UTILITIES: Hawaii becomes the first state to require utilities implement a time-of-use rate scheme aimed at pushing electricity consumption to hours of high solar power production. (Canary Media)

ALSO:
• Officials of a Colorado city that voted in 2020 to leave its electric utility say it is unable to attract a new power provider because the regulatory system favors large utilities and limits citizens’ choices. (CPR)   
• PacifiCorp agrees to pay an undisclosed amount to victims of the 2020 Labor Day fires in Oregon likely sparked by the utility’s equipment. (Oregonian)

OIL & GAS:
• ConocoPhillips says it will begin work on the controversial $8 billion Willow drilling project in Alaska next year after generating $580 million in quarterly profit from its operations in the state. (Anchorage Daily News)
• Wyoming’s oil and gas industry decides not to appeal a judge’s ruling that the Biden administration’s 2021 oil and gas leasing pause was legal. (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Environmental and Indigenous groups urge the Biden administration to delay oil and gas lease sales for Wyoming and New Mexico, saying they harm environmental justice, public health and the climate. (E&E News)

GRID:
• A Colorado utility regulator says a federal proposal to clear the grid interconnection queue could undermine the state’s energy transition because it has no prioritization mechanism. (Utility Dive)
• Dozens of mylar balloons blow into a Utah substation, leaving more than 22,000 households without power. (KSL)
• High winds damage utility equipment in western Washington state, leaving more than 40,000 customers without power. (KIRO) 

BIOFUEL:
• Washington state researchers develop a more efficient method to convert sewage sludge into methane fuel. (news release)
• A renewable energy fund proposes building two biofuel production facilities in western Washington state using woody biomass as a feedstock. (news release) 

HYDROGEN: A state-owned Alaska natural gas pipeline company applies for federal funding to establish a blue hydrogen production hub. (Reuters)

HYDROPOWER: A free-market think tank finds it would cost Washington state $34 billion to replace power generation lost if four hydroelectricity dams are removed to help salmon. (Renewable Energy World)

SOLAR:
• A California developer proposes constructing a 150 MW solar facility on agricultural land in southern Wyoming. (Wyoming Tribune-Eagle)
• A New Mexico county issues $40 million in industrial bonds to finance a planned 26 MW solar project that will send power to Chevron’s Permian Basin operations. (Current-Argus) 

CRITICAL MINERALS:
• A copper and cobalt mine proposed for tribal land in Arctic Alaska hinges on a disputed 200-mile road that would require federal approval. (Bloomberg Law)  
• The U.S. Energy Department awards an Oregon researcher $3 million to develop high-energy-density batteries that do not rely on rare elements such as cobalt and nickel. (Salem Reporter)

CLIMATE: Arguments begin in a Utah youths’ lawsuit over the state’s alleged promotion of fossil fuels and its effects on air quality, public health and the climate. (Standard-Examiner)

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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.