Another failed federal coal sale

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• Arizona, California, and Oregon are among more than 20 states that filed a lawsuit accusing the Trump administration of unlawfully terminating the U.S. EPA’s $7 billion Solar for All program aimed at expanding low-income households’ access to solar. (KVOA, 9News, OPB)

• Southwestern utilities and electric cooperatives turn to solar to replace drought-diminished hydropower output from Hoover and Glen Canyon dams. (Circle of Blue)

• California solar roof shingle manufacturer GAF Energy plans to move its headquarters from San Jose to Texas, citing better market opportunities. (Los Angeles Times)

• A Mormon women’s advocacy group pushes back on the Republican-dominated Arizona Corporation Commission’s proposal to scrap energy efficiency mandates and rooftop solar incentives. (12News)

• Colorado Springs’ city council votes to order the municipal utility to remove a proposed demand charge for rooftop solar customers. (KOAA)

CLIMATE

• A federal court in Montana dismisses a youth-led lawsuit accusing the Trump administration’s pro-fossil fuel policies of violating constitutional rights to life and liberty. (Inside Climate News)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The U.S. Interior Department rejects a mining company’s bid for a 6-million-ton federal coal lease in Utah, marking the third time in a month a sale has been nixed due to lowball offers and throwing the Trump administration’s energy dominance agenda into doubt. (Associated Press)

• Arapahoe County, Colorado’s commissioners conditionally approve Civitas’ proposal to drill 20 oil and gas wells in the Denver-area. (Sentinel)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on a proposal to lease 227 oil and gas parcels covering over 250,000 acres in Wyoming. (Cap City News)

• Western Colorado’s Garfield County commissioners urge the federal Bureau of Land Management to affirm and issue over 300 oil and gas leases statewide that had been held up by environmental lawsuits. (Post-Independent)

• New Mexico law enforcement officials say oil theft involving Mexican cartels is a growing problem in the Permian Basin. (Hobbs News-Sun)

UTILITIES

• Wyoming’s Public Service Commission plan to appeal a judge’s decision granting PacifiCorp its proposed 29.2% rate hike after regulators had significantly reduced it. (WyoFile)

ELECTRIFICATION

• California startup Bellwether Coffee develops a line of electric coffee roasters that are cleaner and more efficient than gas-fired ones and don’t require elaborate venting equipment. (Canary Media)

CARBON CAPTURE

• California Resources Corp. breaks ground on its facility designed to capture carbon from a natural gas plant and geologically sequester it after state lawmakers lift a ban on carbon dioxide pipelines. (Politico)

• California rail company Pacific Harbor Line works with a startup to install carbon capture devices on its locomotives. (Biofuels Digest)

NUCLEAR

• Amazon and Energy Northwest plan to deploy 12 small modular reactors developed by X-Energy at their planned 960 MW nuclear plant in southern Washington. (Utility Dive)

STORAGE

• California’s grid operator says rapidly increasing battery energy storage capacity has helped keep rolling blackouts and emergency Flex Alerts at bay since 2022. (Los Angeles Times)

• Rondo Energy brings online a 20 MW solar array paired with a brick heat battery system to power an enhanced oil recovery operation in Kern County, California. (Bloomberg)

• Steel producer Nucor brings online a 50 MW behind-the-meter battery energy storage system at its bar mill in Kingman, Arizona. (news release)

• Torch Clean Energy plans to add a 160 MW battery energy storage system at its solar array under development in Cochise County, Arizona. (Utility Dive)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Trump admin approves $1.6B in financing for AEP transmission project — Alexander C. Kaufman

• Chart: EV sales just hit a record in the US, but a cliff looms — Dan McCarthy

• This startup’s electric roasters cut carbon and costs from coffee-making — Jeff St. John

• Trump admin complicates New York’s clean-energy plans — Lauren Dalban