The Trump administration is expected on Thursday to withdraw the legal justification for an Obama-era regulation that forced coal-fired power plants to cut mercury and other toxic air pollution, the New York Times reports.
Why it matters: It's another step by the administration to relax health-related regulations even during the coronavirus pandemic. The administration curtailed vehicle emissions standards despite studies linking pollution to higher COVID-19 death rates.
Three pieces of analysis suggest trouble for the growth of low-carbon energy sectors, as we continue gauging the ongoing effects from the coronavirus pandemic.
State of play: Several industry groups and analysts issued a memorandum tallying the early stages of U.S. job losses in the sector at 3% already. Meanwhile, an intergovernmental agency warns that COVID-19 could hinder oil industry efforts on climate and a group of business leaders said 84% of their members have delayed projects.
Royal Dutch Shell unveiled wide-ranging new climate goals Thursday that would see the oil-and-gas giant become a "net-zero emissions energy business" by 2050.
Why it matters: It's the latest and among the biggest moves by European-based majors on global warming — one that would require a major transformation of their businesses to succeed.
The amount of jet fuel airplanes consumed last week in the U.S. plummeted to the lowest level on record, shows new government data going back nearly 30 years.
Driving the news: No other crisis in modern history has come even close to causing such a precipitous drop in demand as the novel coronavirus — including the 9/11 terrorist attacks and the 2008 economic crash.
Microsoft is unveiling plans for a new digital platform for environmental data and committing to conserve more land than it operates on in the next five years.
The big picture: The pursuits, a follow-up to the tech giant’s big climate change goal earlier this year, is one of the first major corporate announcements on environmental issues since the coronavirus pandemic erupted, causing many such initiatives to be put on hold.
New polling shows an immense partisan divide on the threat of climate change, one that contrasts sharply with widespread agreement on the risks of spreading infectious disease.
What they found: Check out the chart above, showing some of the results from Pew Research Center polling conducted March 3–29.
Apple released data Tuesday from nations and cities worldwide that help to show the stunning reductions in travel due to the coronavirus pandemic.
Why it matters: Stay-at-home policies and closures of schools, offices and more are among the forces driving the collapse in oil demand — so is the decline of flying, which is not directly captured here.
There's simply nothing policymakers can do that will quickly fix the oil sector's woes, and events on Wednesday show why the path ahead is so difficult and will overwhelm some companies.
The state of play: The International Energy Agency issued an immense downward revision of its 2020 estimates for global oil demand, immediately putting even more downward pressure on oil prices, which have already been falling again this week.
