** Employees of ConocoPhillips face more layoffs after the oil company’s merger with Marathon Oil, which triggered sweeping job cuts in Houston last year, reported the Houston Chronicle. A spokesman for the Houston oil giant confirmed Friday that the company had informed employees about additional layoffs, but declined to specify how many or when the layoffs would …
Category: EPA
Energy briefs
** The U.S. Interior Department orders environmental reviews for fossil fuel and mining projects — but not wind and solar projects— to be reduced to no more than a month, leading to praise from the oil and gas industry but criticism from environmental groups. ** The amount of power used by data centers has tripled …
Energy briefs
** The U.S. Interior Department plans to dramatically speed up permitting for oil and gas, uranium, coal, biofuel, geothermal, hydropower, and critical mineral projects on federal lands, accelerating environmental reviews to 14 days and impact statements to 28. ** An Interior Department document suggests the Trump administration is considering shrinking national monuments in Arizona, California, …
Energy briefs
** Energy Secretary Chris Wright railed against clean energy tax credits Tuesday, defending the Trump administration’s efforts to increase manufacturing powered by coal, natural gas and oil. ** The Trump administration plans to open Arctic waters off Alaska’s coast to offshore oil and gas leasing even though high costs and logistical challenges have foiled past attempts to drill there. …
Energy briefs
** Crescent Energy Co. has closed on its divestment of non-operated Permian Basin assets for $83 million as part of the company’s plans to sell $250 million of non-core divestures, Crescent CEO David Rockecharlie said April 22. ** Activist investor Elliott Investment Management should back down from its push to break up energy company Phillips …
Energy briefs
** TotalEnergies announces the start of production from the deepwater Ballymore field offshore U.S., in which the Company has a 40% interest alongside operator Chevron (60%). Located 120 kilometers off the Louisiana coast and launched in May 2022, Ballymore has a total daily gross production capacity of 75,000 barrels of oil per day and 50 million …
Unfrozen climate money could fund University of Arkansas solar project
A proposed University of Arkansas solar project is going to receive its federal funds after the Trump administration had frozen the millions…..maybe. Federal Judge Tanya S. Chutkan issued an order for the government to release up to $625million in climate grants that were frozen since the middle of February, reported Arkansas Business. The funding …
Energy briefs
** Tesla faces a proposed class action claiming it speeds up odometers on its electric vehicles so they fall out of warranty faster, saving Elon Musk’s company from having to pay for repairs. The plaintiff Nyree Hinton alleged that Tesla odometer readings reflect energy consumption, driver behavior and “predictive algorithms” rather than actual mileage driven. ** Tesla is …
Environmentalists threaten to sue over new BLM regulations
Environmental activists are threatening to go to court after the Interior Department Secretary Doug Burgum announced recently it would no longer require the Bureau of Land Management to create an environmental impact statement for more than 3,200 oil and gas leases across seven states in the West. The states include Colorado, Montana, New Mexico, …
Energy briefs
** A U.S. EPA document shows the Trump administration intends to exempt 47 coal power plants from updated mercury and toxic emissions rules, including the Colstrip and Apache facilities in Montana and Arizona. ** Tri-State Generation and Transmission proposes a 307 MW natural gas plant and a 200 MW battery storage system in northwestern Colorado …