Energy news in brief

** Keystone XL pipeline developer TC Energy Corp. is joining calls for the Supreme Court to block an order temporarily preventing the use of a water-crossing permitting program for new oil and gas pipelines.

** Concho Resources Inc. will host a conference call on Thursday, July 30, 2020 at 8:00 AM CT (9:00 AM ET) to discuss second-quarter 2020 financial and operating results. The Company plans to announce second-quarter 2020 results on Wednesday, July 29, 2020, after close of trading.

** Oman’s ambitious goal of building the biggest oil-storage facility in the Middle East is finally progressing, more than seven years after the Gulf sultanate announced the plan. Oman Tank Terminal Co. has almost finished constructing eight tanks to store crude for a new refinery near the town of Duqm on the Arabian Sea increasing Duqm’s capacity to at least 25 million barrels, according to OTTCO’s website.

** A California county judge orders PG&E to pay the statutory maximum penalty of $3.5 million for causing 2018’s Camp Fire which killed 84 people.

** Montana’s largest solar project secures a new contract to sell power to an electric cooperative and its Montana members.

** At a visit in Iowa, Energy Secretary Dan Brouillette responded to questions about President Trump’s prior criticism of wind energy: “While wind energy is very inexpensive, it’s also intermittent.”

** Natural gas company Tellurian delays construction of its $27 billion LNG project near Lake Charles, Louisiana, and is reconsidering a pipeline project that would connect to it.

** In a 51-42 vote, the Senate confirmed Justin Walker on Thursday to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the D.C. Circuit, widely considered the second-most powerful federal court . The 38-year old is currently a district judge for the Western District of Kentucky and is widely viewed as a protégé of Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.).

** A federal judge will weigh in soon on whether to freeze EPA’s rewritten Waters of the U.S. rule that is slated to go into effect on June 22. U.S. District Judge Richard Seeborg, an Obama appointee , heard three hours of virtual arguments on Thursday over a request from several blue states for a preliminary injunction of EPA’s Navigable Waters Protection rule.

** Jacksonville, Fla., will not be able to escape its obligations to pay for its part of the extremely delayed and over-budget Vogtle Nuclear plant in Georgia. A federal judge in Georgia ruled Thursday that an agreement struck in 2008 and amended in 2014 was valid and enforceable.

** FERC is asking for input on whether it should expand its foundational reliability standards to account for cybersecurity risks and create new incentives for utilities to invest in stronger cyber protections, Chairman Neil Chatterjee announced at the agency’s monthly meeting.

** FERC Commissioner Bernard McNamee will not step down when his term officially ends on June 30 and instead will stay on “for the foreseeable future,” he announced at FERC’s monthly meeting. The Republican regulator announced in January that he would not seek another term, but federal law allows McNamee to stay on at FERC until the end of the year if the Senate doesn’t confirm a replacement by the end of his term.