** U.S. Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen signaled she’ll prod multilateral development banks to rein in their lending for fossil fuels, part of a global effort to make the financial system greener.
** Colonial Pipeline Co. could face daily fines of up to $200,000 per violation if it fails to improve the way it detects leaks in its U.S. pipeline system, after a massive gasoline leak in Huntersville, according to a recent settlement in the case with the U.S. government.
** Rystad Energy says the U.S. shale industry is on course to set a significant milestone in 2021: Record pre-hedge revenues. According to the Norwegian energy navel-gazer, U.S. shale producers can expect a record-high hydrocarbon revenue of $195 billion before factoring in hedges in 2021 if WTI futures continue their strong run.
** Wind and solar power grew by record amounts last year, BP notes in its latest detailed and wide-ranging annual look at global energy statistics and trends. The pandemic helped to push CO2 emissions from energy use down 6.3%, the largest decline since the end of World War II, amid steep declines in oil and coal use.
** The fight to stop New York City’s private electric companies from building new gas-fired plants won a powerful new ally on Friday as Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer (D-N.Y.) called for an end to all new fossil fuel infrastructure in the nation’s largest metropolis.
** Gina McCarthy, a top advisor to President Biden on domestic climate policy, said administration officials and Democrats in Congress are still discussing how to include a clean-energy standard for utilities in broad infrastructure legislation this year.
** General Electric Company’s GE business unit GE Renewable Energy announced it has secured another onshore wind turbine contract from European Energy for three additional wind farms.
** Two high-ranking Trump political appointees at the Environmental Protection Agency engaged in fraudulent payroll activities — including payments to employees after they were fired and to one of the officials when he was absent from work — that cost the agency more than $130,000, a report by an internal watchdog says.
** New York Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez on Thursday faulted “fossil fuel execs” for waist-high flooding in a New York City subway station after a thunderstorm ripped through the boroughs.
** The U.S. Department of Energy has agreed to pay Nevada $65,000 after the government mislabeled and mischaracterized low-level radioactive waste that was shipped to a disposal site north of Las Vegas for more than five years.
** A tentative agreement between Volvo Trucks North America and a union representing nearly 3,000 workers who have gone on strike twice this year at a southwest Virginia truck plant has been rejected by the striking workers, United Auto Workers officials announced Friday.
** Wyoming state and local officials work to transform the Powder River Basin into “Carbon Valley” to find new ways to use coal.
** Montana Gov. Greg Gianforte pulls out of a multi-state coalition dedicated to fighting climate change.