Skip to Content
Uncategorized

Energy This Week: Pipeline Abandoned, EPA Gas Data, and China’s CO2 Plans

A roundup of the most important energy stories from the past week.
January 20, 2012

As Kevin Bullis mentioned on Wednesday, the Obama administration declined to issue a permit to TransCanada for the construction of the controversial Keystone XL pipeline. The pipeline would carry crude made from oil sands from Alberta to multiple destinations in the U.S., ending at the Gulf of Mexico. The president left the door open for the company to refile the proposal, one of many reasons to think that this story is far from over. (Read more at The Hills E2 Wire and Bloomberg.)

Bloomberg New Energy Finance reported that $260 billion was invested worldwide in renewable energy last year. That total is a new record, 5 percent greater than the total investment last year. (Read more at Bloomberg.)

Meanwhile, the world’s largest wind-turbine manufacturer, Vestas, announced it will cut over 2,000 jobs worldwide. Increasingly fierce competition and rising costs helped “wipe out” the Danish company’s 2011 earnings, reports Reuters.

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency released an online tool for viewing data that reflect greenhouse gas emissions from power plants, which since 2008 have been required by law to report such numbers. The searchable database draws from 6,157 sources and is current through 2010. (Read more at The New York Times.)

China will impose absolute CO2 caps for the first time, in seven pilot cities and provinces. The country’s National Development and Reform Commission has directed the cities Beijing, Tianjin, Shanghai, Chongqing, and Shenzhen, and the provinces of Hubei and Guangdong, to set “overall emissions control targets” and submit plans for achieving them. (Read more at Reuters and The New Scientist.)

California became the first state in the U.S. to enact more stringent energy efficiency standards for battery chargers used with cell phones, laptops, power tools, and other electrical devices. Automotive battery chargers are exempted from the standards, which the state’s energy commission says could save as much electricity per year as could power 350,000 homes. (Read more at McClatchyDC and Green Car Congress.)

Keep Reading

Most Popular

Geoffrey Hinton tells us why he’s now scared of the tech he helped build

“I have suddenly switched my views on whether these things are going to be more intelligent than us.”

ChatGPT is going to change education, not destroy it

The narrative around cheating students doesn’t tell the whole story. Meet the teachers who think generative AI could actually make learning better.

Meet the people who use Notion to plan their whole lives

The workplace tool’s appeal extends far beyond organizing work projects. Many users find it’s just as useful for managing their free time.

Learning to code isn’t enough

Historically, learn-to-code efforts have provided opportunities for the few, but new efforts are aiming to be inclusive.

Stay connected

Illustration by Rose Wong

Get the latest updates from
MIT Technology Review

Discover special offers, top stories, upcoming events, and more.

Thank you for submitting your email!

Explore more newsletters

It looks like something went wrong.

We’re having trouble saving your preferences. Try refreshing this page and updating them one more time. If you continue to get this message, reach out to us at customer-service@technologyreview.com with a list of newsletters you’d like to receive.