** Denver-based SM Energy Co. on Dec. 20 set new emissions reduction targets and unveiled plans to eliminate routine flaring by 2023. The new environmental targets set by SM Energy, whose operations are focused in the Permian Basin and Eagle Ford shale plays, were largely driven by the company’s shareholders.
** The White House on Sunday ripped Sen. Joe Manchin for opposing President Biden’s spending bill. Press Secretary Jen Psaki said it amounted to a “sudden and inexplicable reversal” in his position.
** AOC on Sunday said that Manchin turning on the Build Back Better bill was not a shock. “People can be mad at Manchin all they want, but we knew he would do this months ago,” she tweeted.
** Sen. Chuck Schumer said the Senate will vote on Joe Biden’s Build Back Better bill early in 2022. He took a jab at Sen. Joe Manchin, who in a Fox News interview dramatically withdrew his support. Schumer’s plan seems to be to embarrass Manchin by forcing him to declare his views in a vote.
** Other Democrats were angry with Manchin. “I am so frustrated I am sputtering.” said Sen. Tina Smith (D-Minn.), the main backer of the Clean Electricity Performance Program that Manchin axed. “The clean energy tax credits in BBB were tech neutral. It was a package designed to follow the market signals but to support those market signals so investors can make decisions to support clean power.”
“Not only to find out that he’s backing out, but he didn’t even have the decency to call us, to announce this on Fox News,” Rep. Sean Casten (D-Ill.) said. “We thought he was better than that.”
** Goodyear asserts that its ElectricDrive GT is an ultra-high performance, all-season tire that provides long-lasting tread wear and a quiet ride for EV drivers and passengers.
** General Motors Co said Monday it is extending a production halt at its Orion Assembly plant in Michigan, which makes the Chevrolet Bolt electric vehicle, through the end of February.
** The top Democrats of the House Natural Resources Committee want a hearing with Amplify Energy, the firm at the center of the Southern California oil spill in October.
** The Supreme Court will hear arguments in the fight over the scope of EPA’s climate authority over power plants on Feb. 28, the court announced on Friday.
World
** Republican U.S. Senator Ted Cruz will get a vote in January on his bill to slap sanctions on Russia’s Nord Stream 2 pipeline in a deal struck with Democrats in which he agreed to lift holds on dozens of President Joe Biden’s nominees for ambassador posts.
** Europe is bracing for energy shortages as freezing weather sets in, boosting demand and sending prices surging at a time when supply just can’t keep up.
** The International Energy Agency has called on China and India to reduce coal power generation and put their climate pledges into action, describing both countries as “holding the key to future coal demand”.
