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Shale-ionaires Suffering from Wave of Bankrupt Oil Drillers

At the height of the U.S. energy boom, Texas landowner John Baen received about $100,000 a month in royalty payments from companies producing oil and natural gas on his property. Now the checks are much smaller, and when he opens his mailbox each day, he’s afraid he’ll find yet another bankruptcy notice. So far, four of the producers sending him checks have caved in to rising debts as oil prices slumped, seeking court protection from their creditors.

Global energy subsidies fuel climate change, says IMF study

Governments around the world will subsidise the cost of oil, gas and coal to the tune of $5.3tn this year, fuelling pollution and climate change, as they misallocate the equivalent of what is spent globally on public health, according to a new study. The estimate published on Monday by economists at the International Monetary Fund represents their calculation of the gap between what businesses and consumers pay for energy and the “true cost” if environmental and health effects are factored in.

Study Finds Global Warming as Threat to 1 in 6 Species

Climate change could drive to extinction as many as one in six animal and plant species, according to a new analysis. In a study published Thursday in the journal Science, Mark Urban, an ecologist at the University of Connecticut, also found that as the planet warms in the future, species will disappear at an accelerating rate. “We have the choice,” he said in an interview. “The world can decide where on that curve they want the future Earth to be.” As dire as Dr. Urban’s conclusions are, other experts said the real toll may turn out to be even worse. The number of extinctions “may well be two to three times higher,” said John J. Wiens, an evolutionary biologist at the University of Arizona.

German backlash grows against coal power clampdown

German energy companies say that construction of over half the country’s planned power plants could be scuppered if the country goes ahead with a leaked plan to set emissions budgets for the country’s biggest polluters. The proposed law would impose stiff financial penalties for the oldest and most inefficient coal and lignite plants, to be paid in the form of emissions trading certificates.

Calling Obama’s Bluff on Climate Change

From immigration to Internet regulation, there is scarcely an issue on which President Obama has not pushed the limits of executive power to achieve his ideological goals. The Republican Congress has been able only to react to these usurpations, often floundering, as seen in the recent debacle over funding for the Department of Homeland Security. Is there a way the GOP Congress can get ahead of Mr. Obama?

World cannot prosper without cutting carbon emissions, says Climate Group

The world cannot prosper without cutting emissions, an economic expert has warned as he urged countries to use plans for tackling climate change to attract investment. Over the next few months countries are submitting their “intended nationally determined contributions” (INDC) outlining action they plan to take on climate change, ahead of UN talks in Paris at the end of the year to secure a new global deal on the issue.