** According to the Environmental Protection Agency’s (EPA) Toxic Release Inventory — a list of self-reported toxic chemical emissions — more than 428,000 pounds of vinyl chloride were released into the air by 38 industry facilities last year.
** A Gallup poll, released Monday, found the share of Americans who describe the energy situation as “very serious” has dropped 10 points since last year, down to 34 percent.
** Multiple Norfolk Southern train cars derailed near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania on Saturday, amid the recent turmoil surrounding the U.S.-based railway company, which was at the center of a toxic train derailment on the Ohio-Pennsylvania state line in February.
** Four environmental groups are suing to stop a new law requiring Ohio to accept private petitions to drill for oil and gas underneath state parks.
** A study published Monday finds sea-level rise along the coast of the southeastern United States has accelerated rapidly since 2010, raising fears that tens of millions of Americans’ homes in cities across the South will be at risk from flooding in the decades to come.
** Many Americans aren’t yet sold on going electric for their next cars, a new poll shows, with high prices and too few charging stations the main deterrents. About 4 in 10 U.S. adults are at least somewhat likely to switch, but the history-making shift from the country’s century-plus love affair with gas-driven vehicles still has a ways to travel.
** The leader of a U.S. congressional committee on China said on Monday he was concerned about electric carmaker Tesla Inc’s dependency on China, a day after the company revealed plans to open a Megapack battery factory in Shanghai.
World
** Kazakhstan has started arbitration proceedings against companies developing its Kashagan and Karachaganak oilfields over $13 billion and $3.5 billion respectively in costs deducted as part of profit-sharing deals, its energy minister said on Tuesday.
** Australia suspended a complaint to the World Trade Organization in a bid to reopen the Chinese market to Australian barley for the first time in three years in the new government’s latest step toward repairing relations with Beijing.
** Russia started fuel exports to Iran by rail this year for the first time after traditional buyers shunned trade with Moscow, according to three industry sources and exports data.
** China’s consumer inflation hit an 18-month low and factory-gate price declines sped up in March as demand stayed persistently weak, shoring up the case for policymakers to take more steps to support the uneven economic recovery.
** The cost of Iraqi oil to India dropped in February as a steady flow of Russian cargoes undercut other suppliers. The price of crude from Iraq averaged $76.19 a barrel, compared with $78.92 in January, according to data published by India’s ministry of commerce and industry. Russian supplies averaged $72.14, marginally lower than January.
