UTILITIES: California homeowners sue Southern California Edison, claiming the utility’s equipment sparked a fire last week that destroyed more than 20 homes, even though investigators have not determined the cause. (Los Angeles Times) 

ALSO: An Alaska borough votes to exempt independent power producers from property taxes to encourage utility-scale solar and wind power development. (Peninsula Clarion) 

SOLAR:
• A renewable energy developer proposes building a 470 MW solar facility in southern Washington state. (Tri-City Herald)
• A northern California city builds a floating solar power installation on wastewater treatment ponds, saying land prices are prohibitively high. (ABC7) 

GRID:
• The federal Bureau of Land Management approves a 500 KV transmission line west of Phoenix, Arizona, that will link a solar facility to the grid. (Daily Independent)
• Strong winds knock down utility poles in western Washington state, leaving thousands without power. (My Northwest)
• A Utah city aims to reduce the share of coal-fired power on its grid by half and increase renewable energy’s portion from just 3% to 27% by 2030. (St. George Spectrum)

TRANSPORTATION: Electric vehicle charging network Electrify America hires a developer to build a solar installation in southern California with enough capacity to offset the network’s annual demand. (Electrek)  

HYDROGEN: Washington state applies for federal funding to establish a green-hydrogen production hub powered in part by surplus hydroelectricity. (Crosscut)

CARBON CAPTURE:
• Chevron plans to install post-combustion carbon capture equipment on facilities in California’s San Joaquin Valley, beginning with a natural gas power plant, but also withdraw a permit to revive a nearby biomass power plant and capture its carbon emissions. (Reuters)
• A 400-mile natural gas pipeline will be repurposed to transport carbon dioxide captured at a Nebraska agricultural facility to an eastern Wyoming carbon sequestration hub. (Upstream)  

CLIMATE:
• Climate advocates say California is crediting dairy farms’ methane reductions twice, potentially overinflating the state’s apparent progress on climate. (Grist)
• Gasoline prices climb as high as $16 per gallon in the Alaska Arctic as climate change alters shorelines and rivers, making transporting the fuel more costly. (Anchorage Daily News, subscription)

OIL & GAS:
• Wyoming oil and gas industry officials say regulatory uncertainty, labor shortages and supply chain constraints are keeping them from ramping up drilling even though commodity prices are high. (The Center Square)
• A Wyoming oil and gas industry group protests the Biden administration’s reduction of acreage available for leasing in an upcoming auction. (E&E News, subscription)
• An environmental advocacy group says it has detected methane emissions from low-producing Permian Basin oil and gas wells using an infrared camera. (KOB4)
• Conservation groups file administrative protests calling on the Biden administration to halt oil and gas leasing and align federal fossil fuel management with climate goals. (news release)  

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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.