** The Biden administration on Wednesday confirmed it will nix seven Alaskan oil and gas drilling leases issued under the Trump administration and suspended for review shortly after Biden took office. The area in question in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge had previously been leased to the Alaska Industrial Development and Export Authority.
** Nearly 1 in 5 Americans are concerned that climate change will make it harder for them to remain where they live, according to a poll. Conducted by USA Today and Ipsos and published Wednesday, the survey highlighted that attitudes toward climate change vary greatly depending on location, extreme weather and political affiliation.
** More than 80 Democrats are calling on the Biden administration to set emissions restrictions on heavy-duty vehicles that are more stringent than what the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) is proposing.
** Chevron U.S.A. Inc. has purchased land in Howard Hughes Holdings’ Bridgeland master-planned community in northwest Houston, Texas to develop a new research and development campus.
** U.S. natural gas futures slid about 3% to a two-week low on Wednesday on forecasts for the weather to become less hot over the next two weeks.
** A climate scientist has admitted overhyping the impact of global warming on wildfires to ensure his work was published in the prestigious science journal Nature. Dr Patrick Brown, the co-director of the climate and energy team at The Breakthrough Institute, Berkeley, published a paper last week arguing that climate change had increased wildfires in California.
** A subsidiary of The Woodlands-based Western Midstream Partners LP (NYSE: WES), a master limited partnership originally formed by Anadarko Petroleum, will pay $885 million to acquire Denver-based Meritage Midstream Services II LLC.
World
** Australian billionaire Andrew “Twiggy” Forrest denounced United Kingdom ’s plan to “max out” North Sea oil and gas reserves, saying he would withdraw his investments if he sees the “country steering itself over a cliff backing fossil fuel,” reported The Guardian, also quoting an interview from Bloomberg News.
** Germany’s wind power expansion faces an unexpected roadblock. Builders need permits to transport the heavy turbines down the country’s roads, and they’re waiting months to get them. There is a backlog of more than 15,000 applications for approvals, and companies now say their projects are heavily delayed.
** The value of Danish energy company Orsted, the world’s largest offshore wind farm developer and a big player in the U.S., has plunged about 31% since it declared $2.3 billion in U.S. impairments in late August due to supply delays, high interest rates and a lack of new tax credits.
** North Sea oil production has plunged at its fastest pace in a decade as fears grow over a potential Labour government and ’s windfall tax deters investment. Crude oil output slumped by 13pc in the first six months of this year compared with the same period in 2022, a report by Offshore Energies UK (OEUK) found.