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Climate Change.  President Obama spoke at the United Nations Climate Summit today announcing major new commitments to battle climate change.  The President vowed to increase assistance to vulnerable developing countries to help them enhance their resilience to devastating weather conditions, and issued an executive order directing all federal agencies to consider climate resilience to drought, wildfires, floods, and other weather extremes when designing and investing in international programs.  The Hill

Oil.  Controversies surrounding the classification of condensate, a very light type of oil separated at field facilities from natural gas, are escalating as production skyrockets and the ban on crude oil exports holds.  After the U.S. Commerce Department ruled in several private cases that lightly refined condensate can be exported, capacity thresholds at many refineries became threatened.  Fuel Fix

OP-ED of the Day

Climate Change.  Donald Kaberuka, President of the African Development Bank, argues that climate change merits a global response because no region of the world is immune, and the costs of adapting to climate change are high for all.  He asserts that the UN meeting in New York this week needs to produce four outcomes: (1) a global _commitment to cut greenhouse-gas emissions through fiscal and economic policies and regulation; (2) a global agreement on a mechanism to raise and channel financial support for technology transfers to developing countries; (3) a vow to remove obstacles to a legally binding universal agreement at next year’s global climate conference in Paris; and (4) a specific commitment from African leaders to establish an environment that attracts private-sector support for environmentally clean development.  Project Syndicate

U.S. Economic Indicators

The ADP National Employment report shows that nonfarm private-sector employment increased 204,000 in August, the fifth month of job growth over 200,000.  July’s increase in jobs was revised downward 6,000 to 212,000.  ADP report

The U.S. trade deficit narrowed slightly in July to its lowest level in six months, as exports rose 0.9% and imports increased 0.7% from the previous month.  Although $40.5 billion gap came in slightly below consensus expectations, its steady decline points to solid third quarter economic growth.  BEA report, Reuters

Initial claims for unemployment insurance ticked up 4,000 to 302,000, pointing to a healthy but not accelerating jobs market.  The four-week moving average edged up slightly to 302,750, while continuing claims fell to their lowest level since June 2007.  DOL report, Reuters

Nonfarm business sector labor productivity increased at an annual rate of 2.3% during Q2 2014, up from a revised -4.5% drop. Labor costs fell 0.1% and output jumped 5.0% in Q2. BLS report

ISM’s non-manufacturing index showed stronger-than-expected growth in August, with the composite index edging up 0.9 percentage points from July to 59.6, the highest reading since the index’s inception in January 2008.  Business activity jumped 2.6 percentage points and employment increased 1.1 percentage points, while new orders decelerated 1.1 percentage points.  Report

U.S. News

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Coal. Hydropower production facilities in China have displaced much of the nation’s demand for coal imports, as evidenced by record-low coal shipping rates. Three hydroelectric plants started this year generated enough energy to replace 26 million tons of coal, or approximately 370 cargo loads. Bloomberg

Energy Outlook. A report from the U.S. Energy Information Administration finds that energy companies are continuing to take out new lines of credit in efforts to finance projects amid flat cash flows and oil prices. The report says that this increase in debt is not inherently bad, so long as low interest rates and expanding production generate the revenue needed for the debt repayments. Fuel Fix

OP-ED of the Day

Energy Policy. Bob Sussman argues that the state-specific carbon reduction goals proposed in the EPA’s Clean Power Plan are fair due to the analytical, data-driven approach employed by the EPA.  He addresses several of the goals’ key criticisms with state-specific examples, pointing out that the uniform application of the EPA’s methodology produced equitable and achievable targets. Brookings

Quote of the Week

“The reason is simple: A degraded environment leads to a degraded economy.”

Source: Christine Lagarde, director of the IMF, in a statement yesterday calling nations to implement higher energy taxes that reflect the harmful impacts of fossil fuel use on both the environment and public health. (7.31.14)