2024-11-12 20:51

HOUSTON, Nov 12 (Reuters) - Top U.S. LNG exporter Cheniere Energy (LNG.N) , opens new tab on Tuesday came out in favor of the United States remaining in the Paris climate agreement and complying with methane emissions restrictions, cautioning the incoming Trump administration against reversals. President-elect Donald Trump's transition team has prepared executive orders to withdraw for a second time from the climate treaty that commits countries to reducing greenhouse gas emissions. "We are supporters of the Paris agreement. We are supporters of the methane rule," Cheniere Vice President Anatol Feygin said, referring in the latter case to the European Union's methane limits on oil and gas imports that would be placed on U.S. LNG beginning in 2030. Cheniere has invested over $45 billion in building LNG facilities and it believes that reducing emission will ensure natural gas plays an important role in the energy transition, said Feygin. "This is one of the key ways we extend the runway for many decades for this product," he said at a webinar hosted by asset management company Tortoise Capital. The company wants an LNG industry that has "good actors" who continue to drive down emissions. Cheniere likes clear rules of engagement and while it was not a fan of the Biden administration's permitting pause it is very supportive of the Department of Energy (DOE) reviews, he said. "If this is done in the right way it is in the public interest," Feygin said. ExxonMobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab CEO Darren Woods said at the United Nations COP29 climate summit that the U.S. should not exit the Paris climate agreement. "A second U.S. exit from the Paris climate agreement will have profound implications for the United States' efforts to reduce its own emissions and for international efforts to combat climate change," ExxonMobil said in a statement. The company also advocated for staying in the accord in 2017, before Trump withdrew the nation from the landmark global agreement. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/cheniere-energy-wants-us-remain-paris-climate-agreement-2024-11-12/

2024-11-12 20:47

Canadian dollar falls 0.2% against the greenback Touches a 2-year low at 1.3967 10-year yield rises 8.9 basis points Falls 116 basis points below US equivalent TORONTO, Nov 12 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar weakened to a two-year low against its U.S. counterpart on Tuesday as the prospect of inflationary U.S. economic policy bolstered the greenback and widened the gap between U.S. and Canadian bond yields. The loonie was trading 0.2% lower at 1.3945 to the U.S. dollar, or 71.71 U.S. cents, after touching its weakest intraday level since October 2022 at 1.3967. "The loonie is joining the rest of the G10 as the USD continues to take center stage," said Amo Sahota, director at Klarity FX in San Francisco. "The Trump team is taking shape and unsurprisingly it looks like the team that will lean into the election pledges. That plays into firmer inflation, greater spending and continued uncertainty on the extent of the tariff impacts." The U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab rose to a six-month high against a basket of major currencies, buoyed by expectations U.S. President-elect Donald Trump will impose inflationary import tariffs. Canada's energy industry does not expect Trump's broad plans for protectionist trade measures to include tariffs on Canadian oil imports, because many U.S. refineries rely on barrels from north of the border. The loonie's decline was less than for all the other Group of Ten currencies. Canada moved to end labor disputes at the ports of Vancouver and Montreal, citing economic damage and the potential for driving away trading partners. The Canadian 10-year yield rose 8.9 basis points to 3.271%. Still, the gap between it and the U.S. equivalent widened by 3.3 basis points to roughly 116 basis points in favor of the U.S. note, the widest spread in LSEG data going back to 1995. "The widening yield spread is hard to argue against and will keep the loonie on the ropes," Sahota said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/canadian-dollar-hits-2-year-low-against-dominant-us-counterpart-2024-11-12/

2024-11-12 20:32

Trump has 'mandate' from American people, IMF chief says World Bank's Banga highlights role of private sector UAE energy firm cites interest from Republican-led US states Nov 12 (Reuters) - The heads of the World Bank and International Monetary Fund on Tuesday said they would work with the incoming U.S. president, Republican Donald Trump, underscoring the importance of private sector funding for developing countries hit by climate change. IMF chief Kristalina Georgieva told a panel during the U.N. COP29 climate summit in Azerbaijan that the global lender had worked with Trump during his previous term and looked forward to doing so again. "They have a mandate from the American people," she said. Asked about the impact of Trump's election on the IMF's climate work, Georgieva said she was confident that the U.S. private sector would continue to invest in green technologies. "It is the business proposition to stay ahead of the curve, and I have no doubt that this will continue," she said. The election of Trump, who is expected to pull the United States back from global efforts to fight climate change, has raised questions about the ability of the IMF and the World Bank - the U.S. is the largest shareholder in both - to ramp up funding for countries around climate-related issues. This year's COP29 summit is focused on raising hundreds of billions of dollars to fund a global transition to cleaner energy sources and limit the climate damage caused by carbon emissions by the world's largest countries, including the U.S. Ajay Banga, president of the World Bank, said Trump's historical win, which demanded respect, highlighted the bank's work to become more efficient and effective, while encouraging increasing private investment in climate finance. "He's going to have opinions. We're going to talk to him. That's our job," he said, noting that during his 17 months at the bank, political leadership had also changed in the bank's four other biggest donors - Germany, France, Japan and Britain. Trump, who shuns multilateralism, has promised massive tariff increases on Chinese goods and other imports as part of his "America First" agenda. The conservative Republican "Project 2025" agenda, from which Trump has distanced himself, calls for U.S. withdrawal from the IMF and World Bank to pursue only bilateral development and financial aid in line with U.S. interests. Trump has publicly taken aim at the United Nations and the World Health Organization and the New York Times reported last week that his transition team was preparing executive orders to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement. He has not specifically targeted the IMF or World Bank thus far. Mohamed Jameel Al Ramahi, CEO of UAE green energy group Masdar, said the United States remained a key market, despite changes in political leadership, and the company would continue expanding its footprint there. "A lot of red states in the U.S. ... deploy a lot of renewables. They are very supportive of energy, so we don't really see any impact, honestly," he said, referring to Republican-controlled states. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/imf-world-bank-leaders-pledge-un-climate-summit-work-with-trump-2024-11-12/

2024-11-12 20:16

Nov 12 (Reuters) - Strengthening winds and bone-dry conditions were hindering firefighters working to gain control of a stubborn wildfire burning in a forested stretch along the New York-New Jersey state border about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of New York City. The Jennings Creek Fire, which straddles the border between Passaic County, New Jersey, and New York's Orange County, has torched some 5,000 acres (2,023 hectares) of brush and thick woodland near Greenwood Lake and killed a park employee. The blaze, which started late last week, was 20% contained, the New Jersey Forest Fire Service said on Tuesday on Facebook. The cause of the fire was undetermined. The conditions will "create turmoil, chaos and lot of uncertainty that we don't need right now," New York Governor Kathy Hochul said during a news conference near the site of the fire. She said some 15 blazes were burning in her state in an unusually busy wildfire season. New York State Police and National Guard helicopters were dumping water on the blaze, while more than 375 firefighters established fire lines to protect homes and contain the blaze. No structures were being threatened on Tuesday, but some residents in the rural area had evacuated, Hochul said. The National Weather Service issued a Red Flag warning that included parts of New York, New Jersey. Connecticut, Massachusetts and Rhode Island. It said wind gusts were expected to reach 45 miles (72 km) per hour with humidity levels around 20% in the region. "The chances for more rain are not looking good for the next week or so," said William Churchill, a meteorologist with the National Weather Service's Weather Prediction Center in College Park, Maryland. Conditions are only expected to get slightly better on Wednesday, he said, with winds expected to taper off. The region is in the middle of one of the driest autumns on record. It received its first measurable precipitation since mid-September on Monday, giving firefighters some, but brief, relief. "The conditions we're facing are still pretty dire," Hochul said, urging residents to avoid outdoor burning. The fire was responsible for one death. New York state forest ranger volunteer Dariel Vasquez, 18, was killed by a falling tree while battling the fire on Saturday, officials said. In New Jersey, 10 separate wildfires in different parts of the state burned over the past week, including one in Englewood Cliffs, across the Hudson River from uptown New York City, where haze was visible and the air smelled of smoke over the weekend. Other New Jersey blazes were much smaller than the Jennings Creek fire and were largely contained, according to fire officials. Northern New Jersey was upgraded to "extreme" fire danger on Tuesday. The southern third of the state was at "high," while Central New Jersey's danger was rated "very high," the state's forest service said on its website. Wildfire outbreaks are a relatively common occurrence in the West, but the East Coast blazes are unusual. In California, firefighters have slowly gained on the 20,630-acre (8,350-hectare) Mountain Fire as it burned about 50 miles (80 km) northwest of Los Angeles. As of Tuesday, it was 48% contained. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/world/us/new-jersey-new-york-wildfire-keeps-burning-fed-by-dry-windy-conditions-2024-11-12/

2024-11-12 20:04

Repeal of methane fee likely during Trump presidency Methane fee starts at $900 per metric ton in 2024 Applies to facilities emitting over 25,000 T of CO2 equivalent annually BAKU, AZERBAIJAN Nov 12 (Reuters) - U.S. President Joe Biden's administration on Tuesday finalized a methane fee for big oil and gas producers meant to slash emissions of the powerful greenhouse gas, but which is likely to be scrapped by the incoming presidency of Donald Trump. The methane charge is among the last actions the outgoing administration has taken to tackle the second most prevalent greenhouse gas after carbon dioxide that tends to leak into the atmosphere undetected from drill sites, gas pipelines and other oil and gas , opens new tab equipment. The fee will start at $900 per metric ton of methane emitted in 2024, and increases to $1,200 in 2025, and $1,500 for 2026 and beyond. Under the rules, it would only apply to facilities that release more than 25,000 tons per year of carbon dioxide equivalent, according to the Environmental Protection Agency's announcement. The Biden administration announced the rule on the second day of the United Nations COP29 climate change conference in Baku, Azerbaijan, which includes a special side event on methane. The U.S. had led the push for a Global Methane Pledge, a voluntary pact signed by over 100 countries that seeks to cut global methane emissions 30% by 2030. The world's top oil and gas producer has also made cooperation on methane a centerpiece of its climate engagement with China. The fee was mandated by the 2022 Inflation Reduction Act. The EPA last year finalized methane emission standards for the oil and gas sector, but had not completed rules for the fee intended to penalize companies that miss those standards. "The final Waste Emissions Charge is the latest in a series of actions under President Biden’s methane strategy to improve efficiency in the oil and gas sector, support American jobs, protect clean air, and reinforce U.S. leadership on the global stage," EPA Administrator Michael Regan said. Methane has more warming potential than carbon dioxide and breaks down in the atmosphere faster, so reining in methane emissions can have a swift impact on limiting climate change. The EPA estimated that this rule alone would lower cumulative emissions by 1.2 million metric tons of methane through 2035 — the equivalent of taking nearly 8 million gasoline-powered cars off the road for a year. In January, oil and gas trade group the American Petroleum Institute called on Congress to repeal the fee. After the November elections, in which Republicans are poised to hold control of the Senate, House and presidency, the prospect of a repeal has become more likely. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/climate-energy/us-sets-methane-fee-oil-gas-emitters-biden-term-winds-down-2024-11-12/

2024-11-12 20:03

Nov 12 (Reuters) - The U.S. oil and gas industry on Tuesday called on President-elect Donald Trump to scrap many of President Joe Biden's policies aimed at fighting climate change, saying the measures threaten jobs, consumer choice and energy security. The American Petroleum Institute (API), the nation's top oil and gas trade group, urged Trump's incoming administration to do away with vehicle emissions standards meant to move the auto industry to produce more electric vehicles, lift a pause on export permits for liquefied natural gas facilities and work with Congress to repeal a fee on methane emissions from drilling operations, among a range of other actions. The group unveiled the requests in a policy document shared with the media. During his campaign, Trump vowed to reverse dozens of environmental rules and policies deemed onerous by oil and gas drillers. Despite stiffer regulations under Biden, who has sought to transition the U.S. economy to clean energy sources, the domestic industry is producing more oil and gas than at any time in history. "Looking at the results of last week's election, it is clear that energy was on the ballot," API CEO Mike Sommers said on a call with reporters. "Whether it was EV mandates in Michigan or fracking in Pennsylvania, voters across the country and on both sides of the aisle sent a clear message to policymakers that they want an all-of-the-above approach to energy, not government mandates and restrictions." API sought to rescind California's ability to enact state tailpipe emissions that are stricter than federal rules and to repeal U.S. Environmental Protection Agency clean vehicle rules. It also advocated supporting LNG exports, holding more auctions for oil and gas drilling in the Gulf of Mexico and reversing rules that the group says limits oil and gas development on federal lands. It wants Trump to make it easier to obtain drilling permits via changes to the Clean Water Act and National Environmental Policy Act, and implement tax incentives to infrastructure and overseas investment. The group unveiled its policy priorities hours after ExxonMobil (XOM.N) , opens new tab CEO Darren Woods said at the United Nations COP29 climate summit that the U.S. should not exit the Paris climate agreement as Trump has pledged to do. "A second U.S. exit from the Paris climate agreement will have profound implications for the United States' efforts to reduce its own emissions and for international efforts to combat climate change," ExxonMobil said in a statement. The company also advocated for staying in the accord in 2017, before Trump withdrew the nation from the landmark global agreement to fight climate change. Exxon also supported Biden's decision to rejoin the agreement in 2021. API's Sommers, when asked about Woods' comments, said his group was focused on both reducing emissions and meeting the world's energy needs. "We're going to continue to do that regardless of whether the United States is part of the agreement or not," Sommers said. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-oil-industry-urges-trump-ditch-biden-climate-policies-2024-11-12/