CLEAN ENERGY: A new report that ranks states on their clean energy momentum finds that red states like Kansas, North Dakota and Wyoming are leading the nation in renewable energy growth. (InsideClimate News, E&E News)
ALSO:
• Hawaii’s largest electric utility is using an all-of-the-above strategy to reach 100 percent renewable energy across the state. (Utility Dive)
• A Virginia school’s recognition last month for its net zero energy status is part of a growing trend in the Southeast. (Southeast Energy News / Living Building Chronicle)
• Conservative North Carolina lawmakers are making another attempt to freeze the state’s renewable energy standard. (WRAL)
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SOLAR:
• L’Oréal USA starts construction on the largest commercial solar array in Kentucky, which will have 4,140 panels and produce 1.42 megawatts. (Cincinnati Business Courier)
• Florida lawmakers vote to advance a bill that would make solar and renewable energy equipment on commercial buildings exempt from property taxes for 20 years. (PV Tech)
STORAGE: The co-founder of SolarCity says “it makes perfect sense to convert every island out there” to solar-plus-storage grid systems. (Greentech Media)
TRANSPORTATION:
• Pennsylvania will add 29 compressed natural gas fueling stations across the state over the next several years. (Pittsburgh Business Times)
• San Antonio’s transportation agency debuts the first batch of 270 new buses that will run on compressed natural gas instead of diesel. (San Antonio Business Journal)
TECHNOLOGY: California will spend $2.3 million on pilot projects to harness energy from vibrations on roadways. (IEEE Spectrum)
GRID: Participants in a Brooklyn microgrid are buying and selling renewable energy over a peer-to-peer network by using blockchain, which is the same technology behind the digital currency Bitcoin. (MIT Technology Review)
OIL & GAS:
• A map shows 42 U.S. parks that would be at risk if the Trump administration succeeds at making it easier to drill in national parks. (Vox)
• The 2010 BP Deepwater Horizon oil spill, which lasted 152 days and leaked 134 million gallons, totaled $17.2 billion in damages, according to a new study. (Orlando Business Journal)
• Natural gas surpassed coal to provide about one-third of electricity produced last year, and will become the next likely target for climate activists. (Bloomberg)
POLICY: To encourage business growth, the governor of Maine may draft legislation to cap industrial energy costs in the state. (Portland Press Herald)
POLITICS: Sources say the Trump administration is withholding money for grants that have already been approved by the Department of Energy, while overall research spending has been slashed compared to the Obama administration. (ThinkProgress, E&E News)
CARBON TAX: A running list of the fossil-fuel companies that publicly support some form of carbon pricing. (Quartz)
CLIMATE: Nearly a dozen Republican state attorneys general file a brief in U.S. District Court showing support for an Exxon lawsuit that seeks to halt a probe into what the company knew about climate change. (Reuters)
COMMENTARY:
• It’s time for Duke Energy to stop trying to impede solar growth in North Carolina, says the vice president of state affairs for the Solar Energy Industries Association. (Charlotte Business Journal)
• Citizens need to fight the Trump administration’s efforts to weaken smog standards, says the director of the Sierra Club’s Beyond Coal Campaign. (Huffington Post)