EFFICIENCY: A study finds water conservation efforts in California have also saved nearly a million MWh of electricity. (Los Angeles Times)
ALSO:
• A push to build energy-efficient, passive housing for low-income residents is growing across the country. (ClimateWire)
• An Oregon task force urges marijuana growers to adopt energy-saving practices. (Oregonian)
• Electricity savings from LED streetlights is helping charge electric cars in Los Angeles. (Wired)
CLEAN ENERGY: Officials in Madison, Wisconsin vote overwhelmingly toaccelerate clean energy programs that would reduce the city’s carbon emissions 80 percent by 2050. (Midwest Energy News)
OIL AND GAS:
• The USGS says a Colorado shale formation holds 40 times more recoverable natural gas than previously thought. (Denver Business Journal)
• Los Angeles officials win an injunction against a diocese-owned oil field blamed for causing health problems in nearby neighborhoods. (Los Angeles Times)
• Maine regulatory staff advise against a proposed $75 million-a-year natural gas pipeline expansion. (Portland Press Herald)
FRACKING:
• Pennsylvania lawmakers advance an amendment that would exempt conventional oil and gas activities from proposed new regulations. (NPR)
• Anti-fracking protesters disrupt a speech by Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper at a Boulder church. (Boulder Daily Camera)
• A geologist warns fracking near a Texas lake could cause a dam to breach. (Dallas Observer)
COAL: A $3.9 billion Texas carbon capture project championed by a former Dallas mayor appears to be “on life support.” (Texas Tribune)
RENEWABLES: Massachusetts lawmakers debate legislation that would promote offshore wind and hydropower. (MassLive)
WIND: A rural co-op’s proposed project will be the first wind project built in Wisconsin in at least the past five years. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)
SOLAR: Some unemployed Texas oil workers are finding new jobs in the solar industry. (Marketplace)
GRID: New rules in the PJM power grid could complicate responses to surging demand.(Utility Dive)
NUCLEAR: Georgia regulators scrutinize a utility’s request to have ratepayers to foot the bill for studying the need for more reactors. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
CLIMATE: A vote on a non-binding resolution in the House is expected to condemn a carbon tax. (The Hill)
BIOFUELS: Alaska Airlines tests a 20 percent biofuel blend it says could cut carbon emissions in half. (Puget Sound Business Journal)
TECHNOLOGY: A Florida man who once served prison time for building a high-speed boat for drug runners is developing new technology for underwater hydropower. (Bloomberg)
COMMENTARY:
• Natural gas plants may be a casualty of California’s solar boom. (Reuters)
• “Depressingly, renewable energies do not seem to be a priority” in Nevada. (Reno Gazette-Journal)