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SOLAR: Solar builders will have to meet prevailing wage and apprenticeship requirements to take advantage of Inflation Reduction Act incentives next year, adding an extra layer of challenges to already-risky solar development. (Solar Power World)
EFFICIENCY: The U.S. Energy Department proposes doubling the current minimum light bulb efficiency level, driving the market toward LEDs. (CNN)
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GRID:
• The North American Electric Reliability Corp. forecasts a high risk of resource shortfalls throughout California and parts of the Midwest grid through 2027. (Utility Dive)
• Advocates outline ways the Great Lakes region’s power grid can be made more resilient to extreme weather threats in a changing climate. (Energy News Network)
• Some Arizona residents and environmentalists continue to battle the planned SunZia transmission line that would carry wind power from New Mexico, calling it an “ecological travesty.” (Arizona Daily Star)
POLITICS: Congress drafts a 2023 spending package that’s likely to include funding for Energy Department research and could finance a Civilian Climate Corps. (E&E News)
WIND:
• The National Renewable Energy Laboratory awards $2.9 million to 11 small- and medium-scale wind turbine manufacturers to build up a U.S. supply chain. (Renewable Energy World)
• Avangrid tells Massachusetts regulators that it wants to void its agreements with three utilities to build the Commonwealth Wind farm and rebid under more favorable terms, pushing its estimated completion to 2028. (Boston Globe)
COAL ASH: Workers and their families suing over exposure to toxic coal ash during cleanup of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s 2008 Kingston coal ash spill have faced one obstacle after another, including a state cap on money that might be awarded. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Ford raises the price of its base electric F-150 to just under $56,000, a 40% increase from the original $40,000 price point announced in 2021. (CNBC)
• PepsiCo plans to use state and federal subsidies to purchase 100 Tesla electric semi-trucks for its California fleet by next year. (Reuters)
PIPELINES: A 2021 Government Accountability Office report warned that corrosion was causing an increasing number of leaks on the Keystone Pipeline, noting that in one spill location, the pipeline had been eroded down to “less than half the thickness of a dime.” (Natural Gas Intelligence)
OIL & GAS:
• The Biden administration will buy 3 million barrels of oil to refill the Strategic Petroleum Reserve after using some crude to cut high fuel prices. (Politico)
• A 5.4 magnitude earthquake shakes the Permian Basin where oil and gas wastewater injection has coincided with an increase in seismic activity.
(Houston Chronicle)
CLIMATE: Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis signs a sweeping bill to shore up Florida’s insurance market, which has been rocked by numerous hurricanes since the ‘90s, but critics say the new law will restrict the ability of plaintiffs to pursue damages. (Associated Press, The Lever)
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