** Three survivors of the deadly wildfires that ravaged Maui said Wednesday that when the inferno erupted, the main escape route out of town was partly blocked by Hawaiian Electric trucks clearing downed lines and replacing busted power poles.
** U.S. natural gas trade groups are opposing federal pipeline regulators’ proposed methane leak detection rules to address the climate-change crisis. The U.S. Department of Transportation’s Pipeline and Hazardous Materials Safety Administration (PHMSA) rolled out the gas pipeline leak detection and repair proposal in May, to reduce emissions from over 2.7 million miles of gas transmission systems as well storage facilities.
** Tesla has been accused of several unethical business practices over the years. The latest, according to a new, extensively reported piece from Reuters, is that the electric vehicle company misled consumers about the battery range of its cars.
** Workers have begun loading radioactive fuel into a second new nuclear reactor in Georgia, utilities said Thursday, putting the reactor on a path to begin generating electricity in the coming months.
** Trucking firm Estes Express has submitted a $1.3 billion bid to acquire bankrupt Yellow Corp’s shipment centers, attorneys said at a U.S. bankruptcy court hearing.
World
** Venezuela is making a last ditch attempt to limit the number of companies that could participate in a court-ordered auction of shares in oil refiner Citgo Petroleum, appealing to the U.S. Supreme Court to overturn a lower court’s ruling.
** After riding a fossil-fuel boom for decades, Gulf Arab states are eyeing “green” hydrogen as they try to transition their economies and ease the climate crisis at a stroke. Oil producers Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Oman are investing heavily in the climate-friendly fuel in a search for alternative revenues to crude and gas.
** Europe’s natural gas reserves are almost full, though that still may not be enough to see the region through winter.
** Chinese companies have built an impressive set of wind turbines, including the largest in the world. Weeks after debuting an 827-foot turbine, the country activated a structure in late July with a rotor diameter of 853 feet — the largest in the world, according to Popular Mechanics.
** The Vietnamese electric-vehicle maker VinFast Auto Ltd. has fallen sharply over the two most recent trading days in New York, eliminating more than half of the 255% gain it notched on Tuesday when it listed on the Nasdaq Global Select Market.
** New Zealand farmers will have until the end of 2025 before they have to pay for methane produced by sheep and cattle, after the Labour government on Friday pushed back its plans to price agricultural emissions of greenhouse gases.