Australia’s Prime Minister has announced a plan to replace a carbon tax with an emissions-trading scheme in 2014, a year earlier than the initial 2015 timetable. “The move to bring forward the market-based system a full year earlier is expected to quickly produce a sharp drop in the cost of carbon, from a predicted $23.30 per metric ton in July 2014 to around $5.50 per ton in American dollars.”  [New York Times]

Petrobras bought the first LNG cargo, equivalent to 96 million cubic metres of gas, from the long-delayed Angola LNG project on July 14. The cargo, which left Angola today, is destined for the Guanabara Bay regasification terminal, to be used primarily for electricity generation. [Petrobras]

An analysis of 150,000 facilities from 2008-2012 found an 8.8% drop in electric consumption intensity and a 6% decrease in peak demand, according to energy management and sustainability firm Ecova’s annual energy and sustainability trends report, released last week. While the cost of electricity fell over the 2008-2012 period, deregulated markets saw a 14% reduction in prices, compared to just 4% in regulated markets. [Ecova]