** EPA recommends approving Enterprise-Enbridge offshore crude export terminal near Houston.
** U.S. climate envoy John Kerry announced the creation of a carbon offset plan meant to help developing countries speed their transition away from fossil fuels. Kerry launched the Energy Transition Accelerator (ETA) with the intention of funding renewable energy projects and accelerating clean energy transitions in developing countries.
** Surging Chinese energy demand amid Covid lockdowns on the US West Coast prompted Alaskan oil exporters to ship more crude than any time in two-decades, and nearly all of it went to the East Asian country. So far this year, shipments have almost dried up entirely. Just a single cargo sailed aboard the Seaways Sabine to China in March, according to Vortexa Data.
** Federal regulators expect installed U.S. solar capacity to nearly double from current levels over the next three years.
** Kentucky regulators open a statewide investigation to review the volatility of electric and natural gas fuel prices and the resulting effect on utilities’ power rates.
** Tennessee researchers announce a new train engine that runs on hydrogen to decrease carbon emissions.
World
** Planning and build-up of liquified and other natural gas — due to an energy crisis triggered by Russian’s invasion of Ukraine — would add 2 billion tons of carbon dioxide equivalent (1.9 billion metric tons) a year to the air by 2030, according to a report released Thursday by Climate Action Tracker at international climate talks in Egypt.
** The OPEC+ group may have to “rethink” its decision to slash their collective oil production target by 2 million barrels per day (bpd) from November as it further stokes inflation and worsens the economic outlook for oil-importing developing nations, Fatih Birol, the Executive Director of the International Energy Agency (IEA), told Bloomberg on Wednesday.
** Greece’s energy and environment minister says U.S. energy giant ExxonMobil has begun prospecting for natural gas off the coast of southwestern Greece, kicking off a delayed project as Europe seeks alternative energy sources due to the war in Ukraine.
** EU Leaders Accuse U.S. Natural Gas Producers Of Profiteering. As many as 15 say they U.S. has a double standard because of the difference between the price at which liquefied natural gas produced in the U.S. sells in Europe and the price at which natural gas sells within the U.S.