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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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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ALSO: A California company cancels plans to build one of the world’s largest direct-air carbon capture facilities in Wyoming, citing intense competition from data centers for clean energy to power the facility. (Cowboy State Daily)

OIL & GAS: The Biden administration grants its first gas export permit following a court ruling that blocked its efforts to delay the process. (The Hill)

POLITICS: An energy market expert refutes former President Trump’s claim that he could cut energy prices in half during his first year in office. (NBC News)

BATTERIES: A battery plant in a Pittsburgh suburb that has taken advantage of or is eligible for billions in public funds has created poor working conditions and has fired union-supporting workers, according to some employees. (Pennsylvania Capital-Star)

EFFICIENCY: Some affordable housing developers embrace Passive House building standards that make homes highly energy-efficient with only slightly higher upfront costs. (Energy News Network)

WIND: Vineyard Wind’s broken turbine blade, misinformation campaigns and a lack of forthrightness from offshore wind developers is causing a “public relations nightmare” for the industry. (Rhode Island Current)

POLLUTION: A federal court rejects a new EPA rule tightening emissions standards for industrial boilers, saying the agency went too far in classifying facilities built before the rule was proposed as “new” pollution sources. (Reuters)

COMMENTARY: A climate advocate explains why his organization is opposing a bipartisan energy permitting bill, saying the legislation’s provisions advancing fossil fuels make the price “simply too high.” (Union of Concerned Scientists)

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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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BATTERIES: The federal government is reportedly considering shoring up domestic projects that process critical minerals for clean energy applications as they face steep competition from cheaper Chinese materials. (Politico)

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)
• 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)
• U.S. wind project investment jumped 63% in the first half of the year from pre-IRA rates, totaling $12 billion for new projects — including 1 GW-plus “megaprojects.” (Utility Dive)

GRID:

• Investment firm Morgan Stanley warns prices could surge even higher in PJM Interconnection’s next capacity auction, but another researcher says the analysis may be underestimating how much new capacity will come available. (Utility Dive)
• Dominion Energy officials say they’re receiving so many requests from Virginia data centers to hook up to the power grid that new applicants may have to wait as long as seven years. (Bloomberg)

POLITICS: In her first formal interview as the Democratic presidential nominee, Vice President Kamala Harris promises she won’t ban fracking if elected. (Axios)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• Production is delayed until 2027 at an Indiana electric vehicle battery plant jointly run by GM and Samsung as EV sales slow and the companies finalize contract details. (Associated Press) 
• As demand for electric vehicles sags, Hyundai adjusts its planned EV factory in Georgia toward hybrids. (Atlanta Business Chronicle, subscription)
• General Motors will bring its electric commercial van startup BrightDrop under the Chevrolet brand in an effort to expand sales beyond delivery companies. (Detroit News, subscription)

SOLAR: Observers say a growing number of Western water managers are considering covering irrigation canals with solar panels to generate power and reduce evaporation. (Water Education)

EFFICIENCY: University of Maryland scientists are leading research into energy-efficient air conditioners. (Inside Climate News)

UTILITIES: Advocates push back on proposed California legislation aimed at reducing utility bills, saying it would gut low-income clean energy programs without significantly increasing affordability. (Canary Media)

ACTIVISM: Environmental and community activists oppose a federal loan for a project exploring whether plastic could be a viable replacement for coal as fuel for steelmaking. (Inside Climate News)

COMMENTARY: PJM’s latest capacity auction with sky-high prices should not be a cause for panic and shows that the grid operator’s market is catching up to the rest of the country in needing to manage supply changes, a former regulator writes. (Utility Dive)

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