** The U.S. Treasury Department has sent notices to ship management companies requesting information about 100 vessels it suspects of violating Western sanctions on Russian oil, according to a source who has seen the documents. The notices represent the biggest step of its kind by the United States since Washington and its allies imposed a price cap aimed at restricting oil revenues to Moscow as punishment for its invasion of Ukraine, the source said.
** President Biden and Indonesian President Joko Widodo met Monday. After the meeting, Biden said that the two countries would be launching a strategic partnership that includes deepening collaboration on climate change reported The Hill.
** Bank of America Corp. led a $1.5 billion natural gas bond sale for oil-giant BP Plc just as Texas politicians are deciding whether to punish certain Wall Street banks by labeling them as “energy boycotters” for their climate change policies, reported Bloomberg.
** Regulators from the North American Electric Reliability Corporation are warning more than half of Americans are at risk of blackouts in the winter months.
** The Fifth National Climate Assessment, a congressionally mandated report due roughly every five years, warned that even though planet-warming pollution in the US is slowly decreasing, it is not happening nearly fast enough to meet the nation’s targets, nor is it in line with the UN-sanctioned goal to limit global warming to 1.5 degrees Celsius – a threshold beyond which scientists warn life on Earth will struggle to cope.
** The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission (FERC) and the North American Electric Reliability Corp (NERC) urged lawmakers to fill a regulatory blind spot to maintain reliable supply of natural gas that was highlighted by an inquiry into power outages during Winter Storm Elliott in December 2022.
** Democratic Senator Joe Manchin urged the U.S. Treasury on Monday to adopt the “strictest possible standards” to prevent Chinese-produced minerals or Chinese battery companies from winning electric vehicle tax credits.
** California extended its fight with the oil industry, filing a lawsuit against industry giants like ExxonMobil, Shell, and BP, as well as lobbying body the American Petroleum Institute. NPR reported the suit was filed in the San Francisco Superior Court, and the focus is on claims the big players in the oil industry have been misleading the public about the dangers of dirty energy.
** Author and investigative journalist Seamus Bruner — who led teams whose findings sparked multiple FBI investigations and congressional probes into the Clinton and Biden families — says that his research uncovered Gates’s efforts to buy up American farmland and invest in synthetic dairy and lab-grown meats in the name of preventing climate change. In the process, Bruner says, Gates is doing more to inflate his net worth than eliminate carbon emissions reported Fox News.
World
** Thailand is pitching a multibillion-dollar project that will significantly cut shipping times between the Indian and Pacific oceans by bypassing the Malacca Strait — one of the world’s busiest sea lanes.
** The International Energy Agency believes oil demand is finally nearing its peak. The global energy advisory expects oil demand to stop rising by 2030 as China’s growth slows and more people switch to electric vehicles.
** In a report published last week, Allianz Research noted that the eight largest renewable energy firms in the world reported a combined total $3 billion decrease in assets in the first half of the year, with wind projects in particular facing turbulent conditions. The firm’s economists said the past earnings season was a “learning moment” for the industry.
** China’s carbon emissions are likely to fall in 2024 because record growth in renewable energy capacity is now sufficient to cover growing demand, a new analysis finds.