** A U.S. District Court Judge rules a contentious National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska drilling project approved by the Trump administration can continue.
** Louisiana U.S. Sen. John Kennedy uses a Fox News appearance touting the oil and gas industries to claim that his car is fueled by neither “fairy dust” nor “unicorn urine.” reported the Daily Beast.
** The U.S. Supreme Court agreed this week to hear a bid by a consortium of energy companies seeking to seize land owned by the state of New Jersey to build the $1 billion Penn East natural gas pipeline.
** Royal Dutch Shell slumped to a $19.9bn underlying loss last year after the pandemic hammered oil demand. Total full-year revenues almost halved to $183.2bn, while in the three months to December, the company posted a $4.5bn loss compared to an $871m profit during the same period in 2019.
** The Empire State Building signs a contract to be 100% powered by wind energy for the next three years according to Recharge.
** Jennifer Granholm, President Biden’s nominee for energy secretary, is hinting that the new administration will be supportive of U.S. liquefied natural gas exports — but wants the gas sector to get cleaner too. Her position is spelled out in newly available answers to written questions from lawmakers on the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee.
** Electricity generation from wind turbines in the United States set a new daily and hourly record in December 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration (EIA) said this week. Wind electricity generation reached 1.76 million megawatt hours (MWh) on Dec. 23, or about 17% of total electricity generation on that day, surpassing the earlier record of 1.42 million MWh set in April 2019, the EIA said.
** The Cedar Rapids Gazette reported Iowa’s renewable fuels industry accounted for nearly $4 billion, or about 2%, of the state’s GDP in 2020, according to a report commissioned by a trade group.
** The Tennessee Valley Authority and state regulators will partner to install electric vehicle charging stations every 50 miles along Tennessee’s interstates and major roads.
** A Louisiana U.S. Senator takes exception to President Biden’s description of the industrial corridor between New Orleans and Baton Route as “Cancer Alley” during a speech when signing executive orders on climate change last month.
** PG&E’s criminal probation judge says the utility may have been “criminally reckless” with its wildfire mitigation efforts before the Zogg Fire, and “a terror” to Californians since 2010’s deadly San Bruno pipeline explosion.