Discover the Latest News and Initiatives for a Sustainable Future

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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