WE APPRECIATE YOUR SUPPORT! Thank you to everyone who has donated generously to help us meet our fundraising goal for this year. If you haven’t already, please give today to help keep US Energy News free and accessible for all.
TRANSPORTATION: The US Postal Service will buy 66,000 electric vehicles — more than half of its new fleet — in a win for the Biden administration, and plans to purchase zero-emission vehicles almost exclusively by 2026. (Washington Post)
SO:
• The US EPA announces new rules cracking down on heavy-duty truck and engine emissions, though climate advocates say many states’ truck electrification standards remain more ambitious. (E&E News)
• The electric vehicle industry is booming, but recycling companies that could help reduce the need for expensive, environmentally intensive new batteries haven’t kept up. (New York Times)
Fresh Energy is hiring!
Fresh Energy’s work is speeding the transition to a clean energy economy in Minnesota and beyond. To advance this work, we are seeking a director of inclusive finance to join the Energy Access and Equity team and a policy associate to join the Clean Electricity team. Find both job postings here.
OIL & GAS:
• Utilities are fast-tracking coal plant retirements but replacing them with natural gas instead of renewables, insisting the continued use of fossil fuels is necessary for reliability. (E&E News)
• New federal incentives mean replacing coal plants with clean energy will almost always be cheaper than building a gas plant, a climate think tank’s analysis finds. (Canary Media)
• ExxonMobil’s negative reputation among climate advocates also extended to fellow fossil fuel companies, internal documents show, as industry peers refused to join the oil giant’s proposed carbon capture and storage hub in Texas. (InsideClimate News)
• Baltimore’s legal team asks the US Supreme Court to reject a request from several oil majors to prevent a climate harm lawsuit from being tried in state court. (Reuters)
POLITICS:
• A draft 2023 federal spending bill lacks funding for President Biden’s order to boost clean energy component production, and falls short on promised funding to help poor countries combat and adapt to climate change. (E&E News, New York Times)
• The spending bill includes billions of dollars to help communities prepare for and repair after climate disasters, as well as funding to make up for lost hydropower capacity and to plug abandoned oil and gas wells. (The Hill)
• US House Democrats push to pass historic environmental justice legislation in honor of a Virginia Congress member who recently died, but with intra-party divisions and little time left in the session, the odds are against them. (E&E News)
COAL: Farmington, New Mexico, abandons efforts to assume ownership of the retired San Juan coal plant, reopens it and partners with an energy company to retrofit it with carbon capture, saying legal defeats rendered the plan unfeasible. (Farmington Daily Times)
GRID: State regulators in Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin have started rejecting large rate increase requests from utilities seeking to fund grid infrastructure upgrades. (Bloomberg)
WIND: Energy analysts say the recent federal offshore wind lease sale in California drew lower bids than expected due to uncertainties of West Coast development, but could benefit ratepayers in the long run. (Utility Dive)
BIOGAS: A Virginia natural gas company and water utility plan to capture and redistribute biogas from a wastewater treatment plant, but critics say the project offers few — if any — climate benefits. (Energy News Network)
More from the Energy News Network: Midwest | Southeast | Northeast | west
View this campaign in your browser.
Questions or comments about this article? Contact us at [email protected].
Comments are closed.