Oil and gas

• A new study from Deloitte projected that 70 percent of U.S. oil and gas jobs that were lost due to the pandemic will likely not return by the end of next year as companies move toward digitizing and making their operations more efficient.

• An analysis of internal documents showed that Exxon Mobil Corp. is estimating that its yearly carbon dioxide emissions will rise 17 percent by 2025, roughly equivalent to the emissions output of Greece, as a result of its seven-year, $210 billion investment plan adopted in 2018.

• Exxon said it plans to cut up to 1,600 jobs in its European workforce by the end of next year, which comes after the oil giant announced voluntary layoffs in Australia in September.

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration expects domestic natural gas production and demand to drop this year from record highs in 2019 due to reduced economic activity and energy prices as a result of the coronavirus pandemic.

• 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.

• Unidentified senior Saudi Arabian oil advisers said the kingdom is mulling the cancellation of plans by the Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries to increase oil output in January by an extra 2 million barrels per day because of concerns about rising coronavirus cases globally and the anticipated return of crude operations in Libya. Instead, the country is thinking of delaying the increase until the end of the first quarter, but no final decision has been made on the matter, and any delay would require approval by OPEC members at their next official meetings on Nov. 30 and Dec. 1.

• For the first time, OPEC forecast in its annual World Oil Outlook that global demand for oil will reach its peak of 109.3 million bpd in 2040, which would be followed by a decline to 109.1 million bpd in 2045 and a plateau in demand “over a relatively long period.”

• A federal court struck down a 2016 regulation from the Obama administration that put restrictions on methane leaks and flaring at natural gas sites on public lands.

2020 election

• 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.

• The Biden campaign is considering retiring Sen. Tom Udall (D-New Mexico) as Biden’s top pick to lead the Interior Department if he wins the election in November, according to people familiar with the matter.

• During Wednesday’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.”

Climate change

• The European Union-supported Copernicus Climate Change Service said last month was the hottest September on record globally at 0.63 degrees Celsius above average, breaking the previous record for the warmest September that was set last year.

• JPMorgan Chase & Co. said that it will encourage its clients to align with the goals set under the Paris climate agreement and that it plans to work toward worldwide net zero emissions by 2050.

• The Senate is scheduled to be in a state work period until Nov. 6, but the Senate Judiciary Committee will hold hearings next week for the nomination of Amy Coney Barrett for the Supreme Court. The House is scheduled to be in a district work period until Nov. 16.

• The Brookings Institution is hosting a webinar about building the future infrastructure workforce at 10 a.m. on Monday.

• The American Wind Energy Association is hosting its Offshore Windpower 2020 Virtual Summit on Tuesday and Wednesday.

• The CSIS Energy Security & Climate Change Program will host Linda Capuano, administrator of the U.S. Energy Information Administration, for a presentation and discussion of the EIA’s International Energy Outlook 2020 at 9 a.m. on Wednesday.

• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission is hosting a virtual open meeting at 10 a.m. on Thursday.

• Brookings will host a webinar about how the election will impact U.S. engagement on climate change at 2 p.m. on Thursday.

1) EPA grants Stitt request for state oversight on tribal lands
Sean Murphy, The Associated Press

2) JPMorgan Pledges to Push Clients to Align With Paris Climate Agreement
David Benoit, The Wall Street Journal

3) US oil and gas sector faces bleak jobs outlook
Myles McCormick, Financial Times

4) Exxon’s Plan for Surging Carbon Emissions Revealed in Leaked Documents
Kevin Crowley and Akshat Rathi, Bloomberg

5) Chevron workers face demands to reapply for jobs under global restructuring – sources
Jennifer Hiller and Devika Krishna Kumar, Reuters

6) Biden would face hurdles undoing Trump environmental rollbacks
Rachel Frazin, The Hill

7) Americans Poised to Set New Rooftop Solar Record Despite Virus
Brian Eckhouse, Bloomberg

8) Biden Considering New White House Office on Climate Change
Ari Natter et al., Bloomberg

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

10) The state of zero-carbon power
Ben Geman, Axios