** BlackRock Inc. Chief Executive Larry Fink — the leader of the world’s largest asset manager — said he won’t use the term “ESG” going forward. Fink, who has advocated for factoring in climate risks when making decisions regarding investing strategies and corporate leadership, said during a conversation at the Aspen Ideas Festival that the term for environment, social and corporate governance investing has been “misused by the far left and the far right.”
** The US navy is covering up dangerous levels of radioactive waste on a 40-acre former shipyard parcel in San Francisco’s waterside Hunters Point neighborhood, public health advocates charge. The land is slated to be turned over to the city as early as next year, and could be used for residential redevelopment.
** A bridge that crosses the Yellowstone River in Montana collapsed early Saturday, plunging portions of a freight train carrying hazardous materials into the rushing water below. The train cars were carrying hot asphalt and molten sulfur, Stillwater County Disaster and Emergency Services said.
** The U.S. Department of Transportation is awarding almost $1.7 billion in grants for buying zero- and low-emission buses, with the money going to transit projects in 46 states and territories. The grants will enable transit agencies and state and local governments to buy 1,700 U.S.-built buses, nearly half of which will have zero carbon emissions.
** The Environmental Protection Agency intends to crack down on trading in biofuel compliance credits, known as renewable identification numbers. The EPA will boost collaboration with the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and the Federal Trade Commission on the issue as part of a renewable fuel quota plan.
** The General Services Administration announced that nearly $1 billion in funding from the Inflation Reduction Act will be used for climate-related upgrades for federal buildings.
** The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers awards the Mountain Valley Pipeline a long-elusive permit to cross hundreds of waterways, as required by a provision in legislation to raise the debt ceiling.
** The Energy Department’s $9.2 billion loan to Ford’s battery joint venture with South Korea’s SK On is angering the powerful United Auto Workers. UAW President Shawn Fain said the plants in Kentucky and Tennessee would create “low-road jobs with no consideration for wages, working conditions, union rights or retirement security.”
** Federal occupational safety regulators fine the operators of a Colorado oil refinery $15,000 for violations related to a December fire that injured two workers.
World
** A string of offshore wind projects meant to power Britain are in jeopardy after the global race to net zero sent costs soaring, casting doubt over the industry’s future as a cheap source of energy. A surge in supply chain costs has pushed up the price of wind turbines, while increases in global interest rates have raised refinancing costs substantially.
** A new oil spill at a Shell facility in Nigeria has contaminated farmland and a river, upending livelihoods in the fishing and farming communities in part of the Niger Delta, which has long endured environmental pollution caused by the oil industry.
**China is relentlessly adding new petrochemical capacity despite a global glut as the country’s refiners diversify from transport fuels, threatening to depress margins worldwide through 2024 as weak economic growth saps demand.
** China’s consumer-driven recovery is showing more signs of losing momentum as spending slows on everything from holiday travel to cars and homes, adding to expectations for more stimulus to support the economy.
** OPEC sees global energy demand rising 23% by 2045.
** Europe’s liquefied natural gas imports surpassed those coming to the continent via pipelines for the first time last year, according to data from the Energy Institute.
** The global oil market faces fresh risks from the uprising in Russia by mercenary group Wagner, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., although it cautioned that the near-term impact was likely to be muted.
