Energy news in brief

** Eight people were arrested over the weekend in northern Minnesota as a couple hundred people gathered to protest construction of the Line 3 pipeline replacement reported MPR News.

** Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee Chairman Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) said she is questioning her place in the Republican party and that President Donald Trump should resign immediately in light of Wednesday’s insurrection at the Capitol.

** Marathon Oil Corporation appointed Kimberly Warnica senior vice president and general counsel. Warnica has been executive vice president, general counsel, chief compliance officer and secretary at Alta Mesa Resources, Inc. since 2018 reported POLITICO.

** The new owner of West Virginia’s largest gas distribution company says it will replace 1,500 miles of pipe and expand service to unserved and underserved areas reported the Parkersburg News & Sentinel.

** General Motors launches a new marketing campaign to reshape its image as a clean vehicle company as it prepares to roll out more than two dozen new EV models in the coming years according to the Associated Press.

** The Russia-controlled natural gas company Gazprom will restart construction in the Baltic Sea section of the controversial Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline to Germany, despite the United States’ attempts to thwart the project.

** Former Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe, who is running for the office again in 2021, should be held accountable for his past support of interstate natural gas pipelines, writes an anti-pipeline activist reported the Washington Post.

** At least 15 solar projects of 1,000 acres or more are slated to come online in Indiana by 2024, drawing opposition from some rural residents reported The Republic.

** A Louisiana-based environmental journalist compares Republicans’ unfounded accusations of election fraud to their denial of climate change and environmental science according to the New Orleans Times-Picayune.

** The Jamestown Sun reports officials continue to search for a new owner for North Dakota’s largest coal plant, which is slated for a fall 2022 closure.