California clean energy curtailments spur concerns

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

GRID

• An analysis finds solar and wind curtailments on California’s grid are rising faster than the state’s clean energy capacity, prompting efforts to push electrification, build more transmission, and install battery storage. (Canary Media, news release)

• Eastern Colorado residents push back against routing of a segment of Xcel Energy’s proposed Power Pathway transmission project, claiming it would increase fire hazard and block wildlife migration. (CBS Colorado)

• Metallic balloons collide with utility lines in southern California, leaving about 4,600 customers without power. (Fresno Bee)

DATA CENTERS

• Oregon lawmakers pass legislation aimed at requiring data centers and other large industrial energy users to pay for their share of electricity use and costs and to shift the burden away from residential customers. (OPB)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The U.S. Interior Department approves Signal Peak Energy’s proposed Bull Mountain coal mine expansion in Montana under the Trump administration’s ​“energy emergency” fast-tracked alternative permitting process. (news release)

UTILITIES

• Montana’s Public Service Commission’s president criticizes NorthWestern Energy for using an obscure state statute to implement an unapproved rate hike, but says regulators are powerless to block it. (Daily Montanan)

• Nevada consumer advocates push back against NV Energy’s proposal to mandate peak demand-based rates, saying working families can’t afford the projected cost increase. (Fox5)

• Montana-Dakota Utilities proposes a natural gas rate hike that could increase northern Wyoming residential customers’ bills by 15%. (Cowboy State Daily)

OVERSIGHT

• A Wyoming lawmaker introduces legislation that would require developers to pay for wildlife habitat conservation or restoration to offset energy developments’ impacts that can’t be mitigated on-site. (Cowboy State Daily)

CLEAN ENERGY

• A Wyoming ranch owner files a lawsuit seeking to overturn Wyoming’s approval of the Pronghorn H2 wind and green hydrogen project’s lease, saying it would harm his views and wildlife. (Cowboy State Daily)

• Developer rPlus Energies secures more than $500 million in tax equity financing for its 400 MW Green River solar-plus-storage project under construction in eastern Utah. (PV Tech)

• Amaresco brings a solar canopy online at an Oregon city’s wastewater treatment center. (news release)

TRANSPORTATION

• The Port of Los Angeles moves forward with efforts to transition to a zero-emissions truck fleet despite waning federal support for electric vehicles. (Utility Dive)

• Democratic California lawmakers double down on support for the state’s beleaguered high-speed rail project after the Trump administration indicates it will pull $4 billion in federal funds for the initiative. (Politico)

• Colorado Gov. Jared Polis signs legislation aimed at bolstering railroad safety in anticipation of a proposed Utah railway leading to more oil-hauling trains traveling through the state. (Glenwood Post-Independent)

POLITICS

• Bill Gates joins Republican U.S. Sen. John Curtis to tout federal clean energy tax credits on a tour of Fervo Energy’s Cape Station geothermal project in southwest Utah. (Deseret News)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Analysts say the Trump administration’s industrial decarbonization funding cuts will cost it the chance to produce cleaner and cheaper materials in the U.S., and will in turn cede jobs overseas, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.

• California curtailed 3,400 GWh of solar power last year, showing the state has the capacity to increase demand via electrification or could build out transmission lines to send that power elsewhere, Dan McCarthy reports.