States are battling to entice Tesla Motors to construct a $5 billion lithium-ion battery plant within their borders that could bring as many as 6,500 jobs. This Greentech Media article highlights recent news coming from each potential location – Texas, Nevada, New Mexico and Arizona – and suggests reasons why the factory should be built in Texas. [Greentech Media]

The leadership in Kurdistan announced they will begin feeding 100,000 b/d of oil into the Iraqi national export regime, controlled by Baghdad’s State Oil Marketing Organization (SOMO). The move appears to be a way of keeping negotiations with Baghdad open at least until the national elections later this year, after which Maliki (if he wins) will need Kurdish support in setting up a new government and Erbil can negotiate from a position of greater strength. Here is an interesting point: “The Kurds can also claim a sort of victory: if one thinks back to just a few years ago, even the contracts they signed with IOCs were contested by Baghdad. Today if Baghdad continues to accept the oil they produce, it implicitly accepts the legitimacy of those contracts. The issue today is about control of exports and bank accounts rather than the contracts, which is a major change really.” [Rudaw]

Replenishing US natural gas storage inventories this summer will require over 3 trillion cubic feet of gas to be injected, a feat that’s never been done before. Above average temperatures could increase cooling demand and further challenge this already aggressive storage build requirement. The situation has driven up speculative investment in contracts designed to pay if natural gas prices increase. [Bloomberg]