More headlines

** President Biden on Friday signed into law legislation to force a rail labor agreement, blocking workers from striking ahead of the busy holiday season.

** The Biden administration is seeking to stop sales from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve mandated by Congress so it can refill the emergency reserve, a move that could impact the release of 147 million barrels of crude oil.

** Climate change activists and experts are calling on the Biden administration to swiftly deploy a series of executive actions to speed up the transition away from fossil fuels now that Republicans are set to retake control of the House of Representatives, effectively blocking new climate legislation from being passed.

** The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously on Friday to ban drilling of new oil and gas wells and phase out existing ones over the next 20 years.

**  Satellites detect no real climate benefit from 10 years of forest carbon offsets in California. Many of the companies promising “net-zero” emissions to protect the climate are relying on vast swaths of forests and what are known as carbon offsets to meet that goal.

** Florida will pull $2 billion worth of state assets managed by BlackRock Inc., accelerating Republicans’ fight with the world’s largest money manager over its ESG investing practices. The state treasury will immediately have Florida’s custody bank freeze about $1.43 billion worth of long-term securities and remove BlackRock as the manager of approximately $600 million worth of short-term overnight investments, Florida Chief Financial Officer Jimmy Patronis said.

** The Biden administration proposed a ban on waste disposal that would thwart a long-planned gold and copper mine in Alaska, citing the potential harm to the area’s thriving sockeye salmon industry.

** Enbridge Inc. ENB is collaborating with Occidental Petroleum OXY to explore the possibility of a carbon dioxide (CO2) pipeline and storage facility near Corpus Christi on the Texas Gulf Coast.

 

World

** China says it hopes that Kazakhstan is prepared to increase the amount of natural gas it supplies over the winter, even though the government in Astana has pledged to limit exports to meet domestic demand.

** Saudi Arabia’s crude exports declined in November, as shipments to the US plunged to a multiyear low and flows to China slumped.

** Shipping costs for Russian crude are skyrocketing as more tanker owners shun the trade days before stricter European Union sanctions take effect.

** French oil giant TotalEnergies has become the first major North Sea operator to cut investment as a direct result of Rishi Sunak’s windfall tax.

** Germany plans to develop an 1,800 kilometre (1,118 miles) hydrogen energy pipeline network by 2027 with state participation, according to an economy ministry draft strategy paper seen by Reuters on Friday.

** President Vladimir Putin’s plan to make Turkey a hub for Russian gas in theory could allow Moscow to mask its exports with fuel from other sources, but that might not be enough to persuade Europeans to buy, analysts and sources said.