Open
** Ship traffic through the Strait of Hormuz has begun to pick up, sending increasing amounts of oil to the global market that has been starved for it. “The barrels now exiting Hormuz increasingly have nowhere to go except China. But China is not buying,” JPMorgan strategists wrote.
Sneaky
** Under sustained U.S. and European sanctions – targeting dollar clearing, SWIFT and maritime services – Tehran has developed evasive shipping networks using ship-to-ship transfers, flag-hopping and opaque intermediaries to sustain oil exports, largely to Asia and especially China.
New fees
** Iran’s ambassador to China says ships transiting the Strait of Hormuz would be charged new fees but added that China and other “friendly” countries would be granted “special considerations”.
Shortages
** Almost all of Russia’s 83 regions are seeing gasoline shortages or reported disruptions to supply, according to a CNN analysis, with many gas stations imposing rationing as the Russian government races to get ahead of a ferocious campaign of Ukrainian drone attacks targeting its refineries.
US Energy
** Seven new fossil fuel power plants planned to support data centers in Pennsylvania would increase greenhouse gas emissions by the equivalent of putting 14 million cars on the road, a new study concludes.
** New Jersey state legislators push off a vote on a climate “superfund” bill, which would force fossil fuel companies to pay $50 billion for climate change adaptation projects.
** Lithium extraction startup Lilac Solutions is raising over $350 million in project financing and equity to develop its first commercial lithium plant at the Great Salt Lake in Utah.
** The Ute Mountain Ute Tribe in southwestern Colorado moves forward with its 270 MW Foxtail solar-plus-storage project on tribal land in New Mexico despite the Trump administration’s hostility to clean energy.
** Washington state advocates push back on a proposed oil pipeline just over the Canada border, saying it would increase tanker traffic and spill risk in the Salish Sea.
