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https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2024/jan/14/ukraine-war-fossil-fuel-expansion>
"At the close of the hottest year in history, delegates from around the world
gathered at climate talks in Dubai in December and agreed, finally, on one
thing: that the time had finally come for “transitioning away from fossil fuels
in energy systems, in a just, orderly and equitable manner”. It was the first
time in three decades of climate negotiations that diplomats had used the
F-words, and it seemed like a breakthrough of sorts.
Now we’re going to find out if they meant it.
The president of the United States – which is the biggest fossil fuel producer
on planet Earth – is poised to make a decision: should his government keep on
granting export licenses to companies that want to build new terminals to send
liquefied natural gas (LNG) around the world. The potential scale of this
buildout is almost unbelievable. The US is already the biggest gas exporter on
Earth, but if the industry gets what it wants, the LNG it exports each year
will be enough to power
half a billion homes. It will produce
more
greenhouse gases than everything that happens in Europe. Bloomberg this week
called it “the world’s final wave of fossil-fuel megaprojects”. It’s the
ultimate lock-in to dirty energy.
Biden could block all that, simply by halting the licensing process while the
Department of Energy recalculates its old formulas for what constitutes the
“public interest”. If his government meant what it signed in Dubai it has no
choice (and former secretary of state John Kerry was instrumental in inserting
that language). But the fossil fuel industry is engaged in a last-ditch effort
to storm ahead with this boondoggle. And they’re using Europe, and Ukraine, as
their excuse.
After Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, Europe did need some short-term supplies of
gas to make up for what it was no longer getting from Russia. The US supplied
much of it – it already has sufficient export capacity. And now, Europe is
swimming in natural gas. But that doesn’t stop big oil: here’s the head of the
American Petroleum Institute complaining that any slowdown in the fossil fuel
buildout would somehow be a stab in the back. “The signal that sends to our
allies is very, very concerning: is the United States going to be a source of
LNG and a reliable partner into the future?”
In fact, America’s partners in Europe are now about the business of replacing
gas with renewable energy – Germany last year saw its lowest fossil fuel use in
many decades. The International Energy Agency forecast this week that Europe
will need steadily less gas over the years ahead, not more. As Ana Maria
Jaller-Makarewicz, an analyst for the Institute for Energy Economics and
Financial Analysis said recently: “The decline in gas demand is challenging the
narrative that Europe needs more LNG infrastructure to reach its energy
security goals. The data is showing that we don’t.”"
Cheers,
*** Xanni ***
--
mailto:xanni@xanadu.net Andrew Pam
http://xanadu.com.au/ Chief Scientist, Xanadu
https://glasswings.com.au/ Partner, Glass Wings
https://sericyb.com.au/ Manager, Serious Cybernetics
