Today: Geothermal power is ready to compete on cost and reliability; EU climate rules pushback; Rivian lays off more workers; Decarbonization Partners backs data center cooling equipment manufacturer XNRGY.

Welcome back: America has an effectively limitless supply of energy waiting to be tapped, right beneath the feet of hundreds of millions of its citizens, the WSJ's Christopher Mims writes.

The equipment required to get at it is almost 100% domestic or comes from nearby allies. And politicians on both sides of the aisle love it, unlike other low-carbon, renewable energy sources.

The only problem? For over a century, Mother Earth herself has thwarted every attempt to get at all but the most readily available sources of it.

Projects attempting to tap the heat deep inside the earth have, again and again, failed or fallen short. Cost overruns have stymied efforts. The biggest issue of all: Older types of geothermal plants worked only if they could tap in to existing, naturally occurring reservoirs of hot water.

But now, boosters of geothermal energy say that thanks to a combination of new technologies and generous tax incentives, it is finally ready to compete with all comers on cost and reliability. Geothermal energy is the only low-carbon, renewable energy source whose generous subsidies in Joe Biden’s big infrastructure bill of 2022 were preserved in President Trump’s “Big Beautiful Bill.”

• Fervo Energy is building a large geothermal project in Utah, backed by Bill Gates’s Breakthrough Energy Ventures. (WSJ)
• Geothermal energy is heating up, but the talent pool of experts—particularly geologists—with the right experience is shallow. (WSJ)
• Quaise Energy's new technology uses a gyrotron to vaporize rock, which could allow for deeper and faster drilling of geothermal wells. (WSJ)

TotalEnergies won’t appeal a French ruling that found online statements misrepresented its environmental bona fides, WSJ's Clara Hudson reports.

The Paris tribunal on Thursday told the energy company to take down statements from its corporate website that said it was aiming for carbon neutrality by 2050, and that it was a major player in the energy transition.

TotalEnergies said on Friday that it would remove the statements and replace them with a factual description of what the company has achieved to date to clear up any confusion among its customers.

The lawsuit was brought by nonprofit organizations including Greenpeace France, Friends of the Earth France and Notre Affaire à Tous. The court ordered the company to pay a penalty of €8,000 to each of the nonprofits.

The U.S. and Qatar sent a joint letter to the heads of European Union member states asking the bloc to repeal its corporate sustainability rules or scrap some of the provisions, the WSJ's Edith Hancock writes.

The letter from U.S. Department of Energy Secretary Chris Wright and Qatari Energy Minister Saad Sherida Al-Kaabi said the EU’s Corporate Sustainability Due Diligence Directive will have unintended consequences for liquefied natural gas exports and the availability of affordable energy for EU consumers.

However, companies seeking clarity on European Union climate regulations will have to wait after lawmakers rejected a compromise proposal by the European Commission to simplify rules for sustainability reporting and due diligence obligations, Dow Jones Risk Journal reports.

The vote on Wednesday sends what is known as the Omnibus package back to the negotiation stage in the European Parliament, raising uncertainty for businesses. Some lawmakers are calling for more cuts to the EU’s sustainability regulations while others want fewer changes. Members of Parliament will now vote on the amendments in Brussels on Nov. 13.

Rivian is carrying out another round of layoffs affecting around 4.5% of its workforce as the electric-truck maker tries to conserve cash ahead of an expected drop in sales of electric vehicles.

More than 600 people are slated to lose their jobs, people familiar with the matter said. At the end of last year, the company had just under 15,000 employees.

A month ago, the company did a smaller round of layoffs, affecting 1.5% of its workforce. It said the move was to reduce costs ahead of the launch of a more affordable sport-utility vehicle next year.

Rivian and other EV manufacturers are being hit hard by the pullback in policies that supported the adoption of electric vehicles. The end of a $7,500 federal tax credit for consumers buying EVs is expected to tank sales.

• Rivian will pay $250 million to settle a 2022 class-action lawsuit regarding its IPO documents. (WSJ)

Decarbonization Partners has backed XNRGY Climate Systems, a maker of cooling equipment used in data centers and other facilities, in a deal aimed at helping the company expand its U.S. manufacturing capacity.

XNRGY marks the latest in a series of deals by the clean energy-focused venture-capital and growth investor, which is backed by asset manager BlackRock and Singapore-owned investment firm Temasek, WSJ Pro's Luis Garcia reports.

XNRGY makes thermal management and liquid cooling systems for end markets that include data centers, healthcare providers, pharmaceutical labs, as well as makers of batteries and semiconductors.

Surging demand for data centers that can host artificial-intelligence systems is attracting investment firms not only to data-center developers, but also to manufacturers of the equipment required to run those data centers.

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• PG&E’s third-quarter net income rose sharply as rising demand for electricity offset lower average residential rates. (WSJ)
   
• Assessing the impact of a Walmart CEO’s ‘gutsy’ sustainability speech 20 years on. (Trellis)
   
• The CEO of Pilbara Minerals, one of the world’s biggest lithium miners, praised a critical minerals deal between the U.S. and Australia (WSJ)
   
•  The Trump administration announced a series of steps to open up Alaskan wilderness to energy and infrastructure development. (Reuters)
   
• Woodside Energy sold a 10% interest in Louisiana LNG and an 80% stake in Driftwood Pipeline to Williams Cos. for $378 million. (WSJ)
   
• Why Big Oil is asking the Environmental Protection Agency not to cut its polluter reporting program. (Bloomberg)
   
• Geoengineering startup Stardust Solutions has raised $60 million to build a solar reflecting system by the end of the decade. (Heatmap)

WSJ Pro Sustainable Business gives you an inside look at how companies are tackling sustainability. Send comments to bureau chief Perry Cleveland-Peck at perry.cleveland-peck@wsj.com and reporters Clara Hudson at clara.hudson@wsj.com and Yusuf Khan at yusuf.khan@wsj.com. Follow us on LinkedIn at perrycp, clara-hudson and yusuf_khan.