** Sen. Tim Scott (R-SC) is asking the Biden administration to delay new energy standards for mobile homes set to go into effect at the end of next month. In a new letter to Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm given exclusively to Yahoo Finance, Scott said “this costly and misguided regulation” will squeeze low-income Americans who will be “unfairly asked to bear the costs imposed by climate alarmists.”
** A lawsuit that Louisiana and other Republican-leaning states filed challenging figures the Biden administration uses to calculate damages from greenhouse gasses was dismissed Wednesday by a federal appeals court. The unanimous decision by three judges on the 5th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans was the latest defeat for states challenging the Biden “cost of carbon” policy.
** Ford Motor Co and Chrysler-parent Stellantis said on Wednesday that most of its electric and plug-in electric hybrid models will see tax credits halved to $3,750 on April 18 after new U.S. Treasury rules take effect.
** At least three Minnesota agencies knew of a contaminated water leak late last year at a nuclear plant, months before the incident was publicly known.
** The U.S. EPA fines a California oil refinery $1.2 million for flaring incidents that spewed pollutants into residential neighborhoods in 2017 and 2019.
World
** The number of people arrested as part of a corruption investigation at Venezuela’s state oil company PDVSA has risen to 34, Attorney General Tarek Saab said on Wednesday. Investigations into state companies including PDVSA and metals conglomerate Corporacion Venezolana de Guayana (CVG) have resulted in dozens of arrests over the last several weeks.
** The Mexican government agreed to purchase 13 power plants from the Spanish energy company Iberdrola for $6 billion on Tuesday (April 4), giving its state-owned power company, Commission Federal de Electricidad (CFE), majority control over the country’s electricity market.
** A state actor’s involvement in the blast of the Nord Stream pipelines last year is the “absolute main scenario”, though confirming identity will prove difficult, the Swedish prosecutor investigating the attack said on Thursday.
** Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro is finalizing plans to host an international summit aimed at reigniting negotiations between Venezuela’s beleaguered government and its opposition parties, a move that will put him at the forefront of a global push to resolve the country’s political crisis before presidential elections next year.
** Chinese state-owned telecom firms are developing a $500 million undersea fiber-optic internet cable network that would link Asia, the Middle East and Europe to rival a similar U.S.-backed project, four people involved in the deal told Reuters. The plan is a sign that an intensifying tech war between Beijing and Washington risks tearing the fabric of the internet