Week in Review

Congress

  • The Senate voted 71-23 to approve a $1.4 trillion spending bill that includes a $6 billion pension package for retired coal miners and increased funding levels for the Environmental Protection Agency and renewable energy programs. President Donald Trump signed the bill Friday night.
  • Lawmakers on the House Natural Resources Committee released legislation that would pause new fossil fuel leasing on federal lands for a minimum of one year and would seek to zero out emissions from extraction on federal lands and waters by 2040. 
  • House Energy and Commerce Environment and Climate Subcommittee Chairman Paul Tonko (D-N.Y.) said that committee Democrats plan to release a “bipartisan and bicameral” draft measure on climate change after the holidays. 

PG&E Corp.

  • The California Public Utilities Commission announced a proposed settlement with PG&E Corp. that would charge the utility’s shareholders a $1.625 billion penalty over 2017 and 2018 wildfires sparked by its power equipment.
  • The California Public Utilities Commission unanimously voted against allowing the state’s top utilities to earn higher profits, pointing to a recent law intended to provide the companies with money for wildfire damages caused by their infrastructure.

Trump administration

  • The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission voted in favor of a draft order to expand the PJM regional transmission organization’s minimum offer price rule, which sets a price floor during bidding in the capacity market to ensure the RTO has sufficient power for the region. It will subject to review any new power resources that seek inclusion in PJM’s capacity market and receive state subsidies, though it includes provisions to exempt renewable, storage and other resources. 
  • The Trump administration said it will set biofuel blending quotas at 20.09 billion gallons in 2020, up from 19.92 billion gallons in 2019 and mostly in line with the volumes it proposed earlier this year.

Oil and gas

  • Royal Dutch Shell PLC said it plans to take a post-tax impairment charge of between $1.7 billion and $2.3 billion for the fourth quarter and lowered its oil products sales projections, citing a poor economic outlook. 
  • Fuel storage and gas station company Puma Energy said it will sell most of its Australian assets to Chevron Corp. for about $291 million, giving Chevron access to storage and import terminals there. 
  • Kinder Morgan Inc. recently began transport of its first liquefied natural gas shipment from the Elba Island LNG export terminal off Georgia’s coast, according to the tanker tracking platform Marine Traffic. 

What’s Ahead

  • The House and Senate are in recess for the holiday this week.
  • The Environmental Protection Agency is taking comment on its proposed changes to toxic discharge regulations at steam electric power generators for two types of wastewater through Jan. 21, 2020.

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