** Arena Energy, one of the largest offshore oil and gas companies operating in the Gulf of Mexico, has filed for bankruptcy protection, the latest casualty of the coronavirus-driven oil crash.
** In the biggest reshuffling in seven years, Exxon Mobil Corp, Pfizer Inc. and Raytheon Technologies Corp. were kicked out of the Dow Jones Industrial Average, making way for Salesforce.com, Amgen Inc. and Honeywell International to enter the 124-year old equity gauge a week from today. The actions were prompted when Apple Inc. — currently 12% of the 30-stock index — announced a stock split that reduced the sway of computer and software companies in the price-weighted average.
** The Army Corps of Engineers said on Monday the current proposal to build the controversial Pebble Mine in Alaska “cannot be permitted,” placing a major hurdle before the project that could endanger any future efforts for the planned copper and gold mine.
** The Gwich’in tribe that lives just outside of the Arctic Wildlife Refuge in Alaska will sue the Interior Department over its decision to allow drilling in the refuge, contending the agency violated environmental laws.
** Supporters and opponents of the 64-year old pipeline through the Great Lakes clashed this week during a Michigan Public Service Commission. The agency will decide the fate of the plan by Enbridge which operates Line 5, which carries crude oil and liquids.
** State officials are poised to decide whether four gas-fired power plants along the Southern California coast should keep running past 2020, in the first major energy decision for Gov. Gavin Newsom’s administration after this month’s blackouts.
** Tesla Inc’s chief executive Elon Musk has suggested the U.S. electric carmaker may be able to mass produce longer-life batteries with 50% more energy density in three to four years.
** An explosion early Monday struck a gas pipeline in a Damascus suburb, causing a huge fire and cutting off electricity throughout Syria, state media reported, citing the country’s electricity and oil ministers.
** The Environmental Protection Agency is facing new scrutiny of its decision to stop enforcing pollution rules amid the pandemic, escalating a fight over what critics see as one of the most egregious parts of the administration’s response to the coronavirus ahead of the November election. In a letter sent Monday to EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler, Massachusetts Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D) and Ed Markey (D) accused the agency of providing “all but meaningless” responses to earlier questions about the March order to suspend enforcement of environmental laws.
** The U.S. Coast Guard says the bodies of the remaining two crew members of a dredging boat who were missing after an explosion last week in the Port of Corpus Christi in Texas were found Monday.
** Sunoco files a challenge to Pennsylvania environmental officials’ shutdown of a drilling site on the Mariner East pipeline over a “turbid groundwater discharge.”
** Former football star Jerome Bettis sues a Pittsburgh gas driller for alleged racial discrimination for terminating a contact with his trucking company.
** Montana’s Supreme Court rules state regulators violated state and federal laws against rate discrimination in granting NorthWestern Energy’s request to cut rates it pays to small solar projects.