OIL & GAS: The Biden administration is on pace this year to approve the most drilling permits of any year since George W. Bush was president, with the bulk of them issued in New Mexico and Wyoming. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Highly toxic “forever chemicals” were used to hydraulically fracture more than a thousand wells after the EPA approved their use in 2011, including in New Mexico and Wyoming, according to a new study. (New York Times)
• Colorado regulators must fine a defunct oil and gas company in order to collect a bond to help pay to clean up an abandoned well. (Colorado Sun)
• California regulators tallied more than a dozen violations at a Bay Area natural gas power plant before an explosion in May forced nearby residents to evacuate. (KTVU)
• A California elementary school, built using oil money in the 1980s, closes after a prolonged drilling slump saps its budget. (Bakersfield Californian) 

GRID: California grid operators managed to avoid major outages even as a wildfire threatened a major transmission line and temperatures soared into the triple digits, though grid threats will remain high for the next few months. (Los Angeles Times)

HYDROPOWER: Tribes across the Northwest call for the removal of four hydroelectric dams on the Lower Snake River in Washington to benefit imperiled chinook salmon. (OPB)

SOLAR:
• A Colorado county’s commissioners approve a 5.38-MW solar facility proposed for a college campus. (Aspen Times)
• The owners of a huge copper mine in Nevada consider building a 200 MW solar facility to power operations. (Mining Weekly)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Southern California Edison plans to install 38,000 electric vehicle chargers in its service area over the next five years. (San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
• The Port of San Diego commissions the construction of an all-electric tugboat. (City News Service) 

CLIMATE:
• San Diego says it will revise its climate action plan after an audit characterizes the current blueprint as vague and weak. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Seattle activists and politicians push for more trees in low-income neighborhoods to alleviate the urban heat island effect. (Washington Post)

UTILITIES: NorthWestern Energy’s plans to build a natural gas plant undercut Montana cities’ efforts to acquire power from 100 percent renewable sources, officials say. (KTVH)

GEOTHERMAL: A proposed geothermal plant in Hawaii remains in limbo due to uncertainty over the need for an environmental analysis. (Hawaii Tribune-Herald)

STORAGE: A California company proposes a hydro pumped storage project for existing reservoirs in the Sierra Nevadas east of Sacramento. (Sierra Nevada Ally)

NUCLEAR: The U.S. Department of Energy will pay Nevada $65,000 for delivering mislabeled and mischaracterized nuclear waste to a facility north of Las Vegas for years. (E&E News, subscription)

COMMENTARY: An Arizona state senator urges Congress to take bold action on climate change by passing the American Jobs Plan. (Arizona Republic)

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Jonathan P. Thompson

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.