Big Oil Reality Check — Updated Assessment of Oil and Gas Company Climate Plans

Never before has the case for keeping oil, fossil gas, and coal in the ground been stronger. And despite an array of new ‘net zero’ pledges released in the past two years, the climate promises of major U.S. and European oil and gas companies still fail to meet the bare minimum for alignment with the Paris Agreement.

This report, titled “Big Oil Reality Check,” is an update from an inaugural 2020 study which analyzed the latest climate pledges of BP, Chevron, Eni, Equinor, ExxonMobil, Repsol, Shell, and TotalEnergies against 10 minimum benchmarks for alignment with the 1.5°C temperature goal outlined …

SEC Releases Draft Rule on Climate-Related Disclosures

An important new SEC rule for corporate ESG-focused disclosures was issued in draft form and is seemingly moving toward adoption by year-end 2022. The impacts on both domestic and foreign corporations that file SEC reports will be significant. G&A is sharing highlights and our perspective with you in this Resource Paper.…

The Future of Energy Storage

The Future of Energy Storage study is the ninth in the MIT Energy Initiative’s Future of series, which aims to shed light on a range of complex and vital issues involving energy and the environment. Previous studies have focused on the role of technologies such as nuclear power, solar energy, natural gas, geothermal, and coal (with capture and sequestration of carbon dioxide emissions), as well as systems such as the U.S. electric power grid. Central to all these studies is understanding the role these particular technologies can play in both decarbonizing global energy systems and meeting future energy …

The NRC’s Juggling Act: Enabling the Agency to Fulfill Critical Missions

Although the traditional mission of the US Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) is the protection of public health and safety, its work has increasing implications for other vital national priorities—including climate change, innovation, and national security. Therefore, given the NRC’s diverse and expanding volume of responsibilities and activities around the licensing of advanced reactor technologies, it is imperative that we provide the agency with the means and resources to succeed. This includes swiftly bringing the Commission to its full complement of five Commissioners and robustly funding the NRC’s advanced reactor licensing work so that it can complete such activities effectively and …

Summer Energy Market and Reliability Assessment 2022

The 2022 Summer Assessment provides staff’s outlook for energy markets and electric reliability, focusing on June, July, August, and September 2022. The report contains four main sections. The first section discusses the findings of the Summer Assessment. The second section details the weather outlook for Summer 2022. The third section discusses energy market fundamentals, including natural gas and electric market supply and demand expectations, including expected North American Electric Reliability Corporation (NERC) regional resource adequacy details. The fourth section describes notable issues and addresses potential implications of pipeline outages, drought, hydro-generation, and wildfires on western United States (U.S.) energy markets.…

Stakeholder Recommendations for Reducing Energy Insecurity in the Southeast United States

Energy insecurity—the inability to maintain energy services like heating and cooling—is one of the most pressing issues in the Southeast, where more than one out of every four households face access or affordability challenges. This is more than an energy problem. Paying high energy bills and worrying about utilities being shut off can drain long-term savings, limit economic opportunities, and lead to difficult—and potentially dangerous—decisions to make tradeoffs between energy and other vital services and household items.

Energy insecurity stems from many factors, including income, energy costs, the quality and affordability of housing, historical practices and policies, access to efficient …

Building Energy Security Through Accelerated Energy Transition

‘Building Energy Security Through Accelerated Energy Transition’ focuses on the medium term actions that could improve energy security, strengthen stability of supply and limit the impact of future fossil fuel price shocks by 2030. The analysis finds that the response should be anchored around accelerated investment in renewable energy and economy wide electrification, together with improved energy efficiency. The paper also highlights tricky trade-offs and choices that have to be made. For example while imports of Liquified Natural Gas (LNG) from secure suppliers could also play a role, these must be combined with measures to reduce CO2 and methane leak …

Storage Futures Study: Key Learnings for the Coming Decades

This report is the seventh and final publication from the National Renewable Energy Laboratory’s (NREL’s) Storage Futures Study (SFS). The SFS is a multiyear research project that explores how energy storage could impact the evolution and operation of the U.S. power sector.

The study examined the impact of energy storage technology advancement on the deployment of utility-scale storage and the adoption of distributed storage, as well as future power system infrastructure investment and operations. Some of the questions NREL sought to answer throughout this study included:

How might storage cost and performance change over time? What is the role of

Innovation Outlook: Renewable Ammonia

Ammonia is one of the seven basic chemicals used to produce all other chemical products. It is the second most produced chemical by mass, after sulphuric acid. Around four-fifths of all ammonia is used to produce nitrogen fertilizers, such as urea and ammonium nitrate; as such, it supports food production for around half of the global population.

Jointly developed by the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA) and the Ammonia Energy Association (AEA), this report provides a detailed overview of renewable ammonia in contrast to conventional and fossil-based ammonia with carbon mitigation, and includes a review of the current technology status …

Private Equity Ownership of U.S. Power Plants: A Hidden Climate Threat

Private equity investment firms have quietly bought up close to 700 predominantly fossil fuel-fired electric power plants, making these Wall Street investment houses major greenhouse gas (GHG) emitters. The opaque nature of private equity ownership shields these major polluters from public scrutiny. Even as activist investors, climate divestment campaigners, and the public push for greater transparency in fossil fuel investments by energy companies and financial institutions like banks, the private equity investments in fossil fuel and climate-destroying companies have been shrouded from the public view.

This report presents the first comprehensive review of private equity ownership of power plants and …