Energy news headlines for Tuesday

** Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg stressed in a new interview that families who buy electric vehicles (EVs) “never have to worry about gas prices again.” While speaking on MSNBC’s “The Sunday Show With Jonathan Capehart,” Buttigieg noted that Democrats’ proposed social spending package includes incentives to make it more affordable to buy an electric vehicle.

** North Dakota officials look to tap billions of dollars in federal funding to expand the state’s abandoned well plugging program.

** Investor enthusiasm in Rivian suggests the startup could overtake major Detroit-based automakers in the electric vehicle race, though some analysts are skeptical.

** The Ohio House passes legislation to create an electric vehicle commission that would advise lawmakers on policy while creating tax incentives for manufacturers. 

** A U.S. Interior Department review of the federal oil and gas leasing program recommends raising royalty rates, minimum bids and bonding levels, drawing ire from industry officials while environmentalists criticize the report’s silence on drilling’s climate impacts.

** Federal Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning says the agency will turn away from oil and gas dominance, and toward renewable energy and a “carbon-free future on our public lands.”

World

** The German government has urged members of Congress not to sanction the Nord Stream 2 pipeline, arguing that doing so will “weaken” U.S. credibility and “ultimately damage transatlantic unity,” according to documents obtained by Axios.

** Energy prices in Europe are repeatedly breaking records even before winter really kicks in, and one of the most damaging cost crunches in history is about to get worse as the temperature starts to drop.