Members of the Ohio House voted on Thursday to strip Speaker Larry Householder (R) of his leadership position following his arrest earlier this month related to an alleged $60 million bribery scheme.
Why it matters: The Ohio House has never before removed a speaker, AP reports. Bipartisan support for removing Householder has accumulated since the affidavit’s release. The vote was unanimous; he retains his seat.
Shell and Total SA announced mammoth earnings declines Thursday that reflect the pandemic's toll on energy prices and demand, but the companies nonetheless beat expectations and eked out profits.
Driving the news: Shell announced second-quarter adjusted net earnings of $638 million, an 82% decline from the same period last year.
Scaling up technologies key to combating climate change will take anywhere between 18 years to more than 100, the International Energy Agency found in a recent report.
Why it matters: Scientists say the world must find ways to drastically cut heat-trapping emissions over the next 30 years, but the path of innovating and scaling is stubbornly long, even in the best of scenarios.
Unions are going offshore to find a receptive renewable energy.
Driving the news: America’s nascent offshore wind industry, which requires uniquely complex infrastructure, is being built out with strong labor agreements that were largely absent from their onshore counterparts.
The German startup Electric Brands has opened up reservations for eBussy, a modular electric vehicle that can become just about anything.
The state of play: It comes with an "off road" or "city" chassis, and there's a whole bunch of variants, including a van, camper, pickup, flatbed — even a dump truck.
President Trump will tout his policy of "restoring energy dominance" in Texas oil country Wednesday, but market forces, OPEC and a raging pandemic are complicating his plans.
Driving the news: Trump's swing through the state today includes a visit in Midland to a Double Eagle Energy oil rig and speech on energy, and a fundraiser in Odessa.
Why it matters: The Trump administration's pro-coal moves haven't revived the sector that's been hindered for years by cheap natural gas, stagnant power demand and the rise of renewables.
A Texas carbon capture project hailed as a key solution to climate change has been "mothballed" over low oil prices, E&E News reported on Tuesday evening.
Our thought bubble: The news is unsurprising but nonetheless emblematic of the complex relationship between climate policies and oil prices, which collapsed along with oil demand in the wake of the pandemic.
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