CLIMATE: Utah environmental advocates are encouraged that the majority of the state’s candidates for governor recognize that humans are contributing to the changing climate. (Salt Lake Tribune)

STORAGE: An Oakland, California collaboration between PG&E and a community choice aggregator shows how grid batteries could be more efficient and bankable by offering different services to multiple customers. (Utility Dive)

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COAL:
• The Powder River Basin is struggling with additional economic pressure because of the coronavirus crisis. (Associated Press)
• Eight Democratic senators from coal-producing states want the Trump Administration to issue an emergency safety standard to protect miners during the coronavirus outbreak. (E&E News, subscription)

FOSSIL FUELS: A new study finds that coal-fired electricity and oil demand suffered record drops between mid-March and mid-April because of the coronavirus pandemic. (E&E News, subscription)

HYDROPOWER: Completion of Utah’s Logan Third Dam reconstruction project is now likely to take place this summer due to unexpected delays. (Cache Valley Daily)

OIL & GAS:
• The Trump administration is aiming to help oil and gas drillers by raising loan limits available under a stimulus package and barring lenders from discriminating against such companies. (Reuters)
• A senior regulatory advisor for New Mexico’s Oil and Gas Association says ongoing market volatility is “the worst business environment” he has ever seen. (New Mexico Political Report)

PERMIAN BASIN:
• Permian Basin oil and gas regulators are considering cutting production in Texas due to ongoing market volatility from plummeting oil prices and the coronavirus pandemic. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• New Mexico’s once-booming Permian Basin counties are facing a reversal of fortune as the coronavirus pandemic and plummeting oil prices force oil producers to streamline operations. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• Three Permian Basin major oil producers account for half of North America’s announced output reductions. (Reuters)

PUBLIC LANDS:
• The BLM has released its draft Environmental Impact Statement for a Wyoming project meant to support carbon capture and enhanced oil recovery. (Wyoming Public Media)
• The BLM is under fire for releasing a plan in the middle of the coronavirus pandemic making tracts of public lands in western Colorado available to oil and gas drilling. (Denver Post)

EMISSIONS: Stanford University reports that it’s ahead of schedule to reach its carbon reduction and sustainability goals, with campus greenhouse gas emissions 72% below their peak levels in 2011. (Stanford University News)

TRANSMISSION: Arizona regulators approve a new 12-mile stretch of transmission lines in Tucson to improve system reliability. (Arizona Daily Star)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Tucson Electric is offering business customers and local nonprofits incentives of up to 85% of the cost of installing electric vehicle charging stations. (Arizona Daily Star)

COMMENTARY: A Colorado environmental advocate celebrates the state’s “fast transition” from coal-fired electric generation. (Durango Herald)

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.).