As coronavirus shocks the energy sector and economy, is now the time for a new energy order?

• COVID-19 has sent shockwaves through the economy, including the energy sector.

• Unprecedented global collaboration has been explored to stabilize energy markets.

• The crisis offers an opportunity to consider a new energy order to enable the energy transition in a sustainable way.

The COVID-19 pandemic has affected every industry in one way or another. For oil and gas, prices have plummeted with the potential to cause disruptions well beyond the energy sector.

Though this is the worst possible way to begin a decade, the coronavirus pandemic and the collapse of oil prices also offer an opportunity to consider unorthodox intervention in the energy markets and global collaboration to support the recovery phase once the acute crisis subsides.

This giant reset grants us the option to launch aggressive, forward-thinking and long-term strategies leading to a diversified, secure and reliable energy system that will ultimately support the future growth of the world economy in a sustainable and equitable way.

The crisis has created an unprecedented alignment between the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries (OPEC) and the G20. While the impact of this alignment in the short term has been low and insufficient, the medium- and long-term effects could be substantial. The alignment demonstrates that it is still possible to reach global agreements even in the context of reducing globalization and increasing nationalism. The agreement between Saudi Arabia, Russia and the US – as proxy of OPEC, OPEC+ and the G20 – to cushion the oil price shock sets a precedent for future collaboration for global energy security and economic growth.

Turning California’s Biggest Liability Into A Biofuel Boom

In California, there is a debate heating up over whether dead trees should be cleared and burned for biofuel before they burn where they are in yet another devastating West Coast wildfire, which are on track to become both more severe and more frequent thanks to rising temperatures and drier conditions due to climate change. A growing contingent of scientists and experts argues that converting these dead and diseased trees to biomass for energy production will “help to restore forests and reduce CO2 emissions.” As reported by Yale Environment 360, “Drought, a warming climate, and bark-beetle infestations have also killed 147 million California trees since 2013.” The article goes on to report that “scientists say these trees are poised to burn in California’s next round of megafires, threatening the range with blazes so intense they will leave some places unable to establish new forests.”

The United States’ Forest Service’s overzealous suppression of fires over the last century in California has backfired, allowing for the massive accumulation of vegetation that would have burned in natural, smaller-scale fires a hundred years ago, and is now abundant tinder for the next megafire. These increasingly common massive wildfires in California, on top of burning homes and entire communities, also “pollute the air with choking smoke, and release large amounts of CO2.” The 2007 Moonlight Fire alone created a staggering amount of carbon dioxide equivalent to yearly the emissions of 750,000 gasoline combustion car engines. 

McLaren thinks synthetic fuel could save the engine as we know it

The technology could be a battery-electric alternative and still reduce emissions when taking battery production into account.

The automotive industry is largely focused on one area when it comes to future powertrains: battery-electric technology. A few still plant to keep a couple of eggs in the fuel-cell basket, too, but that's largely it.

Leave it to McLaren, responsible for some of the wildest supercars on the market, to champion something a little different. The firm's Chief Operating Officer, Jens Ludmann, told Autocar in a Thursday report that synthetic fuel is something McLaren is interested in.

How interested? The company plans to produce a development car that runs on synthetic fuel to showcase the technology's potential. Ludmann says the fuel would require minimal tweaks to today's internal combustion engine, and it'd still be much better for the environment from a CO2 standpoint. Ludmann says synthetic fuel is particularly viable if companies look at CO2 production included in not only an EV's lifecycle, but the EV's battery production. The fact is, building batteries still isn't that great for the environment as we continue to source more materials for the energy storage devices.

Mazda Backs Research Into 'Essential' Biofuels

So you think the internal combustion engine is dead? Mazda doesn't.

With some governments around the world thinking about banning gasoline and diesel cars in the decades to come, you could be forgiven for thinking the internal combustion engine is breathing its last breath. But Japanese carmaker Mazda thinks there’s life in the old dog yet, and the company is backing a range of research projects that could see biofuels dispensed from our pumps.

The company, which is well known for its rotary-engined sports cars and the MX-5 roadster, says it thinks algae-based biofuels are “critical” if the world is to make internal combustion-powered cars carbon-neutral. Mazda says that’s because when burnt, algae biofuel only releases carbon dioxide that was soaked up from the atmosphere by the algae as it grew.

Banks, asset managers, and insurance companies around the world are waking up to the challenge of global warming. Here’s how they can drive change.

The fossil fuel industry faces a classic business problem: Someone else has come up with a better technology. Over the past decade, engineering advances have helped drive down the price of solar panels and wind turbines by some 90%. Clean energy is now the cheapest way to generate power in most of the world. And today, storage batteries are on the same plummeting price curve—so that, increasingly, the sun’s habit of going down at night is no big deal. Even the car, which has helped define our culture and consumes vast quantities of fossil fuel, is changing fast. No honest person who has driven a Tesla will dispute that it’s a superior machine: fast, with few moving parts, and a quiet elegance that makes a rumbling muscle car seem more than a little old-fashioned. 

Faced with that kind of challenge, incumbent industries usually play for time, trying to eke out another decade or two of profits before wandering off to a well-appointed retirement home. For the energy industry—at the heart of our economy for so long—transition periods have been particularly slow. Fixed investments and established supply lines mean that, in the past, converting from wood to coal or coal to oil has played out over 40 or 50 years or more. Plenty of time for a nice wind-down. 

MIT Published a List of the 9 Megatrends That Will Shape the World in 2030. Here's What They All Have in Common

Climate change, transparency, and nationalism will be driving the workforce 10 years from now.

For decades, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology has generated some of the world's greatest innovators, entrepreneurs, and startups. MIT has built a strong research and engineering culture since its founding in 1861, producing dozens of Nobel laureates along the way. 3Com, Akamai, Bose, Dropbox, Intel, iRobot, Kahn Academy, BuzzFeed, HP, and Qualcomm all have MIT roots. So I always pay attention to the lists published in MIT's in-house journal, The MIT Sloan Management Review.

Understanding change is at the heart of entrepreneurship. As a founder, you need to spot unmet needs arising from changes in demographics, politics, and innovation. If you fail to do so, you may fail yourself.

Trump DOE chief suggests 100% renewable energy is possible

Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette suggested Thursday that the United States could eventually use entirely renewable energy, a rare acknowledgment from an official representing the Trump administration, which has sought to boost production of fossil fuels.

Brouillette was testifying at a congressional hearing on the Energy Department's fiscal year 2021 budget request. The proposed budget seeks to boost the development of energy storage technologies that can hold excess wind and solar energy for use when the sun isn't shining and wind isn't blowing.

The budget contains $97 million for an “Energy Storage Grand Challenge" that would fund development of long-duration, or grid-scale, batteries that could store wind and solar power for a longer period than possible with current technology.

JP Morgan economists warn climate crisis is threat to human race

Leaked report for world’s major fossil fuel financier says Earth is on unsustainable trajectory

The world’s largest financier of fossil fuels has warned clients that the climate crisis threatens the survival of humanity and that the planet is on an unsustainable trajectory, according to a leaked document.

The JP Morgan report on the economic risks of human-caused global heating said climate policy had to change or else the world faced irreversible consequences.

The study implicitly condemns the US bank’s own investment strategy and highlights growing concerns among major Wall Street institutions about the financial and reputational risks of continued funding of carbon-intensive industries, such as oil and gas.

Students push universities to stop investing in fossil fuels

NEW HAVEN, Conn. (AP) — Students alarmed by climate change are stepping up pressure on universities to pull investments from fossil fuel industries, an effort that is gaining traction at prestigious schools like Georgetown, Harvard and Yale.

The push that is underway at hundreds of schools began nearly a decade ago, and student activists increasingly have learned from one another’s tactics and moved to act amid worsening predictions about the effects of climate change on the planet.

Georgetown University’s board of directors announced this month that it will end private investments in coal, oil and gas companies within the next decade, and some faculty at Harvard have called for a similar shift. There were sit-ins and demonstrations last week at dozens of schools, including Gonzaga University, the University of Wisconsin, University of Pittsburgh and Cornell University.

WOOD COULD BE THE NEXT PETROLEUM

Lignin is the most versatile material you've never heard of.

A SOCIETAL TRANSITION completely away from fossil fuels would be, to put it lightly, a massive endeavor. Take containers and packaging alone, the stuff that holds sodas, keeps eggs in their cartons, and holds late-night snacks in clamshell containers. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that in 2017, the most recent year for which it has data, that plastic waste amounted to 14.5 million tons of municipal solid waste. Just how could all that packaging be reduced without dramatically upping the price of packaging? An interdisciplinary team at Belgian university KU Leuven has an idea that might sound counterintuitive at first: WOOD.

Wood, of course, comes from trees. And green energy is very much focused on conserving trees. Deforestation is a major problem around the globe—the Union of Concerned Scientists estimates that an area approximately the size of Switzerland is chopped down each year, and in 2016, the World Bank estimated that the world has lost 1.3 million square kilometers of forests since 1990, an area larger than South Africa.

Europe’s biomass problem

Wood-fired power will actually increase emissions over timescales relevant to the Paris Agreement

Biomass was central to the pioneering Indian environmentalist Anil Agarwal’s thesis on the differing environmental challenges in rich and poor countries. Much of the Third World’s resources were employed to produce biomass for consumption in the West.

But for their own consumption (however low), the poor were more dependent on biomass than the rich, living in what he called a “biomass-based subsistence economy”. Even as the West largely shifted to fossil fuels, biomass still accounted for most of the energy consumption of the poor in developing countries.

But that has long been changing. Designed to meet climate targets, the European Commission’s Renewable Energy Directive (RED, 2009) has fueled a boom in the production of biomass for energy use. This includes liquid biofuels such as bioethanol and biodiesel (blended in traditional fuels), biogas and well as solid biomass such as wood pellets which is burnt for heat and power production.

Indonesian forester widens B.C. footprint

Indonesian agri-business conglomerate Sinar Mas, which has been besieged by accusations of deforestation, is rapidly expanding in Canada, reopening a pulp mill in northern British Columbia and recently purchasing another near Vancouver.

The company's strategy is to add to its supply of pulp to produce paper and other products for customers in Asia, as well as to use a separate corporate arm to try to distance itself from controversy.

Through a Netherlands-based company called Paper Excellence, Sinar Mas on Tuesday officially opened its pulp mill in Mackenzie, B.C., an industry town that at one point saw every mill shuttered during the severe forestry recession.

The Uncomfortable Truth About Biofuel

Earlier this month, France’s constitutional court upheld a law cutting palm oil from the country’s list of approved biofuels and eliminating associated tax exemptions. The court rejected an appeal by French energy company Total, which had invested 300 million euros to convert a crude oil refinery into a biofuel plant that would use palm oil feedstock.

Mixing biofuels with fossil fuels for vehicles to burn initially seemed like an easy way to cut down on the 22% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions that stem from the transport sector. Biofuels are still expected to play an important part in hitting ambitious climate targets; to keep global warming under 1.5°C by 2100, at least 26.3% of transport’s energy mix would need to be composed of biofuels. At the same time, the unintentional environmental consequences provoked by mandatory biofuel quotas have increasingly come under scrutiny.

Gov. Newsom in crisis mode as California endures wildfires, power outages, winds

Gov. Gavin Newsom sunk into a chair in the lobby of Novato Community Hospital, where he had just met with patients who were evacuated from nearby hospitals due to the Kincade fire. Newsom said he was impressed with the coordination between local, state and federal governments to ensure vulnerable residents in the path of the fire were taken care of.

The Democratic governor even called the Trump administration’s response to California’s wildfires “spectacular.”

“I have nothing but good things to say about the federal government’s support,” Newsom said. “In fact, the Homeland Security acting director proactively called me two days ago to check in. … Hats off to them.”

Views from Napa Valley: A Peak at California’s Low Carbon Fuels Program (2019)

I attended the Argus Biofuels & Carbon Markets Summit in Napa Valley October 21-23 2019. Time flies. The last time I was at the gathering was 2015. Donald Trump had recently announced his candidacy riding down the now famous escalator in Trump Tower alongside Melania, while David Cameron was still entertaining the idea of allowing a Brexit referendum to “strengthen his power”. Hit “Fast Forward”. On October 2019 hit “Pause”. Reflect. What a turn of events!

Other things have occurred in more predictable ways. Take California’s climate change mitigation efforts – and specifically the LCFS (Low Carbon Fuels Standard), the State’s flagship Program aimed at decarbonizing the transportation sector. Back in 2015 the Program was emerging from years of vicious lawsuits, aimed at damaging and delaying it. The petroleum lobby was still doing its bit to attack and sabotage the policy (the so oft used phantom fuel argument). I clearly sensed that California’s legislators and regulators – backed by its citizens – would have the spine to stay the course. Unlike Congress and the EPA – whose actions have undermined the Renewable Fuels Standard (the federal biofuels program). I was right. Four years on, the LCFS is the gold standard. Industry relies on it to make investment decisions on low carbon fuels projects. Other jurisdictions are looking to emulate it. It is a bright spot in the midst of America’s depressingly weak stance on fighting climate change – but one that bodes well, as California typically leads the way when it comes to environmental legislation in the United States.

New fuel to get sea freight environmentally shipshape

Tens of thousands of cargo ships will have to start using less polluting fuels in January, a boon for the environment that could however lead to higher bills for consumers.

The International Maritime Organization decided in 2016 that the sulphur levels in fuels for ships would have to fall to 0.5 percent in 2020, compared to 3.5 percent currently.

The idea is to reduce the emission of highly toxic sulphur dioxide -- a health hazard also responsible for causing acid rain -- by the nearly 80,000 cargo ships which ply the seas delivering raw materials and merchandise.

If You Want ‘Renewable Energy,’ Get Ready to Dig

Democrats dream of powering society entirely with wind and solar farms combined with massive batteries. Realizing this dream would require the biggest expansion in mining the world has seen and would produce huge quantities of waste.

“Renewable energy” is a misnomer. Wind and solar machines and batteries are built from nonrenewable materials. And they wear out. Old equipment must be decommissioned, generating millions of tons of waste. The International Renewable Energy Agency calculates that solar goals for 2050 consistent with the Paris Accords will result in old-panel disposal constituting more than double the tonnage of all today’s global plastic waste.

Berkeley becomes first U.S. city to ban natural gas in new homes

Berkeley has become the first city in the nation to ban the installation of natural gas lines in new homes.

The City Council on Tuesday night unanimously voted to ban gas from new low-rise residential buildings starting Jan. 1.

It’s not the first time Berkeley has passed pioneering health or environmental legislation. In 1977, Berkeley was the first in the country to ban smoking in restaurants and bars. In January the city banned single-use disposables, requiring restaurants to use to-go foodware that is compostable.

Wyden, Merkley Introduce Bipartisan Legislation to Promote Cleaner Transportation Fuel, Healthier Forests

Legislation allows the use of biomass waste from certain federal lands in the making of renewable fuels

Washington, D.C. – U.S. Sens. Ron Wyden and Jeff Merkley today introduced bipartisan legislation to allow the use of biomass from certain federal lands needing ecological restoration in the making of renewable fuels to promote healthier forests, more carbon sequestration, cleaner transportation fuels and strong protections for old growth forests.

Current law does not allow the use of federal biomass in the making of renewable fuels as defined by the Renewable Fuel Standard. Wyden and Merkley’s bill introduced today eliminates that exclusion and:

• makes it financially feasible for private landowners to remove low-value brush that impact wildlife habitats and pose fire risks;

• ensures that all mill residuals—like sawdust and shavings—can be used for biofuels;

• helps pay for projects to reduce dead and dying trees that fuel catastrophic wildfires and to thin out unhealthy second-growth forests;

• requires biomass materials harvested from federal lands to be done so in accordance with all federal laws, regulations, and land-use plans and designations; and

• explicitly restricts the types of biomass materials that can be harvested from federal lands so that old growth trees and stands are protected.

New York On The Verge Of Passing Very Aggressive Clean Energy Bill

New York is on the verge of passing the most ambitious climate bill in the U.S. to date, a down payment on a Green New Deal and a warning shot for the fossil fuel industry.

The bill would require the state to source 100 percent of its electricity from clean energy by 2040. But it goes much further than that, requiring an 85 percent reduction in greenhouse gas emissions (below 1990 levels) from all sources by 2050. The remaining 15 percent could come in the form of offsets or carbon capture.