** High interest rates are derailing the ambitions of climate regulators and automakers to accelerate the shift to electric vehicles, underscored Wednesday by the scrapping of a GM-Honda partnership and a warning from a battery maker.
** Republican Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon is facing criticism for his recent comments pledging to reduce his state’s carbon emissions and saying there was urgency to addressing the “warming climate.”
** Ford Motor has come to terms with United Auto Workers, agreeing to a landmark compensation deal to end workers’ stand-up strike against it. UAW workers have been striking against all of Detroit’s big three automakers.
** A large majority of Americans – 71% – believe the climate crisis is causing at least some harm to people in the US, while slightly less than two-thirds of the population believe harmful climate impacts will get worse over their lifetimes, according to a new Pew Research Center survey.
** Democratic California Gov. Gavin Newsom had a surprise meeting with Chinese leader in Beijing on Wednesday – a trip blasted online for its apparent focus on climate change and fentanyl, as relations between the United States and the powerful Asian nation have become tense of late.
** The Biden administration took action Wednesday for a historic agreement among Western states to conserve vital water supplies from the Colorado River system.
** A fund managed by UBS O’Connor LLC and other creditors of natural gas tycoon Charif Souki are poised to acquire his Colorado ranch for $30.5 million after he put the sprawling property into bankruptcy amid a fight with lenders over his personal debt.
World
** Bulgaria on Wednesday decided to expand the country’s nuclear power generation as an alternative to fossil fuels by launching the construction of two additional reactors at its only nuclear power plant.
** The chairman of one of Russia’s biggest oil companies, Lukoil, has died suddenly, becoming the third of its senior executives to die unexpectedly in the past 18 months. It came after the company criticized Putin’s war against Ukraine.
** No new wind farms will be built off Britain’s shores unless the Government lets operators earn more money from the electricity they produce, the chief of the nation’s biggest generator has said. Tom Glover, country chair of RWE’s UK arm, said the price offered by the Government to wind farm operators must rise by as much as 70pc to entice companies to build.