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Oil prices continue slide; EU strikes a climate deal; US emissions tick up [Recharge]

Oil prices are continuing their slide on big US crude inventories and Goldman Sachs forecasting oil prices at $75 a barrel. EU leaders have agreed to new climate targets, while in the US, last year's bitter winter pushed up energy emissions. Catch up on the latest in global energy with the Monitor's Recharge.

From oil prices toÌýUkraineÌýgas talks to climate change, Recharge delivers global energy's big ideas to your inbox each Saturday.Ìý.

Stockpiles: Oil prices bounced back slightly late in the week, but a bearish report from Goldman Sachs andÌýunexpectedly big US crude inventories continue to hold oil prices down. Eighty-dollar oil is starting to crimp US rig counts, but that just meansÌý. Meanwhile,ÌýÌýin the very region that will drive the future of global oil consumption.

: The EU agreed early Friday toÌý. The pact is mostly a strong signal of European support for a global climate deal at next year's Paris climate talks. Still, fractures remain: Renewables and efficiency targets were lowered after coal-heavy Poland threatened a veto, andÌý.

Vortex: Across the pond,Ìý, according to new data. This winter is expected to be milder, which should help the world's second-largest emitter keep bringing its emissions down from 2007's peak.ÌýThe question is whether US fuel stockpiles have recovered enough from last year's polar vortex to keep prices in check throughout the cold months ahead.

In the pipeline

Wednesday, Oct. 29: BRUSSELS –ÌýUkraine, Russia, and the EU meet again for Ukraine gas talksÌýafter last week's promising deal fell apart over cash-flow issues.Ìý

Monday, Oct. 27 to Friday, Oct. 31: COPENHAGEN, DENMARK –Ìý. This document will integrate findings from the working group reports and other papers completed in five years of work by roughly 2,000 scientists.ÌýÌýto bolster public support for a global climate agreement.

Drill deeper

Why environmental groups are backing Republicans this November
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To turn climate change into a bipartisan issue, environmental groups are backing Republicans and moderate Democrats in the midterm elections – politicians whose pro-fossil fuel stances they don't always agree with. It's part of a growing pragmatism among those environmental groups that argue they can't shiftÌýenergy policy without reaching across the aisle.

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Ìý[Foreign Policy]
"Companies around the world are spending billions of dollars in a scramble to start exporting ever-greater amounts of natural gas with hopes of feeding a seemingly insatiable appetite for the clean-burning fuel," Keith Johnson writes in Foreign Policy. "There's just one problem, which could affect everybody from New Orleans to New South Wales: The world may already have more than it needs."

Ìý[The Washington Post Wonkblog]
Turns out proximity to residential solar is a better indicator of your chances of installing home solar than income or politics, according to a new study. Wonkblog chalks that up to peer pressure or green envy –Ìýwhich must certainly play a role –Ìýbut one imagines it also has a great deal to do with the spread of localized knowledge and firsthand familiarity with an emerging technology.

Energy sources

: "[S]ince 2000, for the first time in modern history, the [US] growth rate for electricity consumption has dropped below that of the population for an extended period, thanks in large part to our increased energy efficiency (see chart). From 2000 to 2013, electricity consumption rose by a total of less than 7 percent, with a minuscule average annual growth rate of about 0.5 percent, even as the population grew by about twice that rate during the same period."

: "This [BP/GDF Suez Central North Sea oil] discovery is another great example of the huge potential the future holds for the North Sea."

: "The US will achieve energy independence by 2025, which will mark the first time since 1952 that the US will export more energy than it imports ..."

From oil prices toÌýUkraineÌýgas talks to climate change, Recharge delivers global energy's big ideas to your inbox each Saturday.Ìý.