OIL & GAS: Los Angeles County leaders vote to ban new oil and gas drilling and phase out the county’s 1,600 existing active and idle wells. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Internal emails reveal California regulators are investigating whether Phillips 66 obtained proper permits to convert a Bay Area oil refinery into the world’s largest producer of renewable fuels. (Reuters)
• Union Pacific agrees to pay $82,500 in penalties related to a 2016 train derailment that spilled 47,000 gallons of Bakken crude oil in Oregon. (news release)
• Investigators suspect vandalism was a factor in a 2020 Washington state oil train crash that resulted in a fire and evacuations. (Northern Light) 

UTILITIES:
• Victims of the Dixie Fire sue Pacific Gas & Electric over damages caused when  its equipment allegedly sparked the blaze. (Sacramento Bee)
• Arizona’s second largest power provider allegedly complained to an environmental advocate’s employer over her tweets criticizing the utility’s plan to expand a natural gas plant. (Gizmodo)

CLIMATE:
• University of Colorado researchers say the state’s residents are feeling the effects of climate change in the forms of record heat, a dwindling Colorado River, larger fires and catastrophic fire-scar mudslides. (Colorado Sun)
• A central Arizona utility says the second wettest summer on record refilled its hydropower-generating reservoirs depleted by the second driest winter in 110 years. (Associated Press)
• Four Southern California national forests extend closures by an additional week due to high fire danger. (news release)

STORAGE: A massive battery storage facility in California remains partially offline as officials investigate the cause of overheating batteries and a Sept. 4 fire. (Monterey County Weekly)

SOLAR:
• Solana Beach, California’s city council passes a resolution urging state regulators to strengthen net metering policies for rooftop solar. (Coast News) 
• A Santa Fe, New Mexico, homeless shelter plans to soon power the facility with a 23 KW solar array. (Yale Climate Connection)

MICROGRIDS: The Oregon Military Department deploys a solar-diesel plus storage microgrid that can power a disaster center for 14 days. (Microgrid Knowledge)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Tesla gets around New Mexico laws prohibiting direct auto sales by setting up shop on tribal land. (Associated Press)
• A Colorado resort town distributes seven e-bikes to income-qualified essential workers to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (Vail Daily) 

NUCLEAR: U.S. Rep. Raul Grijalva, D-Ariz., joins several Democrats asking the Biden administration to hold off on plans to stockpile uranium and focus on cleaning up existing messes instead. (E&E News, subscription)

COAL: Utah environmentalists say President Joe Biden’s plans to incentivize utilities to reduce emissions could face resistance from fossil fuel-producing states. (Utah Public Radio) 

COMMENTARY: A Washington state think tank official says banning natural gas in buildings is overly expensive and will do little to reduce emissions beyond the state’s existing cap-and-trade program. (Clark County Today)

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.