ELECTRIFICATION: Records show SoCalGas helped fund a California restaurant industry campaign and lawsuit seeking to block natural gas hookup bans. (Sacramento Bee)
EFFICIENCY: Colorado advocates spar with the real estate industry over proposed efficiency upgrade mandates for buildings over 50,000 square feet. (Denver Gazette)
CLIMATE:
• Federal investigators are dispatched to Hawaii to determine the origin and cause of the deadly Maui wildfires. (NBC News)
• Advocates worry the Maui wildfires will lead to “climate gentrification,” when locals displaced by disaster can’t afford housing. (Associated Press)
• Oregon officials suspect this week’s record-breaking heat wave killed at least three people in the Portland area. (Associated Press)
• Advocates say a Montana judge’s decision in a lawsuit targeting the state’s fossil fuel-friendly policies was a lesson in the “overwhelming scientific consensus” of climate change. (High Country News)
• A tropical cyclone with hurricane force winds and heavy rain approaching southern California would be the first such storm to hit the West Coast since 1939. (Los Angeles Times)
METHANE:
• California and federal regulators exempt a giant cattle feedlot from greenhouse gas accounting even though it’s the state’s largest single point methane emitter, raising questions about the state’s commitment to combating climate change. (Inside Climate News)
• A Colorado aerospace firm puts the finishing touches on a high-precision methane emissions-detecting satellite scheduled for launch next year. (CPR)
UTILITIES:
• Industry experts say utilities’ multi-billion-dollar wildfire-related legal settlements help victims, but their costs are often passed on to ratepayers and can deplete hazard mitigation programs. (Grist)
• Colorado regulators approve Xcel Energy’s rate hike aimed at helping cover coal plant closing costs. (Colorado Sun)
GRID: A Western heat wave paired with a drop in solar and wind generation leads to increasing natural gas generation on the California and Northwest grids. (S&P Global)
OIL & GAS: The federal Bureau of Land Management releases a long-awaited draft resource management plan guiding oil and gas development and conservation in Wyoming’s Red Desert. (Wyoming)
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department awards Wyoming researchers $5 million to develop a method of producing hydrogen fuel from oil and gas wastewater. (news release)
SOLAR: A Washington county extends a moratorium on utility-scale solar facilities, saying the installations threaten water rights and take land from agricultural use. (Yakima Herald-Republic)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Colorado opens the lottery for some 7,000 electric bicycle rebates of up to $1,100. (Colorado Sun)
• Amtrak rolls out its national network’s first electric bus in Washington state. (Forbes)
STORAGE: A central California community’s residents push back on a proposed grid-scale battery energy storage facility, saying it would industrialize the tourist town’s waterfront. (Cal Coast News)
COAL:
• A New Mexico startup looks to retrofit the aging Four Corners coal plant with carbon capture technology following a failed bid to do the same at the nearby San Juan facility. (E&E News)
• A fossil fuel-reliant county in Utah fights to save the coal industry while also looking to transition to a tech manufacturing economy. (Deseret News)
NUCLEAR: An Oregon utility considers seeking federal funds to deploy small modular nuclear reactors in coming decades. (Eugene Weekly)
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