** The Biden administration on Tuesday announced new guidelines for ensuring the integrity of carbon credits or offsets. Individuals, businesses and other entities can buy these credits to try to “offset” their emissions as part of an effort to achieve net-zero. This can entail things like paying organizations toplant trees or prevent them from being cut down.
** ConocoPhillips is in advanced talks to acquire Marathon Oil Corp., which would extend a major wave of consolidation among the US oil and gas industry, according to people familiar with the matter.
** Interior Secretary Deb Haaland confirmed in a Friday memo that National Park Service staff will be permitted to participate in LGBTQ Pride Month activities in uniform, reversing an NPS memo from earlier this month that sparked fierce backlash.
** The U.S. Supreme Court on Tuesday agreed to hear a lawsuit from San Francisco against the Environmental Protection Agency challenging Clean Water Act regulations the city argues are overly vague.
** In exchange for cleaner water, Americans around the nation may soon have to pay hefty prices. Water systems are starting to warn residents of massive rate hikes as they prepare to install technology to filter out toxic chemicals in a family known as PFAS.
** The U.S. Energy Department’s weekly inventory release showed that natural gas supplies increased less than expected. The positive inventory numbers, together with signs of production pullback and upcoming summer demand, buoyed natural gas futures, which settled with a gain week over week.
World
** Driving 1,250 miles without stopping to fill up? That’s a pipe dream for any car on the market right now, whether it’s powered by gas or electricity. But the Chinese EV maker BYD says it can happen thanks to upgrades in its new hybrid powertrain system, which is set to launch on two recently revealed midsize sedans, Bloomberg reported.
** Chinese oil refiners are cutting processing rates as flagging factory strength and a housing crash crimp demand for plastics and fuels used in construction. The Asian giant is reining in crude purchases from Saudi Arabia and a key grade from Russia. The duo lead the OPEC+ producer coalition, which meets this weekend.
** The operator of Japan’s destroyed Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant demonstrated Tuesday how a remote-controlled robot would retrieve tiny bits of melted fuel debris from one of three damaged reactors later this year for the first time since the 2011 meltdown.
** According to a report from Italian media and summarized by Electrek, the Italian government has advanced in talks with Tesla to support a factory to produce electric vehicles.
** Volkswagen will develop low-cost electric vehicles in a bid to better compete with fierce Chinese rivals, Europe’s largest carmaker said on Tuesday, after talks with Renault to team up on the project collapsed earlier this month.
