COAL: A Montana judge rules a state environmental review board erred when it found a proposed expansion of the coal mine that supplies Colstrip power plant  would not pollute a nearby stream; regulators must now reconsider the permit. (Reuters)

OIL & GAS:
• An appeals court scrutinizes whether federal regulators properly evaluated the climate impact of a now on-hold liquefied natural gas export terminal proposed for southern Oregon when supporting the use of eminent domain to build it. (E&E News)   
• A California city plans to phase out reliance on oil revenue by 2035, a decade before the state hopes to end petroleum production. (San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
• The U.S. Navy proposes double-walling tanks at a leak-plagued Hawaii refueling station rather than relocating the facility. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
• California’s Democratic lawmakers are divided over whether to accept campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. (Los Angeles Times)

CLIMATE:
• Centuries of colonization and U.S. government action have forced Native Americans onto a tiny fraction of their historical territory, and largely into areas with climates that are becoming uninhabitable as the world warms, a study finds. (New York Times)
• Climate change exacerbates California’s “weather whiplash” shift from extreme drought to record-setting rains, according to scientists. (Phys.org)

TRANSPORTATION:
• New Mexico regulators propose requiring that electric vehicles make up an increasing portion of the state’s car sales. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• A Colorado shopping center owner installs electric vehicle charging stations to ease “range anxiety” for visitors of Rocky Mountain National Park. (Denver Post)
• An Arizona city plans to buy an electric fire truck as part of its climate change-fighting strategy. (Arizona Republic)

SOLAR:
• A remote Alaska community is building a microgrid powered by the second largest solar facility in the state to reduce reliance on diesel generators. (T&D World)
• A New Mexico company plans to finance and build solar installations at oil and gas facilities to lower emissions from field operations. (Albuquerque Journal)

UTILITIES:
• Nevada regulators approve rules requiring natural gas utilities conduct annual leak detection surveys of all distribution pipelines. (Carson Now)
• A fire investigator in a class-action lawsuit finds PacifiCorp equipment likely sparked four of Oregon’s Labor Day 2020 blazes; the official investigation into causes is ongoing. (OPB)  
• Pacific Gas & Electric says power has been restored to nearly all 851,000 customers who lost it during recent storms. (Associated Press) 

ELECTRIFICATION: A northern California city considers banning natural gas appliances in new structures and major renovations. (Richmond Confidential)  

NUCLEAR: The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation oppose a plan to install a small modular reactor at Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation. (Public News Service) 

LITHIUM: Indigenous activists step up opposition to the Thacker Pass lithium mine proposed for northern Nevada. (Grist)

COMMENTARY: A Wyoming columnist says the state could keep its coal mines running by making an environmental case for exporting its coal with a higher heating value to Asia. (WyoFile) 

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.