** Mountain Valley Pipeline officials say the long-delayed project should be completed later this year, after Congress passed a provision of the debt limit deal that dismisses current legal challenges to its permits.
** A new study from clean energy advocates finds that North Dakota wasted $680 million in 2019 through flaring, venting and leaks from oil and gas operations.
** A bill moving through the Ohio legislature is among the latest that would prevent state pension boards from investing in funds that consider environmental, social, and corporate governance factors.
** U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm visits Rhode Island’s Block Island Wind Farm, saying the U.S. wants to “replicate this, even bigger” in the Atlantic, Pacific, Gulf of Mexico and Great Lakes.
** The FCC approved a partial foreign ownership stake in Windstream Holdings LLC of Little Rock. The telecom company says the deal will allow it to emerge from Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Under the agreement, U.S.-based Nexus Aggregator would have a 49.27% interest in the newly reorganized Windstream.
** General Motors paid $128.2 million for failing to meet federal fuel economy standards in 2018 and 2019, while Stellantis paid $235.6 million for its failure in 2016 and 2017.
World
** Saudi Arabia has announced plans to cut its oil production by 1 million barrels per day (bpd) as the Kingdom pledged to do “whatever is necessary” to prop up sagging prices. Oil prices were expected to jump after the surprise unilateral decision by the Gulf state.
** Government officials in Ireland are considering a plan to kill 200,000 cows to combat climate change, according to reports. There were multiple reports this week that the Irish government was contemplating a plan to cull 200,000 cows within three years to fight climate change.
** The future of fossil fuels — the leading source of planet-heating emissions — will face scrutiny at UN climate negotiations this week with an under-fire Emirati oil chief poised to step into the driver’s seat. As the world struggles to limit warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius above preindustrial levels, pressure is on the UAE to arrive in Germany with ambitious plans for its presidency of Dubai’s December COP28 climate summit.
** Another UN-backed group, the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), has warned that the world will almost certainly need to remove billions of tons of carbon a year from the atmosphere by mid-century to limit warming to 1.5C. The market for carbon offsets is estimated to be about $2 billion today.
** Heavy electric cars could be banned from old multi-storey car parks, engineers have warned. The Institution of Structural Engineers (IStructE) has said that weight limits should be imposed on older buildings to cope with the increasingly heavy new electric vehicles following a review.
** Bangladesh could face power cuts for two more weeks, its power minister said late on Sunday, as higher electricity consumption because of rising temperatures has caused a fuel shortfall for generation plants.