** The United States wants to end its “undue dependence” on rare earths, solar panels and other key goods from China to prevent Beijing from cutting off supplies as it has done to other countries, U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen said.
** President Joe Biden on Friday blocked a freight railroad strike for at least 60 days by naming a board of arbitrators to intervene in the contract dispute, averting action that could have disrupted all kinds of shipments.
** Sen. Joe Manchin is facing intense pressure in West Virginia to permanently kill the party-line spending package that Democrats say is key to President Biden’s domestic agenda. Conservative groups have been on West Virginia’s airwaves in recent weeks urging Manchin to hold firm in his opposition to the legislation, which can only pass via a party-line process known as budget reconciliation.
** After peaking above a record $5 a gallon in June, U.S. gas prices should continue to fall in the coming weeks, a top White House energy adviser, Amos Hochstein, said Sunday, predicting prices around $4 a gallon, on average.
** Congressional Democrats are calling on the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Energy to address the recent proliferation of cryptocurrency mining within the US.
** The economy is a bit wobbly, but General Motors CEO Mary Barra isn’t backing off of an audacious prediction: By the middle of this decade, her company will sell more electric vehicles in the U.S. than Tesla, the global sales leader.
World
** Germany produced a record amount of electricity from solar on Sunday and is set to exceed that again on Tuesday as a heat wave grips Europe.
** A lithium producer for carmakers including BMW AG and Tesla Inc. is beginning work to assess battery metals projects in Xinjiang, deepening links between electric vehicle supply chains and a region at the heart of human-rights allegations against China.
** Russia’s Gazprom has declared force majeure on gas supplies to Europe to at least one major customer, according to a letter from Gazprom that will add to European fears of fuel shortages.
** Canada sent a turbine for the Nord Stream gas pipeline to Germany by plane on July 17 after repair work had been completed, Kommersant newspaper reported on Monday, citing people familiar with the situation.
** Taxi drivers in Cuba are facing a fuel shortage because most diesel fuel is used to run the nation’s power generators.
** The consequences of the Ukraine conflict could accelerate Germany’s green energy transition despite Berlin’s decision to reconnect coal-fired power plants to compensate for falling fossil fuel supplies from Russia, a study published on Sunday showed.
