CLIMATE: Following a month of record weather extremes, a majority of Americans – especially non-White people and women – say climate change is noticeably affecting their communities, and more people are seeing the economy and climate as intertwined issues, according to a new poll. (PBS)

ALSO:
• Researchers say 80% of people on earth were affected last month by heat anomalies that were unlikely to have occurred absent the impact of climate change. (The Hill)
• A timber company looks to terminate a forest carbon-offset program in southern Oregon after a 2021 wildfire destroyed much of the project’s trees. (OPB)

CLEAN ENERGY: A report finds clean energy cases “continue to dominate” regulatory agendas around the country. (S&P Global)

WIND: Vineyard Wind expects to begin pushing offshore windpower onto the New England grid by mid-October and scale up to full operations by next summer. (Boston Globe)

SOLAR: Minnesota farmers and rural advocates grapple with questions about whether prime farmland should be used for solar energy generation. (Inforum)

NUCLEAR: A judge dismissed fraud charges against the CEO of a company that failed to complete a botched $9 billion South Carolina nuclear plant after concluding that some of the grand jurors who handed down the indictment may have been biased because they were ratepayers. (Post and Courier)

GRID:
• Arizona Public Service activates grid-scale battery installations at nine solar facilities, helping the utility meet record high power demand during the ongoing heat wave. (Arizona Republic, subscription)
• California officials say a new method of measuring the value of and incentivizing efficiency investments has helped reduce grid strain. (Canary Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Zero-emissions vehicles make up 25% of all new car sales in California for the first time during the second quarter of this year. (E&E News, subscription)
• A class-action lawsuit in California accuses Tesla of falsely advertising vehicle driving ranges. (Reuters)

OIL & GAS:
• A decline in activity at Texas and Louisiana oil refineries due to high temperatures is contributing to rising gasoline prices across the U.S. (Washington Post)
• A shale drilling company experiments with mining lithium from wastewater produced by drilling in the Permian Basin. (Bloomberg)

ELECTRIFICATION: A Massachusetts pilot allowing 10 communities to enact gas hookup bans should be expanded to allow more cities and towns to participate, advocates say, noting the lack of diversity in the pilot’s priority municipality list and the urgency of climate change. (Energy News Network)

UTILITIES: Ohio utility FirstEnergy is being investigated by a state office focused on organized crime after the company admitted to bribing a former top regulator and lawmaker for favorable legislation. (Cleveland.com)

COMMENTARY: This summer’s extreme weather could shock more people into paying attention to climate change, but the clean energy transition offers hope, writes an energy columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | West

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy and is a founding editor of both Midwest Energy News and Southeast Energy News. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he worked as a copy editor, online producer, features editor and night city editor. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon. He is a member of the Society of Professional Journalists and Investigative Reporters and Editors.