Company discovers massive oil reserve in West Texas

OIL & GAS: Houston-based Apache Corp. says it has discovered at least $8 billion worth of oil in a West Texas field that had been overlooked by experts. (Wall Street Journal)

ALSO:
• The Energy Department says the country’s emergency oil reserve system needs a $375 million overhaul to keep up with demand. (The Hill)
• Citgo is appealing a ruling by a Philadelphia judge who found the company responsible for $120 million in damages for a 2004 oil spill on the Delaware River. (Philadelphia Inquirer)

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FRACKING:
• The U.S. Geological Survey upgrades the magnitude of a possible fracking-related earthquake in Oklahoma to 5.8, making it the most powerful in the state’s history, and says the odds of a more powerful earthquake are likely. (Associated Press)
• A White House spokesman says federal policy regarding hydraulic fracturing ​“has not changed” in the aftermath of the Oklahoma earthquake. (UPI)

PIPELINES: North Dakota authorities are beefing up security forces in preparation for a Friday ruling on whether to block construction of the four-state Dakota Access Pipeline. (Associated Press)

COAL: Hillary Clinton supports a bill to protect healthcare and pension benefits for about 120,000 former coal miners, saying they ​“are entitled to the benefits they have earned and the respect they deserve.” (Associated Press)

SOLAR:
• Solar industry leaders voice concern over a draft manual on the compensation of distributed energy resources, saying the draft ​“lacks adequate transparency.” (Greentech Media)
• Portland, Maine, votes to build one of the state’s largest municipal solar power arrays on a landfill, a project expected to reduce the city’s reliance on fossil fuels by 25 percent over the next decade. (Portland Press Herald)

ELECTRIC CARS: Tesla Motors bolsters its finances through a $300 million deal with Deutsche Bank. (Reuters)

POLLUTION: The U.S. EPA issues the final version of its cross-state pollution rule on power plants that contribute to downwind ozone pollution. (Greenwire)

CLIMATE: California’s governor is set to sign the country’s most ambitious climate change legislation on Thursday. (Associated Press)

CAP-AND-TRADE: California legislators fight to save the state’s cap-and-trade plan in the face of legal challenges and weak sales. (Bloomberg)

POLICY: Energy trade groups are asking Congress to renew expiring tax credits for biomass, hydropower and other energy sources, saying a failure to do so will hurt their competitiveness against wind and solar. (The Hill)

GRID: California’s governor says expanding the state’s power grid to include other Western states may be politically difficult but is worth doing. (Associated Press)

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UTILITIES:
• Minnesota’s largest natural gas facility joins the growing trend of ​“decoupling” energy sales from profits, a practice long advocated by clean energy groups. (Midwest Energy News)
• California regulators release an energy demand response plan that would phase out fuel-fired generators and shift toward an open market for third-party energy services. (Greentech Media)

COMMENTARY:
• When consumers pay for their own solar generation, they essentially pay ​“infrastructure costs that would otherwise be imposed on every other power customer.” (Midwest Energy News)
• Fracking operators need to figure out a better way to dispose of wastewater to decrease earthquakes in Oklahoma. (Forbes)
• Hillary Clinton should speak out against the Dakota Access Pipeline. (Los Angeles Times)