Budget & Policy

Maintaining operation of the Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station would save Illinois taxpayers $364 million annually in electricity costs, the Brattle Group economic consulting firm said in a report Monday. The report was delivered as the Illinois General Assembly considers the Future Energy Jobs Bill (S.B. 2814), a controversial piece of […]

The government of Alberta, Canada, last week announced agreements with TransAlta, Capital Power, and ATCO, the owners of the province’s last coal-fired power plants, to shut down the facilities by the end of 2030. “The agreements will see the companies, which own six coal-fired electricity units originally slated to operate beyond 2030, provided with transition […]

Carbon capture and storage technology is essential to addressing climate change, United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Patricia Espinosa said last week during a speech at the 2016 Zero Emission Conference in Oslo, Norway. Espinosa urged attendees to advance research and development of the technology. “You can continue to research and work […]

Membership in the Paris Agreement on climate change grew to 114 last week with the ratifications of Comoros and Israel. The deal, which establishes a legal framework under which nations are to pursue domestically determined climate actions, entered into force on Nov. 4, just days before the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties […]

The ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is seeking proposals for the next Carbon Capture, Utilization, and Storage Conference, which will be held in April 2017 in Chicago. This conference offers an opportunity for U.S. and international leaders, experts, and industry executives to gather and discuss efforts to decarbonize the energy and industrial sectors. This call for […]

Donald Trump is keeping an open mind about the nation’s involvement in international climate change accords, according to New York Times reporters live tweeting an interview with the president-elect Tuesday. “Tom Friedman asks if Trump will withdraw from climate change accords. Trump: ‘I’m looking at it very closely. I have an open mind to it,’” […]

GHG Daily Monitor will not be published Thursday and Friday in observance of the Thanksgiving holiday. Look for the next issue in your inbox on Monday, Nov. 28.

In lieu of national participation in the Paris Agreement on climate change the cities of the United States should join the agreement on their own, Michael Bloomberg, former mayor of New York and U.N. Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s special envoy for cities and climate change, said in remarks delivered to the China General Chamber of […]

President-Elect Donald Trump’s Department of Energy, Environmental Protection Agency, and Department of Interior transition teams are taking shape with newly announced appointments Tuesday. Thomas Pyle, who currently serves as the president of the Institute for Energy Research, will lead the Department of Energy transition team. Prior to his work with the Institute for Energy Research, […]

A Koch Industries alum without much nuclear experience on his Washington-heavy resume parachuted into President-elect Donald Trump’s Energy Department transition team Tuesday, Trump Tower announced. Thomas Pyle, president of the petrochemical-focused American Energy Alliance advocacy in Washington, will serve under Michael McKenna, the Trump transition team’s point man for the Department of Energy. According to […]

Members of Congress have sent a letter to Speaker of the House Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) asking that Congress stay in session for the year until it passes the fiscal 2017 National Defense Authorization Act (NDAA). In a Nov. 21 letter, 21 members of Congress, including Reps. Joe Wilson (R-S.C.), Mike Rogers (R-Ala.), and Randy Forbes […]

The election of Republican Donald Trump as the 45th president of the United States threw the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change (COP22) into a state of anxiety, Elliot Diringer, executive vice president at the Center for Climate and Energy Solutions, said Monday in […]

While the next president of the United States looks to reinvigorate the nation’s failing coal industry, Canada has pledged to stop all unabated coal use by 2030.The Canadian government on Monday also committed to produce 90 percent of its energy with non-carbon sources by that year. “We will help achieve this goal by amending existing […]

Administrator Gina McCarthy’s Environmental Protection Agency is ready to meet with President-elect Donald Trump’s transition team, just as soon as they’re contacted, she said Monday during a luncheon at the National Press Club. “I’m looking forward to a smooth transition and getting folks in here so they can see the breadth of the work in […]

The Department of Energy (DOE) and its semiautonomous National Nuclear Security Administration (NNSA) lack program management policies that address federal internal control standards for managers, the Government Accountability Office (GAO) said in a report released Monday. “A policy incorporating key internal control standards and leading program management practices may help ensure that DOE and NNSA […]

The share of coal in national energy production may surpass natural gas this winter, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Friday. “Based on expected temperatures and market conditions, coal is expected to surpass natural gas as the most common electricity generating fuel in December, January, and February,” according to an EIA release. Natural gas overtook […]

The Department of Energy on Thursday issued a request for information on offshore enhanced oil recovery (EOR) processes. “One place where captured anthropogenic CO2 could be stored is in depleted oil and gas reservoirs offshore in the Gulf of Mexico. Injecting CO2 into these reservoirs could also result in enhanced recovery of residual oil. The […]

Twelve countries ratified the Paris Agreement during the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, bringing total membership in the accord to 112. The two-week event in Marrakesh, Morocco, ended on Friday. The newest member nations to the climate change agreement are Australia, Botswana, Burkina […]

Federal agencies including the Energy Department will remain funded at fiscal 2016 levels through at least the first two months of President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Republican congressional leaders decided this week. “To this end, my Committee will begin working immediately on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations […]

Illinois is once again considering comprehensive energy legislation that utility Exelon claims is necessary to stave off closures of its Quad Cities Generating Station and the Clinton Power Station, despite critics’ claims that the bill is an unnecessary bailout for a profitable company. The Future Energy Jobs bill (SB 2814) was introduced in the Illinois General Assembly […]

Pat Host Defense Daily House and Senate conferees working on the fiscal year 2017 defense authorization bill have not reached a deal to move forward while Republican lawmakers decided to pursue a continuing resolution (CR) instead of passing a spending bill during the lame duck session. House Armed Services Committee (HASC) Ranking Member Adam Smith […]

Federal agencies including the Energy Department will remain funded at fiscal 2016 levels through at least the first two months of President-elect Donald Trump’s term, Republican congressional leaders decided this week. “To this end, my Committee will begin working immediately on a Continuing Resolution (CR) at the current rate of funding to extend the operations […]

Pat Host Defense Daily The top Democrat on the House Armed Services Committee (HASC) wants the Air Force to spend less on its new ICBM effort than the service has proposed. HASC Ranking Member Adam Smith (D-Wash.) said Thursday if Congress and the Pentagon have a realistic view of what the United States can accomplish, […]

A group of experts and policy makers on Wednesday urged the incoming Donald Trump administration to make cuts to the U.S. nuclear arsenal and modernization program, along with adopting several nuclear policy changes. All the proposals are outlined in a new Ploughshares Fund report, 10 Big Nuclear Ideas for the Next President. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.) and Rep. Adam Smith […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Leaders from nearly 200 nations Thursday evening stood up once again to reaffirm their commitment to addressing the threat of climate change. “We call for the highest political commitment to combat climate change, as a matter of urgent priority,” according to the Marrakesh Action Proclamation, read by Salaheddine Mezouar, Morocco’s foreign minister […]

The ExchangeMonitor Publications & Forums is proud to announce that the 2017 Carbon Capture, Utilization & Storage Conference will join the 19th Annual Electric Power Conference & Exhibition, April 10-13, 2017, at McCormick Place West in Chicago. This co-location allows us to come together with over 3,500 attendees of the Electric Power Conference & Exhibition […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — An address that was once imagined as a victory lap took a different tone Thursday as Special Envoy for Climate Change Jonathan Pershing represented the U.S. for the Obama administration’s final speech before the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change. The address took place just […]

October 2016 tied with October 2003 as the third hottest on record across the globe, the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration announced Thursday. The agency attributed the cooling from a recent series of record monthly temperatures to the effect of the La Niña weather system. NASA, though, this week called last month the second-hottest […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Inadequate public financing for climate adaptation will likely be the issue that keeps negotiators up late the last few nights of the 22nd session of the Conference of the Parties to the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change, civil society leaders told reporters Thursday morning. “Finance has always been an issue […]

MARRAKESH, Morocco — Just one year after the adoption of the Paris Agreement on climate change, six of the Group of 20 nations have fallen short of their commitments, according to a report released here at the United Nations climate change summit by the Grantham Research Institute on Climate Change and the Environment and the […]