** The Society of Exploration Geophysicists (SEG) has sold the Geophysical Resource Center (GRC) in south Tulsa for $27 million, land records show. The center is 78,992 square feet in size and was valued at $20 million when it was formally opened in 2015. It was intended to boost the Society’s revenue stream and offer more office space to Tulsa businesses.
** The city of Las Cruces, New Mexico is getting closer to adding battery-electric buses to its transit fleet. The city council voted this week to award a $325,000 contract to a company to advise the city on the project.
** Two non-profit environmental groups, the Center for Western Priorities and the Wilderness Society contend the cost of federal leases is too low and should be raised to get more revenue from the oil and gas industry.
** A federal judge in California is demanding answers from Pacific Gas and Electric company whether the transmission line malfunction the utility reported last month around the time of the Kincade Fire caused the fire.
** The U.S. Energy Department was sued Monday by 14 states and six advocacy nonprofits for reversing the Obama-era rules on lightbulb efficiency standards. The states and groups contend the DOE created less stringent efficiency rules in violation of anti-backsliding provisions of the Energy Policy and Conservation Act.
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