Energy & Fuel

"Something remarkable happened over the weekend: California hit nearly 95% renewable energy."

"For years, environmental advocates and neighborhoods close to Louisiana industrial plants have sought more monitoring of air pollution. But a state Senate committee on Tuesday rejected a bill that would have required 473 plants to install real-time air monitoring systems and pay for it."

"Trans Mountain Corp. has permission to keep secret the name of its insurer, after a Thursday ruling by a commission with Canada’s energy regulator."

"California clean tech innovator Bloom Energy, with its noncombustion, low-emission fuel cells, is hardly taking the same approach to powering the planet as oil giant Chevron, but one thing the companies have in common are slick promotional campaigns defining them as environmental pioneers. That public relations savvy, though, has lately become a liability for both firms."

"President Joe Biden’s nominee for the second-highest position at the Department of the Interior has a list of potential conflicts of interest that rivals that of Trump administration Interior Secretary David Bernhardt, whose ties to industry and his revolving-door experience earned him labels like the “ultimate D.C. swamp creature.”

"Fossil fuel trade groups in Louisiana and New Mexico rallied Democratic governors in opposition to President Joe Biden’s executive order pausing new oil and gas leasing on federal lands and in offshore waters, newly released emails show."

"As demand for electric vehicles heats up, there's concern about a shortage of the key minerals needed to make them. The Biden administration has called for boosting domestic production of such minerals, including lithium for the lithium-ion batteries used in electric vehicles. And that has many hoping for big business in a desolate spot of California's Imperial Valley."

"Thirteen U.S. oil refineries released the cancer-causing chemical benzene in concentrations that exceeded federal limits last year, according to government data published by the green group Environmental Integrity Project (EIP) on Wednesday."

"The Senate voted on Wednesday to effectively reinstate an Obama-era regulation designed to clamp down on emissions of methane, a powerful, climate-warming pollutant that will have to be controlled to meet President Biden’s ambitious climate change promises."

"The Biden administration is taking several actions to boost the power grid, it announced Tuesday, including up to $8.25 billion in new Energy Department loans."