Oil industry fights climate lawsuit in Oregon

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

UTILITIES

• California clean energy and community advocates urge lawmakers to spend nearly $200 million helping public schools install more efficient heating, air-conditioning, and plumbing systems rather than letting the money revert back to utilities. (Canary Media)

• Pacific Gas & Electric steps up its use of AI to predict wildfire risk and determine when to implement public safety power outages in northern California. (Bay City News)

• Oregon regulators approve wildfire mitigation plans for Idaho Power, Portland General Electric, and Pacific Power. (news release)

CLIMATE

• Fossil fuel industry attorneys urge a judge to dismiss an Oregon county’s lawsuit seeking to hold petroleum corporations accountable for deaths caused by the 2021 climate change-exacerbated extreme heat event. (New York Times)

• Washington state’s Supreme Court upholds regulations pertaining to agricultural exemptions from the state’s cap-and-trade program’s fuel surcharges. (Washington State Standard)

• Oregon advocates call on lawmakers to revive a dormant state incentive program aimed at deploying heat pumps to provide air cooling during increasingly hot summers. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

CLEAN ENERGY

• IPP Enlight Renewable Energy secures about $3 billion in financing for its 1,200-MW CO Bar Complex solar-plus-storage projects in Arizona. (Energy Storage News)

• SunRenu brings online a 2.3 MW solar carport project at a casino on the Coyote Valley Reservation in California. (news release)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Advocates and landowners challenge Montana regulators’ waiver allowing Bridger Pipeline to omit financial and environmental information from its permit application for a proposed oil pipeline across the eastern part of the state. (Pipeline & Gas Journal)

• Idaho Power proposes a 222-MW natural gas plant near a hydropower facility in the southern part of the state to help meet projected demand growth. (KIVI)

• Southwestern Colorado officials worry proposed federal Bureau of Land Management oil and gas leases could affect local roads, residents, and wildlife. (Durango Herald)

TRANSPORTATION

• A Brookings Institution analysis give high EV-readiness rankings to California, Colorado, and Oregon, with Montana and Wyoming at the bottom of the list. (Canary Media)

• California advocates call on lawmakers to preserve about $600 million in carbon market-generated revenues to fund public transit, saying agencies statewide are facing a budget crisis. (Politico)

• California firm Beam Global moves its solar EV charger manufacturing facility from San Diego to Yuma, Arizona, saying it anticipates lower operating costs in the new location. (news release)

• Colorado regulators roll out new rules for retail EV-charging stations aimed at increasing transparency and ensuring consistency for customers. (Vail Daily)

POLITICS

• New Mexico analysts say this year’s governor’s race pitting Democrat and former Interior Secretary Deb Haaland against Republican Greg Hull could be influenced by each candidate’s position on oil and gas development. (E&E News)

COMMENTARY

• An Arizona commentator successfully drives a Cybertruck across the Navajo Nation to show that EVs can hold their charge in the most remote parts of the West. (All at Once by Dr. Len)

• A Colorado ecologist praises a new state law requiring EV battery repurposing and recycling and urges other states to follow its example. (Colorado Sun)