On Tuesday, January 20th 2015, President Obama will deliver the State of the Union address (SOTU), and energy and climate will likely play a prominent role. In last years’ SOTU, President Obama outlined an all of the above strategy: increasing domestic oil and gas production, cutting red tape, phasing out fossil fuel subsidies and addressing climate change. However, a lot has changed in the last year.
Republicans now control both chambers of Congress, oil prices are at their lowest point since 2009 and the Clean Power Plan has impacted the policy landscape both domestically and abroad. The administration just announced plans to reduce methane emissions from the oil and gas sector 40-45% from 2012 levels by 2025. The Keystone XL Pipeline continues to be front and center, and the question of whether to export crude oil and LNG is not going away, despite the impact of falling oil prices. 2015 will likely see a resurgence in activity on energy issues.
Q. Which energy issues should President Obama prioritize during the State of the Union? What impact will the State of the Union have on energy policy in 2015?
While government has a significant role to play in our energy future, all of us – individuals, families, businesses, organizations – can learn more, and make much better decisions about,… Read more »
Increased Energy Efficiency I believe should be the strong focus. The Republicans want to keep coal, then there has to be the goal to get clean coal. This is America,… Read more »
President Obama should seize his current opportunity for better ENERGY AND CLIMATE for CALIFORNIA, which impacts the rest of the nation that depends upon farm products from California. It is… Read more »
To quote from the conclusion of Risky Business, the report Chaired by Michael R. Bloomberg, Henry M. Paulson, Jr., and Thomas F. Steyer, … When Risk Committee member George Shultz… Read more »
While increasing energy efficiency is a good thing, it will not on its own help address climate change. Increasing the efficiency of the use of a commodity leads to increased… Read more »
If the President is serious about addressing climate change, then he must prioritize solutions that can bring down global carbon emissions. The Clean Power Plan and recently proposed methane emission… Read more »
Fee and Dividend is the best policy idea out there … it is fair and simple and the goals can be based in science so it can actually do the… Read more »
We don’t have technology to capture CO2. Amine scrubbing would double the water consumption of thermal power plants, which already take more water than agriculture. Nor do we have a… Read more »
There is a new carbon capture technology that is much lower cost, uses less energy, and is much smaller than Amine-based CCS. It also doesn’t use much water. It’s called… Read more »
Earthquakes from CO2 injection make sequestration impractical at utility scale. https://www.sciencenews.org/article/pumping-carbon-dioxide-deep-underground-may-trigger-earthquakes : “We have faults that are accumulating stress over thousands to hundreds of thousands of years, even in Iowa,”… Read more »
My suggestion is that further research into CCS should be a priority. There is plenty of room underground so if earthquakes are a problem, then sequestration sites might have to… Read more »
Thanks for the interesting geology information. It does look like risk, as well as expense, is involved with trying to maintain the fossil industries. NREL has done a technical potential… Read more »
Did everyone hear what they expected last night? Did anything surprise you?