Xcel plans $22 billion buildup to accommodate data centers

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Western Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

DATA CENTERS

• Xcel Energy expects to spend about $22 billion in the next 15 years to meet new data centers’ projected power demand in Colorado, but advocates say overbuilding generation capacity risks burdening ratepayers with stranded assets. (Colorado Sun)

• Washington state officials and residents weigh the economic benefits of data centers against the impacts of their energy and water use. (NPR)

• New Mexico utilities grapple with meeting an increasing number of data centers’ growing power demands while complying with state requirements to eliminate greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. (Albuquerque Journal)

• Data center developers say the Intermountain Power Project coal plant and hundreds of acres of solar-ready land are drawing them to a small central Utah town. (KSL, ABC4)

CLEAN ENERGY

• The Northern Arapaho tribe in Wyoming seeks new funding for its rooftop solar program after the U.S. EPA cancels $10 million in federal Solar For All grants for the project. (Inside Climate News)

• California’s clean energy industry calls on regulators to more aggressively wield a state law allowing them to preempt local authorities and approve proposed energy projects within 270 days. (Politico)

• Backers of a contested proposed solar-plus-storage facility near Santa Fe urge local officials to approve the project before federal clean energy tax credits expire later this year. (Santa Fe New Mexican)

• National Renewable Solutions brings online its 190 MW solar-plus-storage project on the Jicarilla Apache Nation in northern New Mexico. (Renewables Now)

FOSSIL FUELS

• California advocates say state officials have failed to adequately plan for the looming shutdown of two petroleum refineries and the loss of 17% of its refining capacity. (Grist)

• Suncor plans to spend $57 million to reduce greenhouse gas emissions from its Denver-area refinery, but says it cannot meet state emissions reduction requirements without pollution control subsidies. (Denver Post)

• A federal judge vacates a Biden-era rule extending federal endangered species protections to the lesser prairie chicken, a move that is expected to affect Permian Basin oil and gas drilling. (E&E News)

• A western Colorado county approves TEP Rocky Mountain’s proposal to drill 39 directional natural gas wells. (Post-Independent)

• The federal Bureau of Land Management seeks public input on the Navajo Transitional Energy Company’s proposal to expand its Spring Creek coal mine in Montana. (news release)

NUCLEAR

• A Utah agency seeks a $5 million loan from the state’s energy fund to prepare a national guard base to host proposed uranium enrichment and nuclear reactor manufacturing facilities. (KPCW)

UTILITIES

• California regulators order two utilities to lower their statistical value of a human life, saying the higher estimate could be used to justify expensive fire-mitigation investments. (Voice of San Diego)

GRID

• Some Utah residents push back on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed transmission line, saying it will harm property values and views. (Daily Herald)

STORAGE

• The U.S. EPA says cleanup work and battery removal will begin at the fire-damaged Vistra Moss Landing Energy Storage facility in California next month. (Local News Matters)

MINING

• A federal judge dismisses the San Carlos Apache Tribe’s and advocates’ lawsuit seeking to block a federal land exchange that would clear the way for a copper mine at Oak Flat in central Arizona. (Associated Press)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Trump admin tightens vise on wind and solar with new tax rules — Jeff St. John

• Deadly blast at US Steel plant highlights need to clean up the industry — Maria Gallucci

• A universal adapter for solar, batteries, EVs, and microgrids is here — Jeff St. John

• As hurricane season returns, Puerto Rico’s grid still struggles — Kathryn Krawczyk