Adding Esteemed New Members to the Energy Central 100,000 View Club!

“Hard to believe we're already past the halfway point of 2023, but that's the reality. And with those first 6 months have come some key and compelling utility industry stories-- from clean energy transitions to keeping the grid reliable amid challenging conditions to policy and regulations driving the coming evolution in the sector, the Energy Central Community has been at the forefront of it all. 

And as we all use this community to stay on top of the latest news, we especially want to shout out the dedicated members of the community who continue to share and keep us all informed and discussing, debating, and learning as our top contributors. 

Those top contributors are valuable to us, and we like to take a moment to take stock of them-- and so that means it's time for our regular check-in to see which heavy-hitting contributors have reached the milestone of the Energy Central 100,000 View Club.

We've previously welcomed 38 different Energy Central members to this stratosphere (Induction classes 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, and 9), and it's time to welcome 3 more entries into the club:

• Doug Houseman, Utility Industry Innovator with Burns & McDonnell

  • Recommended recent post: Plan to Zero (#27) Balancing the “-ility” issues

• Germán Toro Ghio, CEO of Germán & Co.

  • Recommended recent post: "The Covert Conflict on Lithium: An Examination of the Other Hidden War"

• John Egan, President of Egan Energy Communications

  • Recommended recent post: Utility Community Relations: Say “Hello” to the People (AKA “Customers”) Who Pay Your Salary

These Energy Central regulars join the rest of the 100k club members who have garnered a combined 100,000 views of the content they have submitted to Energy Central. Achieved through an impressive combination of frequency in sharing and high-quality of contributions when they do share (thus allowing their articles to reach even more eyeballs). 

As these devoted members of the Energy Central Community have demonstrated, the power of Energy Central is only as strong as the insights and discussions brought in by our community of experts, professionals, and passionate individuals. Thanks to our community members, whether you have 100,000 views or 100 views, for making that happen!

And are you interested in one day making this esteemed list of elite Energy Central contributors, and thus establishing yourself as a real thought leader in the community? Well, the only way to start is by sharing your thoughts and your work today! So, share a post today, start a valuable conversation, and who knows—maybe it will become viral and you’ll join the vaunted members of this club soon enough!

Can't wait to see you join this list next!

Matt Chester

Community Manager

Most read…

The Energy Transition Is Underway. Fossil Fuel Workers Could Be Left Behind.

The Biden administration is trying to increase renewable energy investments in distressed regions, but some are skeptical those measures would be enough to make up for job losses.

NYT By Madeleine Ngo, reporting from Washington, July 12, 2023

Measure It Differently, and Inflation Is Behind Us

Investors who think that underlying inflation is falling but not fast enough for the Fed should be troubled by an alternative measure of price increases

WSJ By James Mackintosh, July 12, 2023

OpenAI’s Sam Altman Is Taking a Nuclear-Energy Startup Public

Oklo, which is developing a small modular nuclear reactor, is valued around $850 million

WSJ By Jennifer Hiller and Amrith Ramkumar, July 11, 2023 

Hydrogen boiler trial scrapped in setback for net zero

Scheme abandoned following opposition from residents who preferred gas boilers and heat pumps

The Telegraph By Melissa Lawford, July 11, 2023

Exclusive: Shell, BP pursue arbitration claims against Venture Global LNG

A similar lawsuit was filed by Edison SpA in May, as well as the London Court of International Arbitration. Meanwhile, Repsol SA, one of Venture Global LNG's clients, has requested confidential records from US regulators that could reveal more information about the plant's launch.

REUTERS By Marwa Rashad and Curtis Williams, July 12, 2023

NOW/China lashes back at NATO criticism, warns it will protect its rights

Reuters, July 12, 2023

The Energy Transition Is Underway. Fossil Fuel Workers Could Be Left Behind.

The Biden administration is trying to increase renewable energy investments in distressed regions, but some are skeptical those measures would be enough to make up for job losses.

NYT By Madeleine Ngo, reporting from Washington, July 12, 2023

Tiffany Berger spent more than a decade working at a coal-fired power plant in Coshocton County, Ohio, eventually becoming a unit operator making about $100,000 annually.

But in 2020, American Electric Power shut down the plant, and Ms. Berger struggled to find a job nearby that offered a comparable salary. She sold her house, moved in with her parents and decided to help run their farm in Newcomerstown, Ohio, about 30 minutes away.

They sell some of the corn, beans and beef they harvest, but it is only enough to keep the farm running. Ms. Berger, 39, started working part time at a local fertilizer and seed company last year, making just a third of what she used to earn. She said she had “never dreamed” the plant would close.

“I thought I was set to retire from there,” Ms. Berger said. “It’s a power plant. I mean, everybody needs power.”

The United States is undergoing a rapid shift away from fossil fuels as new battery factories, wind and solar projects, and other clean energy investments crop up across the country. An expansive climate law that Democrats passed last year could be even more effective than Biden administration officials had estimated at reducing fossil fuel emissions.

While the transition is projected to create hundreds of thousands of clean energy jobs, it could be devastating for many workers and counties that have relied on coal, oil and gas for their economic stability.

Estimates of the potential job losses in the coming years vary, but roughly 900,000 workers were directly employed by fossil fuel industries in 2022, according to data from the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

Politics Across the United States

The Biden administration is trying to mitigate the impact, mostly by providing additional tax advantages for renewable energy projects that are built in areas vulnerable to the energy transition.

But some economists, climate researchers and union leaders said they are skeptical the initiatives will be enough. Beyond construction, wind and solar farms typically require few workers to operate, and new clean energy jobs might not necessarily offer comparable wages or align with the skills of laid-off workers.

Coal plants have already been shutting down for years, and the nation’s coal production has fallen from its peak in the late 2000s. U.S. coal-fired generation capacity is projected to decline sharply to about 50 percent of current levels by 2030, according to the Energy Information Administration. About 41,000 workers remain in the coal mining industry, down from about 177,000 in the mid-1980s.

The industry’s demise is a problem not just for its workers but also for the communities that have long relied on coal to power their tax revenue. The loss of revenue from mines, plants and workers can mean less money for schools, roads and law enforcement. A recent paper from the Aspen Institute found that from 1980 to 2019, regions exposed to the decline of coal saw long-run reductions in earnings and employment rates, greater uptake of Medicare and Medicaid benefits and substantial decreases in population, particularly among younger workers. That “leaves behind a population that is disproportionately old, sick and poor,” according to the paper.

The Biden administration has promised to help those communities weather the impact, for both economic and political reasons. Failure to adequately help displaced workers could translate into the kind of populist backlash that hurt Democrats in the wake of globalization as companies shifted factories to China. Promises to restore coal jobs also helped Donald J. Trump clinch the 2016 election, securing him crucial votes in states like Pennsylvania.

Federal officials have vowed to create jobs in hard-hit communities and ensure that displaced workers “benefit from the new clean energy economy” by offering developers billions in bonus tax credits to put renewable energy projects in regions dependent on fossil fuels.

Tiffany Berger, who was laid off when the plant in Coshocton County was shut down, struggled to find work that offered a comparable salary. She moved in with her parents and decided to help run her family’s farm.Credit...Maddie McGarvey for The New York Times

If new investments like solar farms or battery storage facilities are built in those regions, called “energy communities,” developers could get as much as 40 percent of a project’s cost covered. Businesses receiving credits for producing electricity from renewable sources could earn a 10 percent boost.

The Inflation Reduction Act also set aside at least $4 billion in tax credits that could be used to build clean energy manufacturing facilities, among other projects, in regions with closed coal mines or plants, and it created a program that could guarantee up to $250 billion in loans to repurpose facilities like a shuttered power plant for clean energy uses.

Brian Anderson, the executive director of the Biden administration’s interagency working group on energy communities, pointed to other federal initiatives, including increased funding for projects to reclaim abandoned mine lands and relief funds to revitalize coal communities.

Still, he said that the efforts would not be enough, and that officials had limited funding to directly assist more communities.

“We’re standing right at the cusp of potentially still leaving them behind again,” Mr. Anderson said.

Phil Smith, the chief of staff at the United Mine Workers of America, said that the tax credits for manufacturers could help create more jobs but that $4 billion likely would not be enough to attract facilities to every region. He said he also hoped for more direct assistance for laid-off workers, but Congress did not fund those initiatives.

“We think that’s still something that needs to be done,” Mr. Smith said.

Gordon Hanson, the author of the Aspen Institute paper and a professor of urban policy at the Harvard Kennedy School, said he worried the federal government was relying too heavily on the tax credits, in part because companies would likely be more inclined to invest in growing areas. He urged federal officials to increase unemployment benefits to distressed regions and funding for work force development programs.

Even with the bonus credit, clean energy investments might not reach the hardest-hit areas because a broad swath of regions meets the federal definition of an energy community, said Daniel Raimi, a fellow at Resources for the Future.

“If the intention of that provision was to specifically provide an advantage to the hardest-hit fossil fuel communities, I don’t think it’s done that,” Mr. Raimi said.

Local officials have had mixed reactions to the federal efforts. Steve Henry, the judge-executive of Webster County, Ky., said he believed they could bring renewable energy investments and help attract other industries to the region. The county experienced a significant drop in tax revenue after its last mine shut down in 2019, and it now employs fewer 911 dispatchers and deputy sheriffs because officials cannot offer more competitive wages.

“I think we can recover,” he said. “But it’s going to be a long recovery.”

Adam O’Nan, the judge-executive of Union County, Ky., which has one coal mine left, said he thought renewable energy would bring few jobs to the area, and he doubted that a manufacturing plant would be built because of the county’s inadequate infrastructure.

“It’s kind of difficult to see how it reaches down into Union County at this point,” Mr. O’Nan said. “We’re best suited for coal at the moment.”

Federal and state efforts so far have done little to help workers like James Ault, 42, who was employed at an oil refinery in Contra Costa County, Calif., for 14 years before he was laid off in 2020. To keep his family afloat, he depleted his pension and withdrew most of the money from his 401(k) early.

In early 2022, he moved to Roseville, Calif., to work at a power plant, but he was laid off again after four months. He worked briefly as a meal delivery driver before landing a job in February at a nearby chemical manufacturer.

He now makes $17 an hour less than he did at the refinery and is barely able to cover his mortgage. Still, he said he would not return to the oil industry.

“With our push away from gasoline, I feel that I would be going into an industry that is kind of dying,” Mr. Ault said.

…”I had the privilege of attending the AmChamChile meeting with former President Lagos and gaining valuable insights into his experience in the negotiations of the Chile-US Trade and Development Agreement. It is truly remarkable to think that two decades have already passed since those negotiations concluded. I would like to express my sincere gratitude to AmChamChile for generously sharing their invaluable insights and knowledge with us. Thank once again.

Javier Dib

Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of AES Andes

Measure It Differently, and Inflation Is Behind Us

Investors who think that underlying inflation is falling but not fast enough for the Fed should be troubled by an alternative measure of price increases

WSJ By James Mackintosh, July 12, 2023

If core inflation came in just below 3%, the Federal Reserve would breathe a huge sigh of relief, stocks would head to the races and consumers could relax about the rising cost of living. 

It isn’t merely a dream: Measure U.S. price changes the way Europe does, and inflation was already there in May. Measure them as the U.S. does, and on Wednesday new figures are predicted by economists to show core inflation far higher, at 5% for June.

The U.S. and Europe use different methods to calculate inflation data, but the Bureau of Labor Statistics calculates American price rises the European way too, although the statistic remains obscure.

Right now, measuring U.S. inflation using the two methods shows radically different results. Investors who think they have a handle on the current consensus—that underlying inflation is falling but not fast enough for the Fed—should be troubled by the alternative message coming from the much lower European version of the figures.

As inflation climbs in the U.S., rising food and energy costs have pushed the nation’s most popular price index to its highest level in four decades. WSJ’s Gwynn Guilford explains how the consumer-price index works and what it can tell you about inflation. Illustration: Jacob Reynolds

U.S. core inflation—which excludes volatile food and energy—measured using the standard consumer-price index was 2.3 percentage points higher than the European-style inflation, known as the harmonized index of consumer prices. It is the biggest gap there has ever been. 

The main reason is that Europe’s measure, known as HICP, doesn’t include the imaginary cost of what a homeowner would pay to rent their house, which makes up about a third of the U.S. core CPI. Known as “owners’ equivalent rent” or imputed rent, the measure has long had its critics.

Exclude something that no one actually pays, and which is calculated from guesses by homeowners of the rental value of their house, and core inflation’s looking basically fine, at a fraction under 3%. I’ve concentrated on core inflation, because food and oil prices swing so much that they make it hard to tell if the economy is generating inflation pressures the central bank needs to tackle.

So why is everyone still so concerned about inflation?

The answer is partly about biases and partly about change, but it is mostly about worries that the economy is running too hot to be confident that inflation will come down to the 2% target.

The bias is that CPI is long established and widely used in the U.S. The Bureau of Labor Statistics produces its own HICP inflation data as an experimental measure; many economists and investors don’t even realize it is available. 

Housing Makes the Difference

The HICP inflation gauge excludes imputed rent for homeowners, so is much lower.

Gap between inflation measures

To make matters even more confusing, CPI gets almost all the focus, even though the Fed sets its inflation target based on the personal-consumption expenditures price index, PCE, from the Bureau of Economic Analysis. PCE comes in lower than CPI, but still puts large weight on imputed rent that isn’t actually paid.

Even if the Fed thought HICP was better—and there is no sign it does—there is no way it could change the measure without drawing political heat. Inflation figures are already subject to deep skepticism from some economists, who point out that improvements to the indexes usually make inflation come in lower than on older methods.

The most important question that the gauges seek to answer is whether the underlying pressures are so strong that the economy needs to be restrained further. Will a strong jobs market mean workers flush with pay increases can consume more, keeping demand up and so allowing companies to raise prices? 

If so, the Fed will have to keep raising rates. The lower core HICP inflation suggests the problem of a strong jobs market is less worrisome than on the CPI measure. But hawks are concerned that continued above-inflation pay increases will push inflation up, as companies pass on higher costs. Persistent inflation above 2% might push up expectations of inflation, in turn leading to more pay demands.

Alternatively, will companies facing more expensive borrowing trim spending, hire fewer people and resist pay demands? If so, wages will moderate, demand fall and the Fed relax—at least so long as slowdown doesn’t turn into recession. Doves point to tentative signs that jobs are less plentiful, with initial unemployment claims up and wage increases decelerating for the hourly, less-skilled and lower-paid workers who were most in demand. Doves are also reassured by inflation expectations from consumers and investors not far from the 2% target.

Indicators that have a history of moving in tandem often converge again after a period of moving apart. CPI and PCE might well come down toward HICP, because rent increases have slowed. Unfortunately, even if core inflation does drop more, it will still be too high for comfort on the CPI and PCE gauges that investors and the Fed focus on.

Inflation isn’t the only place where the economic signals are haywire. Lots of the usual indicators of what the economy is doing and where it is going are telling different stories, something I’ll come back to in the next Streetwise. Meanwhile, all of this leaves me concerned—and confused, never a good place to be when trying to figure out what the market will do next.

Cooperate with objective and ethical thinking…

OpenAI’s Sam Altman Is Taking a Nuclear-Energy Startup Public

Oklo, which is developing a small modular nuclear reactor, is valued around $850 million

WSJ By Jennifer Hiller and Amrith Ramkumar, July 11, 2023 

Oklo, a nuclear-fission startup backed by Sam Altman, plans to go public through a merger with his special-purpose acquisition company, company officials said Tuesday.

The deal would add to recent SPAC mergers involving nuclear companies and test investor appetite for clean-energy startups, which surged in 2020 and early 2021 before falling out of favor. Companies such as Oklo trying to build a new generation of smaller nuclear power projects must prove they can deliver on time and on budget, unlike the fleet of large nuclear plants that preceded them. 

California-based Oklo is developing a small modular nuclear reactor design and plans to sell electricity into the competitive power market, including through the kind of agreements that wind and solar developers often cut with corporate and industrial firms that want to buy carbon-free power.

Altman, the chief executive of OpenAI—the artificial-intelligence startup behind the viral chatbot ChatGPT—said the nuclear-energy industry can make electricity that is “a way better deal than anything else out there.” 

At their peak, SPACs accounted for 70% of all IPOs, with $95 billion raised. But now, the market has dried up and shares of companies that did SPAC deals have crashed. WSJ explains the decline of the IPO vehicle. Illustration: Ali Larkin

Nuclear fission can generate energy without greenhouse-gas emissions, and, unlike other technologies such as solar, it can do so 24 hours a day. The process of splitting atoms in nuclear-fission power plants provides nearly 20% of U.S. electricity.

Oklo is valued in the transaction at roughly $850 million. Somewhat unusually, it would go public by combining with AltC Acquisition ALCC -1.42%decrease; red down pointing triangle, a SPAC co-founded by Altman and Michael Klein, a former Citigroup banker and serial blank-check company creator. 

Also known as a blank-check company, a SPAC is a shell company that raises money, then lists publicly with the sole intent of combining with a private company to take it public. After regulators approve the transaction, the company going public replaces the SPAC in the stock market.

Such deals are notorious for enriching company insiders at the expense of other investors. At least a dozen startups that went public during the SPAC boom have filed for bankruptcy, and many others are burning through their cash.

Even in the risky world of SPACs, it is uncommon for an investor to take one of their companies public through one of their own blank-check companies, though not unprecedented. Having the same investor on both sides of a deal can raise concerns for other shareholders about whether they are getting the best outcome. 

The AltC SPAC is also running up against its deadline to do a deal before it has to return cash to its investors, raising questions about the merger’s timing.

AltC and Oklo said they have been working on the transaction for nine months and that AltC had entered into a letter of intent that extended the deadline for three months. Altman recused himself from the transaction review and approval processes on both sides. Altman, Oklo’s founders and Klein have agreed not to sell shares until well after the deal closes, the companies said.

AltC holds $500 million in cash that Oklo could use to expand the business, though that figure will likely drop. SPAC investors can pull their money out of such deals before they close and have been withdrawing in droves during market turbulence over the past two years, making it harder for companies to raise substantial amounts of cash from the transactions. Mergers that lack simultaneous private investments such as the proposed Oklo transaction have been among the worst performers.

Small modular reactor startup X-energy is attempting to go public through a SPAC backed by private-equity firm Ares Management in a $1.8 billion deal. The two sides lowered the valuation by $300 million last month. Competitor NuScale Power went through a blank-check merger last year. Its stock is down about 25%, less than the average decline for companies that went public this way. 

“It has been a difficult year in the SPAC world but I always try not to pay too much attention to trends and look at each opportunity,” Altman said.

Altman is also a backer of nuclear-fusion startup Helion Energy, which signed a deal with Microsoft, believed to be the first commercial agreement for fusion power. Nuclear-fusion systems such as Helion’s would theoretically generate electricity from the energy released when hydrogen and helium are combined, the process that powers the stars. Microsoft has agreed to purchase electricity from Helion within about five years. 

Both Oklo and Helion will try to directly compete with other forms of power generation, as opposed to asking utility companies and their ratepayers to commit to funding projects for which the first-of-a-kind design costs could be uncertain.

Oklo plans to deliver its first reactors in Idaho and Ohio and must navigate a rigorous licensing process with the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission. It is also developing nuclear fuel-recycling technologies with the U.S. Energy Department and U.S. national laboratories, which would provide fuel for its reactors and others.

Altman has a long history with Oklo. He met the founders in 2013 around the time they started the firm, recruited them to startup accelerator Y Combinator in 2014 and invested in the company and became board chair in 2015, a position he still holds.

Altman said the goals of making artificial intelligence and energy cheap and abundant are tied together.

“The AI systems of the future will need tremendous amounts of energy and this fission and fusion can help deliver them,” Altman said, adding that he thinks that as AI advances it will contribute to nuclear-system designs.

Dozens of developers globally are testing small modular reactor designs, though there are no SMRs making electricity in the U.S., and none under construction. Supporters say the smaller-scale reactors could prove cheaper and faster to build than their massive predecessors; skeptics say the effort is a gamble on a technology with unproven economics. At the earliest, such reactors could be available later this decade. 

Jacob DeWitte, co-founder and chief executive of Oklo, said the company is trying to avoid the mistakes of the past, in which utility customers paid rising costs for building a reactor. “That traditional business model is just very difficult to deliver and to execute on,” DeWitte said.

Seaboard: pioneers in power generation in the country…

…“More than 32 years ago, back in January 1990, Seaboard began operations as the first independent power producer (IPP) in the Dominican Republic. They became pioneers in the electricity market by way of the commercial operations of Estrella del Norte, a 40MW floating power generation plant and the first of three built for Seaboard by Wärtsilä.

Hydrogen boiler trial scrapped in setback for net zero

Scheme abandoned following opposition from residents who preferred gas boilers and heat pumps

The Telegraph By Melissa Lawford, July 11, 2023

A net zero trial of hydrogen heating systems in a town near Liverpool has been scrapped after locals pushed back in favour of gas boilers and heat pumps.

In a blow to the Government’s race to go green, the energy minister Lord Callanan announced on Twitter on Monday that plans to make Whitby, Ellesmere Port, into the UK’s first hydrogen-powered village would be scrapped because of a lack of support from residents.

Cadent and British Gas had proposed to install and trial hydrogen heating systems in 2,000 homes in the town for a period of two years.

Lord Callanan said: “After listening to the views of residents, it’s clear that there is no strong local support, therefore Whitby will no longer be considered as the location for the UK’s first hydrogen village trial.”

Residents complained over a 10-month consultation process that they wanted to keep their gas boilers and wanted to use heat pumps instead, Cadent said.

The pushback highlights the challenge faced by the ministers as they scramble to decarbonise Britain’s homes.

In 2021, the Government announced plans for a trial village as part of a plan to become a “world-leading hydrogen economy” in its bid to hit net zero by 2050. 

UK HYDROGEN DEMAND FORECAST

Unlike natural gas, hydrogen does not release carbon when it is burnt.

Many families were apparently still opposed to the plans despite terms laid out by Cadent and British Gas when they submitted their bid at the end of March, which included making the trial optional and letting residents continue to power their homes using gas if they preferred.

Those who opted to participate were promised new hydrogen appliances, installed and maintained for free; price-matching to natural gas for the programme’s duration; and £2,500 in home energy efficiency improvements.

The decision to scrap the trial followed heavy criticism in a report by the Climate Change Committee (CCC), which last month blamed the Government’s “lack of a strategic direction” on electrification and hydrogen policy for “creating systemic uncertainty”, which the CCC said is holding back progress on hydrogen infrastructure.

Lord Callanan said that the Government was in ongoing discussions with the Northern Gas Networks (NGN) about plans for a separate hydrogen trial in Redcar, a town on the Yorkshire coast, and will “announce next steps shortly.” 

NGN has proposed 2,000 homes in parts of Redcar use hydrogen instead of natural gas for a minimum of two years from 2025.

A spokesman for the Department for Energy Security and Net Zero said: “We have always said we wouldn’t force these trials on communities without their support, and we have listened to the people of Whitby after they raised their concerns.”

A Cadent spokesman said: “We believe strongly in the role that hydrogen can play alongside other technologies and energy sources in reaching net zero. 

“While Whitby won’t to be the location for the trial, the information we have gained over the last 12 months will still play an invaluable role in shaping how the UK heats its homes and businesses in the future.”

Exclusive: Shell, BP pursue arbitration claims against Venture Global LNG

A similar lawsuit was filed by Edison SpA in May, as well as the London Court of International Arbitration. Meanwhile, Repsol SA, one of Venture Global LNG's clients, has requested confidential records from US regulators that could reveal more information about the plant's launch.

REUTERS By Marwa Rashad and Curtis Williams, July 12, 2023

[1/2]The Bermuda-flagged LNG tanker Methane Lydon Volney, is seen offshore of the islet of Revithoussa, Greece, September 21, 2022. REUTERS/Costas Baltas/File Photo

LONDON, July 12 (Reuters) - Top LNG traders Shell (SHEL.L) and BP (BP.L) have separately filed for arbitration against U.S. exporter Venture Global LNG for failing to supply contracted cargoes, even as it sold to non-contract customers as prices soared, four people familiar with the matter said.

A Venture Global LNG spokesperson did not comment on the Shell and BP claims. Last month, the company said it was in full compliance with terms of its long-term contracts and cited a need for extensive commissioning of its modular facility.

Shell and BP missed out on billions of dollars in sales that went to Venture Global LNG because they were unable to get their contracted fuel, one of the people familiar with the arbitration filings said. Prices for liquefied natural gas (LNG) soared last year on Russia's gas-supply cuts to Europe.

The companies filed their cases at the London Court of International Arbitration. A similar case was brought by Italian utility Edison SpA (EDNn.MI) in May. Another Venture Global LNG contract customer, Spanish energy firm Repsol SA (REP.MC), has asked U.S. regulators to release confidential records that would shed light on the plant's startup.

Founded by a former energy lawyer and investment banker, Venture Global LNG has emerged as a market force with its ability to obtain financing and rapidly build export plants. It has pledged to produce 70 million tons of LNG per year once the projects are completed.

The contracts were tied to Calcasieu Pass LNG, the first of Venture Global LNG's three planned facilities. It stitched together 18 liquefaction units to produce up to 12 million tons per year of the supercooled gas.

NOW/China lashes back at NATO criticism, warns it will protect its rights

Reuters, July 12, 2023

BEIJING, July 12 (Reuters) - Beijing lashed back at NATO's accusation that China challenges the bloc's interests and security, and opposed any attempt by the military alliance to expand its footprint into the Asia-Pacific region.

In a strongly worded communique issued midway into a two-day summit in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius on Tuesday, NATO said the People's Republic of China (PRC) challenged its interests, security and values with its "ambitions and coercive policies".

"The PRC employs a broad range of political, economic, and military tools to increase its global footprint and project power, while remaining opaque about its strategy, intentions and military build-up," NATO heads of state said in their communique.

"The PRC's malicious hybrid and cyber operations and its confrontational rhetoric and disinformation target Allies and harm Alliance security."

The Chinese mission to the European said in a statement on Tuesday the China-related content of the communique disregarded basic facts, distorted China's position and policies, and deliberately discredited China.

"We firmly oppose and reject this," it said.

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg told reporters at the summit that while China was not a NATO "adversary", it was increasingly challenging the rules-based international order with its "coercive behaviour."

"China is increasingly challenging the rules-based international order, refusing to condemn Russia's war against Ukraine, threatening Taiwan, and carrying out a substantial military build-up," he said.

However, NATO made no mention of Taiwan in its communique.

Taiwan's foreign ministry said it was "very meaningful" for Stoltenberg to once again clearly express his concern for security in the Taiwan Strait.

Taiwan is a responsible, democratic member of the Indo-Pacific region, and is willing to work with like-minded partners such as Europe and the United States to jointly combat coercion by and challenges from authoritarian regimes, it added.

'SPREADING ITS TENTACLES'

Attendance at the two-day summit also includes some Asia-Pacific leaders.

Japanese Prime Minister Fumio Kishida, joining for a second time, aimed to remind the military alliance to pay heed to East Asia risks, while South Korean President Yoon Suk Yeol sought deeper international security cooperation amid rising North Korean threats and tension over China.

In May, Kishida said Japan had no plans to become a NATO member, even though NATO was planning a Tokyo office, its first in Asia, to facilitate consultations in the region.

The Chinese mission said China resolutely opposed NATO's "eastward movement into the Asia-Pacific region" and warned any action threatening Beijing's rights would be met with a resolute response.

"Any act that jeopardises China's legitimate rights and interests will be met with a resolute response," it said.

In the communique, NATO said China sought to control key technological and industrial sectors, critical infrastructure, and strategic materials and supply chains, and that Beijing also used its economic leverage to create strategic dependencies and enhance its influence.

China's state-run Xinhua news agency hit back, saying in a report that the wars and conflicts involving NATO states suggest the bloc is a "grave challenge" to global peace and stability.

"Despite all the chaos and conflict already inflicted, NATO is spreading its tentacles to the Asia-Pacific region with an express aim of containing China."