Volume 11, Issue 5
March 29, 2021 – April 4, 2021
Zihan Lin '23 | Ben Buchovecky ‘23 | Joe Kawalec '21 | Riti Bhandarkar ‘23

API wants Congress to put a price on carbon
March 25, 2021 | E&E News | Timothy Cama

The nation’s largest oil and natural gas industry group announced that it supports placing a price on carbon dioxide emissions, marking a significant change from the group’s prior stance. The American Petroleum Institute (API) had previously lobbied against carbon pricing proposals, but the group is now shifting its position as the Biden administration begins to unveil aggressive climate change policies. The reversal comes after many of the oil and gas giants like ExxonMobile, Chevron, Royal Dutch Shell, and BP have already endorsed carbon taxes. API has not indicated a preferred carbon price or mechanism for carbon pricing, advocating for an open-ended “market-based approach” instead. Still, this is a significant moment for the oil and gas industry, as API indicates its intent to join climate policy negotiations. -BB

Los Angeles now has a road map for 100% renewable energy
March 24, 2021 | LA Times | Sammy Roth

On Wednesday, the National Renewable Energy Laboratory released a in-depth study, commissioned by the city of Los Angeles, that detailed a road map for a transition to 98% clean energy in the city within the next decade. This study was a major energy systems analysis, immense in both scale and depth. A team of nearly 100 people ran more than 100 million simulations that calculated outcomes for electricity use, job creation, weather conditions, and potential for new energy construction projects. They concluded that in order to reach President Biden’s ambitious energy goals of 100% clean energy by 2035, Los Angeles would need to install 470 to 730 megawatts of solar, wind and batteries each year for the next 25 years. This is an ambitious undertaking, especially designing rate structure and incentive programs that align utilities’ incentives with the goals outlined in the study.
-RB

New porous material promising for making renewable energy from water
March 22, 2021 | ScienceDaily | Karin Söderlund Leifler

The development of a new material for capturing solar energy and splitting water molecules to generate hydrogen gas is the focus of a new study in the journal ACS Nano. Hydrogen has already been popular as a fuel with a higher energy density than petrol and using solar energy to help split water molecules would provide the basis for a sustainable source. This material, named cubic silicon carbide, or 3C-SiC, has a promising degree of efficiency for water splitting than most other materials due to its extremely small pores that partially increase the surface area available for charge transfer. Additionally, the material “can efficiently trap and harvest ultraviolet and most of the visible sunlight.” The development of this material is an important step on the road to developing novel sustainable energy technologies for the future. -JK

Diversify or risk unrest, oil producers warned in report
March 26, 2021 | Guardian Energy | Saeed Kamali Dehghan

As political and public pressure continue to drive for changes in the energy markets to combat climate changes, oil-dependent countries are struggling to adapt to the inevitable global shift. In the recent years before the Covid pandemic, the oil fuel industry has made some recoveries in its value. The pandemic ended it all. Between 2014, when the oil price plummeted, and the beginning of the pandemic, oil-dependent countries failed to diversify their economy. While the United Arab Emirates and Qatar are well-equipped with their plentiful resources and more adaptive economies, west African states such as Angola, Gabon, and Congo are crippling under a fragile political system. The critical step that the world must take is threatening to destabilize countries that have been relying on oil exports. -ZL