Hedge funds gamble on LA fire insurance claims

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UTILITIES

• California officials push back against hedge funds buying insurance claims that would be against Southern California Edison if it is found liable for sparking January’s deadly Los Angeles-area wildfires, saying it could allow investors to profit from the disaster and drain the state’s wildfire fund. (Los Angeles Times)

• An Arizona city votes to delay a proposed special election to decide the fate of a new franchise agreement with Tucson Electric Power. (Tucson Sentinel)

• Pacific Gas & Electric and other California utilities acknowledge they’ve hired bodyguards aimed at protecting high-level executives as negative public sentiment toward the firms grows. (CalMatters)

• Puget Sound Energy warns Washington state customers that increasing wildfire hazard may prompt it to implement public power safety outages. (Seattle Times)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The federal Bureau of Land Management fast-tracks permitting for the proposed Wildcat loadout facility in Utah designed to transfer Uinta Basin oil from trucks to rail cars. (news release)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on a new environmental analysis of potential oil and gas development in parts of central California. (news release)

NUCLEAR

• The Idaho National Laboratory asks the DOE to let it replace the Nuclear Regulatory Commission as the top safety regulator for advanced reactors. (E&E News)

TRANSPORTATION

• The U.S. Supreme Court rules that petroleum producers have standing to sue California over its vehicle emissions rules, saying the firms would be harmed by a gasoline car phaseout. (New York Times)

ELECTRIFICATION

• A California nonprofit advances a plan to work with Pacific Gas & Electric to decarbonize low-income Bay Area neighborhoods by decommissioning aging gas lines and subsidizing households’ conversion to electric appliances. (Inside Climate News)

DATA CENTERS

• A Utah county approves a zoning change clearing the way for Fibernet MercuryDelta’s proposed natural gas plant designed to power a planned 4,000 MW data center, which it says would be the world’s largest such facility. (Salt Lake Tribune, Data Center Dynamics)

GEOTHERMAL

• Ormat purchases the Blue Mountain geothermal energy facility in Nevada and plans to increase its capacity by 3.5 MW. (EnergyTech)

PUBLIC LANDS

• The Trump administration moves to rescind Clinton-era environmental protections and a new-road building ban on about 58 million acres of U.S. Forest Service land, potentially facilitating energy development. (Idaho Capital Sun)

COMMENTARY

• A scholar recounts a trip through the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, where the ​“idea of a ​‘sacrifice zone’ no longer felt rhetorical. It felt immediate.” (All at Once by Dr. Len)

• A Utah energy analyst urges Congress to reject proposed clean energy tax credit cuts, saying they would hamper all energy innovation in the state. (Daily Herald)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Steelmakers planning new facilities in the U.S. are embracing a cleaner technology for purifying iron ore, which can then be used in electric furnaces to finish the steelmaking process, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.

• A growing number of rural counties are installing EV chargers, though major charging deserts remain, Julia Tilton reports.