** The Biden administration maintains that the SPR is still the largest strategic reserve across the globe. It has about 400 million barrels remaining, which Biden says is “more than enough for any supply emergency.”
** The US now has just a 25 day supply of diesel, and that’s the lowest level since 2008. On top of that, demand for diesel is at its highest seasonal level since 2007 because of higher trucking, farming and heating use.
** The major freight railroads appear unwilling to give track maintenance workers much more than they received in the initial contract they rejected last week, increasing the chances of a strike.
** A total of 83% of likely U.S. voters are concerned about the high gasoline and home heating fuel prices, according to the latest Rasmussen Reports nationwide survey.
** International convenience store chain Circle K will team up with marijuana company Green Thumb Industries to sell cannabis at gas stations in Florida next year.
** Puerto Rico’s power grid is in crisis, facing lingering outages from Hurricane Fiona, unrepaired damage from a 2017 hurricane, and a private company that has hiked rates seven times since taking over last year.
** Federal data shows Appalachian coal production rose 12% in 2021 as the number of jobs fell by 5%. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting) In Kentucky, coal production was on the increase
but energy prices are going up too.
** Alaska offers nearly 8 million acres of state land and waters on the Arctic North Slope for oil and gas leasing, which could significantly expand the fossil fuel industry’s footprint.
** A company plans to construct a charging network for electric long-haul trucks on Interstate 10 between a southern California port and El Paso, Texas.
World
** Russia can access enough tankers to ship most of its oil beyond the reach of a new G7 price cap, industry players and a U.S. official told Reuters, underscoring the limits of the most ambitious plan yet to curb Moscow’s wartime revenue.
** Germany has called for European Union states to work with countries that can develop new gas fields, prompting concern from campaigners over the climate change commitments of Europe’s biggest economy as it scrambles to replace Russian gas.
** Benchmark prices for natural gas in Europe fell again on Friday, pushing back toward their lowest in four months after Germany gave in to EU pressure for a mechanism to cap wholesale prices over the coming winter.
** Hungary will not agree to an EU price cap on imported gas because it would end Russian deliveries, a senior aide to Prime Minister Viktor Orban said, adding that if the EU decides on a cap it would have to exempt Hungary, as it did for oil.
** Turkey asked Russia to build its second nuclear power plant, in the latest sign of closer economic ties even as the US and its allies try to isolate the Kremlin for its invasion of Ukraine.
** Amid tepid demand and high spot prices, China is expected to see an unprecedented slump in its liquefied natural gas imports this year, ceding the world’s top LNG importer status back to Japan.
