** A Japanese-owned tanker that ran aground off the coast of Mauritius last month has now split in two, spilling tons more oil into the Indian Ocean. The MV Wakashio struck a coral reef July 25, 12 days before the 4,000 tons of oil aboard started to spill out into the water.
** An oil spill in Venezuela has coated a stretch of the crisis-wracked nation’s Caribbean coastline, treasured for its white sand beaches, clusters of small islands and wildlife. Fisherman and locals living around Morrocoy National Park began reporting oil washing ashore last week and it has coated roughly 9 miles (15 kilometers) of beaches. The area popular with tourists is located 180 miles (300 kilometers) from the capital of Caracas.
** It is now “conceivable” Venezuela could produce close to zero barrels of oil, according to a new analysis by IHS Markit. Crude oil production in the country, which has some of the biggest reserves in the world and was once one of the largest oil producers, is currently between 100,000 and 200,000 barrels a day and falling.
** Shares of Marathon Petroleum Corp. rallied 3.0% in premarket trading Wednesday, after Cowen analyst Jason Gabelman upgraded the oil refining, marketing and transportation company, saying he believes the market is underappreciating the capitalization improvement as a result of the $21 billion sale of its Speedway convenience-store chain, which was announced earlier this month.
** Wind and solar produced a record 10 percent of global electricity in the first half of 2020 as the world’s coal plant fleet ran at less than half its capacity, analysis published Thursday showed. Overall, the percentage of power drawn from wind and solar has more than doubled from 4.6 percent in 2015 — the year of the landmark Paris deal on climate change.
** Natural gas was the fastest-growing source of electric power generation in the first half of 2020, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration’s Hourly Electric Grid Monitor. Natural gas-fired generation in the Lower 48 states increased by nearly 55 000 GWh, or 9%, in the first half of 2020 compared with the first half of 2019.
** DOE is close to officially reopening an Arctic Energy Office in Alaska that will expand the agency’s research into the region’s changing climate and how to adapt oil and gas production to it.
** DOE is making good on a talking point from President Donald Trump: It’s publishing a proposed rule to boost the flow of water in your shower. The regulation would redefine showerheads so that each appliance can include multiple nozzles.
** The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals will not revisit its May ruling sending a climate change lawsuit brought against oil companies by San Francisco and Oakland back to state courts.
** The clean energy sector added just 3,195 jobs in July, leaving a total of 511,075 clean energy workers out of work since the coronavirus pandemic began, BW Research said in analysis Wednesday.
** Toyota is planning a $2.7 million solar project in Alabama to help power its plants.
** A University of Arizona researcher says solar panels will end up in landfills unless recycling is mandated.
** Conservation groups celebrate the BLM’s postponement of oil and gas lease sales near Utah national parks.