Cause and effect: Oil’s collapse is eroding the appeal of potential U.S. LNG exports to Asia as it cuts the cost of competing supplies linked to the price of crude. Brent crude’s 22% drop this year outpaced the 8.9% decline in natural gas at Henry Hub, the benchmark for U.S. liquefied natural gas shipments that are scheduled to begin in 2015. When the cost of processing and shipping American supplies to Asia is taken into account, the price advantage over oil-linked cargoes from producers such as Qatar has more than halved, according to data compiled by Bloomberg. Read the full story.
From a foreign window: The government’s top energy analysts waded into the debate on exporting crude Thursday, releasing a study asserting that the cost of gasoline in the U.S. is closely tied to the price of international crudes, not domestic oil. Selling more U.S. oil overseas—and the possible increase in domestic production to follow—is seen as lowering the price of the international benchmark, Brent crude, even as it gives a modest lift to domestic West Texas Intermediate oil. And in the end, according to the 43-page EIA analysis, it’s the international price that matters. FuelFix.com has the full story.
Here’s the plan: The Obama administration plans today to publish a small library’s worth of climate change documents, outlining 38 federal agencies’ vulnerabilities to global warming and how they will address them—as well as a separate and even larger set of new governmentwide plans to cut down on greenhouse gas emissions and achieve new targets for sustainability. In sum, the reports represent over a thousand pages of climate change threat assessment and sustainability planning by a vast federal complex that collectively operates 360,000 buildings, maintains 650,000 vehicles and spends $25 billion on energy costs per year. The Washington Post has the full story.
