Colorado electric co-op sues Tri-State over contract exit

UTILITIES: A Colorado electric cooperative sues Tri-State Generation and Transmission over its contract exit, saying the wholesale power provider violated its own bylaws by refusing to offer equitable terms. (Durango Herald)

OIL & GAS: 

• Advocates say a California city’s deal with oil producers to phase out extraction and plug their wells by the end of the decade could serve as a model for other communities. (Los Angeles Times)
• Federal and state regulators investigate a string of incidents and hazardous releases from facilities along the California Bay Area’s ​“refinery row.” (Mercury News)
• Chevron says California’s ​“adversarial” policies toward fossil fuels prompted it to slash oil-refinery investments in the state, potentially increasing gasoline prices. (Bloomberg)

PUBLIC LANDS: The federal Bureau of Land Management completes an environmental review of a proposal to open 28 million acres of land in Alaska to oil and gas development and mining claims. (Anchorage Daily News)

SOLAR: A developer proposes a 2.6 MW solar installation on private farmland in western Colorado. (Daily Sentinel)

TRANSITION: Colorado awards a community $150,000 to study a proposed pumped hydropower storage project aimed at offsetting the economic impacts of a scheduled coal plant retirement. (Big Pivots)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Washington state’s ecology department awards a municipal solid waste agency $560,000 to purchase an electric garbage truck and charging infrastructure. (Center Square)

STORAGE:

• California startups look to use solar-heated rocks to store energy for industrial applications. (CNN)
• Some California residents push back on a proposed grid-scale battery storage installation, claiming that it would increase fire danger. (Fox 5 San Diego)

GRID: Advocates call on California lawmakers to boost clean energy development by streamlining transmission permitting, especially in the state’s Central Valley. (Bakersfield Californian)

CARBON CAPTURE: The U.S. Energy Department awards $890 million to three carbon capture demonstration projects, including one at the Sutter natural gas plant in northern California. (Power Engineering)

COMMENTARY:

• A Colorado advocate details the ways removing hydropower dams benefits the climate. (Revelator)
• A Wyoming rancher debunks claims that Biden administration rules led to recent layoffs at a coal mine, attributing them instead to the state’s failed energy policies. (WyoFile)