ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Climate advocates criticize President Biden for touting large, personal electric vehicles like the Ford Lightning and Hummer EV, which currently create more pollution than smaller gas-powered cars. (Washington Post)
ALSO:
• General Motors conditionally agrees to invest $650 million in the developer of the proposed Thacker Pass Mine in Nevada, giving the auto company exclusive access to the mine’s first batch of lithium. (Associated Press)
• A New Hampshire bill aims to address barriers to public charging infrastructure as tourism advocates worry that a lack of charging stations will discourage out-of-state EV owners from vacationing in the state. (Energy News Network)
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GRID: A proposed $2.5 billion, 385-mile transmission line between North Dakota and Montana would vastly expand the transfer capacity between the Western and Eastern interconnections. (Utility Dive)
WIND:
• In Maine, a coalition of environmental and labor organizations works to make sure organized labor has a role in offshore wind development through explicit mentions of union jobs in project agreements. (Energy News Network)
• Maine utility regulators approve a wind farm that is slated to be the largest east of the Mississippi River. (Portland Press Herald)
CLIMATE:
• Congress’ biggest climate fight this year may be over its five-year farm bill, which both advocates and critics say could boost carbon sequestration, conservation and other environmental priorities. (E&E News)
• Federal agencies find emissions of the potent greenhouse gas sulfur hexafluoride are far higher than previous estimates. (Inside Climate News)
• A report finds a growing carbon emissions divide between the “polluting elite” and poor people, finding these differences are greater than the emissions divide between poor and wealthy countries. (Guardian)
SOLAR: Duke Energy awards the final $1.3 million in a five-year, $62 million rebate program to spur North Carolina rooftop solar installations, with another 2,900 people still on the waiting list. (WFAE)
STORAGE: Xcel Energy will soon add long-duration iron air batteries to its Minnesota clean energy portfolio with a much longer storage capacity than lithium ion. (CBS Minnesota)
BUILDINGS: A New York pilot project showed that Bronx public housing units with induction stoves had significantly lower nitrogen dioxide and carbon monoxide levels than gas stoves. (The City)
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OIL & GAS: The U.S. Interior Department releases guidance on how states can apply for $500 million in federal funding for plugging and cleaning up orphaned and abandoned oil and gas wells. (news release)
COMMENTARY:
• Climate, energy and regulatory experts weigh in on how permitting reform could speed up the clean energy transition or jeopardize environmental justice. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)
• The U.S. needs to focus less on electric vehicles and more on building a clean mobility system that benefits everyone, an engineering professor writes. (The Conversation)
• A transportation researcher suggests taxing heavy personal vehicles, even if they’re electric, to incentivize purchases of vehicles with a smaller carbon footprint. (Slate)
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