** After more than three decades, the project that kick-started Australia’s push to become a liquefied natural gas powerhouse faces a shakeup. Woodside Petroleum Ltd. on Tuesday reiterated that it would consider buying Chevron Corp.’s stake in North West Shelf and indicated that other joint venture partners could be looking to exit.
** The Trump administration overrules North Carolina’s objection to seismic testing for offshore drilling off the coast, allowing companies to submit permits.
** Michigan Attorney General Dana Nessel asks a judge to temporarily shut down the Line 5 pipeline in the Straits of Mackinac after damage to an anchor support was found last week.
** Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota are among states opposed to the Trump administration’s new rules to allow rail shipments of liquefied natural gas as court disputes surround pipeline projects.
** An Alaska borough wants FERC to redo the final environmental impact statement for the proposed Alaska LNG Project and reconsider its decision.
** A bill in the U.S. House would create a federal fund to clean up abandoned oil and gas wells, while closing loopholes in the current system.
** Nevada Gov. Steve Sisolak announces that the state plans to adopt California’s car pollution rules.
** House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the House would vote in late July on a major conservation package that provides permanent funding to the Land and Water Conservation Fund and offers billions to address maintenance needs on the nation’s public lands. The Senate cleared the legislation, H.R. 1957 (116), last week on a strong bipartisan vote.
** Puerto Rican officials on Monday selected a new Canadian-American company called LUMA Energy to “transform” the grid of its state-owned utility, the Puerto Rico Electric Power Authority. LUMA, a joint venture of Canadian utility holding company ATCO and American construction firm Quanta Services, will take over operation and maintenance of PREPA’s power grid for 15 years, aiming to rebuild and modernize a system that remains rickety and outage-prone since a hurricane virtually destroyed it in 2018, plunging Puerto Rico residents into darkness for nearly a year.
** Venezuela’s socialist government tried to recruit then-Congressman Pete Sessions to broker a meeting with the CEO of Exxon Mobil at the same time it was secretly paying a close former House colleague $50 million to keep U.S. sanctions at bay, The Associated Press has learned.