海角大神

Recharge is a weekly email digest of energy news and analysis聽written by Monitor reporters David J. Unger and Jared Gilmour.

House of Saud:聽A regime change in the world鈥檚 largest oil exporter聽doesn't聽alter the fundamentals of an oversupplied oil market. Prices briefly spiked on news of King Abdullah鈥檚 passing, but quickly settled as聽it became clear there would be no major energy policy shift 鈥� for now, at least. The more important question is who will succeed Abdullah鈥檚 septuagenarian successor, King Salman. Meanwhile, an escalating crisis next door in Yemen raises concerns about regional oil security.

98-1: A funny thing happened in Washington this week: near unanimous agreement on a subject that has long fallen along partisan lines.聽Republican and Democrat senators are now on the record agreeing that climate change is real. Separately, GOP presidential hopefuls聽Mitt Romney and Rand Paul went as far to say humans play a role. The聽statements represent聽small steps toward common ground on addressing heat-trapping emissions from energy and other sectors.

Energie: Mounting evidence suggests that聽in 2014, renewable energy overtook lignite as Germany鈥檚 No. 1* electricity source for the first time ever. The Energiewende 鈥� Germany鈥檚 ambitious plan to wean itself off fossil and nuclear fuel 鈥� is far from perfect, and plenty of challenges lie ahead in balancing intermittent sources. Still, it鈥檚 a technological marvel that the world鈥檚 fourth largest economy derived more than a quarter of its power from infinitely replenishable聽sources. If a clean-energy economy is the 21st century鈥檚 moon race, then聽Germany聽is winning.

* German statistics count lignite separately from other coal. When taken altogether, coal remains king.

In the pipeline

• Wednesday, Jan. 28: WASHINGTON 鈥� The Monitor holds its first Recharge Conversation! EIA Administrator Adam Sieminski will talk with Recharge editor David J. Unger about global energy after the oil price fall.聽Click here for details and to RSVP!

Drill deeper

Broken Landscape: Confronting India鈥檚 Water-Energy Choke Point
[The Wilson Center]
This short documentary film takes us to India鈥檚 coal-rich Meghalaya state, where migrants and locals engaged in small-scale coal mining clash with area fishermen who say coal runoff threatens their livelihood. It's a nuanced, human look at a struggle to balance demand for water, food, and energy in a country that increasingly needs all three.

The next energy revolution won鈥檛 be in wind or solar. It will be in our brains.聽[The Washington Post]
Renewables aren鈥檛 the only way to shrink the world鈥檚 carbon footprint. Behavioral changes are an equally potent avenue for drastically cutting energy use 鈥� something as little as setting the thermostat at 68 degrees during the day and 65 degrees overnight could lead to a 2.8 percent gain in US household energy savings.

GOP looks to take a position on climate change, but how?聽[The Washington Examiner]
鈥淚 think there will be a political problem for the Republican Party going into 2016 if we don鈥檛 define what we are for on the environment,鈥� says Sen. Lindsey Graham (R) of South Carolina, who has supported cap-and-trade and is a moderate on climate change. 鈥淚 don鈥檛 know what the environmental policy of the Republican Party is.鈥�

Energy sources

• OIES: "Abandoning South Stream, which looked very complicated from a regulatory point of view, in favour of direct undersea pipelines to Turkey, prioritises Gazprom鈥檚 second biggest market, and its only European market with major expansion possibilities over the next decade."
• SAFE: "At current oil prices, the IMF and other analysts suggest that Saudi Arabia will begin running a fiscal deficit as soon as this year. And while the Kingdom has ample foreign reserves to draw on to plug any gaps in its budget, the new leadership will nonetheless have to walk a delicate balance as it deals with internal governance issues, mounting regional tensions, and rising economic and fiscal challenges."
• BNEF: "America鈥檚 wind installations grew six-fold in 2014, making the United States the world鈥檚 second-largest wind market behind China ..."

Unplug

Recharge is a weekly email digest of energy news and analysis聽written by Monitor reporters David J. Unger and Jared Gilmour.