OIL & GAS: Culver City, California’s city council votes to phase out oil drilling and remove all existing wells in the city’s 78-acre portion of an oil field by 2026. (Culver City Observer)

ALSO:
• The Biden administration’s oil and gas leasing pause unites New Mexico’s Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers in opposition, even after a judge cancels the moratorium amid a court battle. (Capital & Main)
• California oil industry leaders tout carbon capture and storage via enhanced oil recovery as an alternative to a statewide fracking ban. (Tehachapi News)

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WIND:
• Proposed wind facilities off the coast of California could decimate commercial fishing, industry leaders say as studies work to predict what impacts on the industry could look like. (Fresno Bee)
• The federal migratory bird law complicates the Biden administration’s efforts to develop offshore wind in California and elsewhere. (E&E News)
• The permitting process for a 100-turbine wind facility in Wyoming begins this summer. (Laramie Boomerang)

SOLAR: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calls Nevada “the poster child for solar energy production” during a recent visit to the state. (PV Times)

GRID:
• Southern California Edison turns to utility-scale storage, distributed batteries and demand response to ease heat-related stress on its grid. (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• California utility regulators say the state’s reliance on renewable energy is not responsible for power outages. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs the nation’s first union-backed electrification policy. (news release)

COAL:
• As a proposal to keep a New Mexico power plant running with carbon capture technology runs into snags, its developers look to the Department of Energy for a $1 billion bailout. (E&E News, subscription)
• Utah regulators and utility operators say phasing out coal power would threaten grid reliability as other interconnected states turn to renewables. (KUER)

TRANSITION: Campbell County, Wyoming, which produces nearly half of the nation’s coal, sees property valuation plummet to 20-year lows. (Rocket-Miner)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Officials break ground on a project that will connect Los Angeles’s growing rail network with its airport by 2028. (Los Angeles Times)
• The City of Fremont, California, will convert dozens of heavy duty vehicles to renewable diesel in an effort to cut carbon emissions. (Mercury News)

COMMENTARY:
• A New Mexico scientist urges state leaders to pursue carbon removal and storage as a way to fight climate change and put people to work. (Albuquerque Journal)
• Three Colorado county commissioners say the recently passed transportation bill will provide sustainable and equitable solutions to the state’s infrastructure woes. (Colorado Newsline)
• An Oregon business executive says the state should put its energy toward global climate change solutions rather than pushing state-level “feel-good solutions that have no measurable impact.” (The Oregon Way)

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Jonathan P. Thompson

Jonathan hails from southwestern Colorado and has been writing about the land, cultures, and communities of the Western United States for more than two decades. He compiles the Western Energy News digest. He is the author of three books, a contributing editor at High Country News, and the editor of the Land Desk, an e-newsletter that provides coverage and context on issues critical to the West.