Canceled CO2 pipeline refuels energy permitting debate

PIPELINES:

• Navigator CO2 cancels plans for a pipeline that would have carried captured carbon from five states for underground sequestration in Illinois, though opponents worry similar proposals will emerge if lawmakers don’t enact a statewide moratorium. (Energy News Network)
• The cancellation of Navigator CO2’s project renews debate about the challenges of permitting multi-state energy projects. (E&E News)

JOBS: The Biden administration adds solar, wind and storage projects to its online investment tracker that maps how federal funding has spurred clean energy and other investments across the country. (Axios)

OIL & GAS:

• The U.S. became the world’s top liquefied natural gas exporter in the first half of 2023, marking a meteoric expansion over the past decade. (Canary Media)
• A Colorado university study finds some unplugged, abandoned oil and gas wells are emitting up to 142% more methane and other pollutants than the statewide average, while 108 plugged wells had zero emissions. (Colorado Sun)

GRID: Federal regulators call on the North American Electric Reliability Corp. to devise reliability standards for inverter-based resources like solar, wind and battery storage units. (Utility Dive)

NUCLEAR: A newly opened Ohio uranium enrichment plant hopes to sell fuel for use in small modular nuclear reactors, but a recent study raises questions about whether the technology can compete with renewables. (Energy News Network)

OFFSHORE WIND: Maine fishing industry advocates are ​“surprised and grateful” to learn an area they want protected wasn’t included for offshore wind leases in a federal map. (News Center Maine)

EFFICIENCY: Republican Sen. Marco Rubio looks to pause boosted energy efficiency standards for new homes built with federal subsidies. (Inside Climate News)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: The U.S. EPA dropped its civil rights investigation into petrochemical development near largely Black communities in Louisiana’s ​“Cancer Alley” because it couldn’t wrap it up ahead of a deadline. (NPR)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Automakers say the Biden administration’s proposed fuel economy standards — an average of nearly 58 mpg by 2032 — are not technologically feasible or economically practical. (Utility Dive)
• New York’s mandate that school districts convert to net-zero buses by 2035 has some Long Island leaders worried whether they can meet the deadline. (Newsday)
• Colorado regulators approve rules aimed at reducing air pollution and greenhouse gas emissions by requiring 82% of car sales be electric or zero-emissions vehicles by 2032. (Colorado Sun)

CLIMATE: Pope Francis calls out world leaders’ repeated failures to reduce emissions in his latest missive on climate change. (Grist)

CLEAN ENERGY: Labelling steel, cement and other heavy manufacturing as hard to decarbonize may be giving unnecessary leeway to the industries and allowing them to delay emissions reduction, climate advocates say. (Canary Media)

COMMENTARY: A California editorial board accuses the oil and gas industry of exploiting Latino people’s economic anxieties to slow the transition to zero-emissions vehicles and equipment. (Los Angeles Times)