On Energydesk
FOI's show cabinet secretary hosted dinner for Fracking execs
Emails and text messages released to Greenpeace Energydesk under a Freedom of Information (FOI) request reveal that the county’s most senior civil servant, Cabinet Secretary Sir Jeremy Heywood, travelled to Lancashire to host a dinner with Cuadrilla’s Francis Egan, local and national government officials and industry executives to discuss shale gas and oil. The story was also reported in the Independent.
Commissioner: EU state aid rules would need to be 'bypassed or altered' for new nuclear
The European energy commissioner, Günther Oettinger, has been recorded suggesting that the EU's state aid rules would need to be 'adapted' or 'bypassed' to make new nuclear viable.
German Lignite mines leave ghost towns
The BBC's Matthew Price visits the village of Immerath that is being moved to make way for a new coal mine. You can read more on the rise of Lignite mining (and burning) in Germany on Energydesk.
If you read only three other stories this morning
1) Russia 'seizes' Greenpeace ship after Arctic rig protest
30 activists, including six Britons, are being held at gunpoint by Russian security officers who stormed the group's ship in the Arctic.
2) Looking behind the numbers on the rise of climate change skepticism
When asked the question, 19 per cent of 2013's respondents said they don't think the climate is changing, compared to four per cent in 2005. In fact, that's closer to a quintupling of climate skeptics since 2005 - not just a quadrupling. It's also an eight per cent increase on last year.
Look further down UKERC's poll, however, and you find something puzzling. When people are asked what they think the causes of climate change are, only two per cent agree there is "no such thing" as climate change. Carbon Brief explains.
3) The rise and rise of China's environmental movement
On the one hand, the country’s leadership has publicly committed to tackling the chronic pollution that has accompanied the economic growth of the past three decades – the same goal environmentalists share. At the same time, the forces unleashed by China’s environmental movement are often deeply unsettling to the country’s authoritarian officials.
UK
Tory donor criticises government over green stance
Alexander Temerko, director of Offshore Group Newcastle, which builds offshore platforms for oil and gas exploration as well as wind turbines, criticised the coalition's "hypocritical" approach to energy policy. His company reported a turnover of £150 million last year.
International
RWE to cut dividend in half amidst renewables boom
A boom in renewable energy is cutting profits from conventional power generation, according to German energy giant RWE.
BP spill costs soar
The administrative costs of BP’s settlement for the 2010 Deepwater Horizon disaster have reached more than $600m, meaning that the programme has paid more than a dollar in administration for every six it distributed in compensation. The news comes as Haliburton was fined $200,000 for covering up evidence regarding its role in the spill.
BP in biggest ever gas field contract
In a move expected to reduce Europe’s dependence on Russian energy, BP and its partners have signed 25-year sales agreements with nine companies to take 10bn cubic metres a year (bcma) of gas from the field, which sits some 70km offshore in the Caspian Sea.
German industry complains about energy costs
“We need a drastic policy shift,” Christoph Schmidt, chairman of Germany’s Council of Economic Experts tells The Telegraph "They haven’t paid any attention to costs. These are now huge.”
