Colorado company cancels controversial fuel storage expansion

OIL & GAS: A company cancels its controversial proposed gasoline storage facility expansion near a Denver-area school following public protests. (Colorado Sun)

ALSO: California regulators delay a planned decision on the fate of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility near Los Angeles that suffered a methane blowout in 2015. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• California’s electric vehicle industry pushes back against new state regulations giving utilities nearly nine years to connect new EV chargers to the grid, saying it would hamper adoption efforts. (E&E News, subscription)
• Some Southern California Edison customers with Ford electric vehicles can start earning rewards for charging during off-peak hours, launching a program that ultimately aims to use bidirectional charging as a grid resource. (Utility Dive)

POLLUTION: The U.S. EPA approves California’s proposed rules aimed at limiting air pollution from the warehouse and logistics industry. (Press-Telegram)

UTILITIES:

• Documents show an Oregon utility continues to sell increasing volumes of natural gas even though it promised to phase out fossil fuels and encourage home electrification years ago. (OPB)
• A Montana court rejects advocates’ bid to force state regulators to act quickly on a petition calling on them to consider their decisions’ effects on climate change. (KPVI)

GRID: Unusually strong winds and rainfall batter utility lines in Montana, leaving more than 9,000 customers without power. (KBZK)

MICROGRIDS: A California county plans to install six solar-plus-battery storage-powered microgrids at public facilities. (Microgrid Knowledge)

SOLAR: A Las Vegas casino resort signs on to purchase power from a utility-scale solar installation under development in southern Nevada. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

GEOTHERMAL: Well tests determine Fervo Energy’s enhanced geothermal generating station in southwestern Utah is the most productive of its kind in history. (Utility Dive)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• Washington state awards $37 million in climate program funding to 46 clean energy projects. (news release)
• California awards food processors $23 million for efficiency upgrades and to install solar and battery storage systems. (news release)

ELECTRIFICATION: Colorado officials look to regulations, rebates and marketing to prod restaurants to convert from natural gas to electric stoves. (CPR)

BATTERIES: A federal lawmaker from Nevada introduces legislation that would establish regulations for transporting lithium batteries after a truck crash closed an interstate highway for 43 hours. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

MINING:

• Idaho advocates raise concerns about a proposed critical mineral mine, saying it could contaminate the Boise River. (Idaho Capital Sun)
• Utah regulators advance a controversial lithium extraction project by approving its proposal to inject wastewater underground. (news release)

CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Energy Department awards a Navajo Nation-owned company $6.6 million to study the feasibility of adding carbon capture equipment to the Four Corners coal plant in northwestern New Mexico. (news release)

COMMENTARY: A California university professor says the bipartisan permitting bill in Congress is a ​“Faustian bargain” that expedites fossil fuel development but does little to help clean energy. (Bulletin of the Atomic Scientists)