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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Maine has no current plans to bring back its electric vehicle rebate program after it exhausted its $13.5 million in funds, and instead expects to focus more limited funding on low-income households and other groups that are “slower to adopt” EVs. (Maine Morning Star)
ALSO:
STORAGE: In Maine, bipartisan support could help the state reach its ambitious energy storage goals, despite likely federal pressure when President-elect Donald Trump takes office. (Bangor Daily News, subscription)
EFFICIENCY: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul’s administration fails to set a new target for reducing energy use in state buildings, despite a 2022 order that set a goal of going 100% renewable by 2030. (E&E News, subscription)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Credit rating agency S&P Global says its downgrading of Eversource’s rating in Connecticut should not increase costs for customers in Massachusetts or New Hampshire, though the utility maintains there will be a “ripple effect.” (Boston Globe)
SOLAR: A pilot program in southwestern Pennsylvania rolls out solar panel and battery storage leasing options for households making less than $100,000 per year. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
TRANSIT: New York City plans to expand its bike-share program to more neighborhoods in Brooklyn, Queens, and the Bronx, but is still avoiding some car-centric areas that have been less open to bike infrastructure. (Streetsblog NYC)
COMMENTARY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California’s energy commission votes to invest $1.4 billion in an emissions-free transportation plan that includes installing nearly 17,000 electric vehicle charging stations and hydrogen fueling infrastructure. (Utility Dive)
ALSO:
COAL: Wyoming and Montana file a lawsuit seeking to overturn the federal Bureau of Land Management’s ban on new coal leasing in the Powder River Basin, even though mining wouldn’t be affected until at least 2041 at the current rate of production. (WyoFile)
OIL & GAS:
CARBON CAPTURE: A firm proposes installing modular natural gas generating units with up to 1,000 MW of capacity in northern California using technology designed to capture all atmospheric emissions. (Power)
SOLAR: A developer begins construction on a 475 MW solar-plus-storage installation in northern Arizona near a coal plant slated to retire next year. (AZ Family)
TRANSITION: Colorado officials and advocates work to equitably transition an oil and gas-producing county to clean energy and other industries. (Aspen Journalism)
STORAGE: Data show California added 6,000 MWh of new grid-scale battery energy storage during the third quarter of 2024. (Solar Power World)
UTILITIES:
GRID:
WIND: Opponents of the recently greenlit Lava Ridge wind facility in southern Idaho consider waiting until President-elect Trump takes office to file a lawsuit seeking to reverse the federal approval. (Idaho Statesman)
COMMENTARY: Alaska is disproportionately struggling with the effects of climate change, an ocean advocate argues, and Trump’s efforts to open up the state’s oil and gas to extraction will only make matters worse. (Los Angeles Times)
This story was originally published by Canary Media.
California has long led the way on electric vehicles, but another Western state is challenging the Golden State’s top spot.
Between July and September, nearly 25 percent of the vehicles registered in Colorado were electric or plug-in hybrids. In California, that figure was just over 24 percent. It’s not enough to crown Colorado the new undisputed leader in EVs, but it’s a notable milestone — no other state has ever surpassed California in terms of EV registrations, according to James Di Filippo, principal policy analyst at Atlas Public Policy.
It’s the culmination of a “pretty dramatic” trend line for Colorado’s EV adoption since the start of 2023, Di Filippo said. Coloradans bought just over 41,000 EVs last year, up from roughly 23,000 in 2022.
Governor Jared Polis, a Democrat, announced the accomplishment last week, touting it as a sign of the state’s commitment to reaching its climate goals and improving air quality. “This new data shows that demand for EVs continues to increase and especially with competitive state and federal rebates, drastically cutting the cost of an EV and saving people money,” Polis said in a press release.
Colorado has some of the most generous incentives for EV sales in the country, Di Filippo said. Its policies and incentives have helped make the cars more affordable, while the state’s investments in charging infrastructure have made owning an electric car more practical.
All Coloradans can receive a $5,000 state tax credit for purchasing or leasing a new EV or plug-in hybrid priced up to $80,000. That credit is available through the end of this year, then will decrease to $3,500 starting in 2025. EVs valued under $35,000 are eligible for an additional tax credit of $2,500 — for a total potential state credit of $7,500.
Through the Vehicle Exchange Colorado program, income-qualified residents can trade in old or highly polluting gas cars in exchange for a $6,000 rebate to put toward a new EV or plug-in hybrid purchase or lease, or $4,000 for a used one.
The state tax credits and the vehicle-exchange rebates can be combined with federal tax credits, which currently offer up to $7,500 for a new EV lease or purchase or $4,000 for a used EV.
The state has also worked over the past few years to install more public chargers. There are currently over 5,500 public charging ports across Colorado. This year, the state plans to install another 576 ports using $5 million in funding from the Colorado Energy Office.
In 2020, the U.S. Energy Information Administration projected that 580,000 zero-emission vehicles would be sold in the U.S. in 2023. But actual sales last year were almost two and a half times greater at 1.43 million. This year, Cox Automotive expects sales to climb even higher, despite gloomy forecasts issued by some analysts earlier in 2024.
According to estimates from Kelley Blue Book, EV sales made up 8.9 percent of all vehicle sales in the country in the third quarter of this year — the highest share ever recorded, and an increase from 7.8 percent in the same time period last year.
The Biden administration set a goal for EVs to make up half of all new vehicle sales by 2030. As of this February, sales were on track to meet that goal, though the picture is more uncertain heading into the second Trump administration. The president-elect reportedly plans to eliminate federal EV tax credits and roll back Environmental Protection Agency tailpipe emissions rules — against the wishes of the nation’s largest automakers, including Ford, General Motors, and Stellantis.
Transportation is the single largest category of carbon emissions in the country, at 28 percent, driven mainly by trucks, SUVs, and other road vehicles.
Colorado has an even more aggressive EV goal than the federal government, aiming for 82 percent of all car sales to be electric by 2032. Looking ahead, EV registrations and sales in the state likely won’t continue to outpace California, Di Filippo said, since “the trend line for California is still steeper overall.”
“This isn’t necessarily a story of Colorado just beating California out right,” he said. “This is really a story of EV success.”
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly reliable and are narrowing a wide gap with gas-powered vehicles, according to a new survey from Consumer Reports. (Associated Press)
ALSO: Elon Musk says the Trump administration should get rid of the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit, which he has said would help his company Tesla by hurting its competitors. (E&E News)
EFFICIENCY: Democratic Sen. Jeanne Shaheen calls on the White House to “expeditiously review and approve” 10 pending energy efficiency standards, noting current rules won’t get the Biden administration to its goal for emissions reductions via efficiency. (The Hill)
HYDROGEN: Community and environmental advocates are increasingly frustrated by a lack of public information and engagement around proposed regional hydrogen hubs. (Energy News Network)
OFFSHORE WIND: Local offshore wind opponents often receive support including strategy advice, talking points, and celebrity guest speakers from national anti-wind groups funded by the fossil fuel industry, according to a new report from Brown University. (ecoRI)
CLEAN ENERGY: Companies awarded tentative federal clean energy loans to build hydrogen, electric vehicle and other manufacturing facilities worry about their fate under the Trump administration. (New York Times)
POLITICS:
SOLAR:
OIL & GAS: A report finds nine Louisiana liquified natural gas terminals that are operating, under construction or planned will receive more than $21.1 billion in local property tax breaks if all are completed, amounting to “an effective subsidy” of $6.7 million per job. (Floodlight)
OVERSIGHT: The U.S. EPA says in a year-end report that it more than doubled pollution fines and penalties over last year, made its first arrest in a climate-related crime, and stepped up enforcement in historically disadvantaged communities. (Associated Press)
GRID:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Duke Energy builds an electric vehicle charging station near Charlotte, North Carolina, that includes a solar farm and two battery storage systems, and could become a model as commercial trucking companies electrify their fleets. (WFAE)
ALSO:
PIPELINES: Natural gas producer EQT announces it’s selling a stake in its pipeline network to asset manager Blackstone for $3.5 billion, which includes the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Reuters, news release)
HYDROGEN: Four partners have withdrawn from a regional network building an Appalachian hydrogen hub due to the inclusion of strict carbon emission limits in a tax credit to incentivize production. (Mountain State Spotlight)
CARBON CAPTURE:
CLEAN ENERGY: Federal officials award more than $3.6 million to 20 Tennessee farms and businesses to install solar power and energy efficiency upgrades. (Tennessee Lookout)
OIL & GAS: Sources close to Trump’s transition team says he plans to “go strong” on liquified natural gas exports. (Reuters)
GRID:
OVERSIGHT:
COMMENTARY: Dominion Energy’s filings reveal that data centers are single-handedly driving its escalating projections for new power demand, calling into question the utility’s proposal to build more gas-fired power plants and delay the transition to clean energy, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes offering rebates on electric vehicle purchases if the incoming Trump administration eliminates a federal EV tax credit, while suggesting the incentive program could exclude Tesla cars. (Associated Press, Sacramento Bee)
ALSO: Colorado awards three municipalities $1.5 million to develop an electric bicycle sharing program. (BizWest, subscription)
NUCLEAR:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: Public Service Company of New Mexico proposes adding 430 MW of new solar capacity and battery storage, including a planned array near the defunct San Juan coal plant. (Solar Industry)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
COAL: Utah lawmakers propose legislation to close perceived gaps in a 2023 law aimed at blocking the Intermountain Power Association coal plant’s 2025 retirement. (Utah News Dispatch)
LITHIUM: A Utah lithium mining firm idles its Great Salt Lake operations and lays off 186 employees, citing low commodity prices. (KUER)
BUILDINGS: A Colorado town considers requiring homeowners to offset outdoor energy use for pools, spas and snowmelt systems by installing solar and batteries or paying a fee. (Vail Daily)
PUBLIC LANDS: Federal officials push back on Western states’ legal bid to seize “unappropriated” public lands, saying the case rests on “weak foundations.” (WyoFile)
CLIMATE: California’s public employee pension fund says it has invested $53 billion in climate solutions over the last year, though advocates are still urging it to divest from ExxonMobil. (ESG Dive)
President-elect Trump spent his campaign promising to tear into electric vehicle incentives and emission regulations. A growing contingent is preparing to fight him on it.
For starters, Ford, General Motors, Stellantis, and other automakers plan to ask the incoming president to keep in place Biden administration tailpipe emissions standards that would push them toward phasing out combustion vehicles. While they don’t all love the regulations, they’ve already invested billions of dollars into EVs and just want the rules governing that transition to stay consistent, the New York Times reports. The same goes for the Inflation Reduction Act’s $7,500 EV incentives: automakers and dealers say repealing them would hurt sales and put their huge EV investments at risk.
If something does happen to those incentives, California is coming up with a backup plan. Gov. Gavin Newsom this week proposed relaunching the state’s Clean Vehicle Rebate Program to once again incentivize EV purchases, promising that “we’re not turning back on a clean transportation future.” Officials in the governor’s office told the Associated Press that the state could exclude Tesla from those rebates to incentivize competition, something Trump’s pal Elon Musk called “insane.”
Meanwhile, the $7.5 billion for EV chargers allocated under 2021’s Bipartisan Infrastructure Law is in safer territory. The program so far hasn’t made much progress deploying chargers, but its funding will largely be allocated to projects and nearly impossible to roll back by the time Trump takes office, experts tell Politico.
🕰️ Every second counts: Biden administration officials say they’ll race to allocate the remaining $46 billion from four climate and infrastructure bills before the year ends, but $303 billion will remain that cannot be spent until after Trump takes office. (Washington Post)
👷 Offshore wind’s newest defenders: Industrial unions are emerging as a somewhat unlikely source of support for offshore wind and may be uniquely positioned to help defend the nascent industry’s momentum under a second Trump presidency. (Grist)
🏦 Good news for a green bank: A federal green bank program could survive the next four years, assuming the Trump administration follows the law, as its funding has already been formally committed and is supporting projects in red and blue states. (Canary Media)
🔌 Uncertainty on efficiency: Advocates anticipate a mixed bag for energy efficiency under Trump’s second term, expecting cuts in federal funding but noting that efficiency standards benefit U.S. manufacturers and have long had bipartisan support. (Utility Dive)
STORAGE: The United Auto Workers announces a campaign to unionize Ford Motor Co. and SK On’s joint battery project in Kentucky after a supermajority of workers sign union authorization cards. (Louisville Courier-Journal, Kentucky Lantern)
ALSO: A Texas startup is operating a 53 MW storage project made up of used electric vehicle batteries, and appears to be the largest grid storage plant in the world. (Canary Media)
POLITICS:
HYDROGEN: The Biden administration signs an agreement with developers to build a $1.2 billion hydrogen hub in Texas. (Houston Chronicle)
NUCLEAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR: A Virginia county board discusses changing its solar ordinance to tighten restrictions on projects larger than five acres. (Bristol Herald-Courier)
CARBON CAPTURE: Exxon Mobil and other Gulf Coast oil and gas companies lobby the incoming Trump administration to preserve an $85 per ton tax credit for carbon storage since they’ve already invested in development of the technology. (Houston Chronicle)
OIL & GAS: The Biden administration still aims to release a new rule to require oil and gas companies to cover cleanup costs from offshore drilling rigs, but time is running out and the incoming Trump administration could rewrite or delay it. (E&E News)
BIOFUELS: The Tennessee Valley Authority and an energy nonprofit announce the successful demonstration of renewable diesel for power generation at a 76 MW gas and diesel-fired power plant in Tennessee. (news release)
UTILITIES: Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators for approval to charge customers for costs associated with its offshore wind farm and moves to develop small modular nuclear reactors. (VPM)
COMMENTARY: The incoming Trump administration’s promises to roll back electric vehicle tax credits could rattle Georgia’s industry, writes a columnist. (Georgia Recorder)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Rivian and Volkswagen finalize their $5.8 billion joint venture to develop electric vehicle software that will be used in models made at Rivian’s planned Georgia plant and Volkswagen’s Tennessee factory. (New York Times; Atlanta Journal-Constitution, subscription; Chattanooga Times Free Press)
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OIL & GAS:
POLITICS: South Carolina lawmakers consider a proposed Dominion Energy and Santee Cooper gas-fired plant and a previous failed plan to build a nuclear plant as they determine how to boost energy generation to meet growing power demand. (South Carolina Public Radio)
HYDROGEN: Appalachian residents worry a planned hub to use primarily natural gas to create hydrogen will increase fracking activity, produce pollution and degrade quality of life — part of a pattern of criticism that’s emerged against hydrogen hubs around the country. (Environmental Health News)
OVERSIGHT: Largely in response to criticism of a lack of transparency, Virginia regulators publish a database of data centers’ air permits, which allow them to run diesel generators during outages. (Virginia Mercury)
GRID: Georgia residents react against Georgia Power’s plan to build a transmission line through one of metro Atlanta’s oldest neighborhoods. (WANF)
EFFICIENCY: Two companies partner on a plan to distribute thousands of smart thermostats across Texas in hopes of developing a nearly 1 GW residential virtual power plant by 2035. (Utility Dive)
BIOFUELS:
CLIMATE:
UTILITIES: Tampa Electric files federal documents indicating it could file with Florida regulators to recover roughly $400 million from customers for damage caused by Hurricanes Helene and Milton. (News Service of Florida)
ENVIRONMENT: A study ranks West Virginia as the country’s least environmentally sustainable state, based on factors that include high carbon dioxide emissions, low renewable energy use, and limited electric vehicle adoption. (WV News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Colorado advocates say a recent increase in electric vehicle sales shows state and federal incentives are working as intended. (Colorado Sun)
ALSO:
OVERSIGHT: California prepares to defend its climate and environmental laws against the incoming Trump administration’s likely challenges. (CalMatters)
CLIMATE: A report predicts Colorado will fall short of its greenhouse gas-reduction goals for 2025 and 2030, but the gap is smaller than in previous forecasts. (Denver Post)
MINING:
OIL & GAS: Wyoming’s oil and gas industry expects the incoming Trump administration and Republican-dominated Senate to loosen federal drilling regulations. (Cowboy State Daily)
STORAGE: Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to purchase 500 MW of power from two standalone battery energy storage systems in southern California. (Energy Storage News, subscription)
SOLAR: Arizona Public Service signs on to purchase power from a proposed 600 MW solar-plus-storage installation in the northern part of the state. (Solar Industry)
WIND: California awards the West Coast’s floating offshore wind industry nearly $38 million for research aimed at increasing efficiency and reducing costs. (RTO Insider, subscription)
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