** The Biden administration moved forward with its plans to pause — and potentially halt — oil and gas drilling on the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. The Department of the Interior (DOI) announced that it suspended leases that the previous administration auctioned off to oil and gas developers just weeks before Donald Trump left office.
** A federal judge rules that even though President Biden canceled a presidential permit for the Keystone XL pipeline, a future president could reinstate the project.
** Kinder Morgan, Inc. KMI has entered into an agreement to acquire Stagecoach Gas Services LLC (Stagecoach). The $1.225-billion deal is likely to consummate in the third quarter of this year, awaiting regulatory approval under Hart-Scott-Rodino.
** After a planned recess, crews are ramping up construction again on the $4 billion Enbridge Line 3 replacement in northern Minnesota. The number of workers handling the roughly 340-mile pipeline project — which is 60% complete — is expected to jump from around 1,000 during the pause to 4,000 this month reported Axios.
** The number of coal-fired power stations granted approval globally has risen for the first time since 2015 – with China making up two thirds of all plans for the heavily polluting plants.
** Shares of Southwestern Energy Co. rose 0.9% in premarket trading Wednesday, after the oil and gas production company announced an agreement to buy Indigo Natural Resources LLC for $2.7 billion.
** Tesla said it expects to spend more than $1 billion a year on battery raw materials from Australia given the country’s reliable mining industry and responsible production practices.
** A fire-damaged Japanese factory that supplies many of the auto industry’s computer chips is producing about 88% of what it was making before the March blaze, its owner says. Renesas Electronics Corp. said Tuesday that replacements for fire-damaged equipment arrived on May 27, and should be running in mid-June.
** Testing work on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany will start next week, Alexander Drozdenko, governor of the Leningrad region where the pipeline starts, was cited as saying by the TASS news agency on Wednesday.
** Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer, is ramping up its investment in renewables to $57 billion by 2027, seeking to become a global leader in green energy and fend off growing competition.
** A cargo ship that has been burning off the coast of Sri Lanka for almost two weeks is now sinking and could cause a huge oil spill, officials warned. The Singapore-flagged MV X-Press Pearl, which started burning on May 20, has already spilled chemicals and microplastics, killing sea life. Experts have already warned that it could be the country’s worst-ever environmental disaster.
** Tennessee pledges $60 million toward General Motors and LG Energy Solutions’ electric vehicle battery plant.
