Energy News
Job creator, or job killer? Trump angers solar installers with panel tariff
Reuters | Posted on January 25, 2018U.S. President Donald Trump signed into law a steep tariff on imported solar panels on Tuesday, a move billed as a way to protect American jobs but which the solar industry said would lead to thousands of layoffs and raise consumer prices.But the solar industry countered that the move will raise the cost of installing panels, quash billions of dollars of investment, and kill tens of thousands of jobs, raising questions about whether Trump’s move will backfire by triggering mass layoffs.“We are not happy with this decision,” said Abigail Ross Hopper, president of the U.S. Solar Energy Industries Association, on a conference call with reporters on Tuesday. “It’s just basic economics - if you raise the price of a product it’s going to decrease demand for that product.”The leading solar trade group predicted that the tariffs could cut forecasted solar installations this year by nearly 20 percent, to 9 gigawatts from 11 gigawatts, and lead to the loss of 23,000 jobs in the United States, the world’s fourth-largest solar market after China, Japan and Germany.
California to sue Trump administration for repeal of fracking rules
Reuters | Posted on January 25, 2018California’s attorney general said the state plans to sue the Trump administration over its repeal of Obama-era rules meant to address public safety concerns in hydraulic fracturing, or fracking, on federal lands. The federal government’s Bureau of Land Management (BLM) in 2015, under Democratic President Barack Obama, issued rules that would have required companies to provide data on chemicals used in fracking and to take steps to prevent leakage from oil and gas wells on federally-owned land. However, the rules for federal and tribal lands were never implemented because oil and gas industry groups sued to block them, arguing that they were unnecessary and would slow the country’s path to energy independence. That litigation ended when the Trump administration repealed the regulations last year.
Scientists find new cellulose for producing future renewable fuels, antibiotic drugs
Xinhuanet | Posted on January 25, 2018A group of scientists with U.S. Stanford University have discovered a new type of cellulose in bacteria that could be used as a source for renewable fuels and antibiotic drugs in the future. A study by the Stanford researchers, whose findings were carried in the latest version of the journal Science, said the new modified cellulose, called pEtN, was extracted from one of the best studied bacteria -- E. coli, which is a large group of bacteria that can cause diarrhea, urinary tract infections, respiratory illness, pneumonia and other illnesses.Lynette Cegelski, an assistant professor of chemistry at Stanford and senior author of the research, discovered that the new cellulose had properties that were thought to be made to improve other sources of cellulose such as switchgrass or poplar for producing ethanol for fuels.
Trump's coal job push stumbles in most states - data
Reuters | Posted on January 20, 2018President Donald Trump’s effort to put coal miners back to work stumbled in most coal producing states last year, even as overall employment in the downtrodden sector grew modestly, according to preliminary government data obtained by Reuters. The effort has had little impact on domestic demand for coal so far, with U.S. utilities still shutting coal-fired power plants and shifting to cheaper natural gas - moving toward a lower carbon future despite the direction the White House is plotting under Trump. Unreleased full-year coal employment data from the Mining Health and Safety Administration shows total U.S. coal mining jobs grew by 771 to 54,819 during Trump’s first year in office, led by Central Appalachian states like West Virginia, Virginia, and Pennsylvania - where coal companies have opened a handful of new mining areas for shipment overseas.
EIA Expects Total U.S. Fossil Fuel Production to Reach Record Levels in 2018 and 2019
Oil Voice | Posted on January 20, 2018In its January 2018 Short-Term Energy Outlook (STEO), EIA forecasts that total fossil fuels production in the United States will average almost 73 quadrillion British thermal units (Btu) in 2018, the highest level of production on record. EIA expects total fossil fuel production to then set another record in 2019, with production forecast to rise to 75 quadrillion Btu.
Michigan landowners’ long-shot lawsuit has high stakes for wind industry
Midwest Energy News | Posted on January 17, 2018An unlikely legal win by neighbors of a Michigan wind farm would have the potential to chill wind energy development in the state, legal experts say. A group of landowners filed suit in state court in August alleging a wind project near Lake Michigan in the Upper Peninsula is causing adverse health effects. These include sleep interruption and deprivation, stress, “extreme fatigue, anxiety and emotional distress.”Those claims will be difficult to prove, legal experts said, but if the landowners are successful it could have significant implications. That’s why clean energy groups are closely watching the case, which resurfaced in circuit court a month after being dismissed by a federal judge in July.
Low gas prices set to drive decline in coal generation
Utility Dive | Posted on January 17, 2018U.S. natural gas production is expected to reach the highest year-over-year increase in 2018, according to the Energy Information Administration’s new Short-term Energy Outlook (STEO). With more gas supplies, the EIA expects gas prices in 2018 and 2019 to sink below 2017 prices, making it a more economic and attractive fuel for power generation.The EIA, an arm of the Department of Energy, expects gas-fired plants to generate 34% of the electricity in the United States in 2019 while coal-fired generation falls to 28%.
The Tax Overhaul and Your Farm
Ag Web | Posted on January 11, 2018Farms can fully deduct all farm assets purchased between Sept. 28, 2017, and Dec. 31, 2022.Section 179 is bumped to $1 million beginning in 2018 with a phase-out starting at $2.5 million.There’s almost an automatic 20% deduction for net farm income.The tax plan doubles the lifetime estate tax exemption to $11.2 million starting in 2018, and most farmers will be able to deduct all of their interest expense.Net operating losses can only be carried back two years and can only offset 80% of income going forward.Meals are only 50% deductible for farmers who provide them to employees on-site, and that will drop to zero beginning in 2026.
2 more lawsuits filed against Big Ox, South Sioux City
Sioux City Journal | Posted on January 11, 2018Two more homeowners have sued Big Ox Energy and South Sioux City over odors and gases from the renewable energy plant, bringing the total number of lawsuits filed to 14.Tyler and Saira Muff and Kathryn Hunt both filed suit Monday in Dakota County District Court. They claim, as have homeowners in the other lawsuits, that odors and gases from the Big Ox plant damaged their homes and "much of their personal property is useless and has been reduced to waste." They also say the odors and gases have caused health problems that began soon after the plant began operations in September 2016. The 14 lawsuits, all filed since Nov. 29, allege that Big Ox and the city failed to operate wastewater treatment facilities and sewer systems to handle waste from the plant and prevent the release of hydrogen sulfate and other toxic gases. Health problems suffered by homeowners and their families include respiratory illnesses, headaches, nausea, anxiety and emotional distress.
How a Coal Baron’s Wish List Became President Trump’s To-Do List
New York Times | Posted on January 11, 2018President Trump’s first year in office has been a boon for the coal industry, with the Trump administration rolling back regulations on coal-fired power plants and withdrawing the United States from the Paris climate change agreement. Environmentalists have expressed alarm at the new direction, and have complained that Mr. Trump was following a blueprint from the coal industry. A confidential memo written by the head of the country’s largest coal mining company suggests they might not be wrong.The memo was written by Robert E. Murray, a longtime Trump supporter who donated $300,000 to the president’s inauguration. In it, Mr. Murray, the head of Murray Energy, presented Mr. Trump with a wish list of environmental rollbacks just weeks after the inauguration. Nearly a year later, the White House and federal agencies have completed or are on track to fulfill most of the 14 detailed requests, even with Monday’s decision by federal regulators to reject a proposal by Energy Secretary Rick Perry to subsidize struggling coal and nuclear plants.