** Lordstown Motors filed for bankruptcy protection Tuesday, put itself up for sale, and announced a lawsuit against Foxconn, accusing its biggest shareholder and former partner of setting out to “destroy” its business. The electric vehicle maker, which specializes in pick-up trucks, made a Chapter 11 filing in a Delaware court while simultaneously starting legal action against Foxconn.
** Korean battery maker LG commits to building factories, including in Arizona, Georgia, Michigan and Tennessee, that would increase its U.S. production capacity by a factor of more than 55 by 2027.
** Hyundai raises its goal for annual sales of electric vehicles to account for a third of all sales by 2030 as it builds an EV factory in Georgia.
** Iowa convenience store operators will receive more than $2.5 million in federal funding to help expand consumer access to higher blends of renewable fuel, part of $25 million in grants U.S. Agriculture Secretary Tom Vilsack announced Monday.
** The U.S. added nearly 4,500 MW of new natural gas-fired generation in the first four months of 2023, but federal regulators predict solar power will dominate new generation over the next few years reported Utility Dive.
** An analysis finds dozens of serious oil field violations in a southern California county remain unresolved years after regulators cited the operators.
** Federal regulators order BNSF Railway to haul more coal from Navajo Transitional Energy Co.’s Powder River Basin mine to a coastal export terminal after the company accused the railroad of violating its common-carrier obligation.
** Despite concerns about cost inflation, developers of LNG projects in the United States are set to approve a record-high volume of export capacity in the first half of 2023, driven by rising global LNG demand and increased long-term contracting from customers willing to boost energy security.
World
** The global Offshore Wind Market is projected to reach USD 56.8 billion by 2026 from USD 31.8 billion in 2021 at a CAGR of 12.3% according to a new report by MarketsandMarkets™. Increasing global investments in renewable energy are likely to drive the offshore wind market.
** A heat wave in northern China is the latest threat to agricultural production in the country as the El Nino weather pattern brings hotter and drier conditions than normal.
** Pakistan’s central bank unexpectedly raised its benchmark rate to a record high in an emergency meeting as the nation makes a final attempt to revive its loan program with the International Monetary Fund.
** The consumption of fossil fuels remained steady despite record growth in the renewable energy sector. According to the Energy Institute’s Statistical Review of World Energy, primary energy demand growth slowed in 2022 by increasing about 1.1 percent compared to its increase of 5.5 percent in 2021. The report noted that the energy sector shifted from demand around the COVID-19 pandemic to supply concerns from Russia’s invasion in Ukraine.