OIL & GAS: New Mexico finalizes new natural gas venting and flaring regulations to curb a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, a move supported by environmentalists. (Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Political Report)

ALSO:
• The American Petroleum Institute says it will support a federal price on carbon dioxide emissions, but environmental groups say the policy shift is “self-serving greenwashing.”  (Associated Press, Washington Post)

PUBLIC LANDS:
• Tribal leaders tell Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland during a public virtual forum the agency’s past oil and gas policies amounted to environmental racism, while environmental groups emphasize the need to cut fossil fuel emissions. (Carlsbad Current-Argus, Deseret News)
• Interior Department officials during the forum expressed the need for significant federal leasing and permitting policy reforms for public lands, but refrained from taking a stance on concerns raised by participants. (Albuquerque Journal)

GRID:
• California regulators approve utilities’ plans to cut power when the grid is stressed, aiming to prevent a repeat of last summer’s rolling blackouts. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• California’s grid operator is set to study a proposed plan that would connect the state’s grid with power generated by renewable sources in Nevada. (Pahrump Valley Times)
• A federal test of a renewables-dominated futuristic grid model in Colorado finds that “islanding” could be a solution for restarting large power systems after a blackout. (E&E News)

COAL:
• A Utah federal judge rules that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider cumulative climate impacts and the economic costs related to climate change in its analysis of a coal mine expansion. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• Conservation groups call on the Bureau of Land Management to deny a request to lower the royalty rates for a Colorado coal mine. (news release)

PIPELINES: Alaska lawmakers are questioning the economics of the initial phase of a proposed $39 billion liquified natural gas pipeline project backed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. (Anchorage Daily News)

CLIMATE: Eugene, Oregon’s city council is considering changing its operating agreement with its gas utility to factor in climate goals. (High Country News)

HYDROPOWER:
• Eleven Pacific Northwest tribal leaders want the region’s congressional delegation and President Biden to breach the four lower Snake River dams as a permanent solution for the threat of salmon and steelhead extinction. (Lewiston Tribune)
• However Democratic federal lawmakers remain silent on the Republican proposal to remove the dams. (E&E News Daily, subscription)

UTILITIES: Oregon regulators approve utility debt relief programs to help residential ratepayers with payments in arrears because of the pandemic. (KTVZ)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Officials in Steamboat Springs, Colorado say initial results from a pilot program show electric buses can “meet the full range of service that our current buses do.” (Pilot & Today)

COMMENTARY:
• A Colorado policy, climate & clean energy advocate says equity needs to be centered in the state’s climate action plans. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• An energy researcher explains how California’s ongoing problems with wildfires are prompting re-evaluation of regulatory barriers to widespread deployment of microgrids throughout the state. (Utility Dive)
• An environmental advocate and a labor leader say California “needs to go all in on offshore wind.” (CalMatters)

CLARIFICATION: Environmental groups quoted in a Utah Public Radio article agree that nuclear power isn’t needed to replace energy from Snake River dams, an item in yesterday’s digest was unclear.

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.).