Colorado lawmakers advance gas-pump warning legislation

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

FOSSIL FUELS

• Colorado lawmakers consider legislation that would require gas stations to warn customers that burning fossil fuels releases greenhouse gases and other harmful pollutants. (Capital & Main)

• A federal appeals court rejects an environmental lawsuit seeking to block a proposed liquefied natural gas export project in Alaska. (Must Read Alaska)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Colorado residents and advocates urge Xcel Energy to replace the Comanche 3 coal plant with a renewable energy park after the facility shuts down in 2031. (KRDO)

• Fresno, California, brings a solar-plus-storage installation online to power its municipal wastewater facility. (KMPH)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Tariff uncertainty, Tesla political blowback and expiring subsidies dampen electric vehicle sales in Colorado, but dealers say the decline wasn’t as large as expected. (Colorado Sun)

UTILITIES

• Pueblo, Colorado, holds a special election to decide whether the city should replace Black Hills Energy as its electricity provider. (CPR)

• Southern California Edison planners, designers, and field technicians petition federal labor regulators to unionize, saying it would give them ​“a real voice at work.” (Los Angeles Times)

• Public Service Company of New Mexico cuts off power to more than 2,000 customers after unusually severe winds elevate fire hazard statewide. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

GRID

• Portland, Oregon’s city council tentatively rejects a utility’s proposed transmission upgrade project and associated tree-clearing in an urban forest. (Oregonian)

• Colorado advocates urge lawmakers to reject legislation that would establish tax breaks for data centers, saying the facilities will overwhelm the grid and increase other utility customers’ rates. (Colorado Newsline)

STORAGE

• California regulators extend deadlines for reviews of a proposed 500 MW compressed-air energy storage facility in southern California. (Sacramento Bee)

• Strata Clean Energy breaks ground on a 150 MW battery energy storage project near Phoenix, Arizona. (news release)

CRITICAL MINERALS

• Nevada Gov. Joe Lombardo urges the Trump administration to remove tariffs on lithium, saying they could damage domestic manufacturing reliant on the material. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

• Energy Fuels’ White Mesa uranium mill in southeastern Utah gears up to process rare earth elements from prospective Wyoming mines. (Cowboy State Daily)

COMMENTARY

• A Colorado advocate calls for replacing the retiring Hayden coal plant in the northwestern part of the state with enhanced geothermal power. (Steamboat Pilot & Today)

• A climate researcher says new nuclear plants are too expensive to be the solution to California’s energy needs, and that small modular reactors make even less sense than conventional ones. (Los Angeles Times)