Discover the Latest News and Initiatives for a Sustainable Future

GRID: Large tech companies are betting on atomic fusion and other unproven energy technologies to power AI data centers, which critics say are already increasing reliance on fossil fuels. (Washington Post)

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ALSO:

• A company’s plan to install power flow control devices to enhance power lines’ capacity is among 58 grid-enhancing projects that recently received U.S. Energy Department funding. (Canary Media)
• An advocacy group highlights 15 well-designed virtual power plant programs that can serve as models for future resilient development. (Utility Dive)

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OIL & GAS:

• Major U.S. oil companies urge congressional Republicans to fight a bipartisan bill that would examine the carbon intensity of crude oil and other industrial projects. (E&E News)
• Oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin search for safe ways to repurpose wastewater produced during fracking after reinjections of water into the ground were linked to earthquakes. (E&E News)
• The U.S. EPA and Energy Department plan to spend $850 million on projects to address methane leaks from oil and gas production. (E&E News)
• Advocacy groups find oil and gas industry-operated methane emissions monitors are often offline and miss pollution events, casting doubt on the validity of natural gas certification programs. (news release)

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RENEWABLES: University of Wisconsin researchers map millions of acres of abandoned U.S. farmland that could potentially be reused for renewable energy projects. (Journal Sentinel)

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SOLAR: Korean solar company Qcells expands its deal with a developer to provide 2 GW of modules from its Georgia factory for community solar projects by 2027, in what the company says is the largest community solar partnership in U.S. history. (Korea Herald, news release)

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HYDROGEN: The oil and gas industry’s lawsuit against the U.S. EPA questioning the process of developing clean hydrogen as a fuel for long-haul trucks grinds against efforts by Exxon Mobil and Chevron to champion the new technology. (Houston Chronicle)

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ELECTRIFICATION: A study finds California utilities could save about $20 billion over the next two decades by electrifying clusters of buildings instead of replacing their aging natural gas pipelines. (Utility Dive)

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CLIMATE:

• Hawaii recognizes children’s constitutional right to a life-sustaining climate and steps up efforts to reach a goal of net-negative emissions by 2045 to settle a youths’ lawsuit targeting the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies. (Associated Press)
• A recently expanded Minnesota law targeting transportation emissions will require all major highway projects to consider and potentially mitigate their climate impacts. (Energy News Network)

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COAL: A federal watchdog’s report finds an agency’s process for distributing funding to states and tribes to clean up old coal mines is plagued by problems that have resulted in delays, poor tracking and confusion. (E&E News)

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Correction: The Ohio Consumers’ Counsel is Maureen Willis. A previous version of this story misstated her name.

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Last year was the eighth in a row that at least one of Ohio’s regulated electric utilities failed to meet one or both company-specific reliability standards set by the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Companies providing service to a majority of Ohio ratepayers also missed one of their marks last year.

These utilities’ track records suggest consumers aren’t getting full bang for their buck, even as they’re charged millions for riders purportedly for grid improvements, vegetation management and other work.

“AEP Ohio has been investing hundreds of millions of dollars in its distribution to improve reliability,” said company spokesperson Scott Blake, commenting on the PUCO’s slightly stricter standards for the company starting in 2019, compared to those from 2013. “These investments are making stricter performance standards more achievable.”

Yet AEP Ohio failed to meet its standard last year for how long it takes to get power back on when outages affect customers.

All Ohio utilities reduced the frequency of their outages per customer last year compared to 2021 and 2022. But Duke Energy Ohio still failed to meet that standard. AEP Ohio and FirstEnergy’s Cleveland Electric Illuminating Company and Toledo Edison meanwhile failed to hit their targets for how long it takes to restore customers’ power after outages.

Prolonged outages can lead to spoiled food, loss of heating and air conditioning, interruptions to business, inability to use power for electronics and more. Those problems in turn can threaten people’s physical or financial well-being. Additionally, ongoing climate change poses continuing challenges for the electric grid’s reliability and resilience.

“Regulators of course are interested in utilities’ performance in delivering safe and reliable power,” said Matt Schilling, spokesperson for the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio.

Toward that end, the agency sets two company-specific reliability standards for each electric utility, using common metrics in the electric industry. Utilities must file reports each spring showing how they performed on each metric in the prior year.

One standard refers to the average time outages last for customers who experience them, measured in minutes. It’s called the Customer Average Interruption Duration Index, or CAIDI. The other is the average number of outages per customer systemwide. It’s known as the System Average Interruption Frequency Index, or SAIFI.

If a utility fails to meet the SAIFI metric, “it means they are having too many outages occurring,” said FirstEnergy spokesperson Lauren Siburkis. “And if they fail at meeting CAIDI, it means they are taking too long to restore [power] when there is an outage.”

The metrics allow period-to-period comparisons so a company can track its improvement over time, she added.

The PUCO’s rules exclude major outages, such as those due to some extreme weather events, in determining whether companies met or missed their regulatory reliability standards, although the annual reports include the data both before and after the exclusions. Yet the “customer minutes interrupted,” which did count toward the reliability standards, added up to more than 1,000 years of power loss for individual customers last year.

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Eight years in a row

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The four utilities that failed to meet one of their standards last year provide power to more than half of Ohio’s electricity customers. The Energy News Network’s data review shows at least one Ohio utility also missed meeting a standard every year going back to 2016.

In 2022, CEI and AES Ohio both missed their standards for the average duration of customer outages, and Duke missed its standard for the average frequency of outages in 2021 and 2022.

AES Ohio failed to meet its standard for the average length of customer outages for four years in a row, from 2019 through 2022, but spokesperson Mary Ann Kabel said the situation is improving.

“The company’s CAIDI has improved every year since 2019, and we’re committed to providing safe and reliable service,” she said.

Before that, in 2018, AEP missed on both of its performance standards. Duke Energy Ohio missed on both of its standards in 2017. And in 2016 Duke missed on its standard for the average time customers with outages went without power.

When companies fail to meet either of their reliability standards in the prior year, regulators require them to provide reasoning and a plan to address those issues. The Ohio Administrative Code says missing the same standard for two years in a row counts as a violation. Violations can result in penalties, corrective action, or restitution to customers.

Utilities’ ability to meet their performance standards depends on multiple factors, Schilling said. All have programs to trim vegetation within their rights-of-way, but vegetation outside that area also can interfere with power lines and equipment.

“Other factors like aging infrastructure and maintenance can cause outages,” Schilling said, although “utilities routinely invest to update and maintain their systems.”

Additional causes include damage from wildlife or motor vehicle crashes, some of which may be out of utility companies’ control.

Extreme weather played a role in Duke’s miss on the frequency standard last year. Three big storms in July 2023 bumped up the number of outages, even though the storms didn’t meet criteria for excluded events, the company’s filing said.

FirstEnergy’s action plan filed in April pointed to line and equipment failures and to trees as reasons why CEI and Toledo Edison didn’t meet their standards last year. Toledo Edison and CEI plan to conduct thermal scans of their worst performing circuits and additional work to upgrade lightning protection and other equipment in places where customers have multiple outages. Other work aims to prevent tree-related problems.

“Tree-related outages are a top contributor to outage durations because of the need to safely remove the vegetation prior to starting repair work,” Siburkis said, “so the tree-related work in the plan will have a positive impact, even during major events.”

Vegetation management was also part of AES Ohio’s work when it failed to meet its outage duration standard. The company’s action plan filed in 2023 said the company was working to install stronger poles and make other improvements “to reduce the severity of storm outages.” Smart grid deployment was also part of the company’s plan, along with a revision of its reliability standards.

AES Ohio’s updated standards took effect last year. They allow nearly seven minutes longer for restoring service to customers when they lose power, but require a slightly lower average frequency for outages. A slightly lower SAIFI standard would reflect an expectation for there to be fewer outages in the first place.

AEP Ohio blamed arithmetic for its failure to meet the outage duration standard last year. Smart grid work eliminated various shorter outages, the company reported. But a smaller number of service interruptions pushed up the average duration for outages that did occur.

“AEP Ohio’s CAIDI score has gone up not because AEP Ohio’s performance on longer outages has gotten worse, but rather because AEP Ohio has been able to eliminate shorter outages that had been keeping the CAIDI average down,” Blake said.

An additional industry metric, known as SAIDI, for System Average Interruption Duration Index, divides the number of outages by all customers, whether they lost power or not. Using that metric makes it look like AEP Ohio outperformed by more than 25%, according to data in the company’s filing.

House Bill 260, sponsored by Republicans Bill Seitz of Cincinnati and Monica Robb Blasdel of Columbiana, would swap out SAIDI for CAIDI.

Seitz initially said he didn’t know how reliability was currently calculated. Then in a follow-up email he said he had been informed a switch “would better incentivize utilities to meet the reliability demands of customers,” adding an opinion that the installation of smart meters and other work to reduce outages makes the CAIDI standard “obsolete.”

“It’s meaningless if you don’t have both” of the current standards, said Ashley Brown, a former PUCO commissioner, adding that decisions about reliability standards are best left to regulators, not the legislature.

The bill’s proposal to change the metric “diminishes the importance of individual consumer outages,” said Ohio Consumers’ Counsel Maureen Willis. “Other changes being proposed weaken the reliability standards by excluding more outages from being part of the reliability assessment,” she added.

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GRID: An organization pushing to build transmission lines along highways recently scored a legislative win in Minnesota, and now looks to expand the policy to other states. (Canary Media)

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ALSO: Consumers Energy is burying 2 miles of overhead power lines in eastern Michigan to improve grid reliability in an area prone to outages. (WJRT)

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OVERSIGHT: An Ohio bill that surfaced after the HB 6 scandal and would require consumer representation on the state’s Public Utilities Commission is up for a first hearing today. (WOSU)

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CLIMATE: Climate change-related severe storms have caused losses for insurers in Minnesota for six of the last seven years, likely driving higher insurance premiums and home prices for buyers. (MPR News)

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UTILITIES: Indiana consumer and environmental advocates oppose a proposed Duke Energy rate increase that they contend would further the utility’s reliance on coal and volatile fuel costs. (Herald-Times)

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OIL & GAS: Residents are ordered to evacuate a 16-story Youngstown, Ohio apartment building that neighbors a building that was structurally damaged from a natural gas explosion and is at risk of collapsing. (Associated Press)

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SOLAR:

• About an hour west of Madison, Wisconsin’s largest solar farm is generating enough power for tens of thousands of homes while generating crucial income for the farmer landowner. (WISN)
• Construction starts on a 250 MW solar project in western Michigan that’s part of Consumers Energy’s plan to add 8,000 MW of solar by 2040. (Renewable Energy World)

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TRANSPORTATION: The city of Detroit is piloting a public transportation program that will use on-demand, self-driving shuttles in portions of the city to benefit older or disabled residents. (Model D)

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EFFICIENCY: Ohio awards $5.6 million in energy efficiency grants for six projects across the state that aim to cut buildings’ energy use. (Cleveland.com)

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POWER PLANTS: Ameren Missouri seeks permission to build a $900 million, 800 MW natural gas-fired peaking plant that would run during periods of high demand. (Daily Energy Insider)

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COMMENTARY: A GOP state representative from Michigan says new federal tailpipe emissions regulations that accommodate an influx of electric vehicles would disrupt the state’s primary industry. (Bridge)

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GRID: Weather-related power outages, such as those that recently struck Texas, are happening more frequently as storms intensify and an aging electric grid struggles to keep pace with demands. (CNN)

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ALSO:

• Connecting Texas’ electric grid to the rest of the nation could slash carbon emissions and prevent power outages like the one during the deadly 2021 winter storm, a new study concludes. (E&E News, subscription)
• Louisiana utility regulators call for a comprehensive review of utility SWEPCO’ system because of ongoing power outages, especially during hurricane season and extreme heat. (KTAL)

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CLIMATE: An analysis of death certificates finds that 2023 was a record year for heat-related deaths and illnesses, with Texas, Oklahoma, Louisiana, and Arkansas among the hotspots where rates surged. (Associated Press)

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UTILITIES:

• Hotter summers, inefficient construction, and political influence by utility companies are all contributing to higher energy costs in the Gulf South region. (Gulf States Newsroom)
• A Republican pollster is “taken aback” by a recent poll finding that likely Florida voters in both parties worry about the state’s heavy reliance on natural gas for electricity. (Tampa Bay Times)

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COAL: Clean energy advocates are finding success in Louisiana and elsewhere arguing that coal is more costly than renewables and that ratepayers shouldn’t have to pay for uneconomical power plants. (New York Times)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A planned Toyota EV battery manufacturing “megasite,” spurred by the federal Inflation Reduction Act, is driving an economic transformation in a rural North Carolina community. (Inside Climate News)
• Daytona Beach, Florida, is in talks with companies to provide a free, app-based shuttle service using electric vehicles. (Daytona Times)
• School districts in Georgia and Virginia are among those receiving millions of dollars in federal funding for electric school buses. (Macon Telegraph, Fredericksburg Free Lance-Star)

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EMISSIONS: Savannah, Georgia, has seen its electricity-related greenhouse gas emissions decline over the last two decades even as its population grew, but transportation emissions are rising. (Savannah Now)

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OIL & GAS:

• Arkansas and the federal government sue ExxonMobil over a 2013 pipeline failure that spilled tens of thousands of gallons of heavy crude into a residential neighborhood over the course of 12 hours. (Arkansas Times)
• A company will host a public meeting tomorrow for its plans to build a natural gas storage facility and pipelines in southwest Louisiana. (KPLC)
• The developer of a proposed liquified natural gas export terminal in Texas asks federal regulators for more time to complete the project, citing its prolonged legal fight with the Sierra Club. (E&E News, subscription)

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SOLAR:

• The CEO of a solar company pitching free solar panels to New Orleans schools faces fraud and theft accusations in states where he has previously done business. (NOLA.com)
• More than 100 residents gathered in a Virginia high school gym last week to learn about a proposed solar farm that’s expected to generate $20 million in tax revenue. (Bristol Herald Courier)

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STORAGE: Lynchburg, Virginia’s city council approves siting agreements for two major battery energy storage systems that include money for the fire department to buy training and equipment. (News & Advance)

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POLICY: A Virginia Department of Energy official will serve as executive director of a newly revived state commission tasked with studying energy-related legislative proposals. (Virginia Mercury)

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COMMENTARY: North Carolinians would pay the cost of Duke Energy’s proposed natural gas plant build-out through heightened utility bills and worsened health, air and water, an advocacy group writes. (Appalachian Voices)

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GRID: Grid-enhancing technology that could expand existing power lines’ capacity is catching on worldwide but struggling in the U.S. as utilities shy away from high upfront costs. (E&E News)

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ALSO:

• Data centers are taking off across the country, including in the Permian Basin, raising concerns over the power grid’s ability to keep up. (E&E News)
• A new report predicts extreme heat will drive U.S. households’ utility costs up 8% this summer. (The Guardian)

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CLEAN ENERGY:

• Clean energy and transportation investments totaled a record high of $71 billion in the first quarter of the year. (Utility Dive)
• The world isn’t on track to meet a 2030 renewable energy goal, the International Energy Agency says. (The Guardian)
• U.S. solar deployment has skyrocketed since the Inflation Reduction Act’s passage, but wind projects have slowed amid growing backlash, supply chain challenges, and permitting delays. (New York Times)

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CLIMATE: Oil and gas corporations ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block lawsuits brought by states seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars of climate change-caused damage. (Los Angeles Times)

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GEOTHERMAL: A Massachusetts utility this week will launch the nation’s first utility-operated underground thermal energy network. (Canary Media)

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POLITICS:

• Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse calls former President Trump’s reported promise to aid fossil fuel companies if they fund his campaign the “definition of corruption” as the Democrat leads an effort to investigate the issue. (The Guardian)
• Three Republican Congress members who own car dealerships are fighting White House efforts to boost the electric vehicle industry. (E&E News)
• Sen. Joe Manchin leaves the Democratic party, but will remain at the helm of the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee. (E&E News)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Car dealers say they’re seeing more blue-collar electric vehicle buyers as federal incentives and price drops make EVs more affordable. (New York Times)

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NUCLEAR: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calls for the construction of 98 more nuclear plants on the scale of new units at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle. (Associated Press)

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PIPELINES: Federal records identify roughly 130 potential problem areas revealed during testing of the Mountain Valley Pipeline earlier this spring, raising further concern about the pipe’s integrity. (Roanoke Times)

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EFFICIENCY: Attorneys general from 23 states threaten legal action if the Biden administration moves forward with new energy-efficiency standards on stoves, cooktops and ovens. (Nebraska Examiner)

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HYDROGEN: Minnesota-based 3M is investing in research that aims to lower the costs of producing green hydrogen and make it more competitive with renewables and fossil fuels. (Star Tribune)

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GRID: Data centers are creating a climate dilemma in states like Michigan, where a Democrat proposes incentives to lure the facilities while acknowledging their spiking electricity use could move the goalposts for the state’s renewable energy goals. (E&E News)

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SOLAR:

• A Wisconsin technical college expects to save up to $30,000 a year on utility costs after adding a solar project with battery storage to a series of energy efficiency investments. (WKOW)
• Rooftop solar generated the most support among clean energy options during a recent survey of local officials in Michigan on expanding clean energy infrastructure. (Route Fifty)

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CLEAN ENERGY: Illinois regulators approve the state’s first roadmap to reach 100% carbon-free power by 2050 as required under a 2021 law. (E&E News, subscription)

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PIPELINES:

• Eight hours of public hearings over Enbridge’s plan to reroute Line 5 in Wisconsin bring out supporters touting economic benefits and opponents with environmental and Indigenous rights concerns. (Journal Sentinel)
• North Dakota regulators complete a series of public hearings on the proposed Summit carbon pipeline, with the final session dominated by public safety concerns and landowner frustrations about dealing with the company. (North Dakota Monitor)
• At least 14 South Dakota state legislators lost their primary races on Tuesday as a controversial carbon pipeline project remains a top wedge issue. (South Dakota Searchlight)

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OVERSIGHT: Attorneys representing Ohio energy regulators continue to claim that there is no record of the names of staffers who recommended a protective order that hid key details about an audit into the state’s power plant bailout law. (Checks and Balances Project)

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TRANSPORTATION: Michigan House Democrats propose a 10-year, $6 billion economic development plan that would direct a portion of business incentives toward statewide transit. (Bridge)

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EFFICIENCY: The market monitor of grid operator PJM claims FirstEnergy and other utilities should be barred from collecting nearly $130 million in revenue for failing to show they are eligible for the energy efficiency capacity payments. (Utility Dive)

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BIOFUELS: Production of renewable diesel, which can be made from similar products as biofuels but doesn’t need to be added to traditional diesel, exceeded biodiesel production in the U.S. for the first time in 2022-2023. (Farm Progress)

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COMMENTARY: Michigan needs legislation to allow independently owned community solar projects that benefit the grid while taking advantage of new federal funding, a solar advocate writes. (Bridge)

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GRID: California advocates call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse proposed funding cuts to virtual power plant and demand response programs, saying they support grid reliability and distributed storage. (Canary Media)

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ALSO:

• A report predicts expanding use of energy-intensive generative AI will more than double Arizona data centers’ share of the state’s overall electricity use by 2030. (Axios)
• The developer of the Boardman-Hemingway transmission project in Oregon and Idaho proposes expanding the project’s site boundaries. (Capital Press, subscription)
• A California agency brings online three new natural gas peaker plants designed to provide backup during peak demand. (Modesto Bee)

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CLIMATE: A California city votes to block testing of an experimental cloud brightening technology aimed at slowing climate warming, even though a study found it posed no health risks. (New York Times)

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OIL & GAS:

• The U.S. Energy Department awards a Colorado university $20 million to research ways to reduce methane emissions from oil and gas infrastructure. (CBS News)
• A developer advances a proposed natural gas pipeline from Alaska’s North Slope to the south-central part of the state by inking a supply agreement with an oil and gas company. (Alaska Public Media)

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UTILITIES:

• Puget Sound Energy plans to ramp up overdue bill collection efforts in Washington state, raising concerns that thousands of low-income families may lose electricity and natural gas service. (Washington State Standard)
• A campaign to replace San Diego Gas & Electric with a municipal utility collects enough signatures to force a city council vote on whether to put the issue on the ballot. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

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STORAGE: Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to purchase power from a 112.5 MW battery energy storage system under construction in southwestern Arizona. (Solar Industry)

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SOLAR:

• The San Carlos Apache Tribe seeks a firm or organization to develop, operate and finance a proposed 500 MW solar project on the tribe’s land in Arizona. (news release)
• Tri-State Generation and Transmission purchases two solar installations in western Colorado with a combined 255 MW capacity. (Power)
• A dispute over funding for a county road expansion delays progress on a proposed 771 MW solar installation in Wyoming. (Cowboy State Daily)  
• An Arizona megachurch completes construction on a rooftop solar array expected to cut its energy costs by a third. (Solar Quarter)

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CLEAN ENERGY: A U.S. courthouse in Montana is awarded $24 million in federal funding to upgrade the structure’s efficiency and install electric heat pumps. (Missoulian)

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BIOFUELS: Montana residents and advocates push back on an aviation biofuel producer’s plans to inject wastewater into spent oil and gas wells. (Montana Public Radio)

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POLITICS: Former President Donald Trump indicates he would do away with the Interior Department — which oversees energy development on federal land — if he is elected to another term. (E&E News)

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GRID: California’s grid operator approves a $6.1 billion plan to build 26 new transmission projects and greenlights Pattern Energy’s proposal to tie the SunZia line into the state’s power network. (E&E News)

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ALSO: An Arizona utility proposes constructing a high-voltage transmission line and substation in the Phoenix area to support new development. (Phoenix Independent)

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UTILITIES: Oregon wineries and vineyards file a lawsuit seeking $100 million from PacifiCorp over its alleged role in sparking the 2020 Labor Day fires that damaged grapes and reduced harvests and sales. (Associated Press)

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OIL & GAS: The federal Bureau of Land Management blocks oil and gas drilling and mining for 20 years around a complex cave system in southeastern New Mexico. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

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ELECTRIFICATION: More California cities suspend natural gas hookup bans after Berkeley’s ban was shot down by a federal court. (Planetizen)

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CLEAN ENERGY:

• Montana analysts worry a lack of adequate transmission will stifle the state’s clean energy buildup. (Billings Gazette)
• A report finds utility-scale clean energy development in Colorado is fueling demand for skilled workers. (KUNC)
• Washington state awards five tribal nations $7.5 million to develop solar and wave energy projects. (news release)

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WIND: Oregon regulators schedule a series of public meetings on proposed offshore wind leasing along the state’s southern coast. (Yachats News)

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CLIMATE:

• Montana advocates accuse state utility regulators of improperly stalling action on a petition that would require them to consider climate change in decisions. (Daily Montanan)
• Arizona officials begin opening cooling centers at night as part of a ramped up effort to cope with extreme heat after metro Phoenix saw 645 heat-related deaths in 2023. (Associated Press)
• A study finds a California experiment aimed at fighting climate change by brightening clouds poses no health or safety risks in advance of a city’s vote on whether to allow the test to proceed. (East Bay Times)

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TRANSPORTATION: Republican congress members demand information on California’s high-speed rail project’s costs and delays and call it a “highly questionable endeavor.” (ABC News)

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STORAGE: Southern California residents step up opposition to a proposed battery energy storage system after a blaze at a similar facility nearby occupied firefighters for over a week. (KPBS)

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GEOTHERMAL:

• Utah’s geothermal industry says the federal Bureau of Land Management’s decision to defer 177,000 acres of energy leases until next year could imperil investments and development. (Deseret News)
• Colorado awards a state university nearly $700,000 to study the feasibility of deploying geothermal energy on its campus. (Times-Call)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Cow Creek Umpqua Tribe installs Oregon’s largest non-Tesla electric vehicle charging station at a tribally owned casino and travel center. (KTVL)

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LITHIUM: Utah advocates and residents continue to push back against a proposed direct lithium extraction project over water use and potential aquifer contamination, even though the developers say it is “as green as possible.” (Utah News Dispatch)

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GRID: An Oregon utility invests in the proposed $3.2 billion North Plains Connector transmission project in Montana designed to link the Eastern and Western grids. (Montana Standard)

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ALSO:

• A new Colorado law requires Xcel Energy to create a virtual power plant program by early next year that includes a performance-based compensation tariff. (Utility Dive)
• A southern California utility’s maps show it undergrounded distribution lines in wealthier neighborhoods before doing so in low-income areas. (Voice of San Diego)

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MINING:

• The Navajo Nation plans to regulate a Grand Canyon-area uranium mine’s ore shipments along federal and state highways across its lands, since it can’t ban the transports outright. (KJZZ)
• Alaska advocates raise concerns about a company’s proposed pipeline that would ship 20 billion cubic feet of natural gas annually to fuel a planned gold mine. (KYUK)

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SOLAR:

• Southern California residential solar installers launch a skywriting campaign criticizing utilities and regulators for slashing net metering compensation for rooftop arrays. (Fox 5 San Diego)
• A developer brings a 50 MW solar-plus-storage project online in southern California to power Meta data centers. (news release)
• Tesla finishes adding 1 MW of solar capacity to its Nevada gigafactory’s rooftop. (Microgrid Knowledge)

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GEOTHERMAL:

• Federal wildlife officials propose protecting the endangered Dixie Valley toad’s critical habitat in the path of a proposed geothermal facility in Nevada. (news release)
• A Utah research center successfully tests its enhanced geothermal well stimulation technology, saying it is a major industry breakthrough. (Renewable Energy Magazine)

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POLLUTION: Advocates urge the U.S. EPA to force Wyoming to broaden the scope of and strengthen its regional haze implementation plan aimed at restoring “natural visibility” at national parks and wilderness areas. (WyoFile)

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OIL & GAS:

• Northwestern New Mexico advocates and residents call on federal and state regulators to identify, plug and reclaim dozens of abandoned oil and gas wells in the San Juan Basin, and to hold the industry accountable for cleanup. (Albuquerque Journal)
• California plans to use $35 million in federal funds to plug and reclaim more than 200 abandoned oil and gas wells and 40 associated facilities. (Beverly Press)
• An Alaska oilfield accident kills a worker, the industry’s third such fatality on the North Slope in 13 months. (Alaska Journal of Commerce)
• The federal Bureau of Land Management schedules its smallest oil and gas lease sale in years, drawing complaints from industry. (Cowboy State Daily)

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TRANSPORTATION: Colorado advocates laud a city’s decision to eliminate minimum parking requirements for new development and replace them with limits, saying it will encourage public transit, walking and biking. (news release)

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STORAGE: A Utah battery and flywheel manufacturer signs on to provide energy storage capacity and virtual power plant services to a commercial real estate firm’s properties. (news release)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The Biden administration awards Western state school districts nearly $170 million to purchase electric buses. (Source NM)

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GRID: ISO New England’s recent energy demand forecasts show the pace of the energy transition is faster than expected, and is weighing several changes to address potential future shortfalls. (Concord Monitor, Utility Dive)

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WIND:

• Maine environmentalists disagree as to whether Sears Island, which has avoided industrialization for years, should be the future site of an offshore wind hub or if the nearby, already developed Macks Point should be used instead. (Portland Press Herald)
• Maine applies for a $456 million federal transportation grant to build an offshore wind hub at Sears Island. (Portland Press Herald)
• The Martha’s Vineyard Commission decides to allow for the laying of three power export cables in the Muskeget Channel, although further approvals are needed and some commissioners question seafloor impacts. (MV Times)
• Eight additional New Jersey towns have filed lawsuits in the past week to stop offshore wind development along the state’s coast. (Asbury Park Press)

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HYDROELECTRIC:

• A former hydroelectric dam is one of two in Yarmouth, Maine, that is closer to being removed to aid in rewilding the Royal River, with federal officials presenting their plan to the town council. (Maine Monitor)
• Environmentalists prepare to argue before federal energy regulators in favor of additional fish protections at four hydroelectric dams undergoing relicensing on Maine’s Kennebec River. (Spectrum News 1)

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POLICY:

• With Vermont poised to make major fossil fuel companies pay for climate disasters, officials and scientists will need to decide who pays and how much is owed. (Grist)
• Some New York environmental groups say they will campaign against lawmakers who don’t vote for the NY Heat Act. (City & State)

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NUCLEAR: New York’s governor is reportedly wondering about the feasibility of bringing small modular nuclear reactors to the state. (E&E News, subscription)

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FOSSIL FUELS:

• Pennsylvania’s Stonycreek River was once heavily polluted by coal mining acid drainage but is now a regional jewel for whitewater rafting and tourism revenue. (Trib Live)
• Officials in Brookfield, Connecticut, ask top state officials for help in blocking a planned natural gas compressor station expansion near homes and a middle school. (New Haven Register)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Four grant-funded electric school buses in Winthrop, Maine, have been deemed inoperable despite months of being serviced by the supplier. (Kennebec Journal)
• A Vermont lumberyard purchases the state’s first two outdoor electric forklifts with state rebates, projecting $8,000 annual fuel savings on each compared to the previously used diesel models. (WCAX)

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TRANSPORTATION: A federal judge presiding over one of the lawsuits against the Manhattan traffic congestion pricing plan questions the argument that the tolls are just a cash grab. (Gothamist)

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