• Energy

San Francisco Turns Off the Gas

• air pollution
• natural gas
• San Francisco

San Francisco’s Board of Supervisors voted unanimously last week to ban natural gas in all new buildings, InsideClimate News reported. By making all new construction electrified, the city will be able to cut emissions from buildings and make its climate goals over the next decades more achievable. 

Why This Matters: Nearly half of San Francisco’s greenhouse gas emissions come from buildings. Burning natural gas accounts for most of those emissions, the city estimates. Burning natural gas is doubly dangerous for the planet. 

• Air

Carbon Dioxide Not Expected to Exceed 2019 Levels Again Until 2027

• carbon dioxide
• CO2
• coal
• greenhouse gas emissions
• IEA
• methane
• natural gas
• oil
• Vulcan

The International Energy Agency (IEA) Annual Report projects that because of the COVID-19 pandemic, there will be a 7 percent drop in energy-related carbon dioxide emissions in 2020 due to associated reductions in fossil fuel use, and that emissions of CO2 pollution will remain below 2019 levels until 2027. 

Why This Matters:  This is good news for air pollution in general as well as for climate change.  We needed to put the breaks on continual increases in CO2 emissions — and this was a hard way to do it.

• Energy

New IEA Report Crowns Renewables “New King” of World Electricity Markets

• coal
• IEA
• natural gas
• renewable energy
• World Outlook Report

Yesterday, the International Energy Agency published its 2020 World Energy Outlook, which focuses on the next decade in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic and makes a bold forecast: oil demand will hit a plateau in 2030 and decline from there, while solar energy could become the “new king of the world’s electricity markets.” In […]

• Energy

Is the Bridge Collapsing on America’s Bridge Fuel?

• fossil fuels
• natural gas
• renewable energy

It’s been said many times, especially by the industry who fracks it, that natural gas is a “bridge fuel.” And while natural gas beat out coal as a fuel source and helped bring down U.S. greenhouse gas emissions, it’s far from an emissions-free fuel source. During last year’s CNN climate change town hall, then-presidential candidate […]

• Energy

NC Denies Pipeline Project Permit Due to Water Quality and Project Risks

• clean water
• Endangered Species Act
• fracking
• Mountain Valley Pipeline
• natural gas
• pipeline
• safe drinking water

The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality (NC DEQ) on Monday rejected the permit application of the MVP Southgate natural gas pipeline project, a $458M, 75-mile extension of the Mountain Valley Pipeline (MVP) that would cross numerous water bodies. 

Why This Matters: This is yet another blow to the natural gas and pipeline industries.

• Energy

Chesapeake Energy Files For Bankruptcy Protection Due to Debts and Slumping Gas Prices

• bankruptcy
• Chesapeake Energy
• COVID-19
• fracking
• natural gas

Chesapeake Energy, one of the first companies to take advantage of directional drilling and push fracking, filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in Houston on Sunday, the latest victim of the oil and gas price plunge caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. 

Why This Matters:  This is one of the most high profile firms to fall apart during the pandemic, but due to the long term economics of oil and gas, it won’t be the last.