UTILITIES: Pueblo, Colorado voters decide to keep Black Hills Energy as the city’s electricity provider for at least the next ten years by a significant margin. (KRDO)

SOLAR:
• A recent update to California regulators’ guidelines acknowledges that distributed energy resources can help eliminate the need for some transmission projects. (Utility Dive)
• An Idaho man is planning to drive across the country in a truck he’s built to run entirely on solar power. (KIVI)

***SPONSORED LINK: Applications are now open for the Veterans Advanced Energy Fellowship, a yearlong program for high-performing, high-potential military veterans in advanced energy, presented by the Atlantic Council Global Energy Center. Learn more at www.vetsenergyproject.org/fellowship***

STORAGE: California energy regulators believe battery storage will be integral to the state’s goal to supply all electricity from zero-carbon resources by 2045. (Utility Dive)

COAL: New research from the University of California, Berkeley indicates adding carbon capture technology to coal-fired power plants could lead to water scarcity problems in some locations. (E&E News, subscription)

PERMIAN BASIN: Oil companies are set to significantly reduce production in the Permian Basin because of considerable losses amidst the coronavirus crisis. (Washington Post)

OIL & GAS:
• Environmentalists condemn New Mexico oil and gas regulators for allegedly abandoning pollution standards and reducing oversight. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• New Mexico’s Oil Conservation Division director says abandoned oil wells would be a bigger problem had the state not changed its bonding regulations two years ago. (E&E News)
• A new report on energy in Utah finds that the state’s oil industry is struggling during the coronavirus crisis. (Deseret News)
• Hilcorp Energy and BP Alaska are again requesting confidentiality for their responses to state queries about how Hilcorp will finance its $5.6 billion purchase of BP’s North Slope assets. (Anchorage Daily News)
• A New Mexico county wants accountability from a state agency on the remediation of a brine well site in danger of collapse before releasing additional funds for the project. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

NATURAL GAS: New Mexico Gas announces work has started on a natural gas pipeline that will boost capacity and reliability for natural gas customers in the northern part of the state, including those in Native American pueblos. (Associated Press)

BIOFUELS: Work has begun on a 1.4 MW biofuels fuel cell facility in San Bernardino, California that will help clean up biogas from the city’s anaerobic digester. (Renewables Now)

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators agree to extend the public comment period for licensing a southern New Mexico nuclear waste disposal site. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

TRANSMISSION: A Wyoming county has all the permitting needed for its part of the TransWest Express interregional transmission project. (Rawlins Times)

COMMENTARY:
• A new report cites three California utilities as examples to follow in reforming rates to support the adoption of commercial electrical vehicles. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• A candidate for News Mexico’s utilities regulator says utility scale solar and storage projects are needed as part of the lowest cost portfolio to replace the coal-fired San Juan Generating Station. (Los Alamos Daily Post)

Lisa is a Lenape and Nanticoke Native American freelance journalist, editor and writer currently based in the U.K. She has more than two decades’ experience working in corporate communications and print and digital media. She compiles the Western Energy News daily email digest. She has a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Temple University; her specializations include data journalism and visualization. She is a member of the Native American Journalists Association, Investigative Reporters & Editors, Society of Professional Journalists, and the National Union of Journalists (U.K.).