** EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announced Wednesday that he’s found $20 billion in taxpayer money that the Biden administration “parked” at a financial institution — in an apparent effort to hide the dollars. “This scheme was the first of its kind in EPA history, and it was purposefully designed to obligate all of the money in a rush job with reduced oversight.”
** The Trump administration moved this week to ease trucking regulations to address the nationwide egg shortage. The Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration issued an emergency declaration relaxing hours-of-service rules for transporting live chickens.
** Reports about an unconventional General Motors patent application for a dual-port charging system in large electric vehicles are drawing some colorful commentary online.
** The biggest utility in Virginia, home to the global hotspot Data Center Alley, saw demand from data centers in development almost double in the last half of 2024.
** Utilities have extended the retirement dates of nearly one-third of coal plants across the country since 2017, even as a study shows that it’s more expensive to run nearly every U.S. coal plant than to build renewable replacements reports the New York Times.
** South Carolina lawmakers pause debate on a bill that would allow electric vehicle manufacturers to sell directly to consumers and bypass dealerships.
World
** Crude shipments from Russia’s Sakhalin Island projects aren’t being discharged after the tankers carrying them were sanctioned by the US. About 6.3 million barrels of Pacific crude is being held on vessels that have been stationary for at least a week.
** Russian officials have held meetings with Indian buyers this week in an effort to sell liquefied natural gas from a flagship export facility sanctioned by the US.
** A BlackRock Inc. fund forfeited a Shanghai office complex to Standard Chartered Plc after it didn’t make a loan payment for the property, according to people familiar with the matter.
** Oil refiners in India — eager to keep importing cheap crude from Russia — are working with merchants, shippers and other middlemen to rebuild supply chains as tougher US sanctions come into effect.
** Two Chinese manufacturers have taken over a Nigerian company that raised eyebrows in 2023 when it started building a lithium refinery in the country using a name that was very similar to one of the biggest and best-known Chinese producers.