Sign In or Create an Account.

By continuing, you agree to the Terms of Service and acknowledge our Privacy Policy

Sparks

Europe Will Be Stuck With American Natural Gas For Decades

The European Commission’s director general for energy lets the cat out of the bag.

Matthew Zeitlin •
09/25/2023
Natural gas pipelines.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

When Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine last year, Europe had to scramble for natural gas from a country that much of the continent wasn’t in a proxy war against. American liquefied natural gas exporters were more than happy to step up, with exports to Europe rising some 141 percent from 2021 to 2022.

And it appears like the European dependence on natural gas exports from the United States isn’t going away anytime soon. Bloomberg reported today that a major German utility, Uniper, has negotiated an LNG deal through the late 2030s.

Europe is stuck between its aggressive climate commitments and its enduring need for natural gas, a need that America’s booming oil-and-gas export sector is eager to fill, even as the United States finally ostensibly has a climate change policy aimed at transitioning its domestic economy to lower emissions.

Ditte Juul Jørgensen, the European Commission’s Director General for Energy, told the Financial Times “we will need some fossil molecules in the system over the coming couple of decades. And in that context, there will be a need for American energy,” indicating that despite Europe’s intensive efforts to transition to renewables, imported fossil fuels will be playing a large role in their economy even as it approaches the middle of the century.

While green-minded Europe is reaffirming its dependence on American natural gas, green groups in the United States have never been more wary of the natural gas industry, which has gone from a “bridge fuel” in the eyes of some environmentalists to a methane-leaking fracked colossus.

The influential environmental activist and writer Bill McKibben flagged in the New Yorker the upcoming licensing decision for Calcasieu Pass 2, an LNG export terminal planned to be built aside the existing Calcasieu Pass terminal in Southwest Louisiana that would export 20 million metric tons of liquefied natural gas per year. He called the project a “poster child for late-stage petrocapitalism” that “would help lock in the planet’s reliance on fossil fuels long past what scientists have identified as the breaking point for the climate system.”

Of the 9.25 million metric tons that Venture Global, the company behind the project, has said it has already contracted to sell, about a third will go to Germany.

Matthew Zeitlin profile image

Matthew Zeitlin

Matthew is a correspondent at Heatmap. Previously he was an economics reporter at Grid, where he covered macroeconomics and energy, and a business reporter at BuzzFeed News, where he covered finance. He has written for The New York Times, the Guardian, Barron's, and New York Magazine. Read More

Read More
Sparks

Vermont Is One Signature Away From a Climate Superfund

The state’s Republican governor has a decision to make.

Emily Pontecorvo •
05/13/2024
Vermont flooding.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

A first-of-its-kind attempt to make fossil fuel companies pay for climate damages is nearly through the finish line in Vermont. Both branches of the state legislature voted to pass the Climate Superfund Act last week, which would hit oil and gas companies with a bill for the costs of addressing, avoiding, and adapting to a world made warmer by oil and gas-related carbon emissions.

The bill now heads to the desk of Republican Governor Phil Scott, who has not said whether he will sign it. If he vetoes it, however, there’s enough support in the legislature to override his decision, Martin LaLonde, a representative from South Burlington and lead sponsor of the bill, told me. “It's a matter of making sure everybody shows up,” he said.

Keep reading...Show less
Blue
Sparks

Will Space Weather Blow Out My Solar Panels?

Here’s how much you should worry about the coming solar storm.

Jillian Goodman •
05/10/2024
The Sun.
Heatmap Illustration/Getty Images

You have probably heard by now that there’s a big solar storm on its way toward us. (If not, sign up for Heatmap AM, our daily roundup of climate and energy news.) On Wednesday, the sun started ejecting massive columns of geomagnetic activity out into space in Earth’s direction. That geomagnetism is due to arrive around 11p.m. ET on Friday, triggering huge fluctuations in the Earth’s geomagnetic field.

Those fluctuations can actually generate their own electric current. And too much of that current can wreak havoc on the electrical grid.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow
Sparks

Climeworks’ Newest Direct Air Capture Plant Is Officially Live

Here are six things to know about it.

Katie Brigham •
05/08/2024
Climeworks' Mammoth station.
Heatmap Illustration/Climeworks

If one company has set the pace for direct air capture, it’s Climeworks. The Switzerland-based business opened its — and the world’s — first commercial DAC plant in 2017, capable of capturing “several hundred tons” of carbon dioxide each year. Today, the company unveiled its newest plant, the aptly named Mammoth. Located in Iceland, Mammoth is designed to take advantage of the country’s unique geology to capture and store up to 36,000 metric tons of carbon per year — eventually. Here’s what you need to know about the new project.

1. Mammoth is, well, huge

Mammoth is not yet operating at full capacity, with only 12 of its planned 72 capturing and filtering units installed. When the plant is fully operational — which Climeworks says should be sometime next year — it will pull up to 36,000 metric tons of CO2 out of the atmosphere annually. For scale, that’s about 1/28,000th of a gigaton. To get to net zero emissions, we’ll have to remove multiple gigatons of carbon from the atmosphere every year.

Keep reading...Show less
Yellow