Energy news in brief

** A rapid proliferation of solar farms puts Texas on a course that could see it eventually surpass California as the nation’s leader in solar capacity reported the Wall Street Journal.

** Enbridge sues the state of Michigan in federal court in hopes of stopping the Whitmer administration’s attempt to shut down Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac.

** Candidates in this month’s board of directors election for the Nebraska Public Power District drew record-breaking campaign contributions as various interests sought to steer the utility’s agenda reported the Energy News Network.

** About 200 barrels of source water leaks from an oil field pipeline in southwestern North Dakota according to the Bismarck Tribune.

** The Detroit Free Press reported a growing number of automakers and suppliers reach agreements over wireless electric vehicle charging infrastructure.

** A company based in the Bahamas plans to begin looking for oil at a well 150 miles off Florida’s coast, despite an executive order that bans offshore drilling off the state’s Atlantic coast reported the Miami Herald.

** The Huntington Herald-Dispatch reports a congressional subcommittee presses the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission about its process for resolving conflicts between pipeline companies and landowners along project routes.

** The Associated Press reported that Tennessee approved $35 million in incentives for General Motors to retool a factory to build electric vehicles.

** A federal judge rules that a Knoxville newspaper can protect the identities of its sources in an investigation of radioactivity in the Tennessee Valley Authority’s coal ash waste reported the Knoxville News Sentinel.

** E and E News says a new report claims a shortage of large ships needed to erect offshore wind turbines could inflate costs globally by 2025.

** Massachusetts is rethinking a regional proposal to reduce tailpipe emissions as the pandemic has reduced traffic and changed assumptions about vehicle use reported the Eagle-Tribune.

** The New York Times reported the EPA estimates more than a half-million diesel pickup trucks in the U.S. have been illegally modified to override pollution controls, which one advocate calls “far more alarming and widespread than the Volkswagen scandal.”

** The Trump administration is moving ahead with proposed changes to the Migratory Bird Treaty Act that would see companies no longer held accountable for incidental deaths to migratory birds caused by their operations according to POLITICO.