Winter weather and vandals batter Western power grid

GRID: Vandals attacked four electrical substations in Washington state on Christmas Day for still unknown reasons, leaving more than 30,000 households without power. (Associated Press, Seattle Times)

ALSO:
• Heavy snow, rain and high winds damage utility equipment in Oregon, leaving more than 160,000 households without power. (Associated Press)
• A heavy winter storm batters power lines in Utah, northern California and Nevada, leaving hundreds of thousands of utility customers without power. (Salt Lake Tribune, KCRA, Carson Now)

OIL & GAS:
• Colorado’s only oil refinery goes offline and may not resume operations until March after cold temperatures and two fires damage the facility. (CPR)
• A congressionally mandated federal oil and gas lease sale for nearly 1 million acres in the Cook Inlet in Alaska draws only one bid. (Alaska Beacon)
• A California city’s officials say a state law banning drilling near homes will sap the city of revenue needed for oil and gas well cleanup. (Press-Telegram)

UTILITIES:
• Record numbers of Colorado residents seek assistance paying rising utility bills. (Colorado Sun)
• Xcel Energy posts record high profits after raising Colorado customers’ rates. (Denver7)
• New Mexico Gov. Michelle Lujan Grisham appoints three members to the state utility regulatory commission and creates a tribal advisory council for the regulators. (Associated Press)
• A Sierra Club report finds two of three major Northwest utilities are transitioning too slowly away from fossil fuels to meet key climate benchmarks. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)

COAL: Wyoming utilities propose rate hikes to pay for state-mandated studies of the feasibility of installing carbon capture to keep retiring coal power plants running. (WyoFile)

SOLAR:
• Idaho regulators approve a utility’s controversial solar study, opening the door for cuts to rooftop solar compensation. (Idaho Press)
• California researchers are poised to launch a prototype satellite to test components of a plan to generate solar power in space and send it back to Earth. (news release)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Nevada’s largest school district acquires its first electric bus. (Associated Press)

HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department gives a positive recommendation to a proposed four state Western hydrogen hub’s concept paper. (Farmington Daily Times)

COMMENTARY: A Colorado journalist says advanced nuclear reactors — in addition to solar and wind power and storage — will be necessary to meet rising power demand. (Writers on the Range)