Energy briefs

** Former chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, Mark Christie, was tapped by President Donald Trump to lead the independent Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Monday.  Christie has served as a commissioner on FERC for four years and before that, he was chairman of the Virginia State Corporation Commission, a body that he served on for nearly 17 years.

** Xcel Energy eyes 5,000 acres in western Wisconsin for a large solar project to displace a retiring coal plant in the area and take advantage of existing grid infrastructure.

** President Trump’s promises to boost domestic vehicle production could disrupt Detroit automakers’ electric vehicle plans, though it remains unclear whether he will seek to end a federal $7,500 rebate for EV purchases.

** A new report finds utilities in Tennessee and other Southeast states have the lowest energy efficiency ranking of any region in the U.S.

** Federal officials ask the U.S. Justice Department to investigate claims that Texas discriminated against Black and Hispanic residents in flood-prone coastal communities when it distributed $1 billion in Hurricane Harvey aid in 2021.

** An Italian company on Friday halted development of a $300 million cable manufacturing plant in Somerset, Massachusetts, intended to serve the offshore wind industry.

World

** Russia’s seaborne crude exports saw their biggest drop since November last week after outgoing US President Joe Biden imposed sweeping sanctions on the country’s oil trade, with early signs that the measures are reshaping flows. The slump kept the less volatile four-week average below 3 million barrels a day for a fourth week and close to a recent 16-month low, according to vessel-tracking data compiled by Bloomberg.

** 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.

** A talent pool of software engineers and startups is giving Chinese manufacturers a key advantage in the global electric vehicle race, the co-chairman of the world’s largest EV battery manufacturer said.