What makes a zero-emissions building?

BUILDINGS: At a sustainable building conference today, the Biden administration is expected to release a definition of a zero-emissions building, hoping it will help real estate developers build more of them. (Washington Post)

UTILITIES: A coalition of 25 electric utilities pledge to cut carbon emissions 80% by 2030 — an ambitious stepping stone as most of the country’s biggest utilities aim for net-zero by 2050. (Canary Media)

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POLITICS:

• A looming government shutdown would delay permitting and potentially slow energy projects as well as the U.S. Treasury Department’s rollout of Inflation Reduction Act tax guidance. (E&E News, S&P Global)
• Nearly all Federal Energy Regulatory Commission staff and 60% of U.S. Energy Department staff would be furloughed if the government shuts down, though some work could continue thanks to carryover funds. (Utility Dive)
• President Biden’s re-election campaign faces a challenge, observers say, in ensuring voters motivated by climate change understand the magnitude of the Inflation Reduction Act’s climate and clean energy provisions. (Washington Post)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Amid misleading GOP claims that the electric vehicle transition is decimating U.S. auto-sector jobs, it remains to be seen whether the transition can be achieved with both companies and workers thriving. (HuffPost)
• States that went for former President Trump in the 2020 election tend to have lower electric vehicle adoption rates than Biden-voting states, an analysis finds. (Axios)

SOLAR: A solar manufacturer’s ambitious buildout in Georgia illustrates the industry’s new confidence in long-term tax incentives in the congressional climate package. (S&P Global)

RENEWABLES: Grassroots activists are using social media to spread misinformation about wind and solar projects across the country, threatening to slow the clean energy transition. (New Republic)

CLIMATE:

• The National Flood Insurance Program faces dueling lawsuits, one from Republican attorneys general that alleges it’s made insurance prices too high and other from environmentalists who say they’re too low. (Grist)
• Detroit environmental justice advocates lay out a just vision for the city amid a growing climate crisis, widespread power outages and industrial pollution. (Energy News Network/​Planet Detroit)

OIL & GAS:

• The small, niche oil and gas well plugging industry faces new challenges in finding and filling wells abandoned for decades. (Grist)
• Permian Basin oil drillers test a method of capturing and injecting methane back into a well instead of flaring, venting or piping it to market, but advocates say regulators lack resources to oversee the process. (Capital & Main)

COAL ASH: As the U.S. EPA cracks down on neighboring Alabama’s coal ash rules, Georgia residents and environmentalists urge regulators to force Georgia Power to move coal ash from unlined ponds to lined landfills. (Georgia Recorder)

HYDROPOWER: The Biden administration directs federal agencies to honor tribal treaty and trust obligations by restoring Northwest salmon populations, lending momentum to efforts to breach hydropower dams. (Canary Media)

COMMENTARY: Two national lab researchers make a case for cautiously expanding community wind, a concept that largely fizzled out a decade ago. (Utility Dive)