CLIMATE: Coloradans are worried that significant adverse impacts from climate change are happening much sooner that expected, creating “a multi-level emergency” for the state. (Denver Post)

ALSO:
• New Mexico House Democrats are distancing themselves from presidential candidate Joe Biden’s comment that he would “transition from the oil industry” to combat climate change. (Washington Post)
• Religious leaders in Arizona are urging voters of faith to cast their ballot with human-driven climate change and environmental issues in mind. (Arizona Republic)

CALIFORNIA:
• An estimated 1.1 million PG&E ratepayers are without power from the utility’s latest round of planned blackouts due to wildfire risk from extreme winds. (Los Angeles Times)
• San Fernando County, California officials are set to conduct a study to assess what impacts the Aliso Canyon natural gas blowout five years ago had on those exposed to the torrents of methane. (Los Angeles Daily News)

NUCLEAR:
• A fourth Utah city votes to back out of a proposed small nuclear reactor project to be based in Idaho. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• A New Mexico nuclear waste facility gets a new contractor to continue work on a multi-billion-dollar rebuild of its ventilation system. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

PUBLIC LANDS:
• A federal lawmaker warns the Interior Department against taking a “’business as usual” approach to a federal judge’s ruling striking down William Perry Pendley’s tenure leading the Bureau of Land Management. (E&E New Daily, subscription)
• An Alaska Native corporation files an application with the Bureau of Land Management seeking to shoot seismic surveys in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (E&E News Daily, subscription)

RENEWABLE ENERGY: Wyoming and New Mexico are among the top 10 states for wind and solar production as a percentage of total energy consumption, according to a new report. (Forbes)

NATURAL GAS: Utah officials and oil gas industry leaders are joining forces to export the state’s natural gas overseas, saying it would reduce global greenhouse emissions while supporting rural job creation at home. (Salt Lake Tribune)

STORAGE:
• California regulators are shifting $100 million from an under-subscribed large-scale storage budget to help low-income communities install roughly 100 MW of behind-the-meter battery projects. (Greentech Media)
• New data indicates California had the most installed battery capacity of any state in 2019, with an average cost of USD 1,522/kWh. (Renewables Now)

COAL: High school students from Wyoming and Appalachia discuss the future of coal in their communities. (Ohio Valley Resource)

COMMENTARY:
• An Alaska lawmaker warns that a ballot measure that would more than double the state’s production taxes on North Slope oil is an ill-advised and unsustainable action. (Anchorage Daily News)
• A California-based battery energy storage systems provider explains why keeping demand, generation, and power losses balanced will be vital in power utilities of the future. (Energy Storage News)

Lisa Ellwood

Lisa is a Lenape and Nanticoke Native American freelance journalist, editor and writer currently based in the U.K. She has more than two decades’ experience working in corporate communications and print and digital media. She compiles the Western Energy News daily email digest. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University; her specializations include data journalism and visualization. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists (U.K.).