CLIMATE: President Trump announces that the U.S. will withdraw from the Paris climate agreement, while a former head of the United Nations Framework Convention on Climate Change calls Trump’s announcement “vacuous political melodrama.” (New York Times, Greentech Media)
ALSO:
• A group of mayors, governors, university presidents and businesses are preparing to submit a pledge to the United Nations to uphold the emissions targets in the Paris climate accord, regardless of federal action. (New York Times)
• A fact check finds false and questionable claims in Trump’s address on his decision. (Washington Post)
• Several U.S. companies and political leaders criticize Trump’s decision to pull out of the Paris climate agreement. (New York Times, Reuters)
• Tesla CEO Elon Musk says he will leave White House advisory councils over Trump’s decision to withdraw from the Paris agreement, tweeting that “leaving Paris is not good for America or the world.” (Reuters)
SOLAR:
• A bill to modify net metering in Nevada would cost $1.3 billion over 20 years, according to estimates by a state utility. (PV Magazine)
• A weekly podcast explores what could happen if the U.S. government imposes tariffs on imported solar cells, as requested by bankrupt solar manufacturer Suniva. (Greentech Media)
• A former Nashville landfill will now be the site of the city’s first solar farm. (Fox 17)
WIND: Duke Energy Renewables dedicates a 200-megawatt wind farm in Oklahoma that began delivering power earlier this year. (Charlotte Business Journal)
RENEWABLES: The California Senate approves legislation for 100 percent renewable energy by 2045. (Los Angeles Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: In North Carolina, Volkswagen settlement funds are expected to bring new charging stations to the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area; while language in the legislature could impact electric adoption in other sectors. (Southeast Energy News)
COAL:
• Three large coal-fired power plants close on the same day that Trump announces the U.S. withdrawal from the Paris climate accord. (Los Angeles Times)
• The TVA plans to continue moving away from coal despite federal backtracking on climate policy. (Reuters)
PIPELINES: Though oil is now flowing through the $3.8 billion Dakota Access pipeline, the Standing Rock Sioux tribe and others vow to continue fighting the project. (NPR)
POLLUTION: Diesel fuel has been found in the drilling mud that spilled into an Ohio wetland from the Rover gas pipeline, and the state is ordering increased monitoring of drinking water supplies. (Canton Repository)
UTILITIES: Duke Energy Progress wants to raise electricity rates for some North Carolina customers by an average of 14.9 percent to pay for coal ash clean up, transmission upgrades and natural gas conversion. (Associated Press)
GRID:
• The Trump administration’s budget proposal for 2018 would eliminate the Energy Department’s central policy research unit, which studies the changing nature of the U.S. electric grid. (Greentech Media)
• An electric utility in Sacramento, California, is using smart meter data and distributed energy resources in a groundbreaking way. (Greentech Media)
• With electricity producers and consumers both buying electricity and selling it back, the electrical grid is starting to resemble the structure of the internet, and Silicon Valley utility startups are taking advantage. (Quartz)
• Transmission line crews from Illinois electric cooperatives help electrify rural areas of Bolivia as part of a volunteer program to improve access to the grid in developing countries. (Midwest Energy News)
COMMENTARY:
• California needs mandatory pollution reductions, not a cap-and-trade system, says a director at Food & Water Watch. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• The associate vice president at Environmental Defense Fund uses five graphics to illustrate how leaving the Paris climate accord will hurt the U.S. (Huffington Post)
• Scrapping the Paris agreement will risk millions of clean energy jobs and hurt U.S. economic competitiveness, says the executive director of Environmental Entrepreneurs. (Huffington Post)
• Leaving this Paris agreement is a “terrible decision” that Trump defended using dishonest and discredited data, says the editorial board of The New York Times.