** Kinder Morgan lost $637 million in the second quarter as it wrote down the value of its pipelines in states such as North Dakota, Oklahoma and Texas.
** Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer criticized Enbridge Inc. on Wednesday for what she described as the company’s refusal to make an airtight pledge to pay for damages caused by a potential oil spill from its pipeline beneath a Great Lakes channel.
** Tesla reported its worst-ever quarter for solar installations but huge growth in its battery business. CEO Elon Musk nevertheless predicted the energy business will one day rival its car division in scale.
** The developer that bought a closed Philadelphia refinery reveals plans to level and clean the site and build a mass of warehouse and light industrial structures.
** Grid operators say at a national conference that natural gas power is still needed in the short term to maintain systems as they transition to more renewable energy.
** Plugging Louisiana’s 4,300 abandoned oil and gas wells could cut methane emissions by 558 metric tons a year and employ 1,000 workers full-time for a year, according to an environmental think tank’s study.
** Republican and Democratic lawmakers are both drafting legislation to repeal HB 6, the nuclear bailout law at the center of a bribery scandal involving a top state lawmaker and FirstEnergy; Gov. Mike DeWine says the law should stay in place.
** The companies responsible for a 2016 oil spill in Southern California agree to pay $1.6 million in civil penalties, costs, and natural resources damage.
** Lawmakers approved the most ambitious conservation package in a generation on Wednesday, sending the measure off to President Donald Trump, who is expected to sign it.
** President Trump signed into law a three-year extension, S. 4148 (116), of the Chemical Facility Anti-Terrorism Standards program Wednesday night. The current authorization of the program expired Thursday.
** EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler on Wednesday unveiled a proposed rule that would allow EPA to certify engines made by Boeing or other U.S. aircraft makers as compliant with ICAO standards set in 2016. But the proposed standard will not lead to greenhouse gas reductions, an agency official said, though the agency expects market forces to drive increased fuel efficiency.
** The Sierra Club is grappling with its own racist history, announcing on Wednesday that the environmental organization would remove “monuments” to its founder, John Muir, while Confederate statues topple across the country.