** General Mills announced a pledge to reduce absolute greenhouse gas emissions by 30 percent across its full value chain – from farm to fork to landfill – over the next 10 years. The company also committed to a long-term goal to achieve net zero emission levels by 2050.
** Private equity partnership Pelican Energy Partners has an agreement to buy Baker Hughes‘ subsidiary, Surface Pressure Control Flow, an international company specializing in pressure control products and services.
** Harvest Midstream Co. has completed its new Ingleside pipeline, which by end-2020 will move up to 600,000 b/d of crude oil from Harvest’s Midway terminal in Taft, Tex., to all three export terminals in Ingleside, Tex.
** Occidental Petroleum Corp. will pay about $200 million in dividends on preferred shares to Warren Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway Inc. in cash rather than common stock, a sign of the shale driller’s growing confidence in its ability to manage its debt load.
** With pressure on energy giants to go green, Royal Dutch Shell is thinking big about costs. Sources say it’s looking to slash up to 40% off the cost of producing oil and gas. They say the major cash-saving drive will allow it to focus more on renewable energy and power markets.
** President Trump says he will add North Carolina his recently announced offshore drilling ban in Southeast states.
** NextEra Energy and its subsidiaries hired lobbyists and advisors with deep ties to city leaders as it sought to purchase Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility.
** Sunrise El Paso and other climate action advocates protest the addition of a new generator at an El Paso, Texas, natural gas power plant.
** -Renewable Energy Group, Inc. broke ground on Monday for a single wind turbine that will provide power to the company’s biorefinery in Albert Lea, Minnesota. This project will provide locally sourced, clean electrical power, lowering the carbon footprint of the biodiesel plant.
** State Republican lawmakers introduce sweeping new disclosure requirements to help erase “dark money” political spending in the wake of the HB 6 corruption scandal.
** Michigan auto dealers are attempting to block electric vehicle startups like Rivian and Lucid from selling vehicles directly to consumers and servicing them in the state as Tesla was allowed to do under a recent agreement.
** Northeastern Nebraska officials replace an existing agreement with the Nebraska Public Power District with a 30-year solar power purchase agreement.
** A Wisconsin judge declines to reinstate a key permit to build a controversial frac sand mining operation.
** Bankruptcy filings show Blackjewel still owes more than $50 million in unpaid royalties to the federal government for two Wyoming coal mines, and it’s unclear whether the money will ever be recovered.
