OIL & GAS: A U.S. Interior Department review of the federal oil and gas leasing program recommends raising royalty rates, minimum bids and bonding levels, drawing ire from industry officials while environmentalists criticize the report’s silence on drilling’s climate impacts. (New York Times)

ALSO:
• New Mexico regulators step up seismic monitoring and order companies to inject less wastewater deep underground to address a rising number of oil- and gas-related earthquakes in the Permian Basin. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• California regulators allow Chevron to sell oil and gas collected from an illegal “surface expression” spill site. (Capital & Main) 

COAL:
• Xcel Energy agrees to close Colorado’s Comanche coal plant by 2035 rather than 2070 as originally planned, but environmentalists say that’s not soon enough. (Colorado Public Radio)
• Federal regulators seek public comment on a proposed 36-mile natural gas pipeline meant to facilitate the conversion of Utah’s Intermountain Power Project from coal to natural gas and hydrogen. (Salt Lake Tribune) 

TRANSITION: Very little renewable energy development is occurring in the nation’s top coal-producing communities, complicating efforts to replace lost fossil fuel jobs with clean energy employment. (E&E News)

STORAGE: A developer proposes constructing a 400 MW, 3,200 MWh compressed air energy storage project on California’s Central Coast. (PV Magazine) 

UTILITIES: Tens of thousands of Southern California homes are left without power on Thanksgiving after utilities cut electricity to prevent wildfires amid high winds and hot temperatures. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

GEOTHERMAL:
• The Biden administration invests $30 million to develop technologies to extract lithium from geothermal-power wastewater, potentially boosting California’s geothermal-lithium industry. (E&E News, subscription)
• A Bureau of Land Management geothermal lease sale in New Mexico draws just one competitive bid on one of three parcels offered, generating about $9,000. (news release)

PUBLIC LANDS: Federal Bureau of Land Management Director Tracy Stone-Manning says the agency will turn away from oil and gas dominance, and toward renewable energy and a “carbon-free future on our public lands.” (KTVH)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Aspen, Colorado’s police department, which once made waves for using Saab patrol cars, now seeks funding for five Teslas as it looks to replace its SUV fleet with electric vehicles. (Colorado Sun)
• Bay Area Rapid Transit’s board moves forward on plans to install electric vehicle charging stations in its parking lots. (Pleasanton Weekly)

COMMENTARY: A Wyoming rancher and environmental advocate says the oil and gas industry should concentrate on developing 7,800 square miles it has already leased in the state rather than lock up additional lands through more leasing. (Sheridan Press)

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Jonathan P. Thompson

Jonathan hails from southwestern Colorado and has been writing about the land, cultures, and communities of the Western United States for more than two decades. He compiles the Western Energy News digest. He is the author of three books, a contributing editor at High Country News, and the editor of the Land Desk, an e-newsletter that provides coverage and context on issues critical to the West.