Canada pushes back on Keystone XL

PIPELINES: Canadian officials urge President-elect Biden not to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, with Alberta Premier Jason Kenney saying the province may pursue legal damages. (Associated Press)

ALSO:
• Montana’s Fort Peck Assiniboine & Sioux Tribes are among those encouraged by President-elect Joe Biden’s pledge to cancel the Keystone XL pipeline, while Lakota activists say the Dakota Access project should be next. (Billings Gazette, Indian Country Today)
• Ohio becomes the latest state to enact harsher penalties for trespassing on or interfering with energy infrastructure, which critics say is an attempt to chill pipeline protests. (Grist)

POLICY:
• Advocates say stimulus legislation presents the best option for President-elect Biden to take quick action on climate change. (E&E News)
• In an interview, West Virginia Sen. Joe Manchin, seen as an obstacle to sweeping climate policy, says he wants ​“to use all the resources we have” and that his priority is to ​“maintain energy independence.” (E&E News)

CLIMATE:
• Today’s arguments before the U.S. Supreme Court on Baltimore’s climate suit against major oil companies could become a national test case if the justices agree to consider whether states can properly hear such cases. (Inside Climate News)
• Former Republican EPA administrator Christine Todd Whitman says the Trump administration has been ​“an unequivocal disaster” on climate change, with experts saying the impact will be felt for generations. (CNN)

OVERSIGHT: The Trump administration is delaying penalties for automakers that violate emissions standards, which a legal expert says is counter to a recent federal court ruling. (Washington Post)

OIL & GAS:
• French oil company Total SE is leaving the American Petroleum Institute over the trade group’s opposition to climate policy. (Reuters)
• Colorado sues to block a plan to open public lands in the state to drilling, in part because it was approved when William Perry Pendley was unlawfully acting as BLM director. (Denver Post)

COAL:
• Scrutiny of a federal mine safety agency and how it has handled the pandemic increases even as the country sees a historically low number of coal mining deaths. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

ELECTRIFICATION: Legislation pending in Kansas and Missouri to block cities from banning natural gas could interfere with local clean energy targets, advocates say. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR:
• Advocates say co-locating solar panels and food crops can make farms more resilient to climate change. (HuffPost)
• Some Michigan solar advocates see a potential silver lining for battery storage after regulators reduced compensation rates for Consumers Energy customers sending excess power back to the grid. (Energy News Network)
• Xcel Energy proposes paying $41 million to the federal government to exit its contract with a problem-plagued Colorado concentrated solar plant. (Denver Business Journal)
• Some Pennsylvania residents in areas slated for solar projects express fears about alleged health effects from the panels as officials work to counter misinformation. (StateImpact Pennsylvania)

TRANSMISSION: A federal appeals court grants a temporary injunction to halt construction of a Maine power line from Canada just hours after the project receives its final permit from the U.S. Energy Department. (WBUR)

UTILITIES: The debate over whether to sell or reform troubled state-owned utility Santee Cooper is shaping up as one of the most contentious issues in South Carolina’s legislative session. (Post and Courier)

COMMENTARY:
• North Carolinians support the buildout of offshore wind and other clean energy technologies as a cornerstone of state energy policy, but the state must act to see jobs and economic benefits, writes the president of the Southeastern Wind Coalition. (Energy News Network)
• A Minnesota economist says burning trash for energy is ​“not only inefficient, it is harmful in every way that you might imagine,” including releasing carbon dioxide. (MinnPost)
• A columnist says President Trump failed to save the coal industry as promised, and should have helped transition workers into different kinds of work. (Gazette Xtra)