Raphael Stevens

The EPA will propose rules to plug methane gas leaks at hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in the U.S.
The agency’s measures will strengthen current regulations on new oil and gas wells and impose new requirements for existing wells that previously escaped methane regulations.
President Joe Biden will formally announce the proposals during the second day of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to senior Biden administration officials.

US President Joe Biden delivers a speech on stage during a meeting at the COP26 UN Climate Change Conference in Glasgow, Scotland, on November 1, 2021.
Brendan Smialowski | AFP | Getty Images

The Environmental Protection Agency on Tuesday will propose rules to plug methane gas leaks at hundreds of thousands of oil and gas wells in the U.S., marking its most aggressive action yet to curb climate-warming greenhouse gas emissions.
The agency’s measures will strengthen regulations on new oil and gas wells and impose new requirements for existing wells that previously escaped methane regulations. President Joe Biden will formally announce the proposals during the second day of the COP26 climate summit in Glasgow, Scotland, according to senior administration officials.

The methane initiatives will aid the president’s commitment to cut domestic emissions in half by 2030 and reach net-zero emissions by mid-century. The proposals will also push forward the U.S. and European Union’s Global Methane Pledge, a pact to cut methane emissions by 30% by the end of the decade.
More than 90 governments have now joined the pledge, including 15 of the world’s top 30 methane emitters — the U.S., EU, Indonesia, Pakistan, Argentina, Mexico, Nigeria, Iraq, Vietnam and Canada, according to the White House.

Methane is a key component of natural gas and accounts for 10% of U.S. greenhouse gas emissions. The oil and gas industry comprises nearly 30% of the country’s methane emissions.
Methane is 84 times more potent than carbon and doesn’t last as long in the atmosphere before it breaks down, making it a critical target for combatting climate change quickly while simultaneously minimizing other greenhouse gas emissions.
The EPA’s methane rules, which come in response to the president’s executive order in January, will cover roughly three-quarters of all U.S. methane emissions, according to estimates from White House officials.

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The Biden administration is launching a whole-of-government initiative to ratchet up methane reduction commitments from the oil and gas sector, officials said, which includes the release of the U.S. Methane Emissions Reduction Action Plan.
A landmark United Nations report earlier this year declared that drastically cutting methane is vital to avoid the worst impacts of climate change.
The world could cut methane emissions up to 45% this decade, according to the U.N.’s Global Methane Assessment, a move that would avoid nearly 0.3 degrees Celsius of warming by 2045 and help limit the rise in global temperatures to 1.5 degrees Celsius, a goal of the Paris climate accord.

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CNBC Travel

Some countries have managed the global pandemic better than others.
The same can be said for cities.

But understanding how cities are faring in the fight against Covid is more complicated that comparing infection rates and mask rules.
The London-based analytical agency Deep Knowledge Analytics (DKA) examined 114 variables across five categories of pandemic responses: economic resiliency, governance, healthcare, quarantines and vaccinations.
The results were published in September in a 116-page report entitled “Covid-19 City Safety Ranking Q2/2021.”
In total, DKA analyzed 8,200 data points — up from 1,250 in its first city report published in March — that touched on topics from quarantine lengths and economic support packages to civic resistance among residents.

The top 50 cities

DKA analyzed 72 cities and ranked the top 50, with scores.

Abu Dhabi: 73.16 — No. 1 in Vaccination Rate
Singapore: 71.69 — No. 1 in Economic Resilience
Seoul: 71.41 — No. 1 in Healthcare Management
Tel Aviv-Yafo: 67.28
Dubai: 67.02
Toronto: 65.40
Sydney: 65.24
Zurich: 65.23
Dublin: 64.75
Ottawa: 64.58 — No. 1 in Government Efficiency
London: 64.14
Amsterdam: 63.75
Berlin: 63.31
Tokyo: 63.09
Copenhagen: 62.93
Beijing: 62.81 — No. 1 in Quarantine Efficiency
New York: 62.50
Shanghai: 61.83
Auckland: 61.47
Brussels: 60.63
Helsinki: 60.26
Wellington: 60.02
Bern: 59.98
Hong Kong: 59.45
Los Angeles: 59.40
Stockholm: 58.92
Canberra: 58.66
Oslo: 58.62
Jerusalem: 58.34
Warsaw: 58.30
Riyadh: 57.47
Madrid: 57.34
Vienna: 56.45
Valletta: 56.37
Budapest: 56.20
Doha: 55.82
Moscow: 55.50
Paris: 54.09
Prague: 53.75
Rome: 53.61
Kuala Lumpur: 53.45
Zagreb: 53.01
Bratislava: 52.43
Hanoi: 51.68
Manila: 51.61
Athens: 51.58
Jakarta: 51.43
Ankara: 51.08
Bucharest: 50.93

Lisbon, Portugal came in at No. 50, with a score of 50.37 that was thwarted by a rocky vaccine rollout in the first half of 2021. Portugal now has one of the highest vaccination rates in the world, with nearly 86% of the country’s population having received two doses, according to the Johns Hopkins Coronavirus Resource Center.
Cities including Istanbul, Johannesburg, Bangkok, New Delhi, Cairo, Mexico City and Baghdad were analyzed, but did not make the top 50 list.
Obviously, many people living in municipalities that ranked high on DKA’s list will disagree with their city’s top standing. Reports of anger and confusion over Covid-19 safety measures and vaccine mandates have led to large-scale protests in Europe and the U.S. and a disavowal of so-called “Zero Covid” strategies in parts of Asia and Australia.
While government satisfaction rates increased in Seoul and Abu Dhabi, they plunged in 80% of the analyzed cities during the pandemic, according to the report.
The average score for all cities was 55.36 out of a possible 100 points, indicating “every city has some room to improve,” said DKA Director Alexei Cresniov.

What top cities did right

Cities that ranked high on the list tended to act early and swiftly, said Cresniov.
Countries with response plans in place due to recent health crises — such as Singapore, South Korea and the United Arab Emirates — were better prepared, according to the report. Italy, in contrast, had a pandemic plan but failed to implement it, Cresniov said.

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics

Cities that already had — or that quickly developed — technology related to contract tracing, telemedicine and vaccination distribution ranked high on the list.
Metropolitan areas in countries with authoritarian governments, or in places that implemented strict measures to combat the pandemic, also ranked high, though achieving a balance became necessary as the situation evolved, said Cresniov.
In “the later stages, the main thing is the balance … between lockdown and the resources of your population,” he said, adding that lockdowns started failing as economic and psychological harm increased.

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics

Finally, populations that trust their local governments have fared better in the fight against the coronavirus, said Cresniov.
That’s apparent in Abu Dhabi as well as in Asia generally, where, he said, “When the government said there was a pandemic and ‘please people stay home,’ people obeyed.”
Conversely, lack of trust hampered pandemic responses in Hong Kong, according to the report, as well as Russia and liberal democracies in the West, such as the United States, Canada and many European countries, he said.

Key findings

The report also found that:

Globally, the pandemic revealed poor coordination between national governments and municipal authorities.
No city had the healthcare capacity to support massive surges in illness caused by the pandemic.

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics

Only 10% of cities prepared “well-thought-out plans” of economic support for citizens and business. Tetiana Humeniuk, head of analytics at DKA, cited London, Berlin and Toronto as examples of cities that have these in place.

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics

Only 25% of cities adopted measures to effectively and quickly “flatten the curve,” while only 11% of cities thoroughly tested and contract-traced. Those measures, along with quarantines, “are the keys to fighting a pandemic,” according to the report, which acknowledged that contract-tracing apps are controversial, but “this method proved itself.”  

Arrows pointing outwards

Courtesy of Deep Knowledge Analytics

Only 17% of cities have a thorough post-Covid strategy, according to the study.        
Countries around the world responded more individually than collectively to the pandemic, according to the report. More

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Monday night that his electric vehicle company has yet to sign a contract with rental car company Hertz.
Tesla hit a $1 trillion market cap for the first time a week ago after Hertz announced it would grow its fleet of battery-electric vehicles with “an initial order of 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022.”

Elon Musk, Tesla CEO, stands in the foundry of the Tesla Gigafactory during a press event.
Patrick Pleul | picture alliance | Getty Images

Tesla CEO Elon Musk said on Monday night that his electric vehicle company has yet to sign a contract with rental car company Hertz. The tweet from Musk seemingly contradicted a prior announcement and advertisement released by Hertz on Oct. 25.
Famously, Tesla hit a $1 trillion market cap for the first time a week ago after Hertz announced it would grow its fleet of battery-electric vehicles with “an initial order of 100,000 Teslas by the end of 2022.”

A commercial featuring seven-time Super Bowl champion Tom Brady, alongside parked Tesla Model 3 electric sedans in a Hertz garage, accompanied the announcement.
CNBC reached out to Hertz and Tesla to ask for further information Monday night. Neither company replied before publication.
Interim Hertz CEO Mark Fields last week said the rental company started talking with Tesla “many months ago” about the purchase of the vehicles. He described it as a “great relationship” and part of Hertz’s move to lead rental companies in managing large fleets of EVs.

“This is about relationships. From that standpoint, the Tesla relationship is very important to us, but … we also have relationships with all of the automakers, and we want to help them as they introduce their electrified vehicles,” Fields said during an interview on CNBC’s “Squawk Box.”
Fields, formerly CEO of Ford, described the move as a “strategic discussion” to help automakers that started with Tesla and will continue with other companies. “We’ve done that with Tesla and our intent is to do that with all of the automakers,” he said.

Investors have traditionally frowned upon automakers when they sell large amounts of vehicles to daily rental fleets. That’s because cars and trucks sold to rental companies are usually sold at a discount, with such deals used to reduce bloating inventories and increase their total vehicle deliveries. 
However, shareholders and analysts responded favorably to the idea of Tesla selling 100,000 fully electric vehicles to Hertz. The move was seen as a sign that battery-electric cars were going more mainstream.
For example, Wedbush Securities’ Dan Ives wrote in a bullish note about Tesla on Oct. 26:
“The Hertz deal we believe will be viewed as a tipping point for the EV industry as this 100k Model 3’s/$4 billion+ deal for Tesla speaks to more mainstream adoption for EVs as today only 2% of autos in the US are EV driven compared to 10%+ in China with rapid growth on the horizon. We believe this is the biggest transformation to the auto industry since the 1950’s with more consumers heading down the EV path over the coming years.”
Since Tesla’s Oct. 22 close prior to the announcement, the stock has surged around 33%.
Last week, Musk said it was “strange” the news moved the company’s valuation by so much.
Musk, who owns around 20% of Tesla, has seen his net worth rise with the electric vehicle maker’s share price. He is now the world’s wealthiest person.
Other shareholders within and outside the company have benefitted, too including long-time bulls like Ron Baron, Tesla employees who have earned and vested options over time and Musk’s fellow board members.
Two days after announcing the initial order of 100,000 Teslas, Hertz said it would make up to half of the cars available to Uber drivers to rent by 2023. The company said “if successful,” the program could expand to 150,000 vehicles over the next three years.
Hertz “pointed out that these ambitions could be affected by factors outside of its control, such as semiconductor chip shortages or other constraints.”
During the burgeoning coronavirus pandemic, Hertz filed for bankruptcy protection — but as travel rebounded somewhat and demand for rental vehicles picked up, investors from Knighthead Capital Management and Certares Management said they would take over the company.

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CNBC’s Jim Cramer expressed wonderment Monday at the continued strength in Tesla.
“Tesla is actually a phenomenon we have to talk about because I’ve actually never seen a stock go up endlessly on nothing,” the “Mad Money” host said.
Shares of the electric auto maker gained about 50% in the past month and roughly 200% in the past 12 months.

CNBC’s Jim Cramer expressed wonderment Monday at the continued strength in Tesla’s stock — up about 50% in the past month and roughly 200% in the past 12 months.
“Tesla is actually a phenomenon we have to talk about,” Cramer said on “Squawk on the Street,” before the opening bell on Wall Street. “I’ve actually never seen a stock go up endlessly on nothing.”

Shares of Tesla were up about 2% in premarket trading at the time of Cramer’s remarks.
The stock picked up steam during regular trading, gaining roughly 5.5% around midday ET in New York — setting a new all-time intraday high above $1,177 per share for a market value of over $1.18 trillion.The stock picked up steam during regular trading, gaining roughly 5.35% around 2 p.m. ET in New York. Earlier, it also hit a new all-time intraday high above $1,193 per share for a market value of over $1.18 trillion.
Tesla has soared in recent weeks after beginning the month of October trading below $800 per share. Based on Friday’s finish, the stock was up 28.67% since its close of $865.80 on Oct. 20, when the electric vehicle maker reported record quarterly revenue and profit after the closing bell that day.
Another catalyst for Tesla came a week ago, when Hertz announced that it’s ordering 100,000 vehicles from Tesla to build out its electric vehicle rental fleet by the end of next year. On that day, Oct. 25, Tesla shares spiked 12.66% alone, putting the company’s market capitalization above $1 trillion for the first time.
Morgan Stanley auto analyst Adam Jonas also issued a positive note for Tesla on Oct. 25, likely helping sentiment.

Tesla is by far the most valuable automaker in the world.

Read more about electric vehicles from CNBC Pro

However, the company’s stock has for years been a major battleground on Wall Street as one of the most shorted, or bet-against, names.
Many bearish investors believe Tesla is detached from fundamentals and way overvalued, while bulls believe the EV pioneer can continue to dominate the category, which is expected to grow in overall size in the years ahead.
Cramer turned positive on Tesla roughly two years ago and has largely maintained that constructive view on the Elon Musk-led company. Cramer also is bullish on Ford as the legacy carmaker invests heavily in its electric vehicle transition. “Ford is making a major move,” Cramer said Monday. “Ford had an amazing quarter. They instituted a dividend.”
Last Thursday, the “Mad Money” host said that Ford CEO Jim Farley is “ready to bury Musk.”
Jim Cramer’s Charitable Trust owns shares of Ford. Sign up here for the new CNBC Investing Club newsletter to follow Cramer’s every move in the market, delivered directly in your inbox.

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The Biden administration will publish in the coming days a rule requiring businesses to ensure their employees are vaccinated against Covid-19, the Department of Labor said on Monday.
The mandate applies to businesses with 100 or more employees. It’s estimated to cover about two-thirds of the private sector workforce.
The development comes immediately after the White House issued separate vaccine-enforcement guidelines for federal contractors that apply to millions of workers.

The Biden administration will publish in the coming days a rule requiring private businesses to ensure their employees are vaccinated against Covid-19, the Department of Labor said Monday.
The rule applies to businesses with 100 or more employees. It’s estimated to cover about two-thirds of the private sector workforce.

The development comes immediately after the White House issued separate vaccine-enforcement guidelines for federal contractors that apply to millions of workers.
Companies must develop and enforce a mandatory Covid vaccination policy unless they create a plan that gives workers the option to get tested regularly and requires them to wear a mask at work, according to a Labor Department spokesperson.
The mandate will also require employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects.
White House officials at the Office of Management of Budget have held dozens of meetings with industry lobbyists and labor unions over the past several weeks as they reviewed the rule. The OMB completed its review on Monday and the mandate is expected to go into effect after it is published in the Federal Register.
“The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days,” a Labor Department spokesperson said Monday.

The Occupational Safety and Health Administration, which will enforce the mandate, is developing the rule under emergency authority that allows the agency to bypass the normally lengthy process to issue new workplace safety standards. OSHA can use this emergency authority if the Labor secretary determines workers face a grave danger from a new hazard.
Nearly every Republican attorney general in the country has threatened to sue the Biden administration over the mandate.

CNBC Health & Science

Business groups have asked the administration to delay the mandate until after the busy holiday season over concerns that workers could quit rather than follow the new rules, possibly exacerbating already tight staffing and causing supply chain disruptions. Former officials with OSHA told CNBC businesses will likely have some time to implement the rules.
The AFL-CIO, which represents the largest group of labor unions in the country, has asked the White House to include additional worker protections in the mandate, such as ensuring masks are worn in the workplace, ventilation systems are properly maintained and social distancing guidelines are followed where appropriate.
Here is the Labor Department spokesman’s full statement:
“The Occupational Safety and Health Administration has been working expeditiously to develop an emergency temporary standard that covers employers with 100 or more employees, firm- or company-wide, and provides options for compliance. Covered employers must develop, implement, and enforce a mandatory COVID-19 vaccination policy, unless they adopt a policy requiring employees to choose either to get vaccinated or to undergo regular COVID-19 testing and wear a face covering at work. The ETS also requires employers to provide paid time to workers to get vaccinated and paid sick leave to recover from any side effects. On November 1, the Office of Management and Budget completed its regulatory review of the emergency temporary standard. The Federal Register will publish the emergency temporary standard in the coming days.”

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The Supreme Court grappled with questions about the “unprecedented” structure of a Texas law that empowers private citizens to enforce a ban on most abortions after as early as six weeks of pregnancy.
During oral arguments in two cases, some of the justices who had previously rejected a bid to block the Texas law signaled they were concerned about the way it was written.
The arguments were not about whether the Texas law violated Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the longstanding court rulings that bar states from banning abortion before fetal viability.

The Supreme Court on Monday grappled with questions about the “unprecedented” structure of a Texas law that empowers private citizens to enforce a ban on most abortions after as early as six weeks of pregnancy.
In oral arguments for lawsuits brought by the Biden administration and abortion providers that had been fast-tracked to the high court, some of the justices who had previously rejected a bid to block the Texas law signaled they were concerned about the way it was written.

“There’s a loophole that’s been exploited here,” Justice Brett Kavanaugh noted, echoing liberal Justice Elena Kagan. He questioned whether the high court should broaden court precedent regarding federal cases against state officials “to, in essence, close that loophole.”

An abortion rights activist gave her name as Ofjohn as she stands in front of anti-abortion rights activists as justices hear arguments over a challenge to a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks in front of the U.S. Supreme Court in Washington, U.S., November 1, 2021.
Leah Millis | Reuters

Justice Amy Coney Barrett asked if the constitutional questions posed by the law can ever be “fully aired” due its structure and legislative text.
The arguments Monday were not about whether the Texas law violated Roe v. Wade and Planned Parenthood v. Casey, the longstanding court rulings that bar states from banning abortion before fetal viability. Rather, the justices considered the issue whether the abortion providers and advocates in Texas and the Department of Justice have the ability to challenge the law in court.
The petitioners both accused the Texas law, S.B. 8, of being designed to thwart attempts to challenge its legality by delegating enforcement away from state officials and into the hands of private citizens, who are empowered to sue, for at least $10,000, anyone who “aids or abets” an abortion.
“To allow Texas’ scheme to stand would provide a roadmap for other states to abrogate any decision of this court with which they disagree,” said Center for Reproductive Rights attorney Marc Hearron, who argued that the lawsuits challenging the abortion ban should be allowed to go forward.

Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton speaks to a crowd of anti-abortion supporters outside the U.S. Supreme Court following arguments over a challenge to a Texas law that bans abortion after six weeks in Washington, U.S., November 1, 2021.
Evelyn Hockstein | Reuters

S.B. 8 was signed by Republican Gov. Greg Abbott in May, and it went into effect in September. It bans nearly all abortions in Texas by outlawing the procedure after the detection of a fetal heartbeat, a point at which most women are still not aware that they are pregnant. The law contains an exemption for medical emergencies but none for pregnancies resulting from rape or incest.
The law’s defenders argued that since the abortion law is not enforced by the state, they are not the ones who should defend it in court.
“The state has passed a law that gives them the option to sue and then it has washed its hands of the matter,” argued Jonathan Mitchell, who is described as the architect of the Texas law.

During the arguments of Texas Solicitor General Judd Stone, Kagan appeared openly hostile to the law, saying the entire purpose of S.B. 8 was “to find the chink in the armor” of court precedent regarding judicial review.
“The fact that, after oh these many years, some geniuses came up with a way to evade [that precedent, and] the even broader principle that states are not to nullify federal constitutional rights, and to say ‘Oh, we’ve never seen this before so we can’t do anything about it’ … I guess I just don’t understand the argument,” Kagan said.
It is unclear when the court will issue its decision. The justices agreed to hear both the DOJ’s and the abortion providers’ lawsuits on an expedited basis, while leaving S.B. 8 in effect in Texas. But the novel questions posed by the law may not yield an expedited ruling.
The justices on Dec. 1 are set to hear arguments in another case, Dobbs v. Jackson Women’s Health Organization, taking direct aim at Roe and Casey, the rulings that have upheld abortion rights for decades.
This is developing news. Please check back for updates.

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