Seattle, advocates sue to overturn Washington pro-gas initiative

ELECTRIFICATION: Washington local governments and climate advocates file a lawsuit seeking to dismiss a winning ballot initiative barring restrictions on natural gas use in homes, saying it is unconstitutional. (Washington State Standard)

BUILDINGS: Denver officials dial back new rules aimed at reducing large buildings’ energy consumption and greenhouse gas emissions following industry pushback. (Colorado Sun)

OIL & GAS: 

• California advocates worry a major oil and gas company may leave state taxpayers to cover more than $1 billion in cleanup and plugging costs for its 11,000 idle wells. (Inside Climate News)
• California regulators vote to postpone a decision on the proposed closure of the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility until March of next year, saying they need more time to ​“thoughtfully deliberate.” (E&E News, subscription)
• Southern California’s oil industry looks for ways to weather state drilling regulations scheduled to take effect next year. (KBAK)

SOLAR:

• A U.S. Army base in Hawaii brings a 200-home rooftop solar-plus-storage-powered microgrid online. (news release)
• California regulators delays its community solar program decision-making for another year, potentially endangering the federal funding it has already been allocated but hasn’t received. (PV Magazine)
• The federal Bureau of Land Management withdraws 4,400 acres in central and western Arizona from new mining claims to allow it to consider proposed solar installations. (news release)

CLEAN ENERGY: A report finds the number of sites with enough land and transmission capacity for large-scale clean energy development in Colorado and Oregon has shrunk considerably in the last ten months. (PV Magazine)

STORAGE:

• California awards $42 million to a proposed grid-scale battery energy storage system at the U.S. Marine’s Camp Pendleton near San Diego. (KUSI)
• Battery startup Peak Energy plans to establish a sodium-ion cell manufacturing facility in Colorado. (news release)
• A developer secures $389 million in financing for a proposed 250 MW battery energy storage system in Mesa, Arizona. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The U.S. EPA awards $753 million to states and tribal nations to purchase zero-emission heavy duty vehicles, including nearly $220 million to Western states. (news release)

PUBLIC LANDS: Tribal nations and advocates call on President Biden to designate the Owyhee Canyonlands National Monument and ban future clean energy development on 1.1 million acres in Oregon. (ICT)

TRANSPORTATION: A Nevada county votes to reject a proposed diesel fuel tax that would have helped fund road maintenance. (Pahrump Valley Times)

NUCLEAR: California advocates say the Diablo Canyon nuclear plant is overloading the grid with costly and inflexible power, forcing the state to curtail solar generation. (KPBS)