Summary
In today’s edition, it is official: The European Union negotiators will advance its reform to help curb a surplus of permits in the world’s biggest emission market to 2019. No wonder David Blood, former head of asset management at Goldman Sachs, says that climate change must be tackled by the markets. Finally, the United States must prepare the electricity grid for large-scale solar energy use, say MIT researchers.
Quote of the day
“It’s crazy to think that 2 degrees celsius is a safe limit.”
Professor James Hansen, formerly head of NASA’s Goddard Institute for Space Studies and now at Columbia University in New York, in the Sydney Morning Herald’s story Paris 2015: Two degrees warming a ‘prescription for disaster’ says top climate scientist James Hansen
Lead stories
EU Lawmakers Reach Deal to Advance Carbon Reform to 2019
By Ewa Krukowska – Bloomberg News
European Union negotiators reached an agreement to bring forward to 2019 a reform to help curb a surplus of permits in the world’s biggest emission market.
http://jlne.ws/1EQ2UeF
Paris 2015: Two degrees warming a ‘prescription for disaster’ says top climate scientist James Hansen
By Peter Hannam – The Sydney Morning Herald
The aim to limit global warming to two degrees of pre-industrial levels is “crazy” and “a prescription for disaster”, according to a long-time NASA climate scientist.
http://jlne.ws/1JquxMy
Climate change must be tackled by the markets, say City grandees
By Simon Bowers – The Guardian
Two influential investment industry grandees are separately touring the City of London challenging fund managers and pension trustees to adopt radical new approaches to investments in some of the world’s largest fossil fuel extractors.
http://jlne.ws/1bxGtQY
Shift in U.S. federal solar funding needed for large-scale deployment: report
By Yeganeh Torbati – Reuters
The United States must redirect spending from wasteful solar power tax credits and prepare the electricity grid for large-scale solar energy use if the industry is to play a significant role in lowering carbon emissions, a report led by MIT researchers said on Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/1E8ji7Y
The next president will have a huge impact on climate policy — even without Congress
By Brad Plumer – Vox.com
Given that Congress has become so dysfunctional in recent years, it’s tempting to think the upcoming presidential election will be fairly low-stakes. Does it even matter what Jeb Bush thinks about tax policy or what Hillary Clinton is proposing on paid leave? Nothing will pass anyway.
http://jlne.ws/1JPPoMC
States preview arguments against Obama’s climate rule
By Devin Henry – The Hill
Two state attorneys general gave a preview Tuesday of their legal arguments against the Obama administration’s climate rule for power plants on Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/1JPQ5FO
*** LB: Also in this story “Patrick Morrisey of West Virginia told a Senate panel that Obama’s plan is based on conflicting statutes within the Clean Air Act and promised his state would pursue further legal action after the Environmental Protection Agency approves the rules this summer.”
China, EU seeking common approach on climate change ahead of Paris talks on carbon reductions
Associated Press
The European Union’s foreign policy chief said Tuesday she’s confident the EU and China can agree to a common approach on climate change ahead of crucial carbon reduction talks in Paris this year.
http://jlne.ws/1zAHenU
Grass-Roots Push in the Plains to Block the Keystone Pipeline’s Path
By Mitch Smith – The New York Times
In early 2010, the South Dakota government gave its blessing to a Canadian company seeking to move crude oil in a pipeline beneath the American heartland. Opposition had been minimal.
http://jlne.ws/1Egeigz
Events
World Green Economy Summit 2015
22 April 2015 – 23 April 2015
Dubai, United Arab Emirates
http://jlne.ws/1By0E6J
Navigating the American Carbon World (NACW) 2015
North America’s premier conference on climate policy and carbon markets
Presented by the Climate Action Reserve
April 28-30, 2015
Los Angeles, California
http://jlne.ws/1F1ycOT
The National Fuel Cell Symposium 2015
Industry, government, and academia will convene to discuss the current state of the Stationary Fuel Cell development and deployment in the U.S.
May 7, 2015
Sacramento, California
http://jlne.ws/1Pmqo0N
Nearing the Finish Line: Perspectives and Updates on EPA’s Clean Power Plan (webinar)
April 23, 2015; 11 a.m. – 12:30 p.m. EDT
http://emahq.org/node/86
Northeast RECs Regional Thought Leader Round Table
May 19, 2015; 12 p.m. – 5 p.m. EST
Dentons: 1221 Avenue of the Americas, NY
http://emahq.org/node/85
EMA Annual Meeting
October 28-30, 2015
Omni Parker House Hotel
Boston, MA
Carbon
European companies close to exhausting cheap U.N. carbon credits
By Susanna Twidale – Reuters
European companies have used almost all of their quotas of cheap U.N. carbon credits to reduce emissions costs under the EU Emissions Trading System (ETS), which is likely to push up their compliance costs in later years, analysts said on Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/1bxDVlO
Natural gas / coal
China to expand coal ban to suburbs
Reuters
China will expand its bans on coal burning to include suburban areas as well as city centers in efforts to tackle air pollution, the top energy agency said on Tuesday.
http://jlne.ws/1H0F03K
***LB: Also in this story “Detailing its clean coal action plan 2015-2020, the National Energy Administration (NEA) said it would promote centralized heating and power supply by natural gas and renewables, replacing scattered heat and power engines fueled by low quality coal.”
In China, a tug of war over coal gas: Cleaner air but worse for the climate
By Simon Denyer – Washington Post
Amid the rolling grasslands of northern China, a gleaming new industrial complex offers a beguiling vision for the nation’s leaders.
http://jlne.ws/1zAEAOV
Australia must reduce reliance on coal, says UN’s top climate change negotiator Christiana Figueres
By Jake Sturmer – Radio Australia
Australia must move away from its reliance on coal and take the lead on a global emission agreement, says the UN’s top climate negotiator Christiana Figueres.
http://jlne.ws/1F5Fwxg
The 10 scariest chemicals used in hydraulic fracking
By Michael B. Kelley and Jessica Orwig – Business Insider
Although the boom is helping the US generate more energy on its own soil, a study published Monday, May 4 points out a potential health problem linked with the practice, known as hydraulic fracturing or “fracking.”
http://jlne.ws/1DS2P6m
Power
Technology — a missing building block in the Clean Power Plan?
By Peter Behr -E&E
Somewhere between the power plant and light switch, as much as 6 percent of U.S.-generated electric power disappears, lost in transmission as current pushes its way through power lines.
http://jlne.ws/1E8jPXr
Investor groups want Southern Co. to report more GHG data and risks
By Daniel Cusick – E&E
Southern Co., the Atlanta-based utility serving 4.4 million customers in the Deep South, produces one of the most attractive annual reports on carbon emissions available within the electric power sector.
http://jlne.ws/1F5ErW8
First panels installed at Broken Hill’s outback solar farm
By Jacqueline Breen – ABC
The first of 650,000 photo-voltaic panels has been installed at the solar farm taking shape near the birthplace of Australian mining.
http://jlne.ws/1H0Fzus
Clean tech
Clean tech seen as game changer for women in energy sector
By Katherine Ling – E&E
A preschooler could count the number of women at most energy conferences. Or they could let “Sesame Street’s” Count von Count’s take inventory: “One, one woman. Two, two women. Three, three dedicated daughters. … Three plus one more is four. Four, four fierce females.”
http://jlne.ws/1H0FmHK
Water
Drought: California regulators approve unprecedented water cutbacks
By Fenit Nirappil – AP
California water regulators adopted sweeping, unprecedented restrictions Tuesday on how people, governments and businesses can use water amid the state’s ongoing drought.
http://jlne.ws/1c4TzFV