ODAC Newsletter – June 3

Oil traded near $100 a barrel in New York, little changed from a week ago, before a report that will indicate the strength of the U.S. economy and as OPEC prepares to meet in Vienna next week to decide output quotas.

Futures have fluctuated from $98 to $103 a barrel this week. The U.S. Labor Department will say today that employers added fewer jobs in May, according to a Bloomberg News survey. The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries will respond if the world needs more crude, Saudi Arabian Oil Minister Ali Al-Naimi said before the group meets June 8…

The British Government is unlikely to support an EU push to include tar sands in its new fuel directive

The Coalition Government’s claim to be the “greenest government ever” has come under fresh scrutiny from politicians and environmental groups who accuse Britain of undermining a Europe-wide forecourt ban on one of the most climate-polluting fuels…

Barely a day goes by it seems when someone from Stephen Harper’s government is not touting the benefits of the Alberta tar sands.

But when it came to counting up the carbon emissions produced by the tar sands – big and growing bigger – a strange amnesia seems to have taken hold…

UK banks helping to finance oil giant Total’s exploitation of tar sands on the world’s fourth largest island despite lack of adequate environmental controls or regulation.

Plans to extract oil from tar sands deposits in Madagascar, including one partly inside a UNESCO World Heritage site, have been condemned by an alliance of environmental and human rights groups in the country…

Shokri Ghanem, Libya’s oil minister, has joined a growing list of senior Libyan officials to abandon Muammer Gaddafi’s regime, surfacing in Rome on Wednesday to confirm his defection after disappearing from view two weeks earlier.

“I worked in Libya for many years, thinking I could achieve reforms from the inside. This is not possible, especially now that we see this bloodshed,” he told a press conference in what used to be Libya’s embassy in Rome but whose ambassador defected when the conflict began in February…

Tensions between China and Vietnam escalated over the weekend as each nation accused the other of violating its sovereignty in the oil-rich South China Sea.

PetroVietnam, the state-owned oil and gas monopoly, said on Sunday that China had sabotaged Vietnamese oil exploration vessels, the latest accusation between the countries over the disputed waters…

The controversial new drilling operation for natural shale gas in Lancashire has been suspended following a second earthquake in the area that may have been triggered by the process. The earthquake last Friday near Blackpool occurred at the same time that the energy company Cuadrilla Resources was injecting fluids under high pressure deep underground to deliberately blast apart the gas-bearing rock — a process known as “fracking”, brought to Britain from the US, where it has been highly contentious.

Earthquake experts from the British Geological Survey said that the 1.5 magnitude quake last week was similar to a 2.3 earthquake in April in the same area and that both may be linked to the experimental fracking for shale gas at Preese Hall on the Fylde coast…

Russia and Qatar are under growing pressure from Europe’s biggest utilities to scrap a 40-year-old system that links natural-gas prices to oil after Brent crude’s 23 percent surge this year.

As delegates from countries that hold two-thirds of the world’s reserves gather in Cairo tomorrow for a one-day meeting of the Gas Exporting Countries Forum, customers from France’s GDF Suez SA to EON AG of Germany are urging producers to link prices to spot markets instead of insisting on long-term contracts that shadow the fluctuations of oil. Contract prices will rise about 15 percent in the next quarter alone, according to Wood Mackenzie Ltd., an Edinburgh-based energy consultant…

A top New York State official filed a lawsuit against the federal government on Tuesday to force an assessment of the environmental risks posed by drilling for natural gas in the Delaware River Basin, arguing that a regulatory commission should not issue final rules governing the drilling until a study is completed.

The suit, filed in United States District Court in Brooklyn by Eric T. Schneiderman, the New York attorney general, involves the Delaware River Basin Commission, a regional regulatory agency. Made up of the governors of New York, Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Delaware and a federal representative from the Army Corps of Engineers, it is preparing to issue regulations intended to bring some uniformity to the rules applied to a controversial type of gas extraction that combines horizontal drilling with hydraulic fracturing, or hydrofracking…

China plans to apply the first broad electricity price increases in around 18 months on Wednesday amid government warnings of looming energy shortages that could be the worst in years.

The National Development Reform Commission, which sets energy prices in China, said late Monday that electricity tariffs for commercial users would rise in 15 provinces effective June 1, the first such increase since November 2009. Analysts said the amount corresponded to a less than 3% increase. The commission cited electricity shortages and excess demand, making its move as a deep drought afflicts central China and threatens to add to power production woes…

Brazil’s environment agency has backed construction of a hydro-electric dam in the Amazon, opposed by indigenous groups and environmentalists.

The agency, Ibama, said the Belo Monte dam on the Xingu River had been subjected to “robust analysis” of its impact on the environment…

One of the driest springs ever recorded in northern Europe could lead to power blackouts this summer, with nuclear reactors going offline because of low river levels. The exceptionally dry weather will also raise food prices and has already forced water restrictions on millions of people, say governments, farm groups and meteorological organisations across the continent.

Large parts of southern Britain, northern France, Germany, Switzerland, Austria and other northern and eastern European countries have had their driest three-month spells in more than 50 years, receiving just 25-60% of their long-term average rainfall since February. This has led to parched soils and difficult growing conditions for farmers, as well as to river levels that are dangerously low for wildlife…

Radioactive water accumulating in Japan’s crippled Fukushima plant may start overflowing from service trenches in five days, potentially increasing the contamination from the worst nuclear crisis since Chernobyl.

Tokyo Electric Power Co. has been manually pumping water into overheating reactors after cooling systems broke down and much of that has overflowed into basements and trenches. The water is rising at a rate that means it will overflow as early as June 6, Bloomberg calculations from the company’s data show…

Introducing new measures to support the UK’s nuclear power operators would risk “damaging” the electricity market, according to the head of Britain’s second-biggest energy supplier.

Ian Marchant, chief executive of Scottish and Southern Energy (SSE), said he backed the principle of building a new generation of nuclear power stations, but any additional help for this objective was unnecessary. He gave warning against allowing this single goal to dominate the government’s forthcoming reform of the electricity market…

The German government has agreed on a roadmap for phasing out nuclear power. All of the country’s 17 nuclear plants are to go offline by 2021, with a possible one-year extension for three reactors should there be the risk of an electricity shortfall.

It has been facetiously dubbed “the phaseout of the phaseout of the phaseout.” But after weeks of heated discussion, the German government has made it clear that it is serious with its U-turn on nuclear energy…

The UK clean tech sector faces a crisis of confidence, following a series of policy changes that have left industry figures pessimistic the emerging industry can deliver the promised boost to jobs and economic growth.

The coalition pledged to put low-carbon growth at the heart of its commitment to becoming the ‘greenest government ever’, but in response to a survey of 600 executives conducted by Ernst & Young, just 14 per cent expressed confidence that the clean tech sector would actually deliver significant economic growth and green jobs over the coming years…

Europe’s renewable energy capacity grew 30 per cent last year, but its recent successes are in danger of stalling unless the roadblock presented by byzantine and outdated planning rules is removed.

That is the stark conclusion of a major new report released today by PwC, the Potsdam Institute for Climate Impact Research and the International Institute for Applied System Analysis. The report singles out the continent’s complex infrastructure planning and permits regime as the biggest single threat to the fast-expanding renewable sector in Europe and North Africa…

The UN has warned that low rates of recycling of rare metals could damage the growth of global clean tech industries, urging nations to improve recycling technologies and collection systems.

A report released yesterday by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) found that less than a third of 60 metals studied have an end-of-life recycling rate above 50 per cent, while less than one per cent of 34 rare elements are recycled…

Claims that biofuels have lower greenhouse gas emissions than fossil fuels are ‘complete nonsense’ and EU-wide targets to increase their use should be scrapped says letter to transport minister

A global ‘land grab’ and increased loss of forests and other natural ecosystems is being driven by European targets for more transport fuel to come from biofuels, say a group of prominent UK scientists…

Rising food prices are tightening the squeeze on populations already struggling to buy adequate food, demanding radical reform of the global food system, Oxfam has warned.

By 2030, the average cost of key crops could increase by between 120% and 180%, the charity forecasts…

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British firms have acquired more land in Africa for controversial biofuel plantations than companies from any other country, a Guardian investigation has revealed.

Half of the 3.2m hectares (ha) of biofuel land identified — in countries from Mozambique to Senegal — is linked to 11 British companies, more than any other country…

Ministers have tried to address public lack of trust in energy companies by offering assurances about the “Green Deal” — a policy designed to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

Under this plan, any householder will be able to spend up to £10,000 making their home more energy efficient, funded by the savings from future gas and electricity bills…

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Maplecroft, the risk-analysis firm, has found that the UK is one of the most exposed developed nations and is more likely to suffer supply disruption than France, Germany or the US.

Only Italy, Spain, Greece and Japan are at greater risk than Britain in the short-term among developed countries. China also faces an uphill struggle to meet its energy demand…

Britain is facing a shortage of UK-sourced diesel and may need to triple imports over the next decade, the UK Petroleum Industry Association has warned.

In a submission to MPs, the industry group cautions that a greater reliance on imports could lead to “reduced security of supply as imported products may be less immediately available in times of emergency or crisis”…

The goal to limit climate change to two degrees of warming is in jeopardy, a new report has found. Due to resurgent economies, energy-related emissions reached record highs last year. The IEA says it’s a ‘wake-up call.’

Efforts to contain carbon dioxide emissions took a hit in 2010, as a record amount of greenhouse gases stemming from energy production were dumped into the atmosphere during the year…