Energy emergency sidelines tribes

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

OVERSIGHT

• Tribal nations push back on the Trump administration’s ​“energy emergency” and resulting regulatory rollbacks, saying they are violating tribal consultation mandates to facilitate fossil fuel extraction. (High Country News)

UTILITIES

• A California agency finds utilities’ escalating wildfire-related costs are increasing residents’ electricity bills, lowering home values and local tax bases, and destabilizing mortgage and insurance markets. (Los Angeles Times)

• NorthWestern Energy and Black Hills Corp claim their proposed merger could yield $36 million in savings, but Montana advocates say the resulting job losses would harm communities. (Daily Montanan)

• Colorado Springs Utilities implements an AI-powered system to detect new wildfire starts near its infrastructure. (KKTV)

CLEAN ENERGY

• PacifiCorp cancels plans to add more solar and wind power facilities in Wyoming, Utah, Idaho, and California, citing expiring federal clean energy tax credits. (WyoFile)

DATA CENTERS

• Colorado Springs residents push back on a proposed 50 MW data center in a shuttered microchip factory, raising concerns about energy and water use. (CPR)

ELECTRIFICATION

• Bend, Oregon’s city council proposes levying a fee on gas appliances in new residential construction to encourage electrification and to help the community meet climate goals. (OPB)

TRANSPORTATION

• California Gov. Gavin Newsom proposes using highway funds to subsidize refitting petroleum refineries to produce cleaner aviation biofuel, drawing concerns from environmentalists. (CalMatters)

• California bicycling, walking, and electric truck advocates urge lawmakers to allocate more funding for micro-mobility and charging infrastructure as the state prepares to spend $250 million on EV incentives. (Politico)

• PowerStation installs four solar-powered EV fast-chargers in Baker, California, between Las Vegas and Los Angeles. (CleanTechnica)

GRID

• Energy firm Terra-Gen agrees to pay $5.6 million to settle allegations that it manipulated the California grid operator’s market by refusing to follow orders to store energy in its battery systems when power prices were high. (Utility Dive)

• California regulators seek public input on the state’s grid operator’s proposed $7 billion infrastructure upgrade and construction plan aimed at adding more clean energy to address growing demand. (Hoodline)

• Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs’ Energy Promise Taskforce calls for new battery storage, accelerated virtual power plant deployment, and more distributed solar to meet surging power demand. (PV Magazine)

HYDROPOWER

• The U.S. Interior Department considers releasing large amounts of water from a Wyoming reservoir to buoy drought-diminished levels at Lake Powell and preserve hydropower production at Glen Canyon Dam. (WyoFile)

COAL

• A Montana court blocks the state’s bid to weaken selenium standards for Lake Koocanusa, dealing a blow to upstream Canada coal mines that have contaminated the waterway. (Daily Montanan)

• Colorado’s mining regulatory agency successfully extinguishes an abandoned coal mine fire that has been smoldering for over a century. (CBS News)

COMMENTARY

• Northwest advocates say Bonneville Power Administration’s failure to update its grid and decision to join SPP’s day-ahead power market, not efforts to protect salmon from the federal utility’s hydropower dams, are driving up electricity rates. (Washington State Standard)