EPA: The EPA has submitted the final version of its carbon emissions rule for new power plants to the White House Office of Management and Budget—the last step before the rule is finalized, perhaps by mid-summer. (The Hill)

COAL:
• Bank of America’s new policy against lending to coal mining companies is expected to have major implications for the coal industry. (Mining Global)
• Proposed federal rules on mining royalties, intended to close loopholes that subsidize exports of coal mined from public lands, may instead end up giving away the coal to the industry for free. (InsideClimate News)

SHALE OIL: Shale explorers say they’re preparing to bounce back from the deepest and most prolonged slowdown in U.S. oil drilling on record. (Bloomberg)

BATTERIES:
• In the week following Tesla’s battery announcement, the company took orders worth roughly $800 million in potential revenue. (Bloomberg)
• Tesla’s CEO said that early demand for its new battery has prompted the company to consider raising production by 50 percent or more at its new “gigafactory” in Nevada. (EnergyWire)

BIOMASS: Massachusetts’ senators asked the EPA Friday to reconsider allowing states to use biomass to meet Clean Power Plan emissions limits because wood-burning power plants still emit carbon dioxide. (The Hill)

FRACKING: Another in a series of cluster earthquakes rattled the Dallas area on Thursday, the size of which intensified the quest to document the role fracking has played in making Texas earthquake country. (The Christian Science Monitor)

PIPELINES: As the oil and gas industry seeks new laws exempting information about pipeline infrastructure from public access in the name of national security, opponents say doing so could increase the risk for everyone. (Midwest Energy News)

CARBON TAX: With California’s growing cap-and-trade program expected to yield a budgetary bonanza, lawmakers and interest groups have ample ideas for how to spend the money. (The Sacramento Bee)

DRILLING BANS: Lawmakers in Texas and energy-producing states are rushing to stop local communities from imposing limits on oil and gas drilling despite growing public concern about health and safety. (Associated Press)

ARCTIC DRILLING:
• A federal judge on Friday prohibited Greenpeace from flying unmanned vehicles over the offshore Arctic area where Shell plans to drill. (Associated Press)
• Foss Maritime plans to appeal Seattle’s position that Shell can’t use the city’s port for staging its Arctic drilling under an existing permit. (Associated Press)
• Scientists say oil spills in the Arctic will be exponentially more complex than those elsewhere due to sub-zero temperatures, persistent darkness, remote locations and sea ice. (InsideClimate News)

PRESIDENTIAL RACE: New Jersey Governor Chris Christie broke away from many announced and potential Republican presidential candidates, saying that climate change is real and that humans contribute to it. (The Hill)