** A federal utility’s decision to resort to rolling blackouts after coal and natural gas units went offline during dangerously cold conditions has intensified questions about the Tennessee Valley Authority’s recent decision to double down on fossil fuels.
** The big question going into 2023 is how clean energy’s tailwinds — federal tax credits and incentives, state clean energy mandates, utility expansion plans and corporate procurements — will counteract clean energy’s headwinds — rising costs, tight supplies, restrictive trade policies and interconnection bottlenecks.
** Geothermal energy — the technology that harnesses the heat beneath the Earth’s crust — is drawing fresh interest after lawmakers boosted funding flows for it in the bipartisan infrastructure law and Inflation Reduction Act, dovetailing with advances in technology, new state incentives and interest from the oil drilling sector.
** The latest US employment report is anticipated to highlight the resilience of the nation’s labor market through 2022, despite the most aggressive pace of monetary tightening in decades. Payrolls are projected to have risen by about 200,000 in December, according to government data to be released Friday.
** Tesla is valued about eight times more than Ford and General Motors, even though it makes far fewer cars. Greenwich Capital CIO Vahan Janjigian told CNBC that Tesla would plummet if it’s valued like a traditional automaker.
World
** European natural gas prices started the new year declining as mild weather curbed demand. Benchmark futures dropped as much as 7.9% to the lowest level since February 21, extending three weeks of net declines.
** The next round of European Union sanctions on Russian oil products are due to take effect on February 5. It comes in response to the country’s invasion of Ukraine, and will affect refined petroleum products such as diesel.
** A Russian court has ordered nearly $500 million of assets belonging to German industrial gases company Linde to be frozen at the request of a Russian joint venture building a gas complex at the Baltic Sea port of Ust-Luga, court filings showed on Monday.
** Exxon Mobil Corp has reportedly sued the European Union to remove the bloc’s new windfall tax on oil groups. Oil companies have reported record quarterly profits benefiting from high energy prices due to the Russia-Ukraine conflict, leading to further calls to tax the sector.
** European prompt power on Monday jumped as wind levels in main producer country Germany were due to fall and demand picked up on the first working day after the New Year holiday.
