Energy

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – Frenemies Russia and Turkey have put their conflict in Syria on hold, but they have intensified their rivalry in another proxy conflict. In Libya, clashes between Moscow-backed Libyan National Army (LNA) and Ankara-backed Government of National Accord (GNA) escalated, as the US Africa Command accused Kremlin of deploying military […]

Climate Crisis

New German Coalition Gov’t Turbocharges Renewable Energy

Clean Energy Wire

By Julian Wettengel | – ( Clean Energy Wire ) – The German government has agreed to remove key hurdles to the rollout of renewable energies that had begun to slow the country’s landmark energy transition. The deal between chancellor Angela Merkel’s conservative CDU/CSU alliance and its coalition partner, the Social Democrats (SPD), settles disputes […]

Climate Crisis

Frankenfuel: The Market is done with Big Oil and Coal, but will they Lumber on with Gov’t Subsidies?

John Buell

Southwest Harbor, Maine (Special to Informed Comment) – Are the big oil stocks headed for collapse? Citizens as diverse as climate activist and 350.org founder Bill McKibben and CNBC finance guru Jim Cramer seem to think so. Here is Cramer as reported by Axios in early February even before the historic plunge in crude prices.\ […]

Climate Crisis

Coronavirus Effect: In One Year, Share of Coal in German Public Power Supply Cratered to 16% from 30%

Clean Energy Wire

By Freja Eriksen | — ( Clean Energy Wire) – Coal’s share in Germany’s net public power production fell to around 16 percent in April 2020, shows data by Fraunhofer ISE’s Energy Charts. The institute’s Energy Charts project does not include data on the amount of power the generating facilities consume themselves to operate, or […]

Climate Crisis

Oil’s Götterdämmerung: Why Covid-19 could Hasten the end of Fossil Fuels

Sustainability Times

( Sustainability Times) – Last week the oil market took another plunge that saw the price of one barrel of West Texas Intermediate (WTI) fall 8 percent to $10.45 on Tuesday.. Last Monday, WTI crashed by 25 percent and rocked the market, yet the decline was relatively minor compared to what happened two weeks ago […]

Epidemics

Russia: Could the Coronavirus Crisis Loosen Vladimir Putin’s Grip on Power?

Nikola Mikovic

Belgrade (Special to Informed Comment) – The COVID-19 pandemic has already opened the gates for a huge global economic crisis. Russia will not be spared, and its economy is expected to suffer at least until the world oil market stabilizes. How will that affect Vladimir Putin’s popularity? The geographically largest country in the world already […]

Epidemics

In Age of Pandemic, is Mismanagement driving Saudi Arabia toward Bankruptcy?

Middle East Monitor

By Motasem A Dalloul | @abujomaaGaza | – ( Middle East Monitor ) – On 6 March, the OPEC+ cartel failed to agree on a cut in oil production in the light of reduced demand due to the coronavirus pandemic affecting almost every country in the world. All of this came in the middle of […]

Donald Trump

Trump threatened to pull US Security Umbrella from Saudi if it didn’t raise Oil Prices to Help US Frackers

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – On April 2, the Republican Party more or less joined the Organization of Petroleum Exporting States Plus (OPEC+). That is the upshot of reporting by Timothy Gardner, Steve Holland, Dmitry Zhdannikov, and Rania El Gamal for Reuters that Trump threatened de facto Saudi ruler crown prince Mohammed Bin Salman with […]

Climate Crisis

Lowest Solar bid in World History for new Abu Dhabi Facility, as expensive Coal, backed by Trump, declines further

Juan Cole

Ann Arbor (Informed Comment) – Abu Dhabi has accepted a historically low bid of 1.35 cents a kilowatt hour for a new giant 1.5 gigawatt solar farm, to be built at al-Dhafra by the largely government-owned French consortium Électricité de France (EDF) and China’s Jinko. The price is 44% less than was paid for the […]