Energy news in brief

** Iran started its first transfer of crude oil via its strategic Goreh-Jask pipeline, allowing the country to bypass the Strait of Hormuz, the state-run Islamic Republic News Agency reported.

** The U.S. has sold some 2 million barrels of Iranian crude oil after seizing an oil tanker off the coast of the United Arab Emirates, court documents and government statistics show.

** The power grid serving nearly 20% of the U.S. population is about to throw a roadblock in President Joe Biden’s plan to decarbonize the electricity sector. PJM Interconnection LLC, which keeps the lights on for 65 million people from Chicago to Washington, D.C., is expected to clear a fleet of new natural gas plants– and even extend the lives of some coal plants — when it releases the results of its massive electricity auction Wednesday.

**  Exxon Mobil Corp. is pulling out of a deep-water oil prospect in Ghana just two years after the west African nation ratified an exploration and production agreement with the U.S. oil titan.

** It’s not law yet, not by a long shot, but things are happening in Congress that could add up to $5000 to the current $7500 federal tax credit for electric vehicles. The bill would add $2500 to the credit for EVs made in the U.S., and another $2500 if it it was made by union workers.

** The International Energy Agency (IEA) has issued yet another warning that if we are to have any hope of avoiding the worst effects of global warming, we have to keep it in the ground.

** Duke Energy DUK has recently commenced construction on the 22.6-MW Speedway Solar power plant in Cabarrus County, N.C. The project will be owned and operated by Duke Energy Sustainable Solutions, a new brand that includes Duke Energy Renewables.

** The private company, Luma Energy on Tuesday took over the transmission and distribution operations of Puerto Rico’s power authority, which has struggled with blackouts and bankruptcy, corruption and mismanagement. The takeover came under a 15-year contract.

** Agriculture giant Cargill Inc. will start selling methane-absorbing wearable devices for cows, putting its support behind an experimental technology that could help the industry cut greenhouse gas emissions.

** Johnson Controls of Little Rock and Greenbrier schools are on the cusp of a $13 million project to give the district Arkansas’ largest public entity-owned solar plant, new energy efficiency systems and “the cherry on top,” a high school pipeline to solar industry jobs.