Volume 8, Issue 5
October 21, 2019 – October 27, 2019
Neha Chauhan '21 | Sabrina Reguyal ‘22 | Joe Kawalec '21 | Rei Zhang ‘21 | Amy Amatya '21 | Patrick Huang ‘21
Perry Tells Trump He Will Resign as Energy Secretary
October 17, 2019 | New York Times | Maggie Haberman and Lisa Friedman
Rick Perry, the U.S. Secretary of Energy, informed President Trump of his intention to resign on Thursday, October 17th. As Secretary, Perry pursued an American-centric campaign to export U.S. energy to foreign countries. Under his jurisdiction, production of fossil fuels, especially natural gas, increased sharply. Additionally, he oversaw a budget increase of nearly 25%. Recently, Perry has been implicated in efforts to compel the Ukrainian President, Volodymyr Zelensky, to investigate a company that has worked with Joe Biden’s son Hunter. However, the New York Times previously reported on his plans to retire by December and join the private sector, before the extent of his involvement in Ukraine was revealed. -RZ
'It’s the Only Way to Get Paid’: A Struggle for Citgo, Venezuela’s U.S. Oil Company
October 17, 2019 | New York Times | Clifford Krauss
Citgo, a major Venezuelan-owned oil company in the US, is on the verge of collapse in the wake of the crisis in Venezuela. Multiple groups are eyeing control of the valuable but vulnerable company, which will fall under ill-defined jurisdiction if it is unable to generate its own billion dollar debt. Losing control of Citgo to shareholders would mean that Venezuela loses its most valuable overseas asset and further hinders its economic recovery. Some creditors are calling on the US to amend trading sanctions in order to help the legitimate president work towards paying a $150 billion dollar national debt. -AA
All-electric homes offer a prototype for low-carbon housing in Colorado
October 17, 2019 | Energy News Network | Allen Best
In one Colorado mountain town, a new affordable housing project named Basalt Vista is making a bold statement about energy use by making all its new homes entirely electric. Holy Cross Energy, the local electric utility in Basalt, Colorado, is installing all-electric units that have electricity fueling kitchen stoves and warming the air instead of natural gas. Ending the regime of fossil fuels has been an important goal of Colorado legislators over the past few years while the idea of building electrification is an “infant concept” elsewhere, like in California. Offering heavily subsidized housing costs and featuring photovoltaic solar panels on all its roofs, the Basalt Vista housing project is making a big step towards making net zero affordable energy housing accessible on a national scale. -JK