Air/Climate

Russian Tanker First to Sail Arctic Sea Route in Winter

ST. PETERSBURG, Russia, February 22, 2021 (ENS) – The Arctic’s icy Northern Sea Route is melting, allowing the Russian icebreaking LNG carrier Christophe de Margerie to complete her experimental round trip voyage across the Arctic in winter. For the first time in history, due to climate warming, the Arctic ice has thawed enough to allow a large-capacity cargo vessel to transit the eastern portion of the Northern Sea Route in January. […]

Energy

Texas Oil Co Fined Millions for Fouling Wyoming Waters

CHEYENNE, Wyoming, February 15, 2021 (ENS) – A settlement has been reached between the U.S. government and the oil and gas company Fleur de Lis Energy, which has agreed to pay $1.9 million for violating the Clean Water Act in Wyoming. The company is headquartered in Dallas, Texas with field operations in Texas and Wyoming. […]

caribou
Energy

Trump Auctions Off Arctic Refuge Land to Oil Companies

ANCHORAGE, Alaska, January 14, 2020 (ENS) – The Trump administration has begun to auction off roughly one-third of Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge for oil drilling. It is no coincidence that this lease sale was announced with only a few weeks left in the Trump presidency, as President Donald Trump is eager to kickstart Arctic oil drilling before leaving the White House on January 20. […]

smokestacks
Energy

Largest Coal-fired Power Plant in U.S. West Demolished

PAGE, Arizona, December 19, 2020 (ENS) – For 45 years the Navajo Generating Station was the largest coal-fired power plant in the western United States – a 2.25-gigawatt facility located on the Navajo Nation, near Lake Powell in Arizona that spread air pollution far and wide. In November 2019, the plant ended commercial generation, and on Friday, its three tall smokestacks all went down in smoke. […]

fire
Energy

U.S. Renewable Energy Lab Energizes Remote Communities

GOLDEN, Colorado, October 23, 2020 (ENS) – In rural Northern California, inland American Indian reservations risk being “islanded” from the larger electricity grid should a wildfire disable the single transmission line that delivers power to their homes, businesses, and critical services providers. […]

power plant
Energy

Polluting Michigan Power Plants to Close December 2022

DETROIT, Michigan, May 27, 2020 (ENS) – DTE Energy has agreed to a date certain to close three polluting coal-fired power plans, and the company will invest $7.5 million dollars to support environmental and sustainable improvements in Wayne County, Michigan. […]

6th Avenue
Energy

Pandemic Shock to Energy Industry Greatest in 70 Years

PARIS, France, May 4, 2020 (ENS) – The global COVID-19 pandemic has massively disrupted the global economy, forcing large parts of the world into confinement and “creating the largest shock to the global energy system in more than seven decades,” the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in an unprecedented urgent report. […]

protest
Energy

Canada Gas Pipeline Protests Yield Rail Shutdown, Arrests

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, February 14, 2020 (ENS) – Forty indigenous land and water protectors and non-indigenous activists were arrested in British Columbia and across Canada on Monday, while they were protesting a multibillion-dollar natural gas pipeline that would run through the unceded tribal lands of the Wet’suwet’en First Nation in British Columbia. […]

mine
Energy

Rare Earth Elements Focus of U.S.-Australia Agreement

WASHINGTON, DC, November 18, 2019 (ENS) – Officials from the United States and Australia today signed a memorandum of understanding pledging cooperation to secure a steady supply of the energy mineral resources essential for meeting the world’s booming demand for electric vehicles, smartphones, jet aircraft, and solar panels. […]

Qaanaaq
Energy

Science in Action: Arctic Residents Embrace Renewables

HANOVER, New Hampshire, November 12, 2019 (ENS) – Thayer School of Engineering at Dartmouth College has accepted an invitation to partner with Qaanaaq, an Arctic hunting and fishing community in northwestern Greenland, as the residents transition to renewable energy and an affordable, sustainable future. […]

solar
Energy

Utilities Ask Court to Reinstate Obama’s Clean Power Plan

NEW YORK, New York, September 16, 2019 (ENS) – A coalition of public and private electric utilities have filed a petition in the District of Columbia Circuit Court of Appeals to challenge the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s new Affordable Clean Energy Rule and the repeal of the Clean Power Plan. […]

Trudeau
Energy

Trudeau Greenlights Trans Mountain Pipeline Expansion

OTTAWA, Ontario, Canada, June 18, 2019 (ENS) – Canada’s federal cabinet has approved the twinning of the existing Trans Mountain pipeline that will carry diluted bitumen from the oil sands near Edmonton, Alberta to Burnaby, British Columbia, over the objections of Indigenous First Nations peoples and environmentalists. […]

car
Energy

Governments Cue Hydrogen for Global Clean Energy Role

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, June 1, 2019 (ENS) – Hydrogen is on the move. At the Clean Energy Ministerial meeting Friday in Vancouver, governments announced a new international hydrogen partnership under the leadership of Canada, the European Commission, Japan, the Netherlands and the United States, with participation from several other CEM member countries. […]

George Will
Energy

Indigenous Pipeline Protest Disrupts Trudeau Fundraiser

VANCOUVER, British Columbia, Canada, May 22, 2019 (ENS) – An Indigenous leader demanding that cancellation of the Trans Mountain pipeline interrupted Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau during his speech today at a Liberal fundraiser at the Opus Hotel in downtown Vancouver. Trudeau is fundraising ahead of the federal election scheduled to take place on or before October 21. […]

boats
Energy

Oregon Governor Signs Offshore Drilling Ban into Law

SALEM, Oregon, March 27, 2019 (ENS) – Oregon Governor Kate Brown, a Democrat, today signed a bill into law that creates a new line of defense against offshore oil and gas drilling that could undermine the coast’s thriving tourism, recreation and fishing industries. […]

Celestine
Energy

ExxonMobil Fined $616,000 for Fire That Killed Two

WASHINGTON, DC, March 6, 2019 (ENS) – The U.S. Department of Justice and the Environmental Protection Agency have settled with ExxonMobil Oil Corporation to resolve federal Clean Air Act claims arising from a 2013 fire at the company’s oil refinery in Beaumont, Texas that killed two employees and injured 10 others. […]