Western mayors call on Trump to unfreeze clean energy funds

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

• Phoenix Mayor Kate Gallego joins other local leaders across the country calling on the Trump administration to end its clean energy funding freeze, saying it could increase electricity prices and kill jobs. (Inside Climate News)

• A southern California town’s residents worry a utility-scale solar installation under development nearby could kick up valley fever-containing dust and sicken inhabitants. (SFGate)

• California officials plan to release an environmental review this spring for a contested proposed wind facility in the northern part of the state. (Redding Record-Searchlight)

• Arizona lawmakers introduce legislation that would ban new wind facilities within 12 miles of residential-zoned property and six miles of vacant private land without the owner’s consent. (Pinal Central)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Advocates worry a rare lizard that lives only in the Permian Basin — and the Endangered Species Act that protects it — will fall victim to the Trump administration’s ​“drill, baby, drill” agenda. (Vox)

• New Mexico advocates urge state lawmakers to tighten oil and gas drilling regulations this year, saying they cannot rely on Trump’s EPA to protect air quality and public health. (Capital & Main)

• The Trump administration says Japan is interested in purchasing fuel from the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline and export terminal project, if it is built. (KTOO)

• Wyoming joins 21 other states in a lawsuit challenging a New York law requiring fossil fuel companies to pay into a climate mitigation superfund, saying it would harm the state’s coal industry. (Insurance Journal, Cheyenne Post)

• A California petroleum refinery continues to investigate last week’s fire that forced Bay Area residents to shelter in place. (Mercury News)

STORAGE

• California officials and researchers continue to investigate the human health and environmental ramifications of last month’s Moss Landing battery energy storage facility blaze. (New York Times)

• The Moss Landing battery fire stokes some New Mexico residents’ opposition to proposed energy storage projects. (New Mexico Political Report)

NUCLEAR

• A think tank urges Utah lawmakers to proceed cautiously with efforts to bolster nuclear power development, saying small reactors are costly because they lack economies of scale. (Deseret News)

• Idaho National Laboratory researchers partner with a private firm to develop ways to use nuclear power to produce hydrogen. (EnergyTech)

GRID

Southern California Edison begins restoring power to a Los Angeles-area neighborhood that was cut off from utilities after landslides stressed infrastructure. (Sacramento Bee)

CLIMATE

A startup commences operations of a direct seawater carbon capture facility in Hawaii. (E&E News, subscription)

COMMENTARY

Hawaii advocates urge state lawmakers to establish a carbon cashback program that would tax fossil fuel pollution and distribute revenues to low- and moderate-income residents. (Honolulu Civil Beat)