OIL & GAS: 

• Advocacy groups call on New Mexico regulators to require oil and gas companies to comply with state law and plug and remediate more than 3,300 inactive wells. (news release)
• A federal agency appellate board rejects a company’s bid to abandon a 40-year-old oil well off California’s coast without following decommissioning rules. (E&E news, subscription)
• A California judge rejects an oil company’s bid to keep spill contingency plans secret for a pipeline near Santa Barbara that ruptured catastrophically in 2015. (Santa Barbara Independent)
• Policy experts predict a Harris/Walz administration policy for oil and gas drilling on public lands would continue Biden’s efforts to limit leasing, tighten regulations and target demand by encouraging clean energy development. (E&E News, subscription)

COAL: A federal court denies a firm’s bid to force federal regulators to rush their review of a proposed expansion of its Bull Mountains coal mine in Montana. (news release)

GEOTHERMAL: The federal Bureau of Land Management extends the public comment period for the proposed Fervo Cape enhanced geothermal project in southwestern Utah. (KSL)

HYDROPOWER: 

• A national laboratory’s study finds climate change could increase seasonal precipitation and hydropower production in the Northwest in coming decades, but will likely diminish generation in the Southwest. (OPB)
• Data show climate change-exacerbated drought has diminished Glen Canyon Dam’s hydropower production by 17% since the late 1990s, forcing Western state utilities to turn to natural gas generation and raise rates. (Colorado Sun)

SOLAR: 

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on its draft environmental analysis of the proposed 400 MW Easley solar-plus-battery storage project in southern California. (news release)
• Las Vegas installs solar streetlights to reduce energy consumption and foil would-be copper wire thieves. (Fox 5) 

WIND: Idaho plans to challenge the Bureau of Land Management’s forthcoming approval of the proposed Lava Ridge wind project, even though environmental advocates now support it after the agency reduced its scope. (Idaho Capital Sun)

CLEAN ENERGY: 

• California developers call on the state to stop taxing income from sales of federal clean energy tax credits, saying the exemption would lower utility bills. (Politico)
• A Washington county begins crafting regulations for large-scale wind and solar facility siting. (Spokesman-Review)
• Clean energy advocates say California is leading efforts to remove hurdles to interconnecting large distributed generation resources like community solar and big box store rooftop arrays. (Utility Dive) 
• California advocates urge state lawmakers to reject proposals to cut clean energy and efficiency program funding for schools and low-income communities. (news release)

CLIMATE: California’s attorney general urges the U.S. Supreme Court to reject Republican-led states’ bid to quash lawsuits looking to hold the fossil fuel industry accountable for climate change. (E&E News, subscription)

COMMENTARY: A California editorial board urges state lawmakers to reject Gov. Gavin Newsom’s proposal to delay implementation of an oil and gas well setback law, saying the public suffers health effects every day enforcement is postponed. (Los Angeles Times)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Ford scraps plans for an all-electric SUV and pushes back the start of production at a Tennessee factory from 2025 to 2027 so it can use lower-cost battery technology and prioritize hybrid vehicles. (Tennessee Lookout; Washington Post)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• The Inflation Reduction Act helped Minnesota draw hundreds of millions of dollars in federal funding for clean energy projects, which Democrats hope can boost the Harris-Walz ticket this November. (Politico)
• A climate advocate highlights efforts to decarbonize the emissions-heavy steel and concrete industries. (Canary Media)
• California developers call on the state to stop taxing income from sales of federal clean energy tax credits, saying the exemption would lower utility bills. (Politico)
• Clean energy advocates say California is leading efforts to remove hurdles to interconnecting large distributed generation resources like community solar and big box store rooftop arrays. (Utility Dive) 

SOLAR: 

• General Motors signs a deal to purchase power from a 180 MW Arkansas solar farm to power factories in Michigan and Missouri. (PV Magazine)
• In Maine, solar incentives for farmers dealing with chemical land contamination are one tool helping impacted farms maintain an income. (Bloomberg Law)

COAL: Coal producers Arch and Consol merge to form a single company valued at $5 billion, as coal contracts and fossil fuel companies across the spectrum consolidate. (Associated Press)

STORAGE: Illinois lawmakers consider establishing energy storage incentives as a new study suggests ramping up storage may be the most realistic path for maintaining grid reliability as the state phases out fossil fuels. (Energy News Network)

COMMENTARY:

• The Treasury Department’s proposed standards for hydrogen production tax credits are overly restrictive and threaten to hold back the green hydrogen industry, according to a finance executive and environmental writer. (Energy News Network)
• Researchers warn that current policy puts the world on a risky path in which warming exceeds Paris Agreement targets and countries depend on unproven technology to reverse warming later in the century. (The Conversation)

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UTILITIES: CenterPoint Energy issues a request for proposals from developers to build hundreds of megawatts of renewable energy and other generation sources as part of its long-term energy strategy in Indiana. (Utility Dive)

COAL: Consumers Energy will soon offer public tours of a coal plant along Lake Michigan that’s scheduled to be decommissioned within the next year. (MLive, subscription)

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SOLAR: 

• General Motors signs a deal to purchase power from a 180 MW Arkansas solar farm to power factories in Michigan and Missouri. (PV Magazine)
• A German renewables company partners with social media giant Meta to build a 100 MW solar farm in Louisiana, with more likely to come. (NOLA.com)

COAL: 

• Lawyers representing 23 coal companies owned by West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice’s family write in a court filing they can’t pay a settlement agreement over mine safety fines because they’re broke. (WV Metro News)
• Coal producers Arch and Consol merge to form a single company valued at $5 billion, as coal contracts and fossil fuel companies across the spectrum consolidate. (Associated Press)
• Virginia officials nominate four economic development projects on abandoned mine land to receive a total $10 million in federal grants. (Virginia Business)

OIL & GAS: 

• Permian Basin producers see negative natural gas prices for 26 consecutive days as production hovers near record highs, with an additional takeaway pipeline expected to open next month. (S&P Global)
• Dominion Energy moves the proposed site for new gas-fired generators to an existing plant instead of an adjacent industrial park after vehement community opposition. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)

HYDROPOWER: Duke Energy wants to further expand a South Carolina pumped storage battery project after recent upgrades that added 320 MW of capacity. (Greenville News)

POLITICS: 

• South Carolina state senators begin reworking a sweeping energy reform bill they previously killed during the legislative session that would have rolled back regulatory protections and accelerated construction of a gas-fired power plant to replace coal. (Post and Courier)
• Democrats call on West Virginia Gov. Jim Justice to drop out of the race for U.S. Senate over financial problems, including the failure of his Greenbrier Hotel to pay for workers’ health insurance. (WV Metro News)

HYDROGEN: West Virginia U.S. Sens. Joe Manchin and Shelley Moore Capito cut the ribbon on a state office for the Appalachian Regional Clean Hydrogen Hub. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)

BUILDINGS: Developers in Austin, Texas, increasingly build with climate change in mind and aim to partner with electric utilities given the fragility of the state power grid. (Austin Monitor)

UTILITIES: 

• A series of several “fair weather” outages in New Orleans stemming in part from faulty equipment has city officials reconsidering its reliance on Entergy, which has blamed the outages on weather and an aging grid. (NOLA.com, WVUE)
• Florida regulators approve a base rate increase for Duke Energy, just as a city begins to consider cutting ties with the utility when its 30-year agreement expires next year. (WUSF, WFTS)

COMMENTARY: Recent calls by West Virginia’s oil and gas industry to remove regulatory constraints disingenuously promise lower energy prices while exacerbating climate change and downplaying its effects on residents who live near projects like the Mountain Valley Pipeline, writes an environmental activist. (Parkersburg News and Sentinel)

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ALSO: Some New Yorkers worry about the impact heavy rains will have this hurricane season on the city’s subway system, recalling station evacuations and floods that have occurred despite the city’s resilience efforts. (The City)

WIND: 

• The council of Fenwick Island, Delaware, considers joining a lawsuit brought by Ocean City, Maryland, officials that aims to cancel federal approval of the Maryland Offshore Wind Project. (WBOC)
• Federal ocean energy officials say they’re working to develop the next wind auction for plots off the coast of Delaware and Maryland. (E&E News, subscription)

SOLAR: 

• In Maine, solar development incentives for farmers dealing with chemical land contamination are one tool helping impacted farms maintain an income, although some affected land is precluded from energy projects because of conservation easements and other barriers. (Bloomberg Law)
• A Pennsylvania township’s zoning board rejects a conditional land use approval request sought by the developers of a proposed 46-acre solar project. (WVIZ)

GRID: 

• ISO New England says its current revenue structures may need to be updated to sufficiently pay dispatchable generation resources for the grid benefits they provide. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• New York’s grid operator says it’s undertaking a new proactive proceeding to identify new energy demand sources and the grid upgrades needed to fulfill them. (news release)

COAL: Two top coal producers, Arch Resources and Consol Energy, plan to merge to form Core Natural Resources, which will be based out of the Pittsburgh suburb where Consol currently has its headquarters. (Associated Press)

NUCLEAR: In Massachusetts, the firm decommissioning the Pilgrim nuclear plant claims the state has no right to stop it from discharging radioactive water into Cape Cod Bay. (WBUR)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A Rhode Island startup wants more boaters to swap their gas-guzzling outboard engines for their quiet, battery-powered models. (Boston Globe)

RENEWABLE POWER: New York’s energy research agency grants almost $200,000 to the Finger Lakes village of Montour Falls for a small solar array, an electric truck and other renewable investments. (Finger Lakes 1)

AFFORDABILITY: Some Connecticut ratepayers are arguing for a boycott of the public benefits charge amid rising utility bills. (Hartford Courant)

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