Energy

Bloomberg The world’s biggest carbon market is joining the long list of victims of the economic fallout from the coronavirus. The price of certificates allowing companies to emit carbon dioxide in the European Union (EU) has crashed by 40% so far this year, including two drops of more than 10% in the past week. That has erased two years of ...

Bloomberg The leading US solar-trade group warns fallout from the coronavirus could slash the industry’s workforce in half. The Solar Energy Industries Association made the projection on March 23 as part of a campaign to convince Congress to make the federal tax credit for the sector refundable or payable directly to businesses and customers. “As the stock market tanks, tax-equity ...

Bloomberg Household electricity bills are set to soar, thanks to the millions of people now working at home to avoid catching the coronavirus. Running laptops and other home appliances will cost consumers an extra 52 million pounds ($60 million) each week in the UK, according to a study from Uswitch, a website that helps consumers compare the energy prices that ...

Bloomberg The novel coronavirus pandemic is testing the residential-solar sector, which had forecast strong growth this year but hasn’t faced a recession since it reached the American mainstream. Its key challenges are similar to those facing many other industries: how to close sales, complete installations, and convince homeowners to add solar panels during a period of unexpected and mounting economic ...

Bloomberg US regulators are willing to let nuclear power plants defer some maintenance and inspections as the coronavirus threatens availability of workers. The Nuclear Regulatory Commission (NRC) expects to issue guidelines for operators to request permission for employees to work longer than allowed under current regulations. The agency expects to add additional sections covering maintenance as soon as possible, a ...

Bloomberg Coal, the dirtiest and usually the cheapest option for energy, is now the world’s most expensive fossil fuel. Oil’s epic collapse over the past month means the global crude benchmark is now priced below the most widely traded coal contract on an energy-equivalent basis, according to Bloomberg calculations. Australia’s Newcastle coal on ICE Futures Europe settled at $66.85 a ...

Bloomberg The Trump administration doesn’t plan to challenge a federal court ruling that dramatically curbs its ability to exempt oil refineries from biofuel-blending requirements, according to three people familiar with the matter. Under a decision reached late this week by top administration officials, the Environmental Protection Agency will now apply that 10th Circuit Court of Appeals ruling nationwide, so that ...

Bloomberg Coal companies want to suspend payments for mine cleanups. The trucking industry wants to waive rules that limit drivers’ daily hours. And oil producers want to put off a June 1 deadline to shift to summer-grade gasoline. A wide range of industries are pleading with federal agencies to waive environmental requirements and ease regulatory deadlines, arguing that the global ...

Bloomberg One of the most painful busts in the history of crude oil happened just six years ago when a sharp price drop cost 200,000 roughnecks, almost half the entire workforce, their jobs. And now, the spread of the coronavirus coupled with an oil-price war between Russia and Saudi Arabia threatens to devastate the oil services industry and its workers ...

Bloomberg As if the market crash threating their jobs wasn’t stressful enough, workers in Canada’s oil-sands are bracing for the coronavirus to upend life in the remote camps where they’re lodged. One suspected case among them is already haunting roughnecks who fly in from across Canada and live for weeks on end in barracks-like facilities built in the boreal forests ...