** President Biden announces Hyundai will spend $5.5 billion to build its first electric vehicle manufacturing plant in the U.S. near Savannah, Georgia. ** The U.S. Energy Department seeks an unprecedented expansion of high-voltage electricity lines to carry clean power by prioritizing shovel-ready projects and seeking state support for interregional connections. ** A Spanish energy company begins construction of a 300 MW …
Category: EPA
Another EPA Biden nominee to face Inhofe and others this week
Another Biden administration nominee will go before Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe and others this week who sit on a Senate committee. Joe Goffman, Biden’s selection to lead the Office of Air and Radiation at the Environmental Protection Agency will appear Wednesday during his confirmation hearing to be held by the Senate Environment and …
Energy headlines in US and the world
** U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito of West Virginia calls on the Biden administration to cut regulations to spur domestic energy production. ** Coal employment remains steady in Northern Appalachia, but grew nearly 14% in central Appalachia from the lows of 2020 amid high demand for steel-making coal. ** As much as 2.09 million barrels a day of gasoline, diesel and …
Appeals court rules against New Mexico ranchers over gold mine catastrophe
New Mexico farmers and ranchers who filed suit against a company that caused Colorado’s Gold King gold mine environmental disaster in 2015 lost their case this week with the federal appeals court in Denver, Colorado. The dozens who filed suit against Environmental Restoration, LLC, a firm hired by the EPA to do the excavation …
US and World energy headlines
** A federal study concludes that distributed wind capacity could meet more than half of the country’s current annual electricity use. ** Baker Hughes announced that the Baker Hughes Board of Directors declared a cash dividend of $.18 per share of Class A common stock payable on June 10, 2022 to holders of record on May 31, 2022. ** An Arkansas court issues a ruling generally …
Headlines of more energy stories
** The cancellation of three offshore drilling lease sales this week has injected a degree of uncertainty into the future of offshore drilling reported The Hill. The canceled auctions mean there are no sales now scheduled, and it’s unclear precisely when that will change. The Interior Department is working on a new leasing plan, but it has not said …
Mullin and others to grill EPA Administrator over budget request
If it’s Tuesday, then EPA Administrator Michael Regan will face some budget questions from Oklahoma Congressman Markwayne Mullin and others on a subcommittee of the House Energy and Commerce Committee. Rep. Mullin, a Republican, sits on the committee’s Environment and Climate Change Subcommittee and will review Regan’s $11.9 billion budget request during a hearing …
Oklahoma joins in lawsuit challenging California’s EPA exemption
As he seeks his first election to remain as Oklahoma Attorney General, John O’Connor on Friday joined 16 other Republican state attorneys general in suing the EPA for allowing California to set its own vehicle emissions standards. The Hill reported the lawsuit accuses EPA Administrator Michael Regan of violating the Constitution’s doctrine of equal …
Inhofe presses White House on forever chemical foot-dragging
As he pressed the Biden administration for a timetable on the cleanup of “forever” chemicals used on military bases in the U.S., Oklahoma U.S. Sen. Jim Inhofe didn’t get the answers he sought in a recent Senate committee hearing. It was during a hearing by the Environment and Public Works Committee of which Inhofe …
Oklahoma receives $2 million EPA grant for site cleanups
Oklahoma has received a $2 million grant from the Environmental Protection Agency, one of 265 Brownfield grants out of a total of $254.5 million to help clean up polluted areas of the country. The Oklahoma grant was made to the Oklahoma Corporation Commission where spokesman Matt Skinner called it a “very large grant” that …