海角大神

听written by Monitor reporters David J. Unger and Jared Gilmour.

鈥楳issing piece鈥�: Leave it to Elon Musk to turn something as pedestrian as batteries into the week's most talked-about spectacle. Tesla Motors says the suite of storage products it unveiled Thursday represents听. Whether or not the Powerwall takes off like the company hopes it does, one thing remains clear:听. Progress toward that future just got a very slick and powerful boost.

Rally: Oil had a bullish April.听on a weakening dollar and fresh concerns over violence in the Middle East. Still,. US stockpiles keep rising, Saudi Arabia keeps pumping, and idled US shale rigs are looking for any chance they can get to return to work.听, which is simultaneously grappling with vanishing oil revenue and a domestic power shortage.

Post-Kyoto: Japan, once at the forefront of emissions reductions, now finds itself hamstrung by Fukushima and the resulting country-wide nuclear ban.听, according to a study out this week by a Japanese environmental group. It has also yet to issue its climate targets ahead of December鈥檚 Paris talks, and has come under fire for how it has allocated funds set aside for 鈥渃limate finance鈥�.听.

In the pipeline

• Monday, May 4: THE INTERNET 鈥撎�, which will examine methods for harnessing innovation to accelerate global emissions reductions.
• Monday, May 4: NEW YORK and THE INTERNET 鈥撎�听at Columbia University鈥檚 Center on Global Energy Policy.
• Friday, May 8: PORTLAND, ORE. 鈥撎�听at Nike headquarters in a push to finalize the trade deal.

Drill deeper

Progress watch: In 2014, economies grew, emissions did not
[海角大神]
Broadly speaking, last year鈥檚 emissions flatlining is a sign that all the money and effort nations and businesses have poured into cleaner energy systems 鈥� expanding renewable power, curtailing carbon-heavy coal, and improving overall energy efficiency 鈥� is having an effect.

[Gizmodo]
"[The age of infrastructure is] about how we conceive of what technology is," writes Annalee Newitz. "It鈥檚 about what kinds of gadgets we鈥檒l be buying for ourselves in 20 years. It's about how the kids of tomorrow won鈥檛 freak out over terabytes of storage. They鈥檒l freak out over kilowatt-hours."

听(They just don't often come true) [Bloomberg]
Anybody can make predictions about oil markets, very few can make them correctly. Perhaps a good rule of thumb is to just make long-term predictions so that no one will remember them by the time the predictions are proven wrong. That is, unless Bloomberg goes digging and grades you on your forecasts...

Energy sources

• : "Energy infrastructure is a major target of cyberattacks. That is increasing in frequency, and perhaps source 鈥� It鈥檚 one of those areas where establishing a set of static rules doesn鈥檛 do it, because you鈥檝e just got to stay ahead of the bad guys all the time. So far we have not had any major disruption of our energy infrastructure, but it ain鈥檛 for lack of people trying."
• : "Requiring a fiscal breakeven oil price above $80 per barrel, Saudi Arabia has projected a record-breaking fiscal deficit of $38.7 billion for 2015. Moreover, the Kingdom has begun drawing from its monetary reserves to stave off the effects of low oil prices鈥攔educing its assets from a record $737 billion in August 2014 to $707 billion as of February 2015鈥攁 sign that the country continues to prioritize economic growth and social spending and is willing to draw on its savings to protect market share, an option many of its fellow OPEC nations do not have."
• : "The world has within its technological grasp, financial means, and know-how the means to mitigate climate change while also ending extreme poverty, through the application of sustainable development solutions including the adoption of low-carbon energy systems ..."

Unplug

听written by Monitor reporters David J. Unger and Jared Gilmour.