FRACKING: The Trump administration wants a federal appeals court to delay ruling on an Obama-era fracking rule while it comes up with a replacement, which could take years. (Associated Press)

PIPELINES:
• West Virginians and Virginians file another federal lawsuit against the proposed Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
• Oil and gas pipeline workers, who feel their work is misunderstood, say they are speaking up in favor of projects more as opposition grows. (NPR)

RENEWABLES:
• North Carolina’s governor signs legislation to promote solar energy and also issues an executive order to encourage wind power despite a controversial moratorium included in the bill. (News & Observer)
• How a solar-powered, carbon-free city is being built from scratch outside Denver, Colorado. (E&E News)

WIND:
• Proponents of wind energy hope developers won’t follow through with threats to suspend projects in North Carolina following the state’s new moratorium law. (Triangle Business Journal)
• American Electric Power’s plan to buy a massive, $4.5 billion wind farm in Oklahoma shows that renewables are continuing to thrive under the Trump administration. (Washington Post)
• Southwestern Electric Power of Arkansas says it plans to buy a 70 percent stake in the country’s largest wind farm. (Arkansas Business Journal)

STORAGE:
• Minnesota’s largest retail electric cooperative is in negotiations to build a 20-megawatt capacity storage project, which would be the largest in the state. (Midwest Energy News)
• Stakeholders say grid operator MISO should begin considering the value of energy storage so those resources can participate in wholesale markets. (RTO Insider)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An electric bus factory in Southern California will employ almost 100 workers and be able to manufacture up to 400 zero-emission buses annually. (Bloomberg)

UTILITIES: Utilities are shifting away from power purchase agreements and buying their own renewable energy assets instead. (Bloomberg)

GRID:
• A Maine electric utility submits a plan to build a 145-mile transmission line to transport hydroelectricity from Quebec to Massachusetts. (Portland Press Herald)
• The board of the PJM regional transmission organization approves a $417 million investment in electric transmission projects and upgrades. (Utility Dive)

CLIMATE:
• A proposed carbon fee-and-rebate bill could reduce greenhouse gas emissions in Washington, D.C. by 23 percent by 2032, according to a recent study. (ThinkProgress)
• Minneapolis becomes one of several major cities to post climate change information online that the U.S. EPA has removed from its website. (Associated Press)

CAP-AND-TRADE: At least seven oil companies and a petroleum trade group spent over $34 million to influence California’s cap-and-trade vote. (E&E News)

NUCLEAR:
• Santee Cooper and SCE&G will accept nearly $2.2 billion from Toshiba to defray costs of the over-budget, long-delayed Summer nuclear expansion, though the project’s completion is still not certain. (The State, Charlotte Business Journal)
• Meanwhile, chief contractor and Toshiba subsidiary Westinghouse Electric has asked for an extra three months to file a reorganization plan after filing for bankruptcy in March. (Power Source)

POLITICS: House Democrats fail to add renewable energy funding to a 2018 funding bill. (Washington Examiner)

REGULATION: The Trump administration takes the first step to roll back the Clean Water Rule, which environmental groups say will “allow more pollution into America’s drinking water sources.” (ThinkProgress)

COMMENTARY:
• To withdraw from the Paris agreement, the Trump administration is using the same arguments the oil and gas industry used to block climate policies in the 1990s, says a doctoral student in history at Stanford University. (The Guardian)
• A Forbes columnist says the “great leveling-off has begun” for U.S. shale drilling.