Energy news in brief

** D.E. Shaw & Co. has built a sizable position in Exxon Mobil Corp. and is calling on the company to cut spending to improve performance and maintain its dividend, according to people familiar with the matter.

** Chevron Corporation CVX recently announced that it has temporarily closed down a separating unit at the offshore processing platform of its Wheatstone LNG export facility in Australia.

** Reuters reported U.S. taxpayers netted less than $50,000 last week in bids for oil and gas leases in California as the Trump administration held the first federal drilling auction since 2012 in the Democratic and environmentally minded state.

** The new U.S. clean energy trade group, American Clean Power Association on Thursday named Heather Zichal, who coordinated climate change policies for the Obama White House, as its chief executive. It will formally launch on Jan. 1 representing solar, wind, energy storage and transmission companies.

** Swell Energy, an installer and manager of residential renewable energy, energy efficiency and storage technologies, is raising $450 million to finance the construction of four virtual power plants representing a massive amount of energy storage capacity paired with solar power generation.

** The New York State Pension Fund will review its energy sector investments, including potential divestments, as it targets net zero carbon emissions by 2040, the New York State Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said this week.

** British electric vehicle maker Arrival, which already announced a microfactory in South Carolina, will locate its North American headquarters in Charlotte, North Carolina reported the Charlotte Business Journal.

** Reuters reported a natural gas pipeline operator in Pennsylvania asks a federal court to dismiss a claim by Catholic nuns that construction across their order’s property violates their religious practices.

** Enbridge holds a virtual ceremony to mark the start of the Line 3 pipeline replacement and expansion project in northern Minnesota, though protesters are maintaining opposition along the line’s path. 

** A new study finds global emissions are down 7% in 2020 due to the pandemic slowdown, while acknowledging “lockdown is absolutely not the way to tackle climate change” reported the Associated Press.

** The California startup behind an electrical vehicle that gets substantial power via solar panels instead of electric charging says the first batch has sold out in 24 hours according to The Independent.

** British Prime Minister Boris Johnson pledged Saturday at a U.N. summit to end direct government support for overseas fossil fuel projects, aiming to spur similar moves by other countries to help tackle climate change, his office said.