Biden looks to spur clean buildings boom

Editor’s note: U.S. Energy News is taking a quick break and won’t publish tomorrow. We’ll be back Thursday.

BUILDINGS: The Biden administration announces it’ll put $2 billion toward 150 federal building projects that use low-carbon concrete, steel and other materials. (Reuters)

ALSO:

• An innovative nonprofit in Asheville, North Carolina, performs no-cost energy efficiency upgrades and boosts the city’s progress in the clean energy transition as a complement to federal weatherization programs. (Energy News Network)
• Steam heat technology from the 19th century keeps apartments so toasty it forces many New Yorkers to keep their windows open in the winter, but the city’s new building emissions law could change that. (Guardian)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• The Biden administration advances 15 clean energy and transmission projects proposed for or under development on federal lands across the Western U.S. (Grist)
• A Hawaii utility cooperative says its publicly owned grid model has helped it reach its goal of generating 60% of its electricity from clean energy sources. (Canary Media)

POLITICS: State-level elections today in Kentucky, Mississippi, New Jersey and Virginia have big implications for those states’ clean energy transitions. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Labor advocates want to build on the deal between United Auto Workers and the big three automakers to protect Black auto workers at electric vehicle and battery plants in the largely non-unionized Southeast. (States Newsroom)

OFFSHORE WIND: With New Jersey’s offshore wind industry faltering, New York and other Northeast states will have to pick up the pieces to stay on track to achieve federal energy goals. (Politico)

CLIMATE:

• The U.S. military owes at least $106 billion in climate reparations to communities harmed by the greenhouse gasses it has released since the country agreed to the 2015 Paris Agreement, a study calculates. (Guardian)
• New data shows last month was the Earth’s hottest October on record. (Axios)
• While companies are increasingly setting net-zero emissions targets, just 4% of those goals are on par with United Nations standards. (Axios)
• California’s public pension system considers dumping its investments in companies with inadequate climate plans and expanding its stake in firms focused on reducing emissions. (E&E News)
• Sweeping clean energy bills headed to Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer make concessions to large utilities and heavy industry at the expense of environmental justice communities, activists say. (Inside Climate News)

OIL & GAS: Climate activists hope to expand their campaign seeking local payouts of damages from oil and gas producers in states like Ohio and Pennsylvania. (E&E News)

BATTERIES: Two Democratic U.S. senators push the Biden administration to boost battery manufacturing and research, warning of Chinese competition. (Reuters)

SOLAR: Solar energy is poised for a boom in Kansas, where wind energy over the past decade has led in renewable energy development. (KCUR)

CARBON CAPTURE: Texas has embraced carbon capture because it involves cashing in on federal subsidies to scale up something oil producers have already been doing for a long time: pumping liquefied carbon gas into the ground. (Capital and Main)