** Fewer Americans today see climate change as a “very serious” problem than they did three years ago, according to a new survey released Monday. The Monmouth University poll, conducted on April 18-22 shows a 10-point decline in Americans who says climate change is a “very serious” problem, falling from 56 percent in September 2021 to 46 percent in April.
** Nevada Republican Senate candidate Sam Brown is under fire from Democrats for 2022 remarks in which he expressed support for plans to store federal nuclear waste at Yucca Mountain.
** Winds of 50 mph to 60 mph caused dozens of delays Monday at the Denver International Airport. At least 862 flights in and out of Denver International Airport were delayed and 37 flights canceled, according to FlightAware as of Monday afternoon. Wind gusts of 90 mph were recorded in Colorado Springs.
** A detailed report by The Washington Post revealed that coastal communities across eight states in the U.S. are facing “one of the most rapid sea level surges on Earth.” Since 2010, satellite data shows that the Gulf of Mexico has experienced twice the global average rate of rising sea levels, with more than a dozen tide gauges spanning from Texas to North Carolina registering sea levels that are at least six inches higher than they were 14 years ago.
** An Australia-based global metal mining and green energy company has broken ground on a major hydrogen production project in Arizona, part of what the group’s founder said could be several planned clean energy investments in North America. The Arizona Hydrogen plant, located in Buckeye, is a $550 million project that would produce 11,000 tons of hydrogen annually using 80 MW of renewable energy generation capacity.
** Ambri Inc., which has been trying to build an industrial-scale battery for 14 years, filed for bankruptcy after it ran through all the cash it had received from investors, including firms tied to Microsoft Corp. co-founder Bill Gates and hedge fund billionaire John Paulson.
World
** Brazilian energy major Petrobras has loaded diesel from India on board a Suezmax crude oil tanker after a month-long delay, according to shiptracking data and trade sources, the first such shipment from India in more than a year amid volatile freight rates for clean product tankers.
** Cargoes of an oil product from Russia are building up at sea as South Korean buyers turn cautious, highlighting how the invasion of Ukraine is still impacting flows more than two years later. More than 2 million barrels of Russian naphtha, a building block for plastics, have been held in 10 tankers for more than a week, with some in the waters near Oman and Malta, as of May 7, according to market intelligence firm Kpler.
** Russia is facing a labor crisis as its war with Ukraine siphons manpower away from the country’s economy. The manpower crunch has gotten so bad that the Russian military is now offering sign-on bonuses and salaries that are so competitive that even the country’s lucrative oil and gas industry isn’t keeping up, Bloomberg reported on Monday.
** Aramco kept its $31 billion dividend payout to the Saudi government and other investors despite lower profit, a boon for the kingdom’s economy as it struggles with a budget deficit.