California lawmaker pushes plug-in solar, heat pumps

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• A Democratic California lawmaker says his proposed legislation that would streamline permitting for super-efficient heat pumps and plug-in solar would help reduce household electricity costs. (Canary Media)

• A federal bankruptcy court approves Amazon Energy’s acquisition of the 1,200 MW Sunstone solar-plus-storage project that’s under development in Oregon and designed to power its data centers. (PV Magazine)

• Rio Tinto brings online a 25 MW solar array at its copper and tellurium mining operations in Utah. (Solar Power World)

• MGM Resorts’ onsite and offsite solar-plus-storage facilities, which have a 215 MW combined capacity, have begun meeting up to 100% of daytime electricity load at the company’s Las Vegas Strip operations. (news release)

HYDROGEN

• Northern New Mexico’s Kit Carson Electric Cooperative says it plans to break ground this summer on its proposed solar, hydrogen production, and long-duration energy storage facility. (Albuquerque Journal)

DATA CENTERS

• Phoenix-area residents push back on a proposed data center developer’s plan to build a 700 MW onsite gas plant to power the facility over environmental and health concerns. (Arizona Republic)

• Oregon Gov. Tina Kotek (D) establishes an advisory committee tasked with developing policy recommendations for data centers and other large-load industrial users. (OPB)

• San Diego County’s supervisors vote to study potential environmental and land-use regulations for AI data centers. (E&E News)

UTILITIES

• Southern California Edison files lawsuits accusing Los Angeles County, local water agencies, and a gas utility of a series of missteps that made last January’s Eaton Fire more deadly. (Associated Press)

• Colorado business owners criticize Xcel Energy for refusing to compensate them for losses suffered during a prolonged public power safety outage in December. (CPR)

GRID

• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers seeks public input on a proposed $1.5 billion project to build a 100-mile high-voltage transmission line under the Columbia River in the Northwest. (Washington State Standard)

OIL & GAS

• ConocoPhillips proposes oil and gas drilling near the Iñupiaq village of Nuiqsut on Alaska’s North Slope, sparking debate over the project’s potential economic benefits and environmental impacts. (Northern Journal)

• The U.S. Interior Board of Land Appeals vacates the federal Bureau of Land Management’s approval of an oil and gas drilling project in western Wyoming after finding the agency violated the air pollution laws. (news release)

COAL

• Colorado advocates say the Trump administration rejecting the state’s regional haze plan and ordering coal plants to continue operating will perpetuate pollution in national parks and other protected areas. (Inside Climate News)

• Federal regulators seek public input on the Navajo Transitional Energy Company’s proposal to expand an existing coal mine on tribal land in northwestern New Mexico. (news release)

MINING

• U.S. House Democrats call for a federal ethics probe of Interior Department official Karen Budd-Falen for failing to disclose a $3.5 million water rights deal between her husband and the contested Thacker Pass lithium mine in Nevada. (Public Domain)

• Laramide Resources submits an operations plan for its proposed Jara Mesa uranium mine in New Mexico to state regulators, sparking advocates’ concerns over environmental and cultural impacts. (Source NM)

CLIMATE

• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham calls on state lawmakers to pass legislation to reduce greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 before she is term-limited out of office at the end of this year. (Capital & Main)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Stegra lands key customer for green-steel plant amid financial woes — Maria Gallucci

• Massachusetts tries a market for distributed energy to tame grid costs — Jeff St. John

• Affordability is scrambling energy politics in Massachusetts — Sarah Shemkus

• After Helene, rural North Carolina turns to solar and battery hubs — Elizabeth Ouzts

• This Brooklyn bagel shop is saving money with plug-in batteries — Maria Gallucci and Jeff St. John

• California bills would cut red tape for balcony solar and heat pumps — Alison F. Takemura

• Critics pan Trump’s plan to force data centers to pay for power plants — Jeff St. John

• Trump’s energy agenda had a tough week in court — Kathryn Krawczyk