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By gradually nudging aside its diesel buses, Charlottesville’s transit agency is punching above its weight.
The city of 45,000 at the edge of Virginia’s Blue Ridge Mountains is matching the likes of larger counterparts in New York, Chicago and San Diego with a carbon-curbing proposal to convert to a zero-emission public transit fleet by 2040. By then, its routes will be served by electric buses.
Granted, some environmental advocacy organizations urged a speedier transition and are disappointed the city won’t retire its last diesel bus until 2039.
However, groups aligned with the Community Climate Collaborative (C3) — which emphasizes social justice in its work to reduce emissions — are relieved the city was willing to address route and ridership issues in addition to a commitment to wean itself off diesel and avoid compressed natural gas as a power source altogether.
“I think this is a victory,” said Caetano de Campos Lopes, C3’s director of climate policy. “We are very pleased that the city’s approach was so thorough and holistic.”
As it stands now, Charlottesville Area Transit (CAT) plans to double the size of its fleet from 38 to 76 by 2034. That peak fleet will be a blend of diesel and electric buses.
CAT is on track to roll out a pair of pilot programs to add at least two battery electric buses and then at least two hydrogen-electric fuel cell models by 2029. The transit agency will stop ordering diesel buses in 2027, meaning the last ones will come into service by 2028 or 2029.
While CAT is owned and operated by the city, the University of Virginia and Albemarle County contribute a small amount of its non-capital budget.
De Campos Lopes was reassured in late February when the Charlottesville City Council voiced unanimous support for advancing zero-emission fuel choices, because compressed natural gas was still under consideration the previous year. At its June 17 meeting, the council is scheduled to take a final vote on CAT’s Transit Strategic Plan.
C3 had collaborated with several dozen private companies and environmental, social justice and faith groups to pressure the council to adopt a measure in favor of zero-emission buses, particularly battery electric. It submitted a petition with 640-plus signatures last autumn.
Ben Chambers started his position as the city’s transportation planning manager in November 2022, when the community was in the thick of a back-and-forth exercise about its fleet makeup. The University of Virginia graduate is no stranger to the region or its routes, as he drove a University Transit Service bus while earning a religious studies undergraduate degree in 2006.
Over the last several years, he said, his most difficult task had been explaining to the public that CAT can’t turn on a dime to purchase zero-emission buses and upgrade their accompanying charging and fueling infrastructure.
He praised the council for conducting its deliberations openly so the public could better understand the process.
“For a long time, the constant refrain in the community has been ‘Get cleaner buses,’” Chambers said. “We’ve come to a solution that may not please everybody, but at least people understand how it’s going to work. We’re in a much better place now.”
C3, which released a transit equity and climate report in 2021, prodded the city to think beyond financial considerations when it found out that same year that CAT was on the verge of studying how to fuel its future buses.
The nonprofit and its allies feared the city would lean toward a known entity, compressed natural gas, and shy away from less time-tested technologies such as battery electric and hydrogen fuel cells.
That choice, de Campos Lopes said, wouldn’t align with the city’s ambitious target set in 2019 to curb greenhouse gas emissions 45% by 2030 and 100% by 2050. The transportation sector is a leading source, with an estimated 30% of total emissions.
Indeed, a recent analysis for CAT by the Northern Virginia-based Kimley-Horn engineering firm revealed that running CNG buses would amount to only a slight drop in emissions when compared to diesel.
In contrast, that same Kimley-Horn report stated that switching to battery electric buses or fuel cell buses powered with green hydrogen would reduce greenhouse gas emissions 99.4% and 99%, respectively, compared to the baseline diesel fleet.
Both technologies come close to achieving carbon neutrality, assuming the Virginia Clean Economy Act is heeded. Dominion Energy is supposed to achieve a carbon-free electric grid by 2045, with Appalachian Power following suit by 2050.
Both types of buses use batteries to power their electric motors. Fuel cell models use hydrogen to charge a battery, while the other uses electricity from the grid.
Initially, CAT had eyed compressed natural gas as one option because it’s cleaner than diesel and the gas buses didn’t cost that much more, Chambers said. Plus, both Richmond and Williamsburg had demonstrated success with gas buses, which qualified for funding under the federal government’s low- and no-emissions grant program.
“That CNG option caused a lot of mistrust,” he continued. “People thought CAT was trying to get around their request for clean energy buses. We dropped CNG mostly because of the feedback we got from the environmental community.”
In addition, some green groups said the transit agency was acting in bad faith by keeping diesel as part of its fuel mix.
The timing for looking beyond all fossil fuels was right, Chambers said, when usage data about electric buses was becoming available from other transit agencies and funding opportunities became abundant.
“We could finally have that conversation about electric buses, but we weren’t just responding to what the mob wants us to do,” he said. “We want to balance the hue and cry for alternative fuel with the need for reliable bus service.”
The transit agency is in the midst of devising a zero emission transition plan to submit to the Federal Transit Administration this fall, Chambers said. The document includes details such as a turnover timeline and specifics about bus storage and storage infrastructure.
On the pilot program front, the city is set to order as many as five battery electric buses this summer — each one roughly twice the cost of a $500,000 diesel model — that are scheduled to join the fleet in 2027. CAT will wrestle with details such as driving range, maintenance requirements, and whether it makes sense to install on-site solar to charge the buses.
“I have serious concerns about longer routes and the impact of terrain because we’re quite a hilly town,” he said. “We’re talking about big heavy machines and the details can get technical.”
Bringing up to five hydrogen-powered buses on board by 2029 — at between $1.2 million and $1.3 million each — will be trickier. Most pressing is finding a nearby source of hydrogen fuel that doesn’t contribute to emissions of heat-trapping gases.
“We’re investigating the idea of on-site generation,” Chambers said. “But if we need to truck it in, where would it come from?”
CAT won’t necessarily choose one technology over the other as it replaces its diesel models, he said, adding that having both choices available provides an added benefit of resiliency.
Money for the pilot programs is a mix of federal, state and local dollars, with the bulk of it from the federal government. The exact funding formula is still in the works, he said.
“Lucky for us, we won’t be the first out of the blocks,” Chambers said about gaining insights from transit agencies “on the bleeding edge to learn about the headaches they had to deal with.”
For instance, neighboring Blacksburg has put battery electric buses on the road, and leaders in Oakland, California; the Champaign-Urbana region of Illinois; and Montgomery County, a suburb of Washington, D.C.; have experience with hydrogen fuel cell buses.
He admitted that Charlottesville was a bit leery about delving into alternative technologies because of continued hassles with the 10 hybrid diesel buses it purchased about 15 years ago. Some of those models are still in the fleet. Parts of the hybrid drivetrain failed regularly and replacement parts were often on back order. As well, CAT had problems fully charging battery packs that didn’t last as long as promised.
“CAT couldn’t keep them on routes,” he said. “We didn’t want to end up with that same scenario.”
Susan Kruse, C3’s executive director, said she recognized that some groups focused solely on climate issues were frustrated by the city’s plans to boost greenhouse gas emissions in the short term by not pivoting away from diesel immediately.
Her group tried to play the role of mediator because “it was best to take the time to get everyone literally and figuratively aboard the bus,” she said.
“Sure, we would rather see buses move to zero emissions faster. But this is a great example of how moving toward a carbon-neutral community is difficult. This issue is complicated and we have to take the time to get it right.”
Generally, diesel buses cycle out of use after 12 years of service or accumulating 500,000 miles on the odometer.
It’s vital that CAT’s strategic plan calls for addressing shortcomings that frustrated riders, Kruse said. CAT will be doubling the amount of service, adding routes on nights and weekends, and limiting wait times between buses to 30 minutes.
She and her colleagues are especially pleased by the local environmental impact of battery electric and fuel cell buses powered by green or “gray” hydrogen produced using natural gas. A transition would improve air quality and reduce noise levels, according to the Kimley-Horn report.
For instance, the changeover would eliminate emissions of pollutants such as carbon monoxide, nitrogen oxides, sulfur oxides and volatile organic compounds, all gases that are harmful to humans. For example, nitrogen oxides can irritate airways, aggravate asthma and other respiratory diseases, and lead to emergency room visits and hospital admissions.
As well, cleaner buses would reduce the tiniest bits of particulate matter by 25% when compared to diesel. The microscopic particles endanger human health because they can deeply embed in lungs and also enter the bloodstream. Regardless of bus technology, particulate matter is still produced by wear and tear on a vehicle’s brake pads and tires.
C3 advocates and Chambers agree that Charlottesville’s achievements can be a model for smaller municipalities shifting to carbon-free buses. After all, the timeline for its proposed transition is ahead of Denver and Washington, D.C.
Setting an example doesn’t just apply to public transit, Chambers said, emphasizing that other communities view the university city as a test bed for plucky endeavors.
“In Charlottesville, we tend to think a bit bigger than our britches when it comes to policy decisions,” he said. “We do new bold things because we like to see if we can get it done.”
GRID: Data centers are creating a climate dilemma in states like Michigan, where a Democrat proposes incentives to lure the facilities while acknowledging their spiking electricity use could move the goalposts for the state’s renewable energy goals. (E&E News)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: Illinois regulators approve the state’s first roadmap to reach 100% carbon-free power by 2050 as required under a 2021 law. (E&E News, subscription)
PIPELINES:
OVERSIGHT: Attorneys representing Ohio energy regulators continue to claim that there is no record of the names of staffers who recommended a protective order that hid key details about an audit into the state’s power plant bailout law. (Checks and Balances Project)
TRANSPORTATION: Michigan House Democrats propose a 10-year, $6 billion economic development plan that would direct a portion of business incentives toward statewide transit. (Bridge)
EFFICIENCY: The market monitor of grid operator PJM claims FirstEnergy and other utilities should be barred from collecting nearly $130 million in revenue for failing to show they are eligible for the energy efficiency capacity payments. (Utility Dive)
BIOFUELS: Production of renewable diesel, which can be made from similar products as biofuels but doesn’t need to be added to traditional diesel, exceeded biodiesel production in the U.S. for the first time in 2022-2023. (Farm Progress)
COMMENTARY: Michigan needs legislation to allow independently owned community solar projects that benefit the grid while taking advantage of new federal funding, a solar advocate writes. (Bridge)
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)
GRID: California advocates call on Gov. Gavin Newsom to reverse proposed funding cuts to virtual power plant and demand response programs, saying they support grid reliability and distributed storage. (Canary Media)
ALSO:
CLIMATE: A California city votes to block testing of an experimental cloud brightening technology aimed at slowing climate warming, even though a study found it posed no health risks. (New York Times)
OIL & GAS:
UTILITIES:
STORAGE: Pacific Gas & Electric agrees to purchase power from a 112.5 MW battery energy storage system under construction in southwestern Arizona. (Solar Industry)
SOLAR:
CLEAN ENERGY: A U.S. courthouse in Montana is awarded $24 million in federal funding to upgrade the structure’s efficiency and install electric heat pumps. (Missoulian)
BIOFUELS: Montana residents and advocates push back on an aviation biofuel producer’s plans to inject wastewater into spent oil and gas wells. (Montana Public Radio)
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)
One big automaker is questioning whether hybrids are a stepping stone on the way to zero-emission vehicles — or something more permanent.
With a lot of the country still lacking high-speed charging stations, range anxiety can be a real concern for rural Americans. And if you don’t have a driveway or accessible place to plug in, charging at home isn’t easy either.
The Biden administration is working on the first part of that dilemma, including with a new round of funding to build EV chargers announced last week. In the meantime, many automakers and experts see plug-in hybrids that combine a taste of electric driving with a combustion engine as a stepping stone to fully electric cars.
Consumers seem to agree: U.S. hybrid sales shot up 45% in the first quarter of this year, while EV sales slowed a tad, according to MotorIntelligence.com. But at a conference last week, Ford CEO Jim Farley suggested those surging sales are changing his long-term view of hybrids, Reuters reports.
“We should stop talking about it as transitional technology,” Farley said of hybrids. “Many of our hybrids in the U.S. are now more profitable than their non-hybrid equivalent.”
But there’s a big problem with sticking with hybrids for too long, as General Motors’ CEO Mary Barra noted at the same conference. “It’s not the end game because it’s not zero emission,” Barra said, doubling down on her company’s promise to fully transition to EVs.
On average, gas cars emit more than 350 grams of carbon per mile driven over their lifetime, while hybrids emit around 260 grams per mile, MIT researchers have found. EVs are meanwhile responsible for about 200 grams per mile, when you take into account the emissions tied to building a car and producing the electricity they run on.
And even better? Swapping out as much driving as possible for walking, public and public transit.
🏭 We’re good on fossil fuels: The world already has enough planned fossil fuel projects in the pipeline to cover predicted energy demand through 2050, a study finds, suggesting countries should halt new permits. (The Guardian)
🚌 Jumpstarting electric school buses: The Biden administration announces nearly $900 million for 500 school districts across the country to buy clean buses, most of them electric, in the latest round of Bipartisan Infrastructure Law funding. (Canary Media)
💰 Investing in green: Clean energy and transportation investments totaled a record high of $71 billion in the first quarter of the year. (Utility Dive)
🚧 Clean innovation’s holdup: The CEO of the nation’s largest residential solar company discusses how the company is trying to innovate in a sector held back by the utility industry’s “slow and no” culture. (Energy News Network)
💨 No excuses on methane cuts: A study of U.S. EPA data finds reported methane emissions from U.S. gas extraction dropped 37% between 2015 and 2022 even as production surged, suggesting the industry can curb leaks without limiting production. (Canary Media)
🚗 Problematic EV origins: U.S. environmental justice advocates turn their attention to the Congo, where the industry mining cobalt essential to electric vehicle batteries is ripe with worker exploitation. (Capital B)
🌡️ Heating up: An analysis of death certificates finds that 2023 was a record year for heat-related deaths and illnesses, especially in Arizona, Texas and other southern states. (Associated Press)
🏠 Hey, I’m weatherizin’ here: New York launches the country’s first energy rebate program supported by federal Inflation Reduction Act funds, which will help low-to-moderate-income homeowners make energy efficient upgrades. (Utility Dive, Gothamist)
Solar developers will pay a premium to build projects on prime farmland under new rules in the works in Maine.
The state Department of Agriculture, Conservation and Forestry is drafting the rules based on a 2023 law that authorized it to collect extra fees from developers whose projects impact at least 5 acres of “high-value agricultural soils,” which regulators will define in rulemaking underway this summer.
The program could involve a range of new fees for different kinds of farmland and project impacts, with money being set aside for “farmland conservation and solar mitigation projects.” Proponents hope the rules will push renewable energy development toward areas with less conservation value.
“We would much rather see balanced solar siting than full-out moratoriums on solar energy development,” said Shelley Megquier, the policy and research director for Maine Farmland Trust, which supported the legislation authorizing the new rules.
Critics, though, say the rules unfairly single out solar based only on anecdotal evidence of the industry’s impact on farmland. A recent report by the American Farmland Trust projected that low-density housing and other types of urban sprawl threaten to swallow more than 53,000 acres, or 5% of all Maine farmland, by 2040.
The law also authorized the development of a similar scheme for wind and transmission projects that affect certain kinds of fish and wildlife habitat.
Some advocates say the new fees single out renewables without clear evidence that a use like solar puts prime farmland more at risk than any other kind of development.
“The narrative around this has really been: how can we protect high-value farmland from solar development?” said Lindsay Bourgoine, the policy director for ReVision Energy, a major New England solar developer. “ReVision has a really big concern about the lack of data around that narrative.”
Maine’s climate plan includes a goal of moving to 100% renewable electricity by 2040, and also aims to put 30% of the state’s land into conservation easements, including for farming, by 2030.
The state has already built close to a gigawatt of solar, most of it in smaller-scale projects. The five-acre minimum covered by the new compensation fees can support about a megawatt of solar.
Bourgoine’s company estimates that even if all of Maine’s existing solar projects under 5 megawatts had gone on prime agricultural lands, it would cover less than half a percent of all such land across the state. A recent report from the Center for Rural Affairs estimated a similar proportion for solar in Midwest states.
Groups that supported Maine’s new fee rules agreed that they hope legislators and state policymakers will turn their focus in the near future to both gathering more land-use data, and to considering expanding mitigation tools to uses that may be more common, such as housing, commercial development or roads.
“If we’re talking about environmental impacts, we’re requiring mitigation of the one type of development that is benefiting the environment,” said conservation biologist and GIS manager Sarah Haggerty of Maine Audubon, which supported the bill to create the clean energy fee programs.
Absent better data, Megquier said farmers and farm conservation groups like hers can only go on what they observe — which is “farmland being converted for solar production in pretty large amounts,” she said.
“Some of that (is) what we would categorize as really high-value farmland, where unfortunately it’s being lost to agricultural production,” she said. “There may be farmers that would be interested in accessing that land to grow food for our communities.”
Andy Smith and his partner run The Milkhouse dairy farm in Monmouth, Maine. They have their own small solar array and sit close to a power substation, and so have fielded extensive interest from solar developers who want to rent and build on some of their land. Some have offered more than $1,000 an acre for a 30-year lease, he said.
Smith said he’s strongly supportive of an energy transition and sees frequent effects of increasing weather extremes on his farm. But he said solar is tough competition for farmers who lease or buy space from other landowners, often to grow hay to feed dairy cows like Smith’s.
“If young people are trying to buy farmland, and they’re competing with solar developers, they’re not going to be able to buy farmland,” he said.
For farmers that affirmatively want solar on their land, Megquier’s group hopes the new fee structure will incentivize projects to go on “marginal” land that’s less productive, unforested or disconnected from large active growing areas.
“We hope that … this rulemaking takes those sorts of complexities into account,” she said. “We would want to see permitting for a solar development that supports current agricultural operation as sort of fast-tracked or, in some way, expedited.”
ReVision supports a similar outcome.
“We would just say that a landowner should have the default ability to be able to site solar on their property if the purpose of it is for revenue diversification to keep the farm in operation,” Bourgoine said.
Evelyn Norton is one such landowner. Her father raised dairy cows and harvested hay to feed them on her family’s farm in Livermore Falls, Maine. As that business declined and her dad got older, Norton said she realized, realistically, that she and her sister “were not going to be out on the tractors haying… and so we realized we needed to figure out what else we could do to bring income into the farm.”
Numerous solar developers had contacted the family about putting an array on their land. Many were eyeing a particular flat, treeless area, close to grid infrastructure, with sandy soil. It had been the least productive plot for hay on the farm, Norton said.
“Someone referred to it as a Walt Disney solar farm property,” Norton said. “It was just like it was designed to be a solar array.”
Her family worked with ReVision to build a community solar array on that 20 acres, covering about 15% of the farm’s total area. The grass beneath the panels is grazed by sheep, and the array provides power to five school districts — a nod to Evelyn’s mother, who was a long-time teacher.
Annual lease payments now provide the farm’s largest source of revenue, supplemented by various other agricultural uses, such as tree-growing and a farmer who rents space for his cattle.
“We’re still wanting to stay as a one-unit farm and not have to sell off piece by piece. This allows us to do that,” Norton said. “It gives us the security to know that 135 acres is protected because of the 20 acres.”
Norton worries that the new fee structure, if not designed with the right exceptions, could prevent some farmers from using solar as she did to keep her farm viable.
Some advocates said they hope the rules will primarily help balance solar development costs so that farmland isn’t automatically the cheapest option.
Smith, the dairy farmer in Monmouth, said he hopes at least the new fees will encourage development on “lower-quality soils.” But it’s easier said than done — these soils may be less well drained, for example, and contain areas classified as wetlands, leading to more regulatory complications.
“It just often feels like, you know, a (good) solar site is going to be on well drained soil with southern exposure, which is also the best farmland there is,” he said.
“We sincerely hope that this effort will not have a chilling effect… and, in some cases… could assist solar companies in terms of the predictability,” Megquier said. “The current structure is really not a structure. It’s very … project-to-project. And that is not to the benefit of advancing our conservation goals, nor is it to the benefit of advancing our renewable energy goals.”
Under the new rules, regulators will have to define “dual-use agricultural and solar production,” such as agrivoltaics projects where crops and solar are co-located. Megquier hopes the new fees will incentivize this approach.
For Smith, dual-use methods are the best hope for easing rural and neighbor backlash to solar energy, which he worries will slow its growth as a tool for fighting climate change.
“It would really suck if the whole solar industry got like a black eye because of developing these open spaces,” he said.
Haggerty, with Maine Audubon, said increasing costs for building on farmland could make more costly solar sites — including brownfields and developed spaces — more appealing for builders by comparison.
“It may very well be that this legislation balances out some of those costs, you know — if you’re gonna have to mitigate… ag land or wildlife habitat, maybe it makes that brownfield more affordable, and it’s not as much cheaper to go elsewhere,” she said. “That’s one of the things that we hope to see.”
The state is currently gathering stakeholder input on a draft farmland rule expected out this summer. The Maine legislature will have to approve the eventual fee structures, which will apply to solar arrays that begin construction after Sept. 1, 2024.
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)
GRID: Amid concerns about how data center growth will affect the grid, Microsoft says it is committed to “paying its own way” when it comes to potential upgrades to power a planned Wisconsin facility. (WPR)
ALSO: Ohio regulators approve new transmission charges for AEP Ohio that consumer advocates say will sharply increase residential customers’ bills. (Dayton Daily News)
HYDROGEN: Minnesota-based 3M is investing in research that aims to lower the costs of producing green hydrogen and make it more competitive with renewables and fossil fuels. (Star Tribune)
OIL & GAS: Marathon seeks to remove air pollution permit limits and increase production at a Detroit refinery that has previously violated air quality laws multiple times. (Bridge Detroit)
CLIMATE: Michigan Republicans criticize the state attorney general’s effort to recruit private-sector attorneys to help pursue climate lawsuits against major fossil fuel companies. (Michigan Public)
PIPELINES: The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers is holding a pair of hearings today in Wisconsin on Enbridge’s request to reroute a portion of Line 5 around tribal land in northern Wisconsin. (Journal Sentinel)
POWER PLANTS:
SOLAR: Converting farmland to commercial solar projects could be a sticking point in the upcoming federal Farm Bill, though advocates say solar and farming can coexist under agrivoltaics practices. (E&E News, subscription)
EFFICIENCY:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES:
GRID: Grid-enhancing technology that could expand existing power lines’ capacity is catching on worldwide but struggling in the U.S. as utilities shy away from high upfront costs. (E&E News)
ALSO:
CLEAN ENERGY:
CLIMATE: Oil and gas corporations ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block lawsuits brought by states seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars of climate change-caused damage. (Los Angeles Times)
GEOTHERMAL: A Massachusetts utility this week will launch the nation’s first utility-operated underground thermal energy network. (Canary Media)
POLITICS:
ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Car dealers say they’re seeing more blue-collar electric vehicle buyers as federal incentives and price drops make EVs more affordable. (New York Times)
NUCLEAR: U.S. Energy Secretary Jennifer Granholm calls for the construction of 98 more nuclear plants on the scale of new units at Georgia Power’s Plant Vogtle. (Associated Press)
PIPELINES: Federal records identify roughly 130 potential problem areas revealed during testing of the Mountain Valley Pipeline earlier this spring, raising further concern about the pipe’s integrity. (Roanoke Times)
EFFICIENCY: Attorneys general from 23 states threaten legal action if the Biden administration moves forward with new energy-efficiency standards on stoves, cooktops and ovens. (Nebraska Examiner)
HYDROGEN: Minnesota-based 3M is investing in research that aims to lower the costs of producing green hydrogen and make it more competitive with renewables and fossil fuels. (Star Tribune)
CLIMATE: Oil and gas corporations ask the U.S. Supreme Court to block lawsuits brought by Hawaii, California and other states seeking to hold the industry liable for billions of dollars of climate change-caused damage. (Los Angeles Times)
ALSO: An energy think tank calls on California regulators to reduce carbon cap-and-trade allowances, saying doing so would trigger deeper emissions cuts and help the state reach climate goals. (E&E News, subscription)
OIL & GAS: A peer-reviewed study finds industrial air pollution contributes to low birth weights in New Mexico, with the effects most pronounced in the San Juan and Permian Basin oil and gas fields. (news release)
UTILITIES:
COAL:
SOLAR:
GRID:
MICROGRIDS: A California university plans to install a solar-plus-battery microgrid expected to be able to power the campus for up to two days. (news release)
STORAGE:
TRANSPORTATION:
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