U.S. mum on EU’s last-ditch climate fund pitch

COP27: The European Union proposes a loss and damage fund for vulnerable countries funded by donations and payments for fossil fuel emissions; U.S. delegates had yet to share their thoughts. (Guardian, E&E News)

ALSO: With talks wrapping tomorrow, climate negotiators have yet to complete a draft agreement summing up promises made at COP27. (Washington Post)

POLITICS:
• As Republicans retake the House, leaders say they’re preparing an energy package that would seek to speed environmental permitting to boost domestic fossil fuel production and critical mineral mining. (E&E News, Axios)
• The American Petroleum Institute paid more than $3.5 million to a Virginia political group that funded ads praising conservative Democratic Congress members for supporting supposedly pro-climate policies. (Sludge)

GRID:
• As federal regulators consider establishing independent monitors to provide oversight on transmission projects, power and transmission companies say it will add unnecessary bureaucracy. (States Newsroom)
• The Biden administration says it will distribute $13 billion in grid modernization funding, the biggest federal transmission investment in history. (The Hill)
• Clean energy tax credits in the Inflation Reduction Act could upend key aspects of utility resource planning, according to a panel of grid experts. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A report finds the global electric vehicle transition is underway, with U.S. sales more than doubling from 2020 to 2021 and expected to grow further this year. (Utility Dive)
• Volkswagen delays a key battery project from 2026 until the end of the decade, complicating its attempt to overtake Tesla as the biggest electric vehicle maker. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• General Motors’ CEO says he expects the company’s pivot to electric vehicles to turn a profit by 2025. (Associated Press)

HYDROPOWER: Federal regulators greenlight the removal of four fish-harming hydropower dams on the Klamath River in Oregon and California, drawing tribal nations’ and environmentalists’ applause. (High Country News)

CLIMATE: American and Canadian officials announce plans to establish a green shipping corridor along the Great Lakes and St. Lawrence River that relies on zero-emission fuels and technologies to reduce or eliminate emissions. (NNY360)

OIL & GAS:
• The U.S. EPA will require new air permits before an idled U.S. Virgin Islands refinery that repeatedly rained oil on neighboring homes can restart. (Washington Post)
• Texas regulators investigate oil and gas wastewater injection wells after the Permian Basin is shaken by a 5.3-magnitude earthquake, the region’s largest on record. (Bloomberg)
• Conservation and taxpayer advocates call on the Biden administration to increase oil and gas reclamation bond requirements to ensure industry, not taxpayers, foots cleanup costs. (WyoFile)

SOLAR: Industry groups and companies urge the Commerce Department to reject a small solar company’s claims that panels imported from some southeast Asian countries avoided tariffs on Chinese-made solar components. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIFICATION: A California startup plans to equip induction stoves with lithium-ion batteries, allowing them to draw less electricity from an outlet and letting owners avoid electric panel upgrades. (Canary Media)