** ConocoPhillips will host a conference call webcast on Thursday, Oct. 29 at 12:00 p.m. Eastern time to discuss third-quarter 2020 financial and operating results. The company’s financial and operating results will be released before the market opens on Oct. 29.
** The U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission has launched an investigation into FirstEnergy Corp. in a separate probe of the company tied to the $60 million bribery scandal involving House Bill 6, records show.
** A widespread transition to electric vehicles (EVs) could help avoid more than $72 billion in public health costs nationally in 2050 due to emission reductions, according to a new report from the American Lung Association (ALA).
** Hitachi Ltd. exited a long-planned U.K. nuclear power project despite the most generous support package for an atomic station in Britain, a bad omen for future projects.
** Valero Energy Corporation announced that it will host a conference call on October 22, 2020, at 10:00 a.m. ET to discuss third quarter earnings results, which will be released earlier that day, and provide an update on company operations.
** A fire incident report indicates at least 13 Oregon wildfires were caused by downed power lines, but questions are being asked about why lines remained live for two utilities before winds knocked them down.
** Arizona-based electric truck startup Nikola is the subject of two federal inquiries following a report accusing it of fraud, which the company disputes.
** The Bureau of Land Management finds its January 2021 New Mexico lease sale will have “no significant” environmental impact.
** Shell Offshore files documents to return to Alaska’s North Slope and asks the state for its exploration plan to be valid for five years.
** A Federal judge will not reconsider whether environmental groups were too late to challenge a pair of National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska oil and gas lease sales.
** Xcel Energy is among the five biggest U.S. utilities that have made net-zero carbon pledges by 2050.
** A widespread transition to electric vehicles could help avoid $72 billion in public health costs nationally by 2050, according to the American Lung Association.
** NOAA approved a federal permit on Wednesday for a proposed liquefied natural gas export terminal in Alaska.
** The Energy Department is officially reopening an Arctic Energy Office in Alaska to further study the High North’s changing climate and drive international cooperation among the eight countries that occupy it.
** U.S. oil output increased by 900,000 barrels per day last week as U.S. producers reversed a month of declining production, according to data from the U.S. Energy Information Administration.
** North Carolina Gov. Roy Cooper (D) is calling on the Trump administration to add the state to the expanded offshore drilling moratorium the president announced last week. The moratorium included South Carolina, Georgia and Florida.
