California battery storage system fire forces hundreds to evacuate

BATTERIES: A fire breaks out at the Moss Landing battery energy storage center along California’s central coast — one of the world’s largest such facilities — forcing the evacuation of about 1,500 residents. (Mercury News)

CLIMATE:

• An advocacy group accuses Oregon lobbyists of conflict of interest for working with a natural gas supplier while also representing climate and public health groups looking to ban gas hookups. (Oregonian)
• Climate protesters storm a Phillips 66 facility in Los Angeles, demanding that the oil industry pay for wildfire relief and fund the state’s energy transition. (Los Angeles Times)

CLEAN ENERGY: Advocates say community benefits agreements are an effective way of garnering local residents’ support for proposed clean energy developments. (High Country News)

SOLAR:

• New Mexico’s Supreme Court rejects utilities’ bid to subtract transmission costs from community solar subscribers’ bill credits, upholding regulators’ earlier decision. (New Mexico Political Report)
• The federal Bureau of Land Management approves the proposed 400 MW Rough Hat solar-plus-storage project in southern Nevada, sparking advocates’ concerns about impacts to imperiled desert tortoises. (news release, Las Vegas Review-Journal) 
• The University of California, Berkeley partners with a company to establish a solar energy research center and testing field. (Solar Power World)

UTILITIES:

• California regulators approve Southern California Edison’s wildfire hazard mitigation plan, rejecting calls to delay a decision until the cause of the Eaton Fire is determined. (Los Angeles Times)
• A Los Angeles-area fire victim’s family files a wrongful death lawsuit against Southern California Edison even though investigators have not yet determined the blaze’s cause. (Los Angeles Times)

HYDROPOWER: President Biden signs a law ordering the Army Corps of Engineers to consider halting hydropower production at dams in Oregon to protect imperiled fish. (OPB)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Some of California’s largest electric truck-charging depots turn to solar, battery or diesel-powered microgrids to power their facilities rather than waiting for utilities to expand their infrastructure. (Canary Media)

OIL & GAS: The Biden administration awards California and New Mexico $14.5 million to plug and clean up 54 orphaned oil and gas wells and associated infrastructure. (news release)

GRID:

• The U.S. Energy Department awards PacifiCorp a $3.52 billion loan guarantee to finance about 700 miles of new transmission lines in Oregon, Idaho, Utah and California. (OPB)
• Federal regulators conditionally approve SPP’s proposed tariff for its regional day-ahead power market, giving it a leg up on the California grid operator’s competing proposal. (RTO Insider, subscription)

POLITICS: Wyoming Gov. Mark Gordon says the state’s fossil fuel industries are poised to rebound as the incoming Trump administration rolls back regulations and adopts more industry-friendly policies. (WyoFile)