UTILITIES: Rocky Mountain Power plans to retire two Utah coal plants and replace them with small nuclear reactors and quadruple the amount of solar and wind capacity on its grid, all by 2032. (Salt Lake Tribune)

ALSO: Arizona utility crews participate in a program aimed at bringing electricity to about 14,000 off-grid Navajo Nation homes. (12 News)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• The Biden administration approves a California plan requiring companies to sell an increasing number of zero-emission medium- to heavy-duty trucks over the next two decades. (Associated Press)
• Electric vehicle manufacturer Lucid plans to lay off nearly 1,000 employees at its Arizona manufacturing facility. (FOX 10 Phoenix)
• Local governments in Nevada tussle over the windfall expected when Tesla’s 10-year property and business tax abatement for its Reno-area facilities ends next year. (Nevada Appeal)
• A Colorado city launches a program offering deeply discounted electric bicycles to low-income older people. (Cortez Journal)
• A local nonprofit launches a California city’s first electric bicycle share program. (ABC 10)

OIL & GAS:
• Environmental advocates say the Biden administration is failing to implement required reforms before an upcoming federal oil and gas lease sale in Nevada. (Nevada Independent)
• Oil and gas drilling in Colorado increased in 2022 compared to the prior year but still has not reached pre-pandemic levels even though commodity prices skyrocketed. (Grand Junction Sentinel)

SOLAR:
• An Arizona Senate committee blocks legislation that would require developers to compensate ranchers displaced by solar projects on federal or state land. (ABC15)
• A California industrial real estate company hopes to install 10,000 MW of solar generating capacity on its warehouse rooftops by 2025. (Star)
• A California startup will supply solar-plus-battery storage powered tiny homes to a state program aimed at housing the homeless population. (Spectrum News)

BIOFUELS: A 25,000-cow dairy farm in Arizona produces methane fuel from the manure. (FOX 10 Phoenix)

GRID:
• Energy analysts urge the California grid operator to revamp its clean energy interconnection process to accommodate a surge in applications. (Utility Dive)
• A truck driver crashes into a utility pole in southern California, leaving more than 2,000 households without power. (FOX 5 San Diego)

HYDROPOWER:
• Northwest Republican lawmakers look to leverage their party’s control of the U.S. House to block an effort to save endangered salmon by breaching four hydropower dams in Washington state. (Crosscut)
• California lawmakers advance a bill that would encourage wave energy deployment. (news release)

CARBON CAPTURE: California entrepreneurs and officials aim to make the state a carbon removal and sequestration industry hub. (KQED)

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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.