Energy news in brief

** Ameren Missouri joins a small group of utilities tying a portion of top management bonuses to the company’s progress on clean energy.

** The U.S. solar industry has lost 65,000 jobs due to the pandemic, erasing five years of job gains, according to an industry group’s analysis.

** As oil production declines in North Dakota, two test wells have been drilled for potential carbon capture and storage projects. 

** Activists want demolition at a former coal plant in Chicago’s Little Village neighborhood to halt until it’s safe to do so after the pandemic.

** Developers are repowering an Iowa wind project that will use fewer but larger turbines to generate the same amount of electricity. 

** Biofuel advocates want federal officials to loosen restrictions on producing hand sanitizer as a way to help the industry during the pandemic.

** California Gov. Gavin Newsom drops a proposal from the state’s budget that would have expanded the regulatory agency that oversees oil and gas drilling.

** Tucson, Arizona’s first electric bus goes into service.

** A recent study finds that Facebook’s new data center in New Mexico is accelerating the state’s transition toward renewable electricity.

** The Trump administration on Friday reversed its own March decision not to extend a critical sales deadline for older, dirtier residential wood heaters, with the agency arguing it must help retailers and small manufacturers hurt by the coronavirus pandemic.

** EPA sent the 2021 biofuel blending requirements under the Renewable Fuel Standard to the White House for review on Friday.

** The attorneys general of seven states sent a letter to Wheeler on Friday, supporting five oil-producing states that asked the Trump administration to issue a waiver from the RFS program for struggling refiners.