** In response to higher crude oil prices, financial results for 42 U.S. exploration and production companies showed large increases in both cash from operations and capital expenditures in the fourth quarter of 2021 (4Q21). Cash from operations for the E&P companies reached $27.5 billion in 4Q21, the largest amount in any quarter since 3Q14 reported the EIA.
** The federal government and North Dakota sue the operator of a pipeline that spilled 600,000 gallons of oil into a Montana river in 2016.
** Wyoming transportation officials seek an exemption from a condition attached to federal funding that requires states to install electric vehicle chargers every 50 miles along interstate highways.
** The heat wave that enveloped the Pacific Northwest and a swath of western Canada last summer, killing hundreds, was one of the most extreme such events on record for anywhere on Earth, a new study shows.
** A U.S. Senate panel advances the nomination of the first employee hired in the ‘80s for the Tennessee Valley Authority’s Office of Inspector General to now lead the watchdog agency.
** Kansas City-based Evergy, Inc. announced first quarter 2022 GAAP earnings of $123 million, or $0.53 per share, compared to earnings of $192 million, or $0.84 per share, for first quarter 2021.
** California environmentalists oppose plans to convert two Bay Area petroleum refineries into biofuel production facilities.
World
** The European Union is planning to phase out imports of Russian oil to cut off financing for Moscow’s war in Ukraine, but it’s not stopping there. It’s also proposing a ban on European ships and companies providing any service related to the shipment of Russian crude and refined products anywhere in the world — such as financing, insurance, or even technical support — according to draft legislation seen by Bloomberg.
** OPEC+ ministers are slated to stay their course in a gradual crude output increase to 432,000 barrels per month, despite the European Union cooking up a serious blow to Russia’s oil industry by proposing a phaseout of Russian oil imports by the end of the year, Reuters reports .
** Levels of carbon dioxide in the atmosphere reached the highest levels on record for any calendar month during April, averaging 420 parts per million (ppm) for the first time since observations began in 1958, according to new data.