CLIMATE: An Oregon county files a lawsuit seeking nearly $52 billion in damages and future costs of climate adaptation from 17 oil and gas companies for allegedly contributing to the 2021 heat dome event that killed 97 people in the state. (OPB)
POLITICS: A California oil and gas industry lobbyist reveals tactics to “misadvertise” legislation that would expedite carbon dioxide pipeline approvals to sneak it past environmentalists and lawmakers. (Capital & Main)
OIL & GAS:
• California environmental justice advocates call on local and state regulators to repair oil and gas wells leaking methane and other gasses in residential areas. (Bakersfield Californian)
• Alaska’s Supreme Court hears arguments in a city’s bid to force an oil company to release information regarding its 2020 acquisition of BP’s assets. (Anchorage Daily News)
• A Hawaii health department report assesses residents’ health effects from exposure to water contaminated by leaks at a U.S. Navy fueling facility in 2021. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, subscription)
• A New Mexico consortium proposes using oil and gas wastewater to irrigate hemp crops. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• Conservation groups sue the federal Bureau of Land Management, accusing the agency of failing to consider drilling permit approvals’ cumulative impacts in California’s San Joaquin Valley. (news release)
NATURAL GAS: California regulators consider a second three-year operating extension to three natural gas plants originally slated to retire in 2020 to protect marine life along the state’s coast. (Los Angeles Times)
COAL: Operators of the Colstrip coal power plant in Montana say the facility cannot meet the U.S. EPA’s proposed pollution standards with its current equipment, and upgrades could cost more than $600 million. (Billings Gazette)
UTILITIES: Arizona regulators end a years-long legal battle with the state’s largest utility by approving a rate increase to pay for pollution upgrades to a coal power plant. (Arizona Republic)
SOLAR:
• A solar manufacturer plans to establish a photovoltaic module production facility in Colorado expected to employ about 900 people. (Brighton Blade)
• Washington state regulators say they will override a county’s moratorium on renewable energy developments and fast-track a proposed 2,000-acre solar installation. (Capital Press)
GRID: Clean energy developers expect the California grid operator’s coordinated bulk transmission development plan to reduce interconnection delays. (Reuters)
LITHIUM: The federal Bureau of Land Management bars mining and mineral exploration on a lithium-rich Nevada lakebed used by NASA to calibrate satellites. (Associated Press)
HYDROGEN: California awards the Redding Rancheria Tribe $500,000 for a proposed project utilizing forest biomass to produce hydrogen transportation fuel. (Biofuels Digest)
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