Energy news in brief

** Noble Midstream Partners LP announced  that the Board of Directors of the General Partner has approved a 73% reduction of the quarterly distribution to $0.1875 per unit, which the Partnership plans to hold flat in the current environment. This change is effective immediately and is anticipated to preserve approximately $200 million of annualized cash to support the balance sheet.

** Private jet companies are seeing a spike in interest and bookings from wealthy Americans who are trying to get home.

** Unidentified gunmen shot to death a lawyer and activist who defended a rural tract against development near the Mexican city of Cuernavaca, Mexico’s National Human Rights Commission said Tuesday.

** As the coronavirus causes shutdowns across the U.S., a coalition of youth-led organizations that had planned massive marches for the 50th anniversary of Earth Day next month are now planning a three-day livestream event instead, organizers said Tuesday.

** Environmentalists are calling on BlackRock Inc. to keep climate change in mind now that the world’s largest asset manager has been tapped by the Federal Reserve to help protect the U.S. economy from the coronavirus crisis.

**  Colorado’s top oil regulators are delaying a public hearing about updating state oil and gas wellbore integrity standards until June because of the COVID-19 pandemic.

** Environmentalists and clean energy industry groups were largely left out of the massive coronavirus stimulus bill that passed the Senate yesterday, but they’re holding out hope Congress will heed their calls for help in future relief bills.

** Rep. Rashida Tlaib (D-Mich.) has drawn a serious primary challenger, making her one of the most prominent supporters of the Green New Deal to face an electoral threat from within her party.

** Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs a bill making it possible for electric vehicle manufacturers to sell directly to the public, but concerns are being raised about the law’s impact in the short term due to the coronavirus pandemic.

** FERC has accepted Tri-State Generation and Transmission into its jurisdiction and will regulate rates for member utilities in Colorado, New Mexico, Wyoming, and Nebraska.

** The company behind a proposed 46.8 megawatt wind farm in Hawaii cancels the project after four years of planning.

** A power plant at the University of North Dakota burns its last shipment of coal.

** Some Missouri landowners are upset that agents seeking to survey their land for the Grain Belt Express transmission project are doing so during the coronavirus pandemic.