Top News
Natural disasters could spark US microgrid surge
As peak wildfire season looms over the Western U.S., California utility customers are bracing for more preemptive power cuts to shield communities from a third consecutive year of utility-ignited infernos. In the Southeast and Caribbean, meanwhile, the first major storm of the 2019 Atlantic hurricane season, Hurricane Dorian, devastated the Bahamas and knocked out power for hundreds of thousands of people up the East Coast.
Ditching discipline, Energy Transfer to pay big premium for export assets
Roughly three years after blowing up a $33 billion deal to buy pipeline peer Williams Cos. Inc., billionaire master limited partnership builder and Energy Transfer LP CEO Kelcy Warren has landed another deal.
Dems call on leadership to protect miners' healthcare, pension in spending bill
Six Democratic coal-state U.S. senators appealed to House and Senate leadership to include permanent protections for retired miners' healthcare and pensions in a short-term spending package aimed at preventing the government from closing in October.
Crude prices, oil equities retreat as Saudis point to fairly swift recovery
As quickly as the market rallied, oil prices and oil-related stock prices careened lower Sept. 17 as reports of a swift return of Saudi Arabian oil production helped calm the jittery markets.
Quoted
"ESG has really reached the mainstream and now we're continuing to see pressure mount across the financial system and across the corporations to demonstrate how they're contributing to improving sustainability outcomes," Corinne Bendersky, of S&P Global Ratings' sustainable finance group, said on investors' changing expectations regarding sustainable finance after Italian utility Enel issued a $1.5-billion general-purpose sustainability-related bond.
Power
* A federal appeals court tossed legal challenges to the Clean Power Plan, agreeing with the argument that they should be dismissed as moot because the Trump administration has replaced the Obama-era regulation targeting existing fossil fuel-fired power plants.
* Bloom Energy Corp. shares hit a 52-week low yesterday after short-seller Hindenburg Research predicted its demise. Hindenburg Research said the company's large debt maturities in 2020 and 2021 make it "an obvious bankruptcy candidate." Bloom Energy disagreed with the report, saying the authors of the research did not engage with the company to validate assertions they made.
* Duke Energy Corp. aims to achieve net-zero carbon emissions across its operations in six states by 2050, as part of a goal the company announced Sept. 17 to reduce emissions by 50% compared to 2005 baseline levels in 2030.
* The Trump administration is set to formally revoke the state of California's legal authority to set tailpipe greenhouse gas emissions rules that are tougher than federal standards, The New York Times reported.
* The University of California has declared a climate emergency. The university announced steps to make its $13.4 billion endowment and its $70 billion pension "fossil free" by the end of September.
Natural gas
* Exxon Mobil Corp. and Qatar Petroleum
* NextDecade Corp. and Enbridge Inc. signed a memorandum of understanding to jointly develop the Rio Bravo and other natural gas pipelines in South Texas. These pipelines are intended to transport natural gas to NextDecade's Rio Grande LNG project in Brownsville, Texas.
* The North Carolina Department of Environmental Quality reiterated to the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission that it finds Mountain Valley Pipeline LLC's proposed Southgate project as not in the public interest. Moreover, the department noted that the draft environmental impact statement for the project failed to explore all reasonable alternatives.
* FERC could have new staff in place in Houston by as early as next spring to help review LNG export terminal permit applications, as the agency looks to keep up with developers' growth plans amid personnel challenges and two vacant commission seats, Chairman Neil Chatterjee said in a Sept. 16 interview.
* The mayor and city council of San Jose, Calif., voted to adopt rules to phase out natural gas use in buildings, Reuters reported. San Jose, the political center of Silicon Valley, is so far the largest city in the U.S. to adopt such rules.
* Eco-Energy Inc. acquired the Stone Mountain gathering pipeline system, processing facility and rail terminal from Continuum Energy Services for undisclosed terms. The system has a design capacity of 60,000 Mcf/d.
* Vitol SA and Mozambique's
Oil
* Saudi Arabia expects to restore
* Saudi Arabian Oil Co., or Saudi Aramco, remains committed to its planned initial public offering despite the recent drone attacks on its oil facilities, according to Reuters, citing company Chairman Yassir al-Rumayyan.
* The Minnesota Supreme Court declined to hear challenges to the adequacy of the environmental impact assessment for Enbridge Inc.'s proposed Line 3 oil pipeline project, the Duluth (Minn.) News Tribune reported.
* The British Columbia Court of Appeal has ordered the provincial government to reconsider its approval of the Trans Mountain expansion project, saying the environmental certificates were based on a report overturned by the courts, according to The Canadian Press.
* Russian oil producer PJSC Rosneft Oil Co. is looking at increasing supplies to Indian refineries in light of recent attacks on Saudi Arabian facilities.
* Canada's Imperial Oil Ltd. said its chairman and CEO Rich Kruger plans to retire by the end of December.
* Chevron Corp., Schlumberger
Coal
* Peabody Energy Corp. upsized its revolving credit facility by $215 million to $565 million and extended the maturity date to 2023 as part of a comprehensive refinancing initiative.
* The National Labor Relations Board filed a complaint against
* A coal miner died Sept. 17 while working in a West Virginia mine controlled by Blackhawk Mining LLC, according to the West Virginia Office of Miners' Health, Safety and Training.
ChartWatch

While the loss of approximately half of Saudi Arabian crude oil production following attacks on Saudi Aramco's Abqaiq facility on Sept. 14 could pose a financial challenge for U.S. refiners, the supply disruption may pose less of an operational challenge than those from sanctions on Venezuela and OPEC production cuts.
New from RRA
* The hearing examiner conducting Washington Gas Light Co.'s pending rate case has recommended that the Virginia State Corporation Commission reject the company's request for an overall rate increase.
The day ahead
* The U.S. Energy Information Administration petroleum status report is due out today.
* Early morning futures indicators pointed to a lower opening for the U.S. equity markets. To view more SNL equity market indexes, click here. To view more SNL Energy commodities prices, click here.

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