2024-03-20 19:36
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said on Wednesday she encourages the U.S. Congress to ban uranium supplies from Russia, as doing so would free up funds to support domestic development of fuel for next generation nuclear reactors. The U.S. House passed legislation last December to ban imports of the fuel for nuclear power plants as part of Washington's response to Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. Similar legislation has been held up in the Senate by a hold by Republican Senator Ted Cruz, over an unrelated matter. Under a deal struck by lawmakers, passing the ban on the imports would unlock funds to expand domestic uranium enrichment and for producing a special uranium fuel called high assay low enriched uranium, or HALEU, for next generation reactors. "Hopefully we can get that ban in place in order to unlock" those funds, Granholm told a House of Representatives hearing on her department's budget. "I strongly hope and encourage that Congress does that so that we can move with alacrity." The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/us-energy-secretary-encourages-congress-ban-uranium-supplies-russia-2024-03-20/
2024-03-20 19:35
WASHINGTON, March 20 (Reuters) - The Biden administration on Wednesday slashed its target for U.S. electric vehicle adoption from 67% by 2032 to as little as 35% after industry and autoworker backlash in the political battleground state of Michigan. The Environmental Protection Agency instead adopted a “technology neutral” regulatory scheme that allows automakers far more freedom to meet emissions standards with gas-electric hybrids, which many environmentalists have opposed as a half-measure that delays the EV transition. The agency also embraced “advanced gasoline” technologies to save fuel, such as turbo-charging, lighter vehicles or stop-start ignition systems. EPA administrator Michael Regan told reporters the new rules would nonetheless achieve the same greenhouse-gas reductions as the original EPA proposal for a far more aggressive EV transition. “Let me be clear, our final rule delivers the same, if not more pollution reduction," he said. “We designed the standards to be technology neutral and performance-based to give manufacturers the flexibility to choose which combination of pollution control technologies are best suited for their consumers." Regan emphasized there is “absolutely no mandate” to adopt electric vehicles. The EPA acknowledged the rule cuts emissions by 49% by 2032 over 2026 levels compared with 56% under the proposal last year. Regan said in an interview the reductions were "essentially the same" between the proposal and final rule. The EPA's revised proposal reflects the political squeeze Biden faces in his re-election campaign. For both Biden and his Republican rival, Donald Trump, the road to the White House goes through Michigan and other industrial states such as Wisconsin and Pennsylvania where workers fear that the EV transition threatens jobs. Trump has repeatedly excoriated EVs. The emissions rules likely mark the last major environmental policy move Biden will make before he faces the voters in November. BIG POLLUTION REDUCTIONS The new rules, while softened, will nonetheless force dramatic emissions reductions. The EPA said the plan cuts fleetwide tailpipe emissions by 50% over 2026 levels and reduces greenhouse-gas emissions by 7.2 billion tons through 2055. The EPA’s percentage targets for EV adoption are not mandates but forecasts of how automakers will change their fleets to meet regulations. Its projection on Wednesday came as a wide range — between 35% and 56% of all sales between 2030 and 2032 — rather than a specific target, reflecting the flexibility it emphasized for automakers to pursue different pollution-cutting technologies. The new regulations will be easier, but hardly easy, for automakers to meet given the relatively low levels of U.S. EV and hybrid adoption now. EVs last year accounted for less than 8% of vehicle sales. Hybrids, including plug-ins, accounted for about 9% of sales, according to Cox Automotive data. Hybrid sales, however, have surged in recent months as EV demand slowed, suggesting the new regulations could set off a hybrid boom. Environmentalists and electric-vehicle makers such as Tesla have often blasted hybrids as a side-road on the way to an urgently needed transition to fully electric vehicles. Tesla executive Martin Viecha repeated that mantra on Wednesday, posting on the X social media platform: “Unfortunately, people use plug-in hybrids mainly as gas cars, which means their CO2 emissions are far worse” than the EPA suggests. And yet Tesla policy executive Rohan Patel acknowledged the practicality of the new standards in another post, calling them "less ambitious and therefore even more achievable." Some climate activists had a harsher take. “This rule could’ve been the biggest single step of any nation on climate, but the EPA caved to pressure from Big Auto, Big Oil and car dealers and riddled the plan with loopholes big enough to drive a Ford F150 through,” said Dan Becker, director of the Center for Biological Diversity. WIN FOR DETROIT The United Auto Workers, which has endorsed Biden’s re-election campaign, cheered the more flexible regulations. Its workers worry that EVs will cost auto jobs, which are often less plentiful and lower-paying in EV plants. “By taking seriously the concerns of workers and communities, the EPA has come a long way to create a more feasible emissions rule that protects workers" building vehicles with internal-combustion engines, the union said, while also promoting "the full range of automotive technologies to reduce emissions." The EPA rule goes easier on the Detroit Three's highly-profitable heavy duty pickup truck franchises than on passenger cars or lighter trucks. By 2032, vehicles such as Ford's Super Duty pickups will be required to cut their CO2 emissions by 46%. But they will still be allowed to emit more than three times as much as CO2 than a light-duty pickup such as the Ford F-150 or Chevrolet Silverado 1500, and nearly four times as much CO2 as a passenger car, according to an EPA statement. Automakers won separate relief on Tuesday when the Energy Department softened and opted to phase in new rules that will reduce the mileage rating of EVs. That will help the Detroit Three avoid billions of dollars in fines for not meeting fuel efficiency standards through 2032. Shares in General Motors, Ford and Stellantis rose on Wednesday, with Ford up the most, up 3.5 % in afternoon trading. Investors and analysts have been urging the Detroit automakers to slow investments in money-losing electric vehicles. The Biden administration rules give them more leeway to do that. The change in the final rules reflects lobbying by the UAW, automakers and car dealers. The Alliance for Automotive Innovation, a trade group representing nearly all automakers except Tesla, said the new rules prioritize “more reasonable electrification targets in the next few (very critical) years of the EV transition." The Reuters Daily Briefing newsletter provides all the news you need to start your day. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/sustainability/boards-policy-regulation/us-eases-tailpipe-rules-slows-ev-transition-through-2030-2024-03-20/
2024-03-20 19:35
NEW YORK, March 20 (Reuters) - Sam Bankman-Fried is delusional in claiming the possibility customers of now-bankrupt FTX cryptocurrency exchange may recover funds means he did not steal, his successor as CEO said on Wednesday. Bankman-Fried was convicted in November of stealing $8 billion from FTX customers. In a so-called victim impact statement filed in Manhattan federal court, Bankman-Fried's successor, John Ray, said FTX customers will recoup some losses because of the bankruptcy estate's efforts, not because Bankman-Fried did not steal. "Mr. Bankman-Fried continues to live a life of delusion," Ray wrote. "There should be no delusion that because assets have increased in value or that the professionals have been able to recover funds and assets taken or stolen from the estate, that there was no need for the Chapter 11 cases." U.S. District Judge Lewis Kaplan is scheduled to sentence Bankman-Fried on March 28 in Manhattan federal court. Prosecutors are seeking a 40- to 50-year prison term. Defense lawyers believe a sentence should reflect a "significant" reduction below the minimum 5-1/4 years they say is called for under federal guidelines. The 32-year-old former billionaire pleaded not guilty to seven fraud and conspiracy counts, and has vowed to appeal his conviction. He acknowledged at trial having made mistakes running FTX, but said he never intended to steal funds. Defense lawyer Marc Mukasey has said FTX customers would likely be made whole in the bankruptcy process, and that Bankman-Fried worked diligently after the exchange's November 2022 collapse to recover funds. He was arrested the next month. "The memorandum distorts reality to support its precious 'loss' narrative and casts Sam as a depraved super-villain," Mukasey wrote on Monday night, referring to prosecutors' sentencing proposal. Prosecutors had argued that Bankman-Fried gambled with customers money out of greed, and wouldn't admit what he did was wrong. How much customers will recover remains an open issue. In court filings this week, several said they would be dissatisfied being paid based on what their cryptocurrency holdings were worth when FTX imploded, because those assets would be worth more now. "Any delays and missed market swings should be attributed to operation of the bankruptcy code and not to Sam's alleged crimes," Mukasey wrote in a separate filing on Wednesday. Ray, who helped manage Enron after the energy trader's 2001 bankruptcy, said Bankman-Fried's theft meant many accounts had fewer assets than customers wanted to believe. He also said FTX equity investors, whom Bankman-Fried was also convicted of conspiring to defraud, were unlikely to recover significant sums in the bankruptcy. Jumpstart your morning with the latest legal news delivered straight to your inbox from The Daily Docket newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/legal/ftx-founder-sam-bankman-fried-is-no-super-villain-his-lawyers-say-2024-03-20/
2024-03-20 19:30
Canadian dollar strengthens 0.5% against the greenback Touches its strongest since last Thursday at 1.3491 BoC expects to ease interest rates this year Canadian bond yields fall across the curve TORONTO, March 20 (Reuters) - The Canadian dollar strengthened to a six-day high against its U.S. counterpart on Wednesday as investors cheered the Federal Reserve's move to stick with its interest rate-cutting forecast for 2024. The loonie was trading 0.5% higher at 1.35 to the U.S. dollar, or 74.07 U.S. cents, after touching its strongest intraday level since last Thursday at 1.3491. The Fed held interest rates steady but policymakers indicated they still expect to reduce them by three 25-basis-point rate cuts by the end of 2024 despite stodgier expected progress towards the U.S. central bank's 2% inflation target. "It looks like the market was braced for a more hawkish outcome," said Royce Mendes, managing director and head of macro strategy at Desjardins. "The risk was that the expected upward revisions to GDP and core inflation for 2024 could have prompted officials to move down to just two cuts for this year." Wall Street rallied, while U.S. Treasury yields fell and the U.S. dollar (.DXY) , opens new tab lost ground against a basket of major currencies. The Bank of Canada also expects to ease this year, minutes from the central bank's policy meeting from earlier this month showed. But policymakers were divided over when there would likely be enough evidence that the conditions were right for cuts. A decline in the price of oil, one of Canada's major exports, had little impact on the loonie. U.S. crude oil futures settled 2.1% lower at $81.68 a barrel, giving back some recent gains. Canadian government yields fell across the curve, tracking moves in U.S. Treasuries. The 10-year was down 3.2 basis points at 3.492%, extending its pullback from the highest intraday level in one month at 3.624% on Tuesday. Keep up with the latest medical breakthroughs and healthcare trends with the Reuters Health Rounds newsletter. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/markets/currencies/c-climbs-6-day-high-fed-rate-cut-forecast-2024-03-20/
2024-03-20 19:00
HOUSTON, March 20 (Reuters) - Brazil's state-run oil firm Petrobras (PETR4.SA) , opens new tab may soon move a drilling rig out of the Potiguar Basin due to lack of permits for more wells, Chief Exploration and Production Officer Joelson Mendes said on Wednesday. Petrobras has drilled one well at Potiguar, and is in the process of drilling a second one, but lacks environmental permits to drill more, said Mendes on the sidelines of the CERAWeek energy conference. In January, Petrobras confirmed it had found hydrocarbons in its first Equatorial Margin well, Pitu Oeste, but said its economic viability was inconclusive. The potential of the second well still needs to be evaluated, said Mendes. "We will be finishing this well and maybe we will take the rig to the southeast of the country, to Campos and Santos Basin," he told Reuters, adding that the rig is expensive and so it cannot stay idle while waiting for new permits. Potiguar is located in the so-called Equatorial Margin, an extensive area in northern Brazil that is seen as the most promising frontier for oil and gas exploration for Petrobras. Petrobras plans to drill 16 wells in the Equatorial Margin in five years, said Mendes, but Brazilian environmental regulator Ibama, whose workers are striking, has been slow to issue new permits, delaying exploration projects. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-petrobras-may-soon-move-drill-rig-out-equatorial-margin-2024-03-20/
2024-03-20 18:56
HOUSTON, March 20 (Reuters) - A pause in licensing for oil and gas exploration areas in Colombia could hit the country's future availability of natural gas, possibly increasing the need for imports, the head of gas transporter Promigas (PMG.CN) , opens new tab, Juan Manuel Rojas said on Wednesday. President Gustavo Petro's administration has not organized new bidding rounds for conventional oil and gas exploration, while pushing some companies to revive at least 21 suspended contracts. Meanwhile in the renewable sector, Colombia's oil regulator, the National Hydrocarbons Agency, in February pushed back the deadline for companies to submit documents to enter the country's first-ever offshore wind auction to June 21, from an earlier deadline of Feb. 21. The auction process is now expected to close in October 2025, later than the initial May 2025 deadline, according to the regulator's updated timeline. Promigas transports about 56% of Colombia's natural gas output and operates Colombia's only regasification plant. Rojas' comments were made during the CERAWeek conference in Houston. State-run Ecopetrol's CEO Ricardo Roa said in a separate interview on the sidelines of CERAWeek that the country is importing up to 30% of its gas needs. Colombia is weighing options to resolve a gas deficit set to increase as the demand grows, including ramping up purchases of liquefied natural gas (LNG), importing gas from Venezuela and connecting domestic fields. Promising areas off the country's coast where companies have found reserves are years from delivering first output. They are expected to provide Colombia with at 2.5-4 trillion cubic feet (tcf) of gas in the lowest case scenario, and up to 12 tcf if most prospects are confirmed, according to Roa. The Reuters Power Up newsletter provides everything you need to know about the global energy industry. Sign up here. https://www.reuters.com/business/energy/ceraweek-pause-exploration-licensing-colombia-hit-gas-supply-promigas-2024-03-20/
