UTILITIES: A Sierra Club report finds most major utilities are making little or no progress on their climate commitments despite pledging to retire coal plants and stop building gas plants. (Sierra Club, Washington Post)
EMISSIONS:
• Air pollution from vehicles and power plants likely contributes to the 10 to 20% of U.S. lung cancer patients who don’t smoke, according to a newly published academic study. (Inside Climate News)
• Power sector emissions only decreased 1% during the first half of this year, as wind and solar increasingly replaced coal-generated electricity, but natural gas generation also continued to grow. (E&E News)
• Scientists call on climate officials to create a single global clearinghouse for every country’s emissions data, saying current emissions-measuring methods are inconsistent and hard to compare. (E&E News)
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TRANSITION: The U.S. is investing billions of dollars in new natural gas infrastructure as it seeks to replace retiring coal plants — an uneconomic decision considering the sinking costs of wind and solar farms, a report finds. (Grist)
OVERSIGHT: The U.S. EPA is running out of time to finalize rules targeting air and water pollution and greenhouse gas emissions, putting them in jeopardy if a Republican-controlled Congress takes office next year, a climate advocacy group finds. (Washington Post)
POLITICS: Republicans and Democrats selectively turn to states’ rights to further their energy priorities, with the GOP fighting states’ abilities to block fossil fuel projects and Democrats looking to speed transmission deployment. (E&E News)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The Biden administration will add lithium-ion batteries to a list of goods made with materials produced by child labor, potentially further disrupting that supply chain. (E&E News)
• Vehicle registration data shows 65% of electric vehicle-owning households that got a new car in 2022 bought an EV again, up from just about half during one quarter last year. (Axios)
STORAGE:
• The expected growth in U.S. battery manufacturing over the coming years is “astounding,” and one analyst says companies will need to regionalize their supply chains to ensure steady production. (S&P Global)
• Boston-area startup Form Energy brings in $450 million in its latest fundraising round as it scales up production of its iron-air batteries. (Canary Media)
OIL & GAS: A peer-reviewed study finds natural gas- gathering pipelines in the Permian Basin release at least 213,000 metric tons of methane annually, about 14 times more than U.S. EPA estimates. (E&E News, subscription, EDF Blog)
WIND: Officials in Atlantic coast states race to build out transmission upgrades ahead of offshore wind development. (States Newsroom)
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EFFICIENCY: New Hampshire’s consumer advocate says regulators’ investigation into energy efficiency programs is “a direct affront” to a law passed earlier this year to codify the programs. (Energy News Network)
TRANSITION: Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin announces former coal mining sites will be transformed into an “energy technology testbed” for hydrogen, mine-based geothermal, solar, energy storage and small modular nuclear reactors. (Cardinal News)
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