• In testimony, Ambassador Gordon Sondland said he initially heard of the White House’s desire for an investigation into Hunter Biden’s employer, Ukrainian natural gas company Burisma, from Energy Secretary Rick Perry, along with Perry’s chief of staff and former U.S. special envoy to Ukraine Kurt Volker, contradicting Perry’s assertion that he did not know of the inquiry pressure. (Politico)

• The Natural Resources Defense Council named Gina McCarthy, one of former President Barack Obama’s Environmental Protection Agency administrators, as president and chief executive. NRDC has sued the Trump administration 96 times on energy efficiency, endangered species and other issues, and says it has won 54 out of the 59 cases resolved to date. (The Washington Post)

• Tesla Inc. has made a preliminary, non-binding agreement to begin buying batteries, as early as 2020, from Contemporary Amperex Technology Co. Ltd. for the automaker’s Model 3 electric sedans manufactured in China, according to people familiar with the deal, one of whom said that Tesla will use batteries from Panasonic Corp. and LG Chem Ltd. until the CATL agreement is finalized. Tesla and CATL are discussing taking the relationship global, sources said. (Bloomberg)

Perry Wanted U.S. Energy Veterans on Naftogaz Board, Messages Say
Timothy Puko, The Wall Street Journal

Energy Secretary Rick Perry wanted to put two U.S. energy industry veterans on the board of Ukraine’s state-owned energy company, according to text messages written by the former Ukraine special envoy that differ with Mr. Perry’s own account.

Senate reviews Interior, FERC nominees criticized on ethics
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

Also Monday, Senate Minority Leader Charles Schumer (D-N.Y.) requested an investigation of Danly, who currently serves as general counsel for the FERC, saying he may have given bad ethics advice to FERC commissioners who had ties to the industries they regulate. 

Trump administration schedules lease sale for Arctic Alaska lands
Yereth Rosen, Reuters

The Bureau of Land Management (BLM) announced that its annual oil and gas lease sale in the National Petroleum Reserve in Alaska will be held on Dec. 11. The sale will be the 15th in a series of oil lease sales held by the BLM for that region on the western side of Alaska’s North Slope.

Senate eyes nixing ‘forever chemicals’ from major defense policy bill
Rebecca Beitsch, The Hill

The Senate is prepared to walk away from provisions of a defense policy bill that would compel the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to regulate a cancer-linked chemical that is leaching into the water supply, Sen. James Inhofe (R-Okla.) told reporters Tuesday.

Oil prices decline on U.S. crude build, weak euro zone data
Bozorgmehr Sharafedin and Jane Chung, Reuters

Oil prices declined on Wednesday, pulled down by a larger-than-expected build in U.S. crude stocks and weak euro zone economic figures, after gaining for three sessions on expectations of an easing in U.S.-China trade tensions.

CITGO’s Bid to Avoid Oil Spill Liability Probed by Supreme Court
Ellen M. Gilmer, Bloomberg Environment

During oral arguments, several justices pushed back on CITGO Asphalt Refining Co.’s contention that it isn’t financially responsible for the 2004 accident, in which a ship struck an abandoned anchor while en route to deliver oil from Venezuela to a refinery near Philadelphia.

Segment of Keystone pipeline ordered to remain shut after leak
Devika Krishna Kumar, Reuters

A U.S. regulator on Tuesday ordered that a segment of the Keystone pipeline that spilled more than 9,000 barrels of crude in rural North Dakota remain shut until operator TC Energy submits a restart and return-to-service plan because of the hazards posed.

Chesapeake Energy raises doubt over its ability to survive
Gregory Meyer, Financial Times

Shale gas pioneer sends shares and bonds lower with going-concern warning.

City to sue fossil fuel companies in bid to hold them ‘accountable’ for climate change
Hawaii News Now

At a news conference Tuesday, Honolulu Mayor Kirk Caldwell said fossil fuel companies have known for decades about the impacts of climate change.

Pioneer Natural CEO calls out shale industry for Permian Basin gas flaring
Jennifer Hiller, Reuters

Producers should get flaring and venting rates to 2% or less and not drill wells before pipelines are complete, Sheffield said during a call with analysts a day after releasing quarterly results.

Cause of Philadelphia fire sounds alarm over aging U.S. refineries
Laila Kearney, Reuters

How did a piece of piping installed when Richard Nixon was U.S. president go without once being checked before leading to a fire that devastated the East Coast’s largest and oldest oil refinery?

Why Are Clean Energy Veterans Flocking To Royal Dutch Shell?
Julian Spector, HuffPost

Hanley’s job, as a general manager in Shell’s New Energies division, is to transform this global array of clean energy assets into a cohesive, economically beneficial whole. 

State board explains decision to reject Burrillville power plant
Alex Kuffner, Providence Journal

In the end, it may have been the length of time of the regulatory process that spells the demise of Invenergy’s plan to build a $1-billion fossil fuel-burning power plant in Burrillville.

Plains All American expects Wink-to-Webster crude pipe construction to begin by year-end
Devika Krishna Kumar, Reuters

Plains All American Pipeline LP said on Tuesday it expects to begin construction on the Wink-to-Webster Permian crude pipeline by the end of the year and is targeting bringing the line to service by early 2021.

FirstEnergy nears proposal to decouple Ohio utility revenues, electricity consumption: CEO
Larry Pearl, Utility Dive

FirstEnergy plans to file a proposal with Ohio utility regulators by the end of November to decouple the link between the company’s revenues and the amount of electricity used by its customers, President and CEO Chuck Jones told analysts on the company’s third quarter earnings call Tuesday.

Elon Musk says he has the solution for California’s fire-related blackouts. It starts at $15,000.
Faiz Siddiqui, The Washington Post

As California faces massive wildfires and extensive power failures, Elon Musk has taken to Twitter with his latest cause: equipping residents here with solar panels and giant batteries to power their homes.

Renewables can’t get grid to net zero alone, MIT scientists say
James Osborne, Houston Chronicle

Getting the power grid to net-zero carbon emissions by 2050 will be far less costly if nuclear power, along with wind and solar energy, can be expanded, according to scientists from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Bob Murray: The last coal baron?
Dylan Brown, E&E News

Murray strove to be the last man standing in the fall of King Coal, but he could not hold at bay the bankers, who have come for virtually all his rivals. Wall Street now runs most of the coal business, and Murray’s few contemporaries keep low profiles.

NRC Approves Emergency Planning Changes for Pilgrim
Brian Merchant, CapeCod.com

The Nuclear Regulatory Commission has approved changes to emergency planning requirements for the Pilgrim Nuclear Power Station. The changes reflect the Plymouth plant’s decommissioning status and come in the form of exemptions from NRC requirements due to ceased operations.

Earth Needs Fewer People to Beat the Climate Crisis, Scientists Say
Eric Roston, Bloomberg

More than 11,000 experts from around the world are calling for a critical addition to the main strategy of dumping fossil fuels for renewable energy: there needs to be far fewer humans on the planet.

China, France reaffirm support of Paris climate agreement, call it ‘irreversible’
Marine Pennetier, Reuters

The two countries “reaffirm their strong support for the Paris Agreement, which they consider an irreversible process and a compass for strong action on the climate,” the statement said.

President Trump is right to get us out of the bad Paris climate accord
U.S. Sen. John Barrasso (R-Wyo.), USA Today

President Donald Trump is keeping his word and getting America out of a bad deal. The poorly negotiated Paris climate accord imposed unfair, unworkable and unrealistic targets on the United States for reducing carbon emissions.

Donald Trump leaves Paris climate accord because he knows better. Not.
The Editorial Board, USA Today

On Monday, the president took the earliest opportunity, under complex United Nations rules, to begin the year-long process of extracting the United States from the 2015 Paris climate accord signed by nearly 200 nations. America will be the only country to leave the accord.

Why Walmart and Other Companies Are Sticking With the Paris Climate Deal
Kathleen McLaughlin and Andrew Steer, The New York Times

Leaving the accord will hamper America’s economic competitiveness and put Americans and people around the world at greater risk for climate-related disasters.

The Tragic Irony of “America First” Climate Denial
Nick Martin, The New Republic

To date, America is the only country to move to withdraw from the landmark 2015 agreement. Trump boasted his intention to do so on the 2016 campaign trail, but due to the restrictions set during the ratification of the agreement, he was forced to wait three years before formally informing the United Nations, kicking off a yearlong removal process.

Trump Isn’t a Climate Denier. He’s Worse.
Robinson Meyer, The Atlantic

The president is withdrawing the U.S. from the Paris Agreement on climate change because he just can’t quit carbon.

Solar and wind energy enhances drought resilience and groundwater sustainability
Xiaogang He et al., Nature Communications

Here we develop a trade-off frontier framework to quantify the water sustainability value of SWE through a case study in California. We identify development pathways that optimize the economic value of water in competition for energy and food production while ensuring sustainable use of groundwater.