Solar grants lead Biden’s Earth Day announcements

SOLAR: The U.S. EPA announces $7 billion in Solar for All grants for 60 projects expanding solar power access in low- and middle-income communities. (Associated Press)

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ALSO: California grid operators look to exports, added transmission and battery storage to tame the deepening “duck curve” resulting from a growing solar power glut. (Washington Post)

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CLIMATE: The White House launches a website that lists openings and accepts applications for the Climate Corps jobs and training program. (NPR)

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MANUFACTURING: The U.S. Energy Department announces the first 35 projects receiving a total of nearly $2 billion in tax credits meant to accelerate clean energy manufacturing and emissions-reducing industrial projects. (E&E News, subscription; news release)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Workers at a Tennessee Volkswagen plant that makes electric vehicles overwhelmingly vote to unionize, handing the United Auto Workers a major breakthrough in its push to organize Southeast auto factories. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

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OIL & GAS:

• A media investigation finds new federal Bureau of Land Management oil and gas reclamation bonding amounts are based on faulty calculations and will not adequately cover cleanup costs. (Capital & Main)
• Immigrants, including undocumented workers, make up much of the Permian Basin oilfield workforce, putting conservatives’ calls for more drilling and less immigration at odds. (USA Today)

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OFFSHORE WIND:

• New York decides not to offer contracts to several offshore wind projects pitched in a recent solicitation that had received provisional approvals, noting design changes had “materially altered” the plans. (Reuters, Politico)
• New York cited GE Vernova’s cancellation of its plans to build one of the biggest wind turbines ever designed as a reason behind its denial of the projects. (E&E News)
• A U.S.-built vessel that meets Jones Act requirements takes to the water ahead of Dominion Energy’s construction of an offshore wind farm near Virginia. (Canary Media)

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GRID:

• Waitlists to connect large renewable energy projects to the electric grid have ballooned across the U.S., leaving over 1,400 gigawatts of wind and solar projects in limbo. (Chicago Tribune)
• Georgia’s approval of the construction of more natural gas-fired power plants to meet soaring energy demands of data centers is causing concern among the tech companies operating those data centers, many of which have aggressive clean energy goals. (Canary Media)
• New York’s grid operator launches new market rules setting a minimum 10 kW capacity for distributed energy resources to participate in the wholesale markets, the first-such program of its kind in the country. (Utility Dive)

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OHIO: FirstEnergy donated $2.5 million to a dark money group backing Ohio Gov. Mike DeWine’s campaign, according to newly released records. (Floodlight/USA Today)

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