TRANSPORTATION: Washington state and Oregon officials say they plan to follow California’s lead and ban sales of new gasoline-powered cars by 2035. (KOIN)
OIL & GAS:
• The U.S. Interior Department awards $560 million to 24 states to plug and reclaim abandoned oil and gas wells, the largest oilfield cleanup investment in history. (E&E News)
• Colorado regulators order an oil and gas tank facility to shut down after repeated pollution violations. (Coloradoan)
• Environmentalists sue the federal Bureau of Land Management over its approval of an Alaska oil exploration program, saying the agency failed to consider potential climate impacts. (Anchorage Daily News)
• The owner of a pipeline that ruptured off the southern California coast last year and spilled 25,000 gallons of crude settles a class-action lawsuit filed by affected businesses. (Associated Press)
• The Biden administration agrees to reevaluate offshore drilling’s threat to endangered species to settle a lawsuit stemming from last year’s oil pipeline spill off the southern California coast. (E&E News, subscription)
• California lawmakers introduce a bill that would require a 3,200-foot setback between new oil and gas wells and school and hospitals and strict emissions controls on existing wells. (Politico)
• Climate advocates criticize news outlets Chevron operates in the Permian Basin and Richmond, California, saying they are propaganda. (Heated)
COAL: Montana ranchers and conservationists call on state regulators to revoke the Signal Peak coal mine’s operating permit, saying it is damaging the land and contaminating groundwater. (KTVQ)
TRANSITION: During a visit to northwestern New Mexico, U.S. Interior Secretary Deb Haaland announces the creation of a federal team to facilitate energy transitions in coal-affected communities. (NM Political Report)
SOLAR: California lawmakers pass a bill that would streamline residential solar and storage permitting. (PV Tech)
GRID:
• California regulators explore ways to modernize the grid to accommodate anticipated growth of distributed energy resources. (PV Magazine)
• Pacific Gas & Electric searches for the cause of an outage that left more than 24,000 Oakland customers without power. (San Francisco Chronicle)
UTILITIES:
• Idaho Power agrees to pay $1.5 million to settle a federal civil action relating to Oregon wildfires in 2014 and 2015. (news release)
• A Colorado town agrees to permit a proposed Xcel Energy substation if the utility addresses residents’ concerns about electromagnetic field radiation. (Reporter-Herald)
NUCLEAR: A Washington state utility considers partnering with a developer to install a small modular nuclear reactor to meet growing power demand. (KUOW)
CLIMATE: California environmentalists laud Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposed climate change package, but criticize its reliance on carbon capture and the continued operation of a nuclear plant. (San Francisco Chronicle)
COMMENTARY: A California editorial board says clean energy costs must drop so that fighting climate change does not exacerbate economic inequality. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
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