** Lumber prices have pulled back sharply from astronomical heights in recent weeks as homeowners have redirected their spending from building decks and replacing flooring to going out to eat, drink and shop after Covid-19 rules were eased in the US. Lumber prices have plummeted 48 per cent to $875 per thousand board feet from a peak of $1,686 in early May, reflecting a sharper than expected pullback in renovation projects.
** Chevron temporarily stops production at two offshore oil and gas platforms in anticipation of a tropical storm.
** Saudi Arabia has agreed to restart oil aid to Pakistan worth at least $1.5bn annually in July, according to officials in Islamabad, as Riyadh works to counter Iran’s influence in the region.
** American Electric Power (AEP) is seeking permission to charge ratepayers in three states for as much as $317 million of environmental upgrades to three coal-fired plants in West Virginia.
** Audi will not introduce cars based on petrol and diesel engines from 2026. According to the German publication, Süddeutsche Zeitung, Audi will stop introducing new ICE vehicles from 2026.
** The election of a conservative cleric as Iran’s president will probably hold up the lifting of U.S. sanctions on the Islamic Republic’s energy exports, said analysts including Sara Vakhshouri, president of SVB Energy International LLC.
** The Alaska agency that acquired federal leases to support oil drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge’s coastal plain is proposing to spend up to $1.5 million to develop a multi-year seismic plan there.
** Texas-based Vesper Energy, formerly known as Lendlease, has plans to develop more than 1,500 acres of Ohio farmland in Miami Twp., Xenia Twp. and Cedarville Twp. in eastern Greene County into a solar farm. Vesper Energy plans to call the development Kingwood Solar Farm.
** Nearly 400 fishermen protested in Caen, France against offshore wind farms on June 19. The protesters oppose the projects citing damage to ocean life and the seabed.
** The Ikea and Rockefeller foundations are making their biggest ever investments to start a fund they hope can finance more than $10bn of small-scale renewable power projects to try to lift more than 1bn people out of energy poverty.
** Workhorse, formerly known as Amp Electric Vehicles, sued the US postal service this week over not picking it in a $6 billion deal to buy 165,000 new mail trucks.
** The multinational conglomerate General Electric Company (GE) announced the date for its 1-for-8 reverse stock split to be effective post-close of trading on July 30. The shares will start trading on a split-adjusted basis on August 2. Shares closed down 1.7% at $12.78 on June 18.
** Food suppliers desperately trying to find drivers to transport their goods are hiking up wages for truckers to as much as six figures – and some have to raise their food prices as a result, according to a report by The New York Post.
