• After two years of negotiating, PG&E Corp. agreed to a $13.5 billion settlement with more than 50,000 claimants impacted by wildfires sparked by its power lines, in a deal that will pay out half in cash and half in the company’s stock. The agreement marks the utility’s third major recent settlement, following its agreement to pay $1 billion to local governments and $11 billion to those who paid out claims from 2017 and 2018 wildfires. (Los Angeles Times) 

• On a family farm in Maryland, the U.S. Farmers and Ranchers Alliance hosted a secret, two-day closed-press conversation about agriculture and climate change last June attended by Agriculture Secretary Sonny Perdue and two of his predecessors, the president of the American Farm Bureau Federation, lawmakers and others. Perdue did not mention climate change in his remarks, according to audio of the event provided to a media outlet by the USDA. (Politico)

• The Environmental Protection Agency brought on Karl Moor as a deputy assistant administrator in the air office. Moor most recently worked at the law firm Balch and Bingham LLP and is a former top executive at Southern Co., where he worked on legal challenges to federal mercury and air quality enforcement standards. (E&E News)

‘Hail Mary Pass’ in Alaska’s Tongass Forest Sets Up Carbon Clash
Bobby Magill, Bloomberg Environment

While only a fraction of the size of the Mississippi River watershed, the coastal temperate rainforest sends at least twice the Mississippi’s volume of water into the Pacific Ocean, providing nutrients for marine life, said Allison Bidlack, director of the Alaska Coastal Rainforest Center in Juneau, part of the University of Alaska-Southeast.

Trump says EPA looking ‘very strongly’ into ‘situation’ with toilets and bathrooms
Abby Smith, Washington Examiner

President Trump said he had directed the Environmental Protection Agency to consider loosening water efficiency standards for toilets and other bathroom appliances.

Pelosi warns of ‘existential’ climate threat, vows bold action
Mike Lillis, The Hill

Pelosi was joined by a group of Democrats who also participated this week in a climate summit in Madrid, where world leaders, scientists, businesses and environmental activists gathered for talks aimed at boosting the 2015 Paris climate accord, the Obama-era pact forged to reduce global greenhouse gas emissions.

Ban fracking? Good luck with that, Mr. or Ms. President
Mike Soraghan, E&E News 

But banning hydraulic fracturing would take an act of Congress. And getting Congress to do it would be difficult, even if the Democrats control both chambers.

Oil Slips as Trade Deal Impact Counters Surprise Saudi Cut
Sharon Cho and Rakteem Katakey, Bloomberg

The kingdom voluntarily pledged to pump 400,000 barrels a day less than mandated by OPEC and its allies, translating to total overall curbs for the group of 2.1 million barrels a day. However, there was some gloom on the demand side with data showing Chinese exports fell unexpectedly in November. 

U.S. EPA proposed biofuel blending requirements ‘similar’ to October plan – EPA official
Stephanie Kelly, Reuters

The U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has delivered a proposal on biofuel blending requirements for 2020 to the White House Office of Management and Budget, an EPA official said on Friday.

Report: Fire at Texas facility caused by equipment failure
Juan A. Lozano, The Associated Press

A fire at a Houston-area petrochemical storage facility that burned for days in March was accidental and caused by equipment failure at a storage tank, according to a report released Friday by local and federal investigators.

Kinder Morgan plans to spend $2.4 billion on expansion projects in 2020
Sergio Chapa, Houston Chronicle

Kinder Morgan expects to generate $5.1 billion of distributable cash flow in 2020, a three percent increase from the $5 billion the company projected for 2019.

Bankruptcy Judge Approves Restructuring Chief for Sanchez Energy
Alexander Gladstone, The Wall Street Journal

A bankruptcy judge approved the appointment of turnaround veteran Mohsin Meghji as restructuring chief of Sanchez Energy Corp. , overruling junior bondholders’ objections that his appointment was tainted by conflicts of interest.

How Aramco’s Huge I.P.O. Fell Short of Saudi Prince’s Wish
Kate Kelly and Stanley Reed, The New York Times

The bankers, gathered at Aramco’s headquarters in Dhahran, reported that global investors weren’t as bullish on the company’s initial public offering of stock as the officials had expected, said two people who were in the room and three who were briefed on the meeting. 

Why Bitcoin Mining Is Being Touted as a Solution to Gas Flaring
Naureen S. Malik, Bloomberg

A Denver-based company that installs data centers at shale drilling sites to take advantage of excess natural gas supplies says it now has eight operations across the U.S. and plans another 30 in the first half of next year.

Plastic Backlash Leads to Bets on Old Recycling Technology
Saabira Chaudhuri, The Wall Street Journal

Plastic makers like BP PLC and Dow Inc., and packaging users like Coca-Cola Co. , Danone SA and Unilever PLC, are testing or investing tens of millions of dollars in the technology, called chemical recycling.

Chemical Companies Are Building Their Plants Overseas and Shipping Them Back In. They Still Get State Tax Breaks.
Sara Sneath, The Times-Picayune and The Advocate

With increasing automation, many chemical plants these days employ far fewer permanent workers than they used to. The number of large industrial plants in Louisiana grew by 17% between 1990 and 2017, in part due to a boom fueled by cheap natural gas, records show. 

The Gas Industry’s Bid To Kill A Town’s Fossil Fuel Ban
Chris D’Angelo, HuffPost

There was little organized opposition to the measure following its introduction in August, local elected officials said. But in the days before the vote, the fossil fuel industry and local electric utilities mounted an eleventh-hour bid to try to defeat it. 

‘Safety Is Not a Glamorous Thing’: How PG&E Regulators Failed to Stop Wildfire Crisis
Katherine Blunt and Russell Gold, The Wall Street Journal

PG&E’s collapse has exposed the California Public Utilities Commission’s failure to hold the utility accountable on safety. The CPUC for years focused attention elsewhere, on setting rates and pushing for cleaner power.

Senate Dems Urge Leadership to Act on Clean Energy Tax Breaks
Colin Wilhelm, Bloomberg Environment

Nearly half the Senate Democratic Caucus—including multiple members of the Senate Finance Committee—has signed on to a letter supporting the expansion green energy tax incentives.

Utility Company Wants Turbines Bigger Than Jumbo Jets for U.S. Wind Farm
Will Mathis, Bloomberg

The machine is still in the test phase, but has already received contracts for offshore wind farms in the U.S. and the U.K., including for what is on track to be the biggest project in the world.

First US steel plants powered by wind, solar energy are coming for industry with big carbon footprint
Jacob Douglas, CNBC

The steel industry has a massive carbon footprint, as much as 6% to 7% of the world’s greenhouse gas emissions, according to a Rocky Mountain Institute study. A new Nucor steel microplant in Missouri is trying to put a dent in that number.

Coal company that hired former Blackjewel miners idles KY mines, lays off workers
Will Wright and Bill Estep, Lexington Herald Leader

State Rep. Angie Hatton, D-Whitesburg, said she heard from several miners that Kopper Glo had idled its mines until at least Dec. 26. Between 100 and 150 miners work at the idled mines, she said.

Rolls-Royce Touts Nuclear Reactors as Key to Clean Jet Fuel
Christopher Jasper, Bloomberg

Rolls-Royce Holdings Plc is pitching nuclear reactors as the most effective way of powering the production of carbon-neutral synthetic aviation fuel without draining global electricity grids.

Big investors up call for governments to take climate action
The Associated Press

More than 600 institutional investors managing a whopping $37 trillion in client assets called Monday for governments to step up their efforts against climate change.

Tighter climate policies could erase $2.3 trillion in companies value: report
Ron Bousso, Reuters

Tighter government climate regulations by 2025 could wipe up to $2.3 trillion off the value of companies in industries ranging from fossil fuel producers to agriculture and car makers, an investor group warned in a report.

World’s Oceans Are Losing Oxygen Rapidly, Study Finds
Kendra Pierre-Louis, The New York Times

It found that oxygen levels in the world’s oceans declined by roughly 2 percent between 1960 and 2010. The decline, called deoxygenation, is largely attributed to climate change, although other human activities are contributing to the problem. 

Quitting burgers and planes won’t stop warming, experts say
Maxine Joselow, E&E News

That’s because focusing on individual lifestyles can distract from the need for large-scale solutions, such as getting big corporations to ditch fossil fuels or getting governments to adopt policies like carbon taxes.

Europe’s Industry Behemoths Back Green Deal Ahead of Key Summit
Nikos Chrysoloras, Bloomberg

“Europe has the technology and the political will to take the lead in transitioning towards a climate-neutral, resource-saving sustainable future,” the European Round Table for Industry said in a policy document released Sunday.

Climate Is the Ultimate “OK, Boomer” Issue
Rachel Riederer, The New Republic

The starting bell in the generational climate fight came in February of this year, when a group of kids and teenagers visited Senator Dianne Feinstein’s office to lobby her to support the Green New Deal.

Using Machine Learning to Target Treatment: The Case of Household Energy Use
Christopher R. Knittel and Samuel Stolper, National Bureau of Economic Research

We use causal forests to evaluate the heterogeneous treatment effects (TEs) of repeated behavioral nudges towards household energy conservation. The average response is a monthly electricity reduction of 9 kilowatt-hours (kWh), but the full distribution of responses ranges from -30 to +10 kWh.