COAL: A firm tasked with finding a new owner for a soon-to-be shuttered Arizona coal plant is focused on an unnamed investor, but critics say the search only brings false hope. (Associated Press)
ALSO:
• Navajo and Hopi leaders continue to press federal lawmakers to prevent the Navajo Generating Station from closing next year. (Cronkite News)
• Advocacy groups ask New Mexico regulators to prevent the owners of a coal-fired power plant from making repairs to unit that was damaged in a March fire. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
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RENEWABLES: State officials in Nevada say they can’t predict how much a clean energy ballot measure would cost. (The Nevada Independent)
POLITICS: Three Democratic gubernatorial candidates in Colorado discuss how far they would go to regulate the oil and gas industry. (Colorado Independent)
OIL AND GAS: Opposition is building against BLM’s plans to allow drilling near the Great Sand Dunes National Park in Colorado. (High Country News)
UTILITIES: Legal costs are mounting for a New Mexico city trying to obtain the right to buy another city’s electric utility infrastructure. (Farmington Daily Times)
NUCLEAR:
• A House committee chairman promises to advance a bill to fund the licensing of a nuclear waste repository at Yucca Mountain in Nevada. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
• An Arizona utility says it could be forced to close one of its nuclear plants in 10 years if voters approve a clean energy initiative, but the measure’s supporters say the claim is an exaggeration. (Arizona Republic)
GEOTHERMAL: The U.S. Department of Energy is nearing a decision about whether to build an underground geothermal research laboratory in either Nevada or Utah. (Nevada Appeal)
COMMENTARY:
• Saving an Arizona coal plant is an impractical mission, says an analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis. (The Hill)
• Ending net metering in Utah has had a minimal impact on the economics of solar there, says the president of a Nevada solar firm. (Utah Business)
• The recent rollout of an electric bike program is a good example of how the University of Utah is demonstrating its commitment to sustainability, says the university’s chief sustainability officer. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• Maintaining public access to federal lands isn’t enough when the Trump administration wants to allow more drilling and mining there, says an environmentalist in New Mexico. (High Country News)