** The United Steelworkers union urged locked-out workers at Exxon Mobil Corp’s Beaumont, Texas, refinery to reject a company contract offer in a vote scheduled for Tuesday, according to a union statement.
** A total of 114 workers at Los Alamos National Laboratory — the birthplace of the atomic bomb — are suing over the government’s vaccine mandate, saying exemptions have been unduly denied and their constitutional rights are being violated by Triad National Security LLC, the contractor that runs the lab for the U.S. Department of Energy.
** The largest U.S. natural gas driller is using the global energy crisis to renew his call for more investment in domestic infrastructure such as pipelines, which he says will enable increased exports and ease shortages. U.S. gas drillers could increase supplies by about 20% if not for pipeline and export constraints, EQT Corp. CEO Toby Rice said in an interview.
** Small energy supplier Daligas in Britain was the third company to go bust this week, as the surge in wholesale gas prices shows no signs of easing. The London-based company has around 9,000 domestic and non-domestic customers, Ofgem said. The regulator added that a new supplier will be chosen to take on stranded customers.
** Diesel-engine powerhouse Cummins announced Thursday the production of its 100th battery-electric bus built with a partner.
** The Coast Guard estimates that nearly 25,000 gallons of crude oil were spilled in an offshore pipeline leak in Southern California, AP reports. The estimate is on the lower end of what officials initially feared when the state’s Justice Department began investigating the massive oil spill off Orange County’s Huntington Beach coastline.
** Industrial gas supplier Air Products announced it will build a $4.5 billion clean energy facility in Louisiana’s capital region, a project that Gov. John Bel Edwards said will help the state’s work to reduce carbon emissions in the heart of the petrochemical corridor.
** California’s Monterey County’s attempt to curb new oil and gas development suffered another blow when an appeals court upheld a ruling striking down a ban on new wells and fracking.
** Two pipeline companies agreed to pay nearly $9 million to settle allegations that they violated two federal laws related to a 2010 oil spill in a Chicago suburb.
** A Georgia Tech study finds homeowners who install solar panels wind up using more electricity than before going green.
** President Joe Biden’s clean electricity program will likely be scrapped from the Democrat’s reconciliation bill because of Sen. Joe Manchin, according to reports from The New York Times and CNN published Friday.