Report: L.A.’s energy transition not reaching underserved communities

CLEAN ENERGY: A report on Los Angeles’s clean energy transition finds the city is not adequately investing in electric vehicle chargers, rooftop solar and efficiency improvements for low-income and non-white communities. (Los Angeles Times)

SOLAR: A California program looks to help install 300 MW of rooftop solar capacity on affordable housing complexes across the state by 2030. (Guardian)

WIND: Tribal nations urge the Biden administration to enlarge a proposed marine sanctuary off central California, but industry says that would hamper offshore wind power development. (Politico)

OIL & GAS: 

• Wyoming considers increasing restrictions on oil and gas drilling and other development on state land in the Path of the Pronghorn wildlife migratory corridor. (Wyoming Public Radio)
• The U.S. Forest Service seeks public input on a proposal to block new oil and gas drilling and other energy development on the Thompson Divide in western Colorado. (Crested Butte News)

NUCLEAR:

• A struggling Wyoming coal community pins its economic hopes on a Bill Gates-backed company’s proposal to build an advanced nuclear reactor even though the plan — and the industry — have suffered recent setbacks. (Washington Post, WyoFile)
• California officials say they are on track to finish dismantling the defunct San Onofre nuclear plant near San Diego by 2028 as planned. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• The U.S. Defense Department rescinds a preliminary contract with California startup Oklo to install a nuclear micro-reactor at an Air Force base in Alaska. (Northern Journal)

UTILITIES: New Mexico advocates and residents push back against a proposed road in a national forest that would allow a utility to maintain a power line and do wildfire hazard mitigation. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

STORAGE:

• Southwestern U.S. ranchers, residents and advocates push back against proposed pumped hydropower storage facilities, saying they would further strain the region’s scant water supplies. (Inside Climate News)
• A Colorado electric cooperative contracts with a developer to build a 34 MW battery energy storage system. (news release)

GRID: California officials and advocates say a new state law aimed at expediting grid upgrades and new transmission construction will facilitate the clean energy transition and should be a model for other states. (Canary Media)

LITHIUM: A company says its proposed lithium extraction facility could bring hundreds of jobs to an economically depressed southeast Utah town, but advocates worry about water supply impacts. (Deseret News)

COAL: Production decreases at every coal mine in Montana except the supplier for Colstrip power plant as demand for the fuel declines nationally. (Billings Gazette)

BIOFUELS: A Hawaii biomass company files a lawsuit accusing Hawaiian Electric of anticompetitive behavior that kept its $520 million tree-burning power plant from going online. (Honolulu Civil Beat)

CARBON CAPTURE: The University of Wyoming plans to collaborate with a natural gas pipeline company on a fourth carbon capture and sequestration study with federal funding. (County 17)