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Energy Policy.  The Obama administration announced a series of incremental measures today designed to encourage greater use of solar power.  The measures are not intended to provide the same degree of impact on the solar industry as the Clean Power Plan; however, they include making an additional $1 billion in loan guarantee authority available in an existing federal program, among other new provisions.  NY Times

Oil.  Although U.S. oil prices on Friday dipped below $40 a barrel, a six-year low, refinery outages in the Midwest and West Coast are preventing gasoline prices from following suit — a development that represents how vulnerable customers in some regions are to any interruption in fuel production from domestic refineries.  Refinery capacity has been under strong pressure this year from high levels of consumer demand, which could also explain why prices have failed to drop by the same degree that crude oil has. WSJ

Energy Policy.  Just months before climate talks in Paris begin, less than a third of governments seeking a global climate agreement have submitted plans for reducing emissions.  Many major economies and large emitters — including Brazil, Saudi Arabia, and India — have failed to submit their reduction targets, raising concerns that a broader accord can be reached that will put the world on track to cap global average temperatures.  WSJ

Energy Policy.  During a two-day visit to Iran to reopen the British embassy after nearly four years, the UK’s foreign secretary announced that the easing of sanctions against Tehran could begin as early as next Spring.  While the UK and Iran still have a fundamental disagreement over each’s policy in Syria, the trip and statement represent the latest sign of thawing ties between Tehran and the west.  WSJ

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Oil.  Nearly 60% of oil market experts view excess supply as the main driver of low crude prices today.  Jude Clemente of Forbes notes that the Iran nuclear deal could unleash millions of barrels of Iranian oil into an already-saturated market — although this may not take effect until 2016 given that sanctions cannot be lifted until Iran has complied with all the terms of the accord and the pact is ratified by the U.S. Congress.  Forbes

Climate Change.  Mark P. Mills argues in Forbes that the EPA’s new methane policy is trivial for the planet and economically destructive.  He notes that methane is natural and is emitted by cattle, termites, landfill, agriculture, and microorganisms, and that a two percent increase in the world’s wetlands — which environmentalists are trying to preserve and expand — would actually generate more new methane emissions than all of the reductions from the new proposed rule.  Forbes

Oil.  Canada’s largest oil refinery operator has stopped importing crude from the U.S. in favor of cheaper crude from producers like Saudi Arabia.  The move reflects a shift in the economics of the energy industry, as the price of oil continues to slump to six-year lows and the cost of shipping oil by sea falls far below that of shipping it by rail.  WSJ

Solar.  According to the Wall Street Journal, a new energy boom is taking shape in the oil fields of west Texas in the form of solar energy, which is cheap to produce and competitively priced in the electricity market.   With cheap, flat, and open land, Texas is an ideal place for harvesting electricity from the sun; further, it already has some of the transmission line infrastructure in place to connect the western region to the state’s largest cities.  WSJ

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Energy Policy.  According to the European Union’s energy and climate commissioner, the global climate deal designed to prevent worldwide temperatures from rising is under threat unless more countries submit emission-reduction targets and the region substantially accelerates technical negotiations.  With just three months until the Paris Climate Conference, only 56 out of more than 190 countries have submitted targets.  WSJ

Mining.  Amid plunging commodity prices, mining companies are exploring low-margin operations as a source of new revenue, refining, blending, and trading ores themselves rather than leaving these tasks to multinational commodity traders as has historically been done.   With industrial metals and coal at lows last seen during the financial crisis, the share prices of many companies have collapsed by more than half in the past year; however, due to oversupply, raw materials prices are likely to remain low for an extended period.   WSJ

Energy Policy.  The World Bank is aiming to set a global standard to stop the routine flaring of unwanted gas from oil wells.  The Bank’s executives hope that the world’s largest oil-producing countries and companies will participate, and believe that the effort will help cut greenhouse gas emissions and improve access to energy in low-income countries.  FT

Global Warming.  According to a study published yesterday, scientists may have overstated China’s carbon dioxide emissions by more than 10 percent due to inaccurate assumptions about the country’s coal­-burning activities.  While the findings do not affect estimates of the total level of greenhouse gases in the atmosphere — an accumulation that is measured independently — they may affect discussions of how much relative responsibility China bears for global warming. NY Times

Oil.  A federal auction in the Gulf of Mexico yesterday attracted the lowest interest from producers since 1986 — a clear sign that the fortunes of oil companies are worsening.  The industry is beginning to sacrifice production out of concern that the oil price collapse will not rebound, but rather last through 2016 and 2017.   NY Times

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Climate Change.  The recent drought overrunning California may not be cyclical, but rather the start of permanent, more arid conditions caused by global warming.  The state is balancing severe cutbacks in water for farms, homeowners, and businesses amid robust demand for new housing and a general economic resurgence.  NY Times

Energy Policy  The costs of OPEC’s plan to protect its share of the world’s oil market by out-producing rivals are steeply increasing. Grant Smith of Bloomberg notes that as oil prices slump to six-year lows, the organization’s most vulnerable nations could expect increased political turmoil, budget deficits, and other near-term crises.  Bloomberg

Oil. According to data released today by the Energy Information Administration, U.S. crude stockpiles unexpectedly increased by 2.6 million barrels to 456.2 million barrels — inventories not seen at this time of year in at least 80 years.   Analysts at the Wall Street Journal had originally predicted a decline of 1.1 million barrels on the week.   WSJ

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EPA.  The Environmental Protection Agency has proposed new rules aimed at curbing methane emissions associated with oil and natural gas drilling.  The rules, which are part of a broader, more ambitious White House initiative to cut methane emissions, would require new oil and gas wells to install technologies that prevent and monitor methane emissions leaks.  WSJ

Energy Policy. The Obama administration gave Royal Dutch Shell final clearance yesterday to resume its drilling operations in the Arctic Ocean, which is estimated to hold as much as 20% of the world’s undiscovered oil and gas.  Environmental groups have vowed to fight the administration’s approval in order to protect the fragile Arctic environment from further mishaps related to deep-water drilling.  Reuters

Oil.  While oil prices have fallen to their lowest level in years, gasoline costs have been much slower to decline amid summer demand peaks, costly summer gasoline blends, and regional refinery troubles.  Industry analysts predict that gasoline prices will begin to fall toward $2 per gallon as the summer driving season comes to an end.  WP

Climate Change.  According to a study sponsored by the Environmental Defense Fund, natural gas facilities lose about 100 billion cubic feet of natural gas a year and may contribute the largest fraction of emissions coming from natural gas.  If counted in the EPA inventory, these newly discovered leaks would increase the agency’s system-wide emissions estimates associated with natural gas by about 25 percent.  NY Times