** First Solar (FSLR) is making a $1.2 billion investment into expanding its factory footprint in the U.S., providing a tailwind to President Biden’s push to accelerate domestic manufacturing and reduce America’s reliance on Chinese supply chains.
** Toyota Is Upping Its EV Game to Catch GM, Ford, and Tesla. The car company said it would spend $5.3 billion for battery-production capacity in the U.S. and Japan. More electric vehicles are coming.
** Legislators in Sacramento are expected to vote this week on Democratic Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to extend the life of the Diablo Canyon Power Plant by up to five years, which he says is needed to ward off blackouts and advance clean-energy goals amid a warming climate.
** A group of Black entrepreneurs and business leaders plan to launch an electric vehicle trade association next month to ensure equity in the EV transition.
** North Dakota officials extend the deadline for companies to apply for a grant to build a cross-state pipeline after previously receiving no bids from potential developers.
World
** Exxon Mobil Corp. took the first step toward filing a lawsuit against Russia after Vladimir Putin blocked the oil major from exiting its only remaining operation in the country.
** A plan by European nations to have 20 floating terminals to hold liquefied natural gas from other countries and convert it into heating fuel worries environmentalists. Scientists also warn that these terminals would perpetuate Europe’s reliance on natural gas, which releases climate-warming methane and carbon dioxide when it’s produced, transported and burned.
** France accused Moscow on Tuesday of using energy supplies as “a weapon of war” after Russia’s Gazprom cut deliveries to a major French customer and said it would shut its main gas pipeline to Germany for three days this week.
** France’s Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne warned that a worst-case scenario this winter could lead to rolling two-hour power cuts in French homes, amid a broad energy crisis aggravated by the war in Ukraine.
** As Europe’s energy costs skyrocket, Russia is burning off large amounts of natural gas, according to analysis shared with BBC News. They say the plant, near the border with Finland, is burning an estimated $10m (£8.4m) worth of gas every day.
** According to Reuters, outside the Lubelski Wegiel Bogdanka coal mine in Poland, people are lining up in their cars and trucks to stock up on coal.
Why? Because 3.8 million households in the country are relying on it for heating in the winter.
** Norway has displaced Russia as the top supplier of NatGas to the EU as energy supply chains are rejiggered, reported Reuters, as Moscow reduces flows to EU countries via the Nord Stream 1 pipeline.
** Cuba, mired in an energy crisis that has brought frequent blackouts, is negotiating with a Turkish company to have it double the megawatts it currently produces for the country from shipboard generators just offshore, according to two people with knowledge of the discussions.
