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)