IRA clean energy funds flow to fossil fuel communities

CLEAN ENERGY: A new analysis finds a disproportionate amount of wind, solar, battery and manufacturing investment spurred by the federal climate package is going to communities that have been economically dependent on fossil fuels. (Washington Post)

ALSO: Clean energy and electric vehicle manufacturers are facing financial and supply chain issues even as demand grows for their products, forecasting turbulent years ahead before clean energy becomes the norm. (E&E News)

CLIMATE:

• China and the U.S. agree to work together on climate, without promising any specific action, ahead of today’s meeting between President Biden and Chinese leader Xi Jinping. (Guardian)
• The Biden administration rolls out $6 billion from the Inflation Reduction Act for climate resilience projects, plus billions more for strengthening the grid and deploying clean energy, in the wake of a dire federal climate report. (The Hill)
• An international climate report finds global heat-related deaths have surged since the 1990s, and that they and other health detriments are only expected to grow as the world warms. (New York Times, Axios)

SOLAR:

• Two West Virginia utilities ask state regulators to restructure net metering policy to pay a lower, ​“wholesale” rate for solar power in the northern part of the state, threatening the state’s budding solar industry. (Mountain State Spotlight)
• Minnesota solar developers and advocates allege Xcel Energy is breaking the law by restricting the amount of power the utility takes from solar gardens and rooftop installations. (Star Tribune)

OIL & GAS:

• After nearly a decade of activism against the project, an energy company ends development of a natural gas plant near Pittsburgh, citing ​“current market conditions.” (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
• A clean energy company delays its plan to build a Texas natural gas plant equipped with carbon capture due to supply chain issues. (E&E News)
• Advocates worry new infrastructure associated with the Willow drilling project in Alaska will enable more oil and gas development in the region. (Grist)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Defunct electric bus maker Proterra sells off its manufacturing, battery and electric drivetrain businesses. (Canary Media)
• Toyota teams up with San Diego’s largest utility to study using electric vehicles and their batteries as grid resources. (The Hill)

GRID:

• A federal energy regulator calls on utility regulators to require transmission owners to install grid-enhancing technologies that would expand transmission lines’ capacity. (Utility Dive)
• A group of utilities will spend roughly $130 million on 19 small-scale transmission upgrades to open bottlenecks and move more wind power from western Minnesota to the Dakotas. (Energy News Network)
• A startup begins operations at a second grid-scale energy storage facility in California that uses recycled electric vehicle batteries. (Utility Dive)

OFFSHORE WIND: Two top Ørsted executives leave the company after the developer canceled a pair of New England wind farms, a move that will cost the company billions of dollars. (The Guardian, Providence Business News)