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GEOTHERMAL: The federal Bureau of Land Management approves the Fervo Cape enhanced geothermal energy project in southwest Utah, which is expected to generate up to 2,000 MW when fully built out. (Washington Post)
ALSO: The Biden administration proposes exempting small-scale geothermal exploration on federal land from environmental review in an effort to accelerate development. (news release)
NUCLEAR POWER:
OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA fines Hilcorp Energy $9.4 million by emitting nearly 2,000 tons of methane and other pollutants in violation of federal and state laws at its oil and gas facilities in northwestern New Mexico. (news release)
GRID:
UTILITIES: Arizona regulators respond to lawsuits accusing them of skirting state law when exempting a proposed 200 MW natural gas plant from environmental review by considering each 50 MW unit separately. (Arizona Capitol Times)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
PUBLIC LANDS: The federal Bureau of Land Management finalizes land use plans for western Colorado aimed at protecting big game and sage grouse habitat from oil and gas development. (news release)
SOLAR: California community choice aggregators sign up to acquire 394 MW of solar power and 171 MW of battery storage capacity. (Solar Industry)
MINING: Eighty-five religious organizations file a brief supporting Apache advocates’ lawsuit seeking to block a proposed land exchange and copper mine in central Arizona. (ICT)
This article was originally published by Colorado Newsline.
The state commission that regulates Colorado’s oil and gas industry this week adopted its first set of rules governing geothermal drilling, taking another step towards fulfilling the broader mandate it was given as part of a legislative makeover of the agency last year. But regulators and experts say not to expect a “boom” in the new technology just yet.
The Energy and Carbon Management Commission was formerly known as the Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission until lawmakers rebranded it in 2023. The name change that came with new authority to regulate emerging industries like carbon capture and so-called deep geothermal energy.
ECMC adopted its Deep Geothermal Operations rules on a unanimous 5-0 vote Monday. The 59-page addition to the agency’s rulebook outlines permitting and enforcement procedures broadly similar to those already in place for oil and gas operations, giving the commission the power to approve or deny permits to protect health and safety and ensuring that local governments have a say in the process.
While existing technologies like heat pumps involve drilling geothermal wells hundreds of feet into the ground to heat and cool homes and even entire neighborhoods, the deep geothermal industry aims to help power the electric grid by drilling thousands of feet down into much hotter pockets of the Earth’s crust. To date, the application of deep geothermal technology has been limited by a variety of factors, but some experts point to its potential to serve as a “baseload” source of clean energy to help offset the intermittency of renewables like wind and solar.
Gov. Jared Polis, who has touted geothermal energy’s potential in his “Heat Beneath Our Feet” initiative, said in a statement Monday that with the ECMC’s new rules, the state is “poised to leverage this clean, renewable energy resource.”
“Colorado has incredible low-cost renewable energy resources like geothermal that can help reduce emissions and save Coloradans money,” Polis said. “Geothermal energy can play an integral role in powering the way Coloradans live, work and play, and will help future generations.”
The feasibility of tapping into deep geothermal resources can vary widely according to local geology. A study released last month by the ECMC, the Colorado Geological Survey and Atlanta-based energy firm Teverra analyzed “geothermal utilization opportunities” and found that the Piceance Basin north of Grand Junction, the Raton Basin near Trinidad and a “localized hot spot” along the Colorado-Kansas border rank as the state’s most promising locations.
Colorado Communities for Climate Action, a coalition of 43 local governments supportive of clean energy policies, said the rules adopted by the ECMC struck an “impressive balance.”
“Local governments are optimistic about the role of deep geothermal electricity in efficiently decarbonizing Colorado’s power grid,” Emma Pinter, an Adams County commissioner and vice president of Colorado Communities for Climate Action, said in a statement. “But we have to make sure this new technology benefits all Coloradans and their environment while avoiding the damage we have seen from oil and gas development and other extractive industries.”
“Despite its promise as a clean energy source, (deep geothermal operations) will have some adverse impacts, although we don’t yet know the scope of them, and it’s important to recognize that,” Kate Burke, an assistant county attorney for Boulder County, told commissioners in a rulemaking hearing last week. “The net impacts … should be less than oil and gas, and in some instances, the scale may be smaller, but that doesn’t mean there won’t be impacts to the people, plants and animals living near the facilities.”
Geothermal Rising, a trade group representing geothermal energy companies, was “very satisfied with where the draft rules have landed,” an attorney for the group, Matt Lepore, told commissioners Monday. Lepore is a former chair of the agency who departed in 2018 and has gone on to represent the oil and gas industry in commission proceedings.
Environmental groups have urged the ECMC to follow up with a second geothermal rulemaking process to flesh out its regulations before operations ramp up. Commissioner Brett Ackerman, a former Colorado Parks and Wildlife official, said prior to Monday’s vote that it was important not to “hamper industry” at an early stage, but the agency should “appropriately address future concerns and opportunities as they arise.”
“I agree that it’s highly unlikely that there’s any pending boom of deep geothermal development,” Ackerman said. “We’re rather more at a pilot stage.”
GEOTHERMAL: Southern California Edison signs on to purchase 320 MW of power from an enhanced geothermal energy facility under development in Utah, boosting the nascent technology. (KTXL)
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE: A Colorado judge clears the way for a local governments’ lawsuit looking to hold oil and gas companies accountable for climate change-related damages. (CPR)
HYDROPOWER: Yakama Nation leaders criticize federal regulators for failing to consult with them on a proposed pumped hydropower storage project in Washington state after the tribe refused to reveal ceremonial and religious knowledge. (High Country News)
SOLAR:
WIND: Wyoming regulators prepare to consider legal snags that have delayed development of a proposed 504 MW wind facility in the southern part of the state. (Cowboy State Daily)
STORAGE: An Arizona utility brings two battery energy storage systems online with a combined 340 MW capacity. (news release)
AVIATION: California regulators propose requiring jet fuel suppliers to offset their product’s greenhouse gas pollution by paying for emissions-reduction projects. (E&E News, subscription)
GRID:
NUCLEAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A mapping tool finds electric vehicle charging deserts persist even in strong EV markets, including Los Angeles. (Axios)
COAL: Advocates push back against the proposed sale of Canada coal mines blamed for contaminating Montana waters, saying it could affect remediation efforts. (Montana Free Press)
GEOTHERMAL: Google agrees to purchase about 112 MW of enhanced geothermal-generated electricity from NV Energy to power its Nevada data centers. (Reuters)
SOLAR: An Arizona city plans to install 3 MW of solar capacity over 660 parking spaces at municipal facilities. (Mesa Tribune)
GRID:
WIND: A developer begins site investigation surveys for its proposed 1,600 MW Canopy offshore wind farm off northern California’s coast. (Windpower)
UTILITIES:
OIL & GAS:
TRANSPORTATION:
CLIMATE:
DIVESTMENT: Advocates urge California’s public employee pension fund to limit its investments in ExxonMobil after the company sued climate-advocate shareholders. (E&E News, subscription)
COAL: Right-wing Wyoming lawmakers call for a special session to fight the Biden administration’s proposal to end new federal coal leasing in the Powder River Basin. (Cowboy State Daily)
NUCLEAR: A Wyoming community college receives $2.4 million in state funds to develop a nuclear technology program to support a proposed advanced reactor at a retiring coal plant. (Douglas Budget)
MINING: Conservation groups prepare to sue the U.S. Forest Service for allegedly violating federal law when approving a copper mine’s expansion in central Arizona. (news release)
GEOTHERMAL: Eversource will begin operating a unique, $14 million pilot project this week: the nation’s first utility-operated underground thermal energy network connecting buildings around Framingham, Massachusetts. (Canary Media)
BIOENERGY: A Rhode Island bioenergy facility that was supposed to be providing a Canadian refinery with renewable natural gas by last summer still hasn’t finished construction, leaving both its future and the refinery’s climate goals in jeopardy. (CBC)
POLICY: Pennsylvania’s House holds a hearing over a bill that would restructure the state board responsible for handling federal energy incentives to let it finance energy projects itself. (Penn Live Patriot-News)
FOSSIL FUELS:
GRID:
BUILDINGS: New Hampshire is among the roughly two dozen states fighting proposed federal regulations around new energy efficiency standards for stoves, cooktops and ovens. (Nebraska Examiner)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
TECH: Some climate tech experts say Massachusetts has the right combination of innovation and accessible capital to cultivate a successful climate tech hub on a global scale. (ABC News)
SOLAR: A vertical farming company opens a large strawberry farming warehouse entirely powered by solar energy in New Jersey. (Food Bev Media)
COMMENTARY: The head of a New York climate justice coalition argues against implementing the Clean Fuel Standard, citing the failure of similar policies in California that he says hurt disadvantaged communities. (City Limits)
GEOTHERMAL: A new map reveals potential geothermal hotspots across the U.S. where subterranean heat is strong enough to be tapped for electricity generation. (The Hill)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CARBON CAPTURE: Governments around the world need to quadruple their carbon capture efforts, including by planting more trees and deploying capture technology, to meet global climate goals, researchers find. (Reuters)
STORAGE: Long-duration energy storage technologies like compressed air and pumped hydro have become cheaper to use than lithium-ion batteries for 8-plus-hour discharge durations, a report finds. (Utility Dive)
OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA let its criticism of the Tennessee Valley Authority’s decision to build a new gas-fired plant in Tennessee go by the wayside after the federal utility essentially ignored the complaint. (E&E News)
PIPELINES:
SOLAR: Critics say planned fees for Maine solar projects built on “high-value agricultural soils” unfairly single out clean energy based on anecdotal evidence of its impact on farmland. (Energy News Network)
GRID:
CLIMATE: Scientists find the Earth is warming at a record rate, but don’t see evidence that human-caused global warming is significantly ramping up. (Associated Press)
POLITICS: Former President Donald Trump indicates he would do away with the Interior Department — which oversees energy development on federal land — if he is elected to another term. (E&E News)
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