California city phases out oil drilling

OIL & GAS: Culver City, California’s city council votes to phase out oil drilling and remove all existing wells in the city’s 78-acre portion of an oil field by 2026. (Culver City Observer)

ALSO:
• The Biden administration’s oil and gas leasing pause unites New Mexico’s Democratic governor and Republican lawmakers in opposition, even after a judge cancels the moratorium amid a court battle. (Capital & Main)
• California oil industry leaders tout carbon capture and storage via enhanced oil recovery as an alternative to a statewide fracking ban. (Tehachapi News)

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WIND:
• Proposed wind facilities off the coast of California could decimate commercial fishing, industry leaders say as studies work to predict what impacts on the industry could look like. (Fresno Bee)
• The federal migratory bird law complicates the Biden administration’s efforts to develop offshore wind in California and elsewhere. (E&E News)
• The permitting process for a 100-turbine wind facility in Wyoming begins this summer. (Laramie Boomerang)

SOLAR: Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calls Nevada ​“the poster child for solar energy production” during a recent visit to the state. (PV Times)

GRID:
• Southern California Edison turns to utility-scale storage, distributed batteries and demand response to ease heat-related stress on its grid. (Los Angeles Business Journal)
• California utility regulators say the state’s reliance on renewable energy is not responsible for power outages. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs the nation’s first union-backed electrification policy. (news release)

COAL:
• As a proposal to keep a New Mexico power plant running with carbon capture technology runs into snags, its developers look to the Department of Energy for a $1 billion bailout. (E&E News, subscription)
• Utah regulators and utility operators say phasing out coal power would threaten grid reliability as other interconnected states turn to renewables. (KUER)

TRANSITION: Campbell County, Wyoming, which produces nearly half of the nation’s coal, sees property valuation plummet to 20-year lows. (Rocket-Miner)

TRANSPORTATION:
• Officials break ground on a project that will connect Los Angeles’s growing rail network with its airport by 2028. (Los Angeles Times)
• The City of Fremont, California, will convert dozens of heavy duty vehicles to renewable diesel in an effort to cut carbon emissions. (Mercury News)

COMMENTARY:
• A New Mexico scientist urges state leaders to pursue carbon removal and storage as a way to fight climate change and put people to work. (Albuquerque Journal)
• Three Colorado county commissioners say the recently passed transportation bill will provide sustainable and equitable solutions to the state’s infrastructure woes. (Colorado Newsline)
• An Oregon business executive says the state should put its energy toward global climate change solutions rather than pushing state-level ​“feel-good solutions that have no measurable impact.” (The Oregon Way)