** The federal government will argue that it should avoid a lawsuit by Louisiana, Alabama, and eight other states over its estimates on the social cost of greenhouse gas emissions, in a hearing before a federal judge Tuesday. The states will use their time to try to convince the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Louisiana that it should block the estimates from going into effect while their lawsuit proceeds reports Bloomberg.
** The largest oil and gas companies made a combined $174bn in profits in the first nine months of the year as gasoline prices climbed in the US, according to a new report.
** General Motors will build a new factory in North America as part of an upcoming joint venture with a South Korean chemical manufacturer. GM said it signed a “non-binding term sheet” to create a joint venture with POSCO Chemical.
** The company decommissioning Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station has told the Nuclear Regulatory Commission that it plans to start discharging radioactive water from the plant into Cape Cod Bay within the first three months of 2022.
** The U.S. securities regulator has asked Lucid Group Inc for documents related to an investigation into its blank-check deal, joining a growing list of companies that have come under scrutiny for their merger with shell companies.
World
** Brazil was the only oil-producing country in South America to report an increase in crude oil and condensate production in 2020 compared with 2019, according to the US Energy Information Administration.
** Royal Dutch Shell Plc has evacuated non-essential staff from its floating liquefied natural gas facility in northwest Australia as the operator struggled to restore power that knocked out operations earlier in the week, according to people familiar with the matter reported Bloomberg.
