Court upholds Obama administration’s social cost of carbon

EMISSIONS: A federal appeals court upholds the Obama administration’s accounting of the costs of greenhouse gas emissions at $36 per metric ton. (The Hill)

COAL:
• Federal regulators issue a policy advisory asking states to stop giving coal-mining permits to companies that lack the finances to guarantee they can clean up mines after they are abandoned. (The Hill)
• The U.S. interior secretary tells former coal miners that mine cleanup can provide a new livelihood. (Reuters)
• The cost of retraining coal miners to work in the solar industry would range from $180 million to more than $1.8 billion, according to a new study. (Greentech Media)
• Governor Pat McCrory’s administration lashes out against a North Carolina toxicologist who testified that state officials cleared poisoned well water near Duke Energy coal ash pits. (Associated Press)

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OIL & GAS:
• New York and Massachusetts urge a U.S. district judge in Texas to throw out a suit filed by Exxon to block an investigation into the company’s use of climate change data. (Bloomberg)
• A natural gas company in Maine agrees to pay the state a $307,000 fine for safety violations, following a potentially ​“catastrophic” gas leak. (Associated Press)
• Can a North Dakota oil town diversify its economy for long-term economic stability? (The Atlantic)

UTILITIES: A federal jury finds a California utility guilty of safety violations at the time of a 2010 gas pipeline explosion that killed eight people and destroyed a neighborhood in a San Francisco suburb. (New York Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Electric vehicle charging companies say the $2 billion that Volkswagen must invest in clean car infrastructure could hurt competition. (Reuters)

NUCLEAR:
• Exelon is paying $110 million to rescue a New York nuclear plant from being shut down in January. (Washington Post)
• A federal judge orders the U.S. Department of Energy to release court documents about several hundred pounds of nuclear waste shipped to the Idaho National Laboratory. (Associated Press)

REGULATION: After September the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission will have an unprecedented three commissioners, instead of five, all of them Democrats. (EnergyWire)

SOLAR: The country’s second largest solar panel maker is cutting 15 percent of its workforce due to revenue losses. (Reuters)

RENEWABLE ENERGY:
• Apple’s latest effort to sell clean electricity is relatively unique in the tech industry. (Mashable)
• Four Midwest states rank among the top in the nation for making it easier for corporations to gain better access to wind and solar, according to a new report. (Midwest Energy News)

ENERGY EFFICIENCY: An Oklahoma city is piloting a smart meter program that will let residents have real-time information about their utility usage. (The Oklahoman)

COMMENTARY:
• The fossil fuel industry’s operations pose unacceptable health threats to children, low-income communities and people of color. (Huffington Post)
• Rewarding nuclear power plants for their low-carbon power makes sense, but the industry still has a lot of work to do. (Nature)
• Repealing oil and gas tax breaks is a fundamentally bipartisan idea that makes sense. (The Hill)
• If the U.S. took climate goals seriously, it would leave coal on federal lands in the ground. (Vox)
• A Montana regulator says ​“electricity consumers should not pay more on their bills” for renewable energy. (Missoulian)