The California Climate Investments program spent about $1 billion on greenhouse gas-reduction projects in the first six-month period of this year, up from about $914 million in the first six-month period of 2019, the California Air Resources Board said in a news release this week. Read More
Top Stories
The Sacramento Municipal Utility District announced that Paul Lau will succeed Arlen Orchard as its CEO and general manager effective Oct. 3. Lau has been chief grid strategy and operations officer for SMUD since 2015 and originally joined the municipal utility in 1982 as an electrical engin… Read More
The battle between the California Public Utilities Commission and its recently fired executive director, Alice Stebbins, got even more explosive this week, as Stebbins is filing a whistleblower complaint alleging she was retaliated against for exposing uncollected fees and other mismanagemen… Read More
It could be expected that record heat forecast through Sept. 7 across the West would give regional prices a uniform boost in anticipation of higher demand, but that scenario hadn’t played out yet as of Sept. 4. Read More
State water officials on Sept. 1 issued a controversial decision that will keep four natural gas-fired power plants operating for up to three years after they were scheduled to be retired to comply with once-through-cooling regulations. Read More
California's electricity-generation future includes adding record amounts of solar generation and battery storage each year over the next 25 years while keeping the majority of natural gas generation resources in use through 2045, state agencies said. Read More
Karen Heim (Public Power Council), Dan Catchpole (NewsData; Clearing Up), Ian Bledsoe (Clatskanie PUD) and Paul Dockery (Clatskanie PUD) start the new year catching up on electric utility news across the region. Read more
We want to hear from you on energy issues and to share your thoughts with our readership. Read more
California Gov. Gavin Newsom suspended certain permitting requirements for power plants and declared a state of emergency due to a heat wave moving into California over the Labor Day weekend. Read More
A new grid storage program rolling out across the San Francisco Bay Area could increase community resilience to blackouts and decrease a power provider's resource-adequacy obligations, but regulatory uncertainty remains, speakers said during an Aug. 28 webinar. Read More
A real estate developer is working with a Shell subsidiary to bring virtual power plants to California apartment communities. Read More
Offshore wind turbines in Monterey Bay could harm endangered sea creatures and alter the habitats of federally protected marine mammals, according to a letter from environmental groups to the California Energy Commission. But the turbines could also play an important role in the state's rene… Read More
While the California Independent System Operator was instituting rolling blackouts during the last heat wave, the lights in the Balancing Authority of Northern California's service area were still on. Read More
Portland General Electric no longer has net market exposure from energy trades, and its total third-quarter losses from energy trading will be $128 million, the Oregon utility said in a Sept. 2 statement. Read More
Federal regulators on Aug. 28 reversed an earlier decision regarding whether state or federal agencies have jurisdictional authority over a Colorado-based wholesale power cooperative, but the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission's refusal to weigh in on the legality of decisions that brought… Read More
Community groups in Arizona would like the state's largest utility to forgive the debt racked up by its residential customers during a moratorium on nonpayment disconnections that began in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Read More
Arizona utility executives at an Aug. 21 emergency workshop pointed to market strain and poor planning as factors that led California's grid operator to institute rolling blackouts during a heat wave on Aug. 14 and 15. Read More
Arizona Corporation Commission member Lea Márquez Peterson in a Sept. 1 letter asked Arizona Public Service to prioritize certain programs in its pending energy-efficiency budget as part of a $50-million customer relief package in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. Home weatherization for li… Read More
NV Energy's general rate case application has hit a snag over disagreements on how and when to return $60 million from a regulatory liability account to consumers. Read More
The proposed Jordan Cove natural gas liquefaction and export terminal is one of more than two dozen energy-related projects and federal resource-management plans targeted for accelerated environmental review in an Interior Department list made public Sept. 2. Read More