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ERNEST MONIZ OFFERS REAL TALK ON CLIMATE PLANS: Former Obama administration Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz cast doubt about the feasibility of various Democratic climate proposals, including calls to quickly get off fossil fuels.
“At least for another 15 years or so, plus or minus five years, we need to have natural gas continue as part of the solution,” Moniz said Thursday during an address at the Decarbonization Policy Forum hosted by Pepco, the D.C. utility company.
More on Moniz’s comments below.
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Moniz, continued: Moniz noted “we still have a long way to go” to displace coal, with there still being 233 coal plants in the U.S. after 297 have retired, according to Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal campaign. Natural gas has surpassed coal as the most used electricity source, but coal held onto 27% of market share as of 2018.
While renewables paired with storage are beating out gas on price in some markets, “we are not at the point yet — not close — where wind, solar and lithium-ion batteries provide a reliable system,” Moniz said, noting the lack of long-duration storage that can operate for months at a time.
Moniz has a ‘Green Real Deal’: A nuclear physicist by training, Moniz released a framework he called the “Green Real Deal” last month that envisions a role for fossil fuels as part of decarbonizing the economy by midcentury.
Moniz said he foresees “no chance” of decarbonizing the economy without using carbon “offsets,” including “at-scale” carbon removal technologies like carbon capture on gas plants and direct air capture. His Energy Futures Initiative this week presented a $10.7 billion, 10-year R&D plan for carbon removal.
“Bluntly I would say flat-out there is no solution that is credible for getting to zero,” Moniz said. “There is for net-zero, and that almost automatically means there has to be large-scale negative carbon contributions.”
Carbon tax proposals should be thoughtful: The former Obama energy secretary also expressed doubt about aspects of a GOP-backed carbon tax plan proposed by Climate Leadership Council, a group led by former Republican Secretaries of State James Baker III and George Shultz.
Without implicating the group by name, he said policymakers should be wary of carbon tax plans that also scrap or prevent carbon regulations of power plants and other stationary sources imposed by the Environmental Protection Agency. He said there is a risk policymakers push down the price of a carbon tax too low in order for it to pass Congress.
For example, he said a carbon tax starting at $40 per ton, as the Climate Leadership Council has proposed, would be a “technology game changer” in the electricity sector, pushing out fossil fuels.
But the rate would need to be “much, much” higher to address sectors with fewer available substitutes, such as manufacturing.
“That little nice statement of, ‘since you have a carbon price you can remove regulations’ has to be thought about carefully,” Moniz said. “The baby can easily go out with the bathwater depending on how those other sectors are addressed.”
Even if his preferred policies happen, with major technological breakthroughs, Moniz said he cannot foresee a world in which “we don’t overshoot 1.5 degrees [celsius]” the more ambitious goal of the Paris agreement, and a threshold that if met could produce significant climate change affects.
FERC AND UNIVERSITY OF KENTUCKY PARTNER ON FORUM TO HELP COAL WORKERS: The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is partnering with the University of Kentucky Center for Applied Energy Research on a forum to discuss challenges to workers caused by the transition of the energy system away from fossil fuels.
FERC Chairman Neil Chatterjee, a Republican from Kentucky, a coal state, announced Thursday the first ever “EnVision Forum” to take place October 21 with panel events focused on topics ranging from workforce impacts to the intersection of telecom and energy policies, to climate change, criminal justice, and water-related issues.
“We want to start some new conversations with new voices and create relationships and understanding among the range of interests that are affected by this energy transition,” Chatterjee said. “Launching the EnVision Forum in my home state of Kentucky, where we are seeing a wave of societal challenges due to the closure of coal plants and mines, was the logical first step for us to take.”
The forum, held at the University of Kentucky, includes a diverse set of speakers, most notably, coal executive and President Trump donor Bob Murray, Deputy Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, and Democratic Senator Sheldon Whitehouse — a fossil fuel industry critic.
CHATTERJEE DISMISSES CONCERNS ABOUT TRUMP POLITICIZING FERC NOMINEES: Chatterjee dismissed concerns Thursday by Democrats that Trump could choose to only fill one of two vacancies at FERC by first nominating a Republican without also putting forth a Democrat.
Chatterjee addressed questions about FERC nominees after speaking at the Clean Energy Week Policymakers Symposium. He told reporters it’s not unprecedented for the White House to break custom and choose to not pair one nominee from each party, recounting how the Obama administration delayed nominating him, leaving FERC with no Republican members from September 2016 to August 2017.
“I don’t recall those similar kinds of questions being asked then because the commission was able to move forward and do its work, and I anticipate we will do the same,” Chatterjee said.
Joe Manchin of West Virginia, the top Democrat on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, has urged Trump to rise above the “political fray” and simultaneously nominate one Republican and one Democrat. Democratic Leader Chuck Schumer has also issued warnings.
If Trump were only to nominate a Republican — rumored to be FERC general counsel James Danly — his confirmation would give the commission three Republicans and one Democrat.
MICHIGAN’S LARGEST UTILITY COMMITS TO NET-ZERO EMISSIONS BY 2050: DTE Energy, the largest utility in Michigan, committed Thursday to reach net-zero emissions in its electricity generation by 2050.
DTE’s announcement follows similar pledges by other utilities such as Xcel Energy and Duke Energy.
The Michigan utility previously committed to reduce carbon emissions 50% by 2030 and 80% by 2040.
Jerry Norcia, DTE’s CEO, said the company would advocate for policy to improve technologies such as carbon capture, large-scale energy storage, and small modular nuclear reactors, which he said is necessary to reach the carbon neutrality goal.
“This is the right thing to do for our customers, business and the environment,” Norcia said. “We are doing as much as we can, as fast as we can, to provide our customers and the state of Michigan with clean energy that is affordable and reliable.”
NUCLEAR WASTE STORAGE BILL FINDS NEW LIFE IN CONGRESS: The House Energy and Commerce climate change subcommittee approved a nuclear waste storage bill Thursday, giving new life to the long dormant and controversial issue.
The subcommittee passed the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act that would direct the Energy Department to create a temporary storage program until Yucca Mountain is approved by regulators and funded by Congress, if it ever is.
A similar version of the bill passed the House by bipartisan margins last Congress but it did not move in the Senate.
“Today’s advancing of the Nuclear Waste Policy Amendments Act brings us one step closer to delivering on a long overdue promise to finally address this national issue,” said Greg Walden of Oregon and John Shimkus of Illinois, the top Republicans of the Energy and Commerce Committee. “Building on the progress made last Congress…we remain committed to getting this bill across the finish line to President Trump.”
Yucca Mountain is the nation’s only approved geologic repository for high-level nuclear waste. But opposition from Nevada lawmakers has stalled the 30-year effort to develop the Yucca site.
Spent nuclear fuel sits idle in 121 communities across 39 states.
Critics of interim storage worry the targeted final destination, Yucca Mountain, will never open. If that were to happen, the temporary facilities could become de facto permanent storage facilities, a task they would not be set up to do.
BRITISH-FLAGGED TANKER SEIZED BY IRAN LEAVES PORT AFTER BEING HELD FOR MONTHS: A British-flagged oil tanker that was seized by Iran in July left an Iranian port with its crew and was headed toward international waters on Friday.
Stena Bulk, the vessel’s operator, and Iran’s state-run IRNA news agency both confirmed the tanker, Stena Impero, had left the Iranian port Friday morning.
Twenty-three crew members, none of them British, were on board when Iran’s Revolutionary Guards forces captured the ship in the Strait of Hormuz.
The ship was swept up in a dispute between Iran and the West, which also included the seizure of an Iranian tanker by British forces near Gibraltar in July. The U.S. said the ship was bringing oil to Syria, defying European Union sanctions.
British forces released the Iranian tanker last month, despite a last-minute effort from the U.S. to prevent its release.
The Rundown
New York Times Kathryn Murdoch steps out of the family shadow to fight climate change
Washington Post When it comes to acknowledging humans’ role in climate change, oil and gas industry lawyer says ‘that ship has sailed’
Reuters Global oil shipping rates soar as US supertanker sanctions rattle crude trade
Bloomberg How an oil giant tries to thrive in chaos
Calendar
MONDAY | SEPTEMBER 30
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