Solar set to surpass natural gas generation in California

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• Data indicate solar output this year could surpass natural gas generation on California’s grid for the first time ever. (Canary Media)

• An Arizona administrative judge backs Tucson Electric Power’s bid to lower net-metering compensation for rooftop solar, but rejects the utility’s proposed grid-access charge. (Arizona Daily Star)

• Enlight Renewable Energy secures $243 million in financing for its proposed 128 MW Quail Ranch solar-plus-storage project in New Mexico. (news release)

• NextEra Energy proposes a 400 MW solar-plus-storage facility in Grant County, Washington. (Columbia Basin Herald)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Western Colorado’s oil and gas industry files a lawsuit seeking to block new state pipeline emissions reductions rules. (Colorado Sun)

• A U.S. EPA document shows the Trump administration intends to exempt 47 coal power plants from updated mercury and toxic emissions rules, including the Colstrip and Apache facilities in Montana and Arizona. (E&E News)

ELECTRIFICATION

• Industry observers say investor-owned utilities’ high electricity rates in California stifle state climate goals by discouraging residents from installing heat pumps. (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES

• California advocates criticize Gov. Gavin Newsom for appointing regulators from the northern part of the state only, leaving the rest of the state’s utility customers without representation. (Los Angeles Times)

GRID

• Arizona regulators launch a probe of rapid data center growth’s impacts on the power grid and utility rates. (Data Center Dynamics)

• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham vetoes a bill that would have created a grid-modernization roadmap, saying it duplicates existing efforts. (New Mexico Political Report)

TRANSPORTATION

• A California advocate files a lawsuit accusing Los Angeles of violating a 2024 ballot measure requiring it to update bike lanes on the county’s busiest bus route. (Los Angeles Times)

• Car maker Lucid Group plans to take over an electric truck manufacturing facility in Arizona that belonged to Nikola, which filed for bankruptcy earlier this year. (Bloomberg)

CRITICAL MATERIALS

• Nevada firm Redwood Materials partners with Lime to recycle electric bike and scooter batteries. (Gizmodo)

• Western Uranium & Vanadium Corp. plans to begin shipping ore from its Sunday Mine complex in western Colorado to the White Mesa Mill in Utah. (news release)

COMMENTARY

• A Utah advocate calls on policymakers to work to keep existing hydroelectric plants online and to build new ones, saying they provide baseload power and grid-balancing services. (Deseret News)

• A former petroleum geologist says the Trump administration’s economic policies are stifling its ​“energy dominance” agenda in Alaska. (The Conversation)