** President Donald Trump’s repeated interest in taking control of Greenland has not gone unnoticed in Russia. During a Thursday speech, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he considered the U.S. interest in Greenland to be serious, pointing to past efforts to acquire the territory. Greenland has massive deposits of rare minerals that are critical to global supply chains, which the Trump administration sees as vital to U.S. interests.
** The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has begun a campaign that will allow polluting companies to apply for exemptions of regulations in the Clean Air Act. On the EPA website, where companies can use an EPA-provided template to apply to bypass clean air regulations, it states that exemptions will be decided by the president.
** The Trump administration appears to have halted a $4.7 billion Biden-era program to plug and reclaim abandoned and orphaned oil and gas wells, saying it is “under review.”
** The Security and Exchange Commission announced it will stop defending its controversial climate-disclosure rule against legal challenges, and it would not proceed with oral arguments.
** Iberdrola Group subsidiary Avangrid has commenced commercial operations of its 238 megawatt True North solar project in the US state of Texas. The $369 million project features 488,000 solar panels and will generate enough energy to power 60,000 homes annually.
** Texas lawmakers are considering a bill to resuscitate the state’s nuclear power industry through a taxpayer-funded incentives program.
** The federal Bureau of Land Management brings in over $39 million in revenue from oil and gas lease sales in Montana, North Dakota, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nevada.
World
** Hong Kong’s CK Hutchison will not sign a deal next week to sell its two port operations near the Panama Canal to a BlackRock-led group, two people with direct knowledge of the matter said, as pressure mounted from Beijing.
** According to The New York Times, 600 million people in Africa do not have access to electricity. To avoid the need for expensive energy infrastructure, off-grid power generation is increasingly the solution to bring energy to communities.
** Germany has said it “will not give in” and that Europe must “respond firmly” as US President Donald Trump targets imported cars and car parts with a 25% tax in his latest tariffs.
** Indian port authorities denied entry to an ageing tanker loaded with Russian crude on Thursday due to inadequate documentation, sources familiar with the matter said, an unusual move that indicates tightened scrutiny of vessels carrying Russian oil.
