GRID: Rocky Mountain Power offers incentives to 50,000 Utah rooftop solar customers to add battery systems to provide grid support during emergencies and high demand, with plans to extend the program to six states. (Utility Dive)  

UTILITIES:
• Portland General Electric files plans with Oregon regulators to comply with a new state emissions law by updating its power grid and adding 1,000 MW of clean energy capacity. (OPB)
• Colorado regulators and Xcel Energy tentatively agree to end a bill add-on intended to pay for natural gas pipeline safety that has raised three times Xcel’s initial revenue estimate. (Colorado Sun)
• California’s Supreme Court rules Pacific Gas & Electric can remove trees in Bay Area parks to protect a natural gas pipeline. (San Francisco Chronicle)

HYDROPOWER: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee and U.S. Sen. Patty Murray plan to release a proposal by next summer for breaching salmon-harming Northwest hydroelectric dams and replacing their power generation capacity. (Spokesman-Review) 

WIND: The U.S. Department of Energy awards $2 million to Oregon State University to study offshore wind farms’ environmental impacts. (KTVL)

SOLAR:
• A southern Nevada concentrated solar power facility resumes operations after the owner’s bankruptcy shut it down for two years. (8NewsNow)
• Renewable IPP proposes building a 60,000-panel solar facility on Alaska’s Kenai Peninsula. (Peninsula Clarion)
• Colorado researchers search for atomic-level, efficiency-robbing defects in silicon solar cells to help manufacturers develop better products. (news release)

PUBLIC LANDS: Indigenous and environmental groups urge the Biden administration to establish a national monument to protect Avi Kwa Ame in southern Nevada from potential wind and solar energy development. (Wyoming Public Radio)

CLIMATE:
• High temperatures combined with low precipitation made this year’s California drought the most severe on record, according to climate researchers. (CNN)
• Smoke from a 16,800-acre wildfire burning in drought-parched chaparral near Santa Barbara prompts air quality advisories for several California counties. (Los Angeles Times)
• Researchers find Western wildfire smoke is disrupting bird migration. (E&E News, subscription) 

OIL & GAS: New Mexico scientists work to develop a method to predict how oil and gas activity will stress the earth’s crust and trigger seismic activity. (NM Political Report)

COAL: Montana coal production inches up thanks in part to rising Asia Pacific Demand. (Missoulian)

COMMENTARY: Colorado climate advocates say the state must increase stringency of zero-emission vehicle policies, work to reduce vehicle miles traveled and prioritize public transit to hit emissions reduction targets. (Colorado Sun)

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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.