Past Lives.

The little guy.

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1. The New York Times:

In the rocky soil of Lorraine, a former coal mining region near the French-German border, scientists guided a small probe one recent day down a borehole half a mile into the earth’s crust.

Frothing in the water table below was an exciting find: champagne-size bubbles that signaled a potentially mammoth cache of so-called white hydrogen, one of the cleanest-burning fuels in nature……

Governments and companies worldwide have been betting on hydrogen as a cornerstone in the fight against climate change. A multibillion-dollar industry, backed by billions more in subsidies and private investments, has sprung up to support the manufacturing of hydrogen, which in theory could substitute for fossil fuels to power factories, trucks, ships and planes, potentially removing around half of all planet-warming emissions.

But making commercial hydrogen involves splitting water into hydrogen and oxygen, an endeavor that requires energy. If fossil fuels are used, the process results in greenhouse gas emissions, and the result is called gray hydrogen. Tapping renewable electricity from wind turbines and solar panels to produce what’s called green hydrogen is cleaner but more expensive.

Natural hydrogen, also called white hydrogen because of its purity, could be a game changer, scientists say, because it is a potential source of clean energy continuously generated by the earth. Hydrogen reservoirs form when heated water meets iron-rich rocks. According to the U.S. Geological Survey, just a small fraction of these deposits could provide enough clean energy for hundreds of years. (Sources: nytimes.com, usgs.gov/news)

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2. The analyst who predicted the troubles that cascaded through China’s regional banks four years ago now has a similar warning for the nation’s $2.9 trillion trust industry. Many of these firms are “deeply distressed, potentially with their capital solvency at risk,” said Jason Bedford, a former analyst with Bridgewater Associates and UBS Group AG. Bedford made his name by issuing early warnings about China’s smaller banks after combing through nearly 250 financial statements. He’s now done the same for China’s trust firms, a corner of the country’s shadow banking sector that can offer returns several times that of a bank deposit. The National Administration of Financial Regulation, which oversees trust firms, didn’t respond to a request for a comment. (Source: bloomberg.com)