Starting on Sunday, importers in the EU must report specific emissions data associated with the production of iron and steel, aluminum, cement, fertilizers, hydrogen, and electricity imported into the EU. Beginning in 2026, importers will be required to pay a fee on those emissions. This is like our PROVE IT Act, collecting data on the carbon intensity differences between imports and exports.
A new report from the First Street Foundation found that 39 million U.S. properties are overvalued because damage risks from climate change “have yet to be reflected in the insurance premiums.” The properties are “likely overvalued due to the underpricing or subsidization of climate risk in their insurance. … It has the potential to impact property values in a way that’s similar to what we saw in the last recession in 2008.”
Bloomberg has a nice summary about global EV numbers. Great charts.
Editors Note: Indonesia passed a carbon tax in 2021, but is delaying implementation for fear of becoming uncompetitive. This article reports on the push and pull within the country. If the US were to add a CBAM, it would make it easier for carbon pricing regimes in Indonesia (a major petroleum producer) to activate its carbon tax.
NV Energy executive Carolyn Barbash said Greenlink, the utility’s $2.5 billion transmission line project, is 11 months behind schedule because of permitting issues. Barbash cited the Bureau of Land Management’s review slowing the process, but noted it will generate $690 million in economic activity and “bring about 4,000 full-time jobs.” She asked commissioners to educate the public “that energy infrastructure precedes economic growth. We may need to invest before the load is here.”
Wind and solar build is set to surge but long grid connection queues and a lack of urgency create major bottlenecks. Interregional grid projects typically take over a decade to be completed due to a complex patchwork of state and federal approval processes. Lawmakers are seeking to pass a bill that sets a minimum requirement for grid capacity between regions within a set timeframe. Here is a summary of the Act … and the politics around it.
Until quite recently, high-polluting fossil fuels (especially coal) were by far the cheapest sources of energy available. Renewables didn’t come close. But in the past decade, the unsubsidized price of electricity from solar and wind declined by 89% and 69%, respectively. And the cost of lithium-ion batteries – which are needed to smooth out the intermittent supply of solar and wind energy – has declined by 90%. As a result, new solar power plants have gone from being 710% more expensive than the cheapest fossil-fueled plants in 2010 to being 29% cheaper now, and new onshore wind plants have gone from …
Another hurdle to getting HVDC or other major transmission needed is the current permitting process, said Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.), Congress’ chief FERC booster. Also, it “is too damn cheap,” Casten said.
“You’ve generated this problematic resource that is super cheap: effectively zero marginal cost,” Casten said. “And on the other end is an entity — an RTO or utility — who depends on earning $50, $60, $70/MWh. And you are putting $30 power into that market.”
Note: CCL’s Jonathan Marshall summarizes the latest worldwide data on carbon pricing, per the World Bank, in a succinct essay and 3 key charts.
As we seek inspiration and validation of our support for national carbon pricing in the United States, many of us look for signs of growing adoption abroad. A new World Bank publication on the
Increasingly often, there’s a robust and rich discussion on Community.CitizensClimate.org that needs to be bookmarked for future reference. This discussion is one — it summarizes a report from an interagency working group (IWG) from the…
Rep. Scott Peters (D-Calif.) and Sen. John Hickenlooper (D-Colo.) today will introduce long-awaited legislation to spur the nation’s buildout of interregional transmission lines. The Building Integrated Grids with Interregional Energy Supply Act (“Big Wires Act”)aims to accelerate America’s transition to cleaner energy while strengthening its strained electric grid.
A world-beating deposit of lithium along the Nevada–Oregon border could meet surging demand for this metal. An estimated 20 to 40 million tonnes of lithium metal is notably larger than the lithium deposits found beneath a Bolivian salt flat, previously considered the largest deposit in the world. Mining at the site is, however, contested by Native Americans for whom the area is sacred, and is believed to be where a massacre took place in 1865.
