Montana judge rejects coal mine water permit

COAL: A Montana judge rules a state environmental review board erred when it found a proposed expansion of the coal mine that supplies Colstrip power plant would not pollute a nearby stream; regulators must now reconsider the permit. (Reuters)

OIL & GAS:
• An appeals court scrutinizes whether federal regulators properly evaluated the climate impact of a now on-hold liquefied natural gas export terminal proposed for southern Oregon when supporting the use of eminent domain to build it. (E&E News)
• A California city plans to phase out reliance on oil revenue by 2035, a decade before the state hopes to end petroleum production. (San Gabriel Valley Tribune)
• The U.S. Navy proposes double-walling tanks at a leak-plagued Hawaii refueling station rather than relocating the facility. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser)
• California’s Democratic lawmakers are divided over whether to accept campaign contributions from the oil and gas industry. (Los Angeles Times)

CLIMATE:
• Centuries of colonization and U.S. government action have forced Native Americans onto a tiny fraction of their historical territory, and largely into areas with climates that are becoming uninhabitable as the world warms, a study finds. (New York Times)
• Climate change exacerbates California’s ​“weather whiplash” shift from extreme drought to record-setting rains, according to scientists. (Phys.org)

TRANSPORTATION:
• New Mexico regulators propose requiring that electric vehicles make up an increasing portion of the state’s car sales. (Santa Fe New Mexican)
• A Colorado shopping center owner installs electric vehicle charging stations to ease ​“range anxiety” for visitors of Rocky Mountain National Park. (Denver Post)
• An Arizona city plans to buy an electric fire truck as part of its climate change-fighting strategy. (Arizona Republic)

SOLAR:
• A remote Alaska community is building a microgrid powered by the second largest solar facility in the state to reduce reliance on diesel generators. (T&D World)
• A New Mexico company plans to finance and build solar installations at oil and gas facilities to lower emissions from field operations. (Albuquerque Journal)

UTILITIES:
• Nevada regulators approve rules requiring natural gas utilities conduct annual leak detection surveys of all distribution pipelines. (Carson Now)
• A fire investigator in a class-action lawsuit finds PacifiCorp equipment likely sparked four of Oregon’s Labor Day 2020 blazes; the official investigation into causes is ongoing. (OPB)
• Pacific Gas & Electric says power has been restored to nearly all 851,000 customers who lost it during recent storms. (Associated Press)

ELECTRIFICATION: A northern California city considers banning natural gas appliances in new structures and major renovations. (Richmond Confidential)

NUCLEAR: The Confederated Tribes of the Umatilla Indian Reservation oppose a plan to install a small modular reactor at Washington’s Hanford nuclear reservation. (Public News Service)

LITHIUM: Indigenous activists step up opposition to the Thacker Pass lithium mine proposed for northern Nevada. (Grist)

COMMENTARY: A Wyoming columnist says the state could keep its coal mines running by making an environmental case for exporting its coal with a higher heating value to Asia. (WyoFile)