President Biden announced on Wednesday that he is authorizing the release of more oil from the Strategic Petroleum Reserve in December in an effort to bring down gas prices.
Why it matters: The move comes at the close of a campaign season in which high gas prices — while far lower than their June peak — put Dems in political jeopardy.
Saudi Arabia privately pressed several Arab countries to issue statements supporting the recent OPEC+ decision to cut oil production, according to a former U.S. official and an Arab official.
Why it matters: The goal of the Saudi push was likely to avoid being isolated by the U.S. and show that the decision, which angered the Biden administration, was a collective decision by all Arab nations in OPEC+.
Oil giant Shell has progressed to the second round of bidding for Danish biogas producer Nature Energy, which is being sold by a private equity consortium for around $2 billion, per Reuters.
Why it matters: Fossil fuel companies plan to buy their way into the energy transition, as renewable natural gas is generally compatible with existing infrastructure.
A new nonprofit called Terraset just launched that will pool donations for purchasing carbon removal services in a push to speed growth of the nascent tech.
How it works: It aims to draw upon "climate-conscious individuals, foundations, family offices, and donor advised funds."
Here are a few things on our radar when Tesla, the world's largest seller of electric cars, reports Q3 earnings Wednesday after markets close and CEO Elon Musk briefs analysts.
The big picture: Tesla's now consistently profitable. But there's tumult surrounding Tesla — including Musk's Twitter purchase drama — and the stock is down 36% over six months.
Why it matters: "CO2 emissions are growing far less quickly this year than some people feared," IEA head Fatih Birol said in a statement. Fossil fuel-related emissions are the vast bulk of the global total.
Newly posted SEC records reveal fresh corporate efforts to shape regulations that will mandate detailed disclosures of greenhouse gas emissions.
Driving the news: They show recent SEC member or staff meetings with BP; banking giants like Goldman Sachs and JPMorgan Chase under the banner of the Financial Services Forum; and Allstate Insurance.
Evacuation orders remained for thousands in southwest Washington state on Tuesday due to a wind-driven wildfire in southwest Washington state that exploded to 2,000 acres over the weekend before diminishing slightly.
The latest: By Tuesday night, the Nakia Creek Fire was burning across nearly 1,800 acres and was 5% contained, according to Inciweb, an interagency website that tracks wildfires. Evacuation zones shrank further as "cooler temperatures and high relative humidity aided firefighters," per Inciweb.
A new study puts some hard numbers on the climate impacts of California's worsening wildfires, finding that the state's 2020 blazes overwhelmed its recent emissions cuts.
Driving the news: The study, published in Environmental Pollution, is among the first to quantify the carbon emissions from California's fires and the damage they are causing.
Record early cold air for early fall has enveloped a region from the Upper Midwest to the Gulf of Mexico, sending temperatures plunging to record lows.
The big picture: Freeze warnings are in effect for at least 46 million people, according to the National Weather Service. The cold will continue for several days.
Huge privately held companies trail shareholder-owned counterparts by a "disturbing distance" in setting climate targets and plans to meet them, a new analysis finds.
Driving the news: A joint report from Net Zero Tracker examined the 100 largest public and private companies by revenue.
The Treasury Department is launching a first-of-its-kind initiative to uncover climate-related risks to private insurance markets.
The big picture: Property insurance is becoming harder to find and more expensive in states like California that have been hard hit by climate change-related extreme weather events.
Though natural gas prices have fallen recently, this year's spike related to Russia's war on Ukraine will still mean higher household heating bills for Americans this winter.
The big picture: The Energy Information Administration forecasts that households that use natural gas as their primary home heating fuel — nearly half of all households — will see their average winter heating costs rise 28% this year to $931.
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