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Costa Rica Faces Historic Drop in Renewable Energy Production

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Sunday, April 7, 2024

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) projects a historic drop in renewable energy production. This was confirmed by the executive president of the institution, who also pointed out that this drop would be almost 10% in renewable energy generation. Marco Acuña, executive president, mentioned that this situation would generate greater dependence on oil. The drought and the lack of rainfall generated by the El Niño phenomenon could cause the biggest drop in recent years. Costa Rica experienced a decline in renewable energy generation from 98% to 99% between 2015 and 2022, to 94.91% in 2023. According to the National Electricity Control Center, renewable energy generation could be even lower this year. “We are waiting for more rain to start falling, but projections are that we are going to close 2024 with 90% renewable generation and 10% thermal generation,” Acuña explained. The country’s main problem lies in its dependence on hydroelectric generation. According to ICE, this rate is almost 70%. Acuña noted that reservoir levels have reached historic lows, forcing them to rely more on thermal plants. Despite the rains, there may not be enough water in the rivers to generate this type of energy, so fuel is used to replace it. Dependence on oil poses not only environmental challenges but also economic obstacles. The rental of thermal plants alone, aimed at contributing 150 megawatts to the energy system, incurred expenses of $82 million for ICE. Additionally, the expenditure on diesel fuel for these plants must be taken into account. The resulting increase in costs is considerable. ICE announced increased investment in solar and wind energy in the coming years. According to Acuña, this is part of an expansion plan that should be in place by 2026. Currently, solar generation represents less than 1% of Costa Rica’s energy matrix. The expansion plan contemplates more than 400 megawatts of combined solar and wind energy, which is 12% of the current installed capacity, with an investment of $540 million, most of which will be contributed by the private sector. Even so, ICE is also betting on the construction of a new hydroelectric plant. This is a $291 million project that would be launched in 2030.  “We cannot depend only on one type of energy. For example, at night, solar plants are unproductive, and at those times, we need reserves provided by geothermal, hydroelectric, or thermal plants. For there to always be energy, we need consistent energy sources; that is why we cannot give up hydroelectricity,” noted Acuña. The post Costa Rica Faces Historic Drop in Renewable Energy Production appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) projects a historic drop in renewable energy production. This was confirmed by the executive president of the institution, who also pointed out that this drop would be almost 10% in renewable energy generation. Marco Acuña, executive president, mentioned that this situation would generate greater dependence on oil. The drought […] The post Costa Rica Faces Historic Drop in Renewable Energy Production appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

The Costa Rican Electricity Institute (ICE) projects a historic drop in renewable energy production. This was confirmed by the executive president of the institution, who also pointed out that this drop would be almost 10% in renewable energy generation.

Marco Acuña, executive president, mentioned that this situation would generate greater dependence on oil. The drought and the lack of rainfall generated by the El Niño phenomenon could cause the biggest drop in recent years.

Costa Rica experienced a decline in renewable energy generation from 98% to 99% between 2015 and 2022, to 94.91% in 2023. According to the National Electricity Control Center, renewable energy generation could be even lower this year.

“We are waiting for more rain to start falling, but projections are that we are going to close 2024 with 90% renewable generation and 10% thermal generation,” Acuña explained.

The country’s main problem lies in its dependence on hydroelectric generation. According to ICE, this rate is almost 70%. Acuña noted that reservoir levels have reached historic lows, forcing them to rely more on thermal plants. Despite the rains, there may not be enough water in the rivers to generate this type of energy, so fuel is used to replace it.

Dependence on oil poses not only environmental challenges but also economic obstacles. The rental of thermal plants alone, aimed at contributing 150 megawatts to the energy system, incurred expenses of $82 million for ICE. Additionally, the expenditure on diesel fuel for these plants must be taken into account. The resulting increase in costs is considerable.

ICE announced increased investment in solar and wind energy in the coming years. According to Acuña, this is part of an expansion plan that should be in place by 2026. Currently, solar generation represents less than 1% of Costa Rica’s energy matrix.

The expansion plan contemplates more than 400 megawatts of combined solar and wind energy, which is 12% of the current installed capacity, with an investment of $540 million, most of which will be contributed by the private sector.

Even so, ICE is also betting on the construction of a new hydroelectric plant. This is a $291 million project that would be launched in 2030.

 “We cannot depend only on one type of energy. For example, at night, solar plants are unproductive, and at those times, we need reserves provided by geothermal, hydroelectric, or thermal plants. For there to always be energy, we need consistent energy sources; that is why we cannot give up hydroelectricity,” noted Acuña.

The post Costa Rica Faces Historic Drop in Renewable Energy Production appeared first on The Tico Times | Costa Rica News | Travel | Real Estate.

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3 Questions: Can we secure a sustainable supply of nickel?

Extraction of nickel, an essential component of clean energy technologies, needs stronger policies to protect local environments and communities, MIT researchers say.

As the world strives to cut back on carbon emissions, demand for minerals and metals needed for clean energy technologies is growing rapidly, sometimes straining existing supply chains and harming local environments. In a new study published today in Joule, Elsa Olivetti, a professor of materials science and engineering and director of the Decarbonizing Energy and Industry mission within MIT’s Climate Project, along with recent graduates Basuhi Ravi PhD ’23 and Karan Bhuwalka PhD ’24 and nine others, examine the case of nickel, which is an essential element for some electric vehicle batteries and parts of some solar panels and wind turbines.How robust is the supply of this vital metal, and what are the implications of its extraction for the local environments, economies, and communities in the places where it is mined? MIT News asked Olivetti, Ravi, and Bhuwalka to explain their findings.Q: Why is nickel becoming more important in the clean energy economy, and what are some of the potential issues in its supply chain?Olivetti: Nickel is increasingly important for its role in EV batteries, as well as other technologies such as wind and solar. For batteries, high-purity nickel sulfate is a key input to the cathodes of EV batteries, which enables high energy density in batteries and increased driving range for EVs. As the world transitions away from fossil fuels, the demand for EVs, and consequently for nickel, has increased dramatically and is projected to continue to do so.The nickel supply chain for battery-grade nickel sulfate includes mining nickel from ore deposits, processing it to a suitable nickel intermediary, and refining it to nickel sulfate. The potential issues in the supply chain can be broadly described as land use concerns in the mining stage, and emissions concerns in the processing stage. This is obviously oversimplified, but as a basic structure for our inquiry we thought about it this way. Nickel mining is land-intensive, leading to deforestation, displacement of communities, and potential contamination of soil and water resources from mining waste. In the processing step, the use of fossil fuels leads to direct emissions including particulate matter and sulfur oxides. In addition, some emerging processing pathways are particularly energy-intensive, which can double the carbon footprint of nickel-rich batteries compared to the current average.Q: What is Indonesia’s role in the global nickel supply, and what are the consequences of nickel extraction there and in other major supply countries?Ravi: Indonesia plays a critical role in nickel supply, holding the world's largest nickel reserves and supplying nearly half of the globally mined nickel in 2023. The country's nickel production has seen a remarkable tenfold increase since 2016. This production surge has fueled economic growth in some regions, but also brought notable environmental and social impacts to nickel mining and processing areas.Nickel mining expansion in Indonesia has been linked to health impacts due to air pollution in the islands where nickel processing is prominent, as well as deforestation in some of the most biodiversity-rich locations on the planet. Reports of displacement of indigenous communities, land grabbing, water rights issues, and inadequate job quality in and around mines further highlight the social concerns and unequal distribution of burdens and benefits in Indonesia. Similar concerns exist in other major nickel-producing countries, where mining activities can negatively impact the environment, disrupt livelihoods, and exacerbate inequalities.On a global scale, Indonesia’s reliance on coal-based energy for nickel processing, particularly in energy-intensive smelting and leaching of a clay-like material called laterite, results in a high carbon intensity for nickel produced in the region, compared to other major producing regions such as Australia.Q: What role can industry and policymakers play in helping to meet growing demand while improving environmental safety?Bhuwalka: In consuming countries, policies can foster “discerning demand,” which means creating incentives for companies to source nickel from producers that prioritize sustainability. This can be achieved through regulations that establish acceptable environmental footprints for imported materials, such as limits on carbon emissions from nickel production. For example, the EU’s Critical Raw Materials Act and the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act could be leveraged to promote responsible sourcing. Additionally, governments can use their purchasing power to favor sustainably produced nickel in public procurement, which could influence industry practices and encourage the adoption of sustainability standards.On the supply side, nickel-producing countries like Indonesia can implement policies to mitigate the adverse environmental and social impacts of nickel extraction. This includes strengthening environmental regulations and enforcement to reduce the footprint of mining and processing, potentially through stricter pollution limits and responsible mine waste management. In addition, supporting community engagement, implementing benefit-sharing mechanisms, and investing in cleaner nickel processing technologies are also crucial.Internationally, harmonizing sustainability standards and facilitating capacity building and technology transfer between developed and developing countries can create a level playing field and prevent unsustainable practices. Responsible investment practices by international financial institutions, favoring projects that meet high environmental and social standards, can also contribute to a stable and sustainable nickel supply chain.

The Department of Energy wants to pay companies to make greener solar panels

Only six panels on the market meet the government's sustainability standards — but that number could soon grow.

In June, U.S. solar manufacturer Qcells became the second company in the world to register its solar panels with EPEAT, a labeling system that sets sustainability standards for electronics makers. By doing so, the company triggered an obscure regulation that requires federal agencies to purchase EPEAT-certified solar panels. If, say, NASA wants to build a solar farm to power a research facility, it must now purchase panels that meet EPEAT’s strict sustainability requirements — including a first-of-its-kind limit on the carbon emissions tied to solar manufacturing. There’s just one problem: Although EPEAT launched its solar standards in 2019, as of today, there are only six EPEAT-registered solar panels on the global market. And there are currently no EPEAT-registered solar inverters, devices that convert the direct current electricity a solar panel produces to alternating current electricity, which the grid uses. That doesn’t leave a lot of choices for the federal government, or anyone else who wants to purchase sustainably-produced solar equipment. That’s why, in October, the Department of Energy, or DOE, launched a new prize that offers up to $450,000 to U.S.-based solar panel and inverter manufacturers that achieve EPEAT certification for their products. As a new wave of domestic solar manufacturing kicks into high gear, the DOE hopes the prize will ensure that companies use efficient processes, sustainable materials, fair labor practices, and low-carbon energy. “The fact of the matter is, not all solar [products] in their production are created equal,” said Patty Dillon, a vice president at the Global Electronics Council, the sustainable technology nonprofit that manages the EPEAT ecolabel. Solar panels convert the sun’s rays into electricity in a process that emits no greenhouse gases, which makes them essential for fighting climate change. To achieve net-zero emissions by 2050, the International Energy Agency estimates that the world must add 630 gigawatts of new solar power annually by 2030 — up from the 135 gigawatts installed in 2020.  But some solar panels are more climate-friendly than others. Polysilicon, which is used to make the sunlight-harvesting cells inside silicon panels, is made using an energy-intensive process often powered by fossil fuels. The frames that hold solar panels together are made of aluminum, which is typically smelted in China using coal-powered electricity. The manufacturing processes that turn these materials into a solar panel also require energy, which can lead to more emissions. On a global level, the difference between solar panels manufactured using clean energy and those made with fossil fuels could amount to tens of billions of metric tons of carbon pollution by the middle of the 21st century. Workers process aluminum alloy frames for solar panels in Hai’an, China. CFOTO / Future Publishing via Getty Images To minimize those emissions, along with other environmental challenges like the use of toxic chemicals and the disposal of solar e-waste, companies must take a hard look at their supply chains and, in some cases, engage in difficult clean-up work. The DOE’s new prize, “Promoting Registration of Inverters and Modules with Ecolabel,” or PRIME, encourages companies to do so by going through the EPEAT registration process. “EPEAT certification enables companies to show how they have been taking the steps to have more environmentally friendly supply chains and manufacturing processes,” Becca Jones-Albertus, who directs the DOE’s solar energy technologies office, told Grist.  Solar companies seeking EPEAT registration must meet a list of criteria that span four broad themes: climate change, sustainable resource use, hazardous chemicals, and responsible supply chains. Depending on how many standards a manufacturer meets, it can receive an EPEAT Bronze, Silver, or Gold designation.  In addition, as of June, solar manufacturers registered with EPEAT are required to meet the industry’s first-ever criteria for embodied carbon, the emissions generated when a product is produced. For each kilowatt of power produced, no more than 630 kilograms of CO2 can be emitted during the production of an EPEAT-registered solar panel. The limit, Dillon says, represents about 25 percent fewer carbon emissions than the global average. Solar panels that fall below the “ultra low carbon” threshold of 400 kilograms of CO2 per kilowatt of power earn a special EPEAT Climate+ designation.  “That basically represents the best in class,” Dillon said. It’s difficult to make a direct comparison to fossil fuel plants, since most of their emissions come from operations rather than building infrastructure. But other research has found that over their lifespan, solar plants are considerably more climate friendly, emitting roughly 50 grams of CO2 per kilowatt-hour of energy produced compared with about 1,000 grams per kilowatt-hour for coal.  Meeting EPEAT’s requirements isn’t easy, which might explain why there are only two companies — QCells and the Arizona-based First Solar — currently listed on the registry. And only two solar panels manufactured by First Solar have earned the ecolabel’s Climate+ badge. QCells, which manufactures two EPEAT-registered panels at a factory in Dalton, Georgia, spent about two years going through a “very extensive” certification process that involved collecting data across its supply chain and submitting to a third-party audit, corporate communications lead Debra DeShong told Grist. Arrays of solar cells on conveyor belt at Qcells’ facility in Dalton, Georgia. Dustin Chambers for The Washington Post via Getty Images “It’s not an easy task,” DeShong said. “It requires resources and it requires a will.” Other companies may now be motivated to try. QCells’ additions to the EPEAT registry in June activated the Federal Acquisition Regulation, which requires the federal government to purchase goods that meet standards set by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency, except in limited circumstances where it’s impractical to do so. In the case of solar panels, that means EPEAT-registered products. The DOE’s PRIME Prize, which provides U.S. solar manufacturers $50,000 for starting the registration process and up to $100,000 per product for up to four products that complete it, offers additional incentive. Jones-Albertus told Grist that the prize was designed to “roughly offset the cost of collecting all the data and moving through the registration process.” Solar companies “told us that they’re interested in EPEAT certification, but they haven’t gotten there yet,” Jones-Albertus said. “We’re hoping to provide incentives so that companies go through the EPEAT registration process sooner.” Companies peering deep into their supply chains for the first time might discover they have to make some changes to meet EPEAT registration requirements. To slim down the carbon footprint of its panels, a solar manufacturer might have to switch to a low-carbon polysilicon supplier. (QCells, for instance, is purchasing polysilicon from a facility in Washington state that produces the stuff using hydropower.) Or it might decide to swap out virgin aluminum frames manufactured overseas for recycled steel ones built domestically by Origami Solar, a change that can reduce carbon emissions tied to the frame by upwards of 90 percent. To meet EPEAT’s optional recycled content criteria, a manufacturer could decide to start purchasing recycled panel glass from a company like SolarCycle.  Making these sorts of manufacturing supply chain alterations takes time and money beyond what the new DOE prize will provide. But Dillon, of the Global Electronics Council, is optimistic that more companies will start registering their products with EPEAT now that federal purchasers require it. Erik Petersen, the chief strategy officer at Origami Solar, believes the Biden administration’s push for clean domestic manufacturing, combined with growing consumer interest in supply chain transparency, will spur more U.S. solar companies to ensure their products meet high sustainability standards.   “What’s exciting is all of these forces are coming together at the same time,” Petersen told Grist. “That really gives the industry an incentive to do the right things.” This story was originally published by Grist with the headline The Department of Energy wants to pay companies to make greener solar panels on Nov 1, 2024.

‘Cloud-milking’: the zero-energy technique keeping young trees alive

The project that began in the Canary Islands mimics the way leaves capture water droplets from fog in order to produce waterThey call it cloud milking, a zero-energy technique to extract water from fog that is revolutionising the recovery of forests devastated by fire and drought.The idea began as a pilot project in the Canary Islands. The plan was to exploit the moisture-laden “sea of clouds” that hangs over the region in order to aid reforestation, and has since been extended to several other countries to produce drinking water, and to irrigate crops. Continue reading...

They call it cloud milking, a zero-energy technique to extract water from fog that is revolutionising the recovery of forests devastated by fire and drought.The idea began as a pilot project in the Canary Islands. The plan was to exploit the moisture-laden “sea of clouds” that hangs over the region in order to aid reforestation, and has since been extended to several other countries to produce drinking water, and to irrigate crops.“In recent year the Canaries have undergone a severe process of desertification and we’ve lost a lot of forest through agriculture. And then in 2007 and 2009, as a result of climate change, there were major fires in forested areas that are normally wet,” said Gustavo Viera, the technical director of the publicly-funded project in the Canaries.Viera said that after the devastating fires they sought ways to deliver water to remote, mountainous areas without creating infrastructure, or using fossil fuels to extract ground water from deep wells.The project, named Life Nieblas (niebla is the Spanish word for fog) began, backed by the EU, intended to mimic the way that the leaves of the local species of laurel trees capture water droplets from fog, by using sheets of plastic mesh erected in the path of the wind. As the wind blows fog through the mesh, water droplets collect and fall into the containers below, which is used to irrigate new saplings until they have sufficient leaves to capture the water themselves.However, the wind, though vital to the original structure, proved a problem as it destroys all but the smallest structures.“We needed to solve the problem of the fragility of the netting while minimising the environmental impact,” Viera said. “We developed a system that imitates pine needles, which are very good for capturing water while also letting the air pass through, and it’s a system that can easily be replicated in other locations and that’s also easy to transport to where it’s needed.”In the new models, water condenses on the fine metal fronds of the structures, replicating the way conifers collect water from the atmosphere.The water is discharged automatically without any energy supply or CO₂ emissions and no machinery is used to transport it from one place to another. No electrical systems are used for irrigation and the water footprint is also reduced as no aquifers or rivers are exploited. The only power needed is for building the collectors and getting them in place.A slightly different technique is also being applied to reforest an abandoned quarry in Garraf, a rugged area south of Barcelona.“Here we are using individual water collectors of the type used to keep herbivores from eating young plants,” said Vicenç Carabassa, the project’s head scientist, who works for the Centre for Ecological Research and Forestry Applications (CREAF), a public research institute at the Autonomous University of Barcelona.“They collect rain and the heavy dew that falls on summer mornings and also provide shade.”Carabassa pointed out that not every type of fog is suitable because some don’t have a high enough moisture content. The ideal fog is orographic or mountain fog, which exists in many Mediterranean regions and also in northern Portugal.“The Canaries are the perfect laboratory to develop these techniques,” said Carabassa. “But there are other areas where the conditions are optimal and where there is a tradition of water capture from fog, such as Chile and Morocco.”The method is now being used to supply drinking water and water for irrigation to the Chilean coastal village of Chungungo in Coquimbo province, while in the Cape Verde archipelago Life Nieblas collectors, combined with locally-made wooden structures, are providing 1,000 litres of water per day, which is used to irrigate crops and water livestock.All the information necessary to create fog collectors is freely available to the public on the project’s website, and Viera said they’ve had many enquiries.The benefits are palpable. In the Barranco del Andén ravine in Gran Canaria, 35.8 hectares (96 acres) have been reforested and 15,000 trees of various laurel species have been planted, with a survival rate of 86%, double the figure of traditional reforestation.“We have recovered the forest’s potential to capture atmospheric carbon and estimate that we have captured around 175 tonnes of CO₂ per year,” Viera said.The Life Nieblas project saves not only in fossil energy consumption and CO₂, but it is also cheaper and uses less water than traditional reforestation systems.“We’re living with drought throughout the Mediterranean and also in the Canaries and now every drop of water counts,” said Carabassa, adding that we have to learn to live with much less water.“This technique is never going to be an alternative to a desalination plant but in remote areas where water supply is difficult and expensive this can be a real alternative.”

Oil bigwigs open wallets for Trump after billion-dollar request 

Oil and gas tycoons made significant contributions to the Trump campaign after the former president asked the industry for $1 billion to support his reelection bid — and reportedly said it would be a “deal” for them to do so. A source told The Hill earlier this year that the $1 billion request at an...

Oil and gas tycoons made significant contributions to the Trump campaign after the former president asked the industry for $1 billion to support his reelection bid — and reportedly said it would be a “deal” for them to do so. A source told The Hill earlier this year that the $1 billion request at an April fundraiser was not framed as any sort of quid pro quo. Nevertheless, Democrats have described the incident as corruption and said they would investigate it, and this was the first election where several oil industry donors opened their pockets for Trump. Two executives who reportedly attended Trump oil industry fundraisers this spring later made significant contributions to Trump-aligned political committees — something they hadn’t done in previous presidential cycles. Cheniere Energy CEO Jack Fusco donated $250,000 to the joint fundraising Trump 47 Committee in June, according to records from the FEC. The committee then distributed $6,600 to the Trump campaign and $243,400 to the Republican National Committee (RNC). As a joint fundraising committee, the Trump 47 Committee allocates funds to the Trump campaign and the RNC and, once the contribution limits are maxed out, to other participating political committees. Fusco attended a dinner where Trump told energy executives that they should raise $1 billion to support his return to the presidency and that doing so would be a “deal” because of the money they would save on taxes and regulations, according to The Washington Post. The Post reported that other attendees included executives from companies including Occidental Petroleum, though it did not name them. In July, Occidental President and CEO Vicki Hollub also appears to have donated $41,300 to the RNC through the Trump 47 Committee, according to the contribution memo, and another $41,300 to the RNC on the same day. Campaign finance records show she gave $6,600 to the Trump campaign and $5,000 to Save America, Trump's leadership PAC, through Trump 47. The FEC’s website lists “retired” as the employer of the Vicki Hollub who made the $41,300 donations, but she shares the middle initial and mailing address of the Vicki Hollub who leads Occidental, according to other FEC receipts. Some of the other donations from Vicki Hollub do not list an employer at all, but still list the same mailing address. Separately, The Post reported that at a different fundraiser in May, Trump promised oil and gas companies that he would reduce Federal Trade Commission (FTC) scrutiny of their mergers and acquisitions. Trump specifically promised Occidental better treatment after Hollub complained that the agency is delaying Occidental’s acquisition of oil and gas producer CrownRock and probed her phone, according to The Post.  A spokesperson for Occidental did not respond to The Hill’s requests for comment and clarification. A Cheniere Energy spokesperson declined to comment. The Guardian and The Post reported that Hollub, alongside Energy Transfer Partners's Kelcy Warren and Continental Resources’s Harold Hamm co-hosted the May fundraiser for Trump. Hamm, a major Trump donor, also reportedly organized the April fundraiser. While Hamm supported former U.N. Ambassador Nikki Haley earlier this election cycle, he had backed Trump in 2020 and 2016. Hamm gave a total of $320,000 to the Trump Victory PAC, the former president’s joint fundraising PAC, in 2020 and a total of $449,400 in 2016. In late March, Hamm donated $614,000 to the Trump 47 Committee. He also gave $200,000 to the pro-Trump super PAC MAGA Inc. in November 2023, less than two months after he contributed $100,000 to the pro-Haley SFA Fund. Spokespeople for Continental did not respond to requests for comment from The Hill. Bryan Sheffield, who founded the oil and gas-focused private equity group Formentera Partners, told The Hill that Hamm had called him “and talked me into joining his efforts on helping [T]rump.” “He is a good salesman, [because I] was still team Haley,” wrote Sheffield, who said he did not attend the April or May fundraisers. Sheffield had contributed $6,600 to Haley’s campaign and loaded a total of $320,000 into the pro-Haley super PAC, SFA Fund, according to FEC records. Haley dropped out of the race in March 2024. Sheffield gave $844,600 to the Trump 47 Committee in May, one of the biggest donations the joint fundraising committee has reported receiving so far this election cycle. Of that topline total, $6,600 went to the Trump campaign, $413,000 to the RNC and $5,000 to Trump’s Save America leadership PAC. While Sheffield has contributed to Republican candidates and committees since 2012, this is his first time financially backing Trump, according to FEC records. He told The Hill while he is "generally a [R]epublican," Sheffield also voted for former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton (D) in 2016 and supports Austin Mayor Kirk Watson (D) "It seems I'm a confused moderate at times," Sheffield wrote, "probably like most [A]merican voters." Just over two weeks before the donation date listed on the FEC website, his father, former Pioneer CEO Scott Sheffield, had his own run-in with the FTC as part of the company's proposed merger with Exxon. When the FTC cleared a merger between Exxon and Pioneer in early May, they barred the elder Sheffield from the board to prevent "collusive activity,” alleging he had colluded with OPEC and OPEC+ to keep oil prices high. The younger Sheffield said that while the donation “timing is strange” amid the Pioneer deal, he ultimately wrote the Trump 47 check because the “industry is under attack from a political party, even though our resources lift poverty.” “[It's] frowned upon, on using agencies as political weapons,” he added. Other energy executives who reportedly attended April or May Trump fundraisers have also made significant contributions to the Trump campaign and groups supporting him. Warren, executive chairman of Energy Transfer Partners — one of the owners of the controversial Dakota Access Pipeline — donated a whopping $5 million to pro-Trump super PAC Make America Great Again Inc. in late May. Warren also gave $10 million to the pro-Trump super PAC America First Action in 2020. Another Energy Transfer Partners executive, Ray Davis, who also co-owns the Texas Rangers baseball team, gave $407,300 to the joint fundraising committee in June. Of that total, $395,100 went to the RNC, $6,600 went to the Trump campaign and $5,000 went to Save America.  Reports did not indicate that Davis attended the dinner, and spokespeople for Energy Transfer did not respond to questions from The Hill.  Davis did not appear to make similar contributions in 2020. "Soft money" contributions from individuals and PACs affiliated with the oil and gas industry have skyrocketed during the 2024 election cycle. These donors have given at least $147.7 million to party committees and outside groups, according an analysis from OpenSecrets of reports filed with the FEC as of Oct. 17. In line with historical trends, the vast majority of that total — $134 million — has gone toward groups supporting conservatives. While OpenSecrets’ 2024 totals do not yet include the latest monthly and pre-general contribution reports, industry affiliates have contributed more than twice as much soft money as they did during the entire 2020 election cycle, when they gave a total of $65.9 million. The Trump campaign has also been the biggest recipient of "hard money" donations from individuals and PACs affiliated with the oil and gas industry. According to OpenSecrets' analysis of FEC reports through Oct. 17, Trump has received around $1.7 million in “hard money” contributions from these industry donors, while the Harris campaign has received $938,648. “Kamala Harris is controlled by environmental extremists who are trying to implement the most radical energy agenda in history and force Americans to purchase electric vehicles they can’t afford,” said Karoline Leavitt, the Trump campaign’s national press secretary. Leavitt did not directly address questions from The Hill about donations from executives who attended Trump’s fundraisers.

3 Questions: Bridging anthropology and engineering for clean energy in Mongolia

Anthropologists Manduhai Buyandelger and Lauren Bonilla discuss the humanistic perspective they bring to a project that is yielding promising results.

In 2021, Michael Short, an associate professor of nuclear science and engineering, approached professor of anthropology Manduhai Buyandelger with an unusual pitch: collaborating on a project to prototype a molten salt heat bank in Mongolia, Buyandelger’s country of origin and place of her scholarship. It was also an invitation to forge a novel partnership between two disciplines that rarely overlap. Developed in collaboration with the National University of Mongolia (NUM), the device was built to provide heat for people in colder climates, and in places where clean energy is a challenge. Buyandelger and Short teamed up to launch Anthro-Engineering Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale, an initiative intended to advance the heat bank idea in Mongolia, and ultimately demonstrate its potential as a scalable clean heat source in comparably challenging sites around the world. This project received funding from the inaugural MIT Climate and Sustainability Consortium Seed Awards program. In order to fund various components of the project, especially student involvement and additional staff, the project also received support from the MIT Global Seed Fund, New Engineering Education Transformation (NEET), Experiential Learning Office, Vice Provost for International Activities, and d’Arbeloff Fund for Excellence in Education.As part of this initiative, the partners developed a special topic course in anthropology to teach MIT undergraduates about Mongolia’s unique energy and climate challenges, as well as the historical, social, and economic context in which the heat bank would ideally find a place. The class 21A.S01 (Anthro-Engineering: Decarbonization at the Million-Person Scale) prepares MIT students for a January Independent Activities Period (IAP) trip to the Mongolian capital of Ulaanbaatar, where they embed with Mongolian families, conduct research, and collaborate with their peers. Mongolian students also engaged in the project. Anthropology research scientist and lecturer Lauren Bonilla, who has spent the past two decades working in Mongolia, joined to co-teach the class and lead the IAP trips to Mongolia. With the project now in its third year and yielding some promising solutions on the ground, Buyandelger and Bonilla reflect on the challenges for anthropologists of advancing a clean energy technology in a developing nation with a unique history, politics, and culture. Q: Your roles in the molten salt heat bank project mark departures from your typical academic routine. How did you first approach this venture?Buyandelger: As an anthropologist of contemporary religion, politics, and gender in Mongolia, I have had little contact with the hard sciences or building or prototyping technology. What I do best is listening to people and working with narratives. When I first learned about this device for off-the-grid heating, a host of issues came straight to mind right away that are based on socioeconomic and cultural context of the place. The salt brick, which is encased in steel, must be heated to 400 degrees Celsius in a central facility, then driven to people’s homes. Transportation is difficult in Ulaanbaatar, and I worried about road safety when driving the salt brick to gers [traditional Mongolian homes] where many residents live. The device seemed a bit utopian to me, but I realized that this was an amazing educational opportunity: We could use the heat bank as part of an ethnographic project, so students could learn about the everyday lives of people — crucially, in the dead of winter — and how they might respond to this new energy technology in the neighborhoods of Ulaanbaatar.Bonilla: When I first went to Mongolia in the early 2000s as an undergraduate student, the impacts of climate change were already being felt. There had been a massive migration to the capital after a series of terrible weather events that devastated the rural economy. Coal mining had emerged as a vital part of the economy, and I was interested in how people regarded this industry that both provided jobs and damaged the air they breathed. I am trained as a human geographer, which involves seeing how things happening in a local place correspond to things happening at a global scale. Thinking about climate or sustainability from this perspective means making linkages between social life and environmental life. In Mongolia, people associated coal with national progress. Based on historical experience, they had low expectations for interventions brought by outsiders to improve their lives. So my first take on the molten salt project was that this was no silver bullet solution. At the same time, I wanted to see how we could make this a great project-based learning experience for students, getting them to think about the kind of research necessary to see if some version of the molten salt would work.Q: After two years, what lessons have you and the students drawn from both the class and the Ulaanbaatar field trips?Buyandelger: We wanted to make sure MIT students would not go to Mongolia and act like consultants. We taught them anthropological methods so they could understand the experiences of real people and think about how to bring people and new technologies together. The students, from engineering and anthropological and social science backgrounds, became critical thinkers who could analyze how people live in ger districts. When they stay with families in Ulaanbaatar in January, they not only experience the cold and the pollution, but they observe what people do for work, how parents care for their children, how they cook, sleep, and get from one place to another. This enables them to better imagine and test out how these people might utilize the molten salt heat bank in their homes.Bonilla: In class, students learn that interventions like this often fail because the implementation process doesn’t work, or the technology doesn’t meet people’s real needs. This is where anthropology is so important, because it opens up the wider landscape in which you’re intervening. We had really difficult conversations about the professional socialization of engineers and social scientists. Engineers love to work within boxes, but don’t necessarily appreciate the context in which their invention will serve.As a group, we discussed the provocative notion that engineers construct and anthropologists deconstruct. This makes it seem as if engineers are creators, and anthropologists are brought in as add-ons to consult and critique engineers’ creations. Our group conversation concluded that a project such as ours benefits from an iterative back-and-forth between the techno-scientific and humanistic disciplines.Q: So where does the molten salt brick project stand?Bonilla: Our research in Mongolia helped us produce a prototype that can work: Our partners at NUM are developing a hybrid stove that incorporates the molten salt brick. Supervised by instructor Nathan Melenbrink of MIT’s NEET program, our engineering students have been involved in this prototyping as well.The concept is for a family to heat it up using a coal fire once a day and it warms their home overnight. Based on our anthropological research, we believe that this stove would work better than the device as originally conceived. It won’t eliminate coal use in residences, but it will reduce emissions enough to have a meaningful impact on ger districts in Ulaanbaatar. The challenge now is getting funding to NUM so they can test different salt combinations and stove models and employ local blacksmiths to work on the design.This integrated stove/heat bank will not be the ultimate solution to the heating and pollution crisis in Mongolia. But it will be something that can inspire even more ideas. We feel with this project we are planting all kinds of seeds that will germinate in ways we cannot anticipate. It has sparked new relationships between MIT and Mongolian students, and catalyzed engineers to integrate a more humanistic, anthropological perspective in their work.Buyandelger: Our work illustrates the importance of anthropology in responding to the unpredictable and diverse impacts of climate change. Without our ethnographic research — based on participant observation and interviews, led by Dr. Bonilla, — it would have been impossible to see how the prototyping and modifications could be done, and where the molten salt brick could work and what shape it needed to take. This project demonstrates how indispensable anthropology is in moving engineering out of labs and companies and directly into communities.Bonilla: This is where the real solutions for climate change are going to come from. Even though we need solutions quickly, it will also take time for new technologies like molten salt bricks to take root and grow. We don’t know where the outcomes of these experiments will take us. But there’s so much that’s emerging from this project that I feel very hopeful about.

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