The German government is providing the country’s largest utility E.ON loans to help competitively bid for global LNG supply as Berlin seeks to diversify gas import sources away from Russia. The loans strengthen E.ON’s credit rating and help the company compete with government-backed companies that LNG suppliers favor. “Those guarantees have in the past been used for pipeline projects, so why not also for LNG projects? It is a significant political signal regarding the diversification of gas imports,” said Frank Umbach of the European Centre for Energy and Resource Security. [Reuters] However, Germany has no LNG import terminals of its own, so contracted supplies must be shipped to neighboring countries for regasification. LNG will remain a limited source of German supply over the medium term at least and supply from the 55 Bcm/yr Nord Stream Pipeline from Russia – in which E.ON is a stakeholder in the upstream resource and the pipeline itself – will outstrip LNG imports for the foreseeable future.

Actor Leonardo DiCaprio is narrating a series of short films that call for government action on climate change. The first film argues in favor of a carbon tax. The movies are being released ahead of the upcoming UN Climate Summit. “If national governments won’t take action, you’re community can. We no longer need the dead economy of the fossil fuel industry,” DiCaprio says in the film. “We can move our economy town by town, state by state to renewable energy and a sustainable future.” [The Hill]

In June 100% of incremental US power generation capacity came from renewable sources. “Renewable energy sources now account for 16.3 percent of total installed operating generating capacity in the U.S.: hydro – 8.57 percent, wind – 5.26 percent, biomass – 1.37 percent, solar – 0.75 percent, and geothermal steam – 0.33 percent. Note that generating capacity is not the same as actual generation. Generation per MW of capacity for renewables is often lower than that for fossil fuels and nuclear power. Actual net electrical generation from renewable energy sources in the United States now totals about 14 percent of total U.S. electrical production according to the most recent data (i.e., as of May 2014) provided by the U.S. Energy Information Administration. [Renewable Energy World]