INVESTMENT: Global clean energy investment dropped 15 percent in the first quarter of 2015 from a year earlier, as the rising dollar dampened spending across major markets. (Business Green)
CARBON TRADING: The Canadian province of Ontario is joining a carbon cap-and-trade system with neighboring Quebec and California. (The Hill)
EPA RULE:
• Energy companies and 15 predominantly Republican-led states will press federal judges this week to halt President Obama’s greenhouse gas standards for power plants. (Greenwire)
• The top Democrat on the House Energy and Commerce Committee joined the EPA Monday in criticizing proposed GOP legislation that would effectively allow states to delay implementation of the Clean Power Plan indefinitely. (The Hill)
• New Hampshire’s governor has asked Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to reconsider his opposition to the EPA’s Clean Power Plan, with which her state intends to comply. (Concord Monitor)
INVESTIGATION: The FBI has joined Oregon state investigators probing the award of $12 million in state tax credits to SolarCity after the company completed six solar arrays for the Oregon universities that may not have been eligible for state tax credits. (The Oregonian)
ARCTIC DRILLING: Hours after stormy weather forced Greenpeace activists to climb off an Arctic drilling rig in the middle of the Pacific Ocean, Shell won a temporary restraining order blocking the group from similar protests. (Fuel Fix)
SOLAR:
• SunEdison will install three new utility-scale solar projects in southern Utah with a capacity of 210 megawatts, in addition to the 306 megawatts of wind power it operates in the state. (Clean Technica)
• SolarCity is partnering with Google’s Nest to give away 10,000 Learning Thermostats to show how homes with “brains” can use rooftop solar most efficiently. (Utility Dive)
• Minnesota’s Twin Cities Army Ammunition Plant site is nearly cleaned up and officials are eyeing a 40-acre solar array to power the site’s future homes and businesses. (Minnesota Public Radio)
NUCLEAR: As President Obama prepares to roll out new carbon emission regulations targeting the power industry, nuclear companies are hoping a new era is upon them. (The Dallas Morning News)
OHIO: While a Ohio committee is tasked by law to look at the costs and benefits of the state’s clean energy standards, advocates say the group has focused on perceived weaknesses of wind and solar. (Midwest Energy News)
INNOVATION: An Arizona inventor has discovered an alternative to the cement making that causes 5 percent of the world’s carbon emissions. (PBS Newshour)
DIVESTMENT:
• Tulane students and alumni plan to stage a sit-in at the office of the university president this week to demand the school divest its $1 billion endowment from fossil fuels. (The Times-Picayune)
• Harvard students, alumni and faculty blocked the entrances to a campus building Sunday night as part of their efforts to persuade the university to end its $36.4 billion endowment’s investment in fossil fuels. (The Boston Globe)