Tuesday, November 5, 2024

Obama Administration News

Methane Emission Reduction takes Center Stage of UN GHG Report

© VectorMine/AdobeStock

In four decades of climate negotiations, the world has focused intensely and exclusively on the most abundant climate-warming gas: carbon dioxide. This year, scientists are urging a focus on another potent greenhouse gas – methane – as the planet's best hope for staving off catastrophic global warming.Countries must make "strong…

U.S. Ingenuity Will Solve Climate Challenge: US DOE

AdobeStock / © xmentoys

The United States can tackle threats to the climate through technological advances as fossil fuels will remain a priority for the U.S. government and business, the assistant secretary for fossil energy said on Tuesday.The world should look to the United States' ability to reduce its emissions…

USA to Make Paris Climate Exit Official

AdobeStock / © DB Vigaro

The Trump administration will file paperwork with the United Nations as early as Monday to withdraw the United States from the Paris Agreement, marking the first formal step in a one-year process to exit the global pact to fight climate change.The move would finalize a…

Trump Administration to Revise Offshore Safety Rules

© Lukasz Z / Adobe Stock

The Trump administration will unveil on Thursday its final plan to roll back offshore drilling safety measures put in place by the Obama administration after the fatal 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, the worst in U.S. history, raising concerns by some groups over…

US Lease Sale a Test for Drilling Demand

© 
flyingrussian / Adobe Stock

The Trump administration will hold its fourth major auction for oil and gas leases in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico on Wednesday, in a fresh test of demand from drillers that have lately been shying away from the region.The outcome of the lease sale will provide the last big signal from the industry about their interest in U.S.

Rising US Oil Clout on Show in Houston

© Steve Prorak / Adobe Stock

A glance at the attendee list at one of the world's largest energy industry events in Houston this week left little question about the growing influence of the United States over global oil politics.Present: top U.S. diplomat Mike Pompeo. Absent: leading Saudi and Russian officials…

Smarter Energy Policy Will Broaden Offshore Recovery

For the past few years, depressed commodity prices, stricter regulatory requirements and competition from onshore development at home and from other countries offering attractive offshore lease and royalty terms have had severe impacts on new exploration in the U.S. Gulf of Mexico.

Iran Sanctions, Moderate Gasoline Prices Not Possible: Kemp

The White House can drive Iran’s oil exports to zero, or it can have moderate U.S. gasoline prices, but it probably cannot have both. The awkward tension between the administration’s foreign policy priority (tough Iran sanctions) and its electoral calculation (to keep…

US States Slow Trump Offshore Oil Drilling Expansion Plan

© Georg Lehnerer / Adobe Stock

The Trump administration's plan to broadly expand drilling in U.S. offshore waters is moving slowly due to opposition from coastal states and indifference from oil companies that have turned their focus to other opportunities. The administration hopes encouraging U.S.

Trump Aims to Open Nearly All US Offshore to Oil Drilling

© wanfahmy / Adobe Stock

The Trump administration on Thursday proposed opening nearly all U.S. offshore waters to oil and gas drilling, a move aimed at boosting domestic energy production that sparked protests from coastal states, environmentalists and the tourism industry. The effort to open previously off-limits acreage in the Atlantic…

Trump to Open Oil Drilling off US East Coast

President Donald Trump (Official White House photo)

The Trump administration is preparing a plan that would open up oil drilling off the U.S. East Coast, Bloomberg reported. President Trump ordered the Interior Department to create the draft proposal as part of his “America-First Offshore Energy Strategy” executive order in April.

SolarCity to Pay $29.5 Mln to Resolve US Gov't Allegations

SolarCity will pay $29.5 million to settle a long-running investigation into allegations it violated federal law by submitting inflated claims to the government through a popular stimulus program set up during the Obama administration, the U.S. Justice Department said Friday.

Coal's Problem is Not Climate Change: Kemp

© EyeMark / Adobe Stock

U.S. coal companies blame climate campaigners and the Obama administration for waging a war on coal that has cost thousands of jobs and threatened struggling mining communities. But coal’s long-term problems stem not from politics but from physical properties that make it an inferior source of energy compared with oil…

India Searches for Clean Coal Funding

Coal to meet over half of India's power needs by 2040; its dependence on imported coal to continue. India needs to partner with other countries to tap cheaper funds for cleaner coal technologies as the South Asian nation is expected to use the fuel to produce over half of its power in the next two decades…

U.S. Biofuels Mandates Under High Stakes Scrutiny

U.S. biofuels regulations, which mandate mixing corn-based ethanol into gasoline, have lately drawn together a diverse cast of political opponents. They include an upstart gas station owners' trade group, a former Obama administration environmental adviser and billionaire activist investor Carl Icahn…

'Bring On More Renewables,' US Regulator Says

© Jonathan Weiss / Adobe Stock

Wind and solar power does not make the U.S. electricity grid less stable, an outgoing federal regulator said on Tuesday, as the Trump administration readies a study that will examine whether renewable energy has had a harmful effect. Colette Honorable, a member of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission…

US Top Court Sides with Venezuela over Oil Rigs Claim

The U.S. Supreme Court on Monday tossed out a lower court's ruling that had allowed an American oil drilling company to sue Venezuela over the seizure of 11 drilling rigs in 2010 but allowed the business another chance to press its claims. Siding with Venezuela, the justices…

Trump to Order Review of Offshore Drilling Bans

U.S. President Donald Trump will today order a review of offshore areas currently off limits to oil and gas drilling to determine which might be reopened, in his administration's latest move to expand domestic energy production. The order could lead to a reversal of bans on drilling across swathes of the Atlantic…

Trump to Order Review of Federal Land Use

U.S. President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to identify national monuments that can be rescinded or resized - part of a push to open up more federal lands to drilling, mining and other development. The move comes as Trump seeks to reverse a slew…

E. Coast Refiners Shun Bakken Rail Deliveries

Philadelphia Energy Solutions Inc, the largest refiner on the U.S. East Coast, will not be taking any rail deliveries of North Dakota's Bakken crude oil in June, a source familiar with delivery schedules said on Tuesday - a sign that the impending start of the Dakota Access Pipeline is upending trade flows.