** Top U.S. automakers ask Congress to raise the limit on how many electric vehicles a company can sell before they’re no longer eligible for $7,500 tax credits.
** The Biden administration proposes stricter efficiency standards for some natural gas furnaces, which the Department of Energy predicts will save consumers money and reduce carbon emissions.
** President Joe Biden told oil producers on Wednesday to immediately cut costs for Americans as gas prices exceeded $5 a gallon in some parts of the country. He sent individual letters on Wednesday to executives with Marathon, Valero, ExxonMobil, Phillips 66, Chevron, BP and Shell asking them to explain their actions and urging them to come up with solutions to increase gasoline supply.
** The U.S. Interior Department sets parameters for transporting, injecting and storing carbon dioxide underground on public lands.
** Mississippi lawmakers hope an existing pipeline that captures carbon dioxide from an extinct volcano and pushes it underground to squeeze out oil will give the state a leg up in the growing carbon capture sector.
** The U.S. Justice Department appeals a federal judge’s ruling that halted construction of a controversial transmission line through a wildlife refuge area between Iowa and Wisconsin.
** The U.S. Department of Energy on Tuesday said it was selling up to 45 million barrels of oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve as part of the Biden administration’s previously announced, largest-ever release from the stockpile.
** Energy company executives at a conference on the global transition insisted on Tuesday that fossil fuels, especially natural gas, are still needed at a time when global markets grapple with tight energy supplies and skyrocketing prices.
** General Motors will invest $10 million into wind-energy technology through its joint venture arm. GM is putting the money—using GM Ventures, or GMV—into Wind Catching Systems, a start-up developing floating offshore wind-power electricity generation systems.
World
** Thousands of truckers in South Korea are refusing to drive due to rising fuel costs and wage disputes, crippling supply chains and costing industries about $1.2 billion, The Wall Street Journal reported. The strike has led to the shutdown of steel plants, disruptions to car production and delays in shipments of raw materials required for semiconductors.
** Russian President Vladimir Putin said in a meeting last week that despite the EU’s recently announced embargo on Russian energy, it would take years before the West stops importing Russian oil and natural gas.
** Russian natural gas deliveries through a key pipeline to Europe will drop by around 40% this year, state-controlled energy giant Gazprom said Tuesday, after Canadian sanctions over the war in Ukraine prevented German partner Siemens Energy from delivering overhauled equipment.
** Guyana could overtake Brazil As South America’s top oil producer.