ELECTRIC VEHICLES: President Biden will announce the restoration and expansion of Obama-era emissions standards for light-duty vehicles today and sign an executive order pledging half of new car sales will be zero emission by the end of the decade. (Washington Post)

ALSO: General Motors, Ford, and Stellantis NV, as well as union leaders, will join Biden’s executive order signing, though the automakers are only softly pledging electric vehicles will make up close to half of their sales by 2030. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS:
• Congressional Democrats are weighing a bill that would identify the country’s biggest emitters from 2000-2019 and tax them based on those emissions, potentially bringing in as much as $500 billion. (New York Times)
• Facebook’s U.S. platform brought in $9.6 million in ads from the oil and gas industry last year, with more than half of that spending coming from ExxonMobil. (Grist)
• Indigenous and environmental groups call on the Biden administration to permanently ban oil and gas drilling in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Alaska Native News)
• The Indigenous Peoples of the Coastal Bend and environmental groups sue the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers for awarding a permit to an oil-export marine terminal without adequately studying its environmental impacts. (Reuters)

OVERSIGHT: A federal court finds the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission didn’t fully consider environmental justice and climate impacts when approving two liquefied natural gas export terminals and their associated pipelines. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES:
• North Carolina clean energy advocates say they’re open to Duke Energy’s request for upfront, multi-year rate increases, but not in a proposed bill that would remove discretion from utility regulators and benefit Duke at ratepayers’ expense. (Energy News Network)
• The new president and CEO of Tampa Electric pledges to drive down greenhouse gas emissions and invest more in solar energy. (Tampa Bay Times)

SOLAR:
• Oil giant BP looks to begin construction on a 345 MW solar project in Louisiana by October and sell power to companies such as McDonalds and eBay. (The Advocate)
• A New York state agency authorizes $52.5 million to help low-to-moderate-income community solar subscribers save on their utility bills. (PV magazine)

PIPELINES:
• Indigenous TikTokers say they were banned from the app after posting video of police violence against Line 3 protesters in northern Minnesota. (Daily Dot)
• An Ojibwe activist describes Line 3 protesters being shot with rubber bullets and denied medical care by Minnesota law enforcement. (Democracy Now) 

BITCOIN: Cryptocurrency mining operations are popping up throughout Pennsylvania’s Lehigh Valley region, taking advantage of available nuclear and coal refuse plant output to power their supercomputers. (Morning Call)

COMMENTARY:
• A writer for an energy think tank says small-scale distributed generation, large-scale transmission expansion and better integration are all necessary to protect the grid from wildfires and climate change. (GreenBiz)
• Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz and President Joe Biden “are failing to protect our health” by allowing the Line 3 pipeline project despite disastrous downstream consequences, three medical doctors write. (Minnesota Reformer)

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Kathryn Krawczyk

Kathryn brings her extensive editorial background to the Energy News Network team, where she oversees the early-morning production of ENN’s five email digest newsletters as well as distribution of ENN’s original journalism with other media outlets. From documenting chronic illness’ effect on college students to following the inner workings of Congress, Kathryn has built a broad experience in her more than five years working at major publications including The Week Magazine. Kathryn holds a Bachelor of Science in magazine journalism and information management and technology from Syracuse University.