Large companies' procurement deals for new renewable power capacity in the U.S. jumped last year to their highest level at 10.6 gigawatts, the Renewable Energy Buyers Alliance (REBA) said.
Why it matters: Big corporations have emerged as an important driver of new solar and wind power projects as costs have fallen and they look to meet sustainability pledges.
The effects of President Biden's restrictions on oil-and-gas leasing and permitting on federal lands and waters will be limited in the near term, the International Energy Agency said Thursday.
Driving the news: IEA's monthly oil market report says it doesn't see a "material impact on U.S. production in the short term."
Oil demand is slated for a large bounce-back from the pandemic that will tighten the market a lot, but it's going to take a while, the International Energy Agency said.
Why it matters: "The rebalancing of the oil market remains fragile in the early part of 2021 as measures to contain the spread of COVID-19, with its more contagious variants, weigh heavily on the near-term recovery in global oil demand," IEA said in its monthly oil market analysis today.
Royal Dutch Shell said Thursday that its oil production peaked in 2019 and is expected to decline by roughly 1%-2% annually as the company diversifies into lower-carbon energy products and business lines.
Why it matters: It signals how some of the world's most powerful oil-and-gas companies are positioning themselves for a world taking climate change more seriously and responding to calls from investors and activists to do more.
Two new studies offer a rough one-two punch on climate change — showing the lagging efforts to meet the Paris Agreement's targets and the health effects of the world's current fossil-heavy energy system.
Driving the news: An analysis in the journal Communications Earth & Environment sheds light on what it would take to hold global temperature rise under 2°C above preindustrial levels.
House Democrats' COVID-19 relief package unveiled last night includes $100 million for EPA to address "health outcome disparities from pollution and the COVID-19 pandemic," per House Energy and Commerce Committee bill text.
How it works: The proposed funding would provide $50 million for grants, contracts and other activities, and another $50 million for EPA-funded air quality monitoring and related efforts, panel Democrats said.
Officials appointed by former President Trump interfered to overrule career scientists in a safety assessment for a toxic chemical linked to health issues at the Environmental Protection Agency, the EPA said Tuesday.
Why it matters: EPA career scientists found in a review that conclusions made by the officials in regards to the chemical, PFBS, "were compromised by political interference as well as infringement of authorship and the scientific independence of the authors' conclusions," according to a statement by President Biden's EPA.
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