** Correction: The David Holt who is head of the Consumer Energy Alliance who wrote about banning efforts of cities and and towns from prohibiting natural gas use is not the mayor of Oklahoma City as we reported earlier this week. Our apologies.
** As if the market crash threatening their jobs wasn’t stressful enough, workers in Canada’s oil sands are bracing for the coronavirus to upend life in the remote camps where they’re lodged.
** An annual survey of U.S. energy employment issued today reported continued gains in clean energy jobs for 2019, just as the nation’s economy headed into a free fall because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
** The new coronavirus pandemic could boost coal power and slow a transition to cleaner energy, according to a report last week from research firm Rystad Energy.
** U.S. electricity companies are exploring emergency measures to ensure they can keep the lights on during the coronavirus outbreak — including having workers live at sites such as power plants during the pandemic.
** U.S. House Natural Resources Chairman Raúl Grijalva of Arizona lashed out at Interior Secretary David Bernhardt on Friday for encouraging visitation to public lands amid school and business closures triggered by the COVID-19 pandemic, characterizing the move as “profoundly dangerous” to public health.
** Research missions to study climate change are being canceled worldwide. The disruptions could delay or compromise scientists’ efforts to track global impacts like rapid warming in the Arctic.
** Coal companies want to suspend payments for mine cleanups. The trucking industry wants to waive rules that limit drivers’ daily hours. And oil producers want to put off a June 1 deadline to shift to summer-grade gasoline.
** Air Canada is laying off more than 5,000 flight attendants as the country’s largest airline cuts routes amid plunging demand. The Montreal-based carrier is laying off about 3,600 employees, plus 1,549 flight attendants at its low-cost subsidiary Rouge, according to Wesley Lesosky, head of the Air Canada component of the Canadian Union of Public Employees.
** A St. Louis company is among those looking for opportunity in redeveloping retired coal plant properties.
** Ethanol producers consider switching from making fuel to alcohol that can be the basis for sanitizers, though regulatory hurdles remain.
** The U.S. coal industry asks for hundreds of millions of dollars in royalty relief, tax cuts and other breaks to help companies weather the recession spurred by the coronavirus.
** PG&E has reached an agreement with California Gov. Gavin Newsom that paves the way for the utility to emerge from bankruptcy.
** Members of New Mexico’s congressional delegation want an extension of the public comment period for an environmental review of a proposed nuclear waste storage facility in the southeastern part of the state.
** Alaska’s economy is in critical condition due to reliance on industries adversely impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic and falling oil prices.