Oklahoma ends tax credit for wind power

WIND:
• Oklahoma’s governor signs legislation to end a tax credit for wind power more than three years early, citing a tight state budget. (The Hill)
• Three North Carolina Republicans are sponsoring a bill to streamline wind energy development, challenging an effort by others in their party to impose further restrictions. (Southeast Energy News)

SOLAR:
• Oregon lawmakers drop a bill that would have made it more difficult to build solar installations on high-value farmland. (Portland Business Journal)
• A venture firm in West Virginia is crowdfunding residential solar installations by installing energy-efficient devices in homes for free and having homeowners donate their energy rebates towards solar panels and installations on other buildings. (The American Prospect)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
• One reason Tesla’s stock is soaring is because the company made a risky bet on batteries, which could lead to a massive payoff. (Vox)
• Electric vehicle advocates say they hoped more funds from last year’s Volkswagen settlement would be directed to the Midwest. (Midwest Energy News)

CLIMATE: A White House official says President Trump’s top advisers will meet on Tuesday to discuss whether to pull out of the Paris climate accord, ​“with the goal of providing a recommendation to the president about the path forward.” (Reuters)

FRACKING: Oil and gas companies are opening more frac sand mines in Texas, but environmentalists say the mines pose health risks and damage the land. (FuelFix)

POLLUTION: Responders plug a leak at a BP oil and gas well in Alaska that had been venting natural gas into the air for nearly three days. (Washington Post)

OIL & GAS: Conservationists say the Bureau of Land Management shouldn’t open 15,000 acres in Utah to oil and gas development because of threats to the sage grouse population. (Deseret News)

COAL:
• Colorado’s North Fork Valley is producing roughly seven times as much coal as it did last year, but laid-off coal miners aren’t getting their jobs back. (Denver Post)
• A coal-fired power plant in New Jersey that was scheduled to close next month will continue to operate for two more years. (Newsworks)
• A new ​“clean coal” facility in Texas will use captured carbon dioxide to increase oil production at a drilling operation 81 miles away. (San Antonio Current)

NUCLEAR: Federal regulators will increase their oversight of a nuclear power plant in New Jersey after inspectors found a problem with one of the plant’s five safety-related relief valves. (Newsworks)

EPA: The Trump administration’s proposed cuts to the EPA could include the closure of the agency’s regional office in Chicago, which would weaken its ability enforce actions against coal-fired power plants in the region and layoff 1,000 workers. (ThinkProgress)

REGULATION: The Trump administration is trying to stop federal judges from ruling on regulatory cases filed under President Obama, so federal agencies will have time to revise or shrink Obama-era regulations. (Washington Post)

COMMENTARY:
• Last week EPA chief Scott Pruitt told workers at a Pennsylvania coal mine that the ​“war on coal” was over, but the mine’s parent company wants to abandon coal to focus on its more profitable natural gas operations (New York Times)
• The EPA no longer prioritizes public health and environmental protection, and Scott Pruitt has already issued six orders that comply with industry demands, says a writer for ThinkProgress.
• The Trump administration’s cuts to the Appalachian Regional Commission, which bolsters small towns with federal funds, gives Democrats a chance to ​“win back” the region, according to two editors for The New Republic.