• Democratic presidential candidate Joe Biden is mulling the creation of a special White House office on climate change if he is elected president, according to people familiar with the deliberations. Biden is said to be considering former Secretary of State John Kerry, who helped with negotiations that established the Paris climate accord, Washington Gov. Jay Inslee (D), who ran for president on a climate change platform, and President Bill Clinton’s chief of staff John Podesta as the head of such an office, the people said. (Bloomberg)

• During last night’s vice presidential debate, Vice President Mike Pence and Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.) sparred over the Biden campaign’s stance on fracking, with Pence claiming Biden and Harris would ban the natural gas extraction process if they take the White House, even though Biden said as recently as August that he would not ban the practice and Harris reiterated that stance during the debate. Pence also said “climate alarmists” would attempt to push the Green New Deal by pointing to recent hurricanes and wildfires, and Harris attacked the Trump administration’s policies on climate change, saying that Trump officials “don’t believe in science.” (The Hill)

• Chevron Corp. is asking employees across its global operations to reapply for their jobs as the No. 2 oil producer moves forward with its cost-cutting program that is anticipated to cut up to 15 percent of its workforce, according to people familiar with the matter. Chevron Chief Executive Michael Wirth said Monday that workers who are not rehired should know within a few weeks, though he did not say how the layoffs will be decided or how many employees were asked to reapply for their jobs. (Reuters)

• The U.S. Bureau of Safety and Environmental Enforcement said nearly 80 percent of the Gulf of Mexico’s oil production and almost half of its natural gas output is offline as of last night in preparation of Hurricane Delta, amounting to about 1.49 million barrels per day of crude production and 1,335 million standard cubic feet per day of gas. (S&P Global Platts)

JPMorgan, Wells Fargo Blamed for Flint Water Crisis in Lawsuit
Alex Ebert, Bloomberg Law

JPMorgan Chase & Co., Wells Fargo, and Stifel Financial Corp. are allegedly responsible for the Flint water crisis because they underwrote the city’s bonds while knowing local officials would use polluted water from the Flint River, 2,000 residents claim in a federal lawsuit filed Wednesday.

California Water Probe Finds PFAS in Majority of Tested Wells
Emily C. Dooley, Bloomberg Law

Sixty percent of California’s public water supply wells that were tested for so-called forever chemicals contain those compounds, according to research that the State Water Resources Control Board released Wednesday.

Keeping it clean: U.S. ethanol producers invest in sanitizer for long haul
Stephanie Kelly, Reuters

Globally the hand sanitizer market was valued at $2.7 billion in 2019, with North America accounting for a third of the market’s revenue share, according to Grand View Research, a consultancy.

Oil Gains Near $40 With Hurricane Delta Threatening Gulf Output
Ann Koh and Alex Longley, Bloomberg

Oil rose near $40 a barrel in New York with the market turning its attention to a hurricane that’s caused widespread shut-ins to Gulf of Mexico output.

Storm-ravaged Louisiana braces for strike from Hurricane Delta on Friday
Matthew Cappucci and Jason Samenow, The Washington Post

Although the storm lost considerable strength as it approached and crossed the Yucatán, dropping from a Category 4 to Category 1, it is predicted to regain strength over the balmy waters of the Gulf of Mexico through Thursday.

Exxon’s Market-Value Crown in Energy Passes to Chevron, NextEra
Kevin Crowley et al., Bloomberg

Chevron Corp. overtook Exxon Mobil Corp. as the largest oil company in America by market value, the first time the Texas-based giant has been dethroned since it began as Standard Oil more than a century ago.

U.S. oil-export projects stall as output slips, opposition builds
Laila Kearney, Reuters

The coronavirus pandemic has stalled a once-furious race among energy companies to build deepwater oil export terminals off the Texas coast, amid permitting delays and rising environmental opposition.

Iran Set to Export More Oil If Biden Wins U.S. Presidency
Paul Wallace and Manus Cranny, Bloomberg

Iran could restore almost 2 million barrels of oil exports daily if Joe Biden wins next month’s U.S. presidential election, according to the head of the International Energy Forum.

In a World With Too Much Oil, OPEC+ Sweats Its Next Move
Javier Blas and Grant Smith, Bloomberg

The world is awash with oil. Yet, in less than eight weeks, OPEC+ is set to pour even more barrels into the glut.

DTE Energy Weighs Sale or Spinoff of Its Non-Utility Units
Ed Hammond and Kiel Porter, Bloomberg

DTE Energy Co., a power company that operates in the Midwestern U.S., is considering unloading its natural gas pipelines and other non-utility operations, according to people familiar with the matter.

‘Buyer beware’: Report highlights challenges to new PJM gas plants
Robert Walton, Utility Dive

New natural gas generation projects in the PJM Interconnection face a growing list of headwinds, and this has resulted in delays at almost a dozen combined cycle projects, according to a joint study by the Applied Economics Clinic (AEC) and the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis (IEEFA).

Tesla has a shot at producing 500,000 cars this year, Musk says in memo
Yilei Sun and Munsif Vengattil, Reuters

Tesla Inc. has a chance at producing 500,000 cars this year, Chief Executive Officer Elon Musk told employees, according to an internal email seen by Reuters.

Ex-Tesla exec Straubel aims to build world’s top battery recycler
Paul Lienert, Reuters

Tesla co-founder J.B. Straubel wants to build his startup Redwood Materials into the world’s top battery recycling company and one of the largest battery materials companies, he said at a technology conference Wednesday.

Half of Fire Departments Said to Be Ill-Prepared for E-Car Fires
Alan Levin, Bloomberg

Half of U.S. fire departments have no protocols in place to fight fires that break out in the growing number of battery-powered vehicles on the road, according to accident investigators.

Army taps University of Wisconsin to lead research into hybrid vehicles, aircraft
John Bowden, The Hill

The U.S. Army has selected the University of Wisconsin for a multimillion-dollar grant to develop hybrid-electric engine technology for the service branch as part of the Pentagon’s efforts to cut down on carbon emissions.

Coal, nuclear retirements in US Midwest might boost gas-fired power demand
Rachel Wiser and Brandon Evans, S&P Global Platts

As natural gas storage surpasses five-year maximum levels in the US Midwest, a swath of coal and nuclear power plant retirements look to boost gas’ share of generation winter over winter, helping balance a towering inventory despite higher hub prices in the region.

This Year Has Seen A Record Number of Climate Disasters Costing $1 Billion
Eric Roston, Bloomberg

The U.S. in 2020 has already seen 16 climate-related disasters that caused more than $1 billion in damage each, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. That ties the record shared by 2011 and 2017—after only nine months.

Bringing the chill of the cosmos to a warming planet
Sarah Kaplan, The Washington Post

For centuries, desert dwellers in North Africa, India and Iran tapped into a law of physics called radiative cooling.

A $6 Billion Fund Manager Offers a Way to Boost Climate Spending
Will Mathis, Bloomberg

The founder and chairman of Overlook Investments, which has $6 billion of assets under management, now spends some of his time focused on raising money for projects that offset carbon dioxide emissions. It’s part of a complex, de-centralized market where buyers can struggle to know if they’re getting a good deal.

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Would You Buy a Used Car From This Oil Trader?
David Fickling, Bloomberg

Why on earth would the world’s biggest independent oil trader be getting into the used-car business?

Differences in carbon emissions reduction between countries pursuing renewable electricity versus nuclear power
Benjamin K. Sovacool et al., Nature Energy

Two of the most widely emphasized contenders for carbon emissions reduction in the electricity sector are nuclear power and renewable energy. While scenarios regularly question the potential impacts of adoption of various technology mixes in the future, it is less clear which technology has been associated with greater historical emission reductions.