** Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc said it has bought another 9.9 million shares of Occidental Petroleum Corp, giving it a 17.4% stake in the oil company. The company paid $582 million for the additional shares according to a late Friday filing with the SEC.
** Senate Republican leader Mitch McConnell threatened to derail a bill designed to boost semiconductor manufacturing in the United States if Democrats revive their stalled climate and social policy package.
** Americans will endure high gas prices “as long as it takes” to quell Russian President Vladimir Putin’s Ukraine invasion, U.S. President Joe Biden said Thursday.
** California has approved a plan to tax the electric vehicle battery metal lithium to generate revenue for environmental remediation projects despite industry concerns that it will harm the sector and delay shipments to automakers.
** General Motors Co is poised to outsell Japan’s Toyota Motor Corp in the second quarter, even as sales at major automakers in the United States are set to drop as inventory shortages persist, industry analysts say.
** The second-biggest U.S. liquefied natural gas export facility hit by fire earlier this month will not be allowed to repair or restart operations until it addresses risks to public safety, a pipeline regulator said.
** The Iowa Supreme Court reversed a long-standing precedent that allowed landowners to sue for damages when a neighboring hog farm causes water pollution or odor problems that affect quality of life.
** General Motors (GM) said it had called off the sale of a shuttered Indian plant to China’s Great Wall Motor after they failed to obtain regulatory approvals, amid a tougher stance by New Delhi towards investments from Beijing.
** California has passed an ambitious law to significantly reduce single-use plastics, becoming the first state in the US to approve such sweeping restrictions.
** Friday was the first day of Connecticut’s diesel fuel tax increase. The state’s diesel fuel tax increased Friday to 49.2 cents per gallon, a nearly 23% increase from the former 40.1-cent rate. Maryland’s legislatively mandated gas tax hike takes effect at midnight Friday, with prices rising by seven cents per gallon.
** Exxon Mobil Corp. said in a filing late Friday it expects a boost of at least $2.5 billion to its bottom line in the second quarter from rising prices for oil and gas, with billions more coming from higher margins for gasoline and other energy products.
World
** Russian natural gas supplies to the European Union are down more than 40% from last year, one analyst estimates. European gas prices have jumped 70% in the past three weeks.
** Russia has moved to take over a major oil and gas project in which Shell has a 27.5% stake.Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a decree to take charge of the Sakhalin-2 project.
** The Czech Republic has decided to reverse plans to halt mining in a key black coal region to help the country safeguard its power supply amid high demand and the energy crunch prompted by the Russia’s war in Ukraine.
** Shell Overseas Investments B.V., a unit of Shell plc has signed an agreement with the Philippines’ Emerging Power Inc for an initial 1 gigawatt renewable energy project tapping solar, the companies said.
** India slapped taxes on fuel exports and local crude oil production to tap windfall gains from surging global prices. Mukesh Ambani’s Reliance Industries Ltd., the nation’s no. 1 fuel exporter, tumbled on the news.
** Swiss businesses would be first to have energy rationed in the event of supply shortages, Energy Minister Simonetta Sommaruga told the SonntagsZeitung, warning that the government cannot guarantee there will always be enough gas to go around.
** Mexico’s environment ministry said it rejected a key environmental permit for a solar power plant that German automaker Audi has proposed to build at its factory in the central Mexican state of Puebla.
