** Great River Energy will close a major coal plant in North Dakota several years early as it grows too costly to run while adding 1,100 MW of wind to its portfolio. As part of its coal transition, Great River Energy will repower a 99 MW coal plant in North Dakota to run on natural gas. North Dakota coal advocates raise concerns about the job impacts of Great River Energy’s coming coal retirements.
** Idled wells and cuts in production by large oil producers sends a ripple effect through oil patch contractors in North Dakota.
** The University of Iowa plans to cut its greenhouse gas emissions in half by 2030, though the goal falls short of what climate activists have demanded for more than a year.
** California regulators hit PG&E with a record $1.9 billion penalty for failing to properly maintain power lines, which sparked some of the deadliest wildfires in the state’s history.
** Attorneys general from 10 states including New Mexico and Oregon ask FERC to delay approvals of new fossil fuel infrastructure in order to preserve the due process rights of those who might be affected.
** An official with an ethics organization says oil and gas company lobbyists in New Mexico are continuing with significant spending on the state’s politics.
** A Colorado School of Mines director says 20 oil and gas companies have withdrawn nearly 70 internship or job offers because of the oil market crash.
** A new report indicates Wyoming’s public lands are under threat from “rampant” speculative oil and gas leasing.
** BNSF Railway announces two Wyoming facilities are to be closed and 130 workers laid off due to volatile market conditions for coal.
** Tesla is planning to reopen a Bay Area assembly plant despite a county shutdown order remaining in effect.
** A Republican Alaska state lawmaker says the state’s economic recovery from the coronavirus pandemic will take longer because of the severe slowdown in the oil and gas industry.
** The Treasury Department is planning to issue rules soon that could grant wind and solar developers an extra year to complete their projects amid the coronavirus pandemic so they can keep their access to tax credits.
** Massachusetts Sen. Elizabeth Warren called on Mnuchin to stop any plans to bail out the oil and gas industry, whether in the form of a separate lending facility or the modification of one of the Fed’s existing facilities, in a letter released Thursday .
** Eleven Democratic state attorneys general sent a letter to FERC on Thursday asking it to pause approval of liquefied natural gas export facilities during the coronavirus pandemic.
** Seven companies have been named in a lawsuit related to the contamination of a West Virginia city’s water supply from firefighting foam. The lawsuit filed by Charles Town attorney Stephen Skinner seeks damages for exposing Martinsburg residents to chemicals known as per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances, or PFAs. Among the defendants in the lawsuit filed last month in federal court were 3M Co., DuPont Co. and Chemours.