U.S. gasoline prices and infrastructure developments
** The average U.S. regular gasoline price is now $3.25 per gallon, up 25 cents this week, per AAA.
** Fort Smith, Arkansas will have more than another decade to complete federally mandated sewer system upgrades after the city completed a modification to its Consent Decree with the Environmental Protection Agency and Department of Justice.
Transportation and climate initiatives
** California’s high-speed rail project cost estimated has been reduced by $1.7 billion. The state’s High-Speed Rail Authority released the draft business plan on the project linking San Francisco with Los Angeles and Anaheim.
** Corporate giants just unveiled a $100 million effort to stake projects that cut climate “superpollutants” like methane, black carbon and refrigerant gases.
Nuclear energy and federal policy developments
** The Nuclear Regulatory Commission issues a construction permit to Bill Gates-backed TerraPower, marking a major step for the company’s plan to build an advanced reactor in Wyoming.
** Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) says Democrats will soon unveil legislation to tackle rising energy prices.
WORLD
LNG disruption and Middle East conflict
** Qatar has declared force majeure to liquefied natural gas (LNG) buyers after Iranian attacks on the country. State-owned QatarEnergy made the announcement, two days after it halted production at the country’s main site. On Monday, Qatar said two sites were attacked by Iranian drones.
Power grid challenges and oil supply shifts
** A blackout left millions of people without power in Havana and the rest of western Cuba on Wednesday in the latest outage on an island struggling with dwindling oil reserves and a crumbling electric grid.
** Refiners in India have started tapping Russian oil aboard vessels floating off the country’s coast to make up for the loss of Middle Eastern crude due to the Iran war, two sources with direct knowledge of the matter said on Thursday.
Global gas markets and geopolitical tensions
** Vladimir Putin has threatened to cut off gas supplies to Europe as the war in Iran sends energy prices soaring. The Russian president said on Wednesday that he will instruct the Kremlin to consider shifting Russia’s gas exports away from Europe and to more profitable markets in Asia following the outbreak of war in the Middle East.
** Australia and Canada said on Thursday they had signed new agreements on critical minerals as Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney made a landmark address to the Australian parliament, a sign of the developing bond between the “middle powers”.