** Native American tribes, including the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe told the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers that the environmental study on Dakota Access oil pipeline is biased and urged the Biden administration to bring in the U.S. Interior Department.
** Interior Secretary Deb Haaland suggested a sharply limited role for fossil fuel extraction on U.S. federal lands and waters in her most expansive comments yet on the administration’s overhaul of oil and gas leasing.
** Tesla broke ground on its “Megafactory,” a new production facility in California, so christened because it will produce the company’s large-scale battery system Megapack.
** The U.S. Senate Foreign Relations Committee scheduled a closed-door hearing on Sept. 29 to discuss Russia’s Nord Stream 2 natural gas pipeline, which several lawmakers say could harm allies in Eastern Europe.
** Chinese wind turbine manufacturer Ming Yang Smart Energy Group Ltd. is planning to set up a major manufacturing facility in Germany in a bid to capture a chunk of Europe’s fast-growing renewable power market.
** BP Plc, the second-largest fuel retailer in the U.K., said it’s shutting some of gas stations because of a nationwide truck driver shortage that’s threatening to derail the country’s economic recovery.
** The EIA predicts industrial sector natural gas consumption to rise throughout 2021 and to exceed pre-pandemic 2019 levels. It forecast the growth to continue into 2022, and natural gas delivered to industrial consumers will average 23.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d) that year.
** The New Orleans City Council unanimously passes a package of measures aimed at investigating Entergy’s Hurricane Ida response and studying the city’s options for severing ties with the utility.
** Nearly 900 people have been arrested during Line 3 pipeline protests, straining public defense resources in northern Minnesota counties.
** The owners of a defunct biofuels plant in northeastern Nebraska will pay a $1.1 million fine to the state and federal governments for repeated environmental violations.
** U.S. coal production is up 11% from levels a year ago, with the Illinois Basin showing the highest recent growth in the nation.
** Schlumberger Limited will hold a conference call on October 22, 2021 to discuss the results for the third quarter ending September 30, 2021. The conference call is scheduled to begin at 9:30 am US Eastern time and a press release regarding the results will be issued at 7:00 am US Eastern time.
