NATIONAL PARKS: On its 100-year anniversary, the National Park Service is “grappling more and more” with energy-development pressures from outside sources. (Greenwire)
OIL AND GAS:
• As budget problems persist in Alaska, annual payments to residents from oil revenues may be on the chopping block. (Associated Press)
• A federal appeals court rejects challenges to liquefied natural gas export projects in Louisiana and Texas. (The Hill)
• Even in one “extraction-nurturing” county in Colorado, critics say an oil and gas drilling proposal is too close to a school. (Denver Post)
DIVESTMENT: The foundation that oversees the University System of Maryland’s $1 billion endowment says it will stop investing directly in coal, oil and natural gas companies. (Baltimore Sun)
CLIMATE:
• Virginia Gov. Terry McAuliffe moves to bypass lawmakers in a bid to cut power plant emissions. (The Washington Post)
• More than 30 U.S. science organizations appeal to Congress to take climate change seriously. (Inside Climate News)
• A Senate spending bill would block U.S. funding for an international climate change fund. (The Hill)
UTILITIES: General Electric sees a “digital wave” coming in the way power plants are managed. (EnergyWire)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A new report says the grid could handle a spike in demand with rising EV ownership, though it would take utility planning and progressive rate designs. (Midwest Energy News)
COAL:
• The Oakland City Council’s vote to block a coal-export terminal could jeopardize a $500 million Oakland Army Base redevelopment. (San Francisco Business Times)
• The last of six public hearings on the federal coal-leasing program draws opponents in Pittsburgh. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
NUCLEAR: California land regulators agree to drop longstanding environmental objections to the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant as part of a deal to close it in nine years. (Associated Press)
REGULATION: For the second time in the past year, Michigan’s Republican governor and attorney general are at odds over pursuing legal challenges against federal pollution rules for U.S. power plants. (Midwest Energy News)
TRANSPORTATION: Federal fuel economy standards are not meeting emission-reduction goals across the U.S. vehicle fleet. (ClimateWire)
BATTERIES: Tesla begins tapping into $1.3 billion worth of tax incentives to start building its Gigafactory in Nevada. (Associated Press)
RATES: Thirty clean energy groups send a letter to national utility regulators calling for a uniform, “holistic” approach to rate design. (Utility Dive)
COMMENTARY:
• The Obama administration’s approval of more than 1,500 offshore fracking projects in the Gulf of Mexico — including during the Deepwater Horizon disaster — has been met with “deafening silence” by mainstream media. (DeSmog Blog)
• The U.S., Canada and Mexico have a unique opportunity to partner on efforts to combat climate change. (Center for Climate and Energy Solutions)
• A simple price on carbon is insufficient as a broad climate policy. (Vox)
• The dean of Yale Law School says that if fossil-fuel companies deliberately misled the public on climate change, “they may have committed serious commercial fraud.” (Alaska Dispatch News)
• “Fracking has no place in Maryland.” (Baltimore Sun)
• Large utility customers in Pennsylvania should not be able to opt out of energy efficiency programs. (American Council for an Energy-Efficient Economy)