Energy news in brief

** The Trump administration on Tuesday ordered Chevron Corp. to “wind down” operations in Venezuela by Dec. 1, barring the California-based oil giant in the meantime from drilling or exporting, as the U.S. increases pressure on President Nicolás Maduro to give up power.

**  Nearly 30% of U.S. biofuel plants have idled, including four in Minnesota, as gasoline demand nosedives during the pandemic. 

** The Iowa Utilities Board will hold a public meeting on May 5 for an underground transmission line planned to move renewable energy from Iowa to the Chicago area.

**  A recent court ruling that halted Keystone XL pipeline construction could affect other U.S. oil and gas pipeline projects, energy analysts say.

** Six Native American tribes have sued the Trump administration to stop billions of dollars in coronavirus emergency funds from going to for-profit entities, including fossil fuel developers in Alaska.

** An Alaskan natural resources expert says North Slope oilfields are unlikely to shut down despite plummeting prices.

** A Pacificorp project intending to add around 420 miles of new transmission lines across Wyoming, Colorado and Utah is still on course to break ground next year despite the coronavirus pandemic.

** The Trump administration makes another attempt to invalidate California’s emissions agreement with Quebec.

** The EPA is in the midst of crafting a plan for staffers to eventually return to offices across the country, agency leaders said during an employee-only briefing on Tuesday. The planning comes in response to a White House memo on Monday for federal agencies to prepare for a return to work in low-risk areas, once certain conditions are met.

** Hackers are trying to infect organizations throughout the world with a popular strain of malware by sending emails that appear to be from an Egyptian oil company.

** The UN’s Earth Day message calls on governments to do something that’s not happening in America: Attach green strings to public aid for corporations in coronavirus rescue packages.