CLIMATE: San Diego decides it will no longer invest its financial reserves in the fossil fuel industry because it contradicts the city’s climate goals. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

TRANSITION: Xcel Energy agrees to pay a Colorado county $25 million annually for five years after the 2035 shutdown of its Comanche coal power plant to offset lost property tax revenues. (Pueblo Chieftain)

UTILITIES:
• An Arizona appeals court finds utilities’ tariffs do not shield the companies from lawsuits when their negligence harms people or property. (Arizona Daily Star)
• Rocky Mountain Power’s Idaho ratepayers will see a 1.4% rate increase intended to upgrade the grid and increase renewable energy deployment if Idaho regulators approve the increase. (news release)
• Pacific Gas & Electric launches a 100-home virtual power plant pilot program incorporating smart meters with solar and battery storage in northern California. (Energy & Environment Leader)
• Orange County, California officials approve rate plans for the county’s first community choice energy program, but still haven’t released costs of the plans. (Voice of OC)

GRID: Severe wind storms topple utility lines and take out power to several southeast Alaska communities and an airport, canceling the regular milk run. (KSTK)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Nevada regulators authorize NV Energy to spend $100 million over the next three years to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure along major travel corridors and incentivize EV deployment. (news release)
• A California energy firm plans to build a solar electric vehicle charging station manufacturing facility in Fresno that will employ more than 200 people by 2025. (Business Journal)
• A California nonprofit originally launched to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure in low-income communities pivots to helping members of those same communities buy EVs. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

NUCLEAR:
• Southern California Edison begins the decade-long process of dismantling the shuttered San Onofre Nuclear Generating Station. (NBC San Diego)
• The U.S. Department of Energy launches an effort to find communities willing to host interim spent reactor-fuel storage facilities after the Obama administration took Nevada’s Yucca Mountain repository off the table. (news release)

OIL & GAS: California officials reopen the state’s southern coast to fishing nearly two months after an offshore oil pipeline spill sullied the waters. (Los Angeles Times)

WIND: A massive wind facility proposed near a World War II-era Japanese American incarceration camp draws opposition from detainees and their descendants. (High Country News)

LITHIUM: Environmental advocates urge the Biden administration to consider structural inequities and historical trauma when reviewing mining projects, potentially affecting Nevada’s Thacker Pass lithium project that two tribes oppose. (E&E News)

COMMENTARY: A former California official says the state’s sale last month of its first ever climate-certified bond, guaranteeing a major infrastructure project aligns with climate goals, is one of the Newsom administration’s biggest accomplishments. (CalMatters) 

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.