** The Los Angeles City Council approved a measure to ban new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones.
** The Biden administration is engaged with European countries and major energy companies to prepare for a scenario in which a Russian invasion of Ukraine leads to a natural gas shortage in Europe, a senior administration official said Tuesday.
** eneral Motors is making a $7 billion investment in four new Michigan electric vehicle manufacturing plants in an effort to “be the market leader” in electric vehicles by 2025, CEO Mary Barra announced on Tuesday.
** Andrew Wheeler, Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin’s (R) nominee for state secretary of natural resources and former staffer for Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe, was questioned by state lawmakers Tuesday over his time serving as former President Trump’s Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) head.
** The U.S. Court of Appeals for the 4th Circuit on Tuesday invalidated federal approvals for Equitrans Midstream Corp’s $6.2 billion Mountain Valley natural gas pipeline under construction from West Virginia to Virginia.
World
** The Biden administration announced Tuesday that it is working with international partners to ensure NATO allies in Europe would not be crippled if Russia cut off natural gas shipments, The New York Times reported.
** Thailand’s navy was helping Wednesday to clean up a spill of as much as 128 tons (160,000 liters) of crude oil that leaked from a pipeline in the Gulf of Thailand. The spill is near an industrial area but some of the oil could hit area beaches by Friday if it’s not dispersed before then.
** Ecuador’s President Guillermo Lasso said on Tuesday he will seek to disconnect the handover of crude from outstanding debt to China during a visit to the Asian country next month, part of his plan to renegotiate some $4.1 billion in debt.
** A new non-profit organization has joined several other groups in seeking indigenous ownership of the Trans Mountain Pipeline that runs from Alberta to Canada’s west coast.