ALSO: A Utah county postpones a deal to install a solar array at a local airport to gather more information, but says it plans to move forward with the project later. (Moab Times-Independent)

PUBLIC LANDS: Federal courts prepare to consider several lawsuits seeking to diminish a president’s power to ban future mining and oil and gas drilling on some federal lands via national monument designation. (Bloomberg Law)

EFFICIENCY: The U.S. Energy Department awards Western states and cities $115.2 million to develop, implement and upgrade building performance standards and energy codes for commercial and multi-family structures. (news release, RTO Insider, subscription)

CLIMATE: Colorado awards local governments $1.9 million to support climate action plans and efficiency and sustainable energy programs. (news release) 

STORAGE: 

• A Washington state university launches a study on pumped hydropower energy storage’s feasibility, impacts and siting. (Northwest Public Broadcasting)
• California regulators approve a centralized strategy for procuring long-duration energy storage capacity in an effort to encourage competition. (RTO Insider, subscription)

GRID: 

• Wyoming and Montana utilities join the California grid operator’s Western Energy Imbalance Market after defecting from SPP’s competing service. (RTO Insider, subscription) 
• Colorado regulators begin requiring utilities to demonstrate the net benefits of joining a particular regional transmission organization over competing ones. (RTO Insider, subscription)

OIL & GAS: 

• California advocates call on lawmakers to pass “polluter pays” bills aimed at holding the oil and gas industry financially accountable for environmental and health impacts. (Inside Climate News)
• Utah advocates file a lawsuit challenging the federal Bureau of Land Management’s decision to reaffirm Trump-era oil and gas leases in a remote part of the state. (Utah News Dispatch)
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom threatens to call a special legislative session to pressure Democratic lawmakers to pass a bill that would require petroleum refineries to maintain reserves in an effort to stabilize fuel prices. (Los Angeles Times)

POLLUTION: Alaska advocates call on federal regulators to ban cruise ship exhaust scrubbers, saying the air-pollution mitigation systems contaminate ocean water. (KTOO)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• California officials say 150,000 electric vehicle chargers have been installed across the state, including nearly 15,000 fast ones. (KBAK)
• Oakland, California’s school district is the first major district in the U.S. to fully adopt electric school buses, which can send power back to the grid during high demand. (Grist)

CLEAN ENERGY: The National Science Foundation awards a Hawaii university $4.2 million for clean energy research and education. (Kauai Now)

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Feds finalize Western public lands solar plan is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

SOLAR: 

• The federal Bureau of Land Management greenlights the 200 MW Dry Lake East solar-plus-battery storage project in southern Nevada. (News 3)
• A Colorado firm secures financing to install 2.8 MW of rooftop solar on seven multi-tenant commercial properties across California. (news release)
• Stanford University researchers develop a scalable method of producing more efficient solar cells using tungsten instead of silicon. (Interesting Engineering)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• Denver officials release a new round of electric bicycle rebate vouchers and say nearly 9,000 people have participated in the popular program so far. (CBS Colorado)
• Washington state officials say they have issued more than 1,000 electric vehicle rebates aimed at low and middle-income residents in the program’s first month of operation. (Washington News Service)
• Arizona’s transportation department selects firms to build and operate electric vehicle charging stations along interstate highways. (news release)

MICROGRIDS: Colorado utilities look to install microgrids in urban and rural areas to increase resilience to extreme weather and wildfires and help isolated areas during outages. (Colorado Newsline) 

OIL & GAS: 

• Colorado advocates push back on proposed draft rules to address oil and gas drilling’s cumulative impacts, saying regulators watered them down to accommodate industry. (Colorado Sun)
• Republican-led Western states join a motion asking the U.S. Supreme Court to block the Biden administration’s rule aimed at reducing oil and gas facilities’ methane emissions. (Common Dreams)
• The Navajo Nation and U.S. Energy Department partner to identify, plug and clean up abandoned oil and gas and uranium wells. (news release)

HYDROPOWER: Crews finish removing two hydropower dams on the Klamath River near the Oregon-California border, allowing salmon to swim freely in the stream for the first time in over a century. (Associated Press)

MINING: Nevada advocates, residents and lawmakers continue to debate over proposed battery material mining projects across the state. (Pahrump Valley Times) 

UTILITIES: A federal appeals court rules in favor of Pacific Gas & Electric in a long-running dispute with San Francisco over the city’s use of the utility’s distribution network. (RTO Insider, subscription)

COMMENTARY: 

• A Colorado ski company executive argues that electrifying buildings is the most effective way to get to net-zero emissions in the long-term. (Writers on the Range)
• A California initiative is helping to advance clean energy by training contractors to install heat pumps. (CalNEXT, sponsored) 

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Feds finalize protections on 28 million acres in Alaska is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

SOLAR: 

• California’s public advocacy agency recommends applying new net-metering rules to existing rooftop solar, saying slashing compensation would reduce cost-shifting to non-solar customers. (PV Magazine)
• A developer secures $550 million in financing and breaks ground on its 140 MW Rosamond South solar-plus-storage project in Kern County, California. (Solar Power World)
• Washington state regulators approve a decommissioning plan for a solar facility under development in the southern part of the state. (Yakima Herald-Republic)

CLEAN ENERGY: The U.S. Energy Department awards Arizona $1.7 million to fund commercial sector energy efficiency projects aimed at benefiting low-income and disadvantaged communities. (Solar Quarter)

STORAGE: A California startup raises $2 million to further develop a thermal energy storage system for industrial applications that uses bricks to convert electricity into heat. (Canary Media) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• The Biden administration awards California, Oregon and Washington $102.4 million to fund a zero-emissions truck charging and fueling corridor along the West Coast. (RTO Insider, subscription) 
• A California startup begins selling its DC-to-DC electric vehicle fast charger, saying it reduces energy loss and allows for direct link to solar panels. (Green Car Reports)

ELECTRIFICATION: An Alaska city begins offering residents up to $500 to replace oil-based heating systems with electric heat pumps. (KTOO) 

COAL: Data show 10 coal-fired generating units provide about one-third of Colorado’s power, but the facilities all are slated to close by 2031. (Colorado Sun)

OIL & GAS: 

• Alaska petroleum firms ask the state for additional subsidies and royalty relief before drilling for natural gas in the Cook Inlet to mitigate a looming regional fuel shortage. (Northern Journal)
• Data show two New Mexico counties in the Permian Basin have surpassed their Texas counterparts in oil production by churning out more than one million barrels per day. (Bloomberg)

UTILITIES: Utah lawmakers raise concerns about the state’s largest utility’s proposed 36% rate hike. (Deseret News)

CLIMATE: A study finds an increase in heat-related deaths between 2018 and 2023, with the vast majority of fatalities occurring in California, Arizona, Nevada and Texas. (Los Angeles Times)

COMMENTARY: California energy analysts find undergrounding power lines is necessary to mitigate wildfire hazard in some areas, but urge utilities to use more cost-effective methods when possible. (Energy Institute at Haas)

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Analysts: Data centers pose emerging risk to the Western grid is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

ALSO: Residents of a sparsely populated Nevada county push back on a 6,200 MW solar complex proposed for more than 100,000 acres of federal land. (Nevada Independent)

WIND: Oregon researchers aim to reduce wind facility-related bird fatalities by painting turbine blades black. (OPB)

ELECTRIFICATION: A Denver agency finishes removing natural gas hookups from and retrofitting a 17-unit public multifamily housing complex with all-electric appliances and central cooling. (CPR) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Washington state launches an effort to install electric vehicle chargers in rural areas and other charging deserts. (Spokesman-Review) 

PUBLIC LANDS: The federal Bureau of Land Management revamps its southwestern Wyoming resource plan and loosens proposed restrictions on energy development following protests from local officials and residents. (WyoFile) 

UTILITIES: 

• New Mexico lawmakers propose limiting utilities’ liability for wildfires sparked by their equipment if they take actions to mitigate hazards. (Source NM)
• California utilities line up to support the California grid operator’s proposal to streamline its renewable and battery storage interconnection process. (Utility Dive)
• A California city completes a community recreation center funded by a deadly 2010 Pacific Gas & Electric pipeline explosion settlement. (ABC 7)

COAL: 

• The operators of the Colstrip coal plant in Montana urge the U.S. Supreme Court to block implementation of new U.S. EPA emissions standards, saying the cost of complying with the rule would force the facility’s closure. (Montana Free Press)
• New Mexico advocates hail the demolition of the shuttered San Juan coal plant’s smokestacks as a symbol of the energy transition while the facility’s former workers mourn lost jobs. (NM Political Report, Tri-City Record)

OIL & GAS: 

• The U.S. Energy Department awards Colorado $12.6 million to plug and remediate aging, low-producing oil and gas wells in an effort to reduce methane emissions. (Colorado Newsline) 
• Wyoming regulators turn down $35 million in federal funds for plugging and reclaiming about 1,000 orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells, saying the situation is under control. (Cowboy State Daily)
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes withdrawing enforcement funding for a law requiring companies to monitor and repair existing oil and gas wells near homes and schools. (E&E News, subscription)

NUCLEAR: California advocates continue to urge policymakers and regulators to block the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant from continuing to operate beyond its 2025 retirement date, saying it is too expensive and dangerous. (Los Angeles Times)

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Solar cell company cancels Colorado factory plans is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California legislation to establish an Inland Empire “electric vehicle opportunity zone” would fund training and education programs and also offer business loans, tax credits and grants to manufacturers in Riverside County. (CalMatters) 

GEOTHERMAL: A proposed geothermal project in Colorado encounters opposition from nearby residents who have told the developer “we don’t care about the science; we simply don’t want it in our backyard.” (CBS News) 

UTILITIES: A Wyoming utility schedules a series of meetings amid customer frustration over skyrocketing bills, which the company has attributed to increasing costs related to fossil fuels and investments in renewable energy. (WyoFile)

COAL: A $5 billion merger between two of the nation’s largest coal mining companies could accelerate divestment from thermal coal in Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily)

COMMENTARY: A sustainability advocate says Los Angeles will need an “epic transportation reboot” to achieve a zero-emission Olympic Games in 2028. (Los Angeles Times)

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California ratepayer advocate sounds alarm on solar subsidies is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.