9NOVEMBER 2024Element Fuels Holdings, a startup based in Dallas, has proposed building a new hydrogen-powered oil refinery and power plant at the Port of Brownsville in South Texas. The estimated $4 billion project would be the first entirely new large-scale oil refinery constructed in the United States since the 1970s.The facility would process domestic shale oil and utilize hydrogen fuel to produce low carbon intensity gasoline, diesel, and jet fuels. It would have the capacity to produce over 160,000 barrels per day of refined products. The project would also generate a surplus of renewable electricity from its hydrogen power plant to supply to Texas' grid.Element Fuels aims to have the refinery operational by 2027. The company completed initial site preparation and pre-construction activities in 2024 on a 240-acre parcel at the Port of Brownsville.The Impact on Maritime FacilitiesModern Texas oil and gas refineries and rigs utilize advanced technologies and process safety measures, making them inherently safer than older facilities. New refineries and rigs, on-shore and off-shore, are designed from the ground up with the latest equipment, control systems, and risk management practices. They incorporate lessons from past incidents to prevent fires, explosions, and releases. Stringent regulations and oversight also require new refineries to meet strict environmental and safety standards, as any good Houston maritime injury lawyer knows.The refinery would utilize advanced technologies to maximize the production of clean fuels and renewable power. The use of hydrogen fuel would limit the facility's carbon dioxide emissions.Element Fuels states the project would create hundreds of high-paying jobs in Brownsville. They also plan to work with local officials on affordable housing and sustainability initiatives to benefit the community.environmentally sound refinery operations, and it's hoped the new Element Fuels Holdings refinery in South Texas remains incident free once it becomes operational. CLIMATE CHANGE TO COST INDIA 24.7 PERCENT OF ITS GDPNEW MARITIME OIL REFINERY PROJECT IN SOUTH TEXAS BY ELEMENT FUELS HOLDINGSClimate change under a high-end emissions scenario could lead to a 16.9 per cent loss in GDP by 2070 across the Asia and Pacific region, with India projected to suffer a 24.7 per cent GDP loss, according to a new report. Rising sea levels and decreasing labour productivity would drive the most significant losses, with lower-income and fragile economies being hit the hardest, it said. The new research, presented in the inaugural issue of ADB's "Asia-Pacific Climate Report", details a series of damaging impacts threatening the region.It says that if the climate crisis continues to accelerate, up to 300 million people in the region could be at risk from coastal inundation, and trillions of dollars' worth of coastal assets could face annual damage by 2070. "Climate change has supercharged the devastation from tropical storms, heat waves, and floods in the region, contributing to unprecedented economic challenges and human suffering," said ADB President Masatsugu Asakawa.Urgent, well-coordinated climate action addressing these impacts is necessary before it is too late, he said.This climate report provides insights into financing urgent adaptation needs and offers promising policy recommendations to governments in our developing member countries on how to reduce greenhouse gas emissions at the lowest cost, he added."By 2070, climate change under a high-end emissions scenario could cause a total loss of 16.9 per cent of GDP across the Asia and Pacific region. Most of the region would face more than 20 percent loss."Among the assessed countries and subregions, these losses are concentrated in Bangladesh (30.5 percent), Viet Nam (per cent), Indonesia (per cent), India (24.7 percent), 'the rest of Southeast Asia' (23.4 per cent), higher-income Southeast Asia (22 per cent), Pakistan (21.1 per cent), the Pacific (18.6 per cent), and the Philippines (18.1 per cent)," the report said.It said that developing Asia has accounted for most of the increase in global GHG emissions since 2000. While advanced economies were major GHG emitters throughout the 20th century, emissions from developing Asia have risen more rapidly than those from any other region in the first two decades of the 21st century.
< Page 8 | Page 10 >