** Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. has announced an agreement to purchase the natural gas transmission and storage assets of utility company Dominion Energy Inc. in a deal currently valued at $9.7 billion in total, including a cash payment of $4 billion and the assumption of $5.7 billion of debt incurred by the Gas Transmission & Storage segment of Dominion. Subject to regulatory approvals, the deal is expected to close during the fourth quarter of 2020.
** The climate policy task force that Joe Biden and Bernie Sanders created is slated to recommend that Biden seek a fully renewable electricity mix by 2035, the New York Times reports .
** The use of drones to inspect everything from offshore platforms to refineries to pipelines to transmission towers is expanding quickly. Royal Dutch Shell, for example recently signed a multi-million dollar contract with drone company Cyberhawk to conduct inspections both offshore and onshore operations.
** $1.4 million—the salary that the Houston utility CenterPoint is paying its new CEO. David Lesar, the former CEO at Halliburton, is also getting a signing bonus of $1 million in stock.
** DCP Midstream, LP in Denver and Kairos Aerospace, Inc. announced a groundbreaking new methane management initiative across DCP’s portfolio of natural gas assets. The initiative will use Kairos’ sophisticated airborne methane monitoring techniques and advanced data analytics to digitally enable DCP’s goals of operational excellence and sustainability. DCP began piloting Kairos technology in March 2019, and after careful analysis and testing, made the decision to deploy Kairos systems across its operations in Texas, New Mexico, and Colorado.
** Plains All American Pipeline, L.P. and Plains GP Holdings announced their quarterly distributions with respect to the second quarter of 2020. PAA announced a quarterly cash distribution of $0.18 per common unit , which is unchanged from the distribution paid in May 2020. PAGP announced a corresponding quarterly cash distribution of $0.18 per Class A share , which is unchanged from the distribution paid in May 2020.
** Cheniere Energy, Inc. announced that it has published its inaugural corporate responsibility report, titled First and Forward. The report identifies and details Cheniere’s performance on environmental, social and governance metrics, and describes the Company’s important role as a responsible, sustainable business advancing the global transition to a lower carbon future.