** U.S. power plant emissions of pollutants that harm human health and warm the planet fell last year as the industry continued a switch from coal to natural gas, the Environmental Protection Agency said on Friday.
** A federal judge has sided again with the Biden administration and a Canadian-based mining company in a high-stakes legal battle with environmentalists and tribal leaders trying to block a huge lithium mine in Nevada near the Oregon line.
** Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom’s plan to limit oil companies’ profits was met with criticism by Democrats, Republicans and experts alike at a state hearing earlier last week. During the hearing — hosted by the state’s Senate Committee on Energy, Utilities and Communications — experts balked at a proposal to punish oil exploration and refining companies with a financial penalty if found to increase gasoline prices “excessively.”
** Sen. Steve Daines, R-Mont., warned in a letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm this week that regulations recently proposed by her agency would ban up to 96% of the gas-powered stoves currently available to Americans.
** Homeowners and builders are calling a possible ban on certain gas-powered appliances in the San Francisco Bay Area an extreme move, forcing a region prone to blackouts to rely even further on an over-burdened electrical supply. “This is just pure extremist politics being taken to the ultimate extremes,” said National Association of Home Builders CEO Jerry Howard.
** il and gas explorer Pioneer Natural Resources Co is considering an acquisition of smaller U.S. rival Range Resources Corp, Bloomberg News reported on Friday, citing people familiar with the matter. Deliberations are ongoing and there’s no certainty the companies will reach an agreement, the report said, adding Texas-based Pioneer seeks further consolidation in the shale industry with the deal.
** The founders of Rewiring America, an environmental advocacy dark money group behind the push to regulate and ban natural gas-powered stoves, have a significant financial stake in the green energy push. Alex Laskey, Saul Griffith and Ari Matusiak – who together founded Rewiring America in 2020 – have all pursued various wind, solar, electrification and energy efficiency ventures, some of which have netted them millions of dollars in buyouts or received significant federal funding.
World
** A year into an unprecedented energy crisis that rocked the European Union, officials in Brussels are ready to unveil their plan to prevent consumers from facing huge swings in electricity prices in the future.
** Iraq has been saying it wants to produce more oil and gas for a while now but turning stated ambitions into reality has taken a while. This week, the country took a big step towards that reality when it signed a slew of deals with foreign companies as part of plans to boost both crude oil and natural gas production considerably.
** Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg and dozens of other activists on Monday blocked entrances to Norway’s energy ministry, protesting against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders.
** Environmental campaigner Greta Thunberg and dozens of other activists on Monday blocked entrances to Norway’s energy ministry, protesting against wind turbines built on land traditionally used by indigenous Sami reindeer herders.
** China massively accelerated its coal power plans in 2022, quadrupling the number of new permits and approving new capacity equivalent to all the UK’s plants combined.
** The German government said Monday that it wants to set up a new power line network to connect its own offshore wind parks with those of its North Sea neighbors in order to eliminate bottlenecks in the European energy market.
