GRID: Energy Secretary Rick Perry orders a 60-day review of the U.S. electric grid in an effort to determine whether policies that favor renewable energy are accelerating the retirement of coal and nuclear plants. (Bloomberg)
SOLAR:
• Montana’s governor vetoes a net-metering bill that “was designed to squelch the development of solar energy and restrict Montanans’ energy choices.” (Associated Press)
• Albuquerque, New Mexico, will install over $25 million worth of solar panels on city buildings as part of an effort to generate a quarter of its energy from solar power by 2025. (Associated Press)
WIND: How the expansion of transmission capacity and market reforms are helping the wind industry in Texas. (E&E News)
RENEWABLE ENERGY: Lawmakers in Maine will reconsider a flawed multimillion-dollar subsidy paid by electricity customers that’s meant to promote renewable energy in the state. (Portland Press Herald)
STORAGE: A Canadian company wants to turn abandoned U.S. coal plants into giant compressed-air storage facilities for the grid. (Quartz)
OIL & GAS: A company is suing the government over an Obama-era cancellation of an oil and gas lease in Montana that was on land considered sacred to the Blackfeet Tribe. (Associated Press)
PIPELINES:
• Divers temporarily repair a hole in a pipeline at the bottom of Alaska’s Cook Inlet, which has been leaking natural gas since December. (Associated Press)
• President Trump’s mandate that pipelines be built using U.S. steel was “not well thought-through” and may never be implemented because it’s illegal for the government to impose a domestic-content rule on private companies. (Los Angeles Times)
COAL:
• An unpopular Tennessee power plant facing two lawsuits is drawing attention to problems related to coal ash disposal. (New York Times)
• While Kentucky remains “sentimental” about coal, big businesses are pushing the state toward clean energy. (NPR)
POLLUTION: Oil giant BP has been working over the weekend to stop two natural gas leaks at a damaged oil well in Alaska. (New York Times)
CAP-AND-TRADE: After suffering a legal defeat in a state appeals court earlier this month, a conservative group is filing another appeal to California’s Supreme Court in an effort to fight the state’s cap-and-trade program. (Los Angeles Times)
CLIMATE:
• The Federal Energy Regulatory Commission could help combat climate change under the Trump administration, according to one regulatory expert. (ThinkProgress)
• The Trump administration is hoping to reach consensus on whether to withdraw from the Paris climate agreement this week, according to multiple reports. (Politico)
• A former U.S. State Department lawyer who worked on the Paris climate agreement says the agreement gives the country what it wanted – the right to determine its own contributions to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Midwest Energy News)
POLICY: Minnesota’s lieutenant governor talks about about clean energy and the challenges posed by the Trump administration’s policies. (Midwest Energy News)
COMMENTARY:
• If Apple invests in Toshiba, it could benefit the struggling U.S. nuclear industry and help electricity customers in Georgia and South Carolina, says a writer at Forbes.
• Solar power investments can still prosper under President Trump’s pro-fossil fuel policies, says a business columnist for the New York Times.