CLIMATE:
• Flagstaff, Arizona, becomes one of the first cities in the U.S. to include carbon dioxide removal in its climate action plan, and partners with Colorado’s Boulder County and other local governments to fund carbon removal projects. (Grist)
• The National Science Foundation awards the University of Hawaii $20 million to fund climate science and resilience projects. (news release)

OIL & GAS:
• Federal energy analysts forecast Permian Basin oil output will rise to 5.2 million barrels per day in June, a new record. (Reuters)
• Washington state officials say nearly 2,500 gasoline storage tanks are environmental hazards, but the owners often can’t afford cleanup costs. (Seattle Times)
• Officials in New Mexico, Alaska and Wyoming push back against climate policies because they could reduce fossil fuel-generated revenues for critical services. (Associated Press) 

BIOFUELS: Environmental justice advocates sue a California city over its approval of a plan to convert an oil refinery into a biofuel plant in a predominantly minority and low-income neighborhood. (news release)

WIND: A federal study concludes that distributed wind capacity could meet more than half of the country’s current annual electricity use. (Power Engineering International)

CLEAN ENERGY: Google’s sprawling new California campus runs on 90% renewable energy from 50,000 dragonscale solar panels and a geothermal heating and cooling system. (Fast Company)

UTILITIES: Arizona Public Service plans to add more than 1 GW of generation capacity, including up to 800 MW of renewable energy, to meet a predicted rise in demand. (news release)

TRANSPORTATION:
• California freight companies slowly build up their electric heavy duty truck fleets. (Canary Media)
• Lithium-ion electric vehicle battery recycling company Li-Cycle begins commercial operations at its Gilbert, Arizona, facility. (news release)
• A manufacturer of electric vehicle coil drivers establishes its headquarters in the EV industry hub of Mesa, Arizona. (Fox 10 Phoenix)  

LITHIUM: California Gov. Gavin Newsom budgets $80 million to build a STEM facility at an Imperial Valley university for training lithium industry workers. (Government Technology)

NUCLEAR:
• Federal regulators issue a final environmental impact statement for a sodium-cooled fast neutron test reactor proposed for construction at Idaho National Laboratory. (news release)
• Idaho National Laboratory researchers use machine learning to gather data used to predict nuclear reactor fuel performance. (news release)

HYDROPOWER: Power wholesaler Tri-State Generation and Transmission says it has been able to replace drought-diminished hydropower with other generation sources. (Colorado Sun)  

COMMENTARY:
• A California policy consultant urges utilities to offer discounted decarbonization rates to incentivize customers to switch to electric vehicles and appliances. (Marin Independent Journal)
• Colorado public policy experts say the Biden administration’s probe of Asian solar imports is slowing the transition from fossil fuels to clean energy. (Colorado Sun)

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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.