** Senate Energy Committee Chair Joe Manchin (D-W.Va.) on Wednesday joined Sen. Dan Sullivan (R-Alaska) and Rep. Garret Graves (R-La.) to announce a Congressional Review Act (CRA) resolution to overturn the Biden administration’s new rules on energy permitting, following a pledge Manchin made last week.
** Walmart Inc. now has one Tesla semi-truck on the nation’s highways as a test of the all-electric vehicle, a Walmart spokeswoman confirmed.
** Texas electricity prices soared almost 100-fold as a high number of power-plant outages raised concerns of a potential evening shortfall. Spot prices at the North Hub, which includes Dallas, jumped to more than $3,000 a megawatt-hour just before 7 p.m. local time, versus about $32 at the same time Tuesday, according to data from the Electric Reliability Council of Texas.
** Three insurance companies have rejected Chevron’s claim over the seizure last year of an oil cargo by Iran, according to a complaint filed on Tuesday in a U.S. court in California.
** General Motors said Wednesday it will end production of its gasoline-powered Chevrolet Malibu car later this year in order to produce new electric vehicles.
** Federal investigators say they have “significant safety concerns” about a Ford SUV recall repair that doesn’t fix gasoline leaks that can cause engine fires. The U.S. National Highway Traffic Safety Administration is demanding volumes of information from the automaker as it investigates the fix in a March 8 recall of nearly 43,000 Bronco Sport SUVs from the 2022 and 2023 model years, and Escape SUVs from 2022. All have 1.5-liter engines.
World
** Nissan’s profit for the fiscal year through March jumped 92% to 426.6 billion yen ($2.7 billion) as sales grew in all major global markets except China, the Japanese automaker said Thursday. Annual sales surged nearly 20% to 12.7 trillion yen ($81.5 billion), Nissan Motor Co. said.
** Funds are the most bullish on European natural gas since the early days of the energy crisis, signaling growing concerns about tightening supplies even as summer takes hold. The net-long position in benchmark Dutch gas futures held by investment funds rose for a fourth straight week as of Friday, according to Intercontinental Exchange Inc. data released Wednesday.
** Shell Plc has agreed to sell its Singapore refining and chemicals assets to a joint venture between commodity trader Glencore Plc and Indonesia’s PT Chandra Asri Pacific.
** BP softened the language on its pledge to cut its 2030 oil and gas output in an effort to reassure investors over its energy transition strategy and narrow a gaping value gap with rivals.
** Widespread recent power outages in Mexico were caused by unseasonably hot weather, the country’s president said on Wednesday, assuring consumers that the national grid has sufficient generating capacity going forward.