Western states plan to fight Trump climate ​“overreach”

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

CLIMATE

• Oregon and Colorado leaders and advocates say they will fight to ensure President Trump’s order aiming to block state and local climate ​“overreach” will not harm their clean energy programs or emission-reduction goals. (Oregonian, CPR)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Navajo Nation President Buu Nygren supports the Trump administration’s orders aimed at propping up the coal industry, saying it will help the tribe’s energy company’s Powder River Basin mines. (Navajo Times)

• Montana officials praise Trump’s coal-related executive orders, saying they will allow the Colstrip power plant to continue running indefinitely. (KTVQ)

• Alaska lawmakers consider legislation that would require a proposed natural gas pipeline out of the North Slope to include a spur to Fairbanks. (Fairbanks News-Miner)

• Colorado residents continue to push back against a proposed 150-well oil and gas development near a Denver-area city. (KDVR)

BATTERIES

• American Battery Technology says it has doubled production at its Nevada recycling facility and plans to sell land to finance further expansion. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIFICATION

• California lawmakers consider legislation that would streamline heat pump permitting and create an installer certification system. (PV Magazine)

TRANSPORTATION

• Analysts say the Trump administration’s tariffs likely will raise automobile prices, dampening electric vehicle sales and jeopardizing California’s clean car goals, though uncertainty continues now that Trump has rolled back much of his promised levies. (Los Angeles Times)

• A report finds a proposal to raise Oregon’s gasoline tax would disproportionately affect rural motorists. (Willamette Week)

UTILITIES

• Colorado lawmakers back away from a plan to require utilities to pay into a homeowner’s reinsurance fund in exchange for shielding them from equipment-sparked wildfire liability. (Colorado Sun)

• Southern California Edison and California regulators refuse to disclose idle transmission tower grounding changes the utility made shortly after the deadly Los Angeles-area fires. (Los Angeles Times)

CLEAN ENERGY

• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs into law legislation creating a $20 million grant program for solar-plus-storage installations at schools and other public buildings. (PV Magazine)

• A southwestern Colorado county bans new utility-scale solar installations for six months to allow it to alter its land-use code, but allows a previously proposed project to move forward. (Cortez Journal)

• The developer of the proposed Harvest Hills wind facility in eastern Washington plans to seek state approval rather than wait for Whitman County to complete a land-use ordinance. (Spokesman-Review)

GRID

• The Southwest Power Pool’s new CEO prepares to expand its grid and day-ahead power market throughout the Southwest and into the Northwest. (E&E News)

• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham signs a bill encouraging utilities to deploy advanced grid technologies rather than building more transmission lines. (Source NM)

NUCLEAR

• Small modular nuclear reactor startup NuScale opens a power plant control room simulator at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas, to train the future workforce. (Nuclear Engineering)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• President Trump’s coal executive order includes a plan to give the U.S. Energy Department the authority to force any power plant to stay open, Jeff St. John reports.

• Home battery startup Base Power secures another $200 million from investors as it starts building a U.S. factory and looks to sell outside of Texas, Julian Spector reports.

• Kathiann M. Kowalski rounds up the latest from Ohio’s power plant bailout scandal, including how it will impact FirstEnergy’s ongoing rate case.