Canadian pipeline companies sees natgas opportunities in shift to green energy

NATURAL GAS IS A HYDROCARBON IT AIN'T GREEN IT'S BLUE

By Nia Williams and Rod Nickel 

POSTMEDIA

4/8/2021

© Reuters/TODD KOROL A TC Energy pump station sits behind mounds of dirt from the Keystone XL crude oil pipeline as it lies idle near Oyen

CALGARY, Alberta (Reuters) -Canada's largest pipeline companies TC Energy and Enbridge Inc see opportunities in their extensive natural gas businesses as a transition to cleaner energy evolves, their chief executives said on Wednesday.

The two Calgary-based companies are among North America's largest energy infrastructure firms, and the majority of their business is focused on storing and transporting fossil fuels.

TC Energy has the biggest natural gas pipeline system in North America, and CEO François Poirier said the company sees plenty of opportunities to allocate capital to that business in the form of organic bolt-on projects.

Storage and transportation assets will be key as the energy transition moves forward and new technologies aimed at reducing greenhouse gas emissions like carbon capture and storage and hydrogen are developed, Poirier said at the online Scotiabank CAPP Energy Symposium.

"Transition can't come fast enough from our perspective but we have to pace it appropriately. I believe natural gas and liquids will continue to play a prominent role in the energy economy for decades to come," he said.

"I believe our existing assets will continue to be used and be useful for quite a long time and generate a tremendous amount of cash flow that we will be able to deploy into the energy transition."

Enbridge CEO Al Monaco, speaking at the same conference, said he saw gas as the "great enabler" for the energy transition because it is a reliable source of power that can backstop renewables.

"It's low-cost, abundant, it's important in reducing utilization of coal, but it's equally important in fostering renewables. You've got to be able to create baseload capability and it addresses the enormous intermittency challenges," he said.

Both companies are also investing in clean energy projects, and looking into developing technology to transport hydrogen.

(Reporting by Nia WilliamsEditing by Marguerita Choy)

Enbridge sees oilsands spending rising after a year-long freeze

Geoffrey Morgan 

POSTMEDIA

4/7/2021

© Provided by Financial Post Dump trucks loaded with oilsands drive through a mine in this aerial photograph taken near Fort McMurray, Alberta.


CALGARY – North America’s largest pipeline company Enbridge Inc. believes spending is projected to ramp back up in the oilsands, after taking a hit during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

“Did COVID change the oil markets? I think it did, yes,” Enbridge president and CEO Al Monaco said Wednesday at an investment conference hosted virtually by Scotiabank and the Canadian Association of Petroleum Producers.

“It did drive consolidation, capital and operating discipline and that’s probably what the industry needed,” Monaco said, referring to a wave of mergers and acquisitions across the upstream oil and gas industry in recent months, including Cenovus Energy Inc.’s purchase of Husky Energy Inc., ARC Resources Ltd.’s purchase of Seven Generations Energy Ltd. as well as multiple deals by active acquirers Whitecap Resources Ltd. and Tourmaline Oil Corp.

Monaco said the amount of capital available to oil and gas companies was cut “pretty much in half” over the course of the last year, and this has forced producers to focus on reducing costs and living within their means. Those companies are now poised to generate large amounts of cash this year and there are some “greenshoots” in terms of new interest in pipelines.

“On the oilsands and whether they have an advantage, I think they’re always starting from a tougher spot, given the distance from market but I think it’s going to be strong because there’s an inherent advantage in a couple of areas,” Monaco said, noting that oilsands projects produce for a longer period of time than shale oil wells, and oilsands companies have been on a multi-year cost cutting drive.

“They’re going to need to see more transparency in terms of long-term price stability before any major ramp up in capital and also the egress picture needs to be fully solved and we’re helping with that,” he said.

© Aaron M. Sprecher/Bloomberg files Al Monaco, president and chief executive officer of Enbridge Inc., in 2015.

The International Energy Agency expects Canadian oil production to average 5.69 million barrels per day this year, compared to 4.96 million bpd during the height of the global lockdowns in the third quarter of 2020.

Values for crude oil barrels have traded steadily upwards over the last six months as more economies either reopen or are expected to reopen soon following the rollout of coronavirus vaccines. The West Texas Intermediate benchmark price rose 1.2 per cent on Wednesday to reach US$59.33 per barrel while the price of a heavy oil barrel of Western Canadian Select was up a quarter of a percentage point, to reach US$49.55 per barrel.

ARC Energy Research Institute predicts oilsands spending should rebound 17 per cent from a low of $6.5-billion in 2020 to roughly $7.7 billion in 2021 — a level which is still the second lowest capital spend in the sector in the past 10 years.

For heavy oil, Monaco said that he does expect oilsands players to resume spending on growth projects in the future once new pipelines are in service because there’s a relative shortage of heavy oil in global refining centres.

“The egress picture, which has always been the issue for the last decade or so, I think that’s going to improve and obviously we can help with that,” Monaco said, adding that he expected oilsands spending would increase once there are more pipelines built and if there is longer-term oil price stability.

Monaco said his company’s $7.6-billion Line 3 replacement project is on track and the bulk of the winter construction work for the project through Minnesota is done. The company expects to begin flowing oil through the pipeline later this year. Line 3 continues to face on-the-ground opposition from environmental groups in Minnesota. The company is also fighting to rebuild its Line 5 pipeline through Michigan where the state’s governor wants the line shut down as soon as next month.

The 590,000-barrels-per-day, federally owned Trans Mountain pipeline expansion project is also under construction and is expected to be operational late next year, further improving market access for Canadian oil producers.

Both projects have been challenged and opposed by environmental organizations but are proceeding after years of delays. However, TC Energy Corp. has halted work on its 830,000-bpd Keystone XL project after U.S. President Joe Biden withdrew a cross-border permit for the project earlier this year.

The company now says it will focus on smaller expansions in the future but has not yet made a long-term decision on Keystone XL.

“We’re going to be focusing on smaller, in-corridor expansions going forward,” TC Energy president and CEO Francois Poirier said at the CAPP conference.

“It’s taken us about 10 years of development to get to the point where we had commenced construction, so it’s going to take us a few months to think through all of the various issues and come to some long-term decisions,” Poirier said.

Financial Post

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Canadian oil producers see new route to Gulf Coast refineries coming from CP Rail deal

Why skyrocketing oil prices won’t usher in boom times in Alberta’s oilpatch — just yet

QUARNTINE THEM ALL TILL THE END OF THE PANDEMIC
GraceLife Church shuttered by authorities after months of flouting COVID-19 rules

UCP ENDORSED REBELLION

WAIT WHAT? 

THEY ARE THE GOVERNMENT

Dylan Short , Nicole Bergot 

© Provided by Edmonton Journal A fence has gone up around GraceLife Church and security is on scene to keep church members away on Wednesday, April 7, 2021 .

Layers of metal fencing were erected around the perimeter of GraceLife Church in Parkland County Wednesday as Alberta Health Services (AHS) shuttered the building after months of defiance of provincial public health orders.

Residents who live in the area said they saw about a dozen RCMP vehicles arrive at the church west of Edmonton in a “convoy” around 6 a.m. RCMP said officers were on site to assist AHS with the closure. A private security company was also on the property.

By 8 a.m., a layer of fencing adorned with black cloth had been placed around the perimeter of the building. By noon, the driveway into the church and the parking lot had also been blocked by a fencing company.

Close to 50 people showed up to support the church throughout the morning while several others drove by shouting support for the RCMP and the closure of the building

AHS issued a statement Wednesday announcing it had physically closed GraceLife Church and prevented access to the building. It said the closure will remain in effect until GraceLife can demonstrate an ability to comply with public health restrictions.

The church’s shuttering came after it held two packed services over Easter weekend , in violation of a closure order issued in January for previously flouting COVID-19 restrictions. Pastor James Coates, who has led several services in recent months, was ticketed in December and then jailed in February for 35 days after refusing to follow court orders.

In its statement, AHS listed several steps taken prior to the physical closure including an order issued on Dec. 17 requiring GraceLife to comply with restrictions issued by the chief medical officer of health. A Court of Queen’s Bench Order obtained on Jan. 21 required GraceLife to comply with the previous order.

AHS issued a closure order on Jan. 29 requiring the church to close until it agreed to follow current restrictions. On March 27, the department sent a letter to Coates providing him with information on the continued spread of COVID-19. Last week, AHS invited Coates to meet virtually to discuss the risks presented by COVID-19, however the church has not provided any dates to meet.

A statement posted to the church’s website has called into question the effectiveness of current health measures

.

© Greg Southam A fence has gone up around GraceLife Church and security is on scene to keep church members away on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.

A fence has gone up around GraceLife Church and security is on scene to keep church members away on Wednesday, April 7, 2021.[/caption]

The Justice Centre for Constitutional Freedoms (JCCF), which has been representing Coates in court, said in a statement it is “outraged” by the Alberta government’s decision to enter a private church and put up a double barrier around its exterior.

“Freedom of conscience and religion is the first fundamental freedom listed in the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. It is listed first because it is one of the key bedrock principles on which Canada is built,” said John Carpay, JCCF president, in an email. “The government has so far refused to justify the limits on worship and gathering.”

Churches are allowed to open at 15 per cent of fire code capacity as long as masks are worn and people from different households stay two metres apart. GraceLife has been found in violation of each of these restrictions.

Between July 10 and April 6, AHS received 105 complaints about the church from the public. Inspectors have conducted 18 inspections since July 10 and observed violations during each visit.

AHS said the church “has decided not to follow these mandatory restrictions, nor have they attempted to work with AHS to reduce the risk of COVID-19 transmission.”

“With COVID-19 cases increasing and the more easily-transmitted and potentially more severe variants becoming dominant, there is urgent need to minimize spread to protect all Albertans,” said AHS in the statement.

Coates received a $1,500 fine for violating a court undertaking, which was paid through time served. The church has been charged as an entity, and is scheduled to go to trial in May. Coates has one outstanding ticket before the court that he is planning to fight in May after other charges against him were dropped.

GraceLife has had COVID-19 cases in the past. Alberta Health has declined to say how many cases have been connected to the church or

Closure comes day after restrictions reintroduced

The closure came on the heels of Premier Jason Kenney’s Tuesday announcement that Alberta was reverting back to Step 1 of its public health restriction framework in order to curb the growing spread of COVID-19 and variant cases.

Kenney said he believes the current measures would have been enough if people would have complied with them, but there was growing evidence of non-compliance from “COVID fatigue.”

“Unfortunately, we are continuing to see accelerated growth driven by the variants and concluded that these additional measures were necessary,” Kenney said.

Last weekend, Coates led a Sunday service for the third time since his release from jail on March 22.

“The only responsible choice to save lives and to protect our health-care system is to take action,” Kenney said.

Alberta reported 1,351 new cases of COVID-19 on Wednesday, after 14,051 tests were completed. Another 575 cases of variants of concern were also identified. There are 333 people in hospital with COVID-19, 79 of whom are in intensive care.

Kenney said it is expected that the dominant COVID-19 strain in Alberta will become a variant over the next week. Based on current transmission data, the province could see as many as 2,000 new cases daily of COVID-19 and up to 1,000 patients in hospital by the end of April.

— With files from Anna Junker and Dustin Cook

UH OH
Kenney faces criticism from doctors, his own caucus, over new COVID-19 health rules

The result has been an accordion-style opening, closing, restriction and relaxing of public-health rules, particularly on restaurants.

EDMONTON — Alberta Premier Jason Kenney is getting an earful from health experts and from backbench members of his own United Conservative caucus over his new COVID-19 health restrictions.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

Several doctors from Calgary and Edmonton say the new rules will not be enough to reduce the spread of the virus during the province's third wave.

At the same time, 15 United Conservative members of the legislature issued a public statement Wednesday condemning the new rules as a step backwards.

Kenney reintroduced the measures a day earlier. He said the move was regrettable but necessary because the rise in the more contagious variant cases, if left unchecked, will overwhelm the health system by the middle of May.

The new measures include closing restaurants to in-person dining and reduced retail customer capacity to 15 per cent. Patio dining is still allowed.

Gyms can no longer host low-intensity group fitness such as yoga or tai chi.

Worship services remain at 15 per cent capacity. Indoor social gatherings remain banned and outdoor get-togethers can have no more than 10 people.

Dr. James Talbot, co-chair of the COVID-19 committee with the Edmonton Zone Medical Staff Association and a professor at the University of Alberta, said those measures won’t get the job done.

"It's not enough to bring the numbers down," Talbot said during a Zoom press conference with several other doctors. "They'll rise more slowly, but they are not going to come down."

Dr. Gosia Gasperowicz, a developmental biologist with the faculty of nursing at the University of Calgary, said cases related to the more contagious B.1.1.7 variant are doubling in Calgary every week.

Gasperowicz said it would take a sweeping shutdown similar to one last spring to even start bending the curve downward.

"We would need restrictions the strength of New Zealand, Australia — basically full financially supported lockdown,” said Gasperowicz.

Alberta now has more than 10,000 active cases, about 43 per cent are variants.

Kenney has faced mounting pressure from members of his caucus to reduce the restrictions or at least vary the approach given that some areas have many cases while others do not.

On Wednesday, 15 of them signed an open letter condemning the latest changes.

“We have heard from our constituents, and they want us to defend their livelihoods and freedoms as Albertans,” wrote the 15.

“We do not support the additional restrictions placed on Albertans yesterday and we will continue advocating for a transparent path forward that provides certainty to Alberta families, communities and businesses.”

Among the letter co-signers were Nathan Cooper, Speaker of the legislature, and Angela Pitt, deputy Speaker.

During question period, the Opposition NDP hammered away at Kenney for not disciplining the 15, accusing him of condoning those who reject public health advice and thereby put Albertans’ health at risk.

“Albertans deserve a government that respects science, that respects the law, that supports public health,” NDP Leader Rachel Notley told Kenney.

Kenney said none of his caucus members are urging people to break the law, adding: “If elected representatives cannot speak their minds about matters of policy, then what are they elected to do?”

Kenney’s government has laboured to keep the economy and public gatherings open as much as possible for the past year, characterizing their mission as protecting both “lives and livelihoods.”

The result has been an accordion-style opening, closing, restriction and relaxing of public-health rules, particularly on restaurants.

Restaurants Canada, speaking for the industry, said in a statement: "We appreciate the decision of the Alberta government to keep patio dining available, as safe options for enjoying outdoor activities are important for people’s mental health.”

But at the Unicorn, a three-floor pub on Calgary's Stephen Avenue pedestrian mall, general manager Paul Worby said they will go from 600 to 30 seats because of the restrictions.

"It's a staggering drop in revenue," said Worby. "It's not going to be a lot of shifts for anybody.”

Also Wednesday, the government shut down GraceLife church near Edmonton, which had been holding large gatherings for months in defiance of public-health orders.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2021.

— With files from Lauren Krugel in Calgary

Colette Derworiz and Dean Bennett, The Canadian Press

Private member's bill would protect mountains from coal mines: Alberta NDP Opposition


EDMONTON — The Alberta Opposition is proposing legislation that it says would protect the province's Rocky Mountains from new open-pit coal mines.

© Provided by The Canadian Press

"What it's about is giving voice to the hundreds of thousands of Albertans who have begged this government to stop their plans to coal mine in the Rocky Mountains," said NDP Leader Rachel Notley before introducing a private member's bill Wednesday.

Notley said the bill proposes that coal exploration across the eastern slopes of the Rockies be blocked and road-building and drilling halted.

If passed, the bill would cancel leases issued after the United Conservative government scrapped a policy last May that once protected the land and would stop the province's energy regulator from issuing development permits.

Open-pit mines would permanently be prohibited in the most environmentally sensitive areas and mines elsewhere would be prevented until a land-use plan for the region was developed.

"It is, in essence, a continuation of the ... coal policy along with the natural extension of applying more science, more consultation in an evidence-based way," Notley said.

Notley said mines already operating would not be affected under the NDP proposal. Those now before the regulator could proceed but would not get final approval unless they fit within the land-use plan.

Companies would be offered compensation in line with what they paid for the leases.

Controversy over coal mines began last May when the United Conservative government quietly revoked the 1976 policy. Public outrage grew, both over the threat to a beloved landscape and the potential for water contamination.

The government restored the policy in February. However, it didn't cancel exploration leases sold in the interim and miners have been drilling and road-building in an area where much of Alberta's drinking water originates.

The government has recently created an online public survey and struck a committee to consult the public — efforts Notley called a "delay tactic" that people have seen through.

"The consultations didn't provide the depth and breadth of engagement that meaningful conversations with Albertans ought to provide. They were clearly designed to lead people to certain conclusions."

Rules introduced by Premier Jason Kenney's United Conservatives dictate that private member's bills go to a government-dominated committee that decides which ones will move forward to be debated. Notley said committee members should listen to their constituents.

"If the UCP caucus listens to their constituents, there's really a possibility that this bill could be passed."

Katie Morrison of the Canadian Parks and Wilderness Society, which has been a vocal opponent of coal mining in the Rockies, welcomed the Opposition bill.

"It does address the short-term immediate need and then starts to talk about land-use planning," she said. "We would like to see all parties addressing those two major things.

"Whether this bill passes or not, we will be looking to the current government for action to support those things."

Brad Johnston of coal miner Cabin Ridge, which has leases on the controversial land, said the company supports the government's consultation plans and urged Albertans to participate.

This report by The Canadian Press was first published April 7, 2021.

— Follow Bob Weber on Twitter at @row1960

Bob Weber, The Canadian Press

New report pokes holes in sustainability of B.C.’s wood pellet industry

Unions and environmentalists call for suspension of new wood pellet mills

Duration: 02:17 

Forestry unions and environmentalists are calling on the provincial governments to suspend any approval of new wood pellet mills, because the current mills are using entire logs, instead of just wood waste. Paul Johnson reports.

Whole logs stacked high in wood pellet mill yards across British Columbia aren’t supposed to be the norm, but new research shows it may be more common than the industry says.

The research also found that 12 per cent of logged material in the province is eventually broken down for the controversial biofuel.


Operations — often dubbed as "green" or "sustainable" — are meant to use residuals from the logging industry to create dense pellets, which are then burned to create energy.

However, photos obtained by the Canadian Centre for Policy Alternatives (CCPA) of yards in Smithers, Burns Lake and Houston show piles of whole logs ready to be compressed and broken down.

Coupled with new research from the centre, showing that large volumes of trees have been logged specifically for the wood pellet industry since 2010, industry workers and environmental groups are concerned. They’re asking that the government put a hold on new pellet mills until an independent review is done.

“It’s clear that there are very large amounts of logs that are ending up in these facilities, and the intention is to turn those logs directly into wood pellets, which is counter to the common narrative,” said Ben Parfitt, a policy analyst with the CCPA’s B.C. office and researcher for the study.

“Which is that the industry is essentially utilizing this essentially worthless junk.”

As to why people should care, Parfitt says there are a few reasons. Not only are the environmental implications severe, but the industry produces few jobs. Just over 300 people work in the pellet industry in the province, scattered across 14 mills — a half a per cent of the total number of forestry workers.

Gary Fiege, president of the Public and Private Workers of Canada, which represents workers in the sector, echoed Parfitt’s concerns around the industry’s actions.

“We need to push the pause button on pellet mills until we figure out where the trees logged in B.C. are going. Twenty years ago, 91,000 people worked in our forest industry. Today, it’s less than 49,000,” said Fiege.

“We desperately need to make higher-value forest products and generate far more jobs from each tree we log. There’s a place for pellet mills in B.C., but at the end of the line, not the beginning.”

That line continues to blur, says Parfitt, with U.K. company Drax set to control half the existing pellet mills in B.C. with its planned takeover of Pinnacle Renewable Energy. Pinnacle calls itself “one of the world's leading manufacturers and distributors of industrial wood pellets, which are used by large-scale thermal power generators as a greener alternative to produce reliable baseload renewable power.”

The CCPA data shows Pinnacle led the removal of at least 1.3 million cubic metres of logs from the province since 2010.

“It is exceedingly clear that major thermal electricity producers like Drax in the U.K., have no hope of meeting their wood requirements from the United Kingdom's forests. It’s a non-starter, there's not enough wood in those forests to sustain their operations,” he said.

“... And there's a very green veneer being put on all of this power production.”

That fits into a larger and concerning narrative, says Parfitt — that the carbon emitted during burning the pellets is offset by the carbon stored in freshly planted trees. He says those worries are known and growing.

The CCPA research is timely — a wood pellet operation is being proposed in Fort Nelson, where two mills shut down in 2008, laying off hundreds of people. The forest industry has had little activity in the area since and the mill would be welcomed by many in the area, including the Fort Nelson First Nation, which has voiced its support.

However, the CCPA, Public and Private Workers of Canada, Conservation North and Stand.earth are all calling for an independent review of the wood pellet industry before the Fort Nelson mill goes through — an operation the CCPA says would require around 1.5 million trees.

Parfitt says the ask for a review is in line with what B.C.’s Forests Minister Katrine Conroy has been tasked to do by Premier John Horgan: Protect old-growth forests and enact policies to move the industry to higher-value production.

“I think there's a recognition that, both from a jobs perspective and a forest health perspective, if we start going down the road of logging trees directly to support the manufacturing of a product that is then burned, we're not doing our economy or our climate any favours,” he said.

“In fact, we’re harming both.”

Cloe Logan / Local Journalism Initiative / Canada’s National Observer

Cloe Logan, Local Journalism Initiative Reporter, National Observer

 

France Pushes To Make Nuclear Power Mainstream In Europe

By Tatiana Serova - Apr 03, 2021, 10:00 AM CDT

Together with Eastern European leaders, French President Emmanuel Macron co-signed a letter calling on the European Commission to include nuclear energy in its Green taxonomy. The letter was written on March 19th and was public after a European Council summit held on March 25th.  The European taxonomy establishes an extensive list of “sustainable” activities which will help achieve the carbon neutrality target by 2050 and will benefit from targeted investments. In the framework of that classification, nuclear energy currently finds itself under the “does not harm” label, which doesn’t make it eligible for investments with lower tax rates. 

Stakes of including nuclear power into the taxonomy are quite high for France. The country will soon have to renew its nuclear fleet, as its reactors are reaching their lifetime limits. Capital costs of the new plants - the major components of nuclear LCOE - would be significantly reduced if nuclear managed to enter the privileged green category. 

“Technological neutrality”

The letter, published on the website of the Polish government, urged the European Commission to respect the principle of “technological neutrality” in the implementation of climate-related policies. Reiterating the right of each country to choose their own energy mix, the signatories demanded to stop discriminating against nuclear power - which displays low-carbon emissions and might be put at the service of EU decarbonization goals. 

The arguments presented in this plea included the creation of new jobs and the potential contribution of nuclear to hydrogen production - a promising technique consisting of electrolysis powered by a nuclear plant, already tested in the United States. And while the need for hydrogen investment seems to create consensus among MEPs, nuclear power struggles to be unanimously accepted. 

Austria and Germany, in particular, oppose the initiative firmly, notably because of radioactive waste management issues. Since the project of the taxonomy started being discussed, the role of nuclear has been prone to controversy. Germany was fervently against it, while France made clear that it would not abandon its project. “France will advocate for nuclear to be part of this green label”, the French Minister of the Economy declared in 2019. 

But the discussion was brought to a whole new level when the French online media Contexte revealed on March 26th a document in which experts from the Joint Research Center (an EU entity notably dealing with energy issues) were not opposed to the inclusion of nuclear power in the taxonomy. The JRC was charged in 2020 with assessing the risks that nuclear energy could present to human health and to the environment. And its conclusion was: “Analyses did not reveal any scientific element proving that nuclear energy was more damageable to human health than other sources of electricity included in the taxonomy”. 

A strategic question for France

Although France is committed to reducing its share of nuclear and gradually replacing it with renewables, in the medium term, it still heavily relies on it. This share has been shrinking for the past year, notably due to the symbolic closure of the Fessenheim plant, and the planned one at Bugey. 

The French nuclear fleet is approaching the end of its lifetime, and if it is not renewed, guaranteeing a baseload source of energy will be a major challenge. For the past ten years, France has been looking at this issue without taking any decision. Today, an urgency has come to react, as the country’s transmission operator RTE warned about “risks of insufficiency in electric supply during winter” brought by the decrease of nuclear power. At the same time, the loss of EDF know-how, demonstrated by the failures on the Flamanville plant, is casting doubt on the technical feasibility of this nuclear expansion. 

The debate in France was also influenced by an IEA report released in January, that opened the perspective for a 100% renewable energy mix by 2050 - leaving nuclear on the sideline. 

Renewed European alliances

Europe has been split across the nuclear line for the past decade. But the French alliance with Eastern countries, materialized by the joint letter addressed to the European Commission, marks a major shift in this traditional divide. 

While its neighbors - Austria, Belgium, Germany - are firmly taking the road of nuclear phase-out, France is looking at Eastern Europe as a potential investment destination for its European Power Reactors (EPR) - the “new generation” technology. In February 2020, Jean-Bernard Lévy, the CEO of French EDF, traveled to Poland to negotiate a deal for the country’s nuclear plan. While Warsaw is still considering different options for the commissioning of its reactors, EDF said it would be able to cover the entire nuclear cycle. 

Fourteen of the planned reactors’ construction are currently located in Eastern Europe. For Hungary, Poland, and the Czech Republic - heavily relying on coal - building nuclear reactors is an efficient bridge towards decarbonization targets, while guaranteeing stable electricity prices. Hungary already signed a deal with Russia for the construction of VVER reactors, while the Czech Republic is investing in ramping up nuclear capacity by 2040. 

The claim for nuclear power inclusion into the taxonomy is also legitimized as the European Commission is reconsidering the status of natural gas - more polluting than nuclear, yet on its way to being included in the ranks of preferential investments. 

By Tatiana Serova for Oilprice.com

Bangladesh methane gas plumes cause alarm, as country found to be major emitter

Satellites have detected some of the highest methane emissions in the world in Bangladesh, one of the countries most vulnerable to climate change

While the source is unclear, the methane is likely to originate from a combination of rice paddy fields, landfills, leaky natural gas pipelines and coal stockpiles

Bloomberg
Published: 8 Apr, 2021

Bangladeshi children sit on garbage piled up by the river Buriganga in Dhaka. Methane from landfill sites and other sources in Bangladesh is drawing the attention of scientists, as the country’s low elevation and high population density make it vulnerable to extreme weather events and rising oceans. Photo: AP

One of the countries most vulnerable to climate change has also been revealed as a major contributor of methane, a greenhouse gas that is about 80 times more potent in its first two decades in the atmosphere than carbon dioxide.

The 12 highest methane emission rates detected this year by Kayrros SAS have occurred over Bangladesh, according to the Paris-based company, one of several that specialise in analysing satellite observations to locate leaks. “It has the strongest sustained emissions we’ve seen to date where we can’t clearly identify the source,” said Stephane Germain, president of GHGSat Inc, which also picked up the plumes.

Bluefield Technologies, which analysed European Space Agency data to identify a large methane plume in Florida in May, also detected the concentrations over Bangladesh. “Our analysis shows that Bangladesh has some of the highest methane emissions in the world that can be detected by satellites,” said Yotam Ariel, the company’s founder.

Scientists are just beginning to pinpoint the biggest sources of methane. Observations from space can be seasonal due to cloud cover, precipitation and varying light intensity. Satellites can also have difficulty tracking offshore emissions and releases in higher latitudes such as the Arctic, where Russia has extensive oil and gas operations. Because of these limitations existing data is not yet globally comprehensive.



But the emissions over Bangladesh are drawing attention. Its low elevation and high population density make it particularly vulnerable to extreme weather events and rising oceans. The country chairs the Climate Vulnerable Forum, whose 48 members represent 1.2 billion people most threatened by climate change.

“We’re aware of the problems,” said Bangladesh’s Environment and Climate Change Minister Shahab Uddin. The bulk of the methane likely came from rice paddies, he said. When farmers flood their fields, bacteria in the waterlogged soil can produce large quantities of the gas.

“The other source is the landfill gas,” Uddin said, released when garbage breaks down. “We’re working to take mitigation measures.”

Domesticated livestock, leaks from the oil and gas industry, landfills and coal mining are just some of the human activities that result in methane emissions, according to the Global Methane Initiative. At least a quarter of today’s global warming is caused by man-made methane emissions, the Environmental Defense Fund estimates.

Methane concentrations in Bangladesh likely originate from a combination of sources including paddy fields, landfills, leaky natural gas pipelines and coal stockpiles, according to Kayrros. The company uses data from the ESA’s Sentinel-5P and Sentinel-2 satellites. It ran a dispersion simulation that takes into account atmospheric conditions such as wind, that can move methane plumes away from their source.

Nearly one-third of Bangladesh under water as monsoon floods affect millions of people

Methane is a particular concern for those working to slow the pace of climate change. The gas is odourless and colourless, making leaks extremely difficult to detect. Halting accidental emissions from energy infrastructure is some of the lowest-hanging fruit because companies stand to benefit from cleaning up operations. They are losing a product that could have been sold and risk reputational damage as investors such as BlackRock demand higher standards.


“The methane concentrations we see over Bangladesh are a signal and deserve more study,” said Steven Hamburg, chief scientist at the EDF, which plans to launch its own satellite to track methane emissions next year. “It will require more work to make reliable quantitative estimates of emissions and determine sources.”

Deadly heatwaves will become more common in South Asia due to climate change
26 Mar 2021



The ability to attribute leaks to individual operators is getting closer as more satellites are launched that offer greater precision and more frequent coverage. GHGSat in February said it tracked methane leaks from at least eight natural gas pipelines and unlit flares in Central Turkmenistan that released as much as 10,000kg per hour.

EDF’s PermianMap project, which combines data from satellites and other ground-based observations to attribute and aggregate emissions by operator in one of the world’s most active fossil fuel basins, is a sign of the transparency to come.

“The ability to attribute methane emissions at an asset level is here now,” said GHGSat’s Germain. “The challenge is to increase the frequency of the observations with more satellites.”

BILL NELSON SOUNDTRACK FOR JEAN COCTEAU'S BEAUTY AND THE BEAST

 

 Alien raindrops surprisingly like rain on Earth

AMERICAN GEOPHYSICAL UNION

Research News

 

IMAGE: AN INFOGRAPHIC COMPARING THE PROJECTED SIZE OF RAINDROPS ON DIFFERENT PLANETS. PLEASE NOTE TITAN AND PRESENT-DAY MARS ARE TOO COLD FOR LIQUID WATER RAINDROPS. view more 

CREDIT: IMAGE CREDIT: AGU

WASHINGTON--Raindrops on other planets and moons are close to the size of raindrops on Earth despite having different chemical compositions and falling through vastly different atmospheres, a new study finds. The results suggest raindrops falling from clouds are surprisingly similar across a wide range of planetary conditions, which could help scientists better understand the climates and precipitation cycles of other worlds, according to the researchers.

Raindrops on Earth are made of water, but other worlds in our solar system have precipitation made of more unusual stuff. On Venus, it rains sulfuric acid; on Jupiter, it rains helium and mushy ammonia hailstones. On Mars, it snows carbon dioxide, or dry ice. On Saturn's moon Titan, it rains methane, or liquified natural gas. And on Neptune, scientists suspect it rains pure carbon in the form of diamonds. It could even rain iron or quartz on some planets if the conditions were right.

A new study looking at the physics of how liquid droplets behave while they fall from clouds finds only droplets in clouds within a limited size range - between about a tenth of a millimeter to several millimeters in radius - can reach the surface of rocky planets as rain. This is a fairly narrow size range, given that raindrops increase about a million times in volume during their formation inside a cloud.

The results also show the maximum size of liquid droplets that fall as rain is similar across varying planetary conditions. Different types of liquid droplets would max out around half to six times the size of water rain on Earth, depending on the strength of the planet's gravitational pull (the stronger the gravitational pull, the smaller the raindrop). Find an infographic comparing the size of raindrops on Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Saturn and Titan here.

"There's a fairly small range of stable sizes that these different composition raindrops can have; they're all fundamentally limited to be around the same maximum size," said Kaitlyn Loftus, a planetary scientist at Harvard University and lead author of the new study in AGU's Journal of Geophysical Research: Planets, which publishes research on the formation and evolution of the planets, moons and objects of our solar system and beyond.

Rain on other worlds

In the new study, Loftus and colleague Robin Wordsworth used math and physics principles to model how liquid water droplets fall through planetary atmospheres. They wanted to determine the possible size ranges for droplets falling from a cloud to a planetary surface. Raindrops that are too big break up into smaller ones, while raindrops that are too small evaporate before they hit the ground.

They first determined the possible size ranges for water raindrops on rocky planets like Earth and Mars, given atmospheric conditions like temperature, air pressure, relative humidity, distance from the cloud to the ground and the strength of the planet's gravitational pull.

They found raindrops with a radius smaller than about a tenth of a millimeter evaporate before they ever reach the surface, and raindrops larger than several millimeters in radius break up into smaller droplets as they fall.

They then looked at how water raindrops would fall on much bigger planets like Jupiter and Saturn that have vastly different atmospheres. Comparing modern Earth, ancient Mars and these bigger planets, they found raindrops move water through air similarly, even though what constitutes "air" varies widely among the planets.

Even when different liquids make up raindrops, these alien raindrops are not so different from familiar water raindrops, according to the researchers' calculations. For example, the largest methane raindrops on Titan would be about twice the size of water rain on Earth. Loftus isn't certain why the maximum raindrop size is so uniform, but she suspects it may be due to how a droplet's surface tension relates to its density.

The findings will help scientists better simulate the conditions on other planets, as precipitation is a key component in a planet's climate and nutrient cycles, Loftus said. Modeling what precipitation might look like on a distant world could also help researchers interpret observations of exoplanetary atmospheres made by space telescopes, said Tristan Guillot, a planetary scientist at the Observatoire de la Côte d'Azur in Nice, France, who was not connected to the new study.

"Now with instruments like [the James Webb Space Telescope], which hopefully will soon be launched, we will have the capability to detect really fine spectra of exoplanetary atmospheres, including ones that are quite cooler than ones we're usually able to characterize, in which clouds and rain will occur," Guillot said. "So these kinds of tools as they are developed will be very useful and important to interpret those spectra."

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Notes for Journalists

This research study will be freely available for 30 days. Download a PDF copy of the paper here. Neither the paper nor this press release is under embargo.

Download multimedia accompanying this release from AGU's newsroom.

Paper title: "The physics of falling raindrops in diverse planetary atmospheres"

Authors:

• Kaitlyn Loftus, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts
• Robin D. Wordsworth, Harvard University, Cambridge, Massachusetts