No progress on 2023 pledge to quit fossil fuels, UN says

CLIMATE: The United Nations conclude the world made essentially no progress a year after promising to phase out fossil fuels, with emissions still set to increase this year and Paris Agreement goals unlikely to be met. (New York Times)

ALSO: Major companies have stopped buying carbon offsets tied to renewables after experts ruled many of them ​“junk,” but a proposed United Nations-backed market could reinvigorate the sector. (Bloomberg)

POLITICS: Eight states’ public utility commissions have seats up for election next month in critical but often overlooked races that will have a big impact on states’ clean energy transitions and power prices. (Canary Media)

SOLAR: A recently formed national nonprofit plans to alert local groups and people about clean energy projects in their communities to foster more participation from supporters and to counter organized opposition. (Inside Climate News)

GRID: Utility officials say underground power lines held up better during Hurricane Milton, but grid experts still say there’s ​“no place you can locate infrastructure to shelter it from all types of environmental hazards.” (E&E News)

FOSSIL FUELS:

• Donald Trump’s claim that fracking employs 500,000 people in important swing state Pennsylvania is a significant exaggeration, fact checkers find. (Washington Post)
• New York City’s comptroller proposes barring public pension plans from future investments in fossil fuel infrastructure like pipelines, a move no other city in the U.S. has made. (Utility Dive)
• Critics worry that a large Ohio coal plant will continue to be a major polluter and $40 million in toxic coal ash liabilities will go unaddressed as it changes ownership between private equity firms. (Ohio Capital Journal)

NUCLEAR: NextEra Energy’s CEO says the company is still evaluating the potential to recommission Iowa’s only nuclear plant, but says small modular reactors are not yet economically practical. (Radio Iowa)

LITHIUM: The Biden administration greenlights the proposed Rhyolite Ridge lithium and boron mine in Nevada even though advocates insist the work will drive an endangered plant to extinction. (Associated Press)

CLEAN TECH: An Iowa company that recycles rare earth metals from used wind turbines and other electronics receives a $500,000 federal prize and other funding support. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: VW-owned Scout Motors unveils a new retro-designed SUV and pickup to be produced at its South Carolina plant. (Car and Driver)

COMMENTARY: The director of Harvard Law School’s Electricity Law Initiative calls on federal regulators to reject utilities’ effort to raise entry fees on new power generators, saying it will harm clean energy deployment. (Utility Dive)