White House weighs high-stakes hydrogen rules

HYDROGEN: As the Biden administration prepares guidance for hydrogen production incentives, it faces skepticism from clean energy advocates and some progressive Democrats who don’t think ​“blue” hydrogen produced with natural gas should count as a climate solution. (E&E News)

PIPELINES:

• A dozen Democrats in Congress tell the Biden administration that it should hold off on permitting carbon dioxide pipelines until new federal safety rules are finished. (Reuters)
• Federal officials order the Mountain Valley Pipeline to inspect and ensure the safety of pipe sections that were exposed to rain and sunlight during years-long delays in construction. (Roanoke Times)

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CLIMATE: Early analyses show last month was the hottest September ever observed, exceeding the previous record by almost a full degree Fahrenheit. (Washington Post)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• A United Auto Workers deal with Mack Trucks doesn’t cover a non-unionized electric truck plant in Virginia and shows how automakers could move more jobs to electric vehicle factories in Southeastern states with ​“right to work” laws. (Winston-Salem Journal)
• Two electric vehicle charging companies partner to build revenue-sharing curbside charging stations in dense cities at no cost to building owners. (Utility Dive)

UTILITIES:

• Massachusetts officials propose policy solutions to address a bureaucratic backlog that municipal leaders and clean energy advocates say is bogging down community choice aggregation — one of the state’s top drivers of clean electricity purchases. (Energy News Network)
• San Jose, California, votes to form a city-owned electric utility to explore the concept of creating a municipal power provider and breaking free from Pacific Gas & Electric. (San Jose Spotlight)

GRID:

• PJM and other grid operators oppose the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission’s efforts to better evaluate how power plants, energy storage and other resources benefit grid reliability. (Utility Dive)
• The top official at New England’s grid operator tells Congress members they need to more effectively regulate the natural gas industry to increase grid reliability. (CommonWealth Magazine)
• A group of utilities propose spending up to $700 million on a 200-mile transmission line from South Dakota to Minnesota that officials say will be essential for integrating renewables on the grid. (Star Tribune)

COAL:

• Young people of color are fighting a coal terminal that blows coal dust around their south Baltimore neighborhood, building on the success of earlier peers who stopped a waste incinerator from being constructed. (NPR)
• Residents in a southern Illinois community next to a large coal plant and mine grapple with a future without the industry that contributed to local prosperity. (Grist)

POLITICS:

• More Republican voters are linking extreme weather to climate change, but top GOP presidential candidates aren’t reflecting their concern. (Independent)
• Analysts say Arizona provides a test case for whether split-party controlled states can enact effective clean energy standards. (E&E News)

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STORAGE: California’s grid operator tops a list of power markets that show the greatest potential for energy storage development, followed by Texas’s ERCOT and New York’s NYISO. (Utility Dive)

PUBLIC LANDS: The federal Bureau of Land Management considers banning industrial-scale clean energy and fossil fuel development on nearly 2.5 million acres in southern Wyoming. (WyoFile)