Today’s Key Takeaways: House Finance committee voted 6-5 to remove funding for state’s takeover of wetlands program. U.S LNG faces worker shortages. Japan and U.S. sign deal to coordinate on critical minerals. 600 trade groups call on congress for permitting reform. Saudi Aramco increases investment in China – building 2 refineries.
The Alaska House Finance Committee voted Monday to remove the state’s planned takeover of a federal wetlands program from its budget proposal and redirect the planned funding to the education program Head Start.
The 6-5 vote came as the committee opened debate on more than 80 amendments to a proposed state budget for the fiscal year that begins June 1.
Gov. Mike Dunleavy’s administration has proposed taking over the program, which regulates the dredged or fill material that can be discharged into wetlands.
Saudi Aramco (2222.SE) raised its multi-billion dollar investment in China by finalising and upgrading a planned joint venture in northeast China and acquiring an expanded stake in a privately controlled petrochemical group.
The two deals, announced separately on Sunday and Monday, would see Aramco supplying the two Chinese companies with a combined 690,000 barrels a day of crude oil, bolstering its rank as China’s top provider of the commodity.
Worker shortage looms over LNG boom Shelby Webb, Energywire, March 27, 2023
The oil and gas industry is expected to triple its spending on liquefied natural gas projects by 2025. But experts say companies may have trouble finding workers to build and operate export terminals.
The boom in U.S. liquefied natural gas exports could hit a new roadblock in the years ahead: workforce shortages.
Since Russia invaded Ukraine last year, U.S. companies have raced to fill gaps in European natural gas markets. Eight export terminals currently operate along the Gulf Coast of Texas and Louisiana, with five more under construction. Another 11 have received approval from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission.
That many projects will require thousands of workers, both to build the terminals and then to operate them once construction is finished. LNG executives worry that today’s labor pool isn’t big enough to meet the demand.
“It’s become more and more a topic of discussion in the industry as we’re getting more imbalance on this,” said Wouter Pastoor, chief operating officer of Delfin Midstream. “There’s a limited pool of labor experienced to build such megaprojects, whether it’s LNG or other types of petrochemical, and we think it will be a risk factor for those projects.”
U.S. exports of LNG averaged 10.6 billion cubic feet per day in 2022, a 9 percent increase compared to 2021, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The federal agency estimates that could grow to 14 billion cubic feet per day by 2024, as new LNG export projects come online.
The boom has prompted debate over how increasing natural gas exports fits with Biden’s climate goals. Environmental groups — including the Sierra Club and the Natural Resources Defense Council — have fought approval of new LNG projects, arguing that they will spew more pollutants into communities already suffering from air pollution nearby petrochemical plants and refineries.
But analysts expect the boom to continue. Rystad Energy, a research and business intelligence company, forecasts that construction activity for LNG projects will triple by 2025 in coastal Louisiana and Texas.
That year, capital expenditures could total $15 billion, up from $5 billion in 2022, according to Rystad.
At the peak of construction, 17 new projects could be underway, said Matthew Fitzsimmons, senior vice president of supply chain research for Rystad Energy. That would dwarf the 2017 boom in LNG export projects; at the time, S&P Global reported that companies struggled to hire around 30,000 workers for four projects.
“Now, we’re going to see two and a half times the ramp-up when compared to 2017,” Fitzsimmons said. “You have a much faster pace of acceleration combined with more projects competing against each other for the same people, which exacerbates the issue.”
Venture Global LNG Inc., Cameron LNG LLC and Cheniere Energy Inc., which are building some of the largest LNG projects in the region, did not respond to requests for comment.
Delfin Midstream, which is based in Oslo, Norway, is retrofitting existing natural gas pipelines to feed into a deepwater port, which will support up to four floating LNG vessels off the Louisiana coast.
The vessels are built in Asia, meaning the company hasn’t yet hired many people from the Gulf Coast.
And while Delfin will need to hire between 120 and 150 employees for each vessel, Pastoor said he doesn’t foresee much competition as the U.S. offshore drilling industry hasn’t rebounded from the Covid-19 pandemic.
But for land-based export terminals, companies could face workforce shortages first for construction teams and and then for operators. Fitzsimmons said the LNG industry along the Gulf Coast could struggle to hire enough operators once the surging need for construction workers begins to cool around 2027.
“Operator shortages should really start in toward the back half of this decade,” he said. “As we start to see more operational expenditures in 2026 through 2030, the back half of the decade is when that crunch is going to start manifesting more.”
Some workforce development agencies and lawmakers are hoping to train more people to fill those gaps.
Texas state Rep. Gary Gates, a Republican from the Houston suburb of Richmond, introduced a bill to create a new type of high school diploma for students who take training courses for high-demand jobs, like construction workers, electricians, pipe-fitters and welders. The new diploma would allow students to swap out more of the currently required curriculum for more career and technical education (CTE) courses.
“Now instead of this kid waiting to get out of high school to get a certificate in welding and go into student debt to do it, they can do it while they’re in high school,” Gates said.
A similar bill from Gates passed the Texas House last session but ran into time constraints in the state Senate. Speedy passage during this session, he said, would allow the Texas Education Agency to begin working with industry officials to set up more CTE programs across the state.
“If you don’t have labor, it slows down everything,” he said.
The United States and Japan have sealed a deal to cooperate on critical minerals for batteries that will see the two try and move EV supply chains away from China.
According to the deal, per the Wall Street Journal, Japan and the U.S. will remove export levies on the EV minerals they trade and they will also align their labor standards in the mining department.
This will make Japan a mineral supplier eligible to participate in projects that have won financing under the Inflation Reduction Act.
A coalition of influential lobbying groups called on Congress to act on the energy permitting reforms championed by Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) by the end of the summer in a letter Monday.
While the letter is led by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the oil and renewable energy industries are also represented in the letter, with the American Petroleum Institute and the Solar Energy Industries Association among the signers.
The letter calls the current permitting system “the single biggest obstacle” to infrastructure buildouts in the U.S. It does not endorse a specific piece of legislation, but instead calls for reforms that improve transparency, predictability, efficiency and input from stakeholders.
Today’s Key Takeaways: Governor Dunleavy tours Westinghouse Microreactor Development Facility. “Conoco has made a commitment, and they’re sticking by it.” Drop in U.S. Gas Prices Temporary. Biden losing young voters on Willow and TikTok.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
Alaska Governor Tours eVinci™ Microreactor Development Facility Westinghouse Electric Company, March 24, 2023
Throughout its history, Alaska has been known as a land of boundless possibilities, adventure, exploration, natural resources and, of course, a strong cultural heritage tied to the indigenous communities who have called this land home for centuries.
Moving forward, Alaska sees a potential for nuclear energy technology to help the state secure its future by providing clean, cost-competitive, reliable and safe electricity, even to the most remote and harshest corners of the state.
It is a state with a lot of land — in fact the largest (you could fit Texas twice over in its 586,000 square miles) — but with the third smallest population. That creates a rather unique situation as many small rural communities search for sustainable sources of energy to thrive.
“We have more microgrids than anywhere else in the country, perhaps, possibly, the world,” said Alaska Governor Mike Dunleavy. “A lot of isolated communities, sometimes hundreds and hundreds of miles apart from each other, and currently most of those communities are dependent on diesel generation.”
Benoit Morenne, The Wall Street Journal, March 26, 2023
Ryan Lance says Alaska, where he began his career, will provide much-needed crude for decades to come
Chief Executive Ryan Lance was only a budding oilman when he first set foot in Alaska. Nearly four decades later, his company reigns supreme over the U.S. Arctic.
At a time when investors profess gloomy views of long-term demand for oil and demand quick returns from companies, Mr. Lance’s contrarian strategy sets him apart. The CEO says that a dearth of investments in oil and gas means that the world will need new supplies of crude; as a result, he is pursuing a strategy to drill wells that will yield oil for decades.
That plan is underpinned by ConocoPhillips investments in Alaska, where Mr. Lance’s career started. He spent around 14 years there navigating the state’s energy landscape, politics and, occasionally, its wildlife.
An avid hunter and fisherman, Mr. Lance embraced the local lifestyle. The oil boss likes to tell people about the time he was hiking through the Kenai Mountains and crossed paths with a bear, that chased him up a tree, said Don Wallette, a former chief financial officer at ConocoPhillips.
People who know Mr. Lance said his experience in Alaska shaped his advocacy for the roughly $7 billion Willow project in the state’s North Slope, which Mr. Biden greenlighted earlier in March. Willow cements ConocoPhillips’s status as the largest producer in the state and gives it license to keep expanding, analysts said.
Although the national average U.S. gasoline price fell slightly by 0.3 cents per gallon last week, declines are likely to be temporary, according to Patrick De Haan, head of petroleum analysis at fuel-saving app GasBuddy.
U.S. gasoline prices fell for a second consecutive week last week, as oil prices were under intense selloff with the banking sector jitters in the United States and Europe.
Last week, the average price of gasoline in America dropped by 0.3 cents from a week ago to $3.40 per gallon on Sunday, according to GasBuddy data compiled from more than 11 million individual price reports covering over 150,000 gas stations across the country. The national average is now 7.8 cents higher compared to a month ago but 83 cents per gallon lower than a year ago, De Haan said. The national average price of diesel has fallen by 5.9 cents in the last week to $4.19 per gallon. That’s 92.7 cents lower than a year ago.
Recent moves by President Joe Biden to pressure TikTok over its Chinese ownership and approve oil drilling in an untapped area of Alaska are testing the loyalty of young voters, a group that’s largely been in his corner.
Youth turnout surged in the three elections since Donald Trump was elected president in 2016, helping Biden eke out victories in swing states in 2020, pick up a Democratic Senate seat in the 2022 election and stem potential losses in the House.
But the 80-year-old president has never been the favorite candidate of young liberals itching for a new generation of American leadership. As Biden gears up for an expected reelection campaign, a potential TikTok ban and the Alaska drilling could weigh him down.
Meanwhile, his plan to wipe out billions of dollars in student loan debt is in jeopardy at the Supreme Court. The effort, announced shortly before last year’s midterms, was an attempt by Biden to keep a promise he made after defeating progressive Sen. Bernie Sanders in the Democratic primary campaign in 2020.
Today’s Key Takeaways: Call for pause in offshore wind power construction due to whale and dolphin deaths. CA may penalize oil companies for high gas prices. Gas industry pushes FERC for a faster permit process. West Su Road opens door to opportunity. House Republicans focused on lowering energy prices.
NEWS OF THE DAY:
OFFSHORE WIND BUILDOUT THREATENED BY WHALE AND DOLPHIN DEATHS: Lawmakers called for a pause on offshore wind power construction yesterday after eight dolphins washed up and died in a “mass stranding event” in Sea Isle City, New Jersey.
“We are not even in the construction stage of these industrial wind turbine grids, yet we are already witnessing a highly unusual mortality rate of these intelligent marine animals,” Rep. Jeff Van Drew said in a statement. He noted that the siting and pre-construction activities off the state’s coast are being conducted “right in the middle” of feeding and breeding grounds, as well as migration routes, for marine mammals such as whales and dolphins.
Rep. Chris Smith told Breanne that the offshore wind project represents a “potentially catastrophic threat” to the coast.
The deaths bring to 23 the number of dolphin and porpoise strandings in 2023.
And it’s part of an alarming trend: Since early December, 29 whales have washed ashore along the East Coast, including humpback whales and the endangered North Atlantic right whale.
At a field hearing in South Jersey earlier this month, officials from the nonprofit group Clean Ocean Action noted an unusual trend: Beginning in December, large commerce shipping in the area decreased by 20%, making it unlikely that shipping traffic alone was responsible for the increase in deaths.
And beginning in December, at least six survey vessels “within close proximity” of each other in the Atlantic and in Cape May were conducting sonar and other geotechnical activities – which “could have had cumulative effects” due to the multiple sonar activities, Clean Ocean Action director Cindy Zipf said.
California lawmakers on Thursday will vote on whether to allow penalties on oil companies for price gouging at the pump, a first-in-the-country proposal aimed at stopping the kind of spikes last summer that caused some drivers pay up to $8 per gallon as the industry reaped super-sized profits.
Gov. Gavin Newsom, a Democrat seen as a possible presidential candidate beyond 2024, has used all of his political muscle to get the bill this far by making in-person pleas with state lawmakers in private ahead of Thursday’s first vote in the state Senate.
The oil industry has pushed back, paying for a wave of digital ads that have labeled any potential penalty as a tax — an idea more likely to be scorned by voters. But they have failed to stop the bill, which after months of stagnating in the Democratic-controlled Legislature is now racing through the process with the Senate vote followed by a final vote in the state Assembly likely next week.
FERC has quickened reviews of pipelines, LNG projects
Gas industry pushing for regulatory, legal changes
Natural gas pipeline developers are pressing Congress and US energy regulators to speed up the permitting process as a way to build more projects that deliver energy to the Eastern states.
It’s a two-pronged effort in Washington, as the Interstate Natural Gas Association of America described in an interview with Bloomberg Law this week ahead of a meeting on Capitol Hill.
The first step is to move the authority to issue water quality certifications, currently delegated to state governments under the Clean Water Act, to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, which issues final approvals to interstate gas pipelines.
The second is to urge Congress to amend the National Environmental Policy Act to require higher standards for legal challenges to FERC gas approvals, including requirements that claimants must have commented to FERC and file lawsuits within a timeline of 120 days of a decision.
FERC Acting Chairman Willie Phillips, a Democrat who took the gavel in January, has granted certificates to gas projects and has sped up some environmental reviews.
Phillips—replacing a chairman who was ousted last year over a move to scrutinize gas projects—pledged last week to forge consensus on the commission, which is split 2-2 between the two political parties. Phillips said he wants certainty for the industry, to not only “have things approved but to have things built.”
The natural gas industry isn’t alone in intensifying lobbying efforts in the hopes that a bipartisan desire for permitting legislation will yield a compromise this year between Democrats and Republicans. But pipeline developers, in particular, have the ear of Sen. Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.), chairman of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee, who blocked the renomination of former FERC chairman Richard Glick last November amid opposition from the natural gas industry.
Extending Alaska’s limited road network 100 miles northwest from the Port MacKenzie area near Anchorage into the West Susitna area would open up a new area for Alaskans to visit the great outdoors, provide highway access to this mineral-rich region, and create a new revenue stream for the state, according to an independent economic study carried out by McKinley Research Group.
“The West Susitna Road is important for local residents and gaining fair access to hunting, fishing, and potential jobs,” said Alaska Gov. Mike Dunleavy. “My administration is constantly looking at ways to grow our economy and this project is a great opportunity for not only south-central Alaska but the entire state. I am committed to this project and unlocking resources that benefit all Alaskans.”
Originally proposed under Alaska’s Roads to Resources program, the West Susitna Access Road would provide Alaskans with easier access to 6 million acres of recreation area for hiking, camping, hunting, fishing, and snowmachining.
The West Susitna area also hosts the last large area of state-owned agricultural lands in Southcentral Alaska. This opens large swaths of land suitable for growing hay and raising livestock, as well as Alaska-grown potatoes and other vegetables.
The largest impact of the road, when it comes to the state’s economy and jobs for Alaskans, would be from mineral projects that would stand a better chance of being developed into mines with year-round access.
The proposed 100-mile road extends into an area enriched with copper, gold, silver, and other minerals critical to green energy and the economy.
Republicans plot path on energy, permitting package Kelsey Brugger, Jeremy Dillon, E & E Daily, March 22, 2023
During their three-day retreat in Orlando, House Republicans sought to put Democrats on the defensive with a message focused on lowering energy prices.
As they put the finishing touches on their massive energy package, House Republicans plan to pressure Democrats on a core kitchen table issue: energy costs.
In wrapping up a three-day retreat here, Republicans seemed to be chomping at the bit to harangue Democrats on Capitol Hill next week over prices at the pump and the supermarket.
Their package, H.R. 1, the “Lower Energy Costs Act,” is a “first start in the energy push for this Congress to try to lower prices and make energy and electricity affordable, reliable and secure for this nation,” declared Rep. Jeff Duncan (R-S.C.), chair of the House Energy and Commerce Subcommittee on Energy, Climate and Grid Security.
“I look forward to the debate and moving this over to the Senate to put some pressure on them,” he said.
Republicans say the proposal, which will be debated and voted on next week, would allow the United States to produce more oil, gas, solar and wind in a manner that is more environmentally sound than anywhere else on the planet.
The bill, the work of three committees, would require the federal government to hold quarterly oil lease sales in Western states. It would speed up environmental permitting that GOP lawmakers complain drags on years longer than it should. The package would also allow for more hardrock mining in mineral-rich states like Minnesota and Idaho.
“This is something that really is transformative,” said Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.), who wrote a significant portion of the final package. “It addresses so many of the things that are problems right now. It creates new revenues for the United States Treasury. It helps to reduce energy costs.”
And, he said, it “helps to promote cleaner energy sources.”
Back in Washington, Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) dismissed the bill as “dead on arrival” and pointed to severe warnings in the new Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change report as a further indication that the GOP is going in the wrong direction.
But here in Orlando, no one was talking about the big climate report. When asked, Rep. Carlos Giménez (R-Fla.) blamed China and other nations that burn more carbon-intensive fuels than the United States.
“We should be using our natural resources so we’re not dependent on them,” he said.
Lawmakers have filed nearly four dozen proposed amendments on the bill, some of them from Democrats seeking to defend climate action.
Clean energy group backs GOP
Republicans picked up a key endorsement of their legislation late last week when the American Clean Power Association, the nation’s largest clean energy trade group, threw its support behind the permitting section of the bill.
“The Lower Energy Costs Act contains important provisions and reforms that will help advance clean energy in the United States,” ACP President Jason Grumet said in a statement.
“This legislation would create a predictable and timely federal permitting framework which is critical to the future development of America’s vast clean energy resources,” he added. “Additionally, encouraging the development of clean energy infrastructure on public lands will create thousands of jobs, reduce energy costs, strengthen grid reliability, and improve energy security.”
Renewable and clean energy generation advocates are some of the biggest proponents of congressional efforts to revamp the federal permitting process. Most trade groups say they remain neutral on the GOP bill, though they would prefer bipartisan consensus over partisan bills.
“Negotiations on any energy legislation must be bipartisan to have any real chance of enactment this Congress, and a truly comprehensive permitting bill needs to help streamline the transmission approval process,” said Gregory Wetstone, president, and CEO of the American Council on Renewable Energy.
On Tuesday, more than two dozen oil groups heartily endorsed the bill for its robust fossil fuel provisions, calling it a “welcome answer to government-imposed distortions to energy markets that have decimated the energy independence that America enjoyed just a few short years ago.”
In a letter to House Republican leaders, the groups added, “In the continued absence of alternatives that do everything oil and natural gas do, suppressing American production means sending billions of dollars overseas, lost jobs, dirtier energy, and increased greenhouse gas emissions.”
H.R. 1 amendments
Even as House Republicans appear united on the base bill, amendment fights on the House floor await next week. The deadline to file proposed changes with the House Rules Committee was Tuesday night.
Republicans are expected to advance the bill under a “structured rule,” which gives the Rules Committee discretion as to what amendments should be made in order. That is after House Speaker Kevin McCarthy (R-Calif.) talked up the “open rule” process — an amendment free-for-all — as one of his signature achievements since Republicans took back the House in January.
Asked about the discrepancy Tuesday, House Majority Leader Steve Scalise (R-La.) said, “We’re working through that right now.”
He noted the bill is made up of 20 different pieces of legislation.
“We’re talking to members now that have some other ideas that they’re interested in,” he said.
For example, Scalise said, Duncan is working on a separate nuclear energy bill for future consideration.
But as for H.R. 1, Republicans said Tuesday there were very few outstanding concerns raised by members in the morning closed-door session, according to six lawmakers who sit on energy-related committees.
“Any time you have a big package like this, you’re going to have some sensitivities come up,” said Graves. “But I feel like we’ve worked through some pretty good solutions on those items, and I think we’re in a good spot.”
Democrats have already lined up some amendments from Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-Mich.) and others in defense of climate-focused provisions in the Inflation Reduction Act that would be eliminated as part of the Republican bill, including the methane fee and a green bank funding program.
Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick (R-Pa.) similarly filed amendments in defense of those programs, in addition to measures to limit oil and gas operations in the Delaware River Basin. He also backed language authorizing his vision of a carbon tax.
Democrats will look to limit drilling off California’s coast and other areas with amendments from Democratic California Reps. Mike Levin and Jimmy Panetta.
Mountain Valley pipeline
Rep. Carol Miller (R-W.Va.) introduced an amendment that closely mirrors old language that would try to force approval of the Mountain Valley pipeline, a 300-mile natural gas pipeline that would transport product from West Virginia to Virginia. It has been one of Sen. Joe Manchin’s (D-W.Va.) pet projects in recent years and was a key provision in his failed permitting overhaul effort last year.
Other politicians hailing from the Mid-Atlantic are eager to see the pipeline operate. But Republicans have previously opposed the idea of singling out one project for special congressional treatment. And they might not want to hand Manchin a win at a time when the moderate Democrat mulls running for reelection.
Graves acknowledged that some lawmakers might not be keen on giving preferential treatment for such a project. But he said he understands the frustrations from the West Virginia lawmakers, calling Mountain Valley a “really critical pipeline that has really been dragged through the mud and caught up in political fodder.”
Graves said he had not made up his mind on whether to support any of the amendments. He was planning to read all of them on the plane ride back to Washington.
Graves downplayed the politics at play: “Do we really come in and say, ‘We’re going to jam Manchin and don’t want him to get a win?‘ Or do you come and say actually what’s right for the country? I hope that the latter would prevail.”
"An average American today is more than twice as wealthy as an average American was the year The Population Bomb was published, yet generates 30 percent fewer carbon emissions and uses 50 percent less land for their diet."https://t.co/wFuo1NBYdn
Today’s Key Takeaways: $680 million less in revenue for Alaska legislators as they finalize budget. Innovation in oil and gas extraction paves the way for the future. US should get serious about mining critical minerals for clean energy. Bank turmoil could make financing difficult for clean energy start-ups.
Alaska lawmakers have nearly $680 million less in expected revenue for the upcoming budget year amid lower oil price and production outlooks, a report released Tuesday suggests.
The state Revenue Department’s spring forecast also revises expectations for the current year, ending June 30. The report says revenue available for general state spending and capital projects for this year is expected to be about $245 million lower than what the department forecast in December.
This comes as the House Finance Committee works on its version of a state budget. Whatever passes the House will go to the Senate for consideration and differences between the two chambers are typically settled in negotiations.
The new report is based on oil prices of $85.25 a barrel for the current year and $73 a barrel for the upcoming fiscal year. It is also based on an average of 485,200 barrels of oil a day for the year ending June 30, and 496,400 barrels a day for the upcoming year.
The department says use of earnings from the state’s oil-wealth fund, the Alaska Permanent Fund, remains a key source of revenue.
Lawmakers in 2018 began using earnings, long used to pay yearly dividends to residents, to also help pay for government. Lawmakers also sought to cap withdrawal amounts based on a percentage of the fund’s market value. The withdrawal amount for the upcoming fiscal year is expected to be about $3.5 billion.
The oil and gas industry has always been one of the early adopters of new developments in technology. The stakeholders have adopted model reservoirs, pipeline and distribution automation, robotics for drilling operations, etc. These advancements have made the extraction of oil and gas once perceived as impossible into reality. The oil and gas industry has played a significant role in the global economic transformation. Having said that, digitalization in the industry is still in its nascence. The innovation in the technology of the industry can be broadly categorised into two buckets, the first about field operations, and the second being the analytics support to optimise the field operations. Even Gartner’s recent research highlights – the oil and gas sector must build on optimizing business performance to unlock new possibilities.
Defining the digital strategy
To create innovative capabilities in the oil and gas industry, the imperative is to understand which business model can lay a solid foundation for digitizing the sector. An article recently published in the Economist about Europe’s energy crisis was alarming, to say the least, and gives a lot of perspective on how India’s model can be shaped. A nation’s application of innovation can be futile if the primary focus does not rely on the self-sustainability of energy, as the current situation in Europe has unnervingly laid out for the world.
Energy companies are aggressively figuring out ways to bring efficiency, sustainability and profitability in digitally driven business models. The onset of the pandemic has already shifted the model stakeholders to accelerate digitalization, and build a robust infrastructure of futuristic technologies to address systematic challenges like affected supply chains or price hikes.
We are living in a time of a mineral impasse. Crucial green technologies, including solar panels, wind turbines and electric-vehicle batteries, require increasing amounts of metals, such as lithium, copper, nickel, cobalt, manganese, and rare-earth elements.
Yet the current US administration is in a bind. The climate movement, a core part of President Joe Biden’s base, wants clean energy and electric cars. But it doesn’t want mining of the minerals required — certainly not close to home.
Emblematic of this impasse is a January decision by the US Department of the Interior to withdraw 91,000 hectares near the Boundary Waters in northeastern Minnesota from mining and geothermal leasing for the next 20 years. The area, known for its pristine lakes, also holds some of the nation’s largest undeveloped copper and nickel deposits.
The country is in danger of forgetting one of the four laws of ecology that Barry Commoner — one of my early inspirations for a career in environmental teaching and research — established in his 1971 book A Closing Circle: “There is no such thing as a free lunch.” All industrial activities have some ecological impact. As researchers, and as informed societies, we must consider the benefits and trade-offs in concert.
Other nations face the same problem. For example, Serbia stopped its Jadar lithium-mining project last January in response to environmental protests from across the political spectrum, even though it met the European Union’s stringent environmental standards.
But the United States seems particularly stuck. Both President Biden and former president Donald Trump have called for mineral supply security. Yet, in 2022, domestic metal mine production was 6% lower than in 2021, and mineral imports reached a record high, according to the US Geological Survey. The nation remains 100% dependent on imports for 12 critical minerals, including manganese, niobium (used in steel alloys) and tantalum (for electronics). Opening new mines takes time, but no momentum has built up so far.
After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank and Signature Bank, U.S. clean energy start-ups and companies could face growing difficulties in accessing finance, which could slow the effect of a rapid renewable energy rollout intended by the Inflation Reduction Act, analysts and investment firms have told the Financial Times.
The Inflation Reduction Act (IRA) has around $370 billion in climate and clean energy provisions, including investment and production credits for solar and wind power generation, storage, critical minerals, funding for energy research, and credits for clean energy technology manufacturing such as wind turbines and solar panels.
After the collapse of Silicon Valley Bank, which triggered a banking sector scare for regional U.S. banks and spread to Europe with the near-collapse of Credit Suisse, regulators in the U.S. stepped up to guarantee the deposits of clean energy start-ups in SVB. However, renewable energy firms are now assessing their vulnerability and exposure to the banking sector. Some of those firms may find it harder to access funding, and it’s not only the high-interest rates that will be the hindrance according to investment managers.
U.S. Rep. Mary Peltola testified before the Minnesota and Oregon legislatures on bills that would expand ranked choice voting in those states, even as conservative Republicans have launched efforts to do away with Alaska’s new voting system. https://t.co/xnZ4BJddSq
