Hiring emerges as bottleneck for climate law

CLEAN ENERGY: Clean energy companies say hiring engineers, mechanics, technicians and others to build and install clean energy equipment is limiting their ability to capitalize on Inflation Reduction Act incentives. (Politico)

ALSO:
• Advocates want Congress to ​“harmonize” clean energy incentives in the Inflation Reduction Act and the national Farm Bill to simplify and expand a rural clean energy program. (Energy News Network)
• Northwest tribal leaders push back against a raft of proposed clean energy developments, saying they threaten cultural property and represent a new wave of ​“green colonialism.”(High Country News)
• Universities are increasingly relying on private companies and investor-owned utilities to reduce emissions from campus energy systems. (Daily Energy Insider)
• After a major transmission line’s long-awaited approval, Maine readies itself for more measures that observers say will likely mark a decisive year in its energy future. (Bangor Daily News)

CLIMATE:
• New research suggests that as hurricanes head farther north and inland, millions more homes and businesses will see an increased risk of extreme wind damage. (Washington Post)
• More than 60 researchers call for accelerated research into solar radiation management — a form of geoengineering that reflects some solar energy back into space — while an even larger group lobbies against it. (Inside Climate News)

OIL & GAS: The train derailment in Ohio renews concerns by Democratic lawmakers and others about the safety of moving natural gas by rail. (E&E News)

SOLAR: A Texas recycling company is among several that have emerged to extract valuable metals from solar panels that have reached the end of their lifespans. (Yale Environment 360)

GRID:
• A Canadian battery recycler receives a conditional $375 million federal loan to build a major factory in upstate New York. (Canary Media)
• An advanced energy group asks federal regulators to overhaul transmission planning rules to prioritize interstate transmission construction. (Utility Dive)
• The U.S. Energy Department allocates $48 million to semiconductor improvement projects aimed at helping protect the grid. (Utility Dive)

WIND: A wind energy advocacy group projects the Biden administration will fall short of its goal to develop 30 GW of offshore wind by 2030, even with a ​lease auction set in the Gulf of Mexico this year. (Engineering News-Record)

POLITICS:
• House Republicans launch a probe into the U.S. EPA’s environmental justice grant program, which recently received $100 in Inflation Reduction Act funding. (E&E News)
• Republican operatives launch a $10 million campaign to pressure swing-state lawmakers, including vulnerable Democrats, to support faster permitting of energy projects like pipelines and transmission. (Politico)
• Republicans look to overturn some Biden administration environmental regulations by deploying a congressional rule that would let them negate recently finalized rules. (E&E News)

NUCLEAR: Western municipal utilities hope a proposed small modular nuclear reactor facility will help them decarbonize their grids, but mounting costs threaten the project. (Wired)