POLITICS: Sen. Joe Manchin tells Democrats he won’t back a reconciliation bill that includes new climate spending, ending a year of back-and-forth negotiations even as Democrats slashed the bill’s ambitions to try to win Manchin over. (Washington Post)
COAL: Aging and retired coal-fired plants are increasingly being revamped into solar, storage and other clean energy hubs — including several in Illinois — as their connections to the grid can cut out lengthy interconnection and regulatory processes. (New York Times, Energy News Network)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• A financial analyst looks at how high gas prices have affected cost of ownership comparisons for electric and gasoline-powered cars. (Inside Climate News)
• Electric vehicle sales hit a new record in the second quarter, doubling their share of the market from a year earlier. (Utility Dive)
• Electric vehicle maker Canoo’s deal to supply delivery vehicles to Walmart prohibits it from doing business with Amazon. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)
CLIMATE:
• A Pew Research poll finds most Americans, including Republicans, favor some kind of climate action, and that Democrats who support strong federal climate action are disappointed by the Biden administration. (Grist, Inside Climate News)
• Last month was one of the warmest Junes on record, federal data shows. (Washington Post)
GRID:
• The federal Bureau of Land Management greenlights construction of a 125-mile high voltage transmission line expected to carry renewable power between Arizona and California. (E&E News)
• As more households install electric heat pumps, smart thermostats may inadvertently strain power grids by trying to warm up homes in the morning before solar energy is readily available. (S&P Global)
SOLAR:
• The Biden administration announces a $56 million program to help spur U.S. solar product manufacturing. (Reuters)
• Land use experts say a siting matrix with zoning guidelines would help local officials site large-scale solar projects. (PV Magazine)
• Experts warn that a raft of rooftop solar panels at the end of their life cycles will soon be headed to landfills, where they can leach toxic materials into groundwater. (Los Angeles Times)
OFFSHORE WIND: The House passes legislation establishing citizenship requirements for crew members working on offshore energy projects, but developers say there aren’t enough U.S. workers to satisfy the mandate. (Bloomberg, subscription)
CARBON CAPTURE: The Department of Energy files plans to direct $2.54 billion to finance six carbon capture and storage demonstration projects and another $100 million for designing carbon pipeline systems. (Utility Dive)
GAS:
• Washington, D.C., is poised to become the second East Coast city to enact a ban on fossil fuel-fired heating systems in most new builds. (E&E News)
• Developers accelerate efforts to build new liquified natural gas terminals on the U.S. Gulf Coast to take advantage of the closure of a major facility. (Engineering News-Record)
• Three U.S. natural gas producers join an international methane emissions reporting program. (S&P Global)
UTILITIES:
• Xcel Energy taps the former CEO of its Colorado subsidiary to lead its efforts to cut carbon emissions 100% by 2050. (Energy News Network)
• The Southeast lags in the clean energy transition as its utilities struggle to squeeze rooftop solar and electric vehicles into their long-established business model. (E&E News)
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