** New Mexico officials promote an oil and gas company’s 8 MW solar array in the Permian Basin as the type of carbon-reducing initiative companies could pursue under a statewide “clean-fuel standard.”
** German automaker Porsche is working on a synthetic fuel technology that the company says has the potential to make combustion engines just as clean as their battery-powered counterparts.
** Opposition ramps up against a proposed pipeline in Memphis as a coalition of celebrities, neighborhood groups and a congressman pressures President Biden to rescind a federal permit for the Byhalia Connection, which would run through largely Black neighborhoods.
** Gas producers benefited from outages across the Southeast as prices surged, while oil producers, refineries, and utilities took financial hits.
** Arizona’s largest utility agrees to pay $24 million to roughly 225,000 ratepayers for overcharging after the utility’s online calculation tool gave incorrect recommendations on cheapest available plans.
** Georgia lawmakers debate whether to require utilities to remove coal ash from closed ponds.
** Multiple bills to support North Dakota’s coal industry gain traction with lawmakers ahead of the planned closure of the Coal Creek plant next year.
** The Fond du Lac Band of Lake Superior Chippewa asks pipeline protesters who are not band members to respect the tribe’s sovereignty after concerns over a potential explosive device related to Line 3 in Michigan.
** While natural gas and renewable power operations in Oklahoma and Texas struggled last week in the historic cold weather, all six Exelon nuclear plants in Illinois operated at nearly full capacity last week as cold weather gripped much of the U.S.
** North Dakota lawmakers advance a bill to raise the state’s gasoline tax by 3 cents to pay for infrastructure improvements.
** A proposed Utah bill that would increase electric and hybrid vehicle registration fees fails to pass the state’s House.
** New research indicates California’s power prices are so high the state could struggle to persuade people to electrify their homes, and suggests income-based ratemaking as an alternative.