-Global investment in renewable energy will dwarf the amount of money poured into fossil-fuel-based electricity over the next 25 years, Bloomberg reports. A total of $8 trillion will go to clean energy, compared to $4.1 trillion spent on coal, natural gas and nuclear plants. A key driver will be a dramatic decrease in the cost to develop solar energy — prices for solar panels are expected to drop 47%. Analysts believe the economics will help the solar industry thrive without government subsidies.
-Cheniere Energy is set to add two more trains to its Sabine Pass LNG export terminal after federal authorities denied a Sierra Club request to re-consider approving the project. Via FuelFix, the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission said it has no jurisdiction to regulate natural gas production and that it can’t assume the terminal expansion would boost gas output, as the environmental group claimed.
-The owners of the 600-mile Saddlehorn pipeline project plan to add a 50-mile extension to Carr, Colo. The full pipeline will transport crude oil from the DJ Basin to storage facilities in Cushing, Okla. Saddlehorn is an LLC owned by Magellan Midstream Partners, Plains All American Pipeline and Anadarko Petroleum.
-Pemex suffered yet another major upstream incident as its Akal-H platform in the Gulf of Mexico caught fire and leaked natural gas and oil. Seven people were killed after the company’s Abkatun A-Permanente platform caught fire in April and two workers died last month in a jack-up rig collapse in the Campeche Bay. The Akal-H platform fire is under control and three workers involved were not injured. Pemex’s downstream business has also been plagued with accidents in recent years.
-Two industry groups and four states are suing the federal government over new rules for fracking on federal lands announced in March. Via the Associated Press, the Independent Petroleum Association of America and the Western Energy Alliance joined the states of Colorado, North Dakota, Utah and Wyoming in calling for a suspension of the rules, which the plaintiffs say are unnecessarily burdensome, pending the outcome of the lawsuit.
