ODAC Newsletter – Dec 17

The Obama administration has sued BP and several of its partners in the oil well disaster in the Gulf of Mexico, potentially exposing them to billions in legal costs.

The action, filed in a New Orleans court yesterday, accuses them of violating safety regulations, and seeks unlimited damages to cover the costs of cleaning up the oil, the losses suffered by local businesses, and the damage done to the environment. “I’ve seen the devastation that this oil spill caused throughout the region, to individuals and to families, to communities and to businesses, to coastlines, to wetlands, as well as to wildlife,” the attorney general, Eric Holder, told reporters…

Striking resemblances between BP’s Gulf of Mexico disaster and a little-reported giant gas leak in Azerbaijan experienced by the UK firm 18 months beforehand have emerged from leaked US embassy cables.

The cables reveal that some of BP’s partners in the gas field were upset that the company was so secretive about the incident that it even allegedly withheld information from them. They also say that BP was lucky that it was able to evacuate its 212 workers safely after the incident, which resulted in two fields being shut and output being cut by at least 500,000 barrels a day with production disrupted for months…

Oil rose from the lowest in two weeks after an unexpected decline in U.S. claims for jobless benefits and gains in housing starts bolstered the economic outlook for the world’s largest crude user.

Oil climbed as much as 0.8 percent after the Labor Department said unemployment-insurance applications dropped to the lowest in three weeks. The dollar extended losses against the euro as investors grew more confident that the sovereign- debt crisis in Europe will be contained. A weaker U.S. currency enhances the investment appeal of commodities…

OPEC is breaching its production limits the most in six years, signaling the world’s biggest suppliers are ready to pump more crude next year as oil rallies toward $100 a barrel.

The Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries excluding Iraq pumped 26.78 million barrels a day this year, exceeding the quotas by an average of 1.934 million a day, the highest level since 2004, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Crude rose 12 percent in 2010 as demand recovered, trading at about $90 for the first time in two years. Options to buy at $100 next December are near a five-month high…

Canada’s oil sands developers, stung by controversy over the environmental impact of their toxic waste ponds, said on Monday they agreed to collaborate on research into speeding up reclamation of the northern Alberta land they cover.

The move comes after Syncrude Canada, one of the largest developers, was found guilty in the 2008 deaths of 1,600 ducks in a tailings pond, an incident that brought the issue into the international spotlight…

With the outlook for exploration and development remaining uncertain in the US, and Oil Prices returning to a two year high this week, attention on the North American continent has increasingly turned towards Canada, and the Canadian oil sands region has been a major beneficiary.

While a number of major projects have been awaiting approval to proceed, and even on hold for an extended period, a number of new projects have recently been given the green light, or accelerated towards that point and expanded…

Canada’s government is not ready to handle a major oil spill from a tanker, in part because its emergency response plan is out of date, Parliament’s environmental watchdog said in a damning report on Tuesday.

Scott Vaughan, commissioner of the environment and sustainable development, also said Ottawa did not have enough data to monitor what impact development of the oil sands in Western Canada was having on water supplies…

Ghanaian President John Atta Mills says the country will learn from the mistakes of other African oil producers and save some of the revenue for future generations after production starts today. Government agreements to borrow more than $14 billion say otherwise.

Ruling party lawmakers amended a bill on Dec. 9 to allow the government to borrow against future oil revenue and are weighing plans to delay the creation of a sovereign wealth fund. The move comes on the heels of September loan accords with China worth about 45 percent of the country’s gross domestic product…

New York Governor David Paterson on Saturday halted a controversial form of natural gas drilling in the state until July and ruled no such drilling take place until environmental regulators deem it safe.

The industry and environmentalists — normally rivals on the issue — both applauded Paterson’s executive order, which stops all horizontal, high-volume hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” while calling for further study of that method’s impact on drinking water…

Nigeria’s anti-corruption police have dropped charges against Dick Cheney, the former US vice-president, over a multi-million dollar bribery case after the energy firm Halliburton agreed to pay up to $250m (£161m) in fines.

The move followed the intervention of ex-president George Bush Sr and former secretary of state James Baker, according to Nigerian press reports…

China and India may increase imports of coal by 78 percent to 337 million metric tons next year, further driving up prices from the highest in two years and diverting supplies from Europe to Asia.

China may buy 233 million tons more of the fuel than it exports next year, up from net imports of 143 million in 2010, Citigroup Inc. said in a Nov. 29 report. India faces a shortfall of 104 million tons in the 12 months ending March 2012, mjunction Services Ltd., a Kolkata-based commodity trader, said in a note on Dec. 6, citing Coal Minister Sriprakash Jaiswal…

Powerfuel, which is developing the UK’s first commercial scale clean coal power plant, has gone into administration because of the crippling cost of the project.

Administrators at KPMG said they hoped to sell the company as a going concern to someone with the £635m ($1bn) necessary to develop the carbon capture and storage (CCS) plant, which would reduce the emissions from burning coal by up to 90 per cent…

Environmental activists who were arrested before they could execute a planned shutdown of a coal-fired power station near Nottingham in April last year were today convicted of conspiracy to commit aggravated trespass.

The 20 campaigners were among 114 detained on Easter Monday 2009 in the largest pre-emptive police operation against environmentalists ever mounted in the UK. They were arrested on suspicion of planning to occupy and close down E.ON’s operations at Ratcliffe-on-Soar for a week. The 14 men and six women will be sentenced at Nottingham crown court on Friday. The maximum penalty for the offence is three months’ imprisonment, a £2,500 fine or both. The police operation to thwart their action cost £300,000…

The alleged weaknesses at Sellafield are of such concern that a safety review has been expanded to cover security around pipelines, oil refineries and other important sites, it was reported.

A new bunker to store 100 tonnes of plutonium — enough to manufacture thousands of nuclear weapons — was built at the site this year…

UK plans for ten new nuclear power plants will create £80 billion worth of radioactive waste that we still have no secure way of disposing

The Department of Energy and Climate Change (DECC) and the nuclear industry have a plan for 10 new ‘Generation 3’ reactors, each one containing 2.5 times the radiological inventory of the UK’s biggest AGR reactor at Sizewell B. In a recent Ministerial statement, Chris Huhne, the Secretary of State for DECC made it clear that the Coalition is not ruling out taking on unspecified nuclear ‘financial risks or liabilities’ to make this happen. Given the sheer weight of our current nuclear legacy, its’ clear that this will also involve nuclear waste ‘financial risks or liabilities’…

The plentiful sunshine of southern Spain is being harvested to generate electricity day and night

Driving through the baking landscape of Almería, it is no mystery why this Spanish province is home to a novel type of power station that generates electricity by harnessing the heat of the sun…

The United States risks major supply disruptions of rare earth metals used in clean energy products unless it diversifies its sources of the minerals, the Energy Department warns in a report due to be released later on Wednesday.

The United States and other countries are worried that China, which controls 97 percent of the world trade in rare earth metals, will use those supplies as a political weapon and cut back their export when it is in a dispute with another country or to grow China’s clean energy technology sector…

Global spending on mining will surpass pre-crisis levels next year, according to an emerging industry consensus, highlighting rising confidence in an economic recovery led by China and other fast-growing markets.

The boom in capital expenditures, which extends to the oil, natural gas and agribusinesses, comes amid sharply rising prices for commodities such as copper, iron ore, crude oil, sugar and wheat…

A year-long European Union investigation into biofuels has concluded that their green credentials might be partly compromised by indirect side-effects, which should be tackled, EU officials said.

The multi-billion-dollar industry fears barriers will be further raised against unsustainable biofuels from food, but the long-awaited European Commission report, due next week, will stop short of proposing any new actions…

The coalition plans to replace old power stations, decarbonise the electricity sector and invest in green energy, all of which will raise the cost of electricity.

Energy and Climate Change Secretary Chris Huhne outlines the government’s plans.

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The U.K. government made four proposals to ensure aging power plants are replaced and climate targets met, including setting a floor price on carbon emissions and guaranteeing long-term prices for low-carbon generators.

“The current energy market cannot deliver,” Secretary of State for Energy and Climate Change Chris Huhne said in a statement to parliament today. “Left untouched it would lock carbon into the system for years to come.”…

Chris Huhne this morning criticised a Telegraph headline – suggesting bills would rise by £500 because of his energy reforms – as “ludicrous” and “absolutely bonkers”.

The splash quoted a website called uSwitch predicting that bills would rise per household by £500 from their current average energy bill of £1,157. (Although it’s not clear by when). Huhne said the rise would instead by from £500 per household to £660 by 2030…

Chris Huhne, the Energy Secretary, will outline government plans today to encourage energy companies to develop low-carbon power plants, including nuclear power stations and wind farms.

Energy analysts say the Coalition’s plans will put Britain on course for a “high cost, low carbon” electricity market where consumers pay the price for environmentally friendly generating technology…

A federal appeals court rejected a request by the oil and gas industry and others to delay the US Environmental Protection Agency’s plans to begin regulating greenhouse gas emissions on Jan. 2. The request did not meet “stringent standards required for a stay pending court review,” the appellate court for the District of Columbia circuit ruled on Dec. 10.

“We’re disappointed that the court has chosen to deny our motion for a partial stay of EPA’s greenhouse gas regulations,” said Charles T. Drevna, president of the National Petrochemical & Refiners Association, one of the business groups seeking the delay. “Today’s action means that EPA’s invasive and misguided regulations will be imposed on our nation’s businesses and manufacturers at the beginning of 2011,” he said…

More than 190 countries have struck an agreement at the latest round of UN climate talks that puts efforts to secure a new international deal to tackle global warming back on track.

The talks in Cancun, Mexico, were the latest attempt to make progress towards a new global deal on tackling climate change, after last year’s meeting in Copenhagen failed amid chaotic scenes to secure a new legally-binding treaty on cutting emissions, instead delivering only a weak voluntary accord…

The first green cars to qualify for a subsidy of up to £5,000 were unveiled by the Government yesterday.

Under £400m plans to boost take-up of expensive electric and ultra-low carbon vehicles, buyers will be able to claim up to a quarter of the price of nine models of car: the Mitsubishi i-MiEV, the Smart fortwo electric drive, the Peugeot iON, the Citroën CZero, the Nissan Leaf, the Tata Vista EV, the Toyota Prius Plug-in, the Vauxhall Ampera and the Chevrolet Volt…

Drivers in China’s capital Beijing may have to pay to drive their cars in the near future, as part of measures the government will introduce to fight ever-worsening traffic gridlock in the city, local media said on Thursday.

Beijing’s policy incentives helped propel China pass the United States as the world’s biggest auto market in 2009, but the worsening air quality and traffic have now become a hazard in major Chinese cities…