UTILITIES: California’s forest service sues Southern California Edison and T-Mobile, alleging their equipment sparked the 2020 Silverado Fire that displaced 90,000 residents. (Orange County Register)

ALSO: Southern California Edison warns of possible public safety power shutoffs aimed at reducing wildfire risk during forecast Santa Ana winds. (The Sun)

COAL:
• Arizona regulators debate the state’s largest utility’s proposal for ratepayers to partially fund a $144 million just transition package for rural and Indigenous communities affected by planned coal plant closures. (Canary Media)
• A Utah startup plans to open a facility early next year that would convert coal and coal combustion waste into crude oil, coal char and commercial gas such as butane. (Standard-Examiner)
• The federal Bureau of Land Management authorizes the operators of a coal mine in Utah to take measures to fight an underground fire that has burned for over a month so far. (news release)

OIL & GAS:
• Advocates say Alaska’s push to open the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge to oil and gas development triggered a backlash prompting financial institutions to withhold funding from all Arctic drilling. (Anchorage Daily News)
• The Biden administration completes the environmental review for oil and gas leasing in the Cook Inlet in Alaska, clearing the way for a congressionally mandated auction later this year — with or without industry interest. (Alaska Public Media)
• The federal Bureau of Land Management plans to spend $300,000 to plug and clean up an oil and gas well in southern California orphaned when its operator went bankrupt in 2017. (Bakersfield Californian)
• California’s petroleum industry has so far spent more than $5.8 million backing candidates for the state legislature since Gov. Gavin Newsom proposed taxing oil companies’ windfall profits two weeks ago. (San Francisco Chronicle)

WIND:
• The proliferation of wind turbines in eastern Colorado raises similar concerns as oil and gas drilling, including responsibility for cleaning up the projects when they are no longer viable. (Colorado Sun)
• A New Mexico state land wind energy lease sale nets about $1.1 million for two parcels totalling 15,000 acres. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

GRID: Hawaii utilities call on customers to conserve energy to avoid rolling outages while several large generators are offline for maintenance. (Hawaii News Now)

SOLAR: Washington State University launches a project aimed at identifying solar development sites with the least potential for conflict and ecosystem impacts. (news release)

CRITICAL MINERALS: Industry observers say a new cobalt mine in Idaho is part of a burgeoning Western rush for minerals used in electric vehicle batteries and other clean energy technology. (High Country News)

URANIUM: Ute Mountain Ute Tribe citizens and environmental groups protest potential contamination from the nation’s only operating uranium mill in southeast Utah. (Cortez Journal)

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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.