** Members of the House Select Committee on the Climate Crisis say more remains to be done as the panel wraps up its work ahead of the new Congress.
** President Biden wants Americans to know gas prices are falling fast—and he deserves the credit. The average pump price has plunged from $5 per gallon in June to around $3.25 now. Biden says it’s because he released oil from the national reserve, persuaded petrostates to produce more, and convinced oil and gas companies to lower prices.
** Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm extended an olive branch to the oil and gas industry, telling executives at a meeting in Washington that she recognizes fossil fuels will be around for a long time, even as the Biden administration works to transition away from them to cleaner alternatives.
** The U.S. agency in charge of making sure the country’s consumer products are safe will weigh regulations on new gas stoves, one of the board’s commissioners said on Wednesday.
** The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) announced on Wednesday that it would be listing the whitebark pine as a threatened species under the Endangered Species Act. Whitebark pines are what the Fish and Wildlife Service described as “a keystone species,” which live in windy, cold, high-elevation environments across the western U.S. and Southern Canada.
** ExxonMobil announced successful startup of one of the largest advanced recycling facilities in North America. The facility at the company’s integrated manufacturing complex in Baytown, Texas, uses proprietary technology to break down hard-to-recycle plastics and transform them into raw materials for new products.
** A California law that prohibits new oil and gas wells from being drilled near homes, schools and hospitals could face a referendum in the 2024 election.
** House Republican leaders are planning sweeping investigations into the operations of Special Presidential Envoy for Climate John Kerry’s office. GOP leaders of key committees with oversight powers told Fox News Digital that they were prepared to pursue investigations into Kerry once Republicans assume majority control of the House.
World
** Berlin’s response to Joe Biden’s green subsidy plan is setting off alarm bells in Paris and Madrid, where officials are concerned it could give German firms an unfair advantage over their European rivals.
** Germany’s first liquefied natural gas terminal is about to arrive on the country’s north coast, the first of several specialist tankers Berlin is counting on to ease its energy crisis.
** At night [on 14-15 December], an explosion occurred in the Russian city of Angarsk, Irkutsk Oblast, and a major fire broke out at an oil refinery, killing 2 people and injuring 5. It is Siberia’s largest oil refinery.
** Canada on Wednesday said it would revoke a sanctions waiver that allowed turbines for Nord Stream 1, Russia’s biggest gas pipeline to Europe, to be repaired in Montreal and returned to Germany.