COVID-19 and Mild Weather Combine to Suppress Electricity Demand Electricity demand in the continental U.S. since the beginning of the year has been sharply lower than during the same period in 2019, though the response to the ongoing COVID-19 virus pandemic is only partially to blame. Demand across the six largest centrally-dispatched markets – PJM, […]
COVID-19 and Possible Economic Demand Destruction
Let’s talk about the 6-ton elephant in the room, economic demand destruction. The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic and simultaneous oil price war have joined forces to drive a sector-wide commodity sell-off. As cities and states across the U.S. have begun issuing unprecedented measures to contain the spread of the virus (today, Governor Cuomo of New York […]
EVA Expects Coal Burn to Reach 470 Million Tons in 2020
NATIONAL TAKE-AWAYS After a warmer-than-expected winter, natural gas is expected to continue to take market share from coal resources through 2020. EVA’s March 2020 Gas & Coal Price Sensitivity Outlook draws the following high-level conclusions: January coal burn dropped by nearly 20 million tons YoY, the largest monthly drop recorded in recent history. Weak electricity […]
Pain in the Permian: Renewable Edition
Pain in the Permian: Renewable Edition On March 8th, global oil prices fell by the largest amount since the 1991 Gulf War as Saudi Arabia abruptly ended its agreement with Russia to regulate prices through coordinated production cuts. The move sparked fears of a price war and came amid price declines caused by the COVID-19 […]
New York State Gears Up For Critical Fight Over Renewable Siting
On February 21st, 2020, New York Governor Cuomo announced a 30-day budget amendment that would “dramatically speed up the permitting and construction of renewable energy projects.” The Accelerated Renewable Energy Growth and Community Benefit Act at this stage has two main mechanisms. The first is to effectively bypass the burdensome Article 10 Permitting Process by […]
EVA Statement to Clients on COVID-19
March 18, 2020 To Our Valued Clients, As the world deals with the ongoing Coronavirus (COVID-19) outbreak we want to inform you that Energy Ventures Analysis, Inc. (EVA) remains open for business and is committed to our clients. To ensure the health and well-being of our clients, employees and their families, we have instituted our […]
Pennsylvania Governor Pushes to Join RGGI
Pennsylvania makes strides towards joining regional carbon cap-and-trade program On October 3, 2019, Pennsylvania Governor Tom Wolf (D) issued an executive order directing the state’s Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) to develop a proposal to limit power sector carbon emissions consistent with the Regional Greenhouse Gas Initiative (RGGI), a multi-state cap-and-trade program intended to reduce […]
Jan-Feb 2020 Liquefied Natural Gas Market Highlights
The January-February 2020 Liquefied Natural Gas (LNG) market saw a lot of gas and not a lot of buying. Here are some of the dynamics we’re watching as the month comes to an end: Prompt Month Spot Price Dynamics The JKM LNG index for March LNG deliveries to Northeast Asia averaged $4.08/MMBTU over the 30 […]
Coal Retrofits the Largest Source of Emission Reductions
Annual U.S. Sulfur Dioxide (SO2) and Nitrogen Oxides (NOx) emissions from coal-fired plants have sharply declined over the past two decades. Relative to the 2000 levels SO2 and NOx emissions were 88% and 82% lower in 2018, respectively. Total SO2 emissions fell from ~11 million tons in 2000 to ~1.2 million tons in 2018. EVA’s […]
Update: Indiana Governor Signs Bill Preventing Public Utilities From Retiring Coal
Update: H.B. 1414 was signed into law by Indiana Governor Eric Holcomb (R) on March 23rd. The below blog post was EVA’s analysis as of January 27th. A recently proposed Indiana bill would prevent public utilities from retiring, selling, or otherwise altering the operations of any of their electric generating facilities without first obtaining permission […]