UTILITIES: Marybel Batjer, California’s top utility regulator, announces she will resign at the end of the year, leaving Gov. Gavin Newsom to find a replacement while the state deals with power outages and utility-sparked fires. (Associated Press)
ALSO: Wildfire survivors, relatives of victims and progressive advocates call for tougher penalties for Pacific Gas & Electric for its role in sparking the deadly 2020 Zogg Fire. (Common Dreams)
OIL & GAS:
• The Biden administration revokes a Trump-era rule that let oil, gas and coal companies lower royalty payments by selling federal minerals at a reduced cost to subsidiaries. (E&E News)
• California’s Santa Barbara County will hold online public hearings today and tomorrow on ExxonMobil’s proposal to transport oil from restarted offshore oil platforms by truck. (news release)
SOLAR:
• Hawaiian Electric proposes building community solar projects totaling 235 MW to provide power to low-income residents. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, subscription)
• A rooftop solar company plans to aggregate residential battery storage systems to provide demand response for California’s Clean Power Alliance community choice aggregator. (Energy Storage News)
• The U.S. Bureau of Land Management seeks public comment on the proposed phase two of the Luning Solar Project in Mineral County, Nevada. (news release)
• A rooftop solar installation company completes construction on a 112,000 square foot research, development and manufacturing facility in San Jose, California. (PV Magazine)
WIND: A northern California community choice energy service opens a wind farm repowering project replacing 569 bird-harming 100 KW turbines with 23 more wildlife-friendly ones. (Pleasanton Weekly)
GEOTHERMAL: The Bureau of Land Management this fall will auction 4,000 acres of public land in New Mexico for geothermal development. (news release)
GRID: The U.S. Department of Energy launches a program at its National Renewable Energy Laboratories in Colorado to improve inverters that turn direct current from solar and wind facilities into grid-friendly alternating current. (Canary Media)
BIOMASS: An Arizona power plant fueled with wood scraps, saplings and waste from forest thinning projects is left scrambling after federal officials cancel a massive forest restoration project. (White Mountain Independent)
CRYPTOCURRENCY: Wyoming lawmakers explore ways to attract bitcoin miners and generate revenue from the energy-intensive mining process. (Wyoming Public Media)
CLIMATE: High winds and low humidity fan two large fires in California’s southern Sierra Nevada that have burned 135,000 acres so far. (Los Angeles Times)
COMMENTARY:
• A California editorial board says the state’s new rule allowing only licensed electrical contractors to install battery storage systems harms the solar installation industry. (Daily News)
• An energy independence advocate urges Nevada to maintain momentum on electric vehicle adoption by joining 15 other states supporting advanced clean truck standards. (Nevada Independent)