** Exxon Mobil Corp. warned that making Big Oil into “villains” and trying to restrict supply of fossil fuels will slow the path to net zero emissions and keep millions of people in the developing world in poverty reported Bloomberg.
** An influential group of corporate bosses, bankers and academics, the Energy Transitions Commission, contends that oil executives betting they’ll be able to meet net zero emissions goals by relying on carbon-capture technology are deluding themselves.
** Pennsylvania has fined Energy Transfer and subsidiary Sunoco at least $42 million since 2018 over pollution stemming from Mariner East II pipeline construction.
** Environmentalists fight a company’s plan to build a Louisiana plant to process sugarcane into jet fuel.
** Fewer than one-third of U.S. commercial buildings were all-electric in 2018, and all-electric commercial buildings were most prevalent in the South, according to data from our Commercial Buildings Energy Consumption Survey (CBECS). As of 2018, 31%, or 1.8 million commercial buildings, were all-electric nationwide.
** Oregon’s first electric garbage truck takes to the streets, and provides an example of how to decarbonize heavy-duty vehicles.
World
** The US has granted Iraq another four-month waiver that will enable the country to continue paying Iran for electricity with money that’s deposited into restricted accounts that can only be used for humanitarian purposes, senior administration officials said on Tuesday.
** The US will enforce oil sanctions against Iran amid the renewed conflict in the Middle East, a White House Energy adviser said Wednesday.
** Portugal produced more than enough renewable power to serve all its customers for six straight days, from October 31 to November 6. That weekend, the nation of 10 million ran on nothing but wind, solar and hydropower, reported Canary Media.
** As Israel continues to bombard Gaza, fossil fuel companies are committed to continuing business as usual. Production at Israel’s Tamar gas field resumed on Monday after Chevron—which operates the field as a part-owner—received the go-ahead from the country’s Ministry of Energy.
** Greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere hit new record highs in 2022, with no end in sight to the rising trend, the United Nations warned Wednesday. The UN’s World Meteorological Organization said levels of the three main greenhouse gases — the climate-warming carbon dioxide, methane and nitrous oxide — all broke records last year.
** Global oil refiners will suffer a “soft patch” next year as new capacity in Mexico, Africa and the Middle East boosts fuel supply, according to Vitol Group’s Head of Research Giovanni Serio.
** Iceland is bracing for an imminent volcanic eruption on the Reykjanes Peninsula, in the southwest corner of the island. Icelandic authorities started creating makeshift defenses to protect the Svartsengi geothermal power plant from lava flows that may emerge if the threatening magma dike erupts over the next few days, Reuters news agency reported.
** Europe’s electricity grids cannot keep up with the continent’s rapid expansion of renewable energy, and are becoming the main bottleneck to getting more clean energy into the network, the continent’s power lobby has warned.
