ALSO: 

• A House Republican introduces a draft permitting reform bill as a similar measure makes its way through the Senate. (E&E News)
• A billionaire pipeline mogul gives $5 million to Donald Trump’s presidential campaign in hopes of accelerating his company’s liquified natural gas export facility in Louisiana and fending off challenges to existing projects such as the Dakota Access oil pipeline. (E&E News)
• A proposed $2.4 billion battery plant in western Michigan has grown from a local issue to the national political stage as Republicans attack the project for its ties to China. (NBC News)

WIND:

• Federal officials approve a 2 GW offshore wind project off the Maryland and Delaware coastline, although local officials have threatened to sue if the project got this far. (Capital News Service, Maryland Matters)
• The Biden administration plans to advance a proposed marine sanctuary off the California coast that would carve out space for offshore wind transmission. (E&E News)

GRID: A PJM Interconnection executive says the grid operator could propose an accelerated interconnection approval process for shovel-ready generation projects. (Utility Dive)

EQUITY: Several trade groups form a new coalition aimed at steering Pennsylvania union workers through an equitable transition to a decarbonized economy. (Grist)

SOLAR:

• An investment firm and a clean energy developer partner to help small organizations finance and build solar and storage projects. (Utility Dive)
• A Canadian solar manufacturer’s plan to build a U.S. solar cell factory in Minnesota shows the Inflation Reduction Act is working as intended, clean energy and economic development officials say. (Energy News Network)

BUILDINGS: The U.S. Energy Department awards Colorado $20 million to help implement its building performance standards aimed at cutting large structures’ carbon emissions, with the funds targeting disadvantaged communities. (Canary Media) 

COMMENTARY:

• Climate advocate Bill McKibben outlines how renewable energy deployment will falter if Donald Trump wins the presidency. (The Guardian)
• A researcher discusses how oil and gas-dependent communities face unique threats in the clean energy transition, and says federal policy isn’t fully accounting for their well-being. (The Conversation)

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Trump pledges to rescind unspent IRA funds 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.

OIL & GAS:

• A peer-reviewed study documents how oil and gas companies have “embedded” themselves at colleges and universities through donations, sponsored scholarships, and seats on governing boards, with researchers concluding academic integrity is “at risk.” (Floodlight, The Guardian)
• Oil and gas producers plan to take advantage of a tax credit in the landmark federal climate package to inject carbon dioxide to squeeze more oil from the ground, but critics warn about a lack of federal oversight and uncertainty about the practice’s effectiveness. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• General Motors and Korea’s LG Energy Solution agree to recognize the United Auto Workers after a majority of a Tennessee electric vehicle plant’s 1,000 workers sign union cards, with a pay raise in the immediate future. (Associated Press)
• Chargers promising as much as 350 kW speeds rarely hit that level, derailed by low temperatures, car capacity and grid demand. (Bloomberg)

GRID: 

• State lawmakers across the PJM Interconnection territory are considering new regulations to try to bring capacity prices down in future auctions. (Utility Dive)
• Texas is on pace to surpass California by the end of the decade as the top solar state, but projections show it will still struggle to produce enough energy to meet growth in power demand. (Bloomberg)

WIND: Global warming could shift wind patterns, creating more potential for offshore wind power generation, new research shows. (The Guardian)

UTILITIES:

• California advocates criticize lawmakers for failing to pass bills aimed at containing rising utility rates while continuing to fund grid upgrades and wildfire-hazard mitigation efforts. (Canary Media) 
• Ohio FirstEnergy customers can expect higher electric bills next year as the utility seeks higher charges but multiple cases tied to the utility’s corruption scandal remain unresolved. (Energy News Network)

SOLAR:

• National lab research shows how rooftop solar systems’ generation capacities have expanded since 2000 even as their surface areas remain the same. (Inside Climate News)
• A Minnesota solar project with pollinator-friendly habitat is part of a growing effort to use solar not just to fight climate change but also prevent a collapse in biodiversity. (New York Times)

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Rural electric co-ops get $7 billion for clean power 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.

NUCLEAR: 

• A company announces it will build a multibillion-dollar uranium enrichment facility on federal land in Tennessee, in what will be the largest single investment in state history. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• Florida regulators will meet at a workshop today to study the possibility of using “advanced” nuclear technologies due to a legislative mandate tucked into a wide-ranging energy bill passed earlier this year. (News Service of Florida)

SOLAR: Virginia solar developers again ask state regulators to press Dominion Energy to suspend new rules they say are holding up mid-sized solar projects from connecting to the grid. (Virginia Mercury)

GRID: 

• Texas is on pace to surpass California by the end of the decade as the top solar state, but projections show it will still struggle to produce enough energy to meet growth in power demand from the electrification of oil and gas production and rapid expansion of data centers. (Bloomberg)
• An expert touts programs to incentivize voluntary power reductions during times of high demand, which Texas lawmakers have hinted toward with recent legislation. (KMID/KPEJ)

OIL & GAS: 

• Texas regulators collect public comment on proposed revisions to rules for oil and gas drilling waste disposal sites, which environmentalists say don’t go far enough but industry officials complain are too stringent. (Inside Climate News)
• Texas officials deny a company’s request for a state-backed loan to build a natural gas-fired power plant after Florida-based NextEra said it was unknowingly listed as a co-sponsor on the project. (Houston Chronicle)
• Oil and gas producers plan to take advantage of a tax credit in the landmark federal climate package to inject carbon dioxide to squeeze more oil from the ground, but critics warn about a lack of federal oversight and uncertainty about the practice’s effectiveness. (E&E News)
• A study finds the oil and gas companies have donated millions and played a role in governance and instruction at colleges and universities, creating conflicts of interest for researchers. (Floodlight)

STORAGE: A Canadian company announces it will deploy three battery storage systems in Virginia, including a 225 MWh unit with a solar facility at a transportation hub that will be the state’s largest battery storage project to date. (Renewables Now)

UTILITIES: CenterPoint Energy tells Texas lawmakers it plans to propose a $5 billion plan to boost grid resilience around Houston and will forego some profits from its purchase of large generators that went unused during its heavily criticized response to Hurricane Beryl. (Utility Dive)

FINANCE: A business group sues Texas officials over a 2021 state law that prohibits state agencies from doing business with companies considered hostile to the fossil fuel industry, arguing it violates constitutional free speech and discrimination protections. (Dallas Morning News)

COMMENTARY: A first-time Georgia voter says the Democratic presidential ticket will maintain momentum for the state’s rapidly growing clean energy sector. (Savannah Morning News)

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Workers unionize a Tennessee EV and battery plant 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.

It’s been nearly 20 years since states and cities started adopting climate goals, setting themselves on a path toward reducing emissions and rolling out clean energy. Whether they’re actually on track to meet those goals is up for debate.

Advocates across the country have sued municipalities they say are failing on their climate commitments, like those in San Diego who alleged the city’s climate plan lacked funding and a clear timeline, and a group in Vermont that said the state wasn’t complying with its 2020 emissions law.

But in Maine, climate advocates are getting specific with their complaints, the Energy News Network reports. A pending youth-led lawsuit targets the state’s environmental protection agencies, and says they haven’t adopted strong enough regulations to propel the state’s electric vehicle rollout.

The suit centers on Maine’s 2019 climate law. In it, the state said it would focus on cutting emissions from its “most significant sources” — and transportation tops that list. But even though the state has incentivized electric vehicle adoption, it’s still far from meeting its EV goals. So advocates say the state should implement California’s strongest-in-the-nation EV standards, which go even further than federal rules.

Environmental law professor Jennifer Rushlow told ENN that narrow lawsuits like this one tend to be more successful than broad suits that “get kind of lost to politics.” — and can inspire change in public opinion, too.

Read more about Maine’s unique climate lawsuit at the Energy News Network.

More clean energy news

💰 More federal spending is coming… Researchers estimate the clean energy transition by 2031 will demand $1 trillion in federal spending — about 15 times what has been distributed so far via the Inflation Reduction Act. (Grist)

🏭 But is it all smart? The U.S. has spent more public money on carbon capture and gas-produced hydrogen than any country, a new report finds, even though the technologies remain unproven as cost-effective climate solutions. (The Guardian)

♻️ A new spin for wind: National Renewable Energy Laboratory researchers say they’ve developed a wind turbine blade made from plant materials that can be recycled into new shapes or blades. (New York Times)

👷 Clean jobs report: The Department of Energy says clean energy jobs last year grew at twice the rate of other sectors and saw unionization rates higher than in the broader energy industry. (Reuters)

Dig deeper: The Bureau of Labor Statistics says wind energy is the country’s fastest growing field and projects 60% job growth over the next 10 years. (Axios)

🚘 More power for charging: The Biden administration announces $521 million in grants for electric vehicle charging, and says the number of publicly available chargers has doubled since 2021. (Utility Dive)

☀️ Solar’s bright future: A columnist details how increasingly cheap and widely available solar power will make once-far-fetched applications and technologies possible. (New York Times)

🇺🇲 Plus, some politics

• Vice President Kamala Harris’ promise not to ban fracking if she’s elected president pleases oil and gas executives while disappointing environmentalists — though both say there’s a wide gulf between her positions and Donald Trump’s. (E&E News)
• Experts debunk false and misleading claims about electric vehicle mandates, electricity availability, and other energy topics former President Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance are making on the campaign trail. (E&E News)

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This climate lawsuit gets specific 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.

ALSO: 

• Texas regulators select 17 natural gas generation projects totaling nearly 10 GW to receive up to $5.4 billion in state-backed loans. (Utility Dive)
• Arizona’s attorney general joins environmentalists in a lawsuit challenging state regulators’ decision to exempt a proposed 200 MW natural gas plant from environmental review. (KJZZ)

POLITICS: Experts debunk false and misleading claims about electric vehicle mandates, electricity availability, and other energy topics former President Trump and Sen. J.D. Vance are making on the campaign trail. (E&E News)

GRID:

• A Minnesota professor says grid reliability measures like underground power lines, energy storage systems and climate resilience hubs are needed amid aging grid infrastructure and more extreme weather. (MPR)
• A FERC commissioner dissents as the regulatory body approves incentives for a Maryland transmission project, saying state regulators should make sure projects are in the local interest before they get federal funding. (Utility Dive)

BUILDINGS: Massachusetts climate activists are pleased by how quickly a few dozen cities and towns have adopted an optional building code that helps to lower building emissions. (Energy News Network)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: 

• California lawmakers pass legislation authorizing regulators to require manufacturers to equip electric vehicles with bidirectional chargers that can send power back to the grid. (E&E News, subscription)
• Florida lags on spending nearly $110 million in federal funding to install fast chargers, raising questions about whether it will move fast enough to meet a deadline for more funding. (Miami Herald)

WIND: Maine officials, business owners and other environmentally minded stakeholders are looking to increase the number of small-scale distributed wind turbines in the state. (Portland Press Herald)

SOLAR: Mississippi solar advocates grow frustrated with a board of state regulators who rejected rules to make rooftop solar more affordable and cut speakers off at a “solar summit” that featured a representative of an oil-and-gas-funded, anti-renewables think tank. (Floodlight)

URANIUM: The Navajo Nation adopts emergency legislation to strengthen radioactive material transportation regulations after an Arizona mine began shipping uranium ore across tribal land to a Utah mill. (Associated Press)

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Despite fracking promise, there’s no mistaking candidates’ energy policies 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.