Why Harris energizes environmental justice advocates

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE: Advocates look to Vice President Kamala Harris’ track record as a senator and attorney general as evidence she’d build upon the Biden administration’s environmental justice accomplishments if elected. (E&E News)

ALSO: Presidential candidates’ efforts to seem supportive of fracking are infuriating residents of a Pennsylvania community where the extraction process has contaminated water. (The Guardian)

ELECTRIFICATION: Analysts and observers say heat pump deployment has slowed due to construction trends and the fact that federal incentives target consumers, not contractors. (Washington Post)

INDUSTRY:

• Low-carbon steel making techniques would help reduce air pollution and climate emissions from coal-based iron making furnaces and coke plants, a new report finds. (Canary Media)
• Researchers learn from ancient Roman concrete as they look to devise lower-carbon alternatives to what’s used today. (New York Times)

POLITICS:

• While repealing the Inflation Reduction Act appears unlikely, the law’s supporters fear efforts under a Trump administration to constrain or reshape the program’s spending will undermine the law’s goals. (Inside Climate News)
• Organizations representing coal communities ask both presidential candidates to commit to continued funding to revitalize their economies. (Allegheny Front)

CLEAN ENERGY: Tribal leaders from Western states hold a summit focused on ways to profit from and participate in the predicted clean energy, carbon capture and critical material mining booms. (Inside Climate News)

CARBON CAPTURE: Recent leaks at an Illinois carbon storage well have raised concerns among some residents and environmental advocates as the Biden administration ramps up funding for what it sees as a key climate tool. (Grist)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Understanding the secondhand value of electric vehicle batteries could improve financing options for U.S. fleet managers, and multiple startups and manufacturers are looking to solve the problem. (Canary Media)

SOLAR: A developer begins operation of three side-by-side Texas solar farms totaling 875 MW, sending power to Google in what the company says is the largest solar power purchase it has ever made. (Houston Chronicle, Associated Press)

OIL & GAS: Labor advocates say training unionized oil and gas workers to plug orphaned oil and gas wells would help create jobs and economic security for workers in the field. (New Republic)

GEOTHERMAL: Nevada advocates push back on the federal Bureau of Land Management’s proposal to exempt geothermal exploration from environmental review, saying it will imperil the state’s scarce water resources. (Las Vegas Review-Journal)

TRANSMISSION: Energy company PSEG unveils the proposed route for a controversial 70-mile transmission line in Maryland that has drawn opposition from landowners, farmers, and environmental advocates. (Maryland Matters)