California could dismantle net-metering — even for legacy homes

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

SOLAR

• California lawmakers consider a bill to push homes with rooftop solar that were grandfathered into the state’s legacy net-metering program into the less lucrative net-billing tariff, though it’s been amended to require only homes that are sold will make the shift. (Canary Media)

• Renewable energy developer DESRI begins construction of a 250 MW solar farm in Arizona. (West Valley View)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A congressional committee advances legislation to mandate new oil lease sales in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. (Alaska Public Media)

• Colorado residents send more than 600 online comments and 1,300 emails in opposition to Crestone Peak Resources’ plan to drill up to 166 oil and gas wells in a protracted fight now focused on eight individual well pads. (Denver Post)

• A California city board approves a plan to decommission and remove a Chevron oil and gas processing plant that was built in the 1950s but has been inactive since 2017. (Coastal View News)

CLEAN ENERGY

• A new report shows that Arizona has seen more than 10,000 clean energy jobs canceled or threatened since Trump took office, more than any other state. (Glendale Star)

• Electric cooperatives in Colorado and elsewhere are pushing ahead with federally funded clean energy projects, though the Trump administration has tried to cut some funding or require utilities to eliminate ​“Biden-era DEIA and climate mandates.” (High Country News)

• California nonprofits and environmental groups see their federally funded projects threatened as the Trump administration slashes funding for clean energy and infrastructure. (Los Angeles Times)

STORAGE

• Leeward Renewable Energy commissions an 88 MW battery storage facility in California. (Renewables Now)

GRID

• Southern California Edison workers dismantle a dormant transmission tower that investigators believe may have been reenergized during high winds and potentially sparked the Eaton fire that destroyed more than 9,000 structures and left 18 people dead. (Fresno Bee, Los Angeles Times)

MINING

• Copper and mineral mines return to Arizona communities that once relied on them as economic drivers, but residents are forming coalitions to oppose the projects over concerns about their effect on water supplies and the environment. (Arizona Luminaria/​Inside Climate News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• California and other states file a lawsuit to force the Trump administration to release billions of dollars for electric vehicle chargers earmarked in the Biden administration’s $1.2 trillion infrastructure package. (East Bay Times)

• An Arizona school district purchases 15 electric school buses using a $3.75 million grant from the U.S. EPA. (West Valley View)

PUBLIC LAND

• Congressional Republicans consider a provision to sell thousands of acres of public lands in Nevada and Utah, leading to criticism by Democrats that the move is a land grab that would lead to more drilling and mining. (Las Vegas Sun)

EMISSIONS

• Washington launches a state grant program to fund methane emission reduction projects at 13 landfills. (Yakima Herald-Republic)

COMMENTARY

• The Trump administration’s rollback of environmental rules for polluting coal-fired power plants is ​“an attack on public health and economic common sense,” write two board members of Montanans for Affordable Energy. (Bozeman Daily Chronicle)