Billions in gas projects could be stranded by climate action

STRANDED GAS: More than $280 billion of liquefied natural gas projects planned over the next decade risk being ​“stranded” if global action is taken to limit climate change to 2°C, according to Carbon Tracker. (The Guardian)

SOLAR:
• The Obama administration will announce today an initiative to help low- and middle-income Americans gain access to solar energy. (The New York Times)
• An Ohio auto dealer has installed what it says is the largest solar canopy of its type erected by any automobile dealership in the country. (Midwest Energy News)

FRACKING: Refracking shale oil fields could yield enough reserves to last about 50 years, according to research data. (Bloomberg)

CLEAN POWER PLAN: The Sierra Club launched a week-long advertising campaign Monday to slam Republican Senator Mark Kirk of Illinois for voting to scrap the EPA’s carbon limits for power plants. (The Hill)

WIND: Three New England utilities will share the energy produced by a new wind farm expected to bring 185 megawatts and 400 construction jobs to the region. (FierceEnergy)

JOBS: Paris-based oil equipment builder Technip, which has its main U.S. offices in Houston, plans to cut about 6,000 jobs to cope with the oil industry downturn. (FuelFix)

OIL TRAINS:
• Environmental and safety groups are planning a week of protests against transporting crude oil by train. (The Hill)
• On Monday, as many as 100 people rallied in Albany to call on New York’s governor to ban oil train traffic in the state. (Times Union)

METHANE: A group of mothers and their children from Moms Clean Air Force will descend on Capitol Hill Tuesday for a ​“play-in” to support upcoming methane regulations from the EPA. (The Hill)

UTILITIES: Although 34 percent of Americans surveyed by Gallup said they worry a ​“great deal” about the environment, that has not translated into a mass exodus from conventional power suppliers. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

EFFICIENCY: Self-driving ​“robocab” taxis could deliver huge environmental and economic benefits by running more efficiently than privately operated vehicles, a study says. (Press Association)

FREE CARS: The incentives are so generous in a California pilot program to put low-income drivers behind the wheels of energy-efficient cars that, in the right situation, a car can be had for free. (Money)

EMISSIONS GAP:
• Analyses of greenhouse gas targets submitted to the U.N. make it clear the cuts won’t be enough, at least initially, to avert catastrophic climate change. (ClimateWire)
• The emissions gap between international pledges to cut carbon and the amount of action needed to prevent catastrophic climate change can be almost entirely addressed through local action, a new report says. (The Guardian)