Report: Federal incentives to prioritize green hydrogen

HYDROGEN: Leaked details of draft hydrogen tax incentive guidance suggests the Biden administration will reward hydrogen made with renewable power and require strict monitoring of how the fuel is produced. (Canary Media)

CLIMATE:

• At least seven major news outlets create and publish misleading advertisements for fossil fuel companies intended to look like credible editorial content, an analysis finds. (Intercept)
• Climate envoy John Kerry says the U.S. will back ​“largely” phasing out fossil fuels during global negotiations at the COP28 climate conference. (The Hill)
• More than 2,400 fossil fuel lobbyists have joined COP28 this year, a record number according to climate advocates. (Grist)
• United Nations climate researchers who author IPCC reports want the power to prescribe climate policy solutions, saying ​“it is becoming more difficult to be policy relevant without being prescriptive.” (Guardian)

SOLAR: U.S. utility-scale solar development soared in the third quarter as 4.1 GW of capacity was added to the grid, a 107% increase from the same period last year. (Utility Dive)

OIL & GAS:

• Republican-led states and the oil and gas industry challenge a U.S. EPA rule giving states and tribal nations more power to block pipelines and other energy projects that might affect waterways. (Reuters)
• A Texas judge reverses state regulators’ decision to approve a Gulf Coast oil terminal’s expansion over questions about the state’s informal ​“one-mile rule” that denies standing for project opponents who live more than a mile away. (Inside Climate News)
• The Sierra Club calls on California regulators to force petroleum companies to spend more money plugging and reclaiming idle oil and gas wells. (Bakersfield Californian)

GRID: U.S. military and defense facilities will likely face rising energy risks as the nation’s power grid becomes less reliable, experts say. (Utility Dive)

OFFSHORE WIND: A New York offshore wind farm pushing power to the grid is both a milestone for the domestic industry and a reminder that the U.S. is decades behind Europe in its clean energy build-out. (Associated Press)

OVERSIGHT: The White House’s upcoming regulatory agenda includes a handful of new oil and gas rules and hitting pause on some federal transmission regulations. (E&E News)

UTILITIES:

• West Virginia regulators scrutinize a requested rate increase for FirstEnergy subsidiaries as the company looms at the center of an Ohio bribery scandal. (Huntington Herald-Dispatch, Energy News Network)
• Massachusetts utility officials roll out a new strategy to regulate utilities away from using natural gas to meet its decarbonization goals. (WBUR, Boston Globe)

JOBS: A recent report found that more than 3 million people work in clean energy jobs in the U.S., a 4% increase in 2022. (Yale Climate Connections)

COAL: Indiana environmental groups call on state regulators to enforce alleged pollution violations at a coal plant that was supposed to shut down earlier this year but continues to operate. (Lakeshore Public Media)