** Chrysler-parent Stellantis is laying off as many as 2,450 factory workers from its Warren Truck assembly plant outside of Detroit as the automaker ends production of the Ram 1500 Classic truck.
** The Biden administration is proposing to restrict the federal lands that are open for future coal mining in North Dakota — though it says the effort is not expected to impact how much coal is produced there for many years.
** The Biden administration appeals a judge’s injunction against its pause on permitting new liquified natural gas export facilities.
* Westinghouse Electric Company has produced new fuel pellets that contain higher enrichment levels than what is currently used in commercial reactors. The specialized “ADOPT™” fuel pellets were developed through the U.S. Department of Energy Accident Tolerant Fuel Program to help boost the performance and safety of nuclear plants. The new fuel will be tested at the Vogtle Unit 2 reactor in Waynesboro, Georgia next year.
** The federal government is making its first loan to a crystalline silicon solar plant, loaning $1.45 billion to support a South Korean company’s bid to build up key parts of the solar supply chain inside the United States.
** General Motors has been embroiled in a class-action lawsuit for years, regarding Duramax diesel engines and their supposedly faulty fuel pumps. Finally, according to CarComplaints, GM has settled with the plaintiffs, but the vast majority of the payout will go to the lawyers.
** A Ford dealership in Nebraska was fined for being an accessory after the fact to a Clean Air Act violation. Moody Motor Company in Niobrara has to pay a $125 special assessment fee and a $39,741.95 fine to the Environmental Protection Agency, according to the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of Nebraska.
** Rep. Ruben Gallego (D), who is running to represent Arizona in the Senate, said Wednesday that the Biden administration needs to do more on extreme heat. Gallego issued a statement saying that the Biden administration is “all talk, no action when it comes to extreme heat in Arizona — calling on Arizonans to do more yet refusing to take an active role.”
World
** The world is falling well short of a promise made at global climate talks last year to triple the amount of wind power, according to a report by an energy think tank released Thursday. Last December, countries at the U.N. COP28 climate conference committed to tripling all renewable electricity by 2030. Wind power specifically must triple to achieve that, according to the International Energy Agency and others.
** Vietnam supports Cambodia’s plan to build a canal from the Mekong River basin to the Cambodian coast and would like to be involved in finding solutions for the canal’s possible negative effects, its foreign ministry said.