It’s possible that I shall make an ass of myself. But in that case one can always get out of it with a little dialectic. I have, of course, so worded my proposition as to be right either way (K.Marx, Letter to F.Engels on the Indian Mutiny)
The U.S. is lagging behind much of the developed world in electric vehicle (EV) adoption.
Only 2 in 10 Americans are very likely to buy an EV, even with the additional subsidies offered by the Inflation Reduction Act.
Cost, charger availability, and price remain key issues hindering the widespread adoption of EVs in the US.
Here's a peculiar sentiment check that we're sure will have liberal voting soccer moms across the nation stunned: it looks as though the country simply isn't rushing out to buy electric vehicles.
At least that was the takeaway from a new Financial Times piece out this week which notes that the U.S. "still lags much of the developed world" in EV adoption.
No wonder those hurricanes coming up the Gulf Coast keep getting bigger! Quick, everybody to the Tesla dealership!
But seriously, the lack of demand is going to also be sure to stun the government, who has been offering tax breaks of up to $7,500 to try and incentivize people to go electric. Though the Inflation Reduction Act incentivizes EVs, imagine how surprised Democratic leaders will be to find out that they aren't the free market and can't plan a state run economy in its entirety.
Instead, FT reveals that "just two in every 10 Americans are “very likely” to buy an EV as their next car", even with the additional IRA subsidies. The number shifts to 1 in 10 Americans among Republicans.
Cost and charger availability are being cited as the two main reasons people aren't buying EVs. Behind them, price still remains a key factor.
And when it came to those who wanted to buy an EV, the IRA subsidy was only cited by 6 in 10 people even cited it as a reason, with only 3 in 10 calling it a "major reason" to buy an EV.
As FT concluded, "economics still trumps ideology".
But don't worry, the Biden administration won't take this as a lesson on why government control of the economy doesn't work - rather, we're certain they'll see it as a prompt to shell out more taxpayer purchasing power as "incentives" to fundamentally alter the course of the notoriously low-margin, capital intensive, auto business - and then blame Donald Trump when their plans don't work out
Competition And Costs Are Threatening The U.S. LNG Boom
More than a dozen proposed LNG export projects in the United States could stall due to cost inflation and increased competition to secure financing.
Demand for LNG has soared since Russia invaded Ukraine and buyers spurned Russian pipeline gas.
Developers could launch $100 billion worth of new LNG projects over the next five years, but securing long-term deals and financing is a major hurdle.
Cost inflation and increased competition to secure long-term buyers and financing could hold back some of the more than a dozen proposed LNG export projects in the United States.
Demand for LNG globally is currently high, as European countries rush to build import terminals and purchase liquefied natural gas to offset the very low, or complete lack of, Russian pipeline gas supply.
Despite the surge in LNG demand and the abundance of natural gas in the United States, America’s next LNG export boom could stall as costs have surged and financing has become more complicated with the higher interest rates.
“It’s dramatically more expensive,” Charif Souki, who founded Cheniere Energy and was the CEO of what is now the top U.S. LNG exporter until 2015, told the Financial Times.
“There are fewer and fewer construction companies that can actually handle these kinds of loads,” said Souki, who now leads Tellurian, the developer of the Driftwood project that has hit snags in its ability to raise funds and secure major long-term customers in recent years.
Apart from soaring project costs and rising interest rates, U.S. LNG export project developers face the issue with many buyers’ reluctance to commit to 20-year-long supply deals.
Developers of U.S. LNG export facilities could launch $100 billion worth of new plants over the next five years as high prices and the need for energy security create strong momentum for long-term LNG demand and contracts, energy consultancy Wood Mackenzie said in a report earlier this year.
Yet, price volatility and the cost and financing issues could mean that fewer projects could see the start of operations this decade than previously thought.
New U.S. and Canadian LNG export projects show signs of accelerating but volatile natural gas prices are making bets on future supply and demand difficult, industrial market intelligence provider Industrial Info Resources (IIR) said in research last month.
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Biden Approves Exports From Planned Alaska LNG Project
The Department of Energy approved on Thursday LNG exports from a proposed $39-billion Alaska project, with which the Biden Administration drew criticism from environmentalists again.
DOE approved exports by vessels from the planned Alaska LNG Project to countries with which the U.S. does not have free trade agreements in a volume equivalent to 929 billion cubic feet (Bcf) per year of natural gas for a term of 30 years. The LNG may be sourced from natural gas supplies from Prudhoe Bay and Point Thomson fields on the North Slope of Alaska, DOE said.
The Alaska LNG project, developed by the Alaska Gasline Development Corporation, is expected to start delivering from 2030 on average about 3.5 billion cubic feet of gas per day, much of it for international markets.
Initial approvals for the project were granted by the Trump Administration, but the Biden Administration has also supported the project.
The Administration said last year in a Draft Supplemental Environmental Impact Statement, “With this report, the Biden Administration confirms that Alaska LNG can deliver environmental benefits globally and provide environmental and socioeconomic benefits for Alaskans.”
In the record of decision this week, DOE said that environmentalists at Sierra Club and Earthjustice – who had tried to block the project approval process – failed to show that Alaska LNG “is inconsistent with the public interest,” as they had claimed.
DOE enlisted economic boost for Alaska and the U.S., as well as lower natural gas prices in Alaska, as benefits from the project.
“Additionally, DOE found that exports from the Alaska LNG Project will provide benefits to free trade and energy security. DOE noted, for example, the importance of both diverse sources of natural gas supply and increased volumes of LNG for the global LNG market in improving energy security for many U.S. allies and trading partners,” DOE said.
Environmental groups were furious with the approval of LNG exports, as they were with last month’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska (NPR-A).
“Right after the horrific Willow decision, it’s painful to see Biden officials greenlight an even bigger fossil fuel project that will destroy Arctic habitat and feed the climate crisis,” said Liz Jones, an attorney at the Center for Biological Diversity’s Climate Law Institute.
Moneen Nasmith, a Senior Attorney in Earthjustice’s National Climate team, noted, “This administration cannot continue to approve these fossil fuel projects and say that it is taking the climate crisis seriously.”
By Tsvetana Paraskova for Oilprice.com
Video: Two Long-Lost Great Lakes Lumber Ships Discovered off Michigan
The logo of the Edward Hines Lumber Company on the wreck of the Selden E. Marvin (GLSHS)
The Great Lakes Shipwreck Historical Society (GLSHS) has announced its latest major discovery: its team has found the resting place of two lumber ships that went down in a storm in Lake Superior during the First World War.
On November 18, 1914, the steamship C.F. Curtis was towing two manned schooner barges, Selden E. Marvin and Annie M. Peterson. They were operated by Edward Hines Lumber Co., a prominent name on the Great Lakes at the time (and still a well-known brand in the region today). The vessels were laden with a cargo of lumber for delivery from Baraga, Michigan to Tonawanda, New York. The Curtis expected clear sailing, but she encountered a severe storm when passing off the coast of Grand Marais, Michigan. All three ships disappeared in the storm, with the loss of all 28 crewmembers aboard.
With no distress call, no witnesses and no survivors, the vessels' disappearance remained a mystery for more than a century. The Curtis remained lost until the summer of 2021, when a team of researchers from GLSHS encountered her hull and eight others in a highly successful season of searching. However, the barges Selden E. Marvin and Annie M. Peterson remained missing.
In summer 2022, the historical society's search team returned and resumed their efforts. Their research vessel, the David Boyd, spotted another wreck just a few miles away from the resting place of the Curtis; an ROV inspection determined that it was the Selden E. Marvin.
The cold, fresh water at the bottom of Lake Superior is an excellent environment for preservation, and the Marvin's wreck appeared little changed from the day it went down. "We could actually read the paint" of the operator's logo on the hull, historian and researcher Ric Mixter told the New York Times. The wreck showed signs of severe damage at the stern, and from the way that the tow lines were rigged on her deck, the researchers believe that Marvin was the middle vessel in the Curtis' two-barge tow arrangement.
There is still one ship missing from the string of three. “It’s one of our goals to find the Peterson," said the director of marine operations for the GLSHS, Darryl Ertel. "It would be great to know where all three wrecks are lying on the bottom of Superior, and finally be able to tell the stories of the Curtis, Marvin and Peterson.”
B.C. Underwrites Shore Power Project for Victoria Cruise Terminal
File image courtesy Greater Victoria Harbour Authority
A busy 2023 cruise tourism season has prompted the British Columbia government to invest $6.6 million in power supply infrastructure to enable cruise ships' access electrical power while docked at the Victoria cruise terminal.
Onshore power supply infrastructure will be installed at Victoria's Ogden Point, which is currently the busiest cruise ship port-of-call in Canada. The shore power will enable the high number of cruise ships expected to dock at the terminal in the 2023 season to plug into the local electricity grid while at berth. The plug-in facilities will be installed at two berths, allowing multiple ships to draw electricity at the port, significantly reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and noise pollution in the region.
This year, the Greater Victoria Harbour Authority (GVHA) estimates 320 cruise ships and approximately 850,000 passengers will dock at the Victoria terminal over the seven-month season between April and October. The first cruise ship of the 2023 season is scheduled to dock in Victoria on April 11.
In Canada, the cruise ship industry represents about $3 billion worth of annual input into the country’s economy and generates approximately 30,000 jobs. The B.C government believes that ensuring sustainability by reducing emissions from this commercially-important activity is critical.
“People want solutions to environmental concerns while also growing our economy. Adding shore power will allow us to turn off large cruise ship engines by connecting vessels to clean electricity at Ogden Point. This will lower GHG emissions, reduce air pollution and create well-paying jobs that support sustainable tourism,” said Rob Fleming, Minister of Transportation and Infrastructure.
The funding will enable GVHA, which owns and operates deep water, marina and upland holdings throughout Victoria's harbor including the port at The Breakwater District, to plan and implement the shore power project at Ogden Point thus enhancing its status as a world-class destination for cruise ships and passengers.
85 percent of Cruise Lines International Association (CLIA)-member cruise ships that are set for delivery over the next four years have the capabilities to plug into shoreside electricity, thus allowing engines to switch off at berth for significant emissions reduction. CLIA has identified shore power as one of the pathways that will enable the cruise industry to achieve net-zero ambitions by 2050.
Victoria will join other Pacific Coast cruise ship ports like Seattle, Vancouver and Juneau, which were among the world’s first major ports of call to offer shore power plug-in options.
NYK Sponsors Endangered Sea Turtle Research
NYK Employees Volunteer at the Kishu Minabe Sea Turtle Research Project
NYK has sponsored the Kishu Minabe Sea Turtle Research Project conducted by the NPO Earthwatch Japan* for a seventh consecutive year.
Minabe-cho in Wakayama Prefecture is where most loggerhead sea turtles** lay their eggs on the main island of Japan. This research project started in 2016 to study sea turtle behavior patterns and keep the turtles free of danger by mapping the sea turtles as they migrate through the vast ocean.
This year, for the first time in two years, NYK Group employees volunteered at Minabe-cho, assisting in the identification of loggerhead turtles that had come ashore to lay eggs, and measuring the length and width of the turtles’ shells.
The locations of two loggerhead sea turtles named “Umi-chan No. 4,” a returning turtle, and “Hana-chan No. 4,” a new turtle, are provided on the in-house portal site along with comments by Dr. Yoshimasa Matsuzawa, the project’s chief researcher.
After spawning, "Hana-chan No. 4" headed west-southwest in a straight path toward Cape Muroto, and then made a clockwise half-circumnavigation of the Pacific Ocean on the southeast side of western Japan until the transmission was interrupted 10 kilometers offshore south of Tanegashima. On the other hand, "Umi-chan No. 4" typically remained somewhat near the shore. The NYK Group will continue to actively engage in environmental conservation efforts, including activities to preserve the marine environment and biodiversity.
Comment by the project's chief researcher, Yoshimasa Matsuzawa
Currently, the number of loggerhead turtles laying eggs in Japan has declined significantly. In Senrihama, Minabe-cho, spawning declined from 350 confirmed in 1990 to 31 in 2021. 2022 saw a slight rebound, but only 49. On the other hand, the return rate of spawning turtles is also poor. Even after taking into account the shedding of tags, about 70% of the turtles in Minabe-cho will never return. Since females stick to certain beaches, this means a high mortality rate after spawning. To improve the return rate, the most important issue is to clarify where and what threats female loggerheads are exposed to after laying eggs. In this sense, the accumulation of data through continued satellite tracking by this project is expected to play a vital role in the conservation of this species in the future.
Earthwatch Japan Earthwatch, a non-profit organization established in 1971 in Boston, is an international nongovernmental organization. It provides researchers with both human and financial support for overseas field research and surveys. Volunteers dispatched all over the world by Earthwatch have taken active roles at cutting-edge scientific sites, receiving instruction from world-class scientists. Earthwatch Institute - Japan was established in 1993 to promote Earthwatch activities in Japan. https://www.earthwatch.org
The products and services herein described in this press release are not endorsed by The Maritime Executive.
Tanker and Crew Found Safe After Pirates Steal Cargo in Gulf of Guinea
Success 9 was missing for five days with an international search looking for the tanker
Success 9 was brought to Abidjan after the pirates abandoned the tanker (photos courtesy of Singapore MPA)
The missing Singapore-registered tanker that was boarded at the beginning of the week has finally been located with authorities in Singapore and South Korea reporting the crewmembers are safe. A search had been ongoing since the Success 9 was boarded mid-day local time on Monday, April 10 approximately 300 nautical miles south of Abidjan, Cote d’Ivoire.
Singapore’s Maritime and Port Authority reports a distress call was detected by another commercial tanker, the Monjasa Sprinter which is also operating in the area south of Abidjan. The Monjasa tanker relayed the information to the company’s security officer who passed the details to the MPA and other authorities in the region.
The Information Fusion Centre (IFC) and the Monrovia Regional Maritime Rescue Coordination Centre (MRCC), which had been coordinating the international search effort, were informed. A Cote d’Ivoire navy patrol vessel was dispatched and reached the Success 9. The Ivorian team boarded the ship confirming the safety of the crew and arranged for the vessel to proceed to Abidjan. The Success 9, built in 2003, is a 6,135 dwt product tanker owned by HS Ocean of Singapore.
South Korea’s foreign ministry provided additional details according to a report from the Korean news agency Yonhap saying that the ministry had been in contact with its citizen who was among the 20 crewmembers. They said the pirates abandoned the tanker after stealing cargo and the crew’s personal belongings. All the crewmembers have been accounted for and were unharmed.
All the crew were accounted for and in good health the MPA reports (photos courtesy of Singapore MPA)
The British-French monitoring agency Maritime Domain Awareness for Trade Gulf of Guinea listed the incident as concluded. They report the tanker was located approximately 65 miles southeast of Abidjan.
The search for the vessel was launched on Monday after security agencies reported the Success 9 had been boarded by an unknown number of pirates. Cote d’Ivoire dispatched one of its patrol boats which reported it was unable to find the tanker. The search continued with the Ivorian air and sea assets working from the last known position of the vessel.
Neighboring Ghana, Guinea, Sierra Leone, and Liberia were also assisting and Nigeria also provided its help while noting the vessel was not believed to be in their territory. International involvement also included the French Navy which is patrolling the region. Two weeks ago, the French frigate Premier-Maitre L'Her was successful in bringing another hijacking in the region to a conclusion. Another Monjasa tanker, the Monjasa Reformer was boarded off the coast of Congo and also went missing for multiple days. The French frigate spotted her with a drone hundreds of miles from her original position located approximately 90 nautical miles south of Bonny Island, Nigeria. By the time they were able to reach the Monjasa Reformer the pirates had abandoned the tanker kidnapping six crewmembers. The search is ongoing to find those crewmembers.
The two incidents coming within weeks of each other have led to broad calls from authorities around the world, security agencies, and the International Maritime Organization for increased vigilance in the Gulf of Guinea.
G7 Attempts To Accelerate The Energy Transition With Big Solar And Wind Promises
The leaders of the world’s top seven rich countries have agreed to speed up the energy transition by setting more ambitious targets for wind and solar power.
The G7 leaders also agreed to accelerate the phaseout of fossil fuels although they stopped short of setting a deadline for the phaseout of coal, Reuters reported.
"In the midst of an unprecedented energy crisis, it's important to come up with measures to tackle climate change and promote energy security at the same time," Japan’s minister of industry said, as quoted by Reuters.
“The United States and all the developed world has the responsibility to help the developing world through this crisis,” U.S. climate envoy John Kerry told the AP.
“Those countries will really determine what happens. If they will reduce, if they will take the lead, if they will start deploying the new technologies, if they will stop using unabated fossil fuels, we’ll up the chance of winning this battle.”
The main commitments of the G7 were a boost of offshore wind energy generation capacity by 150 gigawatts and a similar boost to solar capacity, to over 1 terawatt.
While all G7 members were firm on the issue of a coal phaseout, they appeared unable to agree on a single deadline for that. Canada and several other G7 members committed to a coal phaseout by 2030 but others refrained from making such a commitment.
"Others are still trying to figure out how they could get there within their relevant timeframe," Canadian resource minister Jonathan Wilkinson said.
Opinions differ on other fossil fuels as well. Japan, for one, is almost entirely dependent on fossil fuel imports to satisfy its energy needs and fossil fuels. Because of that, the country has insisted that LNG is accepted as a transition fuel for at least 10 or 15 years.
By Irina Slav for Oilprice.com
G7 Nations Pledge to Support Decarbonization of Shipping
The G7 Energy and Environment Ministers’ meeting in Sapporo Japan ended on Sunday, with new announcements being made to accelerate adoption of offshore energy and clean fuels in the transport industry.
In a 36-page communique, the G7 ministers laid out their climate and energy commitments in hope of advancing a global green transformation. The G7 members - Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Japan, the U.K, the U.S plus the European Union - account for around 40 percent of the global economy, 30 percent of energy demand and 25 percent of energy system CO2 emissions. For this reason, the G7 is considered an important forum for reducing emissions from carbon intensive industries, like shipping.
During the weekend meeting, the G7 ministers reiterated the importance to significantly increase the pace and scale of deployment of renewable energy. The G7 has so far contributed in expanding the renewable energy base, specifically through a collective increase in offshore wind capacity of 150 GW by 2030 based on each country’s existing targets.
However, the ministers concurred with the findings of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) that the existing renewable power deployment rates globally are insufficient to keep 1.50 C within reach.
To prop up further renewable energy development, the ministers agreed to promote improvement in innovative technologies such as floating offshore wind power, wave energy and in standard evaluation methods for introducing new technologies.
“We will also ask IRENA to prepare analysis on innovation and sustainability of floating offshore wind. In addition, we will steadily improve energy system flexibility including through mini-grids and modernized utilization of energy storage system systems including battery storage,” states the communique.
Most importantly, the decarbonization of the shipping industry got a major boost, with the ministers pledging to support introduction of intermediate targets for 2030 and 2040 for the revised IMO GHG reduction strategy during the upcoming IMO’s 80th Session of the Marine Environment Protection Committee (MEPC 80).
“As part of other multilateral cooperation, we pledge to support the establishment of at least 14 green shipping corridors involving G7 members by the middle of this decade to promote uptake of zero and near-zero emission vessels and fuels and the development of decarbonized ports,” says the communique.
