**Speaking at the UN Climate Summit in Egypt, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi accused Republicans of treating climate change like a “hoax” while other Democrats raise concerns about Republicans’ potential House takeover.
** QuarterNorth Energy, a company involved in oil and gas operations in the Gulf of Mexico, will be laying off 135 employees at its Lafayette office in Louisiana and at various offshore locations, according to a WARN notice filed with the Louisiana Workforce Commission.
** U.S. Senator Joe Manchin, a conservative Democrat from coal-rich West Virginia, indicated he would not hold a confirmation hearing to consider President Joe Biden’s re-nomination of top energy regulator Rich Glick, potentially dooming Glick’s chances.Glick, chairman of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC), needs to be approved by the full Senate for another term.
** President Biden was set to announce on Friday a supplemental rule cracking down on emissions of methane — a potent greenhouse gas that contributes significantly to global warming and packs a stronger short-term punch than even carbon dioxide — as he attends a global climate conference in Egypt.
** California regulators on Thursday proposed changes to the state’s residential solar market designed to encourage more at-home battery systems that can help the electrical grid rely less on fossil fuels in the evenings, especially during heat waves.
** More than 1,000 shipments of solar energy components worth hundreds of millions of dollars have piled up at U.S. ports since June under a new law banning imports from China’s Xinjiang region over concerns about slave labor, according to federal customs officials and industry sources.
** U.S. natural gas futures jumps about 6% on Thursday on a smaller-than-expected storage build and forecasts for heating demand to rise next week when the weather turns much colder. Traders also noted prices were up on a possible increase in liquefied natural gas (LNG) exports if the Freeport LNG plant in Texas starts to return to service.
** U.S. climate envoy John Kerry unveiled a proposal on Wednesday for companies to supply developing countries with billions of dollars to lessen their reliance on fossil fuels — a plan that would let the White House bypass opposition from a possible Republican-led Congress.
World
** European emissions of carbon dioxide from energy use over the past three months are down 5 percent from the previous year as the energy crisis drives up the price of fossil fuels. But Europe’s efforts to shore up supplies of natural gas could lock in a new source of emissions, a new analysis finds.
** German lawmakers have approved a plan to keep the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants until mid-April, extending their life beyond the originally planned shut-off at the end of this year.
** German lawmakers have approved a plan to keep the country’s three remaining nuclear power plants until mid-April, extending their life beyond the originally planned shut-off at the end of this year.
** A grounded oil supertanker under U.S. Treasury Department sanctions being refloated in Indonesia is filled with Venezuelan fuel, according to vessel monitoring services.
** The head of the International Energy Agency, Fatih Birol said on Wednesday oil prices “flirting with $100” were a real risk for the global economy, adding he was surprised by the OPEC+ decision to cut output at its Oct. 5 meeting.
** India’s richest billionaires, Gautam Adani and Mukesh Ambani, are leading the country’s energy transition, with nearly $150 billion in green investments over the next few decades. That money is coming, in large part, out of the profits they’ve reaped out of their sales of fossil fuels.