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ExxonMobil will be bringing 40 to 60 new permanent jobs to the area.

The multi-year, $5 million software project should help operators better manage, treat and beneficially reuse produced water

Tabbs Bay is east of Houston near Baytown and La Porte. 

State regulators came under intense scrutiny in 2021 when it was discovered that one-third of its leadership lived out of state.

More than half of the U.S. population lives within 50 miles of a coast, so offshore wind sites are close to electricity demand centers.

We are able to track who actually builds and owns a large portion of the nation’s renewable energy.

Colorless and odorless, methane is a potent greenhouse gas that traps 83 times more heat in the atmosphere over a 20-year period than an equivalent amount of carbon dioxide.

Two proposed wind farms off the Texas and Louisiana coasts would join offshore oil drilling rigs in the gulf as the Biden administration tries to boost the country’s clean energy supply.

A Morgan Stanley report updated Monday states that retail energy generation company Vistra could see huge windfalls from ERCOT's new 'reliability-based' business model.  

Researchers are increasingly linking oilfield activity and seismic activity, with a new report from the University of Texas at Austin connecting the two in the Delaware Basin.

The cost of electricity in Texas is tightly tied to the price of natural gas.

Lydia Larce has what she calls “storm PTSD.”

Pennsylvania is taking an important step toward reducing methane pollution from oil and gas operations. 

Governor Josh Shapiro and the Pennsylvania Department of Environmental Protection (DEP) announced today that new methane standards are on the way for Pennsylvania’s oil and gas industry, which will help protect public health, reduce climate pollution, and improve air quality for the more than 1.5 million Pennsylvanians who live near oil and gas infrastructure.  

Once finalized, these highly anticipated methane standards will implement the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s 2024 methane rule while allowing Pennsylvania to tailor federal standards to serve Pennsylvania’s needs as the country’s second-largest producer of gas.  

Why does methane matter? 

Methane is a powerful greenhouse gas that also affects the air we breathe. Oil and gas operations that leak methane often release other harmful pollutants at the same time, including volatile organic compounds (VOCs). These pollutants contribute to smog and have been linked to asthma, respiratory disease, cancer, and other serious health impacts. 

Reducing methane pollution is one of the fastest and most cost-effective ways to slow climate change while improving air quality, especially for people living closest to oil and gas operations. 

What is changing? 

The new standards are expected to strengthen methane leak detection and repair standards and expand protections to more well sites across the Commonwealth, regardless of size. This will help Pennsylvania dramatically lower air pollution and prevent the wasteful leakage of gas into our atmosphere. 

What comes next? 

DEP will begin developing the proposed standards through Pennsylvania’s regulatory process. There will be opportunities for the public to review the proposal and submit comments. Clean Air Council will continue advocating for strong methane protections that reduce pollution, improve public health, and hold oil and gas companies accountable for preventable methane emissions.  

Alice Lu, Policy Analyst at Clean Air Council, issued the following statement: 

“For decades, Pennsylvanians have fought for safeguards from the oil and gas industry’s methane pollution. Today, Governor Shapiro and DEP are answering that call by taking a much-needed, commonsense action to protect our frontline communities. Reducing methane emissions is one of the most effective ways to tackle climate change and improve air quality.” 

Want to stay informed? As DEP develops these standards, there will be opportunities for Pennsylvanians to weigh in. Sign up for Clean Air Council’s Action Alerts to learn how you can help shape stronger methane protections across the Commonwealth. 
 

By Lien De Brouckere, Global Batteries Lead, GAIA

.stk-6ff2893 {height:5px !important;}

The typical story about second-life EV batteries goes like this: EV batteries degrade, and instead of being sent for recycling, innovative companies give the viable ones a next-best life as stationary energy storage for another 10+ years — storing solar energy, shaving peak demand, keeping the lights on during outages. It’s something that we at GAIA strongly advocate for, and that’s why I visited Moment Energy’s new Megafactory 1 outside Vancouver late last month. 

I went to understand the state of the sector, what’s working, and where policy is falling short. What I didn’t expect was to walk away with an even more compelling story: repurposing surplus new EV batteries, outcompeting recycling companies for feedstock, and the need for more education about the key role stationary batteries play – whether new or repurposed – in reducing reliance on fossil fuels.   

Moment Energy is one of a small number of companies worldwide repurposing retired EV batteries at commercial scale. Their new facility in Surrey, BC is the world’s largest second-life battery operation, manufacturing 1 GWh of battery capacity by 2030.  Sumreen Rattan, one of Moment Energy’s co-founders and Chief Operating Officer, graciously hosted me at their facility that had just been inaugurated the week prior; staff and equipment were still at their other facility. 

Lien and Sumreen in front of the Moment Energy Full Luna 1 MWh battery energy storage system (BESS) — Photo by Matt Tonello. .stk-776650c {height:25px !important;} The Overproduction Problem

Here’s what caught my attention: today, Moment Energy’s primary feedstock isn’t retired EV batteries, because there are just not enough of those yet. It’s surplus battery production — cells and packs manufactured for EVs that were never installed in a vehicle, a direct consequence of the past few years’ massive overproduction. The large wave of genuinely end-of-life EV batteries is still ahead of us, with 953 GWh of capacity expected globally by 2030. Right now, the repurposing sector is partly running on the overflow from a manufacturing boom that outpaced demand.

Inauguration ceremony demonstration set-up of used EV batteries at Megafactory 1. — Photo by Matt Tonello.

This matters for how we frame the problem. Battery waste isn’t only about what happens at the batteries’ end-of-life — it starts upstream, with how many batteries are produced in the first place. GAIA has been drawing attention to the massive scale of battery overproduction – 2 to 5 times global demand – in our work on mineral demand reduction, and it was striking to see it show up so concretely on the factory floor.

.stk-dab987f {height:25px !important;} Outcompeting Recyclers — On Price

The other dynamic I learned about is how Moment Energy acquires batteries to repurpose. They work directly with OEM automakers, typically collecting retired batteries frequently at an average of 80% state of health. A battery leaving a car at that level of health isn’t worn out; it’s just no longer suited to the high-performance demands of an EV drivetrain. For stationary storage — where a battery sits in a stationary unit cycling energy, rather than accelerating a vehicle — it has potentially decades of useful life ahead.

Moment Energy covers all collection and transport costs, built into their business model. In some cases, they receive batteries at no charge, with logistics as the only cost. This means Moment Energy is competing with recyclers at the point of acquisition — and winning on economics. Recyclers typically charge OEMs for collection. Moment Energy doesn’t. For an automaker deciding where a battery goes, that’s a meaningful difference, and it’s one that policy should reinforce rather than leave to chance.

.stk-6a93e83 {height:25px !important;} What the Megafactory Does Differently

The facility is designed to operate under UL 1974 certification — the safety standard for evaluating and grading repurposed or remanufactured electric vehicle (EV) batteries — and backs its systems with a 10-year warranty. These aren’t incidental details. They’re the difference between a product that can be deployed in grid-connected places such as hospitals, airports, and commercial buildings and one that can’t. 

.stk-b43bf93 {height:25px !important;} Promotional video by Moment Energy — June 23, 2026. .stk-81e3b5c {height:25px !important;}

What is more, the Surrey facility is fully vertically integrated: batteries arrive, are tested at the cell level, assessed for second-life viability, repacked with Moment Energy’s own battery management system, assembled into commercial units, and shipped — all in-house.

One genuinely new capability is a cold environment chamber that accelerates battery degradation down to 60% state of health. This might sound like an obscure technical detail, but it matters: almost all existing industry modeling of battery performance stops at 80% SoH, the point at which a battery leaves an EV. Repurposers have largely been operating without good data on what happens after that. Moment Energy is building the testing infrastructure to understand the full second-life performance curve. No one else is doing this at commercial scale.

.stk-56e7529 {height:25px !important;} The Real Education Gap

One exchange from the visit has stayed with me. I asked whether the public and the market still needed convincing about second-life batteries — whether customer skepticism was a significant barrier. Sumreen Rattan pushed back on the framing.

“The education we need to do isn’t really about second-life batteries,” she said. “It’s about batteries in general — helping customers understand how storage saves them money through peak shaving and demand charge reduction. Once they get that, the second-life question takes care of itself.”

The examples that brought this to life were instructive. Moment Energy’s systems have been deployed alongside diesel generators in remote locations — including an island resort where their battery reduced diesel runtime by 75%. 

I was accompanied on the visit by Matthew Tonello, Project Executive at Consigli Construction Co., Inc., who is exploring whether and how Moment Energy’s systems could replace diesel generators in a university and a playhouse project currently in the design phases. This was a concrete illustration of what Moment Energy is selling to commercial and industrial customers facing cost penalties when demand spikes. I learned that the goal isn’t simply to swap one power source for another. What Moment Energy is really selling, increasingly, is participation in a broader energy management logic: a system that can anticipate when a building or facility is about to hit a demand peak, automatically shift to drawing power from the battery, and dial back grid or generator draw before costs spike. This kind of automated load management builds a strong financial case for batteries within a smarter overall energy infrastructure system. 

This education gap is a useful corrective. The conversation in civil society and policy circles often centers on convincing people that repurposed batteries are safe and reliable. But for many potential customers, the threshold issues — why would I want any battery storage at all and how do I use it? — are important first questions to address.

.stk-e0d5900 {height:25px !important;} Sumreen shows samples of battery modules for testing. — Photo by Matt Tonello. .stk-65ac1d1 {height:25px !important;} Where Policy Is Falling Short

Moment Energy has an active policy team in the US and Canada, although this doesn’t yet extend to Extended Producer Responsibility (EPR). That’s not unusual for a company at their stage, and it makes it all the more important that civil society organizations are present in the rooms where these frameworks are being designed.

Sumreen shared three important policy gaps to address.

There is no waste management hierarchy. In most jurisdictions, nothing requires that a battery be evaluated for second-life viability before it goes to a recycler. Recyclers compete for the same feedstock and have well-established collection infrastructure that gives them a structural advantage. Codifying a highest-and-best-use principle — second-life before recycling — would change the incentive structure in ways that market economics alone won’t deliver.

Data doesn’t travel with the battery. Assessing whether a battery is viable for repurposing requires its history: state of health, charge cycles, active faults, internal monitoring data. That information typically lives with the automaker and isn’t transferred when the battery changes hands. Without it, repurposers are partly testing blind. Battery passport frameworks need to address this directly, and civil society should be pushing for provisions that make this data accessible to the repurposing sector.

Tax incentives are doing heavy lifting — inconsistently. In the US market, Investment Tax Credit eligibility has been decisive for Moment Energy’s competitiveness against cheaper imported alternatives. But ITC rules weren’t designed with second-life batteries in mind, and eligibility isn’t always certain. Explicit policy design here — rather than leaving repurposers to navigate rules built for new battery manufacturing — would do more to level the playing field.

.stk-385dabd {height:25px !important;} What Comes Next

The repurposing sector is further along than many people realize — commercially viable, technically credible, and already out-competing recyclers on price for batteries that have years of useful life remaining. The feedstock wave is coming. The infrastructure is being built. What’s lagging is the policy environment.

For those of us working on battery waste, the task is ensuring that the frameworks being developed now — on extended producer responsibility, battery passports, safety certification — treat second-life as a genuine priority not only for retired EV batteries, but to leverage surplus batteries. 

The post A Visit to the World’s Largest Second-Life EV Battery Megafactory first appeared on GAIA.

Registered nurses at Adventist Health St. Helena in St. Helena, Calif. voted overwhelmingly this week to join California Nurses Association (CNA), an affiliate of National Nurses United, the nation’s largest and fastest-growing registered nurse (RN) union. In an overwhelming landslide vote, 250 nurses elected to join CNA.

Rachelle Vance was determined to see another flamingo. Two months after Hurricane Idalia swept a pink wave of the gangly birds through Florida and beyond in August 2023, the photographer from Crystal...

Star Energy has given up environmental consent to produce hydrogen at the Albury gas site in Surrey.

Albury Park well site. Photo: Surrey County Council

The company failed to get planning permission in 2023 for a scheme to manufacture grey hydrogen from methane at the site near Guildford. Surrey councillors unanimously rejected the proposal.

The Environment Agency has now accepted the partial surrender of the site’s environmental permit for hydrogen production using the steam methane reformation process with gas from the Albury-1 well.

The site permit had been varied in 2022 to add a hydrogen production process and a new medium combustion plant.

The surrender notice, published today, revealed that Star Energy had applied in April 2026 to surrender the hydrogen variation.

It also confirmed there had been no hydrogen production at Albury and no plant associated with the process had been constructed on site.

The EA said:

“We have determined this is an application to remove authorisation to carry on an activity which has not been put into operation.”

The remaining permit continues to allow operations at Albury including:

• flaring of gas
• use of an electricity generator fuelled by methane
• receipt, storage and handling of raw materials used in the production process
• management of extractive waste

The formal boundary of the site remains unchanged.

According to official data, Albury continues to produce small amounts of gas. In 2025, the site produced 1,648 ksm3 (thousand standard cubic meters), at an average of 137 ksm3 a month.

“The Hub” is a weekly round-up of transportation related news in the Philadelphia area and beyond. Check back weekly to keep up-to-date on the issues Clean Air Council’s transportation staff finds important.

As exciting events continue in Philadelphia, learn how you can get around to major summer 2026 events without a car, or being stuck in traffic with GoPhillyGo: Car-Free Routes Map!

Image Source: WHYY

WHYY: Leave something on the train, bus or trolley? Here’s how to find it on SEPTA – Riders can look for lost items from SEPTA in the lost and found, but there’s more than one depending on where you left your item. For regional rail riders, the lost and found is in Suburban Station in Center City. Broad Street Line holds items at Fern Rock Transit Center and SEPTA headquarters on Market. Market-Frankford riders need to check the 69th Street Transit Center, and the depot holds unclaimed items from buses and trolleys.

Image Source: whyy

WHYY: Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority takes a baby step toward resurrecting passenger rail between Philadelphia and Reading – Amtrak and the Schuylkill River Passenger Rail Authority (SRPRA) signed a formal commitment to attempt to bring back passenger rail service between Philadelphia, Phoenixville, Pottstown, and Reading. It’s been over 40 years since passenger rail trains stopped in Phoenixville. The agreement means SRPRA intends for Amtrak to operate the lines, and Amtrak is willing to see the project through to the next phase.

Image Source: Zummo Bikes

Philadelphia Today: Young Mechanics Take the Lead in FOX 29’s Look Inside Zummo Bike – A non-profit in Chester County, Zummo Bikes is collecting, repairing, selling, and donating refurbished bicycles. Zumme Bikes is also a workforce development program, training students to fix bicycles and other components, see inside a small business, and develop customer service skills. Visit Zummo Bike’s website here.

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BillyPenn: The Wissahickon’s 100 Steps connect a natural oasis to the city

WHYY: Philly-area police launch aggressive-driver campaign to reduce highway fatalities

Axios Philadelphia: SEPTA’s AI-powered cameras generated $14.5M in fines in the first year

Mass Transit Mag: Amtrak selects STV for static frequency converter replacement in Philadelphia

Farms.org: Why Rural Roads Account for 40% of U.S. Traffic Fatalities

There appears to be broad support for strengthening the independence of the grid operator’s board, possibly by moving to an advisory stakeholder process, and giving states more influence. Some also called for codifying the public interest in PJM’s mission.

Oral arguments were held July 21st before U.S. District Judge Nancy J. Rosenstengel in the case Friends of Bell Smith Springs v. U.S. Forest Service (Case No. 3:25-cv-01377-NJR), a lawsuit challenging an ongoing logging project in the Shawnee National Forest.