CLEAN ENERGY: Washington Gov. Jay Inslee signs several bills aimed at fighting climate change, including one streamlining energy permitting, just days after announcing he will not seek re-election in 2024. (KOMO, Washington Post)
ALSO: Alaska lawmakers make permanent a soon-to-expire renewable energy project grant program that has distributed $300 million so far. (Fairbanks News-Miner)
UTILITIES:
• Nevada’s consumer protection bureau urges federal regulators to reconsider allowing NV Energy to seek rate hikes to recoup costs for its $2.5 billion Greenlink transmission project. (Nevada Current)
• San Francisco leaders call on Pacific Gas & Electric to address a spate of recent power outages, saying the utility has failed to provide adequate information during the incidents. (news release)
TRANSPORTATION:
• Washington state lawmakers approve a $13.4 billion transportation budget — the first using revenues from its carbon cap-and-invest program — that includes funding for electric vehicles and ferries and public transit. (Governing)
• San Diego, California’s metropolitan transit agency secures $60 million in state funding to beef up its electric bus fleet and maintain its trolley system. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Tesla plans to establish a parts and assembly plant in Marysville, Washington. (The Registry)
TRANSITION: New Mexico begins accepting applications for Energy Transition Act funds to financially support workers displaced by last year’s San Juan coal plant and mine closures. (Farmington Daily-Times)
OIL & GAS: Alaska lawmakers consider a bill that would extend the state’s corporate income tax to non-publicly traded companies, including oil and gas company Hilcorp, that are currently exempt. (KDLL)
WIND: U.S. Sen. Jim Risch, an Idaho Republican, urges Interior Secretary Deb Haaland to deny the proposed Lava Ridge wind facility in the southern part of the state. (Times-News)
SOLAR:
• A Utah school district votes to offer a developer a 50% property tax break for 20 years to finance construction of a proposed 300 MW solar installation. (Chronicle-Progress)
• A Washington state utility plans to build a community solar project at a port industrial park on the Columbia River. (Columbian)
STORAGE: Xcel Energy receives a $20 million grant for iron-air battery energy storage projects, including one at the Comanche coal plant site in Colorado.
(Energy Storage News)
NUCLEAR: Legal experts say New Mexico must prove a new law barring nuclear waste storage facilities is not based on safety concerns, which is the purview of federal regulators, to survive future challenges. (Searchlight New Mexico)
GRID:
• Edison International’s CEO urges state lawmakers to pass a bill that would allow California’s grid operator to become a regional transmission organization. (Utility Dive)
• Arizona’s largest utilities tell regulators they’ve hardened their grids and taken other measures to prepare for extreme weather, wildfires and sabotage. (12 News)
POLITICS: U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming Republican, is selected co-chair of the House Coal Caucus, a group of 33 pro-fossil fuel congress members. (Cowboy State Daily)
CRITICAL MINERALS: A company unearths a large rare earth elements deposit at its metallurgical coal mine in northern Wyoming. (Casper Star-Tribune)
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