Energy & Fuel

"Allegations of possible payments to help secure votes. Claims of abuse of agency funds by top diplomats. A possible job offer to entice a candidate to withdraw from a race. These are not the shenanigans of a corrupt election in an unstable country. Rather, they are efforts in the seemingly genteel parlors of a United Nations-affiliated agency, meant to sway decisions related to the start of seabed mining of the metals used in electric vehicles."

"A single line included in the proposed annual appropriations bill for the U.S. Department of Labor and other agencies could — if adopted by congress later this year — halt the implementation of a newly finalized rule limiting the amount of silica dust miners are exposed to while working underground."

"Google’s emissions rose 13 percent last year despite the tech giant’s goals to become net-zero by the end of the decade as artificial intelligence (AI) drives an increase in energy consumption."

"Tens of millions of Americans live under HOAs, which sometimes block rooftop solar for aesthetic reasons. Michigan is the latest state to protect access to solar."

"Azerbaijan, host of this year's United Nations COP29 climate summit, will upgrade its national emissions-cutting target ahead of the November event, a senior official said on Tuesday."

"Researchers say public chargers are disappearing from some parts of the U.S., while the nationwide charging network falls short of reliability requirements."

"The oil industry withdrew its $40 million campaign to kill a historic law to protect neighborhoods from oil drilling’s toxic effects, but is threatening to challenge the measure in court."

"A federal court has halted the Biden administration’s pause on new approvals for natural gas exports. Judge James Cain, a Trump appointee in Louisiana, approved a request from Republican-led states to lift the pause while the litigation against it plays out."

"Companies have spent decades obstructing efforts to take on the plastics crisis and may have breached a host of US laws, a new report argues."

"Pots and pans, soda cans, skyscrapers, laptops, even solar panels — all these things share a common ingredient in aluminum. The material is ubiquitous and useful, but the process of making and recycling it is a major source of planet-warming pollution."