A huge federal clean electricity procurement is coming

CLEAN ENERGY: The federal government is looking for carbon-free electricity to power defense and other government facilities in what could be one of the administration’s biggest clean energy procurements. (Axios)

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ALSO: The World Resources Institute says the 2024 presidential election will perhaps be the biggest driver of the U.S. clean energy sector’s near-term future. (Utility Dive)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• The Biden administration looks to bar imports of “smart cars” from China over data security concerns, including all electric vehicles and parts coming from the country. (Bloomberg)
• While electric vehicle sales continue to grow, the pace is slower than what executives predicted, causing layoffs at auto and battery plants. (NBC News)

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OIL & GAS: California regulators propose to stop issuing new permits for hydraulic fracturing and other oil and gas well stimulation treatments in a move that would eventually phase out fracking statewide. (Courthouse News)

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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:

• Ten states and Washington, D.C., call on the Biden administration to issue emergency workplace protections for those working in extreme heat as the administration forms more permanent rules. (The Hill)
• The startling disparity between the booming oil and gas industry in Port Arthur, Texas, and the grinding poverty of its mostly Black and brown residents raises hard questions about environmental justice. (Inside Climate News)

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CARBON CAPTURE: Efforts to pay farmers for sequestering carbon in their soil are hampered by questions over just how much carbon dirt can store. (Grist)

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OVERSIGHT: President Biden officially makes Willie Phillips the chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, while FERC member Allison Clements says she won’t return when her current term expires. (The Hill, Politico)

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TRANSPORTATION:

• After passing 100% clean electricity laws, state lawmakers in Illinois, Michigan and Minnesota shift their attention to tailpipe emissions and potentially thorny debates pitting ethanol against electricity. (E&E News)
• A Virginia lawmaker introduces a budget amendment to use $200,000 to establish a working group to identify sources of long-term state funding for the shift to electric school buses after federal funding runs out. (Energy News Network)

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NUCLEAR: Federal money could boost efforts by Michigan and other states to restart or keep aging nuclear power plants operating as a source of carbon-free electricity. (Stateline)

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GRID: Western utilities consider competing options for establishing a regional transmission organization. (E&E News)

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SOLAR:

• Arizona ranchers, developers and land managers work to minimize solar installations’ impacts to wildlife and their habitat. (New York Times)
• The founder of a Georgia pilot program says it’s cracked the code to enable low-income families to go solar in a state that’s been among those most hostile to rooftop solar installations. (Canary Media)

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COMMENTARY: The Biden administration’s pause on new LNG export approvals won’t stop a massive buildout already in progress, an energy professor writes. (The Conversation)

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