Decline and fall of the coal empire
US coal giant Peabody Energy maxed out its $945 million credit line and missed a $71 million interest payment last week, signaling it will file for bankruptcy next month unless it can re-float its debt—an unlikely prospect now that coal is becoming a pariah to financiers. Even as its fortunes fell, Peabody kept showering executives with seven-and eight-figure salaries and bonuses, while spinning off a poorly capitalized subsidiary that shouldered pension and health care obligations and then declared bankruptcy in 2012. Peabody isn’t alone in putting its executives’ well-being ahead of workers’ and investors’: Arch Coal paid its top brass $8 million in bonuses last month and then took Chapter 11 protection the next business day. Many mine reclamation plans, like this one in Illinois, are “self-bonded,” meaning they are guaranteed only by the firm’s word, making them worthless after bankruptcy—a practice now under attack by Sen. Maria Cantwell (D-WA) among others. For now, the oil industry isn’t in such miserable straits, but a dozen petroleum firms have slashed dividends by a total of $7.4 billion, and the Albertan oil sands industry is losing so much money it is doomed, according to the former chief economist of Canadian bank CIBC.
CO2 emissions, energy use diverging from economic growth
Carbon emissions from energy use held steady last year for the second year running, even as the global economy continued to grow, the International Energy Agency said last week. The reasons: 90 percent of new generating capacity commissioned worldwide last year was renewable, and energy was used with increasing efficiency. The ability to wring more service from each kilowatt-hour was at work in the US, where electricity sales fell 1.1 percent in 2015 despite an expanding economy. Although carbon emissions remained flat, last year also saw a record jump in atmospheric CO2 levels—because land and sea are taking up less carbon, thanks in part to El Niño.
Americans grow more concerned about climate
The fraction of Americans who worry “a fair amount” or “a great deal” about climate rose sharply to 64 percent in a new Gallup poll, a shift attributed in part to this year’s warm winter. The increase of 9 percent returns this measure of public concern to levels last seen in 2008. Simultaneously, Gallup found for the first time that most Americans oppose nuclear power—not for fear of accidents, but because it’s unnecessary. Such shifts tempt campaigners to grope for levers that can affect public attitudes by delivering the right message to conservatives or posting warning labels on gas pumps, but others think the search for the right climate frame is a fool’s errand.
Methane deceit and LNG maneuvers
A Southern California oil company was fined $75,000 last week for intentionally venting methane during a larger gas leak from the Porter Ranch underground reservoir. The Termo Company was barred from pumping natural gas into Porter Ranch while Southern California Gas tried to stanch its mammoth methane blow-out, so Termo concealed a 2.5-inch line and vented it behind a tree. In Canada, the federal government approved the Woodfibre LNG terminal in lower BC despite fierce criticism. Trudeau’s environment minister extended the review of the Pacific NorthWest LNG terminal near Prince Rupert; the project had been opposed by the Lax Kw’alaam Band, but a newly elected band council said it would permit the project under certain conditions.
1 weird trick to make utilities like demand reduction
The rapid deployment of rooftop solar will take a $2 billion annual bite out of electric generators’ revenues, says a new ICF International report, as the US approaches its millionth solar roof and utilities serve lower demand. Under traditional regulation, investor-owned utilities have to sell more power or build more infrastructure to improve their bottom lines. Instead, interest is growing in “performance-based regulation,” in which regulators create incentives for utilities to serve consumers in the cleanest and most efficient way possible, even if that means selling less power. Meanwhile, electric co-ops have a built-in incentive to benefit their customers, and are leading the adoption of solar power in Wisconsin.
They don’t make winters like they used to
Ocean currents lapping beneath Antarctic ice shelves have melted caverns that extend far back toward the continent, according to new research published in Nature Geoscience. As ice shelves break up, the glaciers above them flow more rapidly into the sea. Two popular New Zealand glaciers are melting so quickly that they’ve become too dangerous to hike, tour operators have determined. In the Northern Hemisphere, the warmest December-February on record just ended; one result is that New England winters are no longer cold enough to kill the southern pine beetle, which is now chomping its way through forests in Connecticut, Rhode Island and Massachusetts. In Louisiana, government officials are encouraging indigenous residents of a coastal island to relocate their 25-family town, instead of waiting until the combination of sea level rise and the next hurricane wipes it off the map.
In brief: cities try to smooth road for EVs
Seven cities from across the country this month announced plans to electrify their municipal fleets as part of the Energy Secure Cities Coalition, while a New York councilman proposed a network of 35 public chargers, and Seattle unveiled a plan to add EVs to the city’s fleet and initiate pilot programs in residential charging and public fast chargers. The actions came one month after regulators approved San Diego Gas and Electric’s $45 million plan to install 3,500 charging stations across its territory.
Photo: A coal-fired power plant in Arizona. (Image via Flickr by Photo Kent.)
