Volvo to pay for California emissions violations

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.

EMISSIONS

• California advocates and lawmakers push back against regulators’ plan to overhaul the state’s carbon cap-and-invest program, saying it would reduce revenues for climate programs and put emissions targets out of reach. (Canary Media)

• Automaker Volvo agrees to pay nearly $197 million to resolve California regulators’ allegations that the company’s heavy-duty truck engines violated state emissions standards. (Los Angeles Times)

UTILITIES

• NV Energy’s latest integrated resource plan proposes adding 1,200 MW of gas-fired generation, 4,300 MW of solar, 180 MW of geothermal, and 5,400 MW of storage capacity to its grid over the next six years to meet growing data center-driven demand. (news release)

• California’s Assembly passes legislation that would reshape and expand the state’s Public Utility Commission in an effort to shift its focus toward affordability. (E&E News, LegiScan)

ELECTRIFICATION

• San Francisco Bay Area regulators propose delaying implementation of and exempting low-income households from a rule banning gas water heater sales in an effort to address affordability concerns. (Canary Media)

• Berkeley, California, implements a rule aimed at leveraging real estate transactions to reduce carbon emissions by requiring home sellers and buyers to replace natural gas appliances with electric ones as a condition of sale. (Bloomberg)

GEOTHERMAL

• Denver plans to convert a gas-fired district steam heating network to an ​“ambient loop” system that runs on water-source heat pumps using geothermal and wastewater thermal energy in an effort to reduce emissions. (NPR)

• Arizona regulators greenlight geothermal exploration wells for a proposed project that would power Freeport McMoran’s Morenci copper mine in the southeastern part of the state. (KJZZ)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The U.S. Justice Department transfers a legal fight over the restart of Sable Offshore’s oil pipeline along the California coast to a federal court after a state judge upheld her injunction on the project. (E&E News)

• Marin County, California’s supervisors vote to contribute $29,000 to a coalition opposing new offshore oil and gas drilling along the state’s coast. (Bay City News)

PUBLIC LANDS

• Advocates condemn the U.S. Senate for confirming Steven Pearce to lead the federal Bureau of Land Management over fears the former oil company executive and Republican congressman from New Mexico will favor drilling and mining over conservation. (Wyoming Public Radio, Aspen Times)

CLEAN ENERGY

• The proposed 21 GW Valley Clean Infrastructure plan in California would become one of the world’s largest solar facilities when fully built out. (Canary Media)

• Washington state’s Commerce Department awards $60.4 million to fund nearly 100 clean energy projects, siting and permitting programs, and grid resilience initiatives across the state. (news release)

• Puget Sound Energy signs on to purchase power from Avangrid’s 199.5 MW Big Horn I wind facility in Washington state. (Renewables Now)

GRID

• The Idaho National Laboratory publishes standards-based performance data on advanced conductors in an effort to address grid stability and security threats. (news release)

DATA CENTERS

• The developer of the proposed Stratos hyperscale data center complex in Utah unveils new plans that include a 500 MW solar array in addition to gas-fired generation, but it fails to quell intense opposition to the project. (Utah News Dispatch, Deseret News)

• Meta signs on to purchase all of Enbridge’s 365 MW Cowboy 1 solar-plus-storage project’s output to serve the tech firm’s data center operations in Wyoming. (Data Center Dynamics)

• Developers plan to power a proposed 60 MW data center in Utah with mobile compressed natural gas until permanent pipeline infrastructure is in place. (Data Center Dynamics)

STORAGE

• MN8 brings online its 100 MW Pome stand-alone battery energy storage system in Poway, California. (news release)