** The U.S. Justice Department has won a federal judge’s approval to carry out a rare intervention to improve the precarious water system in Mississippi’s capital city, Attorney General Merrick Garland announced Wednesday, months after the system’s partial
failure.** U.S. jet fuel consumption so far in 2022 has been consistently below 2019, although airline passenger counts in the United States have nearly returned to 2019 levels in recent months, according to data reported by the Transportation Security Administration (TSA).
** The head of the Renewable Fuels Association, President and CEO Geoff Cooper says a nationwide railway strike would be devastating to his industry because ethanol producers rely greatly on the railroads to move their products to market.
** President Biden on Wednesday committed his administration to protecting a Nevada mountain and the surrounding landscape, but stopped short of the formal national monument designation desired by advocates.
** The average U.S. gas price could drop below $3 per gallon by Christmas, according to price tracker GasBuddy, dipping to the lowest levels since February despite worries about inflation and a possible recession. GasBuddy reported a decline of 22.7 cents per gallon in the last month.
** The Biden administration will pay $75 million in relocation costs to three Native American tribes whose homes are threatened by climate change, the Interior Department (DOI) announced Wednesday. The Interior Department will provide $25 million each to Washington State’s Quinault Indian Nation and Alaska’s Newtok Village and Native Village of Napakiak. The Alaska communities are the site of severe erosion.
** Vans without steering wheels — or any other manual controls — could soon be cruising the streets of San Francisco.
California regulators are currently reviewing an application from General Motors’ (GM) driverless-car division to begin testing the electric Origin shuttle, according to The Wall Street Journal.
** The New Mexico Environment Department (NMED) is reviewing a Stage 1 Abatement Plan (Plan) for the former Acme Hometown Cleaners dry-cleaning facility located at 901 10th Street, Alamogordo, New Mexico (Site). The owners of the Site submitted the Plan to NMED to investigate and define the extent of groundwater and soil contamination from a release of tetrachloroethylene, also known as perchloroethene or PCE.
World
** The Dutch government is planning to purchase and then close down up to 3,000 farms in an effort to comply with a European Union environmental mandate to slash emissions, according to reports.
** Sixteen Puerto Rico municipalities filed a class-action lawsuit in federal court against major oil companies, alleging companies like ExxonMobil, Shell and Chevron colluded to suppress evidence of climate change that has devastated the island, including 2017’s Hurricane Maria.
** Russian President Vladimir Putin has proposed creating a “gas union” with Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to establish a mechanism to ship natural gas between the three countries and to other nations, including China.
** European Union states are starting to coalesce around a plan to cap the price of Russian crude oil at $60 a barrel, their latest attempt to clinch an agreement before a Monday deadline, according to people familiar with the matter.