Arizona’s battery storage surge

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.

STORAGE

• Data show Arizona added more battery energy storage capacity to its grid than any state besides Texas during the first half of this year, but advocates worry political shifts could stifle the storage growth spurt. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Western ranchers push back on the Trump administration’s proposed oil and gas leasing rules that would shorten public comment periods and stop requiring agencies to notify landowners before drilling under their land. (High Country News)

• Wyoming regulators create an oil and gas bonding pool designed to help operators meet federal and state reclamation bonding requirements without tying up operational capital. (Cowboy State Daily)

• Transmission and generation cooperative PGNC Power proposes a natural gas plant in northern Idaho to meet projected demand growth. (East Idaho News)

LITHIUM

• Imperial County, California’s supervisors vote to offer proposed lithium extraction projects tax incentives, but legal headwinds and a dwindling water supply may hamper development. (Capital & Main)

• The U.S. Energy Department awards California firm Lilac Solutions $100 million to fund its proposed direct lithium extraction project at the Great Salt Lake in Utah. (Utah News Dispatch)

TRANSPORTATION

• California regulators sets energy-efficiency standards for replacement car tires, saying it will lower fuel consumption and reduce greenhouse gas emissions. (New York Times)

GRID

• Idaho National Laboratories researchers study how wildfires threaten the grid, how utility infrastructure ignites blazes, and ways to reduce risks. (news release)

• A fast-growing wildfire near Reno, Nevada, prompts utilities to de-energize transmission lines, leaving about 37,000 customers without power. (CBS News)

CLIMATE

• The U.S. Supreme Court plans to hear oral arguments in October over the oil industry’s petition seeking to quash Boulder, Colorado’s lawsuit looking to hold petroleum corporations accountable for climate change-related disasters. (Inside Climate News)

DATA CENTERS

• Utah firm Copia Power proposes a data center-powering energy complex near Phoenix that would include a utility-scale solar array, a gas generation facility, and battery energy storage systems. (Phoenix Business Journal)

UTILITIES

• Idaho Power proposes selling its Oregon service territory that includes about 20,000 customers to the Oregon Trail Electric Cooperative for $154 million, saying it would allow the Idaho utility to meet unprecedented energy demand growth. (OPB)

• Arizona advocates criticize Tucson Electric Power for failing to disclose modeling data used to develop the utility’s proposed integrated resource plan. (Arizona Luminaria)

• Pacific Gas & Electric looks to sell a vacant power substation in San Francisco with 12 MW of pre-entitled electricity capacity as a potential data center site. (Hoodline)