** Utah made $1.4 billion in royalty revenue from gas and oil production on public lands over the last decade. But a nonpartisan watchdog group reports that taxpayers missed out on millions because of the below-market royalty rate that the federal government charges oil and gas companies while also footing the bill for cleaning up wells after they close.
** A West Coast Amtrak passenger rail line replaces petroleum-based fuel with biodiesel made from materials such as cooking oil.
** The federal Bureau of Land Management considers banning industrial-scale clean energy and fossil fuel development on nearly 2.5 million acres in southern Wyoming.
** The Florida Supreme Court ordered last week that the Florida Public Service Commission must justify its approval of Florida Power and Light’s $4.868 billion rate increase settlement. In a 4-2 decision, the state’s court instructed the utility regulator to “do the job with which the Legislature has tasked it” and explain why the increase in customer bills paired with charging customers for a higher rate of profit as agreed to in the settlement was “fair, just, and reasonable” for Floridians.
** The Federal Communications Commission issued its first-ever space debris fine on Monday against satellite television company Dish Network to the tune of $150,000 over a failed deorbit. According to a press release from the FCC, it reached a settlement with Dish following an investigation into the company’s “failure to properly deorbit its EchoStar-7 satellite.”
** The Environmental Protection Agency has announced an investigation into whether the state of Alabama’s management of sewage funds was racially discriminatory.
** Interior Deputy Secretary Tommy Beaudreau, the No. 2 official at the department, will leave the Biden administration, the Interior Department confirmed Wednesday.
World
** Ukraine has added the three biggest Chinese oil and gas producers – all state-owned companies – to its “international sponsors of war” list, spotlighting joint projects with Russia that Kyiv says help fund Moscow’s war effort.
** Saudi Arabia and Russia will continue to voluntarily curtail oil production until the end of the year, the nations said ahead of a ministerial monitoring panel for the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries. Saudi Arabia first began additional production cuts by 1 million barrels per day in July,
** BayWa r.e., a leading renewable energy company and PV distributor, continued its expansion in the Americas with the opening of a new solar distribution center in Medellín, Colombia. This center will supply complete systems for residential and commercial installations, from modules and inverters to batteries and racking.
** Pope Francis singled out the United States for its “irresponsible” Western lifestyle and excess carbon emissions in a Wednesday address at the United Nations.
** Shell Plc Chief Executive Officer Wael Sawan will meet with employees later this month to discuss his clean energy strategy amid internal anxiety over the decision to put a greater share of investment into fossil fuels.
** More than 40 countries are pledging to raise $12 billion to protect the world’s coral reefs from threats such as overfishing and human pollution. The new initiative, Coral Reef Breakthrough, was launched by the International Coral Reef Initiative (ICRI), the Global Fund for Coral Reefs and the U.N. High-Level Climate Champions, the groups said in a statement released Tuesday.
** The European Union said Wednesday that it had “sufficient evidence” of illegal Chinese electric car subsidies as it officially launched an inquiry that has enraged Beijing. European Commission President raised hackles in China when she announced last month that Brussels would start an anti-subsidy investigation.