** Electric-truck maker Rivian went public in the largest U.S. IPO since 2014. The stock opened at $106.75, above its initial public offering price of $78. The upstart auto manufacturer is backed by some big names, including Amazon and Ford.
** Six major automakers, including Ford and General Motors, pledge to phase out gasoline- and diesel-powered vehicles by 2040 worldwide, though the U.S. was not among the 30 countries that also joined the pledge.
** The share of electricity generated from wind and solar in the U.S. nearly quadrupled from 2011 to 2020, putting it on a pace to meet current power demand by 2035, a report finds.
**President Biden‘s nominee to lead a branch of the Treasury Department, Saule Omarova, said in a recently resurfaced video that she supports the idea of energy industries going “bankrupt” to combat climate change.
** House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who led a Democratic congressional delegation at the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow Tuesday, said women around the world are more exposed to climate change’s negative impact.
** A federal judge orders West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s coal companies to pay nearly $3 million for violations at eastern Kentucky mines and revokes several of their mining permits, including at mines that were planned to reopen.
** A plan to use $8 billion in the federal infrastructure package to turn the Marcellus shale basin into a “blue hydrogen” hub could be outdated by the time it’s complete because a cleaner way to make hydrogen may soon be cheaper reports Bloomberg.
** U.S. consumers faced the biggest jump in their energy bills in more than a decade last month, with costs soaring for electricity, natural gas and fuel oil as cooler weather approaches. The price of electricity in October increased 6.5% from the same month a year ago while consumer expenses paid to utilities for gas went up 28%, according to numbers released Wednesday by the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. Fuel oil rose 59%, and costs for propane, kerosene and firewood jumped by about 35%, the data show.
** Southwest Airlines and British Airways-owner IAG agreed to purchase nearly 300 million gallons of sustainable aviation fuel created from woody biomass at a Mississippi biorefinery, the companies said on Wednesday.
** Denver’s city council allocates $26 million to construct solar facilities on city-owned buildings and parcels, with 30% of the electricity going to low-income households.
World
** European natural gas prices slumped to the lowest in more than a week as Russian supplies gradually increased before trimming losses as optimism of a significant boost in shipments waned.
** China and the US on Wednesday made a dramatic last-minute deal on the sidelines of Cop26 to co-operate on climate change in a bid to help claim success at the summit. It included pledges from Beijing on tackling methane and deforestation, a joint recognition of the “seriousness and urgency of the climate crisis”, and to cut emissions in the next 10 years, but had little detailed policy.
**Japan’s Subaru Corp on Thursday unveiled its first all-electric vehicle (EV), the Solterra, the result of a two-year joint development project with its biggest shareholder, Toyota Motor Corp.