UTILITIES: California regulators allow Southern California Gas Co to increase the capacity of Aliso Canyon storage field — where a 2015 blowout resulted in the nation’s largest ever methane leak — over objections from neighbors and activists. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Arizona Public Service plans to sue over state regulators’ approval of a $119 million revenue cut and corresponding decrease in customers’ electricity rates. (Arizona Republic)
• Colorado regulators examine utility add-on costs as customers’ natural gas bills increase as much as 50% due to rising commodity prices. (Colorado Sun)
• Arizona’s Salt River Project launches a program allowing customers to offset at least half of their energy use with solar power. (PV Magazine)

OIL & GAS:
• The U.S. Forest Service grants a right-of-way for a proposed oil-hauling railroad that would connect Utah’s Uinta Basin with the national rail network. (Salt Lake Tribune, subscription)
• An Alaska state agency that bought oil and gas leases in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge in January sues the Biden administration for halting development there. (Anchorage Daily News)  
• The U.S. Interior Department increases its earlier projections of how much oil and gas development could stem from an upcoming lease sale in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. (Alaska Journal of Commerce)

POLITICS: U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper of Colorado discusses why he didn’t join fellow Democrats opposing the reconciliation bill and how he went from having strong oil and gas industry support to backing a carbon tax and other climate measures. (E&E News)

COAL:
• Western coal mine operators leverage current high demand to lock customers into multi-year coal purchasing contracts. (S&P Global)
• A Colorado county plans to form an energy committee to explore options for replacing the Comanche coal power plant scheduled to shut down in 2040. (Pueblo Chieftain)

SOLAR: Developers of what would be Alaska’s largest solar installation say the proposed project won’t be competitive without a local property tax break. (Alaska Journal of Commerce) 

WIND: A controversial wind power project proposed for southern Idaho would double the state’s wind power capacity and create 700 construction-phase jobs, developers say. (KIVI TV)

TRANSPORTATION: Denver, Colorado’s public school district acquires its first electric school bus. (CBS4)

HYDROGEN:
• Seattle City Light and two federal laboratories explore powering the city port’s medium- and heavy-duty vehicles with hydrogen. (news release)
• New Mexico’s U.S. Sens. Martin Heinrich and Ben Ray Lujan are among senators sponsoring a package of bills that would create grant funding for hydrogen power projects. (Carlsbad Current-Argus) 

COMMENTARY:
• A California editorial board urges state regulators to approve strict new emissions standards for oil refineries to mitigate worsening smog in the Los Angeles area. (Los Angeles Times)
• A California climate advocate says the state needs to triple its current rate of solar and wind development and accelerate energy storage deployment by a factor of eight to reach clean energy goals. (San Francisco Examiner)
• California’s utility equipment-sparked wildfires demonstrate the need for more rooftop solar and storage and other distributed generation, a solar equipment supplier says. (North Bay Business Journal)

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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.