** President-elect Donald Trump has picked former New York Congressman and gubernatorial candidate Lee Zeldin to be the head of the Environmental Protection Agency in his upcoming administration.
** The head of the Arkansas Advanced Energy Association believes the state faces an “energy crisis” due to the imminent closure of coal-fired plants and the rollback of solar incentives, the Arkansas Democrat-Gazette reports.
** North Carolina residents react to a swath of proposed pipeline projects, including a spur from the Mountain Valley Pipeline, the expansion of Transco’s pipeline network, and the expansion and new construction of pipeline to two planned Duke Energy gas-fired power plants.
** Experts say Donald Trump will likely be unable to stop Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm near Virginia, but may have leverage over other projects still in the planning stage.
** Federal officials inspect an Alabama coal mine after a family sues it for an explosion that killed a man and left his grandson in critical condition.
** California regulators tightened requirements for the carbon intensity of fuels sold in the state, despite fears the move could add nearly 50 cents to the price of a gallon of gasoline.
World
** An impactful 6.8 earthquake struck Cuba on Sunday amid a grueling recovery from recent power failures and damaging hurricane activity, officials said. According to the United States Geological Survey, the earthquake “occurred as the result of predominantly strike-slip faulting at shallow depth near within the Septentrional-Oriente Fault Zone.”
** The United Nations Climate Change Conference, COP29, is underway in Azerbaijan at a time when the U.S. is producing more oil than any country and is expected to produce more when President-elect Donald Trump is inaugurated in January.
** A project to triple the capacity of the Trans Mountain Pipeline still has a high value after massive cost overruns to build it, Canada’s government spending watchdog concluded. The expanded Trans Mountain pipeline, which started operation earlier this year, is worth as much as C$33.4 billion ($24 billion) based on the assumption that shipping contracts are renewed in the early 2040s, said the report from Parliamentary Budget Officer Yves Giroux.
** Britain’s wind generation is set to plummet to virtually zero this week as Ed Miliband presses ahead with plans to increase the nation’s reliance on renewable energy.
