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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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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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.

OIL & GAS: 

• Advocacy groups call on New Mexico regulators to require oil and gas companies to comply with state law and plug and remediate more than 3,300 inactive wells. (news release)
• A federal agency appellate board rejects a company’s bid to abandon a 40-year-old oil well off California’s coast without following decommissioning rules. (E&E news, subscription)
• A California judge rejects an oil company’s bid to keep spill contingency plans secret for a pipeline near Santa Barbara that ruptured catastrophically in 2015. (Santa Barbara Independent)
• Policy experts predict a Harris/Walz administration policy for oil and gas drilling on public lands would continue Biden’s efforts to limit leasing, tighten regulations and target demand by encouraging clean energy development. (E&E News, subscription)

COAL: A federal court denies a firm’s bid to force federal regulators to rush their review of a proposed expansion of its Bull Mountains coal mine in Montana. (news release)

GEOTHERMAL: The federal Bureau of Land Management extends the public comment period for the proposed Fervo Cape enhanced geothermal project in southwestern Utah. (KSL)

HYDROPOWER: 

• A national laboratory’s study finds climate change could increase seasonal precipitation and hydropower production in the Northwest in coming decades, but will likely diminish generation in the Southwest. (OPB)
• Data show climate change-exacerbated drought has diminished Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower production by 17% since the late 1990s, forcing Western state utilities to turn to natural gas generation and raise rates. (Colorado Sun)

SOLAR: 

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on its draft environmental analysis of the proposed 400 MW Easley solar-plus-battery storage project in southern California. (news release)
• Las Vegas installs solar streetlights to reduce energy consumption and foil would-be copper wire thieves. (Fox 5) 

WIND: Idaho plans to challenge the Bureau of Land Management’s forthcoming approval of the proposed Lava Ridge wind project, even though environmental advocates now support it after the agency reduced its scope. (Idaho Capital Sun)

CLEAN ENERGY: 

• California developers call on the state to stop taxing income from sales of federal clean energy tax credits, saying the exemption would lower utility bills. (Politico)
• A Washington county begins crafting regulations for large-scale wind and solar facility siting. (Spokesman-Review)
• Clean energy advocates say California is leading efforts to remove hurdles to interconnecting large distributed generation resources like community solar and big box store rooftop arrays. (Utility Dive) 
• California advocates urge state lawmakers to reject proposals to cut clean energy and efficiency program funding for schools and low-income communities. (news release)

CLIMATE: California’s attorney general urges the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Republican-led states’ bid to quash lawsuits looking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for climate change. (E&E News, subscription)

COMMENTARY: A California editorial board urges state lawmakers to reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to delay implementation of an oil and gas well setback law, saying the public suffers health effects every day enforcement is postponed. (Los Angeles Times)

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Judge temporarily blocks Arizona lithium drilling 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.

PUBLIC LANDS: Utah files a lawsuit seeking control of some 18.5 million acres of unappropriated federal lands in the state, claiming Biden administration regulations hamper oil and gas and other development. (Associated Press)

COAL: The U.S. EPA tentatively rejects parts of Utah regulators’ plan to reduce smog-forming emissions from two coal power plants in the central part of the state. (E&E News, subscription)

GEOTHERMAL: California regulators extend the public comment period for proposed geothermal plants near the Salton Sea after environmental justice groups raise concerns. (Holtville Tribune)

SOLAR: A company brings a 200 MW solar installation online to help power its gold mine in Nevada. (news release)

WIND: 

• A Washington state energy siting council releases revised recommendations for the proposed Horse Heaven wind and solar facility after Gov. Jay Inslee rejected previous more restrictive suggestions. (Center Square) 
• The U.S. Energy Department issues a request for information related to offshore wind transmission development along the West Coast. (Renewable Energy Magazine)

CLEAN ENERGY: 

• U.S. Treasury Department data show more than 41,000 Nevada families have taken advantage of Inflation Reduction Act clean energy tax credits. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
• Washington state wildlife officials seek public input on proposed utility scale wind and solar facility siting guidelines. (KHQ)
• A southern California community power organization awards local nonprofits $1.2 million to fund clean energy and efficiency projects. (City News Service)

GRID: 

• Faculty and advocates push back against a Colorado university’s plan to upgrade its heating, cooling and electrical plant with new natural gas turbines, saying it is too costly and will do little to reduce emissions. (Colorado Sun)
• An Idaho study finds increasing electricity demand, ongoing drought and competition from wind, solar and natural gas generation have diminished hydropower’s share of the state’s energy mix over the last 20 years. (Idaho Capital Sun)
• California officials plan to issue flexible demand appliance standards for electric storage water heaters later this year. (PV Magazine)

UTILITIES: Montana regulators order NorthWestern Energy to provide more information before they will consider the utility’s proposed rate hike. (Daily Montanan)

CLIMATE: 

• Washington state awards 41 tribal nations and other organizations $14 million from its carbon cap-and-invest program to fund climate change mitigation projects. (NBC Right Now)
• Oregon officials propose managing 83,000 acres of state forest for capturing and storing carbon dioxide. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California awards a San Francisco Bay Area ferry service $5 million to install floating charging stations. (RTO Insider, subscription)

BIOFUELS: A western Colorado county supports studying the feasibility of establishing sustainable aviation fuel production facilities in the region. (Biofuels Digest)

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Federal regulators a no-show on Permian Basin oil and gas pollution 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.