Sustainability
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Sustainability
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Oil prices vacillate amid Middle East tensions
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Oil prices dropped on Wednesday following successive surges, as fears of a broader Middle East conflict cooled and U.S. crude took an unexpected turn, energy analysts reported.
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© AP Photo/David Zalubowski
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U.S. commercial crude oil inventories rose by 1.4 million barrels on Friday, in comparison to the week before, the U.S. Energy Information Administration announced Wednesday.
Experts across the media expressed surprise at this turnaround, noting that just days ago, the American Petroleum Institute had cited a 5.2-million-barrel decline in U.S. oil stockpiles last week.
While analysts in part attributed the rally in crude to the delay in any further escalation in conflict, they also braced for unclear circumstances ahead.
Oslo-based research firm Rystad Energy stressed in a client note that geopolitical tensions remain high due to “Iran’s vow to retaliate against Israel for the assassination of a Hamas leader in Tehran late last month.”
“The situation remains tense and highly uncertain,” per the note, cited by the London-based group Quantum Commodity Intelligence.
“This week and next will be crucial in determining whether further escalation can be avoided and whether the geopolitical risk premium will significantly affect oil prices,” the analysts added.
Benjamin Hoff, global head of commodities strategy at Societe Generale, warned on Monday that tensions in the Middle East could yield a $10 surge in oil prices.
“We’re dealing with a highly explosive situation, largely because Iran has been waging this war through proxy forces that aren’t always perfectly controllable,” Hoff told CNBC’s Squawk Box.
A hypothetical disruption of vessels in the Straits of Hormuz could wreak havoc, as this passage conveys about 30 percent of seaborne crude supplies, he noted.
“Those are significant numbers,” Hoff said.
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Welcome to The Hill’s Sustainability newsletter, I’m Sharon Udasin — every week we follow the latest moves in the growing battle over sustainability in the U.S. and around the world.
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Latest news impacting sustainability this week and beyond:
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Nearly $10B in Hurricane Debby damage occurred in areas without flood insurance requirements
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Hurricane Debby left billions of dollars of damage in its wake as it moved across the southeastern U.S. last week — losses made all the more devastating because so many of them may have been uninsured. More than three-quarters of the houses damaged or destroyed by Hurricane Debby were in regions where flood insurance isn’t required, a new report from nonprofit First Street Foundation has found. That’s because nearly …
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Colorado River’s biggest user inks massive conservation agreement with federal government
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Southern California’s Imperial Irrigation District — the Colorado River’s biggest user — has signed off on a deal with the federal government that will leave sizable volumes of water in the basin’s largest reservoir. The board of directors for the district, which serves the Imperial Valley and part of the Coachella Valley, agreed Monday to leave up to 700,000 acre-feet of water in Lake Mead through 2026. In …
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Texas grid’s first geothermal deal will put clean-energy battery on coal facility land
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Early next year, the Texas grid will get its first dose of clean power from underground — by means of a “battery” buried in the rock. On Tuesday, the San Miguel Electric Cooperative announced a deal with Sage Geosystems, a company founded by former executives from oil and gas major Shell as part of the state’s broader boom in geothermal energy startups. The deal, which will also see the pilot project lease …
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Second major solar storm of year hits Earth as sunspot cycle intensifies
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Federal forecasters are warning of a severe solar storm through Tuesday that potentially threatens satellites, orbital communications and some infrastructure. The warning follows a volley of solar flares beginning over the weekend. The outburst marks the second of its kind this year after decades of relative calm — part of a cycle of increasing storms that space scientists expect to continue through the end …
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Shedding light on post-hurricane power restoration inequities
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Residents of more rural and lower-income areas may be receiving disproportionately slow power restorations following hurricanes, a new study has found.
Electricity inequities: The research, published in Remote Sensing, showed stark differences in repair times when comparing communities in the aftermath of Florida’s 2018 Hurricane Michael.
The authors found that block groups with higher proportions of minorities, multi-family housing units, rural areas and households receiving assistance were the most affected.
All lit up: To draw their conclusions, the authors combined remote sensing data, official outage records and census figures.
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They then overlayed information from NASA’s nighttime light database with emergency response imagery from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration.
- The researchers found significant fluctuations in power restoration, which tended to be much faster in urban areas surrounding Tallahassee than in the more rural Mexico Beach.
No time to wait: “Delayed recovery in key infrastructure, such as the power grid, will further devastate these communities,” senior author Diana Mitsova, chair of Florida Atlantic University’s Department of Urban and Regional Planning, said in a statement.
“Operation of air conditioning units, food storage, entertainment, working, schooling and even drinking water for households with wells, all rely on electricity,” Mitsova added.
Disaster in delay: The authors emphasized the importance of both reexamining building codes and creating new mutual aid agreements among rural electricity cooperatives.
They also stressed a need for more focused research on the disparate effects of disaster — with a particular look at the impacts on smaller, rural regions.
“These communities tend to be vulnerable to natural disasters and often suffer more severe damage compared to other areas,” Mitsova said.
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Upcoming news themes and events we’re watching:
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Next month, the Atlantic Council will be holding a public fireside chat focusing on climate change as a “threat multiplier” when it comes to both national and international security. The forum will explore how climate change exacerbates almost every risk challenging countries, including the weaponization of violent extremists and the exploitation of vulnerable populations.
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Branch out with different reads from The Hill:
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Biden administration releases national heat strategy
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The Biden administration unveiled Wednesday its “national heat strategy” to coordinate a federal response to extreme heat in the years 2024 through 2030.
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Ernesto strengthens to hurricane as thousands in Caribbean are without power
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Tropical Storm Ernesto strengthened into a hurricane late Wednesday morning after leaving hundreds of thousands of people in the northeast Caribbean without power.
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Local and state headlines on sustainability issues:
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Dangerous L.A. fault system rivaling the San Andreas is tied to recent earthquakes (Los Angeles Times)
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N.J. weather: Wildfire smoke from Canada drifting down to N.J., NYC region (NJ Advance Media/NJ.com)
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Why does South Florida feel so damn hot? It’s not just the temperature that is rising (Miami Herald)
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Sustainability news we’ve flagged from other outlets:
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To Save the Panama Canal From Drought, a Disruptive Fix (The New York Times)
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Amazon and Meta’s bid to rewrite the rules on net zero (The Financial Times)
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Europe’s southerners want Brussels to save them from climate change (E&E News)
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More stories on The Hill right now:
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Veteran riding motorcycle 10,000 miles for suicide prevention
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Patrick Rome is participating in the Hoka Hey Motorcycle Challenge for the second time. Read more
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Highly-effective HIV drug could cost patients $40 a year
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Lenacapavir has been hailed as a potential game changer in the fight against HIV. Read more
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Opinions related to sustainability submitted to The Hill:
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Republicans must fix, not repeal, the Inflation Reduction Act
- Less Rock, more Earth: Increase recruitment by making the armed forces a climate force
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Logging industry’s wildfire claims are misleading the public
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You’re all caught up. See you next week!
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Check out The Hill’s Sustainability page for the latest coverage.
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