CLEAN ENERGY: The Biden administration says it will cut lease rates and fees in half for solar and wind projects on federal lands and boost the number of employees processing clean energy proposals. (Reuters)
ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE:
• Experts and critics tell the White House its environmental justice screening tool should consider race — a factor the Biden administration left out over fears of lawsuits. (E&E News)
• The federal Department of Health and Human Services establishes an environmental justice office to aid communities disproportionately facing pollution and climate impacts. (Axios)
• Vermont’s governor enacts the state’s first environmental justice law, which calls for building a new mapping tool, among other policies. (VT Digger)
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POLITICS:
• Congressional Democrats’ climate legislation continues to fall behind competing priorities, echoing the collapse of climate legislation after the Deepwater Horizon spill 12 years ago. (Grist)
• Climate advocates express frustration with Democrats’ failure to pass a spending bill before Memorial Day, blowing past yet another deadline in months-long talks. (The Hill)
GRID:
• The North American Electric Reliability Corp. urges state regulators to grill utilities on how they would handle controlled outages this summer if extreme heat and high demand combine with insufficient power supplies. (Des Moines Register)
• New England’s grid saw its lowest power demand ever on May 1, which the operator believes was due to over 4,000 MW of generated behind-the-meter solar power. (POWER Magazine)
• Florida Power & Light is building a 176-mile transmission line that critics say was designed to escape regulatory review because its voltage falls below a threshold that would require more extensive scrutiny. (New York Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• Global electric vehicle sales are set to triple by 2035, but the industry still needs more government and manufacturer support to meet net-zero goals, an analysis finds. (Bloomberg, subscription)
• The nation’s first electric fire truck goes into service in California. (Hot Cars)
PIPELINES: Conservative Iowa farmers are teaming up with the Sierra Club to oppose carbon pipeline proposals, which landowners fear could ruin crop yield and expose people to a hazardous gas. (Politico)
NUCLEAR: A peer-reviewed study finds small modular nuclear reactors produce up to 5.5 times the spent fuel per energy unit compared with conventional reactors. (Reuters)
OIL & GAS: A California congress member introduces a bill to suspend the federal gasoline tax and offset lost revenue with a tax on oil company profits. (CBS Los Angeles)
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CLIMATE: In New Hampshire, Dartmouth College touts its emissions reductions and efficiency projects, but the school is one of the state’s largest emitters and critics say it needs to move more urgently. (Energy News Network)
COAL: Wyoming tries to save its coal industry by promoting carbon capture, but utilities and environmentalists say retrofitting old plants with the equipment is too costly and ineffective. (Inside Climate News)
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