RENEWABLES: The Tennessee Valley Authority got more power from nuclear and renewables than coal during the first three months of 2020. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
NATURAL GAS: A union president representing California gas utility workers successfully blocked a city’s proposal to encourage all-electric buildings by threatening to bus in “hundreds of pissed off people potentially adding to this pandemic.” (Los Angeles Times)
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CLIMATE:
• Oil companies argued before an appeals court yesterday that a climate lawsuit led by Colorado communities should be moved to federal court. (Drilled News)
• Washington Gov. Jay Inslee says fighting climate change helped prepare his state for the coronavirus pandemic. (Bloomberg)
POLITICS:
• A new conservative advocacy group launches to promote innovation and mitigation strategies around climate change. (E&E News, subscription)
• Utah Republican U.S. Representative John Curtis says there are good solutions to combat climate change that can be bipartisan. (Deseret News)
EMISSIONS: New York will next year include emissions from combustion turbines smaller than 25 MW in its calculations of allowable CO2 tonnage. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR:
• Navajo Power partners with solar developer sPower on a co-development deal to pursue a 200 MW solar bid with an Arizona utility. (Greentech Media)
• Residential solar installer Sunrun reports year-over-year growth in the first quarter, but only the tail end was affected by the pandemic. (Greentech Media)
STORAGE: A new report highlights states that are leading in adopting new policies in the first quarter of this year to encourage energy storage. (PV Magazine)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A southwestern Illinois school district purchases its first round of electric buses using Volkswagen settlement funds with a tentative plan to replace half of its fleet with electric models in 15 years. (Energy News Network)
PIPELINES: Nearly 80 organizations launch an ad campaign urging Dominion Energy to abandon the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. (E&E News, subscription)
COAL: The coronavirus pandemic has so far not altered utility plans to retire coal plants. (S&P Global)
GRID:
• Decreased power demand combined with weak natural gas prices has pushed down power costs across grid operator MISO’s territory. (S&P Global)
• The Energy Information Agency says power demand in New York fell up to 14% below projections in March and April due to the pandemic. (Natural Gas Intelligence)
OIL & GAS:
• Houston oil field services company Halliburton lays off 1,000 employees at its headquarters. (The Advocate)
• North Dakota officials launch a task force to help oil and gas drillers with a variety of incentives as the number of wells shrinks and production hits its lowest level in five years. (Associated Press)
• Texas regulators relax rules about where companies can store oil underground, raising concerns from environmental groups. (E&E News, subscription)
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POLICY: Clean energy legislation is on hold in Minnesota, Illinois and Michigan as lawmakers focus their attention on the pandemic. (National Law Review)
COMMENTARY:
• The pandemic shows more clearly than ever that individual action on climate change will never be enough without systemic change, a journalist writes. (HuffPost)
• Indigenous activist Chase Iron Eyes said recent court rulings on pipeline projects “justify the stand” he and others took at Standing Rock. (Daily Climate)