** A U.S. appeals court declined to reconsider lawsuits challenging the Environmental Protection Agency’s finding that greenhouse gasses, including carbon dioxide, pose a danger to human health and welfare. The full U.S. Court of Appeals for the District of Columbia Circuit denied a petition for rehearing en banc filed by the Concerned Household Electricity Consumers Council and the FAIR Energy Foundation, which advocate against regulations promoting clean energy.
** The EPA must decide whether to accept Texas’ plan to reduce pollution from a coal-burning power plant in East Texas after settling a lawsuit with the Sierra Club over air quality in Rusk and Panola counties. The Sierra Club’s lawsuit accused the EPA of failing to be timely in rejecting or approving a plan submitted in 2022 by the Texas Commission on Environmental Quality to reduce pollution from the Martin Lake power plant near Tatum.
** A group of 10 House Republicans helped Democrats sink a bill that would have forced Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg to report his flight records on government-owned jets. The bill — introduced by Rep. Mary Miller, R-Ill., as an amendment to Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) reauthorization legislation — was defeated in a narrow 219-216 vote
** Nopetro Energy, the Miami-based company that had proposed constructing an LNG terminal in Port St. Joe, Florida said it was no longer moving forward with the $100-million-plus project. Residents had fought the LNG terminal project. forward with the $100-million-plus project.
** Washington State is mulling over ideas to make up for the fact that electric vehicles do not have to pay into the state’s gas tax because – you know – they don’t use gas. Currently, the gas tax costs drivers 49.4 cents per gallon, but according to KIMA Action News, a new proposal will do away with that in favor of a pay-per-mile system that’ll cost two and a half cents per mile driven.
** A little-publicized clause in the U.S. Inflation Reduction Act has companies scrambling to recycle electric vehicle batteries in North America, putting the region at the forefront of a global race to undermine China’s dominance of the field. The IRA includes a clause that automatically qualifies EV battery materials recycled in the U.S. as American-made for subsidies, regardless of their origin.
** Several climate protesters were placed in handcuffs on Capitol Hill this week, just ahead of a House Oversight Committee hearing featuring testimony from IRS whistleblowers.
** Safran SA agreed to buy an aerospace business from Raytheon Technologies Corp. in cash for an enterprise value of $1.8 billion, adding flight-control and actuation activities alongside 3,700 employees.
** An oil and gas company intends to move corporate headquarters into the historic Armour & Co. meat packing plant in the Fort Worth Stockyards once the building is renovated in 2024.The oil and gas company, U.S. Energy Development Corporation, will move its headquarters from Arlington to the red-brick Armour building. The privately held company revealed that it had acquired the 51,000-square-foot building at 601 E. Exchange Ave. from Kairoi in August 2022.
** Cheniere Energy Inc LNG is considering the construction of a new gas pipeline in a bid to enhance its liquefied natural gas (LNG) exporting capabilities. The new pipeline will link its Louisiana expansion project to other major shale-gas producing regions, diversifying risks and meeting the increasing demand for natural gas.
World
** China has begun drilling a 10,000-meter hole in the ground for the second time this year as it seeks ultra-deep reserves of natural gas.
** The transfer of Russia’s flagship Urals oil at sea — a key part of the nation’s petroleum supply chain since the war in Ukraine — has all but ground to a halt.
** Work has stopped on one of the UK’s largest offshore wind farms after its developer said it no longer made financial sense to continue. The Swedish energy giant Vattenfall is to shut down development of the Norfolk Boreas site, off the Norfolk coast. Market conditions had deteriorated since it signed a contract to fix the price of electricity it sells for 15 years, the company said.