Arizona judge greenlights controversial natural gas plant expansion

UTILITIES: An Arizona judge clears the way for Salt River Project to expand a natural gas power plant near a historically Black community following a two-year legal fight and charges of environmental racism. (Arizona Republic)

ALSO:

• Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to pay a $45 million penalty for its involvement in the 2021 Dixie Fire, which destroyed nearly 1,300 homes. (Los Angeles Times)
• Hawaii lawmakers propose letting Hawaiian Electric issue utility securitization bonds to pay for wildfire mitigation and expenses related to last year’s Maui blazes. (Honolulu Civil Beat)
• An Alaska electric co-op shows measured support for legislation that would require utilities to acquire more power from clean energy sources. (KUAC)

CRITICAL MATERIALS:

• A company breaks ground on a lithium extraction and geothermal power plant facility at the Salton Sea in southern California. (Imperial Valley Press)
• Utah geologists seek $400,000 in state funding to better map and quantify critical minerals. (Deseret News)

SOLAR: Arizona lawmakers advance a bill that would tax solar power exported to other states. (Arizona Daily Star)

BATTERIES: An Arizona county advances a proposed 150 MW grid-scale battery energy storage facility near Phoenix. (Arizona Republic)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Lucid Motors completes the expansion of its 3.85-million-square-foot electric SUV manufacturing facility in Casa Grande, Arizona. (Arizona Republic)
• California regulators criticize a company’s public EV charger spending plan before approving $200 million in funding for the firm to deploy infrastructure. (Los Angeles Times)

OIL & GAS: 

• New Mexico lawmakers advance a bill that would tighten the state’s 90-year-old fossil fuel regulations following heated partisan debate. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• Federal regulators suggest new offshore oil and gas operating procedures aimed at avoiding a repeat of the 2021 crude pipeline spill along southern California’s coast. (Orange County Register)
• Colorado regulators propose new rules addressing cumulative impacts of oil and gas development on climate and air quality. (Colorado Newsline)

NUCLEAR:

• Idaho National Laboratories begins testing next-generation, light water reactor fuel. (Idaho Business Review)
• Colorado lawmakers kill a bill that would have defined nuclear power as clean energy and made it eligible for additional subsidies. (Colorado Politics)

COMMENTARY:

• Today’s southern California groundbreaking of a geothermal and lithium extraction plant shows the ​“lithium revolution has arrived at the Salton Sea,” a journalist writes. (Los Angeles Times)
• History shows the much-hyped uranium mining renaissance may fizzle before it comes to fruition, says a Western energy columnist. (High Country News)