** An anonymous whistleblower will receive more than $37 million for helping financial regulators investigate misconduct, according to the US Securities and Exchange Commission. Neither the enforcement action nor the identity of the whistleblower were disclosed, following agency policy.
** Several environmental advocacy groups, including the Environmental Integrity Project, Earthjustice and the Sierra Club have sued the Biden administration over a regulation intended to cut pollution from chemical plants, contending the rule does not go far enough. They claim the rules allow for too much ethylene oxide, a carcinogen, to be released.
** A big solar project is starting in four U.S. states, three of which currently have minimal solar. CleanTechnica reported last month that energy firms Entergy and NextEra Energy Resources have partnered to create “4.5 gigawatts’ worth of new solar energy generation and storage projects over the next five years” in “Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas.”
** Mary Barra, General Motors’ CEO has backed down on the firm’s expectations for its EV program. Speaking to CNBC earlier this week, she said that GM wouldn’t have production capacity in place to build one million EVs at the end of 2025, which was its previous target.
** Gas prices could soon soar across the Chicago metropolitan area after a tornado narrowly missed a major ExxonMobil refinery outside of Chicago Monday night, knocking out power to the facility.
** The Biden administration has named the site of the Blackwell School, a segregated school for Mexican American children in Marfa, Texas, as the country’s newest national park, Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announced Wednesday.
** Politico’s The Hill reports the EPA’s Inspector General is investigating why the agency didn’t get its specialized plane loaded with advanced sensors into the air over East Palestine until four days after the disastrous Norfolk Southern derailment last year.
** Barstool Sports President and CEO Dave Portnoy is speaking out after an offshore windmill blade snapped and sent nonbiodegradable fiberglass shards into the water, washing up on Nantucket shores and forcing the town to close its beaches.
World
** Search teams rescued nine crew members, mostly Indians, and recovered the body of another as they searched the Arabian Sea waters for others after an oil tanker capsized this week off the coast of Oman, Omani state media said Wednesday.
** Bolivia’s embattled president on Monday announced the discovery of vast natural gas reserves, describing it as the biggest find in nearly two decades that could help the cash-strapped country reverse its falling production. President Luis Arce called the trove just north of the capital a “mega field,” saying it has some 1.7 trillion cubic meters of gas at a likely market value of $6.8 billion.
** Egypt will halt load-shedding power cuts during the summer as of Sunday, after some natural gas shipments arrived, Prime Minister Mostafa Madbouly said on Wednesday, in a bid to end a crisis that inconvenienced a population of 106 million.
** Slovakia and Hungary said they have stopped receiving oil from key supplier Lukoil, after Ukraine imposed a ban last month on the transit of resources from the Russian energy company via its territory.
** Ford Motor on Thursday outlined plans to use a Canadian plant it had earmarked for a future electric vehicle to instead build larger, gasoline-powered versions of its flagship F-Series pickup truck.
