** The American Petroleum Institute is leading a lawsuit filed Monday challenging the Biden administration’s indefinite pause on oil and natural gas leasing in federal lands and waters. API and 11 other oil industry trade groups argue the Interior Department failed to satisfy procedural requirements and ignored congressional mandates for holding lease sales.
** Sierra Club executive director Michael Brune resigned Friday after 11 years leading the group. He wrote that he was sorry for “any instance” where staff and volunteers did not “feel safe, supported and valued,” but didn’t elaborate on what that was referring to reported POLITICO.
** The US National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) has initiated an investigation of Tesla’s Autopilot system. The probe follows 11 crashes with parked first responder vehicles since 2018, which resulted in 17 injuries and one death.
** Oil and gas producers in U.S. Gulf of Mexico have consolidated at a faster rate during the pandemic, new government data shows, as crashing prices squeezed out smaller drillers who had been seen as the industry’s future.
** Ohio electric vehicle startup Lordstown Motors expects to start limited production of its electric truck next month as it continues to seek long-term funding from investors.
** Mazda’s pledge to release more electric vehicles might not signal the end of its celebrated rotary engine. The firm is reportedly developing a hydrogen-burning Wankel that could be used to power a successor to the RX-8.
** Automakers in North America plan to build more big pickups and sport utility vehicles than electric vehicles well into the late 2020s, chasing sales trends that run counter to the Biden administration’s goal of boosting EVs to half the market by 2030, according to internal production forecasts viewed by Reuters.
** BHP Group is in talks over a potential merger of its oil and gas unit with Woodside Petroleum Ltd. to accelerate a retreat from fossil fuels amid increasing pressure to curb emissions.
** Germany is forecast to slip back below the threshold it had set for cutting greenhouse gases by 2020, amid a post-pandemic recovery and unfavorable conditions for renewable energy, according to a report by an environmental think tank Sunday.
** Wyoming stands to receive over $100 million for mined land reclamation from the U.S. Senate’s infrastructure bill passed last week, but critics say mining companies should pay for cleanup, not taxpayers.
** The United States continued a trend of significant growth in large-scale battery capacity, with U.S. battery power capacity reaching 1,650 megawatts (MW) by the end of 2020. According to EIA’s report, Battery Storage in the United States: An Update on Market Trends, U.S. battery power capacity grew by 35% in 2020 and has tripled in the last five years.
** The Tennessee Valley Authority will ask employees and contractors whether they have received the COVID-19 vaccine and may soon place restrictions on unvaccinated workers.