Headlines: February 2025

The avalanche of changes that Trump started in January when he took office is gathering momentum, rushing to the transition tourists enjoying the view at the foot of the mountain while I run to keep up with the news flood. Without further ado because there’s lots to go through:

World’s biggest offshore wind developer Ørsted slashes investment by 25%

Ørsted is slashing investment and dropping its targets for developing new renewable energy as part of a second drastic attempt to restore its struggling share price and boost confidence in its strategy.

Well, that didn’t take long, did it? And something tells me this 25% cut is only the beginning of something that will not be a beautiful friendship. It’s self-destruction. That’s what happens when you put all your eggs in a rickety subsidy basket weaved by utterly talentless people.

Equinor scales back renewables push 7 years after ditching ‘oil’ from its name

Equinor, renamed from Statoil in 2018, said on Wednesday that it was planning to increase production of fossil fuels and halve its spending on renewables, with chief executive Anders Opedal saying it was aiming to “create shareholder value for decades to come”.

But… stranded assets? Peak oil and gas demand by 2030? What is this man talking about, creating long-term shareholder value with oil and gas? AND slashing wind and solar investment plans, delicately phrased as “reducing the investment outlook for renewables and low-carbon solutions,” by a nice round 50%. It’s like the transition is not a massive business opportunity and oil and gas are.

European airlines push back hydrogen ambitions

The European aviation industry has drastically scaled back its ambitions for hydrogen-powered planes to help it reach net zero by 2050, according to a new forecast that warns the costs of decarbonisation have “ballooned”.

They didn’t “balloon”. They were ballooney to begin with, you just pretended they weren’t and thought pretending will create a new reality. It didn’t, as anyone who’s ever tried to recreate a cartoon at home would tell them. And yet, just like Equinor, the European aviation industry took care to repeat its commitment to net-zero by 2050. I give it another year at most before they all start forgetting to mention that commitment.

Speaking of hydrogen, Hydrogen-Truck Maker Nikola Nears Bankruptcy Filing

Designing and producing batteries at scale for emission-free, long-haul trucks has proven to be a tougher technological challenge than for cars. The batteries available to Nikola and others have been too heavy while packing too little power to provide an economic means of moving reasonable freight volumes for long distances, said Colin Adams, partner at restructuring advisory firm Uzzi & Lall.

Colour me shocked. Then colour me eyerolling so hard I might have snapped an optic nerve. It is actually surprising Nikola survived so long at all, and even produced a few trucks — at a loss of $200 million for the third quarter of 2024 alone. It even managed to raise some more money in December — $300 million. There is indeed one born every minute and many of them have access to money. But not for long if they keep putting that money into the Nikolas of the world. And yet,

Clean energy costs to continue to fall this year, report says

The cost of clean energy technologies worldwide, such as wind, solar and battery storage, are expected to fall further this year, a report by BloombergNEF showed on Thursday, despite rising protectionism in the form of tariffs on green energy imports.

New wind and solar farms already undercut the production costs of new coal and gas plants in nearly every market worldwide. Cheaper renewable energy enables countries to move away from fossil fuels in the fight against climate change.

This is the verbal equivalent of that “Nothing to see here” gif from Naked Gun. They keep making calculations based on that wretched levelised cost of electricity metric that Lazard deserves to replace Prometheus on the rock for, and they keep ignoring facts even as those facts smack them in the face. Such as:

German Coal Generation Jumps to One-Year High as Wind Plunges

The persistent windless weather that has sent European power prices soaring this winter led German coal plants to ramp up output to fill the gap, reaching about 8.1 gigawatts this Thursday, the most since February of last year.

But sure, wind and solar costs are falling further as if repeating this would make anyone warmer. Incidentally, and with no relation whatsoever, the countries with the most wind power are also the countries with the highest electricity prices in Europe. It must be VAT.

It’s getting worse, too as Europe's strong gas use pace may wilt as coal-switching kicks in

Gas-fired output during January in Germany, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands and Poland all jumped by well over 10% from January 2024's levels to their highest for that month since at least 2022, according to data from LSEG.

But the pace of gas consumption going forward may start to slow as regional gas prices have now climbed above the price of coal-fired generation, which may spur some power firms to cut gas output and raise coal-fired generation instead.

Once again, Europe is experiencing gas prices that have gone so high it’s cheaper to burn oil and coal for power generation and heating. Once again, the brain trust will fail to see the connection with absent wind and solar generation. Once again, they will blame volatile gas prices — which the brain trust makes volatile because

Europe soaked up nearly all US LNG exports last month, data show

Nearly nine of every ten cargoes leaving the U.S. headed to Europe, while total exports to all countries for the month reached 8.46 million metric tonnes (MT). That is just shy of the monthly record of 8.6 MT hit in December 2023 and almost the same as the 8.5 MT sold in December 2024, according to LSEG data.

I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again. Some countries learn from their mistakes and the mistakes of others. European countries are not among these. Their current leaders not only do not learn from their own mistakes, they actually find it necessary to double down on these mistakes lest someone accuses them of inconsistency. I mean, destructive and hypocritical may be bad but it’s nowhere near as bad as being inconsistent. So what do you do? Well,

EU weighs temporary gas price cap to counter diverging costs with US

European natural gas prices traded at the highest in more than two years this week, in part because of low temperatures and a lack of wind that has hampered renewable energy production. They are between three and four times higher than in the US, providing a critical handicap to European companies. The European Commission is considering a cap as part of discussions about a “clean industrial deal” policy document to be presented next month, said three people with knowledge of the talks.

Because it worked so well last time. It’s totally going to work this time as well only it won’t because the outcry that followed this report was so loud, the Ursulites immediately went back on their words, with one official assuring Politico that a price cap was “not on the cards”. By the way, why’s Politico still in business? Soros money? EU Covid funds? Never mind.

In another rare reality check, UK PM Starmer signals he will not block Rosebank oil and gas project

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer indicated he would not stand in the way of the Rosebank oil and gas field, after a court blocked it, sending the decision to the government which had pledged not to issue any new licences.

Starmer's government had said it would not issue new licences to explore new fields over fears about climate change, but it had said it would not revoke existing licences.

Well, hwhat do you know? The greenest of the green governments that poor Britons have had to endure in their history is not opposed to some oil and gas after all. He has a convenient motive, too: when they were coming into power, Labour said they won’t cancel existing licences in what was perhaps the one tiny sliver of rationality they have demonstrated since. This could have something to do with rumours that Ed Miliband’s fellow Labourists are beginning to get fed up with his obsession. We could hope.

It must be reality check season because Controversial EU clampdown on wood stoves delayed

The European Commission has delayed plans to present a plan to ban the sale of harmful wood stoves and heaters from 2027 after pushback from Czech and German lawmakers.

On 12 February, a draft law seen by Euractiv was due to be presented in Brussels that would see more stringent limits on harmful particulate emissions from wood-fired boilers and heaters imposed from 2027.

That plan has been delayed, with the meeting postponed due to "more technical work needed," as a Commission spokesperson put it.

I wasn’t aware the EU was planning to ban “harmful” wood stoves. Had I known, I would’ve laughed and laughed, and told them to please come down here and try to tell us this. We haven’t been a violent people since the early Middle Ages but try to take the default heating source for 90% of country folk and we might be forced to channel our glorious and very distant past. You do not mess with people’s heat. Good to see someone’s told the brain trust.

Someone must have had a word with Porsche’s leadership, too, because Porsche overhauls line-up to bring back combustion engines

Porsche has warned its profits will be hit this year as the sports-car maker ploughs €800mn into combustion engines and plug-in hybrid models, in the latest sign of waning demand for fully electric vehicles.

There’s more, too, because I love the 911 and because I take pleasure in the pain of people realising they made a grave mistake through no fault of anyone else but themselves: Porsche to cut 1,900 jobs in Germany as weak EV demand bites

Porsche, which manufactures all its cars in Germany, blamed the decision to cut jobs on “the delayed ramp-up of electromobility [and] the challenging geopolitical and economic conditions”.

It’s a bit puzzling they still believe there will be a ramp-up of electromobility while subsidy money runs out but I guess we shouldn’t begrudge the good people in Stuttgart some desperate hope that at some point in the future people will get round to wanting a Taycan instead of a 911 or, for that matter, a Cayenne, eye sores as those may be, no offence meant.

I leave you with a stark warning from our friends and truth-tellers at Euractiv:

Fake climate news thriving as politics and AI turbocharge disinformation crisis

Extreme weather events will continue to trigger disinformation. False claims, conspiracy theories, and AI-generated content are expected to surge, driven by political and technological shifts in the United States.

To save you the trouble of reading the whole thing, which is part of a special report called The dark side of AI innovation is supercharging disinformation and damaging democracy, here’s the most pertinent quote:

Additionally, disinformation is being weaponised against climate defenders. Before COP29, a network of suspicious accounts promoted Azerbaijan’s government messaging, distracting from its environmental and human rights record.

Similar tactics could be used at COP30 hosted by Brazil, predicts Global Witness, with agribusinesses spreading misleading narratives and Indigenous communities facing harassment and false accusations.

Dear climate defenders, I’m afraid you’ll have to cope much, much harder than this.