PIPELINES: Owners of New England power plants, who benefit from current high electricity prices, push back at efforts to expand natural gas pipeline capacity. (Portland Press Herald)
SOLAR:
• A solar project at a defunct New York nuclear plant is under fire over plans to cut down 350 acres of trees. (Associated Press)
• A Texas utility agrees to drop a proposed fee for solar customers. (Texas Observer)
• A judge advises against an Arizona co-ops plans to increase charges on solar customers. (Arizona Daily Star)
COAL: An Ohio utility says it will close four of the seven units at a power plant at the center of its proposed “bailout” request by 2020. (Toledo Blade)
OIL AND GAS:
• Activists say federal regulators are not coming down hard enough on BP over an oil spill that occurred at its Indiana refinery in 2014. (Midwest Energy News)
• Scientists say wastewater disposal may be to blame for earthquakes near Dallas last year. (Dallas News)
• A Colorado business association organizes against ballot initiatives targeting the oil and gas industry. (Denver Post)
• A Montana tribe pushes back against oil and gas development. (EnergyWire)
POLITICS:
• Conservative climate activists believe the Republican party will coalesce around the issue in 2020. (Greenwire)
• Fossil fuel interests, typically strong backers of Republican candidates, are so far not throwing their support behind Donald Trump. (InsideClimate News)
• An Ohio coal company donated $100,000 to Trump the day before announcing 4,400 layoffs. (Washington Examiner)
CLEAN ENERGY: Elon Musk plans to transition Tesla into an “end-to-end clean energy” company. (Mashable)
TRANSPORTATION:
• A study finds car-sharing services help cut emissions. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• The U.S. may begin regulating emissions from commercial aircraft due to an “endangerment finding” by the EPA. (Reuters)
• As part of a legal settlement with the Sierra Club last week, a Missouri utility agrees to provide between $1 million and $2 million toward the electrification of buses in the St. Louis area. (Midwest Energy News)
EFFICIENCY: U.S. data centers are putting a greater emphasis on energy efficiency and sourcing their power from renewables. (NPR)
POLLUTION: The West Virginia researchers who exposed the Volkswagen emissions scandal struggle to maintain funding. (New York Times)
MEDIA: An oil industry group paid media organizations, including the Atlantic and the Washington Post, to host panels featuring climate-change deniers. (The Intercept)
COMMENTARY:
• The public health case for energy storage. (Greentech Media)
• Coal should no longer be the state rock of Utah. (Deseret News)
• Why is the Republican Party promoting carbon capture and sequestration as it denies climate science? (New York Times)