April 2, 2022

Weekend Reads: Europe's Path Through the Energy Crisis; G-20 Climate Action at Home Misses the Mark

It's the weekend! Kick back and catch up with these must-read articles from around the web.

Europe can lead the way through an energy crisis without more fossil fuels (Vox) In five years, European countries hope to end dependence on Russian fossil fuels, and by the end of the year, they look to slash reliance on Russian gas by two-thirds. If Europe follows through on these pledges, Russia’s invasion of Ukraine could propel one of the swiftest energy transitions in history. The biggest question now is whether it’s a transition off oil and gas — or just off Russian oil and gas. Right now, it seems fossil fuels are winning. Oil companies in the United States are eager for Europe to swap one fossil fuel for another and build out more infrastructure on both sides of the Atlantic to carry oil and gas to Europe. And despite their climate pledges, world leaders have shown early support for ramping up fossil fuel infrastructure.

The public pulse on energy (Axios) Several new polls show widespread concern about energy costs — and gasoline in particular — as the midterm elections draw closer. What's new: Wednesday morning Gallup reported that U.S. worries about energy cost and availability spiked to the highest levels in a decade. The poll conducted March 1-18 showed that 47% of U.S. adults surveyed worry "a great deal," which is 10% higher than the same stretch last year. Another 30% worry a "fair amount." The survey period coincided with record pump prices (though not when you adjust for inflation).

As Gas Prices Soar, Biden’s Climate Ambitions Sputter (The New York Times) A year after he entered the White House with a vow that fighting global warming would be a driving priority for his administration, President Biden’s climate agenda is mired in delay and facing legal, legislative and political headwinds that could diminish or dismantle it entirely. His two main avenues for significant climate action are legislation and regulation. But even Mr. Biden’s top aides and closest allies now concede that the legislative centerpiece of his climate plan is unlikely to become law in the face of steadfast Republican opposition. And regulations that are now under development — strict limits on the pollution from cars and power plants that is dangerously heating the planet — could be curtailed or blocked by the conservative majority on the Supreme Court.

G-20 Go Big on Climate Vows but Policies at Home Lack Punch (BloombergNEF) No G-20 government has implemented sufficient and concrete policies to match the promises to tackle climate change made at COP26 in Glasgow last year, according to a new report from research group BloombergNEF (BNEF). The second edition of BNEF’s G-20 Zero-Carbon Policy Scoreboard report examines how climate rhetoric on the international stage is matching actions on the home front by the governments of the world’s 19 largest nations, responsible for nearly 80% of global GHG emissions (the EU is the 20th G-20 member). BNEF found that no G-20 country has implemented sufficient policies to plausibly achieve deep decarbonization, although 11 of the 19 nations did make progress in 2021.

This Historic Community Is Pushing the Nation Toward a Wind Power Revolution (Smithsonian Magazine) Block Island, 15 miles off the coast at its farthest point, has always been at the mercy of the four winds. Raging winter gusts have been known to rip porches off houses and knock stones off the rock walls that lattice the island’s meadows and pastures. More regularly, breezes delivered to residents the drone of enormous diesel-burning generators, the Rhode Island community’s sole source of power. No one liked it, “but that was just part of island life,” a local real estate agent tells me. People got used to the noise, and those who lived near the power plant—less than half a mile from downtown—resigned themselves to frequently scrubbing soot from their windows and sills. But then, at precisely 5:30 a.m. on the first of May, 2017, a great silence fell upon the land. The generators, after roaring for 89 years, shut down. And yet electrons continued to flow.

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