Utah lawmakers look to keep burning coal at aging facility

COAL: Utah lawmakers consider seizing control of the Intermountain power plant as a way to continue burning coal at some of the facility’s units after it’s largely converted to run on natural gas and hydrogen. (Salt Lake Tribune)

OIL & GAS: 

• Federal regulators agree to review decades-old offshore oil drilling plans in California to settle an environmental lawsuit stemming from a 2021 pipeline spill. (E&E News, subscription; news release)
• Environmental and Indigenous advocates ask a federal appeals court to halt work on the Willow drilling project in Alaska, claiming another judge mistakenly cleared the way for construction to begin. (Alaska Beacon)
• New Mexico advocates call on the Biden administration to address oil and gas development’s cumulative impacts on the environment and communities in northwestern New Mexico. (news release)

UTILITIES:

• California investigators find a sagging utility line contacting a communications cable sparked the deadly 2022 Fairview wildfire in the southern part of the state. (Fresno Bee)
• A Washington state utility relies on about 800 workers, including 300 mutual aid workers from around the region, to restore natural gas service to thousands of residents following a pipeline rupture. (Lewiston Tribune)

CLIMATE:

• Washington state’s latest carbon-emission allowance auction generates $260 million. (Seattle Times)
• The U.S. EPA awards $4 million to tribal nations in Western states to design greenhouse gas emissions reduction plans. (news release)

GRID:

• California considers requiring new appliances to default to flexible demand settings that restrict their operation to when power demand is low and solar generation high. (PV Magazine)
• The U.S. Energy Department awards NV Energy $2 million to modernize its grid and increase transmission capacity. (Las Vegas Sun)
• California utilities say a transformer shortage is hampering their ability to provide power to new housing developments. (CBS13)
• A suspected equipment malfunction leaves more than 50,000 utility customers without power in western Washington state. (News Tribune)

SOLAR:

• A proposed agrivoltaic facility on private land in Oregon that would combine solar panels with crops and livestock grazing runs up against residents’ opposition and antiquated land use laws. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
• A developer breaks ground on a 300 MW solar installation in central Arizona. (Power Technology)

CARBON CAPTURE: Colorado researchers look to develop new methods of measuring, reporting and validating marine carbon dioxide removal and storage. (Sacramento Bee)

LITHIUM: An industry group looks to establish a ​“lithium loop” supply chain — from mineral extraction to battery making — in Nevada, but environmentalists worry about impacts to the state’s delicate ecosystems and dwindling water supplies. (KNPR)

BATTERIES: The U.S. EPA works to recover hundreds of lithium-ion electric vehicle and energy storage batteries from the Maui fire site in Hawaii for recycling. (Maui Now)

GEOTHERMAL: A federal geothermal energy lease sale generates more than $1 million for 33 parcels in Nevada. (RTO Insider, subscription)