** The West Texas Intermediate (WTI) crude oil price is once again nearing the $75 per barrel threshold and is expected to stay robust into the coming year. Specifically, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (“EIA”) anticipates a WTI oil price of $78.07 per barrel in 2024, slightly surpassing its projected figure of $77.63 for the current year.
** The Biden administration released its highly anticipated proposal for doling out billions of dollars in tax credits to hydrogen producers Friday, in a massive effort to build out an industry that some hope can be a cleaner alternative to fossil fueled power.
** Hyperloop One, the futuristic transportation company building tube-encased lines to zip passengers and freight from city to city at airplane-like speeds, is shutting down, according to people familiar with the situation.
** In the $1.2 trillion secondhand market, prices for battery-powered cars are falling faster than for their combustion-engine cousins. Buyers are shunning them due to a lack of subsidies, a desire to wait for better technology and continued shortfalls in charging infrastructures.
** The public outcry against carbon capture in Louisiana is growing. Louisiana has at least 20 underground carbon dioxide storage projects in the planning or development stages, most concentrated in the southeastern part of the state.
** The state of Ohio has decided to allow oil and gas fracking in some state parks and it angeed environmentalists.
World
** The start of supply from Russia’s newest liquefied natural gas project will be delayed after the company declared a force majeure on shipments in the wake of US sanctions. European gas prices rose on the news.
** At least 13 people died in a fire at a nickel processing facility at Indonesia Morwali Industrial Park early Sunday morning. Nearly 40 people were injured.
** A.P. Moller-Maersk A/S, the world’s second-largest container line, said it’s preparing to resume shipping through the Red Sea, thanks to a new multi-national maritime task force to protect vessels from attacks by Houthi rebels from Yemen.
** Russia’s oil processing in the past week remained close to its highest daily refining runs in more than eight months amid decreased seaborne exports.
** China’s capital Beijing has broken its record for hours of sub-zero temperatures in December dating back to 1951, after a cold wave swept swathes of the country and brought blizzards in its wake, sending temperatures towards historic lows.
** Sales of electric cars in the European Union were almost half of all new passenger car registrations in the EU between January and November 2023 and already crossed the halfway mark in the month of November alone, data shows.
