $108 a barrel.
http://jlne.ws/HC1XvB
Power plant rule changes a setback to Canada CO2 goals: group
Point Carbon
A major environmental think tank urged Canada’s government Thursday not to alter its draft rules for coal-fired generation, warning officials that proposed changes could reduce the effectiveness of the greenhouse gas regulations by half in their first 15 years.
http://jlne.ws/HEwlq5
Europe
The green economy speech David Cameron should give
Business Green blog
I am painfully aware it is both conceited and perhaps even discourteous to offer a speech unsolicited, particularly when the person you are offering the speech to employs battalions of speechwriters to do the job for him. But the news that after nearly two years of government Prime Minister David Cameron is to give his first keynote address on the environment and the green economy is too good an opportunity to pass up.
http://jlne.ws/HyEoPB
EIB sells 21.6 mln EU Allowances in March
Point Carbon
The European Investment Bank (EIB) sold 21.6 million EU Allowances in March, raising a further 182.1 million euros ($240 million) for renewable energy and carbon sequestration projects, it said late on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/HMYI33
Incentive cut to slow down Italy solar energy growth
Reuters
Growth of new solar power capacity in Italy, the world’s second-biggest market, is set to fall sharply to 1,000 megawatts in 2013 hit by a cut in production incentives planned by the government, solar industry body GIFI chairman said on Thursday.
http://jlne.ws/IHavS1
German KfW, UK green bank agree cooperation
Reuters
Germany’s state-controlled KfW bank said it had agreed to exchange ideas about investment in low-carbon energy projects with Britain’s new Green Investment Bank (GIB).
http://jlne.ws/HBzNkI
Asia
Kazakhstan to launch carbon market next year
Point Carbon
Kazakhstan expects to launch a domestic emissions trading scheme next year as the carbon-intensive country seeks to be an early mover in a regional race to link with CO2 markets in the EU and Japan.
http://jlne.ws/I7p8LI
**repeats in Leads
CERs climb in NZ market as govt signals ETS changes
Point Carbon
Spot Certified Emission Reductions (CERs) rose 9.7 percent week-on-week and closed Thursday at NZ$6.80 in New Zealand’s carbon market as a government proposal gave traders confidence the U.N. credits would continue to have value.
http://jlne.ws/J2gpbd
Electricity giants accused of blocking green power
The Age
THE consumer watchdog will examine claims by the Greens that three major power companies — AGL, Origin and TRUenergy — are using their market clout to frustrate the roll-out of competing wind and solar projects.
http://jlne.ws/HBmBYo
Africa/Middle East
Morocco secures cash to develop CO2 markets
Point Carbon
Morocco is the latest country to have secured seed cash under a World Bank-steered scheme to help launch pilot carbon markets, while five other countries are likely to get money by the end of May, a bank official said Wednesday.
http://jlne.ws/I7oFZY
**repeats in Leads
Latin America
Mexican lower house clears climate bill
Point Carbon
Mexico’s lower house of Congress passed a comprehensive climate change law Thursday by an overwhelming majority, pushing the bill one step closer to signature by the president before he leaves office in July.
http://jlne.ws/HBvKVA
**repeats in Leads
Argentina Stifles Shale Oil Interest With Seizure Threat: Energy
Bloomberg
Argentina will struggle to attract investors to develop shale fields, holding an estimated 23 billion barrels of oil equivalent, after revoking licenses from YPF SA (YPF) and Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PETR4) over an investment dispute.
http://jlne.ws/I7sJJx
Other
Global warming scientists foresee Sun-reflecting cities
AFP
Scientists sketched a vision on Friday of converting the world’s cities into giant sunlight reflectors to help fight global warming but met with skepticism from fellow academics.
http://jlne.ws/Ium282