** In a major step against climate change, President Joe Biden is proposing a return to aggressive Obama-era vehicle mileage standards over five years. He’s then aiming for even tougher anti-pollution rules after that to forcefully reduce greenhouse gas emissions and nudge 40% of U.S. drivers into electric vehicles by decade’s end.
** A lawsuit led by Louisiana’s attorney general with nine other states seeks to block President Joe Biden’s plans to increase the social cost of carbon, which assigns a dollar value to the harm caused by emitting greenhouse gases.
** The U.S. Energy Information Administration reports that in 2020, renewable energy sources (including wind, hydroelectric, solar, biomass, and geothermal energy) generated a record 834 billion kilowatthours (kWh) of electricity, or about 21% of all the electricity generated in the United States.
** Mexico’s methane leak rate from oil and gas operations is twice as high as that of the world’s top oil producer, the United States, a group of researchers found in a report due to be released this week.
** Hyundai announced it has put hydrogen-powered trucks on the road in California. It already has a fleet of 46-fuel-cell trucks on the road in Switzerland.
** North Dakota officials approve spending $520,000 to survey potential carbon capture sites.
** Exxon Mobil Corp has made a new discovery at Whiptail in the Stabroek Block offshore Guyana, the U.S. oil major said on Wednesday, as it develops one of the world’s most important new oil and gas blocks in the last decade.
** Business Insider reports research shows that 1 in 5 electric vehicle owners in California switched back to Gas because charging their cars is a hassle.
** U.S. independent shale producer Pioneer Natural Resources on Tuesday warned it would be hit by an $832 million second-quarter loss on oil and gas derivatives.
** Tesla Inc showed signs of divergent strategies in the world’s two biggest automotive markets, raising prices to boost profit margins in the United States while keeping prices steady in China and hoping to grow sales there.
** Venezuela is ignoring U.S. sanctions with its plan to boost production to 1.5 million bpd by the end of the year, around three times the current output.