UTILITIES: Northern California prosecutors charge Pacific Gas & Electric with manslaughter and other crimes relating to a fire sparked by the utility’s equipment last year. (Associated Press)
ALSO:
• PG&E’s new “fast trip” wildfire prevention system has triggered 329 unplanned power outages since late July, drawing the ire of some customers. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• NV Energy plans to implement a public safety power outage in the Lake Tahoe area today due to high wildfire risk. (news release)
CLIMATE:
• Climate change is leading the atmosphere to evaporate an increasing amount of water and exacerbating California’s record-setting drought, according to recent findings. (Los Angeles Times)
• Western utilities are turning to fossil fuels to replace drought-diminished hydropower generating capacity. (Bloomberg)
OIL & GAS:
• Denver International Airport plans to permanently plug 64 oil and gas wells on the facility’s grounds as part of its new sustainability plan. (Denver Post)
• The Biden administration puts the brakes on oil and gas drilling permit approvals after coming under fire for issuing too many. (E&E News, subscription)
• New methane rules expected from the Biden administration will have little effect on oil and gas producers in Colorado and New Mexico, where state-level emissions rules are already in place. (E&E News)
• An earthquake briefly knocked out power Friday to Marathon Petroleum Corp’s 360-barrel-per-day Los Angeles refinery, forcing it to flare off excess gases. (Los Angeles Times)
COAL: Internal documents confirm the Utah Inland Port Authority explored rehabilitating a northern California railroad to haul Western coal to the coast for export. (Salt Lake Tribune, subscription)
WIND: The federal Bureau of Land Management orders a southern California wind farm to halt operations after a turbine collapsed earlier this month. (Imperial Valley Press)
STORAGE: Developers tentatively propose building a large pumped hydro energy storage facility in Kern County, California. (Bakersfield California)
LITHIUM: A would-be developer hopes to “commercialize an environmental disaster” by building lithium extraction facilities at California’s Salton Sea, but critics call the proposed ventures “disaster capitalism.” (Guardian)
NUCLEAR:
• High uranium prices and a shift to producing rare earths alongside yellowcake breathe new life into the long-struggling White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah. (Salt Lake Tribune)
• The U.S. Department of Defense begins gathering input on its plans to build a mobile microreactor at the Idaho National Laboratory to provide carbon-free power to remote operations. (Associated Press)
COMMENTARY: A California columnist says “renewable natural gas” is not renewable and will do little to nothing to avert global warming. (Los Angeles Times)