Tag Archives: Energy Companies

Energy companies are telling Americans to conserve electricity as extreme temperatures affect millions

Revelation 16:9 “They were scorched by the fierce heat, and they cursed the name of God who had power over these plagues. They did not repent and give him glory.”

Important Takeaways:

  • It’s Not Over: Americans Brace for Historic Heat Wave as Blazing Temps Fuel Wildfires from Europe to Texas
  • More than 100 million Americans in 29 states are facing heat advisories and excessive heat warnings this weekend as the country bakes under high temperatures.
  • A home video from Arizona shows a UPS driver collapsing as he rang a doorbell. Another driver told ABC 15 in an exclusive interview “no amount of training can prepare your body for 160 degrees…10-12 hours a day, six days a week.”
  • In states like Texas, the heat is fueling wildfires.
  • The power company Con Edison is telling customers to conserve electricity to avoid outages.
  • Across Europe, a parallel heat wave is generating wildfires in Spain and France. On Tuesday, Britain shattered its record for the highest temperature ever recorded.

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Big Oil back to boom after pandemic bust, aiding climate push

By Ron Bousso

LONDON (Reuters) – Europe’s top energy companies signaled confidence in a lasting recovery from the pandemic impact by drawing on higher oil prices to boost shareholder returns and reassure investors as they roll out risky climate strategies.

After swiftly cutting spending and jobs in response to the unprecedented collapse in energy demand last year, executives from Royal Dutch Shell, TotalEnergies and Norway’s Equinor were eager to highlight the rapid reversal in fortunes.

“We wanted to be really clear and signal to the market the confidence that we have in our prospects and our cash flows,” Chief Executive Ben van Beurden said on Thursday, after Shell launched a $2 billion buyback program and boosted its dividend for a second consecutive quarter, a year after cutting it for the first time since the 1940s.

Energy companies have come under heavy pressure from climate campaigners, governments and shareholders to speed up the shift from fossil fuels to cleaner sources.

While some investors welcome the change as they perceive carbon-intensive, fossil fuel energy as unsustainable, others are worried about the implications for profit margins of new business models.

Benchmark Brent crude oil prices more than doubled in the second quarter from a year earlier to around $69 a barrel, driven by recovering demand and tightening global supplies.

As profits surged, France’s TotalEnergies also announced on Thursday plans to buy back shares. CEO Patrick Pouyanne said however that a large increase in dividends would not be reasonable yet and would be linked to higher cash flow.

The group said it expected to generate more than $25 billion in cash flow this year, based on current high oil price forecasts, and would invest in more new projects and return surplus amounts to shareholders if oil prices remained high.

Equinor also said on Wednesday it would begin a long-planned share buyback that will reach $300 million by the end of the third quarter after profits surged.

BP reports its second quarter results on Aug. 3. It launched a $500 million buyback in the previous quarter after halving its dividend last year.

WEANING THEMSELVES OFF OIL

BP, as well as Shell, TotalEnergies and Equinor, plans to sharply reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the coming decades while reducing reliance on fossil fuels.

Oil prices are expected to remain elevated in the coming years as supplies stay tight because of lower investments.

High fossil fuel prices are double-edged. They can tempt operators to maximize conventional output, but they also produce income needed to invest in lower carbon sources.

Shell’s free cash flow – money left after deducting spending and shareholder payouts – soared in the second quarter to $9.7 billion, its highest in a year, while debt also declined.

“The quarter proves without doubt that Shell’s earnings power is intact and that they’re willing to pay investors handsomely to come on their transformation journey,” Bernstein analyst Oswald Clint said.

TotalEnergies’s results are a “confirmation that the group is geared to the macro environment and can deliver both on the energy transition and cash returns to shareholders,” Barclays analysts said in a note.

Despite the surge in revenue, Shell and TotalEnergies indicated they would stick to previous spending plans.

Shell said it will not spend more than its planned $22 billion this year and any increases in the futures will go mostly towards low-carbon businesses.

TotalEnergies said investments would reach between $12 and $13 billion in 2021, with half of that earmarked for growth projects, including a major chunk in renewable energy and electricity.

(Reporting by Ron Bousso; editing by Barbara Lewis and David Evans)

U.S. Supreme Court tackles pipeline company’s bid to seize New Jersey land

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Wednesday wrestled with a bid by a group of energy companies seeking to seize land owned by New Jersey to build a $1 billion natural gas pipeline, as the state argues that its rights would be trampled.

The justices heard arguments in an appeal by PennEast Pipeline Company LLC, a joint venture backed by energy companies including Enbridge Inc., of a lower court ruling in favor of New Jersey’s government, which opposes the land seizure.

Other companies in the consortium for the 116-mile (187-km) pipeline from Pennsylvania to New Jersey include South Jersey Industries Inc, New Jersey Resources Corp (NJR), Southern Co and UGI Corp.

At issue in the case is a 1938 U.S. law called the Natural Gas Act that lets private energy companies seize “necessary” parcels of land for a project if they have obtained a certificate from the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC). It effectively gives private companies the power of eminent domain, in which government entities can take property in return for compensation.

A ruling in favor of New Jersey would weaken the Natural Gas Act by allowing states to object to any attempts to seize their land.

Although some justices appeared sympathetic to the state’s legal arguments, they also seemed cautious about issuing a ruling that would overturn the longstanding understanding of the law and potentially imperil the PennEast project and others like it.

Chief Justice John Roberts said that it is “quite extraordinary” that private entities have the power normally vested in the federal government to go to court to seize a state’s land. But Roberts also noted that New Jersey opposes the project, meaning that if it does win the case there would be a “significant practical problem.”

Justice Stephen Breyer pointed out that the Natural Gas Act was enacted precisely because states had objected to pipelines being built.

“That’s been the understanding for the last 80 years,” Breyer said in reference to the current process.

PennEast’s lawyer, Paul Clement, said the project would be “at the mercy of New Jersey” if the pipeline loses the case because there is no way to re-route it without the state’s involvement.

One way the court could avoid some of the knotty legal issues would be to embrace an argument raised by the Clement that the eminent domain action was technically brought against the land in question and not against the state.

Some justices suggested the legal problem could be resolved by the federal government joining the pipeline’s lawsuit. President Joe Biden’s administration backs PennEast in the case.

FERC in 2018 approved PennEast’s request to build the pipeline. The company then sued to gain access to properties along the route.

New Jersey did not consent to PennEast’s seizure of properties the state owns or in which it has an interest. The state cites the U.S. Constitution’s 11th Amendment, which bars courts from hearing certain lawsuits against states.

PennEast wants the land to build a pipeline designed to deliver 1.1 billion cubic feet per day of gas – enough to supply about 5 million homes – from the Marcellus shale formation in Pennsylvania to customers in Pennsylvania and New Jersey.

After a federal judge approved the property seizure, the Philadelphia-based 3rd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals ruled in 2019 that PennEast could not use federal eminent domain to condemn land controlled by the state. Also at issue in the case is whether the 3rd Circuit had jurisdiction to hear the appeal.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Additional reporting by Jan Wolfe; Editing by Will Dunham)

Supreme Court takes up energy companies’ appeal over Baltimore climate suit

By Lawrence Hurley

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The U.S. Supreme Court on Friday agreed to hear an appeal by energy companies including BP PLC, Chevron Corp, Exxon Mobil Corp and Royal Dutch Shell PLC contesting a lawsuit by the city of Baltimore seeking damages for the impact of global climate change.

The justices will weigh whether the lawsuit must be heard in state court as the city would prefer or in federal court, which corporate defendants generally view as a more favorable venue. The suit targets 21 U.S. and foreign energy companies that extract, produce, distribute or sell fossil fuels.

The outcome could affect around a dozen similar lawsuits by U.S. states, cities and counties including Rhode Island and New York City seeking to hold such companies liable for the impact of climate change.

Baltimore and the other jurisdictions are seeking damages under state law for the harms they said they have sustained due to climate change, which they attribute in part to the companies’ role in producing fossil fuels that produce carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases.

The plaintiffs have said they have had to spend more on infrastructure such as flood control measures to combat sea-level rise caused by a warming climate. Climate change has been melting land-based ice sheets and glaciers.

The Supreme Court in 2019 declined the companies’ emergency request to put the Baltimore litigation on hold after a federal judge ruled that the case should be heard in state court. In March, the Richmond, Virginia-based 4th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals upheld the judge’s decision.

In the absence of federal legislation in the bitterly divided U.S. Congress targeting climate change, the lawsuits are the latest effort to force action via litigation.

The Supreme Court in a landmark 2007 ruling said that carbon dioxide is a pollutant that could be regulated by the Environmental Protection Agency. Under Democratic President Barack Obama, the agency issued the first-ever regulations aimed at curbing greenhouse gases. But efforts in Congress to enact sweeping climate change legislation have failed.

The court took action in the case three days before it begins its new nine-month term short one justice after the Sept. 18 death of Ruth Bader Ginsburg. President Donald Trump has nominated federal appeals court judge Amy Coney Barrett to replace Ginsburg.

(Reporting by Lawrence Hurley; Editing by Will Dunham)

Climate change protesters descend on France’s SocGen, energy companies

Environmental activists block the entrance of the Ministry of Ecology, Energy and Sustainable Development during a "civil disobedience action" to urge world leaders to act against climate change, in La Defense near Paris, France, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

By Bate Felix

PARIS (Reuters) – Climate activists blocked thousands of employees from entering the headquarters of French bank Societe Generale, state-run utility EDF and oil giant Total on Friday, environmental group Greenpeace said.

Greenpeace said it was protesting against company links to the oil and gas industry, which it calls a driving force in global warming. Activists also obstructed the entrance to the environment ministry near La Defense business district.

Protesters plastered giant posters of President Emmanuel Macron carrying the slogan “Macron, President of Polluters” and a banner reading “Scene of Climate Crime” on the glass facade of Societe Generale, Reuters TV images showed.

Police pepper-sprayed one group blocking the bank’s main entrance in a sit-down protest.

Some demonstrators taped themselves together while others cuffed themselves with plastic ties to metal poles to make it harder for police to dislodge them.

Employees in business suits milled around outside their offices. “I just want to get inside and on with my work,” one frustrated bank employee said.

Greenpeace and action group Les Amis de la Terre (Friends of the Earth) have previously criticized Societe Generale for its role in financing oil and gas projects, in particular the Rio Grande LNG gas project in the United States.

A Societe Generale spokesman declined to comment.

ACTION NOT EASY

A spokesman for EDF, which relies heavily on nuclear and hydropower plants to generate electricity, said 96 percent of its power was carbon dioxide-free. He said EDF was committed to curbing its total carbon footprint by 40 percent by 2030.

A Total spokeswoman said two senior company executives had held talks with representatives of Greenpeace and Les Amis de la Terre.

At an oil industry summit in Paris on Friday, Total Chief Executive Patrick Pouyanne acknowledged the climate change protests.

The Societe Generale logo is covered by molasses representing oil as Environmental activists block the entrance to the headquarters of the French bank Societe Generale during a "civil disobedience action" to urge world leaders to act against climate change, in La Defense near Paris, France, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

The Societe Generale logo is covered by molasses representing oil as Environmental activists block the entrance to the headquarters of the French bank Societe Generale during a “civil disobedience action” to urge world leaders to act against climate change, in La Defense near Paris, France, April 19, 2019. REUTERS/Benoit Tessier

“Many people are demonstrating in Paris and are asking for more action. We all know it is not so easy because the population’s primary request is for access to more energy, affordable energy and it has to be clean,” he said.

He added that Total was trying to address climate change by improving the efficiency of its operations, growing its natural gas business and developing an electricity business based on low-carbon gas and renewables.

He also said Total had increased its output to 2.95 million barrels of oil equivalent per day this year, passing its 2018 record, aided by increased production in Australia, Angola, Nigeria and Russia.

Friday’s protest echoed a series by the Extinction Rebellion group of climate-change campaigners in London this week that have caused transport snarl-ups in the British capital.

Teenage demonstrators staged an emotional protest, weeping and singing, at political inaction on climate change near London’s Heathrow Airport on Friday.

(Reporting by Antony Paone, Bate Felix, Inti Landauro and Geert De Clercq; Writing by Richard Lough; Editing by Mark Heinrich and Emelia Sithole-Matarise)

U.S. warns businesses of hacking campaign against nuclear, energy firms

Department of Homeland Security emblem is pictured at the National Cybersecurity & Communications Integration Center (NCCIC) located just outside Washington in Arlington, Virginia September 24, 2010. REUTERS/Hyungwon Kang/File Photo

By Jim Finkle

TORONTO (Reuters) – The U.S government warned industrial firms this week about a hacking campaign targeting the nuclear and energy sectors, the latest event to highlight the power industry’s vulnerability to cyber attacks.

Since at least May, hackers used tainted “phishing” emails to “harvest credentials” so they could gain access to networks of their targets, according to a joint report from the U.S. Department of Homeland Security and Federal Bureau of Investigation.

The report provided to the industrial firms was reviewed by Reuters on Friday. While disclosing attacks, and warning that in some cases hackers succeeded in compromising the networks of their targets, it did not identify any specific victims.

“Historically, cyber actors have strategically targeted the energy sector with various goals ranging from cyber espionage to the ability to disrupt energy systems in the event of a hostile conflict,” the report said.

Homeland Security and FBI officials could not be reached for comment on the report, which was dated June 28.

The report was released during a week of heavy hacking activity.

A virus dubbed “NotPetya” attacked on Tuesday, spreading from initial infections in Ukraine to businesses around the globe. It encrypted data on infected machines, rendering them inoperable and disrupting activity at ports, law firms and factories.

On Tuesday the energy-industry news site E&E News reported that U.S. investigators were looking into cyber intrusions this year at multiple nuclear power generators.

Reuters has not confirmed details of the E&E News report, which said there was no evidence safety systems had been compromised at affected plants.

The activity described in the U.S. government report comes at a time when industrial firms are particularly anxious about threat that hackers pose to their operations.

Industrial firms, including power providers and other utilities, have been particularly worried about the potential for destructive cyber attacks since December 2016, when hackers cut electricity in Ukraine.

U.S. nuclear power generators PSEG <PEG.N>, SCANA Corp <SCG.N> and Entergy Corp <ETR.N> said they were not impacted by the recent cyber attacks. SCANA’s V.C. Summer nuclear plant in South Carolina shut down on Thursday due to a problem with a valve in the non-nuclear portion of the plant, a spokesman said.

Another nuclear power generator, Dominion Energy <D.N>, said it does not comment on cyber security.

Two cyber security firms said on June 12 that they had identified the malicious software used in the Ukraine attack, which they dubbed Industroyer, warning that it could be easily modified to attack utilities in the United States and Europe.

Industroyer is only the second piece of malware uncovered to date that is capable of disrupting industrial processes without the need for hackers to manually intervene.

The first, Stuxnet, was discovered in 2010 and is widely believed by security researchers to have been used by the United States and Israel to attack Iran’s nuclear program.

The U.S. government report said attackers conducted reconnaissance to gain information about the individuals whose computers they sought to infect so that they create “decoy documents” on topics of interest to their targets.

In an analysis, it described 11 files used in the attacks, including malware downloaders and tools that allow the hackers to take remote control of victim’s computers and travel across their networks.

Chevron Corp <CVX.N>, Exxon Mobil Corp <XOM.N> and ConocoPhillips <COP.N>, the three largest U.S. oil producers, declined to comment on their network security.

(Reporting by Jim Finkle; Additional reporting by Timothy Gardner in Washington and Ernest Scheyder in Houston; editing by Grant McCool and Tom Brown)