OVERSIGHT: New Interior Secretary David Bernhardt says it the agency’s job is not to address climate change, but to “maximize sustained yield” from energy development. (E&E News, subscription)
ALSO: As state lawmakers consider subsidies for the FirstEnergy’s power plants, the company has spent millions of dollars on campaign contributions, lobbying, and public relations in Ohio since 2017. (Cleveland Plain Dealer)
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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Critics worry Duke Energy’s $76 million electric vehicle plan for North Carolina will give the company a monopoly and crowd out competition for charging infrastructure. (Energy News Network)
WIND: A new initiative has been launched to study the effects of offshore wind on Northeast fisheries, as a lack of information has led to mistrust between the two industries. (Energy News Network)
SOLAR: A California-based renewable energy company is backing off plans to build a $5 billion solar-thermal power plant on federal land in Nevada. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)
COAL ASH:
• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s own testing in 1981 and 1995 revealed coal ash contained radioactive materials and toxic heavy metals, but the company didn’t tell workers. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
NUCLEAR:
• AARP Ohio tells lawmakers it strongly opposes any efforts to require electric ratepayers to subsidize uneconomic power plants. (Energy News Network)
• Entergy has agreed to sell the Indian Point plant in New York to a company that specializes in decommissioning retired nuclear plants when the facility completely shuts down in 2021. (Journal News)
• The losing side in the U.S. Supreme Court case upholding subsidies to nuclear plants says it will continue opposition to similar contracts in regulatory proceedings. (E&E News, subscription)
OIL & GAS:
• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs a bill into law bringing sweeping changes to the way the oil and gas industry is regulated in the state including giving cities more control over drilling. (Denver Post)
• Former and current employees of a petroleum company’s Denver office describe a toxic work culture of “treating women as sexual playthings.” (Denver Post)
PIPELINES: Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer does not rule out the potential for an underground tunnel for Line 5 in the Straits of Mackinac as she reopens discussions with Enbridge. (Detroit News)
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TRANSMISSION: Missouri lawmakers advance a bill that would prevent the developer of the Grain Belt Express wind energy transmission line from using eminent domain, which could jeopardize the project. (St. Louis Post-Dispatch)
CLIMATE:
• Vox writer David Roberts interviews Massachusetts Sen. Ed Markey about the Green New Deal, saying the senator’s involvement “doesn’t fit the media’s favored narrative that the GND is unrealistic, pie-in-the-sky socialism, so it doesn’t get discussed much.”
• “It’s getting to the point where it’s hard to ignore:” Record flooding may be shifting attitudes about climate change in Nebraska. (Christian Science Monitor)