A bunch of huge oil companies told the Supreme Court in a new brief that state and local climate lawsuits against them belong in the federal court system.
Why it matters: The brief addresses the city of Baltimore's litigation seeking damages for climate-related harms — but it's relevant to roughly a dozen similar lawsuits nationwide that plaintiffs want litigated in state courts.
The Interior Department on Tuesday is publishing a formal solicitation for tracts of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to lease for oil drilling.
Driving the news: The bureaucratic timelines — starting with a 30-day comment period — mean that an actual auction of drilling rights could occur just a few days before President-elect Biden's inauguration.
A new coalition is launching— with Tesla, Uber, power giants like Southern Company, and others — that will push for electric models to account for 100% of new U.S. vehicle sales by 2030.
Why it matters: While electric vehicles are a growing technology, new corporate lobbying efforts — especially by powerful companies — could help spur faster growth in what remains a largely niche market.
Hurricane Iota made landfall in Nicaragua late Monday as an "extremely dangerous" Category 4 storm, packing maximum sustained winds of 155 mph, per the National Hurricane Center.
Why it matters: The storm is the most powerful of the 2020 Atlantic hurricane season, with "life-threatening storm surge, catastrophic winds, flash flooding, and landslides expected across portions of Central America," the NHC said.
British Prime Minister Boris Johnson is slated to announce this week that sales of new internal combustion vehicles will be banned by 2030, the Financial Times reports.
Why it matters: It would be among the world's most aggressive policies to bolster deployment of electric vehicles and curb transportation emissions.
OPEC+ committees are holding talks today and tomorrow ahead of pivotal meetings in two weeks that will decide the next steps in the group's production-limiting agreement.
Why it matters: The OPEC+ group — led by Saudi Arabia and Russia — could send more signals that they'll delay plans to lower the amount of joint production cuts in order to avoid undercutting the limited and fragile price recovery.
The Interior Department will imminently take the next step toward selling drilling leases in Alaska's Arctic National Wildlife Refuge before President Trump leaves office, Bloomberg reports.
Driving the news: They report that as soon as today, Interior will issue a "call for nominations" for parcels to auction at a sale of drilling rights in 1.6 million acres of the refuge's coastal plain.
President-elect Joe Biden will face constraints of both politics and time when it comes to pursuing his aggressive climate-change agenda.
Driving the news: Biden will enter a White House after four years of President Trump rolling back climate policies and time running out to substantively address the problem.
