UTILITIES:
• California investigators determine a Pacific Gas & Electric power line sparked last year’s 960,000-acre Dixie Fire when it came into contact with a tree. (Los Angeles Times)

ALSO:
• Idaho Power proposes phasing out coal power by 2028 and adding 2,100 MW wind and solar generation and 1,685 MW of battery storage over the next two decades. (Associated Press)
• PG&E grants the Hopland Band of Pomo $100,000 to address “climate-driven disruptions,” including the utility’s public safety power shutoffs. (Mendocino Voice)

GEOTHERMAL: A federal judge temporarily halts construction on a geothermal energy project proposed for a northern Nevada site held sacred by the Fallon Paiute-Shoshone Tribe. (Nevada Current)

GRID:
• A northern California county considers supplying shower trucks to the tens of thousands of PG&E customers still without power nine days after record snowfall toppled utility equipment. (CBS13)
• New Mexico Indigenous leaders express concern about a Los Alamos National Laboratory proposal to build a transmission line across lands held sacred by area tribes. (Associated Press)

HYDROPOWER: Heavy precipitation from recent storms allows California’s Oroville Dam’s hydroelectric power plant to come back online after low water levels shut it down in August. (San Francisco Chronicle)

OIL & GAS: Navajo Nation President Jonathan Nez warns the Biden administration that its proposed oil and gas leasing freeze around New Mexico’s Chaco Culture National Historical Park would harm Navajo mineral rights owners. (E&E News, subscription)   

TRANSPORTATION:
• A Colorado school district acquires an electric battery powered bus that can discharge power back into the grid when not in use. (Durango Herald)
• Panasonic begins producing lithium-ion cells using copper foil from electric vehicle batteries recycled by a Nevada company, making it the first closed-loop battery production process. (Forbes)

NUCLEAR: An effort fails to reinstate a 1978 Montana law putting proposed nuclear projects up for a public vote, which state lawmakers repealed last year. (Helena Independent Record)  

WIND: The Port of Humboldt, once the hub of northern California’s timber industry, sees economic opportunity in the Biden administration’s West Coast offshore wind push. (Inside Climate News)

HYDROGEN: While New Mexico Gov. Michell Lujan Grisham says her hydrogen plan is necessary for the state’s energy transition, environmentalists say its color blindness makes it a “hidden subsidy for the fossil fuel industry.” (Searchlight New Mexico)

SOLAR: A Nevada company introduces a solar powered generator that uses a sodium-ion rather than lithium-ion battery.  (Interesting Engineering)

CLIMATE: Solar-powered, off-grid Earthship homes built from tires, dirt and garbage gain new popularity in an era of power outages and climate-related disasters. (Washington Post)

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.