As Iran stalemate drags, Greenland takes a stand
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The idea of the Trump administration buying back $4 billion in offshore wind leases at a time when the U.S. needs more energy than ever always appeared crazy. Until we found out what the White House planned to do instead. Now it’s confirmed crazy.
A new energy company called Greenland Energy GLND 0.00%↑ was hastily cobbled together last year and taken public in a reverse SPAC merger this past spring, then sailed for Greenland and began unloading drilling equipment. Trouble is, nobody told Greenland, which promptly halted the project two weeks ago pending environmental review, according to Arctic Today.
Greenland hasn’t allowed new drilling licenses since 2021, but the Texas-based energy company managed to secure an existing lease on the Jameson Land peninsula on the country’s East coast and was telling investors it could have barrels on the market in 10 months. Now it might have to wait until next winter for approval to begin drilling.
The whole incident harks back to a more innocent time — last year — when the world thought President Donald Trump was going to invade Greenland. Not start a war with Iran that would block the world’s most important oil chokepoint. Now even Greenland isn’t nervous about what he will do.
Shares of Greenland Energy, which has said the project has nothing to do with Trump’s desire to take over the country, promptly lost half their value when the project was blocked last month.
Is it the midterms yet?
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Zeus: Sustainable fund flows rise for first time in three years as heatwaves bite
. . . . Europe’s largest insurers are publishing warnings and the UK’s new prime minister called his first crisis cabinet meeting this week as a fifth heatwave hits the UK and the continent. Fund flows are also shifting as we move globally from a stance of prevention and mitigation to emergency reaction, writes David Callaway. Investor fund flows to sustainable funds rose for the first time in 14 quarters in Q2 as extreme heat and the demand for more power for data centers led to a shift in investor sentiment toward sustainable funds. This was especially true among passive funds, such as index funds where money is generally kept for longer periods. The question now is whether the summer of extreme heat will lead to actual changes in government attention to global warming, or whether it will simply fade as autumn arrives.
Thursday’s subscriber insights
Newsom’s utility bailout fund proposal catches fire
. . . . In Northern California, it is hard to think of a more villainous corporate entity than Pacific Gas & Electric, the monopoly power company. Dating back to Erin Brockovich’s historic fight against it in the early 1990s over contaminated groundwater, PG&E PCG 0.00%↑ has maintained its status as ruthless power overlord for several decades.
These days, after recovering from bankruptcy eight years ago because of the impact of lawsuits after it sparked a series of tragic wildfires, if the weather grows dry and windy, PG&E simply turns off our lights rather than risk another downed wire. So it’s no surprise that Gov. Gavin Newsom’s latest proposal to limit claims against the utility as part of a restructuring of a “bailout” fund designed to prevent bankruptcies has, uh, ignited controversy.
No doubt Newsom wants to prevent his successor next year from inheriting a bankrupt utility, as he did eight years ago. Also, maybe he is looking ahead to an expected presidential run in 2028, with a goal of eliminating any risks of a power disaster in his state while he is campaigning.
But the idea of shielding PG&E from valid legal claims from insurance companies and indeed individuals for losses incurred from its own power structure was never going to fly with a populace on the front line of the country’s fire danger. It’s clear Newsom has chosen to take the pain of the unpopularity hit now rather than later, something every politician has to weigh on decisions such as this.
PG&E, whose shares are up almost 8% this year, is lobbying hard for the relief, of course. Almost as if it knows that something tragic will inevitably happen again, so it makes sense to shield its shareholders now. After all, politicians come and go but our local power companies are forever.
Editor’s picks: El Nino’s fickle track record
Watch the video: With different parts of the globe aflame in wildfires, deadly heat waves parking over cities, record hot oceans and a strengthening super El Niño, it seems like we’re baking through the hottest year on record. But we’re not quite there — yet. It’s only No. 3 in the record books. But we could be soon.
CalMatters: Fierce floods or wild waves from El Nino?
When the predicted super El Niño weather phenomenon arrives in coming months, San Diego and parts of Southern California could face raging floods. Or, CalMatters.org reports, the region could face less-than-normal rainfall and greater fire risk. “It could also see monster waves carve away beaches and pummel piers,” the publication says. While strong El Niños tend to increase the odds of wetter and stronger winter storms, the connection between ocean conditions and rainfall has weakened this century, according to the report. Scientists are having to adjust their forecasts to plan for more possible outcomes. “What actually will happen depends on specific storms called atmospheric rivers, which do not dance to the tune of El Niño,” said Alexander Gershunov, a research meteorologist at the Scripps Institution of Oceanography, told CalMatters. On the plus side, he said, “I think the surfers who love big waves should be satisfied this winter.”
Words to live by . . .
“‘Heat, ma’am!’ I said, ‘it was so dreadful here, that I found there was nothing left for it but to take off my flesh and sit in my bones.’” — Sydney Smith, author (1771–1845)