California avoids widespread blackouts amid record power demand

HEAT WAVE: Record-breaking heat pushes California’s peak power demand to an all-time high, but grid operators say conservation measures helped them avert widespread rolling blackouts. (Los Angeles Times)

ALSO:
• California activates four new temporary emergency natural gas generators to avert power outages in the northern part of the state. (KCRA)
• A heat-triggered outage leaves more than 7,000 Pacific Gas & Electric customers without power in West Sacramento, California. (Sacramento Bee)
• Idaho Power asks customers to conserve electricity as extreme high temperatures and wildfires strain the grid. (Idaho Statesman)

UTILITIES:
• An Oregon utility’s service area’s industrial power use quadruples and carbon emissions intensity increases more than 500% after Amazon and other tech companies build data centers there. (Union-Bulletin)
• Southern California Edison officials say they detected ​“circuit activity” at the same time a fast-moving deadly wildfire broke out Monday, but investigators have yet to determine the cause. (Los Angeles Times)

OIL & GAS:
• The Biden administration agrees to settle an environmental lawsuit by reassessing potential climate impacts from Trump-era oil and gas leases in Montana and North Dakota. (Associated Press)
• A Colorado county and environmentalists appeal the Biden administration’s approval of a proposed railway that would carry oil from the Uintah Basin in Utah through the state on its way to Gulf Coast refineries. (Colorado Sun)

COAL: Colorado’s largest electric cooperative seeks to pull out of its stake in the Comanche 3 coal plant, saying Xcel Energy’s mismanagement has caused a raft of unplanned outages. (Colorado Sun)

CLEAN ENERGY: A California irrigation district considers installing solar panels on top of canals and pipelines and hydropower turbines within them. (Manteca Ripon Bulletin)

STORAGE: A California county installs a battery storage system at one of its office buildings to provide up to 31 hours of backup power during outages. (KSBY)

WIND: The U.S. House natural resources committee plans to hold a field hearing on offshore wind development in the Pacific tomorrow in Morro Bay, California. (E&E News, subscription) 

CRITICAL MINERALS:
• Alaska mining industry observers say an Inflation Reduction Act tax break for critical mineral producers could spark a mining renaissance in the state. (Anchorage Daily News)
• Nevada tribal leaders renew calls to halt the proposed Thacker Pass lithium mining project after archaeologists find more evidence of an 1865 massacre in the area. (Nevada Current)

GRID: Arizona conservationists oppose the proposed SunZia transmission line that would carry wind power from New Mexico, saying it will harm the desert ecosystem and migratory birds. (KOLD)

COMMENTARY: An Alaska marine biologist urges the state and federal governments to continue the Exxon Valdez oil spill restoration program until achieving its goal of recovering all injured resources. (Anchorage Daily News)