ALSO: General Motors plans to partner with a large supplier to build a hydrogen fuel cell plant in Detroit, which could take a few years until production starts. (Crain’s Detroit, subscription)

OIL & GAS:

• Records reveal how fossil fuel lobbyists worked with state lawmakers to craft anti-protest laws that increase penalties for non-violent participants and aim to quiet opposition to fossil fuel infrastructure. (The Guardian)
• Drought conditions in Ohio this summer prompted a local watershed district to take the unprecedented step of limiting water use for fracking, and should cause state and local officials to be more proactive, environmental groups say. (Energy News Network)
• California Gov. Gavin Newsom signs into law three bills cracking down on the oil and gas industry, including one that allows local governments to block new drilling and one that ups cleanup requirements for idle wells. (Mercury News) 

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Rideshare drivers are adopting electric vehicles at five times the rate of other drivers but say they’re struggling to find places to charge in major cities. (Axios)
• A new study finds electric vehicles are far less likely to be stolen than gas-powered cars, potentially because they’re usually parked in garages or near homes to charge. (Axios)
• A Republican U.S. Senate candidate in Michigan claims the transition to electric vehicles will decimate jobs, despite research suggesting that’s inaccurate. (Planet Detroit)

UTILITIES: Advocates sound the alarm over a lack of policies stopping utilities from shutting off customers’ power for nonpayment during deadly heat waves. (The Guardian)

GRID:

• A new analysis from PJM Interconnection’s market monitor says faulty market design added unnecessary billions to the latest capacity auction, although the grid operator took issue with several points made in the report. (Utility Dive)
• A study finds the Western grid will need about 15,600 miles of new high-voltage transmission lines at a cost of $75 billion to meet forecasted load growth. (RTO Insider, subscription)

NUCLEAR: The U.S. Energy Department greenlights California startup Oklo’s plan to begin developing an advanced nuclear reactor at the Idaho National Laboratory. (Newsweek)

POLITICS: Environmentalists push back against a bill that would weaken semiconductor industry oversight that President Biden is reportedly set to sign. (The Hill)

PIPELINES: A planned 645-mile pipeline across Texas from the Permian Basin to a Louisiana terminal creates landowner concerns about its effects on nearly 13,000 acres of land, including the possibility of eminent domain. (KOSA)

MINING: Arkansas sees a rush to mine lithium for batteries, triggering memories of unscrupulous and shady behavior during a previous oil boom and raising concerns about the ephemeral nature of extraction. (Grist)

COMMENTARY: Federal support for carbon capture and storage relies on the assumption that unproven and prohibitively expensive technologies will soon become viable, an energy analyst writes. (Utility Dive)

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Hydrogen is stuck in neutral. That’s not a bad thing, some say. is an article from Energy News Network, a nonprofit news service covering the clean energy transition. If you would like to support us please make a donation.

Both Chicago and Detroit have areas of vacant and underinvested land, and both are starting to see those plots as potential sites for clean energy projects, but is that what the communities want? The answer can be complicated, Audrey Henderson reports for the Energy News Network.

Detroit is home to 19 square miles of vacant land, and utility DTE Energy wants to build large-scale solar arrays on parts of it. Some residents and local officials say it’ll help combat dumping and other nuisance crimes, while also helping the city meet its climate goals. But other neighbors worry using the green space for solar will take away land from potential affordable housing projects, and say putting panels on top of other buildings or outside the city would make more sense.

A geothermal project in Chicago’s West Woodlawn neighborhood meanwhile avoids vacant plots altogether, while still bringing clean power to the South Side community. Geothermal systems require a lot of land to lay subterranean loop fields that circulate hot and cold water, making them hard to build in dense cities. But developers are putting this project’s loop fields in alleys between houses and apartment buildings, and linking those homes up to the heating and cooling source along the way.

Read more about the possibilities and hangups of siting clean energy in cities at the Energy News Network.

More clean energy news

📈 Methane emissions keep growing: The U.S. led an international effort to curb methane emissions, but a new study finds domestic emissions continue to grow amid increases in natural gas production. (New York Times)

🏡 Cracking the building code: A new federal rule will help counter weak building energy codes in North Carolina and other states by requiring new homes with certain federally-backed mortgages to include energy-saving features. (Energy News Network)

🚘 Turbocharging EVs: The Biden administration announces $3 billion in grants to build out an “end-to-end supply chain” for electric vehicles, seeking to challenge China’s dominance of the sector. (Associated Press)

🌊 Ongoing cycle: Offshore wind proponents say opposition to East Coast projects can be traced back to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fight against wind turbines in the Nantucket Sound in the early 2000s. (Inside Climate News)

⚛️ Nuclear’s second chance: As it seeks to meet growing energy demand for AI technologies, Microsoft announces a 20-year power purchase agreement that will revive Pennsylvania’s Three Mile Island nuclear plant. (Bloomberg, New York Times)

🏭 Gas’s broken promises: West Virginia’s natural gas industry has boomed, but communities are seeing population declines and job losses instead of prosperity the industry had promised. (Mountain State Spotlight) 

☀️ Coal plant reset: Repurposing the interconnection system at a large Minnesota coal plant set for retirement to support a massive solar project helps avoid potentially several years of regulatory steps to connect to the grid. (CNN)

📋 What’s stopping tribal clean energy: Researchers find a gauntlet of federal red tape hampers tribal nations’ clean energy development and could lead to $19 billion in lost revenues if the barriers aren’t addressed. (Grist)

🇺🇲 Plus, some politics

• Nearly half of the Inflation Reduction Act’s $115 billion in clean energy funding has gone to seven swing states critical to the U.S. election, creating as many as 50,000 jobs in electric vehicle, battery, and other clean energy manufacturing, according to a new analysis. (The Guardian)
• Environmental groups have seen donations skyrocket since President Biden left the ticket, and now plan to go on the offensive in presidential swing states and in tight congressional, state and local elections. (E&E News)
• Republican House Speaker Mike Johnson says some of the Inflation Reduction Act’s clean energy incentives are worth preserving even if his party takes over the White House and Congress next year. (E&E News)
• Vice President Kamala Harris has moved away from earlier Democratic Party pledges to end fossil fuel leasing on public land, raising concerns from advocates about political support for future climate action. (E&E News)

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POLITICS:

• President Biden touts the Inflation Reduction Act’s achievements in a Climate Week speech, highlighting electric vehicle manufacturing investments, the Justice40 equity pledge, and clean energy job growth over the last two years. (The Hill)
• After years of quiet advocacy, the House Sustainable Energy and Environment Coalition looks to bolster its influence in climate and energy policymaking. (E&E News)
• An electric vehicle battery factory bolstered by President Biden’s climate law has lifted the economy in a northeastern Ohio county but doesn’t appear to have boosted Democrats’ prospects. (CNN)

CLEAN ENERGY: Large tech firms part of the Sustainable Steel Buyers Platform launch a competitive bidding process asking steelmakers to deliver 1 million metric tons of near-zero emissions steel a year by 2028. (Canary Media)

HYDROGEN: There’s been little progress on plans to convert a troubled West Virginia coal-fired power plant to run on hydrogen, and its new owners have operated it barely half the time since acquiring it a year ago. (West Virginia Public Broadcasting)

EMISSIONS:

• New York Climate Week sees dozens of carbon market leaders make a case for offsets, despite studies showing most have few climate benefits. (E&E News)
• Colorado advocates say a newly launched state initiative using cutting-edge technologies to monitor landfill methane pollution could be a model for slashing emissions of the potent greenhouse gas. (Canary Media)

NUCLEAR: The nuclear industry reckons with how to best take advantage of a sweeping pro-nuclear law passed in June and weighs future legislative goals. (Utility Dive)

GRID: 

• Utility customers in Texas and elsewhere are signing up for programs to save money in return for allowing power companies to remotely adjust their thermostats to manage grid demand. (Washington Post)
• PJM’s independent market monitor says the grid operator’s new metric for measuring power plant availability inflated prices in the most recent capacity auction by nearly 50%. (Utility Dive)
• A battery storage project under construction in rural Wisconsin shows how storage remains an underused transmission asset because of unresolved regulatory questions with grid operators, experts say. (Utility Dive)

ELECTRIFICATION:

• Washington state’s building industry and conservative advocates push a ballot measure that would prohibit local and state governments from banning natural gas hookups. (Crosscut)
• Two advocates push for home electrification to lower energy bills and curb harmful emissions in underserved communities. (New York Times)

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ALSO: White House climate adviser Ali Zaidi says the Biden administration is “sprinting” to roll out Inflation Reduction Act funding, adding that there’s already not much left for a potential Trump administration to try to claw back. (Politico)

CLEAN ENERGY:

• Asked to grade fossil fuel companies’ clean energy efforts, former climate envoy John Kerry gives them beyond failing marks: “Is there a letter underneath Z?” (The Guardian)
• Countries will only be able to deliver on their COP28 goal of tripling renewable energy generation by 2030 if they quickly deploy storage and transmission as well, the International Energy Agency says. (Reuters)
• Researchers find a gauntlet of federal red tape hampers tribal nations’ clean energy development and could lead to $19 billion in lost revenues if the barriers aren’t addressed. (Grist)
• Oregon’s coastal waters are poised to become a clean energy center as wave energy research and offshore wind development advance. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES:

• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s new long-term plan presents 30 different pathways to balance generation with growing power demand, including the construction of between 9 GW and 26 GW of new capacity by 2035. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• A third-party audit finds Michigan’s two large investor-owned utilities had worse-than-average outages and restoration delays than other utilities, driven by delayed tree-trimming schedules and outdated grid infrastructure. (Detroit News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: A planned Hyundai electric vehicle and battery plant in Georgia sparks protests from farmers and residents concerned that it will use roughly 4 million gallons of water per day. (E&E News)

CLIMATE: Washington state advocates urge voters to defeat a ballot measure aimed at killing its landmark climate law, saying it would result in the loss of billions of dollars for clean energy and electrification projects. (Canary Media)

SOLAR: Duluth-based utility Minnesota Power announces plans for two large solar projects totaling 205 MW of capacity in central and northern Minnesota, including at a coal plant scheduled to retire by 2035. (MPR News)

NUCLEAR: A fire caused New York’s two largest nuclear plants to trip offline on Monday, with power output falling 2.1 GW and gas and hydropower rising to fill the gap. (WSYR)

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ALSO:

• In Detroit and Chicago, efforts to improve access to clean energy in underserved neighborhoods pose complex questions about the use of vacant land for projects. (Energy News Network)
• A University of Wisconsin researcher finds that the long process of securing approvals from tribal and federal entities contributes to the lack of commercial-scale wind and solar development on reservations. (Grist)

OIL & GAS:

• Six major U.S. universities have accepted more than $100 million from oil and gas companies over the last 20 years, placed fossil fuel leaders among their boards, and failed to disclose conflicts of interest for fossil fuel industry research, student organizers report. (The Guardian)
• The push to build data centers to support artificial intelligence will likely contribute to more methane emissions as more gas plants come online, according to an environmental data firm’s new report. (The New Republic)
• New Mexico advocates warn that Project 2025, the right-wing playbook for a second Trump administration, calls for nixing the oil and gas drilling ban around Chaco Culture National Historical Park. (NM Political Report) 

BUILDINGS:

• Democratic U.S. senators ask the Federal Housing Finance Agency to instate a building efficiency standard for new homes that would effectively become a national rule and help curb energy costs. (Grist)
• Maine uses Inflation Reduction Act funds to launch a $36 million home energy rebate program focused on heat pumps and electrification, first targeting low-income families but expanding to moderate-income ones next year. (Maine Monitor)
• California advocates say slow grid connections are stifling electric truck charging infrastructure buildout and zero-emission big-rig adoption. (Canary Media)

WIND: Opposition to offshore wind projects along the East Coast can be traced back to Robert F. Kennedy Jr.’s fight against wind turbines in the Nantucket Sound near his family’s Cape Cod estate. (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES: Orlando, Florida’s municipal utility moves to build two new solar facilities, add battery storage and jettison 90% of its fossil fuel plants, but customers push back against plans to charge more for power during peak times and decrease solar net metering payments. (Orlando Sentinel)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• General Motors CEO Mary Barra says the company still plans to phase out internal combustion light-duty vehicles by 2035. (CBS News)
• Many Rivian drivers have yet to receive adapters that would allow them to charge their vehicles at Tesla charging stations, a year after the initiative was announced. (Inside Climate News)
• Virginia struggles to develop the procedures and protocols needed for its electric vehicle infrastructure buildout, but the process is accelerating to take advantage of federal subsidies. (Virginia Mercury)

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