Washington Post: Trump Isn't a 'Believer' in Climate Change
In a wide-ranging meeting Monday with The Washington Post editorial board, Trump again dismissed man-made climate change. Instead, he said the type of climate change we should worry most about is nuclear weapons -- an apparent reference to Cold War-era fears over a “nuclear winter.”
The idea was that a nuclear war between the United States and the Soviet Union could have devastating consequences for the environment. Scientists say the potential threat still exists, particularly with more countries now possessing nuclear weapons, though it remains a less immediate threat than the constant pollution humans send into the environment.
PV Magazine: Vivint Solar Closes $200 Million for Residential Solar Projects
Fresh off the termination of the SunEdison merger, the second-largest installer of residential solar in the United States is back to raising cash. Last Monday Vivint Solar closed on a $200 million non-recourse term facility, which it says is the first in a series of fundraising activities it intends to undertake.
"Now that we are free from the constraints of the terminated SunEdison merger agreement, we have demonstrated our ability to rapidly access the capital markets for flexible, term-debt financing to support our continued growth,” stated Vivint Solar Executive VP and Head of Capital Markets Thomas Plagemann.
Guardian: What Turnbull's Clean Energy Shift Means
Malcolm Turnbull’s clean energy investment announcement is part good news, part bad news, part ideological shift and part shell game.
The good news is the Clean Energy Finance Corporation is safe. The $10B CEFC was derided by the former prime minister Tony Abbott as “Bob Brown’s bank” and was so despised by the Abbott government that trying to stop its lending was one of the Coalition’s first acts after it was elected in 2013.
Now the CEFC can continue its highly successful work, which has so far provided $1.4B in loans to projects worth $3.5B while at the same time generating a 6.1% return on the lending. It will no longer labor under the uncertainty of a government determined to abolish it, or a government periodically bending to the pressure from climate skeptics or anti-windfarm advocates by seeking to limit its investment mandate.
Bloomberg: Drillers Can't Replace Lost Output as $100 Oil Inheritance Spent
For oil companies, the legacy of $100 crude is starting to run dry.
A wave of projects approved at the start of the decade, when oil traded near $100 a barrel, has bolstered output for many producers, keeping cash flowing even as prices plummeted. Now, that production boon is fading. In 2016, for the first time in years, drillers will add less oil from new fields than they lose to natural decline in old ones.
About 3 million barrels a day will come from new projects this year, compared with 3.3 million lost from established fields, according to Oslo-based Rystad Energy AS. By 2017, the decline will outstrip new output by 1.2 million barrels as investment cuts made during the oil rout start to take effect. That trend is expected to worsen.
Vox: The U.S. Now Uses Less Water Than It Did in 1970
The U.S. economy keeps expanding and the population keeps growing. But we actually use less water now for all purposes than we did back in 1970. That includes freshwater for our showers and toilets. It includes farm irrigation. It also includes withdrawals of both fresh and saline water to cool our fossil fuel and nuclear power plants.
The underlying data comes from a new report by the U.S. Geological Survey, which notes that water for power plants (45 percent) and irrigation (33 percent) still made up most water withdrawals in the U.S. as of 2010. But use in both of those areas has been declining over time.