Lisa Stifler of GeekWire reports that Chevron has led a $318 million funding round for Svante. “Svante’s technology can also be used for ‘direct-air capture,’ which is pulling CO2 from the air that’s all around us — a trickier task than absorbing it from a concentrated source.” Read the full article here.
"We should stop pretending that domestic mining is unessential. The best way to keep the competition for minerals from erupting into a conflict with China is for the U.S. to do what has served it so well for over a century: to offer a viable alternative to imports based on increased domestic mining. Congress should approve without delay a bill that would streamline the permitting process."
"However, the loss of Freeport LNG's supply at mid-year took away the U.S. chance to take the crown as top exporter in 2022. Freeport LNG said it expects to resume processing in the second half of January, pending regulatory approvals, which would tip the production balance back toward the United States."
"One company certainly won’t solve plastic pollution, but luckily other folks are working on this problem, too. Third-party filters and washing bags are two ways to reduce the environmental cost of washing synthetic materials, yet they’re no substitute for buying less or even ditching plastic clothes altogether."
"Energy and the environment will remain key policy issues — here and abroad — for the foreseeable future. But the appropriate policy response to the environmental consequences of more fossil fuel use should be to explore technologies such as carbon sequestration and methane capture, rather than passing bans on hydraulic fracturing, fighting new pipelines, or requiring new office buildings and homes to be all electric."
The Historic Speaker Fight Could Mark a Revival of Representative Government
John Caulfield of Building Design + Construction reports on a modular carbon capture technology that is moving forward in New York City. “It works this way: CarbonQuest’s proprietary technology captures CO2 from a building’s flue exhaust before it escapes as a greenhouse gas. Subsequent to this capture, the CO2 undergoes a multistage process that isolates carbon dioxide...
"That leaves the third explanation by the Times, the old staple of anti-market thinking: Competition leads to higher prices because of 'profits taken in by energy suppliers.' Based on reading the Times article, you might be surprised to learn that monopoly utilities also make profits. Indeed, utility rates are typically set to give the utility a set percentage of profit based on their past investments. This, needless to say, does not encourage utilities to find ways to lower costs."
"RNG, or biomethane, is biogas that has been upgraded for use in place of fossil natural gas, according to the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency. The biogas used to produce RNG comes from several sources, including landfills, along with digesters at wastewater treatment plants, livestock farms, food production facilities, and organic waste management operations."
"Companies pay a premium, sometimes 100 times more than basic credits, for the credits from Climeworks because there is more certainty they remove carbon from the atmosphere. The companies are also willing to pay more to help jump-start the industry, hoping that costs decline rapidly."
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