Report: Oil companies funded campaign to kill Colorado drilling measure

OIL & GAS: A congressional report finds fossil fuel companies funneled millions of dollars into Colorado nonprofits to fund a campaign against a 2018 ballot initiative that would have established buffer zones between oil and gas facilities and homes and schools. (E&E News, subscription; Colorado Newsline)

ALSO:
• New Mexico generates millions of dollars from oil and gas leases on state land even as officials encourage other uses for the parcels, including renewable energy development. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)
• New Mexico regulators hire a contractor to plug and reclaim 100 orphaned oil and gas wells using federal infrastructure funds. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)

COAL: The Biden administration helps broker a deal averting a railroad workers’ strike that would have halted coal shipments from Powder River Basin and other western mines. (Associated Press)

GRID:
• California grid operators say residents’ conservation measures reduced power demand by about 2,000 MW during the peak of the recent heatwave, helping avert rolling outages. (KESQ)
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom says his state’s recent heat-induced grid near-emergency demonstrates the need to speed up the green energy transition, not scrap it as critics propose. (CNBC)
• A substation equipment failure leaves more than 23,000 households without power in a northern California city. (ABC10)

SOLAR: Developers break ground on Alaska’s largest solar power facility. (Alaska News Source)

CLIMATE: The founder of California-based Patagonia donates the $3 billion company and future profits to organizations fighting for environmental protection and against climate change. (CNBC)

TRANSPORTATION:
• The Biden administration approves Washington state’s electric vehicle infrastructure plan, freeing up more than $25 million in federal funding for EV charging stations. (KREM)
• Oregon plans to invest $100 million of federal and state funds over five years to build electric vehicle charging infrastructure. (Portland Tribune)
• Portland, Oregon, considers requiring electric vehicle chargers in half of the parking spaces at new multi-family dwellings. (KBND)
• A California city partners with a community energy choice organization to install 22 electric vehicle charging stations and purchase light-duty EVs. (news release)

EFFICIENCY: Idaho officials consider removing energy efficiency design requirements from the state’s building codes. (Boise State Public Radio)

NUCLEAR: A California university professor forms a collaborative group to address long-term safety of a long shuttered nuclear plant’s spent radioactive fuel that is stored along the state’s northern coast. (North Coast Journal)

HYDROGEN: Southern California utilities propose pilot projects that would inject up to 20% hydrogen blends into natural gas distribution systems. (Natural Gas Intelligence)

COMMENTARY: A Colorado columnist says climate change-exacerbated heat and drought, not a growing reliance on solar and wind power, are the root causes of California’s grid woes.(High Country News)