Additional headlines

** President Joe Biden and Speaker Nancy Pelosi are moving to prevent a looming shutdown of the nation’s freight railroads with the House preparing to take up legislation this week to impose a settlement over the objections of some unions.

** More than 400 groups on Monday called on Congress to intervene in an ongoing railroad labor standoff that threatens to idle shipments of food and fuel and strand rail travelers while inflicting billions of dollars of economic damage.

** The Biden administration plans to offer hundreds of thousands of acres off the coast of Alaska for new oil and gas drilling next month, a sale mandated in Democrats’ Inflation Reduction Act to win the support of holdout West Virginia Senator Joe Manchin.

** Officials in Iowa’s second-most populous county extend a moratorium on utility-scale solar projects by three months to consider new regulations. 

** The U.S. Energy Department will award $550 million to state, tribal and local governments for energy conservation and clean energy projects.

** The nation’s sole domestic lithium producer plans to double its Nevada mine’s production by 2024 to meet growing global demand.

** The top bosses of US oil and gas companies are speaking less and less about climate and carbon emissions, a signal that the industry’s public focus on ESG over the past couple of years may be fading. That, at least, is according to a Bloomberg analysis of quarterly conference calls held by 172 American oil and gas companies.

** Wind has surpassed hydroelectric power as the largest generator of electricity in South Dakota. Last year, over 52% of the electricity generated in the state came from wind turbines. That’s because of a large number of new, better turbines built in recent years. The state was home to 526 turbines before 2019. Another 511 were constructed from 2019 to 2021.

 

World

** Liquefied natural gas (LNG) import capacity in the European Union (EU) and the United Kingdom (UK) will expand by 34%, or 6.8 billion cubic feet per day (Bcf/d), by 2024 compared with 2021, according to the International Group of Liquefied Natural Gas Importers (GIIGNL) and trade press data.

** Moscow has sent India a list of more than 500 products for potential delivery including parts for cars, aircraft and trains, four sources familiar with the matter said, as sanctions squeeze Russia’s ability to keep vital industries running.

** Qatar is to supply liquefied natural gas to Germany under a 15-year deal signed Tuesday as the European economic powerhouse scrambles to replace Russian gas supplies that have been cut during the ongoing war in Ukraine.