OIL & GAS: Environmentalists protest a Los Angeles suburb’s bid to build a $260 million, 93 MW natural gas power plant to provide backup during grid outages even after the state set a goal of 100% clean energy by 2045. (CNBC)

ALSO:
• Wyoming lawmakers table a bill that would reimburse oil and gas producers with state funds to offset proposed federal royalty increases. (WyoFile)
• A California county seeks public input on ExxonMobil’s proposal to truck oil from three offshore drilling platforms along a coastal highway. (KEYT)
• Northern California high school students protest a proposed oil drilling project bordering their community. (ABC7)
• Production of carbon dioxide for enhanced oil recovery fell significantly in a Colorado county last year because of low oil prices. (Cortez Journal)
• Utah’s governor and Congress members call for sanctions on Russian oil and for more drilling in Western oil and gas fields. (Deseret News)

UTILITIES:
• Internal documents reveal that Atmos, the nation’s largest gas utility, funds a Colorado anti-electrification group claiming to be made up of concerned citizens. (HuffPost)
• NV Energy plans to inspect power lines near the site of a 2020 Nevada wildfire as part of a lawsuit over the utility’s alleged role in sparking the blaze. (Associated Press)

CRYPTOCURRENCY: A developer installs a utility-scale solar facility at a rural Colorado warehouse for undisclosed purposes, leading residents to suspect it is to power a cryptocurrency mining operation. (Colorado Sun)

COAL: A Montana review board appointed by the governor considers rescinding state standards aimed at reducing selenium water pollution from Canadian coal mines. (Montana Public Radio)

HYDROGEN: A California renewable energy developer plans to construct a solar-powered green hydrogen production facility on public land in southwest Arizona. (Pasadena Now)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Spokane, Washington, adds a fuel surcharge on city vehicles to fund its planned conversion to an all-electric fleet by 2030. (Center Square)
• Xcel Energy offers to install electric vehicle chargers in New Mexico customers’ homes for a monthly fee, as well as other discounts and rebates for charging installations. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

HYDROPOWER: Oregon regulators clear the way for an irrigation district’s proposed pipeline hydropower project by rejecting a conservation group’s challenge. (Capital Press)

CARBON CAPTURE: California regulators begin reviewing a proposal to capture carbon from industrial sources and bury it in a depleted Kern County oil field. (Bakersfield Californian)

CLIMATE: California researchers find climate change contributed to the severity of 2017 storms that damaged spillways on the state’s largest hydropower producing dam. (news release)

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.