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California lawmakers pass climate, grid, and utility bills

By Jonathan P. Thompson

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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.

CLIMATE

  • California lawmakers pass legislation reauthorizing the state’s carbon cap-and-trade program through 2045 to align it with climate targets, and commits $1 billion in program funding to high-speed rail. (Mendocino Voice)

  • Nevada advocates call on regulators, utilities, and elected officials to do more to protect low-income and other vulnerable residents from extreme heat by lowering utility shutoff ban thresholds and increasing energy assistance funding. (Nevada Independent)

  • A California teenager launches an online journal to explore ​“how economic forces shape our world — from the climate crisis and carbon markets to inequality, trade and development.” (Inside Climate News)

GRID

  • California lawmakers pass a bill that would allow California’s grid operator join a Western day-ahead power market and independently governed regional transmission organization. (CalMatters)

UTILITIES

  • California lawmakers pass legislation that would bolster the state’s $18 billion wildfire fund to help utilities pay for blaze-related damages. (CalMatters)

  • Southern California Edison customers urge state regulators to reject the utility’s proposed 10% rate hike, saying more spending on wildfire mitigation has failed to prevent equipment-sparked blazes. (Los Angeles Times)

  • Colorado Springs Utilities consider a $50 monthly rate increase for rooftop solar customers to address cost-shifting concerns. (KOAA)

FOSSIL FUELS

  • A peer-reviewed study finds that women who lived near and were pregnant during the 2015 Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility incident had babies with low birth weights at rates almost 50% higher than normal. (LAist)

  • California lawmakers pass a last-minute bill allowing up to 2,000 new oil and gas wells in the San Joaquin Valley while further restricting offshore drilling, calling it a bitter but necessary pill to stabilize fuel prices. (Los Angeles Times)

  • Colorado residents push back on a proposal to drill 32 new oil and gas wells on state land adjacent to residential neighborhoods and a drinking water reservoir. (CPR)

  • New Mexico Pueblo leaders travel to Washington to urge federal lawmakers and the Trump administration to keep in place a 20-year ban on new oil and gas leases around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

  • Gasoline prices surge in Oregon after a major fuel pipeline into the state was shut down for 10 days for undisclosed reasons. (OPB)

  • A federal court rejects Sable Offshore’s bid to dismiss environmentalists’ lawsuit seeking to block the firm from restarting three aging oil platforms off California’s coast, allowing the challenge to proceed. (E&E News)

  • The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on supplemental environmental reviews for litigated oil and gas leases in seven states. (news release)

CLEAN ENERGY

  • School districts in Arizona, Colorado, and California work to find alternate funding sources for installing solar arrays and acquiring electric buses after the Trump administration and congressional Republicans nixed clean energy tax credits and incentives. (Hechinger Report)

COMMENTARY

  • A New Mexico advocate calls on state regulators to resist industry pressure to loosen rules on reusing oil and gas wastewater outside of the oilfield, saying the risks of recycling remain too great. (Albuquerque Journal)

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