Climate coalition that hesitated on Biden endorses Harris

POLITICS: Vice President Kamala Harris wins the endorsement of more than 350 prominent climate advocates and 20 environmental groups, citing her long record of climate policy support and potential to prioritize environmental justice as a woman of color in the White House. (Washington Post, Grist)

SOLAR: Renewable energy company AES introduces a pickup truck-sized robot that it says can install heavy solar panels twice as fast as humans can and at half the cost. (New York Times)

TRANSMISSION:

• Utilities and developers brought only 55 miles of high-voltage transmission lines into service last year — compared to more than 1,700 miles a year built in the early 2010s. (Utility Dive)
• A California startup raises $60 million in financing to expand its capacity to manufacture advanced conductor power cables that can carry more electricity than conventional transmission lines. (Canary Media)

BUILDINGS: U.S. cities are increasingly adopting building performance standards to cut emissions and meet their climate goals. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES:

• The former CEO of Jacksonville, Florida’s municipal utility is sentenced to four years in prison over an alleged scheme to receive tens of millions in bonuses while privatizing the utility. (Florida Times-Union)
• CenterPoint Energy officials say they’ll ask Texas regulators to approve up to $1.7 billion in bonds to recover the cost of the utility’s response to severe storms in May and Hurricane Beryl earlier this month, but Texas Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick instead wants it to repay $800 million. (Houston Chronicle, KXAN)

OIL & GAS:

• Key pipelines linking the Permian Basin to a Texas port are more than 90% full, threatening to bottleneck oil and gas exports. (Bloomberg)
• Residents say their longtime advocacy work is paying off as five of seven fracking waste injection wells in southeastern Ohio have now been suspended after state officials said they pose a threat to the public and environment. (Ohio Capital Journal)
• A federal appeals court throws out approval of a Northeast natural gas pipeline expansion project, saying regulators didn’t consider New Jersey’s laws requiring reductions in gas consumption. (E&E News)

URANIUM: The Navajo Nation plans to block trucks carrying uranium ore from a Grand Canyon-area mine across tribal land to a Utah processing center, saying the shipments expose people to a substance ​“that has devastated our community.” (Associated Press, news release)