CLIMATE: California sues five of the world’s largest oil and gas corporations, claiming their actions have caused tens of billions of dollars in damage and that they misleadingly downplayed fossil fuels’ risks. (Los Angeles Times)

ALSO:
• A Washington county court is set to hear a conservative group’s lawsuit alleging the state’s new carbon cap-and-trade program is unconstitutional because it was part of a single piece of legislation covering more than one subject. (Crosscut)
• The U.S. Department of Agriculture awards $1 billion for planting trees to mitigate extreme heat’s impacts, including $58 million and $100 million to projects in Oregon and California, respectively. (OPB, Los Angeles Times)
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom plans to sign into law a bill requiring companies to disclose direct and indirect greenhouse emissions. (Associated Press)

CLEAN ENERGY: California lawmakers vote to create a central energy buyer, which is expected to shore up the state’s power supply and boost West Coast offshore wind development. (Associated Press) 

OIL & GAS:
• An environmental group sues Long Beach, California, in a bid to block the city from permitting oil and gas drilling for the next five years. (Courthouse News)
• California researchers find inducing small tremors prior to hydraulic fracturing can help oil and gas drillers avoid larger quakes by gauging how sensitive an area is to seismic activity. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• A natural gas pipeline in southern California ruptures, forcing an entire neighborhood to evacuate. (Associated Press)

GRID:
• U.S. Sen. John Hickenlooper, a Colorado Democrat, introduces legislation aimed at upgrading the nation’s power grids by streamlining transmission project permitting. (Journal-Advocate)  
• Four more utilities pursue membership in the Southwest Power Pool, expanding the regional transmission organization’s effort to operate in the Western grid. (Utility Dive) 

SOLAR: The federal Bureau of Land Management considers a proposed 400 MW solar-plus-storage project in a designated renewable energy zone in southern California. (E&E News, subscription) 

UTILITIES:
• A Colorado electric cooperative advances its contentious break from power wholesaler Tri-State Generation and Transmission by agreeing to purchase low-carbon electricity from Xcel Energy. (Daily Camera)
• Industry observers say Rocky Mountain Power’s proposal to make Wyoming customers pay for fossil fuel cost overruns would inject volatility into utility bills. (WyoFile)
• Wyoming lawmakers consider five bills aimed at protecting customers from Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed rate hikes. (WyoFile)
• A Washington state utility attributes skyrocketing overtime pay to surging customer demand, climate change-caused equipment damage and contracting policy changes. (Daily Herald)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An Arizona city tests battery-fire extinguishing technology to tackle the growing number of electric vehicle blazes. (ABC 15)

ELECTRIFICATION: Washington state regulators back off on a proposal to require electric heat pumps in new construction, opting to increase incentives for the appliances instead. (Washington State Standard)

TRANSITION: An Arizona school district urges regulators to order the state’s largest utility to pay the district $20 million to mitigate the impacts of a coal plant’s 2025 retirement. (Arizona Republic, subscription)

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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.