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Politics and Economics
Kyoto to ‘reduce Europe’s growth’
Richard Black, BBC
Meeting Kyoto Protocol targets on greenhouse gas emissions will reduce European economic growth significantly.
That is the finding of a new study from the International Council for Capital Formation, a market-based think tank.
It projects that by 2010, Spain’s growth will have fallen by 3%, and that Italy’s will shrink by 2%.
These are bigger figures than previous studies have found, and their release comes as world leaders struggle to find a successor to the Kyoto treaty.
…Funded as it is by industrial, trade and finance groups, including oil companies, some observers might not consider it surprising that the ICCF report casts a harsh light on the post-Kyoto world.
“The figures given for Spain are very different from all other studies done so far,” commented Bert Metz of the Netherlands Environmental Assessment Agency (MNP), co-chair of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change working group on mitigation.
“Other studies show changes in the order of 1% if you use options like emissions trading, 2% if you don’t,” he told the BBC News website.
“You can get any conclusion from any economic study by choosing your assumptions carefully.”
(7 November 2005)
Industry-funded think tanks strike again! -BA
All ears on oil
Editorial, Seattle Times
TODAY, five oil company executives have the chance to explain their dizzying profits to senators whose constituents have paid as much as $3 a gallon for gasoline in recent weeks. This had better be good.
Though prices have been softening in Seattle and elsewhere, Senate Majority Leader Bill Frist, R-Tenn., called joint hearings before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources committee after the energy industry’s raucous third quarter. Profits that jumped as much as 75 percent over last year happened to coincided perfectly with soaring gas prices.
Democrats and Republicans, senators and representatives, governors and the National Association of Attorneys General are demanding better explanations.
(9 November 2005)
Native renewables energy summit scheduled
David Melmer, Indian Country Today
DENVER – Renewable energy just might be the new economic development tool for Indian country, while at the same time saving the environment and promoting a healthier environment.
The Native Renewables Energy Summit will be held in Denver Nov. 15 – 17. All aspects of renewable energy will be on tap for discussion during the three-day conference.
Special attention will be paid to the new federal energy bill and what it means to Indian country. Discussions on the Kyoto Treaty are also scheduled.
Third-party backers, including green tags and tax breaks, are an important way for Indian country to finance renewable energy projects and create economic development for the communities, and more than one speaker will deal with that topic.
(7 November 2005)
Electricity deregulation loses its luster as ‘green’ firm gives up in Pa.
Len Boselovic, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette
Six years after state lawmakers deregulated electricity to give consumers more choices, residential customers in Western Pennsylvania who want to shop are left with basically the same — and only — choice they had before the experiment began.
Green Mountain Energy, one of only two suppliers signing up new residential customers in territory served by Duquesne Light, Allegheny Energy and Penn Power, announced yesterday it will stop selling electricity in Pennsylvania. Duquesne Light and Penn Power residential customers have another choice, Community Energy, which supports wind energy development and charges a much higher price.
Austin, Texas-based Green Mountain said its decision was based on economics. Given the rules of deregulation and current market conditions, the only way it could survive would be to charge residential customers about $30 more a month, spokesman Andy Prince said.
(12 October 2005)
Valero’s Refinery Business Turns Sweet As Sour Crude Pays Off
PETER BENESH, INVESTOR’S BUSINESS DAILY
There’s nothing wrong with William Greehey’s crystal ball. Back in 1984 the company he heads, Valero Energy, figured out that supplies of light sweet crude oil would shrink.
That’s the easiest and cheapest oil to refine. As the good stuff ran out, demand for lower-grade, hard-to-refine crude oil would rise, Valero realized.
But heavy sour crude, as the low-grade oil is called, demands more refining technology. Valero began buying refineries and adding technology to process the poorer-quality oil.
(6 December 2004)
