Feds certify Oregon firm’s small modular reactor design

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators certify Oregon startup NuScale’s small modular reactor design, letting the company move forward with installing the first-of-its-kind reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. (Reuters)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• An automotive dealers group says high fuel prices and easing range anxiety led to a surge in battery-powered electric vehicle sales in Colorado last year, where EVs made up 10.5% of new car registrations. (Denver Post)
• California data show 18.8% of the 1.8 million new cars sold in the state last year were electric vehicles. (news release)

BATTERIES: An Arizona county calls on a proposed battery factory’s developers to disclose its potential environmental impacts on an area with a history of groundwater pollution. (Arizona Republic)

ELECTRIFICATION: A California county offers residents up to $1,500 in rebates for replacing natural gas appliances with electric. (Patch)

SOLAR:
• California researchers find covering the state’s 4,000 miles of irrigation canals with solar panels could save 65 billion gallons of water annually through avoided evaporation. (Marketplace)
• Washington state offers $35 million in grants to municipalities to install solar-plus-storage facilities at public buildings. (Columbian)
• A Colorado lawmaker proposes creating a grant program that would fund agrivoltaic research and demonstration projects. (Colorado Sun)
• A Colorado county sends a proposal for a controversial 1,900-acre solar development back to its developer because it lacks a water supply plan and has other deficiencies. (Durango Herald)

GRID: California grid operators propose tweaking day-ahead power operations to better account for net load variability and uncertainty. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: El Paso Electric says in arguments to New Mexico’s Supreme Court that regulators ​“arbitrarily” blocked the utility from hiking rates to recover payroll and other costs. (NM Political Report)

OIL & GAS:
• Colorado regulators reject a violation-plagued oil and gas company’s bid to delay an assessment of its cleanup plan while it negotiates the sale of some of its assets. (Colorado Sun)
• Colorado regulators seek public input on how to address the cumulative impact of oil and gas drilling. (Colorado Newsline)
• Malfunctions and a fire at an oil refinery in Colorado may have caused the facility to release illegally high levels of carcinogenic benzene into an adjacent waterway. (CPR)
• Alaska officials expect state oil production to remain steady over the next decade and increase if the massive proposed Willow project comes online. (Alaska Beacon)

POLITICS: A Western environmental group finds New Mexico voters favored conservation-minded candidates over oil and gas industry supporters in the state and national 2022 midterm elections. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

BIOFUELS: A remote Alaska Native community installs a biomass furnace to heat the village water system and public facilities while reducing its reliance on diesel. (Alaska Public Media)

COMMENTARY: A Colorado advocate calls on the U.S. EPA to strengthen and adopt draft methane emissions rules for oil and gas facilities to protect the climate and communities. (Durango Herald)