Energy news in brief

**  Gulf Coast oil and gas operations begin to restart, utility crews work to restore power, and Louisiana residents start to pick up the pieces again in the wake of Hurricane Delta.

** Fire investigators looking into what caused a wildfire that killed four people in far Northern California have taken possession of equipment belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric, the utility has reported.  PG&E said in a filing Friday with the Public Utilities Commission that investigators with the California Department of Forestry and Fire Protection seized some of its electrical equipment near where the Zogg Fire started Sept. 27.

** A central Illinois wind turbine manufacturer plans to permanently lay off 148 employees next month.

**  A $54 million expansion at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama will support electric vehicle production and more than 370 new jobs.

** A clean energy analyst says DTE Energy lost $100 million in 2018 by dispatching coal plants when cheaper market supplies were available.

** Overdue oil and gas pipelines across the U.S. face a little-known problem when pipeline material is stored outside and becomes more susceptible to corrosion.

** Activists urge New Jersey to file a climate lawsuit on the state’s behalf against major oil companies, but so far only the City of Hoboken has pursued that claim. 

** A letter from western Pennsylvania officials asks President Trump and former vice president Joe Biden to support the natural gas and petrochemical industries.

** A $54 million expansion at a Mercedes-Benz plant in Alabama will support electric vehicle production and more than 370 new jobs.

** The state owned National Oil Corporation of Libya on Sunday lifted the state of force majeure on Sharara oilfield, the country’s largest oilfield.

** Statkraft is ready to start construction of its Ventos de Santa Eugenia wind project in northeastern Brazil, after closing a turbine supply contract with German wind turbine manufacturer Nordex.

** The U.S. Navy says it will work with a central California group to identify a region for an offshore wind project.

** Wyoming regulators say Pacificorp’s plan to transition from coal to renewables lacks proper analysis, transparency and modeling, and fails to consider other alternatives.

** Among the 1.2 billion passengers that have traveled with commercial airlines since the beginning of 2020, there have been 44 cases of COVID-19 reported where transmission occurred in-flight, new data published by the International Air Transport Association (IATA) has found.

** The Southern and Midwestern utility giant Duke Energy Corp. said it aims to reach net-zero methane emissions from its natural gas operations by 2030, at which point it intends for 49 percent of its energy to come from gas, 20 percent from renewables and 12 percent from coal.

** In a Saturday proclamation, President Donald Trump said it is necessary to revoke his administration’s own 2019 solar tariff loophole for manufacturers of two-sided “bifacial” panels, arguing that the exemption has impaired the effectiveness of tariffs aimed at boosting the U.S. solar industry.