SOLAR: A huge demand for solar installation workers is leading many companies to overlook candidates’ criminal backgrounds, but those workers often face tough working conditions and low pay — and some struggle to get hired even after training. (Guardian)
ALSO: An Illinois task force will explore whether the state should ban the dumping of solar components and batteries in landfills as the state also studies recycling options for renewable energy equipment. (Energy News Network)
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CLIMATE:
• Climate advocates express outrage after President Biden says in a televised interview that he’s “practically” declared a climate emergency. (Guardian)
• The Biden administration launches a new mapping system to track emergency medical responses to heat-related illnesses around the country. (The Hill)
• A United Nations climate expert and the clothing company Patagonia seek to join environmentalists’ legal challenge of the Willow drilling project in Alaska. (Alaska Public Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Analysts speculate that the early adopter phase for electric vehicles is over, and that the next wave of customers may be tougher to win over. (Axios)
• Tesla purchases a wireless electric vehicle charging startup, raising questions about whether Tesla intends to further develop the technology. (Canary Media)
• South Carolina’s Republican governor defends electric vehicles after former President Trump criticized them at a Republican gathering in the state over the weekend. (The State)
• Ford CEO Jim Farley road trips in the company’s electric F-150 Lightning pickup to highlight “a new way to experience America.” (Detroit Free Press)
UTILITIES:
• A study finds the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to build new natural gas-fired power plants will undercut its pre-2015 carbon reductions and prevent it from attaining its goal of going carbon-free by 2050. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
• While Eversource is leaving a top gas lobbying group because it contradicts the utility’s decarbonization strategy, other Northeast utilities that tout their climate bona fides — namely National Grid and Con Edison — have not. (Heated)
• Newly revealed emails show how Wisconsin’s largest utility company sought to persuade state lawmakers to preemptively block local governments from limiting natural gas hookups in their communities. (Tone)
OIL & GAS:
• Private equity investors buy up oil and gas companies operating on federal lands in the West, raising advocates’ concerns of increasing bankruptcies and abandoned and orphaned wells. (High Country News)
• A government watchdog finds the federal Bureau of Land Management is failing to fully track and monitor oil and gas wells at risk of becoming orphaned or abandoned. (E&E News, subscription)
POLITICS: As the 2024 election cycle heats up, experts predict possible political battles related to the Inflation Reduction Act and other Biden administration clean energy and climate policies. (E&E News)
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