Energy news in brief

** The League of Conservation Voters Victory Fund said Thursday it will spend $2 million in digital and cable ads attacking oil companies and President Donald Trump for exacerbating climate change.

** The big clean energy project to watch at Dominion is happening in the waters off Virginia. In fact, the utility recently completed the construction of a two-turbine, 12-megawatt project roughly 27 miles off the Virginia Beach coast. That’s enough juice to power 3,000 homes.

** Coal mining and transport company Lighthouse Resources is continuing a multi-pronged fight against a Washington State blockade of its massive coal export facility on the Columbia River, arguing to a panel of 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals judges Thursday that a lower court’s stay should be lifted.

** U.S. Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette will tour a coal export terminal in Norfolk, Virginia, on Monday.

** The Conservation Law Foundation is challenging in federal court a DOJ memo that said EPA could not allow companies to pay for environmental projects as part of court settlements.

** The Bureau of Land Management will sell leases to over 4,100 acres of federal land in California for new fossil fuel drilling despite opposition from environmentalists and U.S. Sen. Dianne Feinstein (D-Calif.).

**  New data indicates Wyoming and Montana coal production increased week on week through the year so far in the week ended October 3.

** Amazon unveils a prototype electric delivery van that it’s developing in partnership with Illinois EV startup Rivian.

** A group of University of Nebraska students call on school administrators to divest from fossil fuels. 

** Two solar groups are challenging a FERC ruling that disqualified a Montana solar facility from receiving payments under the Public Utility Regulatory Policies Act.

** The Trump administration said Friday that it would immediately impose tariffs on aluminum sheets imported from 18 countries after a preliminary investigation concluded they were being “dumped” in the U.S. The move, which affects countries ranging from Germany to Egypt to South Korea, comes ahead of the U.S. International Trade Commission’s official determination in the antidumping case in February 2021.