About a fifth of the world's oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) passed through the strait of Hormuz, a strip of sea less than 30 miles wide at its narrowest point, before it was in effect closed by the US-Israeli attack on Iran, which sent the price of oil soaring and left an estimated 20,000 seafarers on 2,000 vessels stranded.
The era of fossil fuel security is over, and the era of clean energy security must come of age. This is the clear lesson as we face the second global energy shock in less than five years.
EDF chairman Bernard Fontana stated that financial aid will be targeted at low income households, providing up to €1,000 towards the cost of installing a heat pump. This can be combined with existing government aid schemes for heat pumps, resulting in a total out-of-pocket cost of €3,000 for installation, which is less than the cost of a replacement gas heating system.
Attempting to eke out the remaining oil and gas from the North Sea was not the answer to the challenges facing the UK. It will not bring down the price for consumers, nor will it deliver long-term energy security. The international markets will determine the price and destination; that is not energy independence.
TotalEnergies will abandon offshore wind projects deemed too big and expensive without federal subsidies in the U.S., opting instead for onshore wind, solar, and battery storage.
The Trump administration has dismantled the basis for all US climate regulations, in its most confrontational anti-environment move yet. The 2009 endangerment finding determined that greenhouse gases threaten public health and welfare and should therefore be controlled by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). By revoking it on Thursday, officials eliminated the legal foundation enabling the government to control planet-heating pollution.
His message is clear: our world is built on abundant energy, around 80% of which has come from fossil fuels over the past 50 years. Because supplies are limited, energy consumption will peak in decades - sooner if humans attempt to limit climate change. To keep global warming below 1.5 °C by 2100, the use of fossil fuels must fall by 5-8% each year - a pace that is too fast for low-carbon energy to keep up with.