CLEAN ENERGY: Arizona regulators on Wednesday advanced a rule requiring utilities to get 100% of their power from carbon-free sources by 2070 — 20 years later than the previously approved rule the commission rejected earlier this month. (Arizona Republic)

UTILITIES:
• California regulators order Pacific Gas & Electric to pay nearly $150 million for claims over wildfire damages and its mishandling of power outages in 2019. (Associated Press)
• PG&E CEO Patti Poppe says she is employing a “leading with love” philosophy to help transform the troubled utility. (KCRA)

GRID: Extreme heat, increased electricity demand, and lower generating capacity could lead to power outages across the Western power grid this summer, according to the organization tasked with ensuring electric reliability. (Reuters)

PIPELINES: An oil pipeline spill has been reported on the Crow Indian Reservation in Montana; the amount of oil released is not yet known. (Montana Free Press) 

OIL & GAS:
• The EPA expands an ozone compliance zone on Colorado’s front range to include northern Weld County, an oil and gas hotspot. (Colorado Sun)
• A British exploration company says it has found a huge oil reservoir in Arctic Alaska. (Anchorage Daily News)
• The U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service’s proposal for heightened protections for the lesser prairie chicken could affect development in the Permian Basin oil fields. (Washington Post)
• The Biden administration will defend a five-well oil project in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska approved by the Trump administration last year. (Politico)

COAL:
• The Biden administration has urged the U.S. Supreme Court not to take up an effort by Montana and Wyoming to overturn Washington state’s denial of a permit for a proposed coal export terminal. (E&E News, subscription)
• The owners of the Colstrip power plant have added Montana’s attorney general to a lawsuit over new state laws they say unconstitutionally interfere in their business dealings. (Montana Public Radio)

ELECTRIFICATION: Santa Barbara advances a proposal to ban natural gas connections in new construction, but would provide exemptions for restaurants. (Santa Barbara Independent)

TRANSPORTATION: “Climate leaders don’t widen freeways”: Environmental groups in Oregon are opposing a bill that would allocate more state funds to road expansion in the Portland area. (Oregon Public Broadcasting)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• California data shows oil-rich Kern County is falling behind its neighbors in electric vehicle adoption. (Bakersfield Californian)
• Electric vehicle advocates in California say state policies are keeping EVs out of reach of apartment dwellers. (HuffPost)

HYDROGEN: The Pacific Northwest National Laboratory licenses new technology to extract hydrogen from natural gas to a Washington state startup. (news release)

HYDROPOWER: A Maine company has submitted a preliminary application with federal regulators to construct a tidal energy project in Alaska’s Cook Inlet. (Renewable Energy News)

COMMENTARY: An editorial board calls for tougher oversight of a New Mexico refinery. (Albuquerque Journal)

Ken is the director of the Energy News Network at Fresh Energy, and has led the project from its inception as Midwest Energy News in 2009. Prior to joining Fresh Energy, he was the managing editor for online news at Minnesota Public Radio. He started his journalism career in 2002 as a copy editor for the Duluth News Tribune before spending five years at the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, Washington, where he held a variety of editing, production, and leadership roles, and played a key role in the newspaper's transition to digital-first publishing. A Nebraska native, Ken has a bachelor's degree from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln and a master's degree from the University of Oregon.

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.