Energy news in brief

** The Trump administration is joining NextEra Energy Inc. in urging a federal court to reconsider a case on a 2019 Texas law giving already established utilities priority in constructing transmission lines.

** A California state agency is requiring homes on cliffs to be built farther away from the water because of sea-level rise. That’s igniting legal challenges from property owners, who say they’re on the front line of aggressive adaptation policies.

** The coronavirus pandemic has delayed sessions in at least half of state legislatures, threatening solar booms, grid overhauls and 100% clean energy plans.

** Belarus has offered to take Russian crude for $4 per barrel, less than a 10th of what it paid in January, as a global oil glut depresses prices and a political spat between the neighbors simmers.

** Murray Energy wants the federal government to take over health care payments to its retirees as the company navigates the bankruptcy process. 

** House Democrats’ next economic stimulus package includes $34.3 billion for grid security and modernization.

** A tribal official in Michigan says it’s “appalling” that they’re being told to prepare for public comment during a pandemic as Enbridge seeks permits to build a tunnel for the Line 5 pipeline.

** Two University of Wyoming scientists get a provisional patent for a process they invented to reduce flaring at oil well sites.

** Residential solar developers in California are starting to see a decrease in demand driven by the state’s shelter-in-place order because of the coronavirus pandemic.

** A U.S. government agency has delayed issuing a permit for the Gemini solar power project in Nevada, one of the country’s largest proposed solar farms, over concerns about its impact on a historic region traversed by settlers of the American West.