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OIL & GAS: A judge halts work on a 5,000-well oil and gas drilling project in Wyoming after finding federal regulators miscalculated the project’s groundwater impacts. (Courthouse News Service)
ALSO:
UTILITIES: California regulators approve Pacific Gas & Electric’s fourth proposed rate hike in 15 months, saying it is necessary to recoup costs associated with winter storms and wildfire mitigation. (Sacramento Bee)
ELECTRIFICATION: California advocates call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would allow utilities to electrify entire neighborhoods rather than replace costly natural gas lines. (Canary Media)
GRID:
MICROGRIDS: The U.S. Energy Department loans a southern California tribal nation $72.8 million to fund a 15 MW carport solar array, a vanadium flow battery storage system and a microgrid. (Tribal Business News)
WIND: Washington state’s energy siting council votes to recommend approval of a less-scaled back version of the proposed Horse Heaven wind and solar project in the southeastern part of the state. (Center Square)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLEAN ENERGY: A Utah city votes not to participate in a state program giving residents the option to acquire 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. (Sandy City Journal)
COAL: A California real estate firm acquires the troubled Kemmerer coal mine in southwestern Wyoming, but does not disclose its plans for the facility. (Cowboy State Daily)
COMMENTARY: A California advocate calls on state regulators to reconsider a rule blocking solar contractors from installing residential battery systems, saying it will increase costs and slow the clean energy transition. (Times of San Diego)
GRID: Experts warn Houston’s experience with Hurricane Beryl this summer — widespread power outages followed by a dangerous heat wave — is an “absolute certainty” to affect other parts of the U.S. that are unprepared for such a scenario. (Washington Post)
ALSO: An analysis finds power outages cost Texas consumers $35,685 for every megawatt-hour of load that goes unserved, although state regulatory staff say their own research shows the figure is somewhat lower. (Utility Dive)
STORAGE:
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Texas’ plans to build solar, wind and battery projects over the next year and a half dwarf those of any other state, including second-place California. (Canary Media)
BIOMASS: Critics claim Georgia Power’s plan to purchase 80 MW from three wood-burning power plants is too expensive compared to other alternatives, but utility officials say the move is an attempt to diversify its power sources and boost the state’s forestry sector. (Capitol Beat News Service, WABE)
OIL & GAS: A Virginia gas utility plans to expand into new areas now that it can purchase natural gas from the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Cardinal News)
HYDROGEN:
POLITICS: Congress passes a Texas representative’s bill to change how federal officials collect royalties for oil and gas leases on public lands, essentially relieving companies from handing over hundreds of millions of dollars in advances. (Houston Chronicle)
UTILITIES: North Carolina regulatory staff support reducing Dominion Power’s requested rate increase by half, with a final decision expected by November. (S&P Global)
COMMENTARY:
OIL & GAS: As a natural gas company declares its drilling operations “pose no public health risk” in a self-monitoring partnership with a Pennsylvania agency, advocates say the company’s report is full of omissions and that the state’s process “boggles the mind.” (Inside Climate News)
CLIMATE: Scientists delay a geoengineering project that would measure the impact of dumping sodium hydroxide into the ocean, two days after a federal agency warns of impacts on marine species. (Boston Herald)
GRID:
UTILITIES:
EQUITY: A pilot program in New York will cap electricity costs at no more than 6% of household income for 1,000 participants. (Staten Island Advance, subscription)
WIND: During a visit to Cape Cod, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey meets with protesters opposing transmission connections for offshore wind farms; opponents of a similar project in New Jersey are hosting a public meeting tonight. (WCAI, Shore News Network)
SMART METERS: A small group of opponents pushes for legislation allowing Pennsylvanians to opt out of smart meter installations, citing health concerns that experts say have no basis in science. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
BUILDINGS: Developers last week broke ground on New Hampshire’s first net-zero housing project aimed at middle-class buyers. (NHPR)
COMMENTARY: An editorial board says a Maryland beach town’s opposition to offshore wind is motivated by politics, not facts. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
COAL: An Appalachian Power official tells West Virginia regulators the utility continued to operate three coal-fired power plants that lost a combined $87 million over the last year because excessive coal inventories on site threatened worker safety. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
WIND: Federal officials mail surveys to residents on the Gulf Coast to gauge their feelings about offshore wind energy development. (KPLC)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
OIL & GAS: Officials in oil and gas drilling states say complying with federal endangered species and historic preservation rules is slowing the cleanup of abandoned oil and gas wells. (Grist)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES:
STORAGE:
PIPELINES: Crews rush to install erosion control devices and prepare still exposed portions of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby. (Roanoke Times)
NUCLEAR: Nuclear power is responsible for the largest share of power generation in Southeast states with the least reliance on fossil fuels. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: West Virginia lags most states in electric vehicle infrastructure, with additional delays in the transportation department’s search for a vendor to build charging stations. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
GRID: West Virginia residents and businesses are concerned about Appalachian Power’s plan to upgrade transmission lines near a war memorial and popular trail system. (WSAZ)
OVERSIGHT: An Austin, Texas, board proposes bylaw changes to enable it to advise the city council on natural gas, citing recent price increases as a concern. (Daily Texan)
CLIMATE: Climate change is making wildfires in West Virginia more dangerous, but the state agency charged with managing them has been hobbled by budget cuts. (Mountain State Spotlight)
COMMENTARY:
OIL & GAS: Residents say their longtime advocacy work is paying off as five of seven fracking waste injection wells in southeastern Ohio have now been suspended after state officials said they pose a threat to the public and environment. (Ohio Capital Journal)
ALSO: A North Dakota commission will take another week to 10 days to pick the state’s next top oil and gas regulator to replace a former longtime department head. (North Dakota Monitor)
SOLAR:
CLIMATE:
GRID: North Dakota regulators will hold a conference this week on the potential power grid implications of the anticipated spike in data centers. (North Dakota Monitor)
NUCLEAR: South Dakota regulators push back on Xcel Energy’s request for South Dakota ratepayers to contribute to annual payments to a tribe located near a Minnesota power plant. (SDPB)
BIOFUELS: An Iowa ethanol company with hundreds of member producers across the country sues its marketing partner for $7 million, alleging errors in attempting to sell fuel-grade ethanol. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The police department in Green Bay, Wisconsin, launches an electric vehicle pilot program that has deployed two EVs to ticket speeding vehicles and enforce parking violations. (Press-Gazette)
COAL: A federal judge grants Ameren Missouri’s request for a private mediator to potentially resolve the utility’s 13-year legal dispute with the U.S. government over Clean Air Act violations involving a coal plant near St. Louis. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)
COMMENTARY: Federal clean energy policies are helping Ohio become a leading manufacturing hub for solar and storage, the head of a national solar advocacy group writes. (Cleveland.com)
URANIUM: The Navajo Nation plans to block trucks carrying uranium ore from a Grand Canyon-area mine across tribal land to a Utah processing center, saying the shipments expose people to a substance “that has devastated our community.” (Associated Press, news release)
SOLAR:
CLIMATE: Oregon regulators seek public input on proposed climate regulations aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions that were overhauled after being derailed by a fossil fuel industry lawsuit. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
POLITICS: Left-leaning climate advocacy groups endorse Kamala Harris for president based on her record as a U.S. senator from California. (Heated)
OIL & GAS:
TRANSMISSION:
GRID: California’s grid operator finds its Western Energy Imbalance Market yielded participants $365 million in benefits from April to June this year. (RTO Insider, subscription)
WIND: A Wyoming startup looks to raise nearly $13 million to develop and market its horizontal low-to-the-ground wind energy loops, saying they are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than conventional turbines. (Cowboy State Daily)
UTILITIES: Idaho regulators seek public input on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed wildfire hazard mitigation plan. (Idaho Capital Sun)
COAL ASH: Georgia Power faces big questions about its plan to clean up coal ash at power plants across the state — including whether the U.S. EPA will go along after it nixed a similar scheme in Alabama. (Grist/WABE)
ALSO: North Carolina residents ask the U.S. EPA to investigate the extent of coal ash contamination in a town after extracting samples with “elevated radioactivity.” (WCNC)
TRANSITION: West Virginia regulators consider renewing an air permit for a coal-fired power plant slated for conversion to a hydrogen-powered graphite production facility after its co-owner is sued for making false statements to receive funding. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
UTILITIES:
STORAGE: Chattanooga, Tennessee’s electric utility plans to add 36 MW of battery storage at two decommissioned substations as part of a plan to save money and add a total 150 MW of capacity to boost grid reliability. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
WIND: A company’s unsolicited request for an offshore wind lease in the Gulf of Mexico is reviving hope around the sector after federal officials previously canceled a lease auction later this year for “lack of competitive interest.” (Utility Dive)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department issues $30 million toward the development of a hydrogen hub in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (WV News)
SOLAR: A Korean energy company sells a 260 MW solar project in Texas to another Korean company. (Renewables Now)
POLITICS: West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s support of a sweeping climate law has benefited the state with new manufacturing and energy projects, but is still unpopular with voters and may have hastened the end of his time in Congress. (E&E News)
COMMENTARY: A company’s proposal to mine mineral sands near the Okefenokee Swamp could disrupt the swamp’s status as a carbon sink, writes a conservationist. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
The following commentary was written by Lisa Cunningham, architect and co-founder ZeroCarbonMA, and Dr. Wynne Armand, MD, Associate Director at MGH Center for the Environment and Health and Assistant Professor, Harvard Medical School. Her opinion does not necessarily reflect the position of Mass General Brigham.
See our commentary guidelines for more information.
Ten years after our nation’s independence, Benjamin Franklin wrote to a close friend discussing the dangers of lead paint, which Franklin had experienced firsthand. Franklin predicted that despite the documented harmful effects of lead paint, it would be a long time before people heeded any safety precautions. Indeed, it took nearly 200 years, decades of scientific research, countless cases of lead poisoning, and persistent political advocacy to finally end the use of lead, both in gasoline and paint.
Just as we no longer allow lead paint in our homes, we must build healthier, more affordable homes without fossil fuels.
Yet, despite research spanning more than 50 years revealing the health risks of burning gas in our homes, out-of-state special interest groups are gearing up to overturn policies that allow communities to invest in healthy, pollution-free homes, keeping Massachusetts residents hooked on fossil fuels and building substandard homes that harm their health and drive up their energy bills.
Gas stoves emit toxic pollutants including nitrogen dioxide, particulate matter, and carbon monoxide, and have been attributed to 15% of childhood asthma in Massachusetts. This equipment is also a source of benzene, a carcinogen known to cause blood cell cancers. When in use, gas stoves can emit more benzene directly into our homes than secondhand smoke. Even when turned off, benzene continues to leak. Fossil fuel furnaces emit the same toxins, further contributing to ozone and other outdoor air pollution, which is linked to cardiovascular, respiratory, and neurological diseases, complications in pregnancy, and premature death.
Further, Massachusetts’s sprawling gas system, one of the oldest in the nation, is responsible for substantial gas leaks, resulting in deadly explosions and tree loss. Gas utilities are on track to spend over $34 billion to cover the cost of maintaining this system, which will cause gas bills to double in the next 10 years alone.
In order to meet our state and federal climate targets, we must continue to invest in policies and solutions that help people adopt healthier, more resilient and affordable homes that don’t rely on fossil fuels.
Encouragingly, Massachusetts is making strides. Thanks in part to Massachusetts’s new Opt-in Specialized Code, more than 10,000 multifamily Passive House units are in the pipeline. This extremely efficient building standard can lower energy use by up to 80% and dramatically reduce energy bills for residents. When factoring in state and federal incentives, it costs about the same to build homes to this super-efficient standard compared to conventional building practices.
In order to build an equitable, more affordable future, we must help our most vulnerable residents access these better building practices. Mayor Michelle Wu’s pledge to upgrade the city’s 10,000 public housing units with clean energy by 2030 is a strong start. Other notable projects include plans to install Boston’s first networked geothermal pilot for 129 units at the Franklin Field Apartments in Dorchester and a new 800-unit all-electric affordable housing complex built to Passive House standards in Newton.
It should come as no surprise that healthy building standards are popular in Massachusetts. The majority of residents support legislation that requires new construction to use the latest energy efficiency standards and highly efficient electric equipment such as heat pumps. Nine municipalities have adopted fossil fuel-free building standards, while communities representing nearly 30% of Massachusetts residents have adopted codes that require new buildings to be electric-ready. There are 19 million square feet of net-zero buildings in the state and 48 million square feet of net-zero ready buildings, the vast majority of which cost the same to build as conventional buildings.
Our families don’t have 200 years to wait. As we learn every day just how toxic gas is to our well-being and safety — not to mention the very future of our planet — the Massachusetts Legislature must stand up to special interest groups that threaten progress, and act with urgency to pass legislation to ensure healthy buildings and reduce our dependence on harmful fossil fuels.
OIL & GAS: California researchers find more than 100,000 oil and gas wells in the Western U.S. are in wildfire-prone areas, compounding health and safety risks that disproportionately affect marginalized populations. (The Hill)
ALSO: A federal Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease auction in Nevada garners zero bids. (E&E News, subscription)
UTILITIES: Some Western utilities are operating without insurance as coverage becomes prohibitively expensive amid increasing wildfire hazard. (Bloomberg)
CLIMATE:
POLITICS: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon pays a law firm $800,000 in state funds as a down payment to fight Biden administration power plant regulations, public land rules and a proposal to end coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. (Cowboy State Daily)
SOLAR:
WIND: California’s energy commission publishes its final offshore wind strategic plan with a goal of bringing 25,000 MW of capacity online by 2045. (Recharge News, subscription)
HYDROPOWER: Pumped hydropower storage developers step up outreach to the Navajo Nation after federal regulators rejected several proposed projects due to tribal opposition. (Bloomberg Law)
CLEAN ENERGY:
EMISSIONS: A southern California grand jury finds many cities are failing to recycle organic waste, resulting in increased landfill methane emissions. (Voice of OC)
NUCLEAR: Some residents of a Wyoming coal community are slow to support a proposed advanced nuclear reactor, saying they don’t like project-backer Bill Gates’ politics. (Casper Star-Tribune)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Arizona transportation officials seek public input on plans to expand its electric vehicle fast-charging station network. (Arizona Daily Star)
COMMENTARY:
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