CLIMATE: Climate change has been a major focus in President-elect Joe Biden’s outreach with world leaders, with the topic coming up in 12 of 14 calls so far. (E&E News)

ALSO:
• Republicans now hold attorney general positions in 26 states, and are “developing strategies to push back” against the Biden administration on climate. (E&E News)
• The American Farm Bureau says it has “broken through historical barriers” in joining a coalition of environmental groups to cut emissions in the agricultural sector. (InsideClimate News)
• While U.S. carbon emissions will be lower overall in 2020, nearly a third of that has been canceled out by pollution from Western wildfires. (Washington Post)
• A media analysis explores the financial risks that climate change poses to utilities. (Utility Dive)
• Climate activists failed to flip North Carolina’s legislature, but some still see hope for clean energy policy next year — as long as Duke Energy is on board. (Energy News Network)

OVERSIGHT:
• A Senate committee advances a bipartisan pair of nominees for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission, though it’s not clear if they’ll get a full Senate vote. (The Hill)
• President-elect Biden begins looking for someone to help rebuild the Bureau of Land Management after a massive staff exodus under the Trump administration. (The Hill)
• Public Utilities Commission of Ohio Chairman Sam Randazzo was not at Wednesday’s commission meeting following an FBI search of his home earlier this week. (Columbus Dispatch)

UTILITIES:
• Portland, Oregon’s utility accelerates its emissions target to an 80% reduction by 2030, with an “aspirational goal” of net-zero by 2040. (Portland Business Journal)
• Former ComEd CEO Anne Pramaggiore and a former top ComEd lobbyist are charged with bribery as part of an alleged scheme to gain favorable contracts through Illinois House Speaker Michael Madigan. (Chicago Sun-Times)

WIND:
• New Jersey and PJM reach an agreement to allow that state’s regulators to open a competitive bidding process next year for a transmission backbone that could serve multiple offshore wind farms. (NJ Spotlight)
• The Danish company developing several offshore wind farms along the East Coast announces an agreement with a building trade union to train a workforce for the industry. (Reuters)

SOLAR: Energy developer Invenergy launches construction of a five-phase, 1,310 MW solar complex spread across three Texas counties, and big-name commercial customers already are signing up. (Greentech Media, Chicago Business Journal)

PIPELINES: A federal appeals court denies a request to stop work on the Mountain Valley Pipeline, upholding an agency’s finding that the pipeline won’t significantly affect endangered and threatened species. (Roanoke Times)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Michigan environmental and public transit advocates are dismayed at their exclusion from a new state mobility task force whose members’ backgrounds heavily favor automobiles. (Energy News Network)
• A new study on a regional cap-and-trade emission pact for Northeast transportation says the impact on gasoline prices could be much higher than previously forecast. (CommonWealth Magazine)
• A new study finds that while electric trucks are reaching cost parity, there are still numerous barriers preventing fleet operators from widespread adoption. (Greentech Media)

MEDIA: While the Washington Post pledges to keep climate misinformation off its opinion pages, the newspaper still accepted a reported $25,000 to run a full-page ad containing false scientific claims. (Heated)

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy, and has led the project from its inception as Midwest Energy News in 2009. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he held a variety of editing, production, and leadership roles, and played a key role in the newspaper's transition to digital-first publishing. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon.