CLEAN ENERGY: New Mexico regulators approve a plan that replaces electricity from a retiring coal plant with 100% renewables and battery storage. (New Mexico Political Report)
ALSO:
• Arizona regulators reveal a new proposal mandating that utilities eventually get all their power from carbon-free sources by 2050. (Arizona Republic)
• An analysis looks at what it would take to achieve Joe Biden’s plan for 100% clean energy by 2035. (Washington Post)
• A new report finds 41 states have grown their economies while reducing carbon emissions since 2005. (Fast Company)
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OIL & GAS: Declaring “don’t mess with Texas,” President Trump touts the U.S. oil industry while signing infrastructure permits in a visit to the Permian Basin. (Texas Tribune)
PIPELINES:
• With the Atlantic Coast Pipeline canceled, Virginia landowners want to scrub easements from their property records. (Energy News Network)
• A new report indicates flaring could increase in the Permian Basin in coming years if new pipeline projects are delayed because of the coronavirus pandemic. (E&E News, subscription)
OVERSIGHT: Environmental groups sue the Trump administration over regulatory changes that would limit community input on infrastructure projects. (The Hill)
UTILITIES:
• ComEd officials insist the company’s wrongdoing in Illinois was “misconduct” — not a crime — and orchestrated by “a few” former staffers. (Crain’s Chicago Business)
• FirstEnergy and AEP leaders distance themselves from an alleged $60 million bribery scheme as they seek to help their stock prices recover. (Utility Dive)
EQUITY:
• California Sen. Kamala Harris plans to introduce a sweeping environmental justice bill today. (Grist)
• A University of Michigan professor discusses how bringing more energy efficiency programs to low-income households promotes energy equity. (Grist)
• The director of the Massachusetts governor’s office for environmental justice says her goal is to get a contact person for equity issues in every executive office. (WBUR)
• U.S. EPA Administrator Andrew Wheeler said last week in Ohio that he had not read a study linking the agency’s relaxed enforcement during the pandemic with air pollution increases and elevated COVID-19 cases and deaths. (Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Panasonic’s electric vehicle battery business announces plans to boost the energy density of battery cells it supplies to Tesla by 20% in five years. (Reuters)
• General Motors unveils more details about its Hummer electric pickup truck, which is set to start production in fall 2021. (CNET)
SOLAR: A bill being considered by New Jersey legislators would boost large solar projects by opening up farmland, reversing a previous policy that avoided those locations. (NJ Spotlight)
WIND: A bipartisan coalition of 32 northeastern Ohio lawmakers urge state regulators to reconsider their “puzzling” decision on a Lake Erie offshore wind project that developers have said would effectively kill the plan. (Energy News Network)
NUCLEAR: Several workers at a Florida nuclear power plant are fired for not completing a safety inspection of a critical piece of equipment and then falsifying records. (Sun Sentinel)
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GRID: New England’s grid operator analyzes power use for the first six weeks of the summer and finds no significant change from models run last year to predict demand, despite COVID-19. (RTO Insider, subscription required)
COMMENTARY:
• “If communities of color are consistently disempowered, there will always be a place to burn fossil fuels”: climate policy expert Rhiana Gunn-Wright explains why equity and climate action can’t be separate issues. (Bloomberg)
• Energy is a basic need, and many Americans are struggling to afford it during the COVID-19 recession, write two public and environmental affairs professors. (The Conversation)