Energy news in brief

** A planned underground transmission line through Iowa and Illinois hasn’t faced the same organized opposition that has dogged overhead transmission lines in the region.

** COVID-19 will likely stall clean energy reforms in Illinois, Michigan, Minnesota and other states as legislatures pause work. 

** The U.S. solar industry could be facing a crisis due to uncertainty over the Investment Tax Credit as projects face delays.

** Ethanol producers say the federal government is blocking their plans to produce a grade of alcohol that could be used for sanitizers.

** Forty-seven House members beseeched Interior Secretary David Bernhardt yesterday to reverse his plan for narrowing migratory bird protections.

** The novel coronavirus pandemic is causing mass layoffs in the low-carbon energy sector and imperiling as much as $5 billion in individual companies’ revenues, according to two reports this week from industry associations.

** New Mexico utility regulators have approved a program that will allow local governments and large businesses to subscribe to a universal solar field to be built by the state’s largest electric provider.

** PG&E reportedly plans to pay its $4 million in fines and penalties out of the $13.5 billion trust set up for fire victims during its bankruptcy.

** Colorado is one of several states whose progress on clean energy legislation could face delays this session due to the coronavirus crisis.

** New Mexico regulators say the timing of Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham’s administration in evicting them from state offices is suspicious given recent legal battles between the two over the implementation of the state’s new energy transition law.

** A Wyoming-based mobile generator company is donating natural gas generators to power computing modules in Colorado assisting in the search for a cure to COVID-19.