** POLITICO says two Republicans on the Federal Trade Commission are asking the White House for any proof of illegal activity by the oil and gas industry to raise gasoline prices, which Biden asked FTC Chair Lina Khan to investigate last week. Commissioners Noah Phillips and Christine Wilson requested evidence “so that we might consider how to proceed,” Reuters reports.
** U.S. Senator Elizabeth Warren on Tuesday called on energy companies to explain “their decisions to export record amounts of natural gas while imposing massive price increases” on consumers, accusing them of “corporate greed” while Americans struggle to pay their bills.
Warren sent letters to 11 energy companies, including Exxon Mobil, ConocoPhillips and Occidental Petroleum .
** As reports emerge that Toyota is considering a North Carolina site for a battery plant, the site’s developers file a plan to grade the area for “an approximate 1,000-acre automotive storage battery manufacturing, production, and assembly facility.”
** Hyundai announces plans to make electric vehicles at its U.S. factories in Alabama and Georgia but hesitates due to a potential tax credit for U.S.- and union-made EVs.
** Southern Co. announces it will shutter two-thirds of its coal fleet, and other companies prepare to close plants across the Southeast due to stricter federal wastewater pollution controls.
** General Motors’ is expanding its electric vehicles’ business by acquiring a 25% stake in the electric boating company Pure Watercraft.
** Baker Hughes will hold a webcast on Thursday, January 20, 2022 to discuss the results for the fourth quarter and full year ending December 31, 2021. The webcast is scheduled to begin at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time.
** The Supreme Court on Monday sided with Tennessee in a water dispute with Mississippi, ruling that the court should divide up the water that’s in an aquifer between the states to determine how much each can use.
** One of the world’s largest wind turbine manufacturers, Vestas Wind Systems, says it’s contending with a cyberattack that forced the firm shut down some of its IT systems.
