** Gulf Power seeks to recoup $200 million that it spent to restore power after Hurricane Sally from ratepayers.

** Duke Energy begins recycling coal ash at three North Carolina plants, as required by state law.

** Louisiana lawmakers approve a tax break for the oil and gas industry as it struggles through the pandemic.

** Japan has unveiled a new 500 kilometers per hour maglev bullet train.

** In a lawsuit filed by Earthjustice, four environmental groups have asked a federal court to toss the Trump administration’s assessment of the oil and gas sector’s probable impact on endangered species in the Gulf of Mexico, arguing that the review dismisses the chances of another disaster on the scale of BP PLC’s Deepwater Horizon oil spill in 2010.

** Tesla’s stock is up in premarket trading after the electric automaker reported its fifth consecutive profitable quarter Wednesday — taking in $331 million — alongside a record number of vehicle deliveries.

** The French government has delayed and might nix a $7 billion deal to import U.S. liquefied natural gas over concerns about climate change, Politico and a French news site reported.

**  Bloomberg reports that Exxon, “plans to lay off an unspecified number of employees as low oil prices force the company to delay major projects, Chief Executive Officer Darren Woods said in an email to staff.”

** Ring Energy, Inc. in Midland, Texas announced it has entered into a definitive agreement with institutional investors for the purchase and sale of $18 Million of 12,000,000 Common Shares,  9,052,630 Pre-Funded Warrants and 21,052,630 Common Warrants at an effective combined purchase price of $0.855 per unit in a registered direct offering priced at-the-market.

** A new Center for Biological Diversity report shows that California’s 10 largest oil and gas producers reserve as little as $80 per well for cleanup in state bonds, the same organization plans to sue the state over new fracking permits.

** Former Trump EPA political staffer-turned-whistleblower Kevin Chmielewski is suing EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, as well as Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette, over what he alleges was a violation of his right to free speech and due process by removing him from EPA and refusing to hire him at DOE.

** Research published last week by the University of Michigan Law School showed a 70 percent decrease in Clean Water Act prosecutions under Trump and a more than 50 percent decrease in Clean Air Act prosecutions.

** Montana Sen. Jon Tester (D) unveiled legislation Wednesday to block the Justice Department from appealing a federal court decision that blocked William Perry Pendley from acting as the director of the Bureau of Land Management.