** The Biden administration’s new greenhouse gas rule is designed to drive drastic changes in how U.S. power companies produce electricity — but utilities say it could escalate the risk of outages as it squeezes fossil fuel plants into retirement.
** Shell Chemicals is facing its second lawsuit brought by three contractors who say they were injured from a fire that broke out in a volatile unit at its Deer Park petrochemical plant on May 5.
** The U.S. clean energy sector is set to deliver a record-breaking 600 gigawatts (GW) of solar, wind and energy storage capacity by the end of the decade, according to BloombergNEF’s latest Clean Energy Market Outlook. The report notes that the White House’s Inflation Reduction Act has played a key role in propelling the country toward “staggering” renewable energy growth.
** While the debate over the extent of climate change and how to counter its impact rages on in the U.S., Lynn Good is busy making sure Duke Energy, the company she’s run since 2013, is hitting emission reduction targets. She’s betting on renewable energy, seeing in that pursuit an ample business opportunity for the nation’s largest regulated utility.
** A Montana judge on Friday said a climate change lawsuit from young people challenging the state’s pro-fossil fuel policies will proceed to trial despite efforts by officials to derail the case.
** From adding up to 6,000 megawatts of solar and battery storage to its grid to considering expansion of natural gas, the Tennessee Valley Authority on May 10 rolled out the plans and ideas it has for the future.
World
** Europe has come a long way from the frenzied stockpiling driving up natural gas prices a year ago. As of May 9, Europe’s gas storage was full to 62%, and at the current pace of refilling, storage is expected to hit its capacity of about 1,138 terawatt-hours (TWh) by late August, according to estimates by Morgan Stanley. And it is driving down gas prices.
** There’s a “renewable power revolution” occurring, and in the U.K., it’s working. For the time ever, wind energy provided more power to the country than gas. The milestone energy sourcing occurred during the first three months of 2023, a new report published on Wednesday said. According to the report, published by Drax Electric Insights and conducted by researchers at Imperial College London, 32.4% of Britain’s electricity came from wind power during that time.
** India’s efforts to internationalize the rupee have stalled following the failure of its negotiations to use it to trade with Russia. Russia, which prefers the Chinese yuan, is hesitant to adopt rupee trade as that would leave Moscow with undesirable rupee reserves of more than $40 billion annually, Reuters reported last week.
** Leaders of the Group of Seven (G7) countries are set to issue a statement of concern about China’s use of economic leverage abroad when they gather next week, according to a U.S. official familiar with the discussions.
** Canada’s Competition Bureau said on Thursday it was investigating whether Pathways Alliance, a group of oil sands producers collaborating on ways to cut greenhouse gas emissions, misled the public in its advertising campaign
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France beat competition from Germany and the Netherlands for ProLogium’s first overseas car battery plant thanks to lobbying from President Emmanuel Macron, deal sweeteners and competitive power prices, executives from the Taiwanese company said.
** Taiwan is busy constructing a 111-wind turbine farm off its west coast and into the Taiwan Straight. The wind farms are part of Taiwan’s ambitious push to power its massive tech industry with renewable energy and sit in a waterway that has become a focal point of tensions between Beijing and Washington.
** Iraq expects TotalEnergies to begin operations on a long-delayed $27 billion oil, gas and renewables project in the second half of 2023 after finalising side-contracts with a state oil company, an Iraqi deputy oil minister said on Friday.
** VinFast, an electric vehicle maker founded by Vietnam’s richest person, is going public through a merger with blank-check company Black Spade Acquisition Co. in what would be the largest-ever US listing by a company from the Southeast Asian country. The deal will give VinFast an equity value of about $23 billion, according to a statement from the parent company Vingroup JSC on Friday. Including debt, the EV maker will be valued at around $27 billion.