** Wyoming’s Office of State Lands and Investments began holding an oil and gas lease auction this week, one that’s considered one of its smallest since 2017. The auction underscores the challenges the office (OSLI) faces with promoting a carbon-based energy program to raise revenue.
** Chevron recently revealed plans to build its first solar-to-hydrogen production facility in California. The project would turn non-potable water from its existing operations into an emissions-free fuel source with help from the sun. The clean hydrogen will help support the state’s growing need for lower-carbon energy.
** US natural gas prices surged after EQT Corp., the nation’s largest producer, said it will slash output after an unseasonably warm winter and the resulting supply glut triggered a price collapse.
** Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm is maintaining her close relationship with far-left dark money environmental groups, including one that was tied to an organization that has received millions in backing from a foreign billionaire.
** A new fuel cell-related pilot project is bringing a hydrogen-based worksite ecosystem to a Georgia power plant. GM is collaborating on the project and will provide a fleet of fuel cell-powered medium-duty trucks as well as supporting infrastructure.
** Monday, SpaceX launched a Falcon 9 rocket carrying the Environmental Defense Fund’s MethaneSAT satellite. The satellite will track leaking methane, a potent greenhouse gas, from oil and gas companies.
** The dean of Wall Street CEOs is green. JPMorgan Chase today struck an agreement with three New York City pension funds with investments in the bank valued at $478 million to disclose the ratio of its clean energy to fossil fuel financing.
World
** Expanding Canada’s liquefied natural gas (LNG) industry in response to the U.S. pause on approving new export projects is “not supported by market fundamentals,” according to the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA). The U.S.-based non-profit’s findings come as a top Canadian oil and gas executive and the federal minister of energy and natural resources frame the situation as a potential opportunity to boost Canada’s share of the global trade.
** The border dispute between oil-rich Venezuela and Guyana got a new twist with Guyana exporting more oil than its neighbor for the third straight month.
** Geoengineers are planning to test massive underwater curtains that could slow catastrophic glacial melting. The Thwaites, a.k.a. “doomsday glacier,” has lost over 1,000 billion tons of ice since 2000.
** The Spanish government has given the go-ahead to develop the world’s first hydrogen-electric high-speed train capable of going over 155 mph, offering a multi-million dollar grant to help fund the project, Hydrogen Insight reported.
