Energy news in brief

** Xcel Energy is selling a 760 MW natural gas plant in southern Minnesota for $30 million more than it paid for the plant three months ago.

** A company that runs gas generators at oil drilling sites in North Dakota installs high-speed cloud computing units for use by researchers in other states as they work on coronavirus vaccines.

** Lower export volumes contributed to large sales and revenue declines in 2019 for Missouri-based Foresight Coal.

** With fuel demand plummeting due to stay-home orders, the operating environment for ethanol is “fast becoming catastrophic.”

** Colorado regulators say they will continue enforcing laws aiming to prevent greenhouse and toxic gas emissions and water pollution during the coronavirus crisis.

** New data shows that Wyoming’s coal production continued to fall in the first three months of 2020, 10.8 million tons less than this time last year.

** Environmentalists and oil industry experts disagree about the impact of the coronavirus crisis on flaring in the Permian Basin. 

** Wyoming’s legislature is looking at options for a virtual special session, concerned about the state’s revenue streams, notably decreased oil and gas prices and production.

** Utility energy efficiency programs in Washington and Colorado are suspended because of the coronavirus pandemic.