Wildfire victims sue California utilities

NOTE TO READERS: Due to a technical error not all subscribers received Monday’s edition of Western Energy News. We apologize for the delay.

UTILITIES: Victims of this summer’s Fairview Fire sue Southern California Edison, alleging the utility failed to de-energize lines that may have sparked the blaze. (Los Angeles Times)

ALSO: Northern California residents affected by this summer’s deadly Mosquito Fire sue Pacific Gas & Electric, claiming the utility’s ​“poorly maintained” equipment sparked the blaze. (KTVU)

GRID:
• New Mexico utilities say electricity demand may outpace supply next summer as the burgeoning oil and gas industry draws more power and supply chain constraints delay wind and solar facility construction. (Associated Press)
• California bans the type of foil balloons blamed for causing more than 2,000 outages and dozens of fires in just three utilities’ service areas in recent years. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• Climate change-exacerbated heat and drought is straining California’s electricity system, forcing officials to rethink how power is generated, transported and traded. (New York Times, Politico)

COAL: An underground fire in Utah’s most productive coal mine continues to burn, halting operations for nearly five days so far. (KSL)

NATURAL GAS: California regulators seek public comment on a proposed framework to decommission and replace the Aliso Canyon natural gas storage facility — the site of a catastrophic 2015 methane leak. (L.A. Focus)

OIL & GAS: New Mexico advocates say the oil and gas industry’s outsized public relations spending buys the industry influence in the state legislature as it debates regulations on the sector. (Capital & Main)

TRANSPORTATION:
• San Diego, California, officials strip a controversial per-mile road fee from a $160 billion plan to expand public transit and reduce car travel through 2050. (San Diego Union-Tribune)
• California prohibits local governments from mandating parking spaces at developments near transit stops in hopes of tackling climate change by reducing vehicle use. (Los Angeles Times)

HYDROGEN: A New Mexico company plans to build a green hydrogen production facility in the northwest part of the state by 2025 to serve a proposed Southwestern corridor of long-haul truck hydrogen-fueling stations. (Albuquerque Journal)

WIND: A progressive think tank finds offshore wind leases generate more federal revenue per acre than offshore oil and gas leasing. (Grist)

CLIMATE: Seattle, Washington, allocates $6.5 million to establish resilience hubs and address climate and sustainability issues. (Environment + Energy Leader)

HYDROPOWER: A national laboratory finds that even during the most severe droughts, Western hydropower dams collectively have sustained 80% of average generation levels. (news release)

NUCLEAR: Many local leaders support an interim spent nuclear fuel depository proposed for southeastern New Mexico, even as state and federal leaders oppose it. (Carlsbad Current-Argus)