Energy news in brief

** In response to a recent Keystone XL court ruling, the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers suspends a program that has been used for decades to approve stream and wetland crossings for pipelines, power lines and other utility projects.

** The Navajo Transitional Energy Company and Peabody Energy announce layoffs of 300 miners at three Powder River Basin mines.

**  Morgan Stanley will no longer finance drilling in the Arctic, new coal plants, or new thermal coal mines, according to a policy update the bank issued Thursday. The bank will also phase out financing for existing coal mining companies.

** Developers of some of the largest clean energy projects in the U.S., including in Wyoming and California, are reporting either little or no delays amidst the coronavirus pandemic.

** A Washington dairy has invested almost $20 million in technology which converts manure into renewable natural gas.

** The bond sale for an Alaskan utility’s $330 million natural gas project is on hold because of the coronavirus pandemic and oil market volatility.

** A Colorado-based renewable energy development company reports it anticipates reaching milestones for the permitting and construction of its 600 MW wind farm project in Washington this year.

** As power demand drops during the pandemic, many utilities are cutting back on coal power first, which bodes poorly for the already struggling industry.

** “Just about everything that can go wrong, has gone wrong for the coal industry,” says a coal industry analyst at Wood Mackenzie.

** An Iowa wind turbine manufacturing plant suspends production to start enhanced testing after 28 employees test positive for COVID-19.

** The organization that oversees the U.S. electric grid says uncertainty from the pandemic “permeates an environment that is highly challenging even for the most prepared of industries.”

** Mexico, the largest recipient of U.S. gasoline exports, is seeking to cancel imports of the fuel from at least one U.S. company amid the rippling effects of the coronavirus on demand. Petroleos Mexicanos’s trading unit, PMI, declared force majeure on imports of gasoline as an armada of vessels unable to discharge the fuel idles on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, according to a person with knowledge of the situation who spoke on condition of anonymity because the information is confidential.