New Mexico data center would emit two cities’ worth of carbon

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DATA CENTERS

• The proposed Project Jupiter data center complex in southeastern New Mexico seeks state approval to generate as much electricity as the state’s largest utility and emit more greenhouse gases than Albuquerque and Las Cruces combined. (Source NM)

EFFICIENCY

• Arizona regulators reject the state’s largest utility’s request to expand demand-side management and efficiency initiatives and instead slash the program’s budget by more than half, drawing advocates’ fire. (KJZZ, news release)

COAL

• A retiring Colorado coal plant’s and mine’s employees seek new work and careers, even though the Trump administration is trying to revive the industry. (Associated Press)

• A Sierra Club study finds keeping the Ray D. Nixon coal plant in Colorado Springs operating beyond its scheduled 2029 closure would undermine air quality and cost consumers more than replacement generation. (Colorado Sun)

• The Intermountain coal plant in Utah ceases operations but keeps one unit on standby as the state seeks buyers for its power. (Utah News Dispatch)

EMISSIONS

• Denver, Colorado’s city landfill launches a project to convert the facilities’ methane emissions into fuel-grade natural gas. (Times-Call)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Clean energy industry officials ask Congress to overrule a Trump administration policy subjecting proposed solar and wind projects on federal land to increased scrutiny. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS

• A pipeline fails in southern Monterey County, California, spilling more than 4,000 gallons of oil and related wastewater. (Los Angeles Times)

• Newport Beach, California, officials launch an emergency drilling operation to remediate an abandoned oil and gas well that is emitting methane and hydrogen sulfide into a residential neighborhood. (Los Angeles Times)

• Advocates petition the U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service to extend endangered species protections to the rare Allred’s flax, a wildflower that is found only in the Permian Basin oil and gas field. (E&E News, news release)

• Wyoming regulators begin monitoring air quality in Rawlins, which is downwind of oil and gas operations in the southern part of the state. (Wyoming Public Radio)

• Wyoming’s Supreme Court rules that oil and gas producer Merit Energy’s electricity purchases to run its operations do not qualify for a transportation-related tax exemption. (WyoFile)

• California elected officials, residents, and advocates push back on the Trump administration’s plan to issue new offshore oil and gas leases along the state’s coast, citing the danger of repeating the catastrophic 1969 Santa Barbara oil spill. (San Diego Union-Tribune)

PUBLIC LANDS

• The federal Bureau of Land Management begins redoing the contested Rock Springs resource management plan in southwestern Wyoming to bring it into line with Trump’s energy dominance agenda. (WyoFile)

NUCLEAR

• Kemmerer, Wyoming’s city council considers ways to prepare for the expected influx of hundreds of workers to construct and operate TerraPower’s advanced nuclear reactor. (Kemmerer Gazette)

CRITICAL MATERIALS

• Montana’s Environmental Quality Council seeks federal funding for projects aimed at extracting rare earth and critical minerals from legacy mining sites. (Daily Montanan)

GRID

• Unusually severe winds batter utility equipment in western Washington, leaving nearly 12,000 customers without power. (KIRO)

• A runaway mylar balloon collides with utility lines in California’s Bay Area, leaving more than 5,000 customers without power. (Hoodline)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Duke Energy wants to spend on battery incentives to save on power plants — Elizabeth Ouzts

• A major networked geothermal project gets underway in Connecticut — Sarah Shemkus

• Trump admin invests $800M in latest move to bolster US nuclear industry — Alexander C. Kaufman

• Delayed heating assistance kicks off a winter of energy challenges — Kathryn Krawczyk

• First utility-owned geothermal network to double in size with DOE funds — Phil McKenna