** An Enbridge pipeline leaked 70,000 gallons of oil last month in southeastern Wisconsin, the worst oil spill in the state’s history.
** Sources say the U.S. EPA plans to allow California to implement stronger-than-federal auto emissions rules and to enforce its ban on new gasoline car sales by 2035, but the U.S. Supreme Court voted to consider an oil industry lawsuit challenging the rule.
** Maine has no current plans to bring back its electric vehicle rebate program after it exhausted its $13.5 million in funds, and instead expects to focus more limited funding on low-income households and other groups that are “slower to adopt” EVs.
** Ohio and Kansas are among the latest states to apply for federal money for home electrification rebates and tax credits — funding that is considered at risk under the incoming Trump administration.
** Phillips 66 announced that it has entered into a definitive agreement to sell the DCP GCX Pipeline LLC, which owns a 25% non-operated equity interest in 500-mile Gulf Coast Express Pipeline LLC, to an affiliate of ArcLight Capital Partners, LLC for pre-tax total cash proceeds of $865 million, subject to purchase price adjustments.
** A bipartisan effort to speed up the buildout of the nation’s energy projects has failed — or at least will not be attached to a stopgap funding bill — say two key lawmakers who were involved with the effort. Sens. Joe Manchin (I-W.Va.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.) both said in separate statements Monday that bipartisan and bicameral talks were unsuccessful.
World
** A cold snap has forced school closures and other disruptions to public life across much of Iran, as authorities grapple with a shortage of natural gas for heating and electricity generation.
** UK wind power output reached a record on Sunday, sending exports to France to their highest level in more than a year. It was just days ago that Europe’s electricity market faced a severe challenge as its wind turbines more or less stopped spinning in the calm weather.
** ChevronCEO Mike Wirth said he’s a fan of small modular nuclear reactors and suggested there could be a role for the Fortune 500 company to play in the future.
** According to Electrek, China’s 3 gigawatt Mengxi Blue Ocean Photovoltaic Power Station in the vast, remote Gobi Desert came online in early November and is the largest n the world. The plant is located in Inner Mongolia at the site of a former coal mining operation. It can power a whopping 2 million households.
** Russia mounted a rescue effort on Sunday after two oil tankers were wrecked in rough seas off Moscow-annexed Crimea, with one spilling oil into the Kerch Strait. At least one person was killed when the 136-metre Volgoneft 212 tanker, with 15 people on board, split in half with its bow sinking, with waves washing over its deck.
