Friday 29th of March 2024

commercial hypocrisy...

 

commercial hypocrisy

Export levels of coal produced in the U.S. shot up earlier this year, as President Donald Trump assumed the White House, in what his administration has dubbed the age of “energy dominance.”

For the first quarter of 2017, export levels grew 58 percent compared to the same quarter last year, according to the U.S. Energy Information Administration. The news comes as the Trump administration recently helped broker a major coal export deal between Pennsylvania-based coal production company Xcoal Energy and Ukranian company Centrenergo PJSC

That deal, which will see 700,000 tons of thermal coal shipped from XCoal's mines to Centrenergo power plants in Ukraine, was applauded by both U.S. Secretary of Energy Rick Perry and U.S. Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross.

Although Trump's presidential campaign is under scrutiny for its potential connections to Russian operatives, Ross praised the coal deal in the name of fending off Kremlin influence.

“Today’s announcement will allow Ukraine to diversify its energy sources ahead of the coming winter, helping bolster a key strategic partner against regional pressures that seek to undermine U.S. interests,”Ross stated in a press release. “In the past, Russia has tried to choke off opposition to its ambitions by restricting the flow of natural gas to its western neighbors.”

Perry also lauded the deal as a way of beating back Russian energy dominance in that region. Russian-backed separatist rebels currently occupy Ukraine's coal-rich region and have commandeered the mines, making coal extraction in the area currently untenable

“In recent years Kiev and much of Eastern Europe have been reliant on and beholden to Russia to keep the heat on. That changes now,” stated Perry. “The United States can offer Ukraine an alternative, and today we are pleased to announce that we will. U.S. coal will be a secure and reliable energy source for Centrenergo and its electricity customers.”

read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/21/coal-exports-xcoal-trump-ukraine-p...

 

Yes — as if Russia did not want to sell gas...!

 

dirty as well...

For many years, a standard talking point from the fossil fuel industry and those who speak on the industry’s behalf has been that natural gas is a cleaner alternative to conventional energy sources like coal and oil. This talking point is at least partially responsible for many people — including former President Barack Obama and his Secretary of Energy Ernest Moniz — believing that natural gas can act as a “bridge fuel” in the eventual shift from coal and oil to renewable sources of energy.

But the truth is a lot more complicated than a talking point, something which a Dutch advertising watchdog has recognized as it takes two fossil fuel companies to task over misleading ads about natural gas being the “cleanest of all fossil fuels.”

At first glance, natural gas does appear to be “cleaner” due to the simple fact that it does not release as much carbon dioxide (CO2) when burned as coal. However, when you account for the release of methane (a much more potent but shorter-lived greenhouse gas) from burning natural gas — a number which is frequently underreported — its climate impact goes through the roof, revealing a fuel source roughly equal in total emissions to other fossil fuel sources.

To complicate the issue further, when natural gas is extracted via the horizontal drilling method known as hydraulic fracturing, or “fracking,” the overall environmental impact can actually exceed that of fuel sources such as coal and oil.

When all of these factors are taken into account, it becomes clear that natural gas is not the wonder fuel that the industry and its cheerleaders would have us believe.

The big question then becomes how should society handle this kind of spin and misinformation from industry? In Europe, they’ve decided to censure the dirty energy companies that are trying to convince the public that natural gas is a cleaner alternative to coal and oil.

read more:

https://www.desmogblog.com/2017/08/14/dirty-energy-giants-exxon-shell-ce...

selling US gas to annoy the ruskies...

The delivery of liquefied natural gas (LNG) from the United States to Lithuania is mainly motivated by political reasons, Vladimir Feygin, president of the Energy and Financial Institute, told Radio Sputnik.

"Of course, there is a combination of political reasons and Washington’s interests in this case. The US wants to show that its plan [to supply LNG to eastern European countries] is already working," Feygin pointed out.

Lithuania has received its first shipment of American-produced LNG, as the result of an agreement between Lithuania’s state-owned trader Lietuvos Duju Tiekimas and Cheniere Marketing International. The LNG tanker from Sabine Pass in the US moored in the port of Klaipeda on Monday.

read more:

https://sputniknews.com/business/201708221056673833-us-lng-supplies-lith...