Navajo Nation opposes uranium drilling project

URANIUM: Navajo Nation officials and advocates push back against a uranium mining company’s exploratory drilling project near the site of a 1979 radioactive waste spill. (NM Political Report)

CLIMATE:
• Montana lawmakers pass a last-minute bill barring the state from factoring greenhouse gas emissions and their climate impacts into permitting decisions. (Montana Free Press)
• Hawaii youths file a motion to stop an eight-month delay of their lawsuit alleging the state has not done enough to combat climate change. (Honolulu Star-Advertiser, subscription)

HYDROPOWER: A federal agency’s staff recommends licensing for a proposed pumped hydropower storage facility along the Columbia River in Washington even though multiple tribal nations oppose it. (East Oregonian)

OIL & GAS:
• A Colorado petroleum refinery releases elevated levels of sulfur dioxide and hydrogen sulfide into a surrounding neighborhood for the second time in a month. (Colorado Sun)
• Alaska moves to defend its Cook Inlet federal oil and gas leases from a conservationists’ lawsuit alleging the Biden administration violated federal law when auctioning the parcels. (KINY)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A California startup plans to lease or rent battery-electric commercial trucks to help companies comply with the state’s mandate to decarbonize its trucking sector. (Canary Media)

LITHIUM: An Australian company advances plans to extract lithium from geothermal brine at California’s Salton Sea starting in 2025. (Press-Enterprise)

SOLAR:
• The U.S. Energy Department awards $50,000 to a Colorado farming nonprofit to develop methods of integrating solar power and agriculture. (Daily Sentinel)
• A developer leases 1,064 acres of federal land for utility-scale solar energy development in Colorado’s San Luis Valley. (news release)

WIND: The federal Bureau of Land Management receives over 8,000 comments regarding the controversial Lava Ridge wind facility proposed for southern Idaho. (East Oregonian)

UTILITIES: Tucson, Arizona, considers forming a municipal utility or launching a community choice program aimed at boosting residents’ renewable energy use. (Arizona Daily Star)

GRID:
• Bay Area leaders criticize Pacific Gas & Electric’s equipment upkeep after an underground electrical vault fire leaves about 10,000 customers without power in downtown San Francisco. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• A Washington state man pleads guilty to vandalizing four electrical substations near Tacoma last December, leaving 14,000 customers without power. (CBS News)

BIOFUELS: Construction begins on a facility in central California that will produce methane fuel from unused food waste. (Modesto Bee)

COAL: Coal companies announce strong first-quarter earnings from their Powder River Basin mines, but plummeting natural gas prices are expected to cut into demand. (Casper Star-Tribune)

COMMENTARY: A Wyoming conservationist urges the federal Bureau of Land Management to include the state in its new solar plan, saying the current system does not adequately avoid negative environmental impacts. (PacificInno)