Tag

coal

Podcast

Coal communities face fiscal ruin

July 19, 2019

The coal industry continues to tumble in the U.S. as electric power plants turn increasingly to natural gas and renewable energy as their fuels of choice. And that decline might only worsen for coal mining and the communities that rely on it if Washington someday adopts strong policies to reduce carbon emissions associated with climate change. In this edition of Columbia Energy Exchange, I pay a visit to Adele Morris, a senior fellow and policy director for climate and energy economics at Brookings Institution. Adele and Noah Kaufman, a research scholar at the Center on Global Energy Policy, and Siddhi Doshi, a senior research assistant at Brookings, have written a new paper from the center that looks at the danger of fiscal collapse in coal-reliant communities. What they tell us is that while climate risks to corporations have received scrutiny in…

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by Bill Loveless
Podcast

Future brightens for Chile as energy leader

April 30, 2019

Big changes are taking place in Chile when it comes to energy, with a strong push for renewable energy in recent years. And there’s more to come, according to the country’s president, Sebastián Piñera. In this edition of the Columbia Energy Exchange podcast, I sit down with Susana Jiménez, Chile’s energy minister, who’s overseeing her government’s plan to change significantly the way the nation produces and uses energy. In the process, she aims to make her nation a model for not only South America but also the world. The fifth largest consumer of energy in South America, Chile is only a minor producer of fossil fuels and therefore has relied heavily on energy imports That’s changing, however, as Chile looks increasingly to solar, wind and other forms of renewable energy. In fact, renewable energy now accounts for about 18% of…

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by Bill Loveless
Podcast

Taking stock of ESG risks for U.S. utilities

October 25, 2018

Environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks are becoming increasingly important to judging the credit worthiness of electric utilities, especially as climate change makes their work more challenging. On this episode of the Columbia Energy Exchange, host Bill Loveless talks to Jim Hempstead, a managing director in Moody’s Global Project and Infrastructure Finance Group. In his role at Moody’s, one of the largest credit ratings firms in the world, Jim helps oversee the North American Regulated Utility and Power Team. He also heads Moody’s working group in charge of ESG issues in the Americas. In the conversation with Bill, Jim makes clear that defining ESG standards is still very much a work in progress for the credit rating firms and the companies they assess for credit worthiness. Nevertheless, ESG metrics are an important means of evaluating the utility sector where shifts…

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by Bill Loveless
Podcast, Policy

“What’s the value of national security?”

July 10, 2018

The Trump administration continues to look for ways to keep old coal and nuclear power plants operating, as lower-cost natural gas and renewable energy offers cheaper alternatives for generating electricity. A new proposal under consideration at the U.S. Department of Energy takes a new tact on the topic, claiming ongoing retirements of coal and nuclear plants presents a national security risk to the U.S., given growing concerns over the vulnerability of the grid to cyber and even physical attacks. If nothing else, the thinking goes, coal and nuclear plants have the advantage of storing fuel on-site rather than relying on pipelines, as is the case with gas power plants, or intermittent supplies of solar and wind energy. Here, in a Columbia Energy Exchange podcast with me, DOE’s assistant secretary for electricity, Bruce Walker, speaks out on the national-security rationale for…

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by Bill Loveless
Watch

5 Steps to a Compelling Live Interview for a Conference

January 30, 2018

Can a live interview make a difference at your conference, trade show or meeting? Yes, it can! You start, of course, with a good guest, someone who’s appealing with an interesting story to tell, and one that’s relevant to the audience. But just as important is the person conducting the interview. I’ve given this a lot of thought over the years as an energy journalist anchoring the TV show “Platts Energy Week,” co-hosting the “Columbia Energy Exchange” podcast, and conducting interviews for business meetings in the U.S. and abroad. And while I don’t pretend to be an expert on public speaking, I’ve learned enough from hundreds of sit-downs with CEOs, government officials, authors and others to give an audience a good run for their time. I’ve also seen how a live interview with a prominent guest can give a meeting…

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, coal

A long-shot opportunity for coal and carbon capture?

January 26, 2018

By Bill Loveless New efforts to promote technology to capture carbon-dioxide emissions from coal-fired power plants and bury them underground or use them to enhance oil production are getting more attention in Washington these days thanks to the Trump administration and its commitment to save the U.S. coal industry. Now, the credit-rating agency Moody’s is cautiously predicting that the technology may be the answer for the declining industry in the long run, though daunting obstacles remain. One thing that could jump start interest in carbon capture and sequestration (CCS) would be a spike in the cost of natural gas, whose abundance in the U.S. and low price in recent years have persuaded electric utilities to rely more on gas to fuel their power plants and less on coal, according to a new report from Moody’s. On that score, the agency…

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by Bill Loveless
Podcast

Columbia Energy Exchange: Mauricio Gutierrez

January 5, 2018

My first Columbia Energy Exchange podcast of 2018 with one of the new leaders in the U.S. electric power industry. This comes as the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission prepares to respond to a Trump administration plan to aid old coal and nuclear plants, and the U.S. power sector faces even more disruption. Mauricio Gutierrez, the CEO of NRG Energy, responds frankly to these developments. I enjoyed the conversation! Listen here.

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Climate, Electricity

Coal comeback unlikely after Paris climate pact withdrawal: utility CEO

June 5, 2017

From USA TODAY President Trump once again promised to revive the U.S. coal industry when he announced his intention to withdraw the U.S. from the Paris climate agreement. But that reversal seems as unlikely as ever as electric power producers, the biggest consumers of coal in the U.S., continue to shift to natural gas and renewable energy sources like solar and wind power. In 2016, natural gas became the leading fuel for U.S. electricity generation for the first time, responsible for 33.8% of the output, compared with 30.4% for coal, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. Nick Akins, the CEO of American Electric Power, one of the largest utilities in the U.S., says the preference for gas, renewables and energy efficiency, will only grow in response to increasing demands from shareholders and customers for cleaner energy, regardless of changes in…

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by Bill Loveless
Energy, Podcast, Policy

Columbia Energy Exchange: Rep. Fred Upton

May 17, 2017

Amid the political upheaval in Washington, is there an opportunity to legislate on something relatively routine but still critical to the U.S. like energy policy? The top energy lawmaker in the U.S. House, Fred Upton, says “yes.” Now, the Michigan Republican is an optimist by nature, noting, for example, “I’m a Cubs fan!” And he finds reason for hope when it comes to energy legislation, recalling bills on pipeline safety and other energy measures that he initiated and former President Obama signed. Perhaps the best opportunity for energy action on Capitol Hill is promoting infrastructure, especially steps to further protect electricity transmission and oil and natural gas pipelines from cyber attacks, he tells me in this edition of the “Columbia Energy Exchange” podcast. And Upton, the chairman of the House Energy Subcommittee, isn’t necessarily toeing the line when it comes…

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by Bill Loveless
Article, Energy, Government and Politics

Trump may not be able to reverse coal industry’s slump. Here’s why

February 12, 2017

Coal may make a political comeback in Washington, where President Trump is eager to make good on his promise to revive the sagging industry. But politics aside, it’s the greener forms of energy that are changing substantially the way the USA produces, uses and even saves energy, particularly when it comes to electricity. The trends are detailed in a new report from the Business Council for Sustainable Energy (BCSE) that provides 163 pages of data on the impact of renewable energy, natural gas and energy efficiency on the U.S. economy. (read more)

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by Bill Loveless