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INDUSTRY: A new report links coal-powered steel plants, including one outside Pittsburgh, to increased asthma symptoms, cancer rates, and other health effects. (Inside Climate News)
NUCLEAR:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID: Power plant owners tell federal regulators they support PJM Interconnection’s plans to delay its capacity auctions while it creates new capacity market rules but fear the pause will hurt investor confidence. (Utility Dive)
EFFICIENCY:
SOLAR: Sunrun launches a virtual power plant program with a downstate New York utility that ties together more than 300 solar-plus-storage installations. (PV Magazine)
POLITICS:
OFFSHORE WIND: GE Vernova says its offshore wind business just finished its strongest quarter in years, but the failure of a Vineyard Wind turbine blade and the company’s need to replace other components posed huge challenges. (RTO Insider, subscription; E&E News, subscription)
EMISSIONS: New York Gov. Kathy Hochul defends her pause of New York City’s congestion pricing plan even as funding for the city’s public transit system falls into further danger. (Times Union)
FOSSIL FUELS: Pennsylvania health officials published studies linking fracking to numerous detrimental health effects over a year ago, but advocates say the state has done nothing to make relevant changes. (Daily Climate)
ALSO: In New Jersey, a public pressure campaign mounted against a planned gas-fired plant in an environmental justice community results in hundreds of calls and emails to the commission behind it. (NJ Spotlight)
GRID:
WIND: The announcement that the Gulf of Maine will soon see its first offshore wind lease auction has renewed calls from the New England fishing community for more environmental review to understand potential impacts on their business. (Boston Herald, subscription)
MINING: Environmental advocates suggest that a Pennsylvania company’s faltering plans to extract lithium from wastewater raise questions about the industry’s viability. (Inside Climate News)
BUILDINGS:
SOLAR: A northeastern Maine town extends a temporary moratorium on new medium-to-large-scale solar projects by 180 days past its initial Oct. 5 expiration date. (Bar Harbor Story)
UTILITIES: Maryland utility regulation staff say the commission should revise the multi-year rate plan framework to better suit ratepayers, but several Exelon utilities claim the current format benefits customers and state policy. (Utility Dive)
RENEWABLE ENERGY:
GEOENGINEERING: The rise and fall of an aquaculture-turned-carbon removal startup with offices in Maine underscores the promise and problems with trying to geoengineer our way out of climate change. (Canary Media)
TRANSPORTATION: Maine officials pause plans to expand a turnpike in the Portland suburbs because of public feedback, which included a desire to add more public transit options and prevent taking land from a historic farm. (WGME, WGME, Portland Press Herald)
OIL & GAS: A judge halts work on a 5,000-well oil and gas drilling project in Wyoming after finding federal regulators miscalculated the project’s groundwater impacts. (Courthouse News Service)
ALSO:
UTILITIES: California regulators approve Pacific Gas & Electric’s fourth proposed rate hike in 15 months, saying it is necessary to recoup costs associated with winter storms and wildfire mitigation. (Sacramento Bee)
ELECTRIFICATION: California advocates call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to sign a bill that would allow utilities to electrify entire neighborhoods rather than replace costly natural gas lines. (Canary Media)
GRID:
MICROGRIDS: The U.S. Energy Department loans a southern California tribal nation $72.8 million to fund a 15 MW carport solar array, a vanadium flow battery storage system and a microgrid. (Tribal Business News)
WIND: Washington state’s energy siting council votes to recommend approval of a less-scaled back version of the proposed Horse Heaven wind and solar project in the southeastern part of the state. (Center Square)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
CLEAN ENERGY: A Utah city votes not to participate in a state program giving residents the option to acquire 100% of their electricity from renewable sources. (Sandy City Journal)
COAL: A California real estate firm acquires the troubled Kemmerer coal mine in southwestern Wyoming, but does not disclose its plans for the facility. (Cowboy State Daily)
COMMENTARY: A California advocate calls on state regulators to reconsider a rule blocking solar contractors from installing residential battery systems, saying it will increase costs and slow the clean energy transition. (Times of San Diego)
GRID: Experts warn Houston’s experience with Hurricane Beryl this summer — widespread power outages followed by a dangerous heat wave — is an “absolute certainty” to affect other parts of the U.S. that are unprepared for such a scenario. (Washington Post)
ALSO: An analysis finds power outages cost Texas consumers $35,685 for every megawatt-hour of load that goes unserved, although state regulatory staff say their own research shows the figure is somewhat lower. (Utility Dive)
STORAGE:
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Texas’ plans to build solar, wind and battery projects over the next year and a half dwarf those of any other state, including second-place California. (Canary Media)
BIOMASS: Critics claim Georgia Power’s plan to purchase 80 MW from three wood-burning power plants is too expensive compared to other alternatives, but utility officials say the move is an attempt to diversify its power sources and boost the state’s forestry sector. (Capitol Beat News Service, WABE)
OIL & GAS: A Virginia gas utility plans to expand into new areas now that it can purchase natural gas from the Mountain Valley Pipeline. (Cardinal News)
HYDROGEN:
POLITICS: Congress passes a Texas representative’s bill to change how federal officials collect royalties for oil and gas leases on public lands, essentially relieving companies from handing over hundreds of millions of dollars in advances. (Houston Chronicle)
UTILITIES: North Carolina regulatory staff support reducing Dominion Power’s requested rate increase by half, with a final decision expected by November. (S&P Global)
COMMENTARY:
OIL & GAS: As a natural gas company declares its drilling operations “pose no public health risk” in a self-monitoring partnership with a Pennsylvania agency, advocates say the company’s report is full of omissions and that the state’s process “boggles the mind.” (Inside Climate News)
CLIMATE: Scientists delay a geoengineering project that would measure the impact of dumping sodium hydroxide into the ocean, two days after a federal agency warns of impacts on marine species. (Boston Herald)
GRID:
UTILITIES:
EQUITY: A pilot program in New York will cap electricity costs at no more than 6% of household income for 1,000 participants. (Staten Island Advance, subscription)
WIND: During a visit to Cape Cod, Massachusetts Gov. Maura Healey meets with protesters opposing transmission connections for offshore wind farms; opponents of a similar project in New Jersey are hosting a public meeting tonight. (WCAI, Shore News Network)
SMART METERS: A small group of opponents pushes for legislation allowing Pennsylvanians to opt out of smart meter installations, citing health concerns that experts say have no basis in science. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)
BUILDINGS: Developers last week broke ground on New Hampshire’s first net-zero housing project aimed at middle-class buyers. (NHPR)
COMMENTARY: An editorial board says a Maryland beach town’s opposition to offshore wind is motivated by politics, not facts. (Baltimore Sun, subscription)
COAL: An Appalachian Power official tells West Virginia regulators the utility continued to operate three coal-fired power plants that lost a combined $87 million over the last year because excessive coal inventories on site threatened worker safety. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
SOLAR:
WIND: Federal officials mail surveys to residents on the Gulf Coast to gauge their feelings about offshore wind energy development. (KPLC)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
OIL & GAS: Officials in oil and gas drilling states say complying with federal endangered species and historic preservation rules is slowing the cleanup of abandoned oil and gas wells. (Grist)
ALSO:
SOLAR:
UTILITIES:
STORAGE:
PIPELINES: Crews rush to install erosion control devices and prepare still exposed portions of the Mountain Valley Pipeline for heavy rainfall from Tropical Storm Debby. (Roanoke Times)
NUCLEAR: Nuclear power is responsible for the largest share of power generation in Southeast states with the least reliance on fossil fuels. (Canary Media)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: West Virginia lags most states in electric vehicle infrastructure, with additional delays in the transportation department’s search for a vendor to build charging stations. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
GRID: West Virginia residents and businesses are concerned about Appalachian Power’s plan to upgrade transmission lines near a war memorial and popular trail system. (WSAZ)
OVERSIGHT: An Austin, Texas, board proposes bylaw changes to enable it to advise the city council on natural gas, citing recent price increases as a concern. (Daily Texan)
CLIMATE: Climate change is making wildfires in West Virginia more dangerous, but the state agency charged with managing them has been hobbled by budget cuts. (Mountain State Spotlight)
COMMENTARY:
OIL & GAS: Residents say their longtime advocacy work is paying off as five of seven fracking waste injection wells in southeastern Ohio have now been suspended after state officials said they pose a threat to the public and environment. (Ohio Capital Journal)
ALSO: A North Dakota commission will take another week to 10 days to pick the state’s next top oil and gas regulator to replace a former longtime department head. (North Dakota Monitor)
SOLAR:
CLIMATE:
GRID: North Dakota regulators will hold a conference this week on the potential power grid implications of the anticipated spike in data centers. (North Dakota Monitor)
NUCLEAR: South Dakota regulators push back on Xcel Energy’s request for South Dakota ratepayers to contribute to annual payments to a tribe located near a Minnesota power plant. (SDPB)
BIOFUELS: An Iowa ethanol company with hundreds of member producers across the country sues its marketing partner for $7 million, alleging errors in attempting to sell fuel-grade ethanol. (Iowa Capital Dispatch)
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The police department in Green Bay, Wisconsin, launches an electric vehicle pilot program that has deployed two EVs to ticket speeding vehicles and enforce parking violations. (Press-Gazette)
COAL: A federal judge grants Ameren Missouri’s request for a private mediator to potentially resolve the utility’s 13-year legal dispute with the U.S. government over Clean Air Act violations involving a coal plant near St. Louis. (Bloomberg Law, subscription)
COMMENTARY: Federal clean energy policies are helping Ohio become a leading manufacturing hub for solar and storage, the head of a national solar advocacy group writes. (Cleveland.com)
URANIUM: The Navajo Nation plans to block trucks carrying uranium ore from a Grand Canyon-area mine across tribal land to a Utah processing center, saying the shipments expose people to a substance “that has devastated our community.” (Associated Press, news release)
SOLAR:
CLIMATE: Oregon regulators seek public input on proposed climate regulations aimed at slashing greenhouse gas emissions that were overhauled after being derailed by a fossil fuel industry lawsuit. (Oregon Capital Chronicle)
POLITICS: Left-leaning climate advocacy groups endorse Kamala Harris for president based on her record as a U.S. senator from California. (Heated)
OIL & GAS:
TRANSMISSION:
GRID: California’s grid operator finds its Western Energy Imbalance Market yielded participants $365 million in benefits from April to June this year. (RTO Insider, subscription)
WIND: A Wyoming startup looks to raise nearly $13 million to develop and market its horizontal low-to-the-ground wind energy loops, saying they are cheaper and more environmentally friendly than conventional turbines. (Cowboy State Daily)
UTILITIES: Idaho regulators seek public input on Rocky Mountain Power’s proposed wildfire hazard mitigation plan. (Idaho Capital Sun)
COAL ASH: Georgia Power faces big questions about its plan to clean up coal ash at power plants across the state — including whether the U.S. EPA will go along after it nixed a similar scheme in Alabama. (Grist/WABE)
ALSO: North Carolina residents ask the U.S. EPA to investigate the extent of coal ash contamination in a town after extracting samples with “elevated radioactivity.” (WCNC)
TRANSITION: West Virginia regulators consider renewing an air permit for a coal-fired power plant slated for conversion to a hydrogen-powered graphite production facility after its co-owner is sued for making false statements to receive funding. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
UTILITIES:
STORAGE: Chattanooga, Tennessee’s electric utility plans to add 36 MW of battery storage at two decommissioned substations as part of a plan to save money and add a total 150 MW of capacity to boost grid reliability. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)
WIND: A company’s unsolicited request for an offshore wind lease in the Gulf of Mexico is reviving hope around the sector after federal officials previously canceled a lease auction later this year for “lack of competitive interest.” (Utility Dive)
GRID:
OIL & GAS:
CLIMATE:
HYDROGEN: The U.S. Energy Department issues $30 million toward the development of a hydrogen hub in West Virginia, Ohio and Pennsylvania. (WV News)
SOLAR: A Korean energy company sells a 260 MW solar project in Texas to another Korean company. (Renewables Now)
POLITICS: West Virginia U.S. Sen. Joe Manchin’s support of a sweeping climate law has benefited the state with new manufacturing and energy projects, but is still unpopular with voters and may have hastened the end of his time in Congress. (E&E News)
COMMENTARY: A company’s proposal to mine mineral sands near the Okefenokee Swamp could disrupt the swamp’s status as a carbon sink, writes a conservationist. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
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