GRID: California Gov. Gavin Newsom declares a state of emergency and seeks to ease grid strain by paying industrial users to cut back on power use, fast tracking permitting for new power sources and waiving air quality rules to allow big power consumers to use diesel generators. (Bloomberg)

ALSO:
• Efforts to bring electricity to a predominantly Navajo subdivision of a small Utah town are moving slowly, frustrating residents. (Navajo Times)
• Police in Utah find hammocks hanging from high-voltage transmission line towers. (Washington Post)

UTILITIES: Thousands of New Mexico residents are at risk of losing power this month as a moratorium on utility disconnections for non-payment expires. (Albuquerque Journal)

CLIMATE:
• Colorado became the first state to apply the social cost of methane to regulatory decisions when implementing new building-electrification and oil and gas emissions rules this year, also passing several other bills tackling building emissions. (Energy News Network)
• Colorado communities are suing oil corporations to require them to pay for damage caused by climate change-exacerbated wildfires. (Guardian)  

SOLAR:
• Wyoming’s lack of transmission infrastructure and fossil fuel-favoring politics have kept utility-scale solar projects at bay, industry observers say. (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Kern County, California, supervisors delay a vote on a proposed solar facility and pledge to reevaluate their approach to such projects in response to state energy policies they say disproportionately hurt the oil-rich county. (Tehachapi News)

OIL & GAS: Federal officials extend a public comment period on the proposed endangered species listing of the lesser prairie chicken, which could affect oil and gas operations in New Mexico’s Permian Basin. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

COAL: Wyoming regulators table a proposal to expedite implementation of a 2020 state law requiring utilities to acquire a certain amount of electricity from carbon capture-equipped coal power plants by 2030. (Wyoming Public Radio)

NUCLEAR:
• A federal report determines a spent reactor fuel repository proposed for southeastern New Mexico will have no impact on the environment. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• Critics of a Bill Gates-backed company’s proposal to build an advanced nuclear reactor in Wyoming doubt the feasibility of the project and say it will end with massive public investments gone to waste. (WyoFile)

COMMENTARY:
• Two California university professors say the state must go beyond carbon neutral and become carbon negative — or remove more carbon than it emits — by 2030. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• A New Mexico climate advocate says stronger emissions rules on oil and gas facilities will help grow the methane mitigation industry and create new jobs. (Las Cruces Sun-News)
• A California editorial board says Pacific Gas & Electric, by bungling its response to wildfires its equipment sparked, is making the case for San Francisco to take over the city’s portion of the grid. (San Francisco Chronicle)

Jonathan hails from southwestern Colorado and has been writing about the land, cultures, and communities of the Western United States for more than two decades. He compiles the Western Energy News digest. He is the author of three books, a contributing editor at High Country News, and the editor of the Land Desk, an e-newsletter that provides coverage and context on issues critical to the West.