ALSO:

• U.S. climate advocates say Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz’s measured and bureaucratic approach to clean energy programs, and success in attracting federal funding, will lead to policy gains at the federal level. (E&E News)
• Democrats’ newly released party platform calls for reaching net-zero agriculture emissions by 2050 with the help of climate-smart initiatives and other projects. (Successful Farming)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• The U.S. Energy Information Administration estimates developers will build 62.8 GW of new power generation capacity this year, with solar and storage leading the way. (Utility Dive)
• The Inflation Reduction Act’s labor standards for clean energy development could create as many as 3.9 million jobs across 6,285 burgeoning projects, a labor advocacy group says. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Improving electric vehicles’ efficiency could reduce grid stress, cut charging costs, and mean cars need smaller, less costly batteries, an energy efficiency group finds. (Utility Dive)

COAL: Republican-led states and coal companies ask the U.S. Supreme Court to stop the Biden administration’s crackdown on mercury and other toxic emissions from power plants, arguing it will lead to grid problems if they decide to shut down. (The Hill)

CARBON CAPTURE: A company drops a plan to build a carbon capture facility alongside its $18.4 billion Texas liquified natural gas facility, which is already under construction but which recently hit a legal snag. (DeSmog)

GRID: 

• The pair of 1950s-era coal plants bailed out under Ohio’s House Bill 6 law are likely to remain unprofitable even after record-high payments for generators in PJM’s latest capacity auction, experts say. (Energy News Network)
• Critics say the capacity prices are the result of poor planning, market design failures and governance problems at PJM. (States Newsroom)
• Texas’ grid regulator credits new battery, solar wind power for boosting the state grid and preventing conservation alerts this summer. (KVUE, KDFW)
• New England public advocates say they’re concerned with the structure and cost of Eversource’s proposed $384 million transmission line upgrade project. (NHPR)

PIPELINES: Greenpeace is attempting to use a new European legal strategy to counter SLAPP suits as the organization defends against the Dakota Access pipeline owner’s claims that it incited protests against the project nearly eight years ago. (New York Times)

WIND: The U.S. Energy Department issues a request for information related to offshore wind transmission development along the West Coast. (Renewable Energy Magazine)

CLIMATE: Washington state awards 41 tribal nations and other organizations $14 million from its carbon cap-and-invest program to fund climate change mitigation projects. (NBC Right Now)

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POLITICS:

• Climate groups launch a $55 million ad buy to boost Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy, highlighting her clean energy promises and prosecutorial record against oil companies. (The Hill)
• Georgia has received outsized benefits and investment under the federal climate package, but those gains could be undone if Donald Trump wins reelection. (Canary Media)
• Climate activists say vice presidential nominee Tim Walz has a complicated climate change record while serving as Minnesota’s governor, by both signing progressive clean energy legislation but also allowing a pipeline expansion. (Salon)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Experts say electric vehicle charger congestion poses the next challenge for deployment, as developers need to consider bursts of holiday and event travel once they’ve satisfied everyday charger needs. (Bloomberg)
• Former President Trump says he’d consider ending the $7,500 electric vehicle tax credit and may nominate Tesla CEO Elon Musk to a role in his administration if he wins the election. (Reuters)

WIND: Federal ocean energy regulators give the country’s first floating offshore wind research lease to Maine for a project of up to 12 turbines near Portland; the state first sought the lease in 2021. (Associated Press)

CLEAN ENERGY: 

• Analysts predict a second Trump administration would imperil dozens of pending solar, wind and geothermal projects on federal land in the West. (E&E News)
• Democratic lawmakers are divided over a bipartisan permitting reform bill that could speed both clean energy and fossil fuel deployment. (The Hill)
• The Inflation Reduction Act is having a transformative effect on U.S. manufacturing growth, particularly in the clean energy sector, though some investors are concerned that the outcome of the presidential election could weaken the 2-year-old law. (CNBC)

CARBON CAPTURE: Oil companies are pinning their decarbonization hopes on carbon capture projects to reduce their emissions, but rising construction costs and the lagging pace of related infrastructure development are cutting into the value of  federal tax credits for the technology. (Houston Chronicle)

OIL & GAS: Aggressive sales tactics and “compulsion” laws means many Ohio landowners with fracking wells on their properties were forced to accept them, according to a new study. (The Hill)

SOLAR: A solar company’s partnership with a Minnesota agriculture nonprofit helps emerging farmers from around the world grow crops alongside community solar projects. (Sahan Journal)

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POLITICS:

• Climate advocates see promise in Vice President Kamala Harris’ candidacy, saying she could better sell the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate benefits and prioritize environmental justice. (Inside Climate News)
• This week’s Democratic National Convention in Chicago is expected to devote some time to climate change as energy and environment groups promote their messages. (E&E News)
• Republican leaders struggle to drum up support for repealing parts of the Inflation Reduction Act as its clean energy incentives head to Republican-represented districts. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS:

• A top fuel and petrochemical trade group racked up $8.1 million in spending on federal lobbying in the first half of 2024, marking the first time the group outspent individual oil and gas companies. (OpenSecrets)
• Advocates criticize Chevron for operating a local news website in the Permian Basin, saying it exists solely to prop up the industry. (Floodlight)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• The clean energy transition is generating enthusiasm and skepticism as a utility moves forward with plans to replace a central Minnesota coal plant with a large solar and storage project. (New York Times)
• A survey of non-union construction and maintenance workers in Texas’ solar and wind industries finds many have faced injuries, heat-related illness, or racial disparities in pay and benefits. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID: 

• Unlike other states that have hardened their power grids in response to disasters, critics say Texas officials have allowed utilities to continue a costly pattern of destroy-and-rebuild. (Houston Chronicle)
• Analysts say a significant buildup of battery energy storage capacity over the last two years has helped California’s grid weather this summer’s heat wave-driven power demand spikes. (East Bay Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Georgia voters love the thousands of jobs accompanying a wave of electric vehicle and battery plants but still have doubts about electric vehicles themselves. (Politico)
• Despite recent electric vehicle job growth in Michigan, the state is seeing generally underwhelming interest in EV tech programs launching at community colleges across the state. (Bridge)

SOLAR:

• Experts share how advancing technology has made solar panels resilient in wind, small hail, and other weather conditions. (Washington Post)
• Solar power’s potential to help BIPOC farmers hold on to their land was among the key themes at a recent panel exploring agrivoltaics. (Energy News Network)

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OIL & GAS: 

• The U.S. oil and gas industry’s boom under President Biden illustrates how difficult it is for a president to stop or even slow oil production because of legal, political and market factors. (Washington Post)
• Shell’s nonprofit arm gave more than $500,000 to conservative causes between 2013 and 2022, including some that aim to fight climate action, tax records show. (The Guardian)

BUILDINGS:

• High-income U.S. households have so far grabbed $2.2 billion of home efficiency and decarbonization tax credits aimed at reducing energy bills, while the poorest households have received just $32 million. (E&E News)
• A 147-unit Habitat for Humanity project in St. Paul, Minnesota, expected to be one of the largest net-zero developments in the Midwest, is being built without natural gas hookups. (Energy News Network)

BATTERIES:

• A startup plans to install the world’s largest iron-air battery facility at a former paper mill in Lincoln, Maine, that will deliver 85 MW of power to the grid for up to 100 hours. (Canary Media)
• North Carolina awards a sodium-ion battery maker a $21.7 million grant plus additional incentives for workforce training and site improvements to secure its commitment to build a $1.4 billion factory. (Raleigh News & Observer, WRAL)

WIND:

• Wind turbines for the first time produced more electricity than coal over two consecutive months, according to the Energy Information Administration. (New York Times)
• As the burgeoning offshore wind industry faces economic and political headwinds, Dominion Energy is buying more leases and sinking investment into building the supply chain around its massive project near Virginia. (Politico, E&E News)

CLIMATE: The Biden administration unveils a multi-agency strategy to research and respond to extreme heat through 2030. (The Hill)

UTILITIES: Democratic lawmakers in Ohio criticize the state’s recent $20 million settlement with FirstEnergy over the HB6 corruption scandal as a “paltry sum,” noting the company has so far faced minimal accountability. (State House News Service)

COMMENTARY: An advocate says one way to accelerate the buildout of transmission lines is to improve incentives for rural communities, such as adding broadband internet in the process. (Utility Dive)

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CLIMATE: More than 10,000 survivors of hurricanes, wildfires, flooding and other extreme weather demand the U.S. Justice Department launch an investigation into the fossil fuel industry’s “climate crimes.” (The Guardian)

POLITICS:

• Aides to Vice President Kamala Harris say she’s employing “strategic ambiguity” around controversial energy issues as she campaigns, avoiding fracking and fossil fuels while repeatedly rallying for climate action. (Reuters)
• A Minnesota copper-nickel mine serves as an example of a delicate political balance Minnesota Gov. Tim Walz has to strike as he campaigns for vice president, as labor and environmental interests take opposing positions. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS: 

• Air pollution from liquefied natural gas export terminals in the U.S. is responsible for an estimated 60 premature deaths and $957 million in health costs each year, environmental groups find. (The Guardian)
• Donald Trump vows to increase domestic oil and gas production, but Texas is already producing record amounts of fossil fuels — including so much natural gas that producers are losing money. (Texas Tribune)

WIND:

• Federal officials designate Equinor the provisional winner of a 2 GW offshore wind energy lease auction off the Delaware coast. (Maryland Matters)
• Dominion Energy picks up a third offshore wind lease in the Mid-Atlantic, just east of the area near Virginia where it’s building a 2,600 MW, 176-turbine wind farm. (Virginia Mercury)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Swedish electric vehicle maker Polestar starts production at its South Carolina plant, helping it avoid U.S. tariffs on Chinese-made cars. (Reuters)
• California officials call on the U.S. EPA to approve the state’s rule aimed at replacing diesel big rigs and other heavy trucks with electric or hydrogen vehicles. (CalMatters)

SOLAR: The impending construction of a solar panel factory shows how the industry is bringing jobs and investment to Virginia, even as nearly a third of all counties in the state have passed regulations restricting solar project development. (WVTF)

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