** A project to build a first-of-a-kind small modular nuclear reactor power plant was terminated this week, another blow to the Biden administration’s clean energy agenda following cancellations last week of two major offshore wind projects. NuScale Power, working with a group of Utah utilities, announced the cancellation.
** Illinois lawmakers are sending Gov. J.B. Pritzker a revised proposal to lift the state’s decades-old moratorium on the construction of new nuclear power plants that aims to address the issues the second-term Democrat had with a version he vetoed this summer.
** A federal judge upheld the Biden administration’s approval of ConocoPhillips’ 600-million-barrel Willow oil development in Alaska, a blow to environmentalists who argued it would imperil wildlife and exacerbate climate change.
** Alaska Congresswoman Mary Peltola, a Democrat, has co-sponsored a bill to restore oil and gas leases in her state’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge.
** The Tennessee Valley Authority votes to deny a raise for CEO Jeff Lyash, the highest paid federal employee, after a fiscal year that included the workplace death of a site foreman and rolling blackouts during a December cold snap, reported the Knoxville News Sentinel.
** Florida natural gas industry officials urge more dairy farms to operate anaerobic digesters to collect methane from cow manure to be turned into natural gas reported Florida Politics.
** The governor of Illinois signed a new bill into law lifting part of the state’s 36-year moratorium on construction of new nuclear plants.
World
** Last year’s trio of explosions that ruptured the Nord Stream gas pipelines were orchestrated by a former senior Ukrainian military officer, the Washington Post reported Saturday. The Post, citing anonymous Ukrainian and European officials as well as others with knowledge of the operation, published the report in conjunction with German periodical Der Spiegel.
** Building and funding coal power plants is “irresponsible,” US climate envoy John Kerry said Friday in Singapore, calling “greed” the biggest impediment to climate action.
** French President Emmanuel Macron said on Friday that melting glaciers are an “unprecedented challenge for humanity” and urged world leaders to work together on halting the devastating effects of climate change.
** Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s promised cap on emissions from Canada’s oil and gas sector is coming by the end of the year, his environment minister said.
** The UK government is preparing to offer significantly higher subsidies for new offshore wind farms to get the country’s clean-power strategy back on track after developers shunned a previous auction.
** European natural gas traders have started taking fuel out of the region’s record inventories as colder weather settles in, drawing from its buffer against winter supply shocks.
** Hungary has asked the European Commission to launch an infringement procedure against Bulgaria over a new fee it has imposed on Russian gas transit shipments, EU affairs minister Janos Boka said in a post on Facebook on Friday.