COAL: Northern Cheyenne tribal officials call on regulators to require the Colstrip power plant’s operators to clean up the 800-acre coal ash facility in Montana — a project that could employ hundreds after the plant shuts down. (Native News Online)

ALSO:
• Colorado regulators question Xcel Energy’s projected $1 billion price tag for closing five coal power plants and ask for a more detailed financial analysis. (Colorado Sun)
• Federal regulators reject a Wyoming company’s proposal to revive a northern California rail line to ship Powder River Basin coal to the coast for export. (Press Democrat)
• Federal officials will investigate the death of two workers earlier this month at the Comanche coal power plant in Colorado. (Denver Gazette)

UTILITIES:
• California regulators say Pacific Gas & Electric’s “excessively delayed response” enabled last year’s 963,309-acre Dixie Fire — the second largest in state history — to spread in the hours after ignition. (Los Angeles Times)
• Oceanside, California, becomes the sixth city to join a community choice aggregator in the southern part of the state. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

GRID: California plans to create a 5,000 MW emergency power reserve, made up mostly of natural gas generation, that can be tapped during times of extreme demand. (CBS13)

WIND: Developers of a 200-turbine wind project proposed for southern Washington agree to hire union workers to build it. (FOX 41 Yakima)

OIL & GAS:
• West Coast opposition to liquefied natural gas export terminals stymies Wyoming’s efforts to ship its natural gas overseas. (Casper Star-Tribune)
• Alaska officials say the Ukraine crisis provides new impetus to construct a long-sought-after gas export pipeline and facility, but construction on the $38 billion project would still be years away. (Anchorage Daily News, subscription)

NATURAL GAS: A California lawmaker kills his own bill that would force the closure of Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near Los Angeles after a committee waters down the legislation. (Los Angeles Daily News)

HYDROGEN:
• The U.S. Energy Department closes on a $504.4-million loan guarantee for a project in Utah that would produce green hydrogen, store it in underground salt caverns and use it to power a nearby converted coal power plant. (Utility Dive)
• California’s energy commission grants SoCalGas $750,000 to develop a system to use solar and wind power to extract hydrogen from biogas. (news release)

CLIMATE: Suncor and ExxonMobil ask the U.S. Supreme Court to rule whether a climate lawsuit filed against them by Colorado governments should be heard in state or federal court. (Colorado Daily)

COMMENTARY: A Colorado renewable energy worker calls on her colleagues to organize and demand better working conditions and wages comparable to those in the fossil fuel industries. (Earth Island Journal)

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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.