TRANSPORTATION: President Biden is expected to propose vehicle mileage standards that exceed Obama-era rules rolled back under President Trump, but environmental groups warned that they don’t go far enough. (Associated Press)

CLIMATE:
• Oregon Gov. Kate Brown signs an ambitious climate bill requiring utilities to cut emissions to zero by 2040, prohibiting the construction of new fossil-fueled power plants and allocating $50 million to community energy projects. (OPB)
• Western wildfires are torching millions of acres of forests, including many that were being counted as carbon credits to offset emissions elsewhere. (Earther)

WIND:
• The Biden administration considers payments to commercial fisheries for losses related to the Atlantic Coast’s nascent offshore wind industry. (Reuters)
• A Rhode Island company gets a federal grant to test paint designed to protect wind turbines from lightning strikes, which cost the industry more than $100 million annually. (Boston Globe)
• An oil company is building a 732-mile transmission line to carry power from its proposed Wyoming wind facility to customers in California. (The Guardian) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• As Rivian plans to invest $5 billion in a second U.S. electric vehicle assembly plant, Missouri economic development officials say the state would be a “competitive location.” (Reuters, St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
• Georgia leaders used an array of grants, tax reductions, squishy performance goals and other incentives to lure an electric vehicle battery maker and other large employers, raising questions about transparency. (Athens Banner-Herald)
• Fourteen utilities along the East Coast and Southeast have joined a coalition to build a network of electric vehicle charging stations. (Columbus Dispatch)

EFFICIENCY:
• A Massachusetts bill would phase in energy use performance standards for all large commercial buildings in the state. (Energy News Network)
• New York legislators propose efficiency standards for cannabis producers, but an industry trade group prefers incentive-based approaches. (Times Union)

SOLAR: Developers of a Texas neighborhood near Austin say that every home will come equipped with Tesla’s solar roof tiles and battery storage. (Quartz)

PIPELINES:
• Republican Congress members grill a federal regulator about how much greenhouse gases will factor into a commission’s consideration of pipelines and other natural gas projects. (S&P Global)
• Minnesota’s Senate majority leader urged a former pollution regulator to “do your job” and grant key permits for the Line 3 pipeline project, raising questions about whether it was constituent advocacy or an attempt to strong-arm a state official. (MinnPost)

OIL & GAS: Interior Secretary Deb Haaland told a Senate committee Tuesday that her department’s review of the federal oil and gas leasing program will be released “very soon.” (Reuters)

NUCLEAR: A Washington startup took a step toward reaching its goal of creating the world’s first commercial fusion power facility when it broke ground Tuesday on a facility to test the technology. (Seattle Times)

HYDROGEN: Three large industrial gas companies are set to be big players in the emerging low-carbon hydrogen economy. (S&P Global)

OHIO: Gov. Mike DeWine is standing by key staffers who had prior knowledge about FirstEnergy’s payments to a former state regulator who resigned amid the state’s power plant bailout scandal. (Ohio Capital Journal)

COMMENTARY:
• Congress should pass a pending bill that would extend tax credits to companies that source domestically made goods for clean energy projects, say executives at a major labor union and an environmental group. (Cleveland.com)
• If successful, an experimental iron-air battery might merit a Nobel Peace Prize, but it’s important to remember that the history of battery engineering is littered with overhyped duds, a columnist writes. (Washington Post)