** The Sierra Club alleges in a lawsuit that a major Illinois coal plant has operated “illegally” for more than a decade without an operating permit from the state as required under the Clean Air Act.
** The Biden administration is finalizing more stringent efficiency requirements for both window air conditioners and portable air cleaner, the first set of efficiency standards that are new and not just a reversal of a Trump-era rollback.
** Iowa House lawmakers overwhelmingly pass legislation to limit the use of eminent domain for carbon capture pipelines by requiring developers to first obtain voluntary easements for 90% of the route.
** North Dakota lawmakers send a bill to Gov. Doug Burgum that would abolish a requirement that oil companies pay higher taxes when oil prices increase.
** A Nebraska county approves an ordinance that expands distancing requirements for wind turbines in proximity to agricultural land, churches and other public amenities.
** Railroad Norfolk Southern is backing away from its push to reduce its train crews down to one person, the company said Thursday in a joint announcement with the nation’s largest rail union.
** A federal review of plans for a Great Lakes oil pipeline tunnel will take more than a year longer than originally planned, officials said, likely delaying completion of the project — if approved — until 2030 or later. The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers had intended to release a draft report later this year on how the proposed tunnel beneath Michigan’s Straits of Mackinac would affect the environment.
World
** Denmark has invited the Russian-controlled operator of the Nord Stream 2 pipeline to help salvage an unidentified object found close to the only remaining intact gas pipeline under the Baltic Sea. Three explosions last September on the Nord Stream pipelines built to deliver Russian gas to Germany have become another flashpoint in a standoff between the West and Russia set off by its invasion of Ukraine.
** If India stopped burning coal tomorrow, over five million people would lose their jobs. But for a price tag of around $900 billion over the next 30 years, the country can make sure nobody is left behind in the huge move to clean energy to curb human-caused climate change, according to figures released by New Delhi-based think tank.
** Chad is nationalizing all assets from multinational oil giant Exxon Mobil, including its hydrocarbon and exploration permits, said the government. ″The finance and budget minister must make sure the said decree is implemented from the date of its publishing,” said Haliki Choua Mahamat the government’s general secretary on state media.