** The Biden administration denies allegations that it violated environmental laws and failed to consider and disclose the climate impacts when approving 3,500 oil and gas drilling permits since early 2021.
** A coalition of 26 climate change, public health and environmental justice advocacy organizations formally petitioned the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) on Tuesday to regulate air pollution produced by residential and commercial heating appliances, a move that would require homeowners and businesses to swap out heating and hot water furnaces.
** California’s new policies around clean air regulations on port operations could have profound consequences, according to Matt Schrap, CEO of the Harbor Trucking Association.
** A new tax credit for U.S. buyers of qualifying electric vehicles made in North America has ignited the specter of a trade war as a domestic imperative of the Biden administration and Democrats collides with the complex realities of globalization.
** Tesla’s former head of energy is officially launching Lunar Energy, a new startup aimed at simplifying the transition to full home electrification. Kunal Girotra, who was until February 2020 Tesla’s senior director of energy operations, is chief executive of Lunar as well as its founder.
** A company opens in Tennessee with plans to build 10,000 to 30,000 fast-charging electric vehicle stations annually.
** Toyota drops its challenge to California’s authority to set its own auto emission standards, ending a years-long legal standoff.
World
** Germany hopes Canadian liquefied natural gas (LNG) will help ease its shift away from Russian gas imports, Chancellor Olaf Scholz said on Tuesday, a day after Canada played down the economic viability and speed of setting up new export terminals.
** Polish Grupa Azoty, a large fertilizer producer, has stopped the production of some key fertilizers, including nitrogen fertilizers and caprolactam, because of soaring energy costs, becoming the latest casualty of the European gas crunch.
** Germany’s natural gas storage facilities are now more than 80% full, showing steady progress despite a drastic reduction in deliveries from Russia amid the war in Ukraine.
** Japan will restart more idled nuclear plants and look at developing next-generation reactors, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida said on Wednesday, setting the stage for a major policy shift on nuclear energy a decade after the Fukushima disaster.
** Saudi Arabia Is Planning To Build The World’s Largest Wind Farm In Uzbekistan.