** Enbridge will fully resume operation of a Michigan Great Lakes oil pipeline after a partial shutdown this summer because of damage to a support structure. Circuit Judge James Jamo signed an order allowing the Canadian company to restore the flow through one of its Line 5 pipes beneath the Straits of Mackinac, which connects Lake Huron and Lake Michigan.
** The president announced 20 additional candidates to his list of prospective Supreme Court picks, including several judges with a history on environmental issues.
** The world’s biggest oil company is getting squeezed by its main shareholder, the Saudi Arabian government. Even with crude dropping to $40 a barrel this week and its cash flow plunging, Saudi Aramco is trying to pay a $75 billion dividend this year, almost all of it to the state.
** Turkey is in talks over oil and gas exploration in Libya, as President Recep Tayyip Erdogan’s administration seeks business opportunities in the conflict-ridden North African country.
** In the wake of Hurricane Laura, an oil sheen at least 20 miles long covers wetlands along Louisiana’s coast and other waterways.
** Southern Company agrees to pay $87.5 million to settle claims that it misled shareholders about a botched plan to build a “clean coal” plant in Mississippi.
** General Motors announces a breakthrough that would make its electric vehicle batteries more flexible and compact.
** A North Dakota board again extends the deadline for dozens of oil patch companies to pay the state for deductions taken from natural gas royalties, citing the ongoing pandemic-related downturn.
** Three Alaska Native tribes and 15 states file lawsuits aiming to stop the Bureau of Land Management’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge oil and gas lease sale.
** The Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee will consider both Republican and Democratic nominees to FERC next week.
** EPA’s general counsel, Matt Leopold, will leave the agency in the coming weeks for a job in private practice.