** Dozens of climate protesters with Sunrise Movement LA rallied outside Phillips 66’s Los Angeles Lubricant Terminal on Thursday morning, with 16 demonstrators storming the facility’s office building. Sunrise Movement LA is demanding big oil companies, including Phillips 66, “pay up” to support wildfire relief and aid the state’s transition to clean energy.
** Nevada residents are rallying against a solar farm that bulldozed several Joshua trees. Estuary Power, an energy-generation company that operates in the western U.S., closed a $340 million deal to establish a solar and storage project in Nevada’s Mojave Basin.
** Los Angeles has been rocked by some of the worst forest fires in the city’s history over the past week, with an estimated 40,000 acres burned across five fires. As the city prepares to start its cleanup effort, experts are now warning of the increased risk that abandoned electric vehicles could pose to the region’s recovery.
** Constellation Energy said the company is applying for federal funding as it evaluates whether to put one or more small modular nuclear reactors (SMRs) at its Nine Mile Point nuclear power plant in New York.
** The US Department of Energy (DOE) has announced a $1.66bn loan guarantee to Plug Power’s subsidiary, Plug Power Energy Loan Borrower, to construct up to six clean hydrogen facilities. Plug Power’s hydrogen network has plants in Woodbine, Georgia, in Charleston, Tennessee and in St. Gabriel, Louisiana, and can produce 45 tonnes of liquid hydrogen per day.
** Attorneys for a woman who is among thousands who lost their homes in the Eaton Fire outside Los Angeles say Southern California Edison crews working to repair and restore power in the area may have destroyed evidence that could help determine what sparked the wildfire.
** Lithium batteries from Tesla Inc., along with those from other carmakers, have added to the mix of toxic materials requiring specialized removal in the wake of the fires in Los Angeles. They will delay the fire victims’ return to their properties.
** The Federal Trade Commission today finalized a consent order that resolves antitrust concerns surrounding Chevron Corporation’s acquisition of oil producer Hess Corporation. The final consent order settles charges brought by the FTC in September 2024.
World
** The death toll from a gasoline tanker explosion in north-central Nigeria has risen to 86, the country’s emergency response agency said on Sunday. The blast happened in the early hours of Saturday near the Suleja area of Niger state after individuals attempted to transfer gasoline from a crashed oil tanker into another truck using a generator.
** The most aggressive Western sanctions imposed on Russia’s oil sector since Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine threaten to disrupt global supply as buyers — led by China and India — scour the Middle East for alternative suppliers. Some estimates suggest the measures could halve Russian oil exports and their introduction has driven up Brent futures by as much as $5 a barrel in recent days.
** A groundbreaking project combining solar generation and energy storage has been announced in the UAE. The project, unveiled during Abu Dhabi Sustainability Week (ADSW), will provide 1GW of ‘round-the-clock’ dispatchable power. The facility will be capable of operating 24/7 on renewable energy.