• U.S. officials announced a $241 million settlement with Marathon Oil over alleged air pollution violations at dozens of the company’s oil and gas facilities on a North Dakota Indian reservation, saying it was part of an ongoing crackdown.
• More than a dozen Democratic senators called on Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen to relax guidelines around federal tax subsidies for the hydrogen industry in a letter this week. The current guidance, backed by green and progressive advocates, requires eligible companies use new energy rather than preexisting energy from the grid, while also ensuring that new clean energy is produced at the same time and in the same geographic region as hydrogen projects.
• The environmental group, the Center for Biological Diversity, has sued the federal government to force the Interior Department to reassess longterm environmental effects of delays in shutting down inactive oil and gas infrastructure in the Gulf of Mexico.
• A statewide referendum challenging a South Dakota law that critics say is too supportive of carbon pipeline developers is certified for the November ballot.
• Iowa State University researchers land a $1 million federal grant to improve the performance of grid distribution transformers, which regulate voltage amounts from the distribution grid to homes.
• The shuttered Three Mile Island nuclear plant, which experienced an infamous partial meltdown 45 years ago, is among a growing number of retired U.S. nuclear plants that could be recommissioned as power demand grows.
• The Biden administration announces $1.7 billion to retool or expand 11 auto plants in eight states for electric vehicle manufacturing, including $500 million for General Motors to convert a Michigan assembly plant.
• Tesla’s share of the U.S. electric car market falls to less than 50% in the second quarter as the popularity of General Motors, Ford, Hyundai and Kia’s models grow, a research firm finds reported The New York Times.
• A national laboratory finds installing rooftop solar saved the median American household about $691 annually on utility bills when all costs and incentives are considered.
• The U.S. and Mexico announced Wednesday new steps to fight the circumvention of U.S. tariffs on steel and aluminum by China and other countries that ship products through Mexico, implementing a North American “melted and poured” standard for steel.
• Honeywell said on Wednesday it would buy Air Products’ liquefied natural-gas process technology and equipment business for $1.81 billion in cash, marking the industrial giant’s fourth acquisition this year.
World
• A surging supply of thick sea ice — fragmenting due to the warming effects of climate change — is shortening the shipping season through the Northwest Passage, a new study has found. While previous analyses have explored whether the Northwest Passage might become a more viable alternative to traditional shipping routes as the climate warms, the study authors expressed fear that the opposite may be true.
• The United Nations General Assembly has demanded that Russia “urgently withdraw its military and other unauthorized personnel” from Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and return it to the full control of Ukrainian authorities.
• Mexico’s massive, debt-fueled passenger rail building program is not going to end with the administration of outgoing President Andrés Manuel López Obrador, but will instead double, he said Wednesday. López Obrador said his successor, President-elect Claudia Sheinbaum, is planning to build three passenger train lines running from the capital to some cities on the U.S. border. López Obrador and Sheinbaum agree she will build about 1,850 miles (3,000 kilometers) of passenger rail, double the amount he built.
• Yemen’s Houthi rebels likely fired an Iranian-made antiship cruise missile at a Norwegian-flagged tanker in the Red Sea in December, an assault that now provides a public, evidence- based link between the ongoing rebel campaign against shipping and Tehran, the U.S. military says.
• The Chinese government says it will investigate allegations that fuel tankers have been used to transport cooking oil after carrying toxic chemicals without being cleaned properly between loads. The controversy has spread online as social media users express concerns about potential food contamination.
• China is building almost twice as much wind and solar energy capacity as every other country combined, research published Thursday showed. The world’s second-largest economy is the biggest emitter of the greenhouse gases that drive climate change.