New Mexico finalizes new oil and gas rules

OIL & GAS: New Mexico finalizes new natural gas venting and flaring regulations to curb a major source of greenhouse gas emissions, a move supported by environmentalists. (Albuquerque Journal, New Mexico Political Report)

ALSO:
• The American Petroleum Institute says it will support a federal price on carbon dioxide emissions, but environmental groups say the policy shift is ​“self-serving greenwashing.” (Associated Press, Washington Post)

PUBLIC LANDS:
• Tribal leaders tell Interior Department Secretary Deb Haaland during a public virtual forum the agency’s past oil and gas policies amounted to environmental racism, while environmental groups emphasize the need to cut fossil fuel emissions. (Carlsbad Current-Argus, Deseret News)
• Interior Department officials during the forum expressed the need for significant federal leasing and permitting policy reforms for public lands, but refrained from taking a stance on concerns raised by participants. (Albuquerque Journal)

GRID:
• California regulators approve utilities’ plans to cut power when the grid is stressed, aiming to prevent a repeat of last summer’s rolling blackouts. (San Francisco Chronicle)
• California’s grid operator is set to study a proposed plan that would connect the state’s grid with power generated by renewable sources in Nevada. (Pahrump Valley Times)
• A federal test of a renewables-dominated futuristic grid model in Colorado finds that ​“islanding” could be a solution for restarting large power systems after a blackout. (E&E News)

COAL:
• A Utah federal judge rules that the Bureau of Land Management failed to consider cumulative climate impacts and the economic costs related to climate change in its analysis of a coal mine expansion. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• Conservation groups call on the Bureau of Land Management to deny a request to lower the royalty rates for a Colorado coal mine. (news release)

PIPELINES: Alaska lawmakers are questioning the economics of the initial phase of a proposed $39 billion liquified natural gas pipeline project backed by Gov. Mike Dunleavy. (Anchorage Daily News)

CLIMATE: Eugene, Oregon’s city council is considering changing its operating agreement with its gas utility to factor in climate goals. (High Country News)

HYDROPOWER:
• Eleven Pacific Northwest tribal leaders want the region’s congressional delegation and President Biden to breach the four lower Snake River dams as a permanent solution for the threat of salmon and steelhead extinction. (Lewiston Tribune)
• However Democratic federal lawmakers remain silent on the Republican proposal to remove the dams. (E&E News Daily, subscription)

UTILITIES: Oregon regulators approve utility debt relief programs to help residential ratepayers with payments in arrears because of the pandemic. (KTVZ)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Officials in Steamboat Springs, Colorado say initial results from a pilot program show electric buses can ​“meet the full range of service that our current buses do.” (Pilot & Today)

COMMENTARY:
• A Colorado policy, climate & clean energy advocate says equity needs to be centered in the state’s climate action plans. (Natural Resources Defense Council)
• An energy researcher explains how California’s ongoing problems with wildfires are prompting re-evaluation of regulatory barriers to widespread deployment of microgrids throughout the state. (Utility Dive)
• An environmental advocate and a labor leader say California ​“needs to go all in on offshore wind.” (CalMatters)

CLARIFICATION: Environmental groups quoted in a Utah Public Radio article agree that nuclear power isn’t needed to replace energy from Snake River dams, an item in yesterday’s digest was unclear.