Energy Secretary Ernest Moniz’s has emerged as a central figure in the Iran nuclear negotiations with his background as a nuclear physicist making him a key player in the high-profile bilateral framework. “President Obama and aides have asked Moniz to explain the technical details of an agreement in which Iran would give up the means to make a nuclear weapon as the U.S. and allies reduce sanctions.
“We have seen the results of not carrying through on a tough negotiation for a good deal –by the failure to do so a decade ago when they had less than 200 centrifuges as opposed to nearly 20,000,” Moniz told a group of reporters Monday.” [USA Today]
Coal-related jobs are declining with the Obama Administration analyzing how industry workers can be redistributed, according to a new economic study. “Appalachia’s coal counties are smoldering for a multitude of reasons, namely the decline in coal production as a result of thinning seams that are hard to mine, inexpensive natural gas that is more of a national favorite and, tougher environmental regulations that are clamping down on power plant emissions.
Just how, though, does the Environmental Protection Agency’s Clean Power Plan factor into this? Expected to be finalized this summer, it would require a 30 percent cut in carbon dioxide releases from existing electric plants that are powered by fossil fuels.” [Forbes]
The United States is poised to flood world markets with record quantities of LNG before the end of the year, changing the geopolitics of global energy. “We anticipate becoming big players, and I think we’ll have a big impact,” said the Ernest Moniz, the US Energy Secretary. “We’re going to influence the whole global LNG market.”
Mr Moniz said four LNG export terminals are under construction and the first wave of shipments may begin before the end of this year or in early 2016 at the latest.
“Certainly in this decade, there’s a good chance that we will be LNG exporters on the scale of Qatar, which is today’s largest LNG exporter,” he said, speaking on the margins of the IHS CERA Week energy summit in Texas.” [The Telegraph]
