Newsom signs three bills clamping down on oil and gas drilling

OIL & GAS: California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs into law three bills cracking down on the oil and gas industry, including one that allows local governments to block new drilling, one that ups cleanup requirements for idle wells and another that bans low-production wells from operating in a Los Angeles-area oilfield. (Mercury News)

ALSO:

• California lawmakers debate the state’s role in overseeing and managing the decline of its petroleum industry. (Los Angeles Times)
• Colorado advocates accuse a Denver-area city of firing its sustainability manager after she forwarded residents’ notes protesting a refinery’s pollution to its operator’s headquarters. (Colorado Sun)

WIND: At least one of five eligible firms withdraws from bidding on offshore wind leases along southern Oregon’s coast following a wave of opposition from tribal nations, advocates and the fishing industry. (Big Pivots)

SOLAR:

• New Mexico’s state land office leases 80 acres to a proposed community solar project. (NM Political Report)
• A New Mexico county approves up to $942 million in revenue bonds for a planned Albuquerque-area solar cell manufacturing facility. (KOB 4)

GEOTHERMAL: The U.S. House passes a bill aimed at expediting geothermal energy permitting on federal lands. (news release)

GRID:

• A utility executive says fully decarbonizing California’s grid will require developing more firm clean energy such as advanced geothermal and natural gas plants with carbon capture. (Reuters)
• A study finds the Western grid will need about 15,600 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines at a cost of $75 billion to meet forecasted load growth. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• A study finds PacifiCorp could realize up to $359 million in annual net benefits by participating in the California grid operator’s extended day-ahead power market, almost double previous projections. (RTO Insider, subscription)

ELECTRIFICATION: Seattle launches a program offering an additional $4,000 rebate for moderate-income households to replace oil heating systems with electric heat pumps. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES: New Mexico regulators establish carbon emission limits the state’s largest utility must meet to comply with the state’s Energy Transition Act. (NM Political Report)

COAL: Federal data show seven Western coal plants are among the nation’s 50 top greenhouse gas emitters. (news release)

NUCLEAR: The U.S. Energy Department greenlights California startup Oklo’s plan to begin developing an advanced nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. (Newsweek)

CLIMATE: Environmental experts raise concerns about a rogue California startup looking to slow global warming by releasing sulfur dioxide into the atmosphere, saying the effort could have unintended harmful consequences. (New York Times)

COMMENTARY:

• An energy analyst predicts high costs and unproven technology will doom a federally funded effort to retrofit an aging New Mexico coal plant with carbon capture. (Utility Dive)
• A California advocate calls for federal mining law reform to help mitigate the imminent clean energy minerals boom’s impacts. (Revelator)