TRANSITION: About 4 in 5 U.S. coal plants are scheduled to retire by 2025 or are more expensive to run than wind or solar replacements would be, a new report shows. (Energy News Network)
ALSO: A shortage of critical minerals needed to build electric vehicles, solar panels, and other clean energy technologies could hamper the world’s clean energy transition, an International Energy Agency report warns. (Recharge)
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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Senate Democrats introduce a $73 billion plan aimed at replacing buses and other mass transit vehicles with zero-emission alternatives. (The Hill)
• The auto industry’s largest trade group says it’s unlikely the U.S. can phase out gasoline-powered cars by 2035 as Democratic governors urge the Biden administration to ban their sale. (E&E News, subscription)
• Ford and BMW invest in a startup developing solid-state batteries for electric vehicles. (CNBC)
• A Colorado transportation bill introduced yesterday would modestly increase gasoline taxes and increase fees for electric vehicle registrations, and includes funding to support transportation electrification. (Colorado Sun)
NUCLEAR: The White House is considering including subsidies for existing nuclear plants in its infrastructure bill to keep the largely aging facilities from closing, people familiar with the discussions say. (Reuters)
PIPELINES: One of the companies behind the proposed Byhalia Connection pipeline agrees to consider an alternate route, pause its work and pull back on eminent domain lawsuits, while the Memphis city council again delays voting on an ordinance that could halt the project altogether. (E&E News, subscription; Commercial Appeal)
BIOFUELS: The U.S. biofuels industry seeks direct support under the Biden administration’s infrastructure plan in order to compete with electric vehicles. (Politico)
UTILITIES: As utilities match them on price, community choice aggregators are highlighting their impacts on climate action to attract and retain customers. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
• Major solar projects are being planned at Midwestern sites with large centralized power plants that have closed or are planned to and have key interconnections to the grid. (E&E News, subscription)
• Research out of Australia suggests U.S. airports have the potential to double as solar farms. (Wired)
EFFICIENCY: LEED efficiency certification has “no effect” on how much energy a federal building uses, a study suggests, though leaders of the U.S. Green Building Council dispute the findings. (Utility Dive)
GRID: Texas lawmakers push measures ostensibly intended to address February’s storm-induced outages but which threaten renewable energy, including a prohibition against cities banning natural gas hookups. (NPR, KUT)
OFFSHORE WIND:
• Maine’s fishing industry throws its support behind legislation calling for a total ban on offshore wind in the state. (Portland Press-Herald)
• Vineyard Wind should begin producing power in 2023, with full commercial operations expected in 2024, according to Avangrid, one of the project’s developers. (S&P Global Platts)
CLEAN ENERGY: Google announces a partnership with a clean energy supplier to decarbonize its operations at three Virginia data centers. (Utility Dive)
NATURAL GAS: Northeast utility Eversource Energy says it’s in the “fight of its life” to preserve its natural gas business and take down plans to decarbonize buildings. (E&E News)
CLIMATE:
• A group of climate scientists say new climate pledges from the U.S. and other countries put the world on track to keep global warming below 2 degrees Celsius by the end of the century. (Associated Press)
• The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration updates what’s considered “normal” climate across the U.S., and its outlook is warmer than ever. (Washington Post)