** Delays at the Panama Canal because of low water levels are causing very large gas carrier (VLGC) rates to reach record highs, increasing the cost of shipping liquefied petroleum gas (LPG). The Panama Canal is a major energy transit point, and water levels at its crucial Gatún Lake, were below the 10-year (2013–2022) range in July and August.
** NextEra Energy, Inc. announced its Florida Power & Light Company subsidiary has entered into a definitive agreement to sell Florida City Gas to Chesapeake Utilities Corporation for $923 million in cash. Chesapeake Utilities is not to be confused with Chesapeake Energy.
** Ford Motor Co. is pausing plans to build a $3.5 billion electric vehicle battery plant in Marshall, Mich., as the company faces financial pressure from striking autoworkers and political pressure from lawmakers demanding it sever its ties to a Chinese firm collaborating on the plant.
** Donald Trump is wading into the autoworkers strike by claiming that EVs threaten blue collar livelihoods. That’s a clear attack on President Biden, who wants to slash carbon emissions by boosting EVs to 50% of new car sales by 2030 from about 7% today.
World
** One year on from explosions that damaged the Nord Stream gas pipelines under the Baltic sea between Russia and Germany, the question of who was behind them is unresolved.
** The urgency for Southeast Asian nations to switch to clean energy to combat climate change is reinvigorating a 20-year-old plan for the region to share power. Malaysia and Indonesia inked a deal in Bali, Indonesia last month to study 18 potential locations where cross-border transmission lines can be set up.
** The U.S. is expected to indefinitely extend a waiver granted to South Korean chipmakers Samsung Electronics and SK Hynix on needing licenses to bring U.S. chip equipment into China, Yonhap news agency reported on Wednesday.
** The British government approved the development of a huge oil and gas field in the North Sea Wednesday, sealing its commitment to keep producing fossil fuels for decades to come. The Rosebank field, situated northwest of Shetland in Scotland and majority-owned by Norwegian state-owned energy company Equinor, is the largest undeveloped oil and gas field in the North Sea, with the potential to produce 500 million barrels of oil.
** The International Energy Agency (IEA) has released an updated road map this week for reaching zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. The new report emphasizes that solutions like carbon capture technology and carbon credits have not lived up to their promise of removing CO2 from our atmosphere, while renewables have made the most progress toward reaching lower emissions targets.
** Volkswagen will suspend production of ID.3 and Cupra Born electric cars at its Zwickau and Dresden plants in Germany in the first two weeks of October due to weaker demand, a spokesperson for the carmaker said on Tuesday.
** Germany ‘s state-owned KfW bank on Wednesday said it had halted a day-old subsidy programme for charging electric vehicles with solar power at home as the funds were exhausted immediately due to high demand.