** The amount of electricity produced by wind power in the US plummeted to a 33-month low on Monday (22 July), with natural gas-fired power plants having to increase production to make up for the shortfall and keep air conditioners running.
** Goldman Sachs said that whoever wins the U.S. presidential election in November will have limited tools to significantly boost domestic oil supply next year. Strategic petroleum reserve stocks are low and regulatory easing may only significantly boost U.S. long-run supply, the bank said in a client note.
** Vice President Harris’s ascendance as the likely Democratic nominee has sent a wave of excitement through environmental advocates and climate hawks in Congress, who point to her history of investigating the oil industry and support for the Green New Deal in the Senate reported The Hill.
** According to The New York Times, the Biden administration has reached a settlement with General Motors after an investigation found that the automaker sold nearly 6 million cars releasing more carbon dioxide than claimed. GM will pay over $145.8 million in penalties for selling vehicles between 2012 and 2018 that did not adhere to Obama-era auto tailpipe emissions standards.
** Starbucks is partnering with Mercedes-Benz to build electric vehicle charging stations outside its stores. The Seattle-based java giant and Mercedes-Benz High-Power Charging will install hundreds of fast chargers at 100 Starbucks near Interstate 5, according to Electrek. The highway runs south from the Canadian border outside of Vancouver through Washington, Oregon, and California and into Mexico near Tijuana.
** Wood pellet production skyrocketed across the U.S. South to feed the European Union’s push this past decade for renewable energy to replace fossil fuels such as coal. But many residents near plants — often African Americans in poor, rural swaths — find the process left their air dustier and people sicker.
** Transit and environmental advocacy groups in New York filed lawsuits challenging Gov. Kathy Hochul‘s decision to block a plan to reduce traffic and raise billions for the city’s ailing subway system through a new toll on Manhattan drivers.
** America is about to get its very first solar-covered canal — a huge win for clean energy innovation. This groundbreaking project, nearing completion on tribal lands in Arizona, will generate solar power while also helping preserve precious water resources, according to Canary Media.
** A Kentucky-based group has announced plans to build a 6-GW fleet of nuclear power stations in the U.S., looking to take advantage of bipartisan support for nuclear technology and the need to build more baseload, zero-carbon sources of energy. The Nuclear Company, headquartered in Lexington, said its business model would lean on “proven, licensed technology and a design-once, build-many approach.”
World
** The United Kingdom is building the largest monopile factory in the world, creating key parts for wind turbines while creating thousands of new jobs. U.S.-based steel company SeAH is partnering with other European companies to create the SeAH Wind Monopile Factory. It is in the early stages of developing a 90-acre construction site where monopiles will be built, according to Electrek.
** Refining margins are expected to prove a drag on oil-industry earnings, adding pressure to a sector struggling to balance shareholder returns and growth.
** China’s electric carmakers are expanding in Europe to blunt the impact of tariffs meant to weaken their price advantage over the region’s ailing legacy manufacturers. With the European Union hiking duties on Chinese electric vehicles to as much as 48%, China’s new generation of green car manufacturers is teaming up with local industry so their cars are considered homegrown.
** Brazil’s state-run oil company Petrobras is wrapping up due diligence for a bid on the Mataripe refinery it sold to Abu Dhabi sovereign fund Mubadala for $1.65 billion in 2021, three people familiar with the matter told Reuters.
** Construction has begun on what will be the world’s largest underwater road and rail tunnel connecting Denmark and Germany, as Newsweek reported. The tunnel, which is a major component of the European Union’s Scandinavian-Mediterranean corridor plan, runs beneath the Fehmarn strait for more than 11 miles and aims to cut travel times between the two countries.
