COAL: A northwestern New Mexico city sues the state’s largest utility to take ownership of the San Juan coal power plant and keep it running beyond its scheduled Sept. 30 closure, with long-term plans to install carbon capture equipment. (Farmington Daily Times)
ALSO: Wyoming coal miners still haven’t been paid for work they did in 2019 when the mine’s owner, Blackjewel, went bankrupt. (Guardian)
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OIL & GAS:
• Alaska’s congressional delegates, including newly elected Democratic Rep. Mary Peltola, urge the Biden administration to approve ConocoPhillips’ Willow oil and gas project. (Alaska Public Media)
• The Biden administration plans to auction offshore oil and gas leases in the Cook Inlet in Alaska by the end of the year as mandated by the Inflation Reduction Act. (E&E News, subscription)
• A Colorado county launches the process to overhaul its oil and gas land-use code. (Durango Herald)
NUCLEAR: TerraPower, the company planning to build an advanced nuclear reactor in Wyoming, may have to fuel its plant with down-blended weapons-grade uranium after cutting ties with a Russian fuel firm. (WyoFile)
GRID:
• Federal data show California’s grid relied on natural gas generation for up to 60% of its electricity generation to meet peak demand during the early September heat wave as it lacked the capacity to store abundant solar and wind power produced earlier in the day. (Reuters, Washington Post)
• A residential energy storage firm launches a virtual power plant in California that compensates customers for feeding battery power back to the grid. (news release)
SOLAR: The 485 MW Blythe Solar project with 387 MW of battery storage goes online on federal land in southern California. (news release)
EFFICIENCY: California dark sky advocates say replacing incandescent street lights in Los Angeles with more efficient LEDs has increased human- and wildlife-harming light pollution. (Los Angeles Times)
STORAGE:
• California researchers develop a lithium-ion battery cathode without using price-volatile and geopolitically-fraught cobalt. (news release)
• Sacramento, California’s utility hires an Oregon company to install a 200 MW long-duration iron flow battery system. (Renewables Now)
TRANSPORTATION: A southern California school district receives 17 electric buses in the first phase of its plan to transition to an all-electric fleet. (CBS8)
CLIMATE: New Mexico’s climatologist urges communities to prepare for climate change by implementing mitigation and adaptation measures. (NM Political Report)
BIOFUELS: A California city postpones a plan to build a power plant at a landfill fueled by decaying garbage-produced methane to conduct an independent cost/benefit analysis. (Boulevard Sentinel)
COMMENTARY: A policy analyst says California could avoid power outages by using smart technology to coordinate distributed energy resources to provide grid support during times of high demand. (Energy News Network)
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