** The United States stopped the Russian government on Monday from paying holders of its sovereign debt more than $600 million from reserves held at U.S. banks, in a move meant to ratchet up pressure on Moscow and eat into its holdings of dollars.
** Senator Joe Manchin is calling on the Securities and Exchange Commission to reconsider a plan to require companies to disclose information about their greenhouse gas pollution.
** House progressives say they may be prepared to accept policies that boost fossil fuels in the short term in order to win Sen. Joe Manchin‘s support for a party-line climate change and social spending bill to help salvage their agenda ahead of the midterm elections.
** New York Governor Kathy Hochul will soon release a budget that likely will include a plan to make New York the first state to ban natural gas and other fossil fuels in new construction, according to Food & Water Watch and other environmental groups.
** Exxon’s announcement that first-quarter results may have reached almost $11 billion augurs booming profits across the oil industry as trade sanctions, shipping disruptions and surging demand strain supply lines.
** More than 7.2 million cubic feet of natural gas escaped in a leak at a key Alaskan oilfield, forcing workers to evacuate and cutting production last month, operator ConocoPhillips and a state regulatory agency said.
** Indiana transportation officials partner with Purdue University to develop concrete pavement that can wirelessly charge electric vehicles while in use.
** Pennsylvania is among five states considering legislation to pre-empt gas bans, with two bills currently awaiting deliberation in the state House.
World
** Saudi Aramco, the country’s state oil producer, will raise the selling price for its flagship Arab light crude for next month’s shipments to Asia to $9.35 a barrel over its benchmark, Bloomberg said. This represents a price hike of $4.40 a barrel from the previous month, which was already a record high.
** Following two recent landmark legal rulings by the Supreme Court of the Federal Government of Iraq (FGI) in Baghdad, news emerged last week that Iraq’s Oil Ministry is proposing the creation of a Kurdistan National Oil Company under the federal ownership of the government in the south of Iraq.
** The world needs to rapidly accelerate its transition away from coal and other fossil fuels to avoid extreme climate change, according to a report Monday by the U.N. climate science panel.
** Berlin has seized control of a Germany-based unit of Russian natural-gas giant Gazprom. Germany’s economy minister announced the seizure in a statement on Monday.