MINING: A history of lies and exploitation is complicating the push by governments and the mining industry to extract critical materials for the clean energy transition on tribal lands. (ICT)
RENEWABLES:
• Renewable energy credits once helped struggling wind and solar farms get off the ground, but their benefit is less clear today and experts say they are helping companies exaggerate their climate credentials. (Washington Post)
• The same Republicans in Congress who celebrated a rural clean energy program four years ago are now attacking it as wasteful spending. (E&E News)
CLIMATE: A new poll shows two-thirds of Americans worry about global warming and support policies to reduce it — and that they underestimate how many people share those views. (Yale Climate Connections)
SOLAR: U.S. lawmakers from Oregon and New Mexico sponsor bills that would encourage development of agrivoltaics, or integrating solar installations with agricultural uses. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A coast-to-coast electric vehicle road relay stopped in Cleveland recently to underscore the importance of including disadvantaged neighborhoods in the electric vehicle transition. (Energy News Network)
OIL & GAS:
• White House adviser John Podesta defends the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s inclusion in a congressional deal to raise the debt limit, saying the long-delayed, over-budget pipeline’s completion was “inevitable.” (The Hill)
• A Pennsylvania family sues Chevron and EQT Corporation, claiming the companies’ fracking activities have contaminated their well water and have harmed their health. (CBS Pittsburgh)
COAL:
• California’s attorney general and other Western state officials urge the Biden administration to consider the full social and environmental impacts of the federal coal leasing program. (news release)
• Ohio Republican leaders block a bipartisan attempt to repeal coal plant subsidies at the center of a $61 million bribery scandal. (ABC 5)
GRID:
• The U.S. power grid isn’t ready for climate change, experts say, and major investments are needed to boost reliability and meet rising demand. (Axios)
• California lawmakers advance bills aimed at speeding up grid interconnections for residential solar and storage and electrification. (Inside Climate News)
• Construction begins on the TransWest Express transmission project that will move wind power from Wyoming to southern California. (Associated Press)
STORAGE: Consolidated Edison will bring online next week New York City’s largest-to-date battery, a 7.5 MW storage system. (Bloomberg News)
PUBLIC LANDS: The federal Bureau of Land Management extends the comment period for a proposed public lands rule following opposition from the oil and gas industry and Republican lawmakers. (WyoFile)
TRANSPORTATION: Construction is nearly complete at an Arizona planned community that devotes no space to parking and where personal cars will be banned. (The Cool Down)
COMMENTARY:
• An Ohio writer and advocate says growing food crops alongside solar panels can be a win-win and eliminate the false choice that’s stalling large-scale solar projects. (Ohio Capital Journal)
• Ahead of a global financing summit in Paris, President Joe Biden and other world leaders release an open letter calling for “a green transition that leaves no one behind.” (Guardian)
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