** U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) Assistant Administrator for Water Radhika Fox announced the decision to move forward with environmental review of a suite of water infrastructure projects that, pending final selection, would address transborder water pollution. This action will lead to essential public health protections for San Diego County communities and stop Mexico’s pollution of the Tijuana River.
** Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg said on Monday that his agency would use a portion of the $1.2 trillion infrastructure bill to address racial inequities in U.S. highway design. Buttigieg’s remarks at a press briefing come amid a broader discussion of racial and socioeconomic disparities in the U.S. and days after Congress passed the long-awaited infrastructure bill.
** A total of 48 percent of U.S. homes will pay 30 percent higher bills for heating this winter, as 48 percent is the share of U.S. households that use gas as the primary fuel for space heating, the Energy Information Administration (EIA) said at the end of last month.
** The Securities and Exchange Commission has accused the popular USO oil fund, an exchange traded product that has become the most popular vehicle for trading U.S. oil, of failing to disclose key facts about the fund when the oil market was in deep distress last April. Half of that money will go to the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, which had also found that USO had violated CFTC regulations.
** Oil and gas producer Occidental Petroleum Corp.’s move to hedge its output has been a roller coaster over the past two years. Occidental, one of the Permian Basin’s biggest producers, lost an estimated $339 million from its oil and gas hedges this year through Sept. 30, the latest quarterly filing showed. That includes losses not yet realized.
** The Florida Department of Environmental Protection denied an application Friday for an exploratory oil well to be built in Immokalee following concerns over water resources, wildlife and wetland ecosystems.
** A group of U.S. Senate Republicans said on Monday they had introduced legislation that would impose mandatory sanctions on Nord Stream 2, a Russian-backed natural gas pipeline that opponents believe would be harmful to U.S. allies in Europe.
** American Electric Power officials say the utility is still on track to get half of its electric generation from renewables by 2030.
World
** Canada’s oil sands are inching toward record production, as the country’s biggest producers squeeze more barrels out of existing assets, but they are holding back on big spending despite some of the highest oil prices in seven years. The oil sands, which make up the bulk of Canada’s production, are on track to reach 3.5 million barrels per day (bpd) by year-end, surpassing January’s record of 3.25 million bpd, said Matt Murphy, analyst at investment bank Tudor, Pickering, Holt.
** Royal Dutch Shell and Norsk Hydro are looking into jointly producing hydrogen from renewable electricity in a push to decarbonise their own operations as well as supply heavy industry and transport customers, Hydro said on Tuesday.
** A large plume of methane, the potent greenhouse gas that’s a key contributor to global warming, was spotted by satellite near a natural gas line in northeast China. The release was detected in Liaoning province near a China Oil & Gas Pipeline Network Corp. pipe that runs from the Dalian LNG terminal to Shenyang on Oct. 20.
** Barack Obama attacked China and Russia on Monday over their “dangerous absence of urgency” as he attempted to rally the final week of talks at the Cop26 summit.