** Cleaner air in United States and Europe is brewing more Atlantic hurricanes, a new U.S. government study found.
** The House Natural Resources Committee announced its first-ever criminal referral to the Department of Justice on Wednesday, asking it to investigate whether Mike Ingram, an Arizona real estate developer and a campaign donor to Donald Trump, bribed public officials during Trump’s tenure as president, including then-Deputy Secretary of the Interior David Bernhardt.
** The nation’s largest public utility plans to shut down a massive coal-fired power plant, but wants to replace it with natural gas. That would put the federal Tennessee Valley Authority out of step with President Joe Biden’s administration goal of a carbon-pollution-free energy sector by 2035.
** Michigan environmental groups continue to push for the shutdown of Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac one year after Gov. Gretchen Whitmer ordered Enbridge to stop its operations there.
** Exelon’s quarterly earnings dropped after the company spun off its power generation business, though executives say the move has unlocked shareholder benefits.
** A ConocoPhillips investigation finds that a drilling operation put too much pressure on a well, causing it to spring a 7-billion-cubic-feet methane leak at one of its Alaska facilities in March.
World
** Germany said Russia is using its energy exports as a “weapon” after Moscow reduced natural gas supplies in retaliation for Europe’s penalties over the war in Ukraine.
** Venezuelan oil production is set to get a boost from record inflows of Iranian crude used to improve the quality of the Latin American nation’s supplies. Iran has delivered 6.8 million barrels of oil to beleaguered Venezuela this year, a 48% increase over the full-year 2021 figure.
** The world will not be left short of oil even with lower output from sanctions-hit Russia, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said on Thursday, in a U-turn after it predicted a possible “global supply shock” in March.
** European natural gas surged by over 10% on Thursday after Ukraine stopped flows of Russian gas.
** Toyota Motor Corp rolled out its first mass-produced battery electric car in Japan on Thursday for lease only, a strategy the automaker says will help ease driver concerns about battery life and resale value but has raised analysts’ eyebrows.