Utah’s largest solar installation goes online

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

CLEAN ENERGY

• rPlus Energies brings online its 400-MW Green River Energy Center solar-plus-storage facility in Emery County, Utah. (Deseret News)

• California moves to file a lawsuit seeking to block the Trump administration’s deal to pay Golden State Wind to cancel its offshore lease along the state’s central coast, saying it’s a ​“strategic mistake of colossal proportions.” (Associated Press)

• New Mexico startup Pii Energy partners with adobe construction firm Avanyu to deploy 400 plug-in solar kits to households in the state by the end of this year. (PV Magazine)

• Renewable Properties and Sonoma Clean Power bring online the 4-MW Redemeyer Road solar-plus-storage project in northern California. (Solar Power World)

• The Paskenta Band of Nomlaki Indians and OATI partner to develop two solar-plus-storage microgrids for the northern California tribe. (Clean Technica)

• Permanent Power Company secures $600 million in construction financing for its 246-MW Grape solar-plus-storage in California’s San Joaquin Valley. (CityBiz)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Trump administration proposes rolling back Biden-era oil and gas leasing reforms by reducing reclamation bonds for petroleum companies and authorizing noncompetitive leases. (E&E News, news release)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management moves to revise and weaken the federal oil and gas waste-prevention rule aimed at reducing methane emissions from wells and other facilities on public land. (E&E News, news release)

• Los Angeles’s city council advances a proposal to halt new oil and gas drilling and phase out existing wells citywide over the next 20 years, reviving a 2022 ordinance shot down by a judge following industry challenges. (Los Angeles Times)

• A California court rules that state regulators have the authority to block repair work on Sable Offshore’s pipeline in Santa Barbara County. (Pipeline Journal)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management’s Bakersfield Field Office approves a plan reopening oil and gas leasing on about 400,000 acres in south-central California. (news release)

• A federal Bureau of Land Management oil and gas lease sale in Nevada nets about $145,000 after all the offered parcels attract the minimum bid of $10 per acre. (news release)

• Erie, Colorado’s town council votes to sell its mineral rights on 158 acres to SM Energy Company for its proposed Draco drilling project. (CBS News)

• Southern Montana ranchers and farmers say a defunct coal mine and coalbed methane drilling operations continue to contaminate local waterways, harming wildlife, livestock, and crops. (Montana Free Press)

UTILITIES

• The Trump administration appoints former Montana Public Service Commissioner Travis Kavulla as the Bonneville Power Administration’s chief executive and administrator. (Washington State Standard)

• Washington state Attorney General Nick Brown pushes back on Avista’s proposed 25% rate hike, saying the utility should prioritize affordability over profits. (KXLY)

NUCLEAR

• California firm Valar Atomics says it has taken its Ward 250 test reactor critical at the Utah San Rafael Energy Lab. (Nuclear Newswire)

• Arizona Gov. Katie Hobbs vetoes a bill that would have blocked rural local governments from restricting small modular nuclear reactors when paired with high-load electricity users such as data centers. (AZ Mirror)

• Wyoming mining industry officials say growing demand has sparked a uranium extraction revival in the state. (Cowboy State Daily)