OIL & GAS:
• The Biden administration says it will resume federal oil and gas lease sales after a court restored its ability to use a higher “social cost of carbon” metric to evaluate policy decisions. (Reuters)
• Steelworkers at a California refinery say they will go on strike today, forcing the plant to close, crimping state gasoline supplies and further driving up fuel prices. (Associated Press)
HYDROPOWER: Federal agencies have no plan for replacing Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower should Lake Powell drop below the minimum level required to generate electricity. (Arizona Daily Star)
GRID:
• California’s independent grid operator approves a 10-year transmission plan aimed at acquiring power from more diverse sources and boosting system resiliency. (Reuters)
• An Arizona utility proposes constructing a seven-mile high-voltage transmission line in suburban Phoenix to deliver power to a Meta data center that is under construction. (East Valley Tribune)
• Residents of a trailer park on the edge of Yosemite National Park are evicted due to deteriorating power lines that pose a wildfire hazard. (Los Angeles Times)
CLEAN ENERGY: A Hawaii county’s mayor calls on the governor to fast-track renewable energy project approvals to help reduce reliance on imported oil for electricity generation. (Hawaii News Now)
SOLAR:
• A bipartisan group of California lawmakers calls on regulators to reject a proposal to slash net metering payments for rooftop solar. (PV Magazine)
• Developers begin construction on a southern California utility-scale solar plus storage facility opposed by many local residents. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Target adds solar panels to a California store’s roof and parking lot canopies to make it the big box retailer’s first net-zero energy store. (Tech Xplore)
• A southern Arizona electric cooperative begins construction on a 10 MW solar installation with 15 MW of battery storage north of Tucson. (Arizona Daily Star)
TRANSPORTATION:
• Colorado environmental groups and local governments petition regulators to adopt truck greenhouse gas emission reduction rules by the end of this year rather than in 2023, as the governor proposed. (Colorado Newsline)
• Utah lawmakers seek more transparency into the state’s consideration of solutions to traffic congestion on a highway leading from Salt Lake City to popular ski resorts. (Deseret News)
UTILITIES: Eight Oregon timber landowners sue Pacific Power over its alleged role in sparking the 2020 Labor Day fires. (KQEN)
ELECTRIFICATION: A northern California city considers banning natural gas hookups in all new construction. (Marin Independent Journal)
NUCLEAR: U.S. energy companies say a ban on Russian uranium imports could reboot the diminished domestic industry and spur idled Utah and Wyoming mines to restart. (E&E News)
COMMENTARY: A Montana environmental advocate says the oil and gas industry is using the Ukraine crisis as pretext to stockpile more public land leases, even though it is sitting on 9,000 unused drilling permits. (Helena Independent-Record)