** The N.C. Utilities Commission’s first-ever plan to reduce carbon dioxide emissions caused by generating electricity in the state has been met with widespread criticism. Environmental groups and solar energy trade associations have argued that the plan unnecessarily limits the amount of new solar energy while allowing Duke Energy to move forwa
** After proving it could become a game-changer for the global oil market a decade ago, the U.S. shale patch is once again the focus of attention but this time because it is not growing the way it used to. Instead, U.S. shale drillers are being cautious for the first time since the shale boom began.rd with plans to build new power plants that burn natural gas.
** Puerto Rico announced Sunday that it plans to privatize electricity generation, a first for a U.S. territory facing chronic power outages as it struggles to rebuild a crumbling electric grid. The move marks the beginning of the end for Puerto Rico’s Electric Power Authority, a behemoth long accused of corruption, mismanagement and inefficiency that holds some $9 billion in public debt — the largest of any government agency.
** The US government’s climate envoy, John Kerry, said natural gas can play a role in slowing the planet’s warming, but only if producers accelerate efforts to capture their carbon emissions.
** More than 16,000 vehicles from big name car manufacturers are among the latest batch of cars to come under recall, including Chevrolet, which is offering to repurchase its recalled cars from owners. The recalls were reported by the carmakers or by the U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration in recent weeks.
World
** Thousands of people demonstrated in persistent rain on Saturday to protest the clearance and demolition of a village in western Germany that is due to make way for the expansion of a coal mine. There were standoffs with police as some protesters tried to reach the edge of the mine and the village itself.
** Germany on Saturday inaugurated its second liquefied natural gas terminal, part of a drive by Europe’s biggest economy to put reliance on Russian energy sources firmly behind it. Chancellor Olaf Scholz took part in the ceremony in Lubmin on the Baltic Sea coast, which came less than a month after he inaugurated Germany’s first LNG terminal at Wilhelmshaven on the North Sea.
** The Philippine Supreme Court’s decision to void a 2005 South China Sea oil exploration deal with China and Vietnam will bring uncertainty to joint cooperation in the resource-rich waters, according to regional observers.
** As the world enters a new industrial age, where technology manufacturing for clean energy will lead the way, total investments in clean energy technologies and infrastructure have to top $4.5 trillion in 2030 under the net-zero emissions by 2050 scenario, the International Energy Agency (IEA) said in a new report this week.
** Plans to use a 4,200-kilometer (2,600-mile) power cable to send clean energy from Australia to Singapore are no longer commercially viable, according to one of the project’s billionaire investors.
** An Australia-based startup is planning a A$300 million ($210 million) factory to build lithium-ion batteries free of materials from China, as automakers to utilities seek alternatives to the industry’s dominant producer.
