** The Biden administration’s plan to stifle auto pollution and spur electric vehicles is expected to shrink US oil demand by an estimated 17 billion barrels through 2055.
** The Texas Senate passed a bill that will cap how much bitcoin (BTC) miners can participate in demand response programs, under which they get paid to curtail their operations at times of high energy demand. Bill SB 1751 is now heading to the House and if approved, it will have to be signed into law by Texas Governor Greg Abbott.
** Diamondback Energy Inc. is looking to sell non-core assets in the western Permian Basin as the oil producer looks to cash in on an increasingly active deal market in US shale. The company is working with a financial adviser to seek a buyer for assets around Pecos County, Texas, according to people familiar with the matter, who asked to not be identified because the process is confidential.
** A Canadian company announces it will open a Louisiana plant to process rare earth oxides required to make electric vehicle motors.
** An Australian mining company considers a Louisiana parish for a $480 million plant to manufacture a critical electric vehicle battery component.
** A Chinese electric vehicle battery maker has expanded its international investments to become an indispensable part of the global electrification drive, including the 2020 purchase of a factory in Kentucky.
** Local, state and federal officials join more than 40 companies in the natural gas, energy, and manufacturing sectors to submit an application to federal officials for a hydrogen hub in Appalachia.
** The Flandreau Santee Sioux Tribe is joining a New York-based energy firm in the development of a multi-billion dollar clean ammonia production facility in West Virginia. The $3 billion Adams Fork Energy clean ammonia project will be jointly developed by the South Dakota-based tribe and Adams Fork Energy LLC, an affiliate of New York-based Transgas Development Systems, LLC.
World
** The world’s 60 largest banks provided $673 billion to oil, gas, and coal producers in 2022, according to the 14th annual Banking on Climate Chaos report.
** Oil supply cuts agreed by OPEC+ nations last week are putting global markets on track for a hefty supply deficit that will widen as the year progresses, the latest data from the group indicate. World markets may be under supplied by about 2 million barrels a day in the fourth quarter as a result of cutbacks announced by Saudi Arabia and its partners, according to figures in a report from the Organization of Petroleum Exporting Countries.
** The German government dismissed calls Wednesday for a last-minute delay in shutting down the country’s last three nuclear power plants this weekend. Opposition politicians and even some members of the Free Democrats, a libertarian party that’s part of Chancellor Olaf Scholz’s governing alliance, have demanded a reprieve for the remaining reactors, which were already operating without requisite safety checks.