Discover the Latest News and Initiatives for a Sustainable Future

OIL & GAS: Federal officials approve the construction of a deepwater oil export facility off the Texas Gulf Coast that will be the largest oil export terminal in the U.S. (Houston Chronicle)

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ALSO:

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott celebrates the groundbreaking of a 380 MW natural gas-fired “peaker” plant that intends to take advantage of new state incentives to spur such construction. (KXAN)
• U.S. House Republicans hold a field hearing in Texas to argue against the Biden administration’s pause on approval of new liquified natural gas export terminals. (E&E News, subscription)
• Executives of a Georgia oil company lobby for changes to a federal law that requires the use of American-made ships to transport goods between U.S. ports, which they say blocks the shipment of domestic oil and gas to the East Coast. (Savannah Morning News)

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STORAGE: Federal investigators cite an electric vehicle battery plant in Georgia for safety violations after a recent fire in which employees “suffered potentially permanent respiratory damage.” (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

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NUCLEAR:

• Experts are divided on whether Georgia Power’s costly, long-delayed expansion of its nuclear Plant Vogtle heralds a new era for nuclear power development or will discourage future investment in the power source. (Grist)
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin amends two bills to allow Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power to seek cost recovery for development of small modular nuclear reactors. (Cardinal News)

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EMISSIONS:

• The U.S. EPA issues a new rule requiring more than 200 chemical plants, more than half of which are in Louisiana and Texas, to reduce toxic emissions that are likely to cause cancer. (Associated Press, Texas Tribune)
• Residents of Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley” hail the new rule as a relief and the first time their complaints about risk from nearby facilities have been taken seriously. (WWNO)
• North Carolina regulators begin public hearings on Duke Energy’s long-term plans to reduce carbon emissions while keeping power bills affordable. (Blue Ridge Public Radio)

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SOLAR:

• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin signs bills to create and expand community solar programs by Appalachian Power and Dominion Energy. (Cardinal News)
• A Texas Congress member announces a $30 million federal grant to fund the installation of solar panels on rooftops, parking lots, and parking spaces across 42 city facilities in San Antonio. (KABB)
• The Southeast accounts for half of the top 10 U.S. states with the highest estimated savings from going solar, according to a study. (CleanTechnica)
• Oklahoma residents gather to oppose NextEra Energy’s plans to build a solar and battery storage facility. (KOKH)

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BIOMASS: Mississippi officials agreed to give more than $24 million in incentives to wood pellet producers in an effort to revitalize struggling rural areas, only to see a global debate erupt around the industry and its biggest company file for bankruptcy. (Mississippi Today)

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OVERSIGHT: South Carolina regulators move to pass sweeping legislation that overhauls how the state regulates utilities to help clear the way for a planned natural gas-fired power plant, while renewable energy companies lobby for changes to encourage more solar development. (Utility Dive)

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GRID: Texas solar and battery installations are growing so much that federal energy officials say there’s less need for natural gas generation during the day. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, PV Magazine)

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COAL ASH: Duke Energy announces a new rail yard and loading dock at a retired coal-fired power plant in North Carolina to assist with disposal of about 1.3 million tons of coal ash. (Greensboro News & Record)

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UTILITIES: The Tennessee Valley Authority names a new executive leader for its east region, which includes eastern Tennessee, northern Georgia, western North Carolina and southwestern Virginia. (news release)

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ELECTRIFICATION: A new Department of Energy program aims to help manufacturers develop next-generation heat pumps that can replace large buildings’ rooftop heating and cooling systems and save U.S. businesses as much as $5 billion annually. (Utility Dive)

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ALSO: Clean energy advocates and professional cooks continue to work to electrify restaurant kitchens and homes in Berkeley, California, even after a court shot down the city’s natural gas-hookup ban. (Guardian)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• While the average electric vehicle today gets the equivalent of 106 miles per gallon, new technology could double that number to more than 200 in the coming decades, a report suggests. (Washington Post)
• An appeals court upholds the U.S. EPA’s decision to allow California to set its own electric vehicle sales mandates and tailpipe emissions limits. (Reuters)

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OIL & GAS:

• Federal officials approve the construction of a deepwater oil export facility off the Texas Gulf Coast that will be the largest oil export terminal in the U.S. (Houston Chronicle)
• Democratic senators join climate advocates at a protest decrying utilities that spend ratepayer money on fossil fuel lobbying. (Guardian)
• House Democrats call out Republicans for conditioning Ukraine aid on an increase in natural gas exports. (The Hill)

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EMISSIONS:

• The U.S. EPA issues a new rule requiring more than 200 chemical plants to reduce toxic emissions that are likely to cause cancer, winning praise from environmental justice advocates in Louisiana’s “Cancer Alley.” (Associated Press, WWNO)
• San Jose, New York, and San Francisco top a ranking of cities whose transit systems have the biggest impact on reducing transportation emissions. (Axios)

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GRID:

• The U.S. Department of Energy awards about $5 million each to three organizations to tackle key research and development barriers to long duration energy storage. (Utility Dive)
• Development of advanced transmission lines remains stalled over cost concerns even as top U.S. officials and new reports make a case for their potential to carry up to four times more power than conventional lines. (E&E News, subscription)
• Texas solar and battery installations are growing so much that federal energy officials say there’s less need for natural gas generation during the day. (U.S. Energy Information Administration, PV Magazine)
• Vermont utility Green Mountain Power used its residential customers’ battery storage systems to offset the drop in solar power during Monday’s total eclipse. (WCAX)

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NUCLEAR: Experts are divided on whether Georgia Power’s costly, long-delayed expansion of its nuclear Plant Vogtle heralds a new era for nuclear power development or will discourage future investment in the power source. (Grist)

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SOLAR: New York officials confirm Tesla’s Buffalo solar panel factory uses panels made by a competitor on its roof, not its own product. (Investigative Post)

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CLIMATE:

• Bloomberg Philanthropies awards $50,000 each to 100 cities worldwide to launch youth-led climate programs. (Grist)
• Republican U.S. Rep. Mariannette Miller-Meeks of Iowa says her positions on conservation, reducing emissions and being a clean energy-leading country drove her interest in chairing the Conservative Climate Caucus. (Daily Iowan)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: An appeals court upholds the U.S. EPA’s decision to allow California to set its own electric vehicle sales mandates and tailpipe emissions limits. (Reuters)

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ALSO: A California program allowing electric and hybrid vehicle drivers to use carpool lanes without passengers is set to expire this fall, affecting more than 400,000 motorists if it isn’t renewed. (NBC San Diego)

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ELECTRIFICATION: Berkeley, California advocates and professional cooks continue to work to electrify restaurant kitchens and homes after a court shot down the city’s natural gas-hookup ban. (Guardian)

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UTILITIES: A Colorado county says Xcel Energy inadequately alerted the public to a planned outage aimed at reducing wildfire hazard during severe winds last weekend. (Colorado Sun)

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OIL & GAS:

• Oregon residents and advocates urge state regulators to deny a fuel terminal’s air quality permit that would allow it to store biofuels on the condition it stops handling crude oil. (Portland Tribune)
• Idaho regulators seek public input on proposed oil and gas drilling rules on state lands. (news release)

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POLLUTION: The U.S. EPA proposes allowing Wyoming to amend a haze reduction plan to factor in the partial conversion of a coal plant to natural gas, which would settle a long-running dispute between the agency and the state. (E&E News)

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TRANSMISSION: Arizona advocates, residents and tribal nations continue to challenge a segment of the SunZia transmission project under development through a river valley, saying it will harm ecological and cultural sites. (Inside Climate News)

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WIND: Wyoming advocates and local officials push back on state lawmakers’ efforts to increase taxes on wind power generation, saying it would stifle the industry’s growth. (Inside Climate News)

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SOLAR:

• An analysis finds solar installations in Utah generated eight times more power in 2023 than in 2014 even though state lawmakers continue to push fossil fuel-friendly policies. (Axios)
• A company begins construction on a 57 MW solar installation in southern California. (news release)

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CLEAN ENERGY:

• A national laboratory finds a rapid buildup of wind, solar and battery energy storage would be the most effective way for an Alaska region to tackle a looming natural gas shortage. (KTOO)
• An Arizona university is set to launch a clean energy Master of Science program this fall. (news release)

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BIOFUELS: California researchers predict growing demand for aviation biofuels will drive land-use changes that could offset the fuels’ emissions benefits and take farms out of food production. (AgWeb)

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CARBON CAPTURE: A California company proposes a pilot project at a Washington state port that would enhance ocean water’s ability to capture and store carbon dioxide. (Peninsula Daily News)

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MINING: A company submits a plan to restart a long-idled uranium mill in southern Utah. (news release)  

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COMMENTARY: A Wyoming columnist praises environmentalists and climate deniers for their unsuccessful joint effort to kill a costly coal-friendly carbon capture mandate. (WyoFile)

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Just about every week, Shawn Grant, who works for Salt Lake City-based Rocky Mountain Power, gets an inquiry from another utility looking for information about the company’s Wattsmart battery program.

“We want to do something. … How did you guys do it?’” Grant, the company’s customer innovation manager, says he’s often asked. “We’re always fielding those questions.”

The program pays customers with solar who opt to install battery storage systems for the ability to use that stored electricity to help balance flows on the electric grid.

For customers, the benefits come in the form of lower electric bills and backup power in case of an outage. For Rocky Mountain Power, which has 1.2 million customers in Utah, Wyoming and Idaho, the program allows the company to harness the collective power stored in those distributed batteries to shave electric demand when it spikes rather than calling for more generation from a traditional power plant, among other uses.

“We’re using every battery every day to reduce demand on the grid,” Grant said.

The concept is known as a virtual power plant, and grid operators, utilities, state regulators and lawmakers across the country are increasingly exploring the possibilities. They are seen as a cost-effective way to aid an electric grid that in many parts of the country is increasingly embattled by power plant retirements as well as difficulties building new, cleaner generation and the transmission lines they need — all at a time when huge projected electric demand increases loom.

“We’re now in this load-growth era,” said Robin Dutta, acting executive director at the Chesapeake Solar and Storage Association, a solar and storage industry group focused on Maryland, Virginia and Washington, D.C. “When you’re mitigating peak demand growth at the source, that’s perhaps the most cost effective way to modernize the grid.”

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‘Faster, better, cheaper’  

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Nearly 800,000 American homes installed a new solar or solar and energy storage system in 2023, according to the Solar Energy Industry Association. That growth set a record, with about 6.8 gigawatts installed, a 12% increase from 2022. Electric vehicles, another potential grid resource as a store of energy, also broke a sales record last year, despite consumer uptake being slower than some expected.

“These are devices that people are buying anyway because they’re faster, better, cheaper and virtual power plants allows everybody to leverage these devices while putting some money back in the pockets of people that bought the thing in the first place,”said Brian Turner, a director at Advanced Energy United, a clean energy trade group

The U.S. Department of Energy found in a report last year that large-scale deployment of virtual power plants “could help address demand increases and rising peaks at lower cost than conventional resources, reducing the energy costs for Americans — one in six of whom are already behind on electricity bills.”

They’re not a new concept, the DOE noted, adding that most existing virtual power plants are so-called demand response programs. In Virginia, for example, the commonwealth for years has run a program that enrolls hundreds of public facilities (airports, universities, K-12 schools, municipal buildings, water treatment plants and others) that agree to reduce or shift their electric demand to relieve strain on the grid. The DOE report says deploying 80 to 160 gigawatts of virtual power plants by 2030 could save about $10 billion in annual grid costs and would “direct grid spending back to electricity consumers.” At that scale, virtual power plants could meet between 10 and 20% of peak electric demand. The Rocky Mountain Institute, a research nonprofit focused on sustainability, called virtual power plants “a valuable and largely overlooked resource for advancing key grid objectives,” including reliability, affordability, decarbonization and electrification, among others.  

However, many states are starting to take notice of the potential:

• Maryland’s legislature just passed a bill that, among other provisions, requires utilities to create a pilot program to compensate owners of distributed energy resources like solar and battery storage for services they provide to the grid. “Ratepayers and consumers who invest in clean energy systems should see financial benefits when they provide meaningful grid services,” said Del. David Fraser-Hidalgo, a Democrat from Montgomery County who carried the House version of the bill. “Our DRIVE Act does just that; pairing battery storage with renewable generation will help Maryland achieve its clean energy goals, reduce our dependence on fossil fuels and mitigate the negative impacts of climate change.”
• Michigan, afflicted by expensive electric prices and high outage rates, has pending legislation, part of a package of pro-solar bills, that would create a virtual power plant program.
• In North Carolina, the state’s Utilities Commission has approved a Duke Energy pilot, called the PowerPair program, that it had directed the company to propose that will give customers incentives to install solar and storage. One group of customers will turn over control of the batteries to the utility and the other will participate in a test of “time-of-use rates,” which aim to shift customers’ usage to periods of lower demand, like running a dishwasher overnight, Utility Dive reported.
• In the summer of 2022, the New England Independent System Operator, which manages the electric grid for Maine, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, Rhode Island and Connecticut, became the first such organization to use a virtual power plant, Politico’s E&E News reported. Sunrun, one of the nation’s largest solar installers, said it linked an estimated 5,000 small solar and battery systems to share 1.8 gigawatt hours of energy. In the summer of 2022, during a heat wave that sent temperatures soaring across New England states, residential and other non-utility solar installations reduced demand on the system by about 4,000 megawatts.
• The Pennsylvania Public Utility Commission announced in February that it was seeking comment on proposed rules related to use of distributed energy resources and virtual power plants. “Distributed resources provide the possibility for those who were traditionally consumers to play an active role in ensuring electric reliability and resiliency for themselves and their neighbors, and often in a less expensive way than traditional large generation that requires delivery infrastructure,” the commission’s chair and vice chair said in a joint statement.
• Arizona Public Service, the largest electric utility in the state, counts 75,000 smart residential thermostats in its Cool Reward program, which provided nearly 110 megawatts of capacity during the summer of 2022.
• A Colorado utility regulator is pushing for Xcel Energy to get a 50 megawatt virtual power plant up and running by the end of 2024, Utility Dive reported. The company, the state’s largest utility, already has a program called Renewable Battery Connect that allows it to discharge participating customers’ batteries during peak periods in exchange for financial incentives.
• In November, Puget Sound Energy, Washington’s largest utility, and AutoGrid, a California software company that provides distributed energy management systems, announced that they were expanding their partnership to develop a virtual power plant. “PSE’s VPP will reduce costs and help maintain reliable energy supply to its more than 1 million residential and business customers. Additionally, the VPP solution allows participating customers to receive monetary incentives for sharing assets with the grid and/or curtailing usage, something that’s financially beneficial for the community as well as helping the utility efficiently manage increasing electricity demand,” the companies said in a news release.

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Why it matters

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Experts who study and run the nation’s electric grid are worried about the pace of the energy transition. Old coal and gas plant retirements are accelerating, driven by economics, state clean energy policies and utilities’ own decarbonization goals. At the same time, massive backlogs in the queues to connect new power resources — overwhelmingly wind, solar and battery projects — in the regional transmission organizations that run the grid in much of the country mean big delays in replacing that retiring power generation. And after roughly a decade of flat electric demand, load growth is projected by many experts to explode as a result of transportation, industrial and home heating electrification, as well as a surge in data center development, among other factors. Throw in the fact that the construction of new transmission lines, essential to get excess power to where it might be urgently needed, has also stagnated and a problematic picture emerges.

“Most utilities in the country are planning on pretty significant load growth,” said Turner from Advanced Energy United. ”They could plan to build a new peaker plant or they could plan to ‘build’ VPPs.”

That’s where utility incentives come into play.

Generally speaking, Turner said, utilities that operate transmission and distribution systems are more friendly to the idea. Companies that also own their own generation,  – and make a sizable chunk of their income from guaranteed profits on building new plants – , might not like the idea of a program that erodes the business case for a pricey new facility.

“That’s why we have utility commissions,” Turner said. “They exist to say to the utility that virtual power plants are a cheaper option for the ratepayer and therefore you should implement it.”

However, even companies that might have resisted the idea are facing such dire electric-demand growth scenarios that virtual power plants may be attractive ways to get more flexibility out of the grid more quickly than building new generation.

“This is a way to get the capacity online faster and oftentimes cheaper,” Turner said. “Meeting that load growth is a real challenge in a lot of places.”

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CLEAN ENERGY: The vast majority of power on New England’s grid on March 30 — 82% — came from emissions-free energy resources, primarily wind and solar power, a feat considered unheard of just a decade ago. (Concord Monitor)

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OFFSHORE WIND: Federal tax credits encourage wind project owners to repower their turbines and boost energy output, as is the case at the Twin Ridges Wind Farm near Pittsburgh. (Pittsburgh Post-Gazette)

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NUCLEAR: PSEG tells federal energy regulators it will file for license renewals in 2027 for two nuclear plants — a four-year extension for Salem’s units and a 20-year extension at Hope Creek. (World Nuclear News)

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GRID:

• Federal energy regulators let PJM Interconnection provide planning expertise to help New Jersey’s public utilities board with its second offshore wind transmission solicitation. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• New England climate activists say federal energy regulators should cancel the results of the regional grid operator’s most recent forward capacity auction for being overly fossil fuel-friendly. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• A committee of New England Power Pool participants votes in favor of a two-year delay to the regional grid operator’s next forward capacity auction so it has time to implement new capacity accreditation rules. (RTO Insider, subscription)
• Con Edison Transmission and National Grid Ventures propose a transmission build-out to carry 6 GW of offshore wind from New Jersey’s Sea Girt National Guard Training Center to Howell Township. (news release)
• A New York-supported, manufacturing-focused climate tech program selects a Rochester startup creating on-site energy storage solutions for its next technical assistance cohort. (news release)

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SOLAR: A farm resort near Scranton, Pennsylvania, receives federal rural energy funds to install enough solar on a building’s roof to power 15 homes. (WVIA)

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COAL: The Army Corps of Engineers says it should be able to open a limited-access channel by the end of the month to access Baltimore’s port, through which a notable chunk of the country’s coal exports pass. (BisNow)

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UTILITIES:

• Lawmakers in New York’s Monroe County, which includes the city of Rochester, will vote today on studying the feasibility of forming a nonprofit public utility and whether it would lower rates and spur climate action. (Rochester Beacon)
• In Maryland, lawmakers advance a utility transparency bill that would make power utilities publicly detail their votes in PJM Interconnection committees, although an earlier provision to have utilities explain their positions was removed. (Maryland Matters)

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BUILDINGS: As some municipalities fight Massachusetts’ transit-oriented development rezoning plan, officials debate how far to take the policy and where to draw the line. (CommonWealth Beacon)

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EQUITY: New York City releases a new environmental equity report finding that almost half of city residents deal with “disproportionate” pollution burdens and symptoms of climate change. (The Guardian)

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TRANSIT: Although New York City is implementing congestion pricing, it’s unlikely to happen soon in Washington, D.C., where the city’s mayor still refuses to release a 2019 city study on the matter. (Axios DC)

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COMMENTARY:

• A young Maryland member of a conservative environmentalists’ group writes that his peers can “bridge the partisan divide on climate issues” by supporting nuclear power like Larry Hogan, the state’s former governor turned U.S. Senate candidate. (Maryland Matters)
• The Sierra Club’s executive director writes that ‘tireless activism” and “incremental wins” are behind the planned closures of New England’s last coal-fired generation units. (Sierra Magazine)

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SOLAR: Texas’ grid operator announces solar supplied more power to the grid in March than coal for the first time, marking an important milestone in the clean energy transition. (Houston Chronicle)

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ALSO:

• Texas solar generation fell from 12,000 MW to just over 3,000 MW during the solar eclipse, but quickly rebounded after the event while battery generation grew to fill the gap. (KDFW, Heatmap)
• A Virginia county planning commission delays a second vote on a 50 MW solar farm after voting last month to recommend denial, expressing concerns about its effect on its neighbors’ views. (Lynchburg News & Advance)

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OIL & GAS:

• Dozens of abandoned oil wells in the Arkansas River in Oklahoma generate concern about pollution amid new development. (KTUL)
• Two oil and gas companies in the Permian Basin finalize a $4.5 billion merger. (Carlsbad Current Argus)

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PIPELINES: A Louisiana State University professor develops a method of fiber-optic leak detection that could supplement or replace pressure gauges as a way of rapidly detecting leaks in oil and gas pipelines. (Reveille)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Republican Kentucky lawmakers drop a budget proposal to prohibit state agencies from purchasing electric vehicles. (E&E News, subscription)
• A few dozen electric vehicles waited in line to recharge at a station with only six charging ports after traveling to Arkansas to view the solar eclipse. (KFSM)

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TRANSITION:

• Renewable energy generation breaks records across the U.S., including in Texas, where wind energy produced twice as much power as coal last year. (Scientific American)
• The U.S. Army updates World War II-era facilities at an Tennessee ammunition plant, including the replacement of a coal-fired steam plant with natural gas. (Bristol Herald-Courier)

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GRID:

• A South Carolina family sues Duke Energy over the death of a 73-year-old who relied on an oxygen tank that failed during rolling outages in the 2022 Christmas Eve cold snap. (WHNS)
• South Carolinians complain about Duke Energy’s proposal to raise rates to improve the grid to keep up with energy demand. (WYFF)
• Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to approve its plan to build nearly 10 miles of transmission lines to connect substations. (Loudoun Times-Mirror)

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EMISSIONS: Republican Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin makes line-item changes to the state budget passed by Democrats that would mandate state participation in a regional carbon market. (Virginia Business)

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UTILITIES:

• Florida Power & Light asks the Florida Supreme Court to step in to expedite a challenge to state regulators’ approval of a 2021 settlement to increase its base rates, which could affect its plans next year. (CBS News)
• Duke Energy claims its listing of riders on bills aids transparency, but one resident claims they obfuscate the cost of its shift to natural gas. (Asheville Watchdog)

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COMMENTARY:

• South Carolina lawmakers have ignored consumer advocates in their rush to pass a utility-friendly bill to speed construction of a natural gas-fired power plant, writes the president of the South Carolina Small Business Chamber of Commerce. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)
• Struggling small farmers can find a new stream of income by leasing parts of their land for solar energy, but Virginia utilities are blocking them from doing more, writes a retired U.S. Foreign Service officer. (Culpeper Star-Exponent)
• Energy generated from coal is declining every month on the Texas grid, while solar is skyrocketing and natural gas seems likely to increase as well, writes an energy columnist. (Houston Chronicle)

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PIPELINES: The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe prepares a legal argument to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline that claims the operator’s environmental record should prevent it from obtaining a crucial easement. (E&E News)

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ALSO: A carbon pipeline developer strikes a deal with a Nebraska environmental group that includes training first responders and donating to local nonprofits. (Nebraska Examiner)

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COAL: Ohio clean energy and consumer advocates call on state regulators to force owners of two unprofitable coal plants to return more than $100 million to ratepayers. (WOSU)

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GRID:

• Utilities, regulators, lawmakers and grid operators increasingly explore the potential of virtual power plants that could harness power from distributed batteries to reduce grid demand. (States Newsroom)
• Two utilities file a federal appeal seeking to overturn a court ruling that’s preventing construction of the last mile of a $650 million transmission line between Iowa and Wisconsin. (E&E News, subscription)
• Rising electricity demand may create a short-term need for more gas plants, jeopardizing emission-reduction targets, according to a new report sponsored by energy companies. (E&E News, subscription)

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OIL & GAS: Ohio environmental advocates say the state’s draft study on the effects of opening about 40,000 acres of a national forest to oil and gas development doesn’t fully account for habitat and outdoor recreation losses. (Mahoning Matters)

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POWER PLANTS:

• We Energies details plans to replace a coal-fired power plant along Lake Michigan with several natural gas-powered turbines by 2028. (Wisconsin Public Radio)
• Local officials in northern Wisconsin opposing plans for a 625 MW gas plant near Lake Superior say the proposed site is most valuable by being undeveloped because of the local ecology. (Wisconsin Examiner)

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SOLAR: Illinois is an early participant in a federal program that uses new software to extend community solar to more low-income subscribers. (PV Magazine)

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UTILITIES: Ohio’s consumer advocate says AEP’s recently approved electric security plan lacks transparency and is short on details about how it would benefit ratepayers. (Ohio Capital Journal)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Former President Trump uses increasingly violent rhetoric to oppose President Biden’s policies in support of electric vehicles, particularly in battle ground states like Michigan. (NBC News)

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EFFICIENCY: A Nebraska agency seeks proposals to launch a weatherization program that helps low-income families invest in energy efficiency. (NTV)

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OIL & GAS: The U.S. EPA is reportedly considering tougher emissions rules for new gas power plants ahead of their expected final release this month — a contrast with other Biden administration environmental rules that have generally been weakened after their initial proposal. (Washington Post)

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ALSO:

• Environmental advocates push the U.S. Energy Department to prioritize climate change and energy prices as it considers new liquefied natural gas exports. (E&E News)
• G20 countries, including the U.S., invested $142 billion into fossil fuel development in poor countries from 2020 to 2022, with spending on gas projects leading the way. (Guardian)

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CLEAN ENERGY: Renewable energy generation breaks records across the U.S., including in Texas, where wind energy and solar are toppling coal generation, and New England, which set an emissions-free power generation record in March. (E&E News, subscription; Houston Chronicle, Concord Monitor)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES: The nation’s first fully battery-powered tugboat is set to begin operating from California’s Port of San Diego later this spring. (Canary Media)

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PIPELINES:

• The Standing Rock Sioux Tribe prepares a legal argument to shut down the Dakota Access pipeline that claims the operator’s environmental record should prevent it from obtaining a crucial easement. (E&E News)
• A Louisiana State University professor develops a method of fiber-optic leak detection that could supplement or replace pressure gauges as a way of rapidly detecting leaks in oil and gas pipelines. (Reveille)

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OFFSHORE WIND: The demise of several Northeast offshore wind projects last year sent Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer into a lobbying frenzy that resulted in a modified tax credit to benefit developers and the approval of new projects. (E&E News)

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GRID:

• Two new studies recommend advanced reconductoring as a faster, cheaper way to add more capacity to existing power lines. (New York Times)
• Utilities, regulators, lawmakers and grid operators increasingly explore the potential of virtual power plants that could harness power from distributed batteries to reduce grid demand. (States Newsroom)
• Xcel Energy says its first ever planned outage to reduce wildfire risk likely prevented its lines in Colorado from sparking a blaze during last weekend’s unusually severe winds, but some customers say they weren’t adequately warned. (CPR)

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COAL: The Army Corps of Engineers says it should be able to open a limited-access channel by the end of the month to access Baltimore’s port, through which a notable chunk of the country’s coal exports pass. (Daily Record)

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SOLAR: Indigenous advocates protest a proposed solar development in central Washington state, saying it threatens cultural resources. (High Country News)

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COMMENTARY:

• A young Maryland member of a conservative environmentalists’ group encourages his peers to “bridge the partisan divide on climate issues.” (Maryland Matters)
• The Sierra Club’s executive director writes that “tireless activism” and “incremental wins” are behind the planned closures of New England’s last coal-fired generation units. (Sierra Magazine)

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SOLAR: Two large solar projects that have come online in South Dakota over the past year signal a new interest in solar for a state where wind energy has dominated renewable energy sources. (South Dakota News Watch)

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ALSO: The Ohio Power Siting Board will hold a second public hearing on a large solar project after roughly 800 people packed a theater and public comments ran on for hours. (Knox Pages)

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CARBON CAPTURE: The CEO of a multi-state carbon pipeline project maintains that it would be crucial for ethanol producers who could market low-carbon products. (NWestIowa.com)

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ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Auto analysts say the Biden administration’s formula for a new “petroleum equivalency factor” will significantly worsen the miles-per-gallon rating for electric vehicles and could be as impactful as new tailpipe emissions. (Detroit News, subscription)
• U.S. Sen. Chuck Grassley of Iowa claims nearly 60,000 ethanol sector jobs would be at stake under the Biden administration’s recently finalized tailpipe emission rules. (KMALand)
• Congress member Debbie Dingell of Michigan says the federal government’s role in the EV transition should be to support jobs and ensure vehicle affordability. (Great Lakes Echo)

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GRID:

• Michigan’s attorney general criticizes DTE Energy’s five-year, $9 billion grid distribution plan for failing to identify specific problem areas needed for upgrades. (Planet Detroit)
• Duke Energy officials say a $500 million rate increase request in Indiana is meant to harden the grid and prepare for tens of thousands of new customers anticipated in the coming years. (Indiana Public Broadcasting)

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WIND: Three former Minnesota high school students have used their technical training in renewable energy to support the development of an offshore wind project in Massachusetts. (Echo Journal)

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RENEWABLES: Wisconsin utilities tout voluntary, subscription-based green pricing programs as a way for customers to support renewable energy investments without onsite installations. (Milwaukee Journal Sentinel)

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UTILITIES: Consumer advocates and Indiana utility NIPSCO agree on a rate increase request that’s about 75% of what the utility sought to pay for gas infrastructure investments. (Chicago Tribune)

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COMMENTARY: Some Minnesota environmental groups’ newfound opposition to a statewide low-carbon fuel standard raises questions about the future of the state’s ethanol industry, a columnist writes. (Star Tribune)

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TRANSPORTATION: While North Carolina has required its power sector to zero out emissions, it has been reluctant to take on reducing dependence on cars, which experts say will be necessary to reach climate goals. (Energy News Network)

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ALSO:

• Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg says there is “enormous potential” for high-speed rail connecting Dallas and Houston. (NBC DFW)
• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis says “it’s not going to be Florida taxpayers constructing a train” in explaining his rejection of funds to expand the Brightline high-speed rail line to Tampa. (WUSF)

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SOLAR:

• Solar generated more electricity than coal in Texas for the first time last month, providing more than 10% of the state’s electricity. (IEEFA)
• Duke Energy seeks regulatory approval for a 76 MW solar array adjacent to a South Carolina nuclear plant. (news release)

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HYDROGEN:

• A proposed hydrogen production facility in West Virginia is facing opposition from neighboring landowners. (Mountain State Spotlight)
• A study led by university researchers says Texas has the existing clean energy, infrastructure and workforce to make it a leader in clean hydrogen production. (news release)

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WIND: A 21-year-old Texas wind farm has been rebuilt, enabling it to generate more power with 38 turbines instead of the previous 160. (Electrek)

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UTILITIES:

• A fight over a 2021 Florida Power & Light rate increase will return to the state Supreme Court as advocates appeal a state commission’s ruling reaffirming the decision. (WUSF)
• A Virginia court backs Rappahannock Electric Cooperative’s members in a lawsuit seeking to publicly disclose the salaries of board members. (Virginia Mercury)

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NUCLEAR: A Department of Energy official says despite Plant Vogtle’s delays and cost overruns, the lessons learned from the project could help propel nuclear energy forward. (Grist)

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OIL & GAS: Developers of a pipeline to carry natural gas from the Permian Basin to the Gulf Coast are hoping to have it operational by 2028. (S&P Global)

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COMMENTARY: A Virginia advocate says lawmakers have ignored “the energy crisis that is hurtling towards us” by failing to regulate data center growth. (Power for the People VA)

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