OIL & GAS: An oil and gas lease sale in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge will proceed today after a judge rejects a challenge from conservation and Indigenous groups. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• An oil company that hired a former Interior Department official who had helped push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to drilling will not be bidding in today’s sale. (Politico)
• Two Colorado drilling projects of up to 226 wells are again approved by the Bureau of Land Management (Grand Junction Daily Sentinel)
• A New Mexico state senator wants to introduce a bill that would stop new fracking permits while impact studies are conducted. (New Mexico Political Report)

PIPELINES: A Montana agency granted permission for the Keystone XL pipeline to cross water bodies in the state, but requires to consult with the Assiniboine and Sioux tribes. (Montana Public Radio)

CLIMATE: Critics say Colorado’s “roadmap” for reducing greenhouse gas emissions is guided by “wishful thinking” and needs aggressive policy support to become reality. (Colorado Sun)

COAL:
• A recent bankruptcy court ruling could spell the end of a proposed coal export terminal in Washington state. (Wyoming Public Media)
• Colorado’s effort to help communities transition from coal is challenged by accelerated plant closures, and officials say support from the federal government will be needed. (Colorado Sun)
• Alaska receives federal financial support to push British Columbia to reform mining regulations the state says are “lax” and threaten fish and habitat in transboundary watersheds. (Surrey Now-Leader)

TRANSMISSION: A PacifiCorp representative threatens legal action after officials of a Wyoming county delay the final approval for the next section of a major power line project. (Rawlins Times)

HYDROPOWER: A proposal for a pumped storage electric power plant in California has some residents concerned about water flow downstream. (Kern Valley Sun)

UTILITIES:
• A Los Angeles County official says Southern California Edison’s notification system for planned blackouts is inaccurate and causes confusion, and wants “all available legal options” to mitigate the outages explored. (My News LA)
• California regulators are considering a San Diego Gas & Electric request to raise its rates 3.3% from March through December of this year due to “the price of electricity being higher than was forecasted.” (San Diego Union Tribune)
• New Mexico regulators are considering an Xcel Energy proposal to increase rates to recover some of the more than $1 billion it has spent on system capacity since 2019. (Associated Press)

SOLAR: A California clean energy group announces the completion of a 192 MW solar project. (Solar Power World)

WIND: A public, locally-controlled California electricity provider agrees to a 245 MW wind energy procurement deal from three projects to advance its goal of achieving 100% renewables by 2025. (reNEWS)

COMMENTARY: A granddaughter of President Dwight Eisenhower, who originally set aside the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, says he would have starkly disapproved of the Trump administration’s effort to open the area to drilling. (New York Times)

Lisa Ellwood

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.).