** Maryland Gov. Wes Moore warned of a “very long road ahead” to recover from the loss of Baltimore’s Francis Scott Key Bridge as the Biden administration approved $60 million in immediate federal aid after the deadly collapse.
** A Michigan facility will become the first shuttered nuclear plant in the country to resume energy generation, a key step for the state’s goal to lower carbon emissions. Federal funding will support the reopening of the Palisades nuclear facility, and in the next few years, it’s poised to rejoin the ranks of the more than 50 nuclear energy plants across the U.S.
** Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen called out China’s ramped-up production in solar energy, electric vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, calling it unfair competition that “distorts global prices” and “hurts American firms and workers, as well as firms and workers around the world.”
** The last coal-fired power plant in New England, which had been the focus of a lawsuit and protests, is set to close in a victory for environmentalists. Granite Shore Power said it reached an agreement with the Environmental Protection Agency to close the Merrimack Station in New Hampshire by June 2028.
** A group of 20 House Republicans is urging the Biden administration to roll back protections for the gray wolf, pointing to the species’ growing population size and conflicts with ranchers and farmers. The GOP coalition, led by Rep. Cliff Bentz, R-Ore., argued in a letter to U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (FWS) Director Martha Williams that the gray wolf no longer needed to be listed under the Endangered Species Act.
** US oil prices are more than high enough to make drilling new wells profitable but some shale bosses say they’re hesitant because of political and regulatory “uncertainty” that won’t be settled until the November election, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas.
World
** Mexico President Andrés Manuel López Obrador says the collapse of the Francis Scott Key Bridge in Baltimore shows that “migrants go out and do risky jobs at midnight” and as a result they “do not deserve to be treated as they are by certain insensitive, irresponsible politicians in the United States.”
** Fresh from posting record profits from drilling crude and pumping gas, China’s biggest oil company has promised that all of its output will be fueled by renewables come 2033.
** Exxon Mobil Corporation XOM has issued a serious warning regarding the future of Australia’s domestic gas supply, emphasizing the urgent need for policy stability and increased investment in the sector, per a Reuters report. The company forecasts a significant decline in gas availability, predicting that by 2030, the domestic gas supply to Australia’s southern states could fall by 44%.
** Moscow launched a large-scale attack on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure Friday, with a mass barrage of 99 drones and missiles hitting regions across the country, Ukraine’s armed forces said. Air raid warnings rang out across the nation, with 10 Ukrainian regions coming under fire, the country’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said.
