• Global carbon emissions will increase by 41.3 metric gigatons by 2040 if countries maintain their current energy policies and by 35.6 Gt if they meet already announced climate targets, according to the International Energy Agency’s annual World Energy Outlook. The value of fossil fuel use subsidies worldwide last year was almost double the combined value of renewable and electric vehicle subsidies and revenues from carbon pricing, which “greatly complicates the task of achieving an early peak in emissions,” IEA said. (Financial Times) 

• The Federal Bureau of Investigation launched an inquiry into whether Gov. Tom Wolf (D) and administration members pressured environmental staff to approve permits for Energy Transfer LP’s $3 billion Mariner East natural gas pipelines in Pennsylvania and whether the state received favors in return, according to three people with direct knowledge of the investigation. The pipeline has also spurred fines, temporary shutdowns, lawsuits and county and state-level investigations. (The Associated Press)

• Bureau of Land Management staff received reassignment letters giving them 30 days to move out West or potentially lose their jobs in the federal government. Current BLM employees said the agency has not provided the promised assistance to transition into other Interior Department positions. (The Hill)

Trump: ‘I’m very much into climate’
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

“I consider myself in many ways to be an environmentalist,” he said, repeating past claims that during his career as a builder he did “the best environmental impact statements.”

‘Meaningless statistics mongering’: Trump environment enforcers push back at criticism over declining numbers
Abby Smith, Washington Examiner

The Trump administration is just as aggressive in prosecuting polluters as its predecessors, top environmental enforcement officials said Tuesday, even if the number of cases isn’t as high.

Global governments ‘still coming to terms’ with America’s energy abundance, State Department official says
Holly Ellyatt, CNBC

The boom in energy production in the states means that in the fourth quarter of 2020, the U.S. is expected to become a net energy exporter, exporting more energy products than it imports.

Marco Rubio joins bipartisan climate change caucus
Josh Siegel, Washington Examiner

Rubio’s office confirmed he has become a member of the Senate Climate Solutions Caucus, adding conservative heft to the first such bipartisan forum for senators to talk about climate policy. 

Oil Declines Amid Concern Over Trade Talks, Long-Term Demand
Elizabeth Low and Grant Smith, Bloomberg

Futures dropped as much as 1% in New York. President Donald Trump’s speech in New York on Tuesday disappointed investors, giving little insight on how the impasse with Beijing will be resolved, and warning of higher tariffs if a deal can’t be reached. 

US oil producers brace for White House policy shift, eye moving operations
Brian Scheid, S&P Global Platts

Democrats are still months from naming a candidate in next year’s US presidential campaign, but oil producers are already preparing for a policy change which could disrupt nearly one-quarter of daily crude oil output and throw thousands of federal leases into legal limbo.

Tribe to argue against expansion of Dakota Access pipeline
James MacPherson, The Associated Press

Standing Rock Sioux Tribe members have long maintained that a leak in the Dakota Access oil pipeline would threaten their Missouri River water supply, and on Wednesday they will argue that a new proposal to double the line’s capacity magnifies the probability of a disastrous oil spill.

FERC sets review schedule for extension to Transco’s Atlantic Sunrise
Maya Weber and Eric Brooks, S&P Global Platts

The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission plans to release an environmental assessment in early February for two natural gas pipeline projects that combined would connect Marcellus and Utica shale gas with Transcontinental Gas Pipe Line’s customers in the Northeast and mid-Atlantic.

New wholesale power company launches in Texas
L.M. Sixel, Houston Chronicle

Evolve Energy announced earlier this month that it has begun selling power to residential consumers at wholesale power prices. 

Fearing for Its Future, a Big Utility Pushes ‘Renewable Gas,’ Urges Cities to Reject Electrification
Phil McKenna, InsideClimate News

Robert Cruz of the Southern California Gas Company urged the City Council to pass a resolution opposing any state regulation mandating “electrification” in buildings.

U.S. Solar Companies Are Stockpiling a Massive Amount of Panels
Brian Eckhouse, Bloomberg

On Tuesday, Sunrun Inc. — the nation’s largest rooftop solar installer — said it’s collecting enough equipment to help qualify 500 megawatts worth of planned installations for the full investment tax credit, which currently covers 30% of a project’s costs. For comparison: Sunrun deployed 373 megawatts in all of 2018.

Worker injuries, 911 calls, housing crisis: Recruiting Tesla exacts a price
Anjeanette Damon, USA Today

From straining local emergency responders, to exacerbating the region’s critical housing shortage and taxing area roads, Tesla has brought a host of complications to the region.

Elon Musk’s Solar Deal Has Become the Top Threat to Tesla’s Future
Dana Hull and Austin Carr, Bloomberg Businessweek

In a trove of court filings unsealed this fall, thousands of pages of internal emails, board minutes and presentations, and executive testimony reveal how truly dire the situation was behind the scenes leading up to the acquisition, with almost every significant promise Musk pitched publicly either misleading or false.

Tesla to Build European Car Plant in Berlin, Musk Says
Robert Wall, The Wall Street Journal

The facility will be located in the southeast area of Berlin, Mr. Musk said Tuesday at a car awards ceremony in Germany. That will place it close to where a new international airport is being developed, he said.

Oakland’s War Over a Coal Export Terminal Plays Out in Court
InsideClimate News

Lawyers for Oakland Bulk and Oversized Terminal LLC, which wants to build a coal terminal at the port, accused the City of Oakland of breaching a development contract by banning coal shipments after the agreement was signed. 

Navajo leader: Tribe won’t back energy company’s new mines
Felicia Fonseca and Matthew Brown, The Associated Press

The Navajo Nation will not financially back bonds a tribal energy company needs for a trio of newly acquired coal mines off the reservation, the tribal president said Tuesday, explaining that it’s too risky and his administration wants the company to move away from coal.

Just one new coal plant is planned — and it’s on the ropes
Benjamin Storrow, E&E News 

Time is running out on plans to build a new coal plant in Kansas. The Holcomb 2 plant, an 895-megawatt unit planned by Sunflower Electric Power Corp., is the only new coal-fired power plant on the drawing board in America today.

World Clings To Coal for Power Despite Mounting Climate Protests
Jeremy Hodges, Bloomberg

The world’s attempts to quit coal are failing. Whatever rich nations do to move away from the dirtiest fossil fuel, those efforts are being outpaced by developing Asian countries seeking a cheap and reliable source of power.

Nuclear plant leak is coming from pipe at SC power station. Safety regulators not worried
Sammy Fretwell, The State

A leak at the V.C Summer atomic power plant north of Columbia is occurring on the welding of a six-inch pipe that is losing one-fifth of a gallon of water every minute, according to the U.S. Nuclear Regulatory Commission.

Air pollution nanoparticles linked to brain cancer for first time
Damian Carrington, The Guardian

The ultra-fine particles (UFPs) are produced by fuel burning, particularly in diesel vehicles, and higher exposures significantly increase people’s chances of getting the deadly cancer. Previous work has shown that nanoparticles can get into the brain and that they can carry carcinogenic chemicals.

World’s energy watchdog is undermining climate change battle, critics say
Matthew Green, Reuters

A short walk from the Eiffel Tower, Fatih Birol oversees the world’s energy watchdog, whose analyses of fuel demand have long been viewed as the gold standard by government officials, energy executives and investors.

The climate chain reaction that threatens the heart of the Pacific
Simon Denyer and Chris Mooney, The Washington Post

The twin impacts — less ice, fewer salmon — are the products of rapid warming in the Sea of Okhotsk, wedged between Siberia and Japan. The area has warmed in some places by as much as 3 degrees Celsius since preindustrial times, making it one of the fastest-warming spots in the world, according to a Washington Post analysis of data from the nonprofit organization Berkeley Earth.

Despite slim odds, carbon tax advocacy ramps up
Amy Harder, Axios

 Americans for Carbon Dividends, an industry-backed lobbying group, is launching a six-figure advertising campaign Wednesday promoting a carbon tax whose proceeds are returned to consumers. Separately, nearly 1,000 advocates with Citizens Climate Lobby were on Capitol Hill Tuesday pushing a similar policy.

Exxon’s Climate Trial Is Over, But the Legal War Is Just Beginning
Erik Larson, Bloomberg

When New York’s climate change lawsuit against Exxon Mobil went on trial last month in a Manhattan courtroom, the energy giant’s lead lawyer took great pains to emphasize that the state’s allegations weren’t really about climate change.

Renewing the Biodiesel Tax Credit Can Be a Bipartisan Win
Byron Dorgan and Kit Bond, Morning Consult

More than a decade ago, Republicans and Democrats created a series of policies to build an advanced biofuel industry. Included among those policies, the Biodiesel Tax Incentive has been remarkably successful, helping the U.S biodiesel industry grow from a few hundred million gallons in 2005 to more than 2.6 billion today.

Don’t stop the fight against mercury pollution: Republican and Democrat to Trump EPA
U.S. Sens. Lamar Alexander (R-Tenn.) and Tom Carper (D-Del.), USA Today

The mercury rule, which limits mercury emissions from coal- and oil-fired power plants, has resulted in 90% less mercury in the air than a decade ago. But now, the Environmental Protection Agency is moving forward with a proposal that asserts it is no longer “appropriate and necessary” to protect the public from our country’s largest sources of mercury and air toxic emissions.

Will PG&E’s Blackouts Catalyze California’s Microgrid Market?
Julian Spector, Greentech Media

The October fires and shutoffs inspired a flurry of commentary on how microgrids and distributed energy could save the day by localizing power production and allowing communities to operate independently of the fire-threatened grid. Though sensible in theory, microgrids must navigate a thicket of regulatory and logistical barriers before they can serve as an effective tool during California blackouts.

Getting to Zero: A U.S. Climate Agenda
Center for Climate and Energy Solutions

A strong body of scientific evidence underscores the imperative of decarbonizing the global economy in order to avoid the worst potential impacts of climate change. Key strategies for achieving that goal include increasing energy efficiency, decarbonizing the power sector, switching to electricity and other low- and zero-carbon fuels, reducing non-CO2 climate pollutants, and using both nature and technology to remove carbon from the atmosphere.