CLIMATE: A two-day climate summit in New York with some of the world’s top officials and business leaders will explore investment opportunities in the wake of the Paris agreement. (Climate Home)
CALIFORNIA GAS LEAK:
• Health officials are skeptical over claims that chemical additives in natural gas used to help detect leaks will not cause long-term health damage. (InsideClimate News)
• State air-quality regulators vote to require the utility responsible for the ongoing leak to underwrite an independent study on public health impacts. (Reuters)
***SPONSORED LINK: Join more than 600 innovators and decision-makers February 24-26 in Chicago for the Midwest Energy Solutions Conference. With live demonstrations, insightful panels and unparalleled networking, MES 2016 is a can’t-miss conference. Register today! ***
SOLAR:
• Growth has slowed in Vermont as the state reaches its solar cap and regulators explore options to continue development. (Associated Press)
• Industry groups say Pennsylvania is lagging behind other states in encouraging solar development. (Pittsburgh Tribune-Review)
• The Energy Information Administration predicts North Carolina, California and Nevada will account for almost 70 percent of projected utility-scale solar additions in 2015 and 2016 combined. (Zacks Research)
OIL AND GAS:
• Offshore oil development in the Arctic has largely been put on hold in light of slumping prices. (Huffington Post)
• Oil-by-rail shipments from North Dakota to the east coast have all but disappeared, with growing demand for overseas oil amid low prices. (Reuters)
• Tribes in Washington state say a proposed Canadian oil pipeline expansion puts their fishing rights and cultural heritage at risk. (Associated Press)
• Eight months after an oil spill in California, Exxon Mobil is now seeking permission to move 17 million gallons of oil stranded in storage with trucks. (Associated Press)
CLEAN POWER PLAN:
• Legal experts say the Obama administration got “lucky” with the panel of judges that will decide the fate of the Clean Power Plan, based on their past support for the environment. (Greenwire)
• Industry groups vow to appeal to the U.S. Supreme Court a ruling last week rejecting an effort to halt the rules. (ClimateWire)
• An environmental group urges the EPA to let energy efficiency and renewable energy compete straight up with traditional utility power plants. (Southern Environmental Law Center)
COAL:
• U.S. regulators will begin investigating whether Wyoming maintained lax oversight on coal mining, particularly by not requiring companies to buy cleanup insurance. (Reuters)
• A federal judge is requiring the U.S. government to re-examine a decision allowing a 117-million-ton coal mine expansion in Montana. (Associated Press)
NATURAL GAS: The Obama administration’s announcement seeking to limit emissions from natural-gas wells on federal and tribal land met with swift resistance from conservatives and industry groups. (Greenwire)
EFFICIENCY: A Nevada utility looks to reinstate two energy efficiency programs that state regulators cut funding for last month in an effort to save ratepayers money. (Greentech Media)
SUSTAINABILITY:
• Officials in Rochester, Minnesota have plans to make the city as well as a multi-billion-dollar medical center development net zero by 2031. (Midwest Energy News)
• Duke University is on track to achieve carbon neutrality by 2024. (Duke Today)
EMISSIONS:
• Researchers say power plants are contributing to harmful algal blooms in Lake Erie each year. (Midwest Energy News)
• Competing bills in Oregon take different paths to reducing the state’s greenhouse gas emissions. (Portland Business Journal)
REGULATION: The last remaining Republican on the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will step down when his term ends on June 30. (EnergyWire)