Biden to announce next steps in federal drilling ban

OIL & GAS: President Biden is expected to direct agencies this week to begin work on a ban of new oil and gas leasing on public land. (New York Times)

ALSO:
• As a retired Shell Oil executive says on Fox News that ​“oil is not going away” and predicts Biden’s climate policies will cause ​“years of struggle,” his former company is acquiring electric vehicle charging companies in Europe. (Fox Business, The Guardian)
• An Interior Department official says Native American tribes are exempt from the Biden administration’s temporary pause on oil and gas permitting. (Reuters)
• A new report says eliminating flaring in the Permian Basin could generate $440 million in additional revenue for oil and gas producers. (Houston Chronicle)

CLIMATE:
• Climate envoy John Kerry tells the United States ​“I regret that my country has been absent” from international climate talks. (The Hill)
• The Federal Reserve creates a first-of-its-kind committee to study the risks of climate change to the financial system. (E&E News, subscription)

COAL:
• Dozens of U.S. utilities plan to keep coal plants online past 2030 while building new gas plants, raising questions about their emission-reduction targets, according to a new Sierra Club report. (Reuters)
• Thirteen groups from around the country are pushing the Biden administration to create an Office of Economic Transition to help struggling coal communities. (Inside Climate News)
• North Carolina, Duke Energy and a conservation group announce a settlement that will shift $1.1 billion in coal ash cleanup costs from ratepayers to the utility and its shareholders. (Associated Press)

WIND:
• In a nod to fishing industry objections, Maine Gov. Janet Mills proposes a 10-year moratorium on offshore wind within three miles of shore, but will continue to support a floating turbine pilot project. (Portland Press Herald)
• Developers of the Vineyard Wind project inform the Biden administration that they will resubmit their plans after withdrawing the project in December. (State House News Service)
• President Biden reverses a Trump administration order that would have accelerated reviews of potential offshore wind leases in California. (E&E News, subscription)

SOLAR:
• Virginia lawmakers advance a bill that would allow schools and local governments to contract for solar power with companies other than state-regulated utilities. (Virginia Mercury)
• Debate over a bill that would allow utility-scale solar development on New Jersey farmland highlights the challenge of quickly developing renewable energy in the country’s most densely populated state. (NJ Spotlight)

UTILITIES: The city of Toledo seeks to join a lawsuit claiming that Ohio’s ratepayer subsidies to support nuclear plants were unconstitutional and part of a ​“scheme to corrupt the legislative process.” (Toledo Blade)

TRANSPORTATION: President Biden says he wants to transition the federal government’s fleet to American-built electric vehicles. (The Verge)

COMMENTARY: A law professor questions the ongoing legal challenges that have delayed the Maine’s Clean Energy Connect transmission line: ​“When is enough, enough?” (Portland Press Herald)