Energy news in brief

** Vermont Republican Gov. Phil Scott vetoes a bill requiring the state to meet emissions targets that would have given citizens the right to sue the state if it failed.

** A German bioenergy company is preparing to produce corn ethanol and renewable natural gas at the site of a failed cellulosic ethanol plant in Nevada, Iowa.

** Utility Minnesota Power has proposed a pilot project to state regulators in which it would help the region’s iron and taconite mines acquire heavy-duty electric vehicles to help shrink their carbon footprint.

** The ongoing wildfires on the West Coast are releasing previously unseen levels of carbon dioxide and particulate as they burn more than 5 million acres and cast their smoke as far as New York City and, later this week, potentially Europe.

** House Democrats released a mammoth energy package put forth as a response to climate change, and even though it has not had a hearing or passed through the typical legislative hurdles, House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) said the chamber will vote on it next week.

** An investigation into the cause of a deadly natural gas pipeline explosion in Corpus Christi is expected to take at least a year.

** Oil and gas companies are in a rush to secure permits ahead of a potential Joe Biden presidency, with an 80% spike in activity over three months.

** Native American tribal nations and environmental groups file lawsuits challenging the EPA’s rollback of methane emissions standards for oil and gas companies.

** President Trump blames California for its devastating wildfires, but two of every three charred acres in California, Oregon, and Washington have been on federal land managed by the Bureau of Land Management.

** Senate Democrats continue to push for the removal of William Perry Pendley as head of the Bureau of Land Management.