The cash deal accelerates the energy company’s move back into convenience retail. Bp has agreed to acquire TravelCenters of America Inc., the nationwide operator and franchisor of the TA, Petro Stopping Centers and TA Express travel center brands, for roughly 1.3 billion, the companies announced today. Bp will acquire all of the outstanding shares of TA common stock for $86 per share in cash. The sale price represents an 84% premium to the average trading price of the 30 days ended February 15, 2023, of $46.68. The total equity value is about $1.3 billion.TravelCenters owns a network of about 281 highway sites across 44 states. “Today’s announcement … is a result of the successful implementation of our turnaround and strategic plans. We have improved our core travel center business, expanded our network, launched eTA to prepare for the future of alternative fuels and improved our operating and financial results, none…

Eleven leading Australian and international tobacco addiction scientists argue that the 2022 statement on e-cigarettes issued by Australia’s peak health and medical body, the National Health and Medical Research Council (NHMRC), fails to meet the high scientific standard expected of a leading national scientific body. The NHMRC statement published in 2022 aims to provide “public health advice on the safety and impacts of electronic cigarettes (e-cigarettes) based on review of the current evidence.” (1) The critique of the NHMRC statement, published today in the scientific journal Addiction, argues that the statement does not accurately summarise the available evidence on e-cigarettes. (2) The review identified serious scientific flaws and misinformation and evidence of bias. The statement relies heavily upon a flawed analysis by the National Centre for Epidemiology and Public Health at the Australian National University (previously critiqued here) and ignores other important international evidence. The authors of the critique cite…

Climate change is one of society’s greatest challenges. It is also one of the greatest risks to the future of our business. Solving it requires all of us to act with urgency. Climate change may affect water availability and accelerate biodiversity loss, while the livelihoods of many communities could also suffer. Solutions to the climate crisis must factor in human rights and benefit everyone by creating a more equitable, low-carbon economy. Only 5% of our total greenhouse gases (GHGs) come from our own operations. In contrast, 95% come from our supply chain, from activities like farming or shipping. That’s why we’re transforming our manufacturing and packaging activities and working throughout our supply chain to help achieve absolute reductions. As a result of scaling up GHG reduction projects in our operations and supply chain, we have put peak carbon emissions behind us, reducing absolute GHG emissions by 4 million tonnes from the peak as our company continued to grow.…

Construction on an Australian-first public hydrogen refuelling station is set to begin this year. Construction on an Australian-first public hydrogen refuelling station is set to begin this year.  Viva Energy revealed plans for the $43m “new energies” service station in 2021.  Hydrogen has been increasingly endorsed as a possible solution to Australia’s looming gas shortage. The project is aimed to encourage plans to decarbonise transport, including road freight, commuter buses and other commercial heavy transport.  Development applications filed earlier this year revealed the Refinery Rd site would include a service station with hydrogen at the pump, electric vehicle charging as well as the option for conventional diesel refuelling.  The station will operate as an unmanned, 24-hour facility open seven days a week.  Development and investment in clean hydrogen as an energy solution has skyrocketed across Australia.  A federal government report released in 2021 revealed commercial and public investment in hydrogen…

Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen and Minister for Public Works and ProcurementThe Honourable Mick de Brenni Following a successful pilot project in Brisbane, Ampol has struck a landmark deal with publicly owned Yurika to install 34 fast-chargers across the nation in a new sign of public confidence in the take up of electric vehicles. Building on the Palaszczuk Government’s Queensland Energy and Jobs Plan, this agreement will support the deployment of AmpCharge EV charging stations across Queensland, New South Wales, Victoria and Western Australia. Queensland’s Minister for Energy, Renewables and Hydrogen Mick de Brenni said this initiative was another example of Government, consumers, small business and industry working together to take real action on delivering cleaner, cheaper, and more secure energy to Queenslanders. “Innovations in electric vehicle performance and lifecycle costs have meant more Queenslanders are choosing to make the switch, with over 16,000 electric vehicles now on our…

Victoria is being urged to follow other states and adopt a licensing scheme for vape and tobacco sales to give police stronger powers to crack down on black market in the industry. The Andrews government is currently sitting on an independent review of illegal tobacco sales, from the Commission of Better Regulation, and the Herald Sun understands the documents back requiring businesses to obtain a licence to sell tobacco products. It comes after the Herald Sun last week revealed a litany of illegal vaping incidents at schools so serious they were reported to the education department, including many cases where police and ambulances were forced to attend. Australian Association of Convenience Stores chief executive Theo Foukkare said the growing black market showed action was needed. He called on the government to act on its report and implement a licensing scheme that extended to both cigarettes and vapes, allowed police to…