
Energy and Environment News
October 28, 2015
Top Stories
Oil. The Conference Board of Canada estimates that the country’s oil industry will post a pretax loss of about 2.1 billion Canadian dollars this year due to slumping oil prices, compared with profits of nearly C$6 billion last year. The think tank estimates that Canada’s oil industry will turn profitable as early as next year, however, as oil prices begin to increase and production from long-term oil sands projects continues to rise. WSJ
Energy Policy. Mexico’s state oil company Pemex has received a license to import light crude from the United States in exchange for exports of Mexico’s heavier crude oil. The license agreement marks a major milestone in United States energy policy, further loosening the contentious ban on exports of domestic oil. Reuters
Energy Outlook. The New York Times reports that as energy policies, technologies, and markets shift to encourage the growth of renewable power plants, sectors such as rooftop solar, microgrids, and energy storage providers should prosper. The industry has seen an uptick in investment and interest as regulators move to require the inclusion of storage in renewable energy developments and wholesale electricity markets. NY Times
Energy Outlook. Liam Denning of Bloomberg View notes that natural gas-fired power is enjoying a significant competitive advantage to nuclear power because it can be built more quickly, operates with more flexibility, and incurs significantly less liability. Denning argues that these factors will cause an increasing share of the world’s nuclear capacity to be built in countries that have a good deal of government support for the energy industry — as illustrated by the fact that more than four-fifths of nuclear capacity under construction today is in countries like China, Russia, Korea, and India. Bloomberg