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COAL: New Hampshire’s Granite Shore Power will shut down its last coal-fired power plants in 2025 and 2028, replacing them with solar, battery storage, and other clean energy and marking the end of coal in New England. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
OFFSHORE WIND:
UTILITIES: Hundreds of Massachusetts residents say they’ve unknowingly or mistakenly signed up to receive power from a competitive energy supplier after being promised rate savings, only to receive shockingly high bills months later. (Boston Globe/WBUR)
TRANSPORTATION: The New York City MTA board grants final approval to a congestion pricing plan aimed at curbing emissions and encouraging public transit use. (Gothamist)
SOLAR:
BIOFUEL: A $91 million contract to supply New York City’s heavy-duty vehicles with renewable diesel went to a company whose CEO has donated to the mayor’s campaign, despite never having secured more than a $7 million contract before, and other questionable business practices. (The City)
BUILDINGS: Amherst, Massachusetts, breaks ground on a new elementary school that will be equipped with heat pumps, solar panels and efficiency measures, making it the town’s first net-zero building. (Amherst Indy)
COMMENTARY: A Maine bill would give regulators the power to make sure utility profits line up with their performance and alignment with renewable power goals, a clean energy advocate writes. (National Resources Council of Maine)
POLITICS: The Biden administration’s pattern of proposing tougher climate and emissions rules than it ends up implementing are a side effect of President Biden’s re-election bid, observers say. (E&E News)
OIL & GAS:
SOLAR: Solar generation is expected to briefly plunge in parts of the country during next month’s solar eclipse, but grid operators and electric utilities say they’re prepared with alternate energy sources to keep power flowing. (New York Times)
COAL: New Hampshire’s Granite Shore Power will shut down its last coal-fired power plants in 2025 and 2028, replacing them with solar, battery storage, and other clean energy and marking the end of coal in New England. (New Hampshire Bulletin)
OFFSHORE WIND: Four developers bid to build offshore wind projects off the Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island coasts, including two bids from Avangrid and SouthCoast Wind that are essentially rebids of recently retracted projects. (CT Mirror, Rhode Island Current)
NUCLEAR:
EMISSIONS: The U.S. EPA begins taking public comments on how it should regulate carbon emissions from existing gas plants and best practices for carbon capture technology. (E&E News, subscription)
TRANSPORTATION: California environmental justice advocates push back on proposed changes to the state’s low carbon fuel standard, saying it might lead to higher gas prices that disproportionately burden low-income communities. (Inside Climate News)
PIPELINES:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Ford plans to cut roughly two-thirds of its hourly workers at a Michigan plant building its electric F-150 as volume expectations drop. (Detroit Free Press)
OIL & GAS: The federal Bureau of Land Management finalizes its rule aimed at reducing methane emissions from oil and gas facilities on public and tribal lands by requiring operators to limit flaring and venting and detect and repair leaks. (Washington Post)
ALSO: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon criticizes the U.S. EPA’s proposal to establish a fee on methane emissions from oil and gas facilities, saying it would economically harm the state. (Buckrail)
UTILITIES: California regulators propose a flat monthly utility fee for all electricity bills in an effort to reduce rates for low-income residents and to encourage electrification. (E&E News, subscription)
SOLAR:
TRANSPORTATION: California environmental justice advocates push back on proposed changes to the state’s low carbon fuel standard, saying it might lead to higher gas prices that disproportionately burden low-income communities. (Inside Climate News)
NUCLEAR: Washington state environmentalists and tribal leaders urge Gov. Jay Inslee to veto a budget earmark allocating $25 million to expedite advanced nuclear reactor deployment, saying the funds should go toward clean energy development. (Washington State Standard)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLIMATE: Climate advocates protest Amazon’s plans to connect its Oregon data centers to a natural gas pipeline slated for expansion, saying the use of fossil fuels adds to the company’s “carbon problems.” (Common Dreams)
ENERGY STORAGE: The first phase of a 680 MW battery energy storage facility in southern California is expected to go online this summer. (Patch)
HYDROPOWER: Federal lawmakers from Western states introduce legislation that would allocate $45 million to repair and upgrade Hoover Dam and its hydropower plant in Nevada. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
MINING: Protesters who disrupted work at the Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada claim their action was necessary to save lives as they’re sued by the project’s developer. (KOLO)
TRANSITION:
OFFSHORE WIND: The Biden administration approves the 924 MW Sunrise wind project, slated to be built off Long Island, marking the administration’s seventh major wind project approval. (Associated Press)
ALSO:
UTILITIES: A New York state audit finds PSEG Long Island is inadequately managing the Long Island Power Authority, and that its deficient renewable energy and efficiency programs jeopardize its ability to meet state clean energy goals. (Newsday)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: New Jersey’s governor signs into law a new $250 annual registration fee for electric vehicles to patch a projected downturn in gas tax revenues. (New Jersey Monitor)
GRID:
STORAGE: Maine is on track to meet its goal of installing 300 MW of energy storage capacity by 2025, according to a report from state regulators. (Utility Dive)
COAL: The bridge collapse in Baltimore is blocking access to the U.S.’s second-largest port for coal exports and will likely disrupt the industry for at least six weeks. (E&E News)
SOLAR: A New York state senator introduces a bill that would increase the tax credit for homeowners to install rooftop solar to $10,000. (Spectrum News)
CLIMATE: Massachusetts’ climate chief discusses the state’s progress on installing heat pumps, and how rising temperatures are already affecting farming and other industries. (Berkshire Eagle)
LITHIUM: A Maine scientist argues a proposed rule change is adequate to allow lithium mining in the state, but environmental and health groups argue more safety considerations are needed. (Maine Morning Star)
HYDROPOWER: A western New York board game maker is awarded low-cost hydropower to support a $6.5 million expansion. (Buffalo News)
COMMENTARY:
SOLAR: West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice vetoes a bill that would have extended electric utilities’ ability to buy or build solar projects beyond 2025, calling the legislation a threat to the state’s coal industry. (Dominion Post)
ALSO:
STORAGE: A company seeking to build pumped-hydro energy storage on old coal mining sites received $81 million in federal funding last week to develop a project in Kentucky that could deliver 287 MW of power for up to 8 hours. (Canary Media)
OFFSHORE WIND: A coalition led by a climate-denial think tank files a lawsuit seeking to stop construction of a Virginia offshore wind project, under the guise of protecting endangered whales. (Public Radio East)
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES: Virginia regulators fine the Mountain Valley Pipeline $34,000 for another round of environmental violations, including damaging a wetland and dumping blast debris into a stream. (Roanoke Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
NUCLEAR: Texas Gov. Greg Abbott wants to explore the potential of small nuclear reactors to provide on-demand power to the state’s grid. (Texas Tribune)
COAL:
COMMENTARY: A former South Carolina utility regulator says he resigned this month to speak out about pending legislation that would drastically change oversight of investor-owned utilities by green-lighting a proposed natural gas plant despite many unanswered questions. (Post and Courier)
PIPELINES: South Dakota ethanol companies offered meals, swag, and other perks to busloads of people to influence lawmakers on carbon pipeline legislation last month, raising legal and ethical questions from critics. (Argus Leader)
ALSO:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Purdue University partners with an Indiana agency and the private sector to build the country’s first highway segment that could wirelessly charge electric vehicles as they travel. (Indianapolis Star)
BATTERIES:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES: AEP Ohio residential customers will pay about $10 more per month in higher transmission fees while those same rates for businesses and large industrial users will go down. (Columbus Dispatch)
NUCLEAR: Momentum is building behind nuclear energy in Michigan as lawmakers seek to support the industry, regulators study the benefits and risks, and top state and federal officials plan to reopen a shuttered plant. (Michigan Advance)
GRID:
COMMENTARY: A University of Kansas doctoral student says boosting energy efficiency in rental housing would deliver environmental, economic and social benefits. (Kansas Reflector)
When I think about manufacturing and heavy industry, macaroni doesn’t usually come to mind.
But just like cement producers and glass manufacturers, factories that make Ben & Jerry’s ice cream, Kraft mac and cheese and other name-brand foods have a big carbon footprint. And that’s why they’re among manufacturers set to split $6.3 billion of newly awarded federal funding for 33 emissions-reducing projects.
Ten Kraft Heinz factories will use their funding to decarbonize their process heat systems using electric heat pumps and boilers, and install solar panels, biogas boilers, and energy storage to power it. A paper facility will implement a new technology that can improve the energy efficiency of the papermaking process. And iron and steel facilities will integrate hydrogen into their projects, among other projects at chemical, metal, and concrete producers.
Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm said the projects are all meant to develop “replicable” and “scalable” technology that can eventually be implemented at manufacturing facilities around the world.
Also in federal clean energy funding this week: $475 million will go toward building solar and energy storage systems at former Kentucky, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia coal mines, as well as gold and copper mines in other states.
— Kathryn Krawczyk
🚦 Yellow light for clean cars: The U.S. EPA proposes a slower phase-in of strict tailpipe pollution limits than it suggested last year, likely driving more hybrid vehicle sales but still setting up electric vehicles to make up the majority of car sales by 2032. (Politico, E&E News)
⚡️ Unlocking geothermal’s potential: Geothermal power could help plug solar and wind power’s intermittency gaps, but experts say first scientists and developers need to unlock next-generation technologies that make it easier and cheaper to harness the earth’s heat. (Canary Media)
🔥 Another gas health impact: Flaring and venting of natural gas in the U.S. causes about two premature deaths each day and costs the economy about $7.4 billion annually in lost work time and other health effects, a peer-reviewed study finds. (Inside Climate News)
🔌 A crack in the code: The International Code Council omits stronger pro-electrification measures from its building code guidelines, rejecting its own expert recommendations and siding with gas utility and furnace manufacturing trade groups. (HuffPost)
🏭 Clean energy’s foil: The U.S. aluminum industry is declining even as demand for the material grows, posing a challenge for domestic production of solar panels, wind turbines and other clean energy components. (Canary Media)
🏠 Not easy being green: Two climate reporters share how they moved their house off natural gas, installing an electric heat pump, water heater and appliances. (Grist)
🌎 Chamber of climate inaction: Microsoft, Pfizer and more of the country’s biggest companies are quietly opposing the U.S. Chamber of Commerce as it fights federal climate action and environmental disclosure rules. (E&E News)
To make south Louisiana’s oil and gas infrastructure more resilient to extreme weather, Entergy Louisiana wants to build a $441 million floating natural gas power plant as the land around it continues to vanish from a combination of sinking and sea-level rise.
A top Louisiana utility consumer advocate noted the “loop of irony” of adding even more greenhouse gasses to a region already suffering massive land loss because of climate change.
Entergy says the plant is necessary because in 2020, Hurricane Zeta took out a major transmission line serving the area, according to its filing with the Louisiana Public Service Commission. The company says the plant would be cheaper than building a new transmission line through wetlands and marshes, and it would not be “prudent or economic” to buy power on the open market. The company did not provide the cost to replace its downed transmission line.
Entergy Louisiana says its proposed 112-megawatt Bayou Power Station could disconnect from the grid and use the plant’s power to provide electricity to 7,000 residential, industrial and commercial including Port Fourchon, the Louisiana Offshore Oil Port and residents in Golden Meadow, Leeville and Grand Isle. The power station would have black-start capability — or the ability to rapidly start up and ramp down without being connected to other parts of the energy grid.
“This Project will directly address critical oil and gas customers in the system at Port Fourchon,” Entergy’s filing to the PSC. “The interconnection of the Project will add a resilient power source to the (Entergy Louisiana) grid and enable storm restoration options, following a significant weather event.”
The promises being made mirror those its sister company, Entergy New Orleans, used to convince the New Orleans City Council to approve a 128-MW natural gas plant in eastern New Orleans that came online in 2020. Entergy New Orleans said the $210 million plant would come online quickly after a storm to provide the city with power.
But that didn’t happen. After Hurricane Ida struck in August 2021, the entire city went dark, and it took almost three days for the New Orleans gas plant to become operational. The utility said using the plant’s quick-start capability wasn’t the safest way to restore power to the city.
“And so the question now is why should the Louisiana Public Service Commission approve (Bayou Power Station) seeing what happened only a handful of years ago,” asked Logan Atkinson Burke, executive director of the Alliance for Affordable Energy.
Burke noted the Bayou Power Station would cost twice as much as the New Orleans plant and produce less electricity.
The power generation portion of the project is estimated at $374.3 million, or roughly $3,318 per kilowatt, an amount twice as much as most other power generation costs, according to the federal Energy Information Administration. If the Public Service Commission approves the plant, the costs would trickle down to all of Entergy Louisiana’s 1.1 million customers through increased rates and charges.
In addition to approval of the plant within 120 days, Entergy has asked the PSC for permission to bypass the competitive bid process and hand the contract to its preselected contractor, Grand Isle Shipyards.
“An RFP (request for proposals) wouldn’t have produced a more qualified vendor at a better cost,” said David Freese, a spokesman for Entergy Louisiana. The plant would be built at the company’s shipyard and moved to Leeville for installation.
Before it narrowed its options, Entergy also considered combined-cycle gas turbines, solar and simple-cycle combustion turbines, Freese said. Offshore wind was not considered because of the costs of building a transmission line to the offshore turbines, the intermittent nature of wind and the potential impact of hurricanes on those turbines, he said.
Coastal researcher Alex Kolker, an associate professor at the Louisiana Universities Marine Consortium who specializes in oceanography, geology and climate science, said the region is prone to storms and extreme weather that is being made more intense by climate change.
Utility consumer advocate Burke said it appears the company is doubling down on its reliance on fossil fuels, ignoring the inherent climate risks.
“It’s very clear that we are in a in a loop of irony at this point where the hotter it gets, the more water there is, and the less land there is as a result of oil and gas extraction, all while Louisiana is so interconnected to those international oil and gas systems,” Burke said. “So we ‘need’ to build something that is incredibly vulnerable in a place that is vulnerable because of oil and gas.”
Floodlight is a nonprofit newsroom that investigates the powerful interests stalling climate action.
CLIMATE: Bucks County, Pennsylvania, sues top fossil fuel producers, alleging they’ve known for decades that their products were driving climate change. (NBC Philadelphia)
UTILITIES:
OFFSHORE WIND:
LITHIUM: Advocates want to see more environmental considerations in Maine’s proposed rules that would allow mining in a recently discovered lithium deposit. (Portland Press Herald)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLEAN ENERGY:
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Maryland environmental justice communities say a proposed state bill doesn’t cover some of the biggest sources of air pollution affecting their neighborhoods. (Baltimore Sun)
FOSSIL FUELS: Small oil and gas drillers say Pennsylvania’s proposed hike in bond costs, meant to ensure companies don’t abandon wells, could drive them out of business. (Tribune-Democrat)
SOLAR:
EMISSIONS: An Israeli company looks to build a trash-to-plastic plant in Massachusetts, which it says would help reduce landfill methane emissions. (Boston Globe)
GEOTHERMAL: Texas is emerging as a hotspot for geothermal energy exploration, with scores of former oil industry workers and executives seeking to use their knowledge of geology, drilling, and extraction to tap into a new energy source. (Texas Tribune)
OFFSHORE WIND:
OIL & GAS:
PIPELINES: A Virginia couple who have fought the Mountain Valley Pipeline for a decade talk about the grief, fear, and anger of having to live next to the project for the last six years. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
POLITICS: A bill awaiting signature from Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis would ban offshore wind energy, relax natural gas pipeline rules, and eliminate most mentions of climate change from existing state laws. (Grist)
GRID: Texas’ grid operator says it underestimated how fast San Antonio would grow, leaving the region with transmission issues that “could lead to cascading outages” and put the statewide grid at risk. (San Antonio Express-News)
SOLAR:
OVERSIGHT: A bill awaiting signature by Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp would extend the length of state utility regulators’ six-year terms by another two years. (Union Recorder)
TRANSPORTATION: Drivers of fuel-efficient and electric vehicles in Virginia say they are being penalized with higher vehicle registration fees. (WAVY)
INDUSTRY:
COMMENTARY: In a “reality check” on small nuclear reactors, a Virginia editor says the best site for one is likely at an existing nuclear power plant, but that it’s up to utilities and regulators — not the governor — to decide. (Cardinal News)
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