Advocates push back on plan to lure data centers to Colorado

CLIMATE: Colorado advocates worry proposed legislation aimed at luring more energy-intensive data centers to the state will put climate goals out of reach and drive up power costs. (CPR)

ALSO: An advocacy group launches an ad campaign in Arizona and Montana urging residents to support the federal Securities and Exchange Commission’s new climate risk disclosure rules. (news release)

SOLAR: A California school district unveils a 17.5 MW solar-plus-storage network consisting of 40 projects across 31 sites. (news release)

STORAGE: A firm signs on to purchase all of the capacity of a 200 MW stand–alone battery energy storage system under construction in southern California. (Solar Industry)

UTILITIES:

• Montana’s Supreme Court rules that NorthWestern Energy and regulators violated state law when waiving the utility from developing mandated community renewable energy projects. (Billings Gazette)
• Public Service Company of New Mexico appeals regulators’ rejection of a bid to recover coal plant costs from ratepayers to the state’s Supreme Court. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• Alaska advocates urge utility regulators to fill vacant commissioner and staff positions and to reserve one seat on the commission for a member of a Native tribe. (Northern Journal)

OIL & GAS: 

• Chevron agrees to pay $13 million in fines for dozens of past oil spills in California and regulators plan to use a portion of the funds for abandoned and orphaned well clean up. (ABC News)
• The Biden administration stands by its 2023 approval of exports from a proposed LNG pipeline and terminal in Alaska, saying it would be in the public’s interest. (E&E News, subscription)
• Investigators find a faulty coking process led to a series of black smoke-spewing fires at a Montana petroleum refinery last month. (Daily Montanan)
• Analysts expect Permian Basin oil and gas wells to produce more than 6 million barrels of crude daily by April, an all-time high. (Carlsbad Current-Argus, subscription) 

TRANSPORTATION: Colorado lawmakers propose levying a daily fee on car rentals to help fund public transit projects. (Colorado Public Radio)

CARBON CAPTURE: Oregon researchers discover a way to pull carbon dioxide from the air with vanadium, potentially boosting the nascent direct air carbon capture industry. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

PUBLIC LANDS: U.S. Rep. Harriet Hageman, a Wyoming Republican, looks to block a management plan for 3.7 million acres of federal land in the state, claiming it would hamper energy development. (WyoFile)

COMMENTARY: Energy investors and experts call on the uranium industry to ensure mines and mills financially benefit affected tribal communities, regardless of property ownership. (Wilson Center)