ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Americans are thinking too much about occasional long trips when considering an electric vehicle, leading automakers to focus heavily on expanding new cars’ ranges, analysts say. (Bloomberg)
ALSO: General Motors will invest $760 million at a Toledo, Ohio, manufacturing plant to build drive units for electric trucks, the automaker’s first U.S. drivetrain facility that will be repurposed for electric vehicles. (Reuters)
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ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The U.S. EPA creates a new environmental justice and civil rights office meant to ensure new regulations include provisions to mitigate environmental damages in low-income and minority communities. (Associated Press)
POLITICS:
• Sen. Joe Manchin makes a case for his permitting reform bill by arguing speeding up infrastructure development is key to fully achieving the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy goals. (Politico)
• Clean energy advocates and Democrats worry supporting Manchin’s permitting bill will make it easier to build fossil fuel infrastructure, but that not doing so will hold back clean energy development. (Canary Media)
UTILITIES: A new tracking tool shows that U.S. gas and electric utility front groups have spent nearly $2.5 million over the past four years on social media advertisements, many of which target customers with misinformation about climate change or energy issues. (Energy and Policy Institute)
CARBON CAPTURE:
• U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm announces billions of dollars in federal aid for carbon capture projects as environmental advocates criticize the technology as a diversion from renewables. (Inside Climate News)
• Exxon’s planned $100 billion carbon-capture mega-project in Houston is already fueling federal support for the technology and could unlock hundreds of billions of dollars more if it proves successful. (Inside Climate News)
CLIMATE: As summer temperatures rise, U.S. cities are expanding home heating assistance programs to cover air conditioning bills, and also considering programs to combat urban heat islands. (Revelator)
GRID:
• Power was restored to about half of the 3.1 million people in Puerto Rico after Hurricane Fiona knocked out power to the entire island a week ago. (Bloomberg)
• Climate change-exacerbated heat and drought is straining California’s electricity system, forcing officials to rethink how power is generated, transported and traded. (New York Times, Politico)
• Federal regulators propose incentivizing utilities to improve their cybersecurity measures. (Utility Dive)
SOLAR: A Massachusetts program encourages homeowners to choose larger solar energy systems than they need to share credits with those who can’t install solar themselves. (Energy News Network)
OIL & GAS: New Mexico advocates say the oil and gas industry’s outsized public relations spending buys the industry influence in the state legislature as it debates regulations on the sector. (Capital & Main)
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department begins accepting applications for $7 billion in funding to build six to 10 clean hydrogen hubs across the country. (Utility Dive)
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RENEWABLES: West Virginia lawmakers’ approval of a planned $500 million solar and industrial plant required bypassing state regulators who have frequently hampered renewable projects. (Mountain State Spotlight)
COMMENTARY: “There should be no controversy” in approving Sen. Joe Manchin’s permitting reform bill, an editorial board argues, saying it will speed necessary transmission and clean energy construction. (Washington Post)
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