California lawmakers pass plug-in solar bill

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

• California lawmakers pass the Plug and Play Solar Act that would allow households to install plug-in solar systems without going through the utility interconnection process if Gov. Gavin Newsom doesn’t veto it. (Canary Media)

• Bernalillo County, New Mexico’s commissioners approve $1.2 billion in industrial revenue bonds for DESRI’s proposed 400-MW solar-plus-storage project west of Albuquerque. (Albuquerque Journal)

• A Democratic California lawmaker revives legislation that would make it easier to develop utility-scale solar projects on drought-stricken farmland. (Politico)

• California lawmakers pass a bill that would allow cities and counties to conduct remote inspections of home solar, battery, and heat pump installations. (Solar Power World)

• Oregon State University brings online the PacWave South wave energy testing center along the state’s coast. (Associated Press)

GRID

• Clean energy advocates call on Arizona regulators to require utilities to use transparent, data-driven analyses when deciding which regional day-ahead energy market to join. (news release)

UTILITIES

• Insurance companies urge California Gov. Gavin Newsom to back off from a plan to shift utilities’ wildfire liabilities to property insurers, saying it would raise residents’ premiums. (Los Angeles Times)

• Montana’s governor-appointed energy task recommends reforming the state’s Public Service Commission, advance regional markets and transmission development, and other measures aimed at meeting growing power demand while protecting consumers. (Daily Montanan)

• The right-wing Arizona Free Enterprise Club files a motion seeking to remove two state regulators from an ongoing APS utility rate case for alleged bias and prejudgment. (KJZZ)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The federal Bureau of Land Management opens a 15-day scoping period on the proposed Trans Alaska Pipeline System 30-year right-of-way renewal. (news release)

NUCLEAR

• Hi Tech Solutions, Utah State University, and Brigham City, Utah, team up to evaluate and plan a proposal for a nuclear energy research, development, and training campus. (Utah News Dispatch)

DATA CENTERS

• Pinal County, Arizona’s supervisors vote against a zoning change that would clear the way for a complex of 11 data centers with a natural gas plant and grid-scale battery energy storage system following residents’ intense pushback. (Arizona Republic)

• New Mexico’s Supreme Court pauses the Project Jupiter data center’s water use and air quality permitting processes after environmental group petitions allege a lack of due process. (Searchlight New Mexico)

• Observers say Amazon is developing the 1,200-MW Sunstone solar-plus-storage project in Oregon because state climate policies prevented it from building natural gas generation. (Cleanview)

• A historic fossil fuel industry stronghold in northwestern New Mexico looks to lure data center development with its abundant natural gas supplies and existing transmission capacity. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

COMMENTARY

• A columnist says Trump’s war on renewable energy and bid to revive the coal industry are failing in the West, where solar and wind generation are displacing fossil fuels on the grid. (High Country News)