According to the Utah Division of Oil, Gas and Mining, there are at least 49 orphan wells in the state wells that are abandoned and not plugged on private, state and federal lands. Congress is once again debating who should clean them up. Last year, the Biden administration proposed increasing the minimum bond amounts on oil and gas leases. .
Environmental activists in New Hampshire are celebrating the planned closure of New England s last coal-fired power plant. Granite Shore Power said it will close Merrimack Station in Bow by 2028 and turn the site into the state s first renewable energy park with solar power and battery storage systems. Rebecca Beaulieu, organizer for the group 350NH Action, said years of litigation and community protests helped convince the utility to change course. .
New York s Legislature is considering a bill to get clean-energy projects connected to the grid faster. It s called the RAPID Act, for "Renewable Action through Project Interconnection and Deployment," and backers have said it would make clean-energy projects permitting and interconnection processes more efficient. As states prepare their power grids for the renewable energy boom, many grid operators need to catch up, according to a new report. .
By Frank Jossi for Energy News Network.Broadcast version by Mark Richardson for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration After a renovation project next year, the primates at St. Paul’s Como Park Zoo will reside in one of the first net-zero city-owned buildings. Retrofitting several buildings at the zoo and the adjacent St. .
By Frank Jossi for Energy News Network.Broadcast version by Mike Moen for Minnesota News Connection reporting for the Solutions Journalism Network-Public News Service Collaboration A coalition of labor and environmental groups is putting its support behind perennial Minnesota legislation meant to lift a barrier to building power lines in the rights-of-way of federal highways in the state. NextGen Highways is a national collaboration that promotes co-location of utility infrastructure in existing highway corridors as a way to accelerate expansion of the electric grid. The concept has widespread public support, according to the group’s polling, but it also faces various legal, financial, and technical obstacles across the country. “What we’re trying to do in Minnesota — and in states across the country — is to identify barriers and work with our coalition partners to develop strategies to overcome those barriers,&