** A New Jersey judge dismisses a state lawsuit against oil companies, saying the claim that they deceived the public about the climate impacts of fossil fuels needs to be heard at the federal level.
** Marathon Petroleum, the largest US refiner and a major buyer of Canadian crude, sees ample opportunity to switch to domestic oil at its Midwest plants should President Donald Trump’s potential trade war with neighboring countries limit access to foreign supply. If needed, Marathon’s Midwest refineries could switch to processing more non-Canadian crudes, Chief Commercial Officer Rick Hessling said on the company’s Tuesday earnings call.
** The nine Maine school districts that bought electric school buses from now-bankrupt Lion Electric Co. started having safety and reliability problems nearly immediately, but are still waiting for answers about whether they will receive any reimbursement for the faulty vehicles.
** Across New England, some $435 million in federal funding for low-income solar programs is inaccessible as awardees find themselves locked out of the online platform used to claim the money.
** More than 160 solar industry leaders went to Capitol Hill this week to try to convince congressional Republicans that clean energy can contribute to “American energy dominance.”
** A consortium of stakeholders intends to roll out a universal plug-and-charge protocol for the electric vehicles in the United States this year, hybrid and electric car news site Green Car Reports said in a recent article.
World
** Saudi Arabia hiked the price of its flagship crude to Asia by the most in more than two years as the kingdom responds to surging premiums for Middle Eastern crude and improving refinery margins. State producer Saudi Aramco raised the price for its Arab Light oil to Asia for March by $2.40 a barrel, according to a price list seen by Bloomberg.
** Russia’s crude exports have yet to be curtailed by the latest US sanctions to target its oil, with flows broadly stable. But while loading cargoes onto tankers is one thing, getting them off is another — and signs are emerging that the curbs are stalling the completion of shipments.
** Baltic states Lithuania, Latvia and Estonia are to disconnect from the Russian power grid on Saturday, a politically-charged move that severs their Soviet-era energy ties with Moscow.
** Europe looks poised to practically double its solar capacity within the next year, bringing the industry back into the limelight. Liam Coman, a solar market analyst at S&P Global Commodity Insights, claimed during a presentation at Tongwei’s new European office event in Frankfurt, Germany, that the market will grow from about 50 gigawatts into a 110-gigawatt market by the end of 2025.