Colorado River Deliveries to Remain the Same — For Now (Politico)

Hopes for a boost to reservoir levels on the Colorado River after a wet winter were dashed by a dry spring and summer, Bureau of Reclamation Commissioner Brenda Burman said Friday as her agency said that rules governing water deliveries in 2021 will be the same as those governing them this year.

According to the bureau's 2-year projections, Lake Mead is expected to be at elevation 1,085.28 feet on the trigger date — Jan. 1, 2021 — meaning voluntary delivery reductions agreed to by the states of Arizona, Nevada and California will remain in play, but more severe cuts will be staved off for at least another year.

Lake Powell, which stores water from the Upper Basin is projected to be at elevation 3,591.60 feet on the first of the year — 100 feet above the level at which Glen Canyon dam's turbines would be cut off.

California: Draft Environmental Impact Report Available for Wind-Energy Project in Eastern Shasta County (Redding Record Searchlight, CA)

(REDDING, CA) -- The draft environmental impact report for a controversial wind-energy project in eastern Shasta County has been published.

The public has until 5 p.m. Sept. 18 to comment on the environmental document.

Fountain Wind developer Scott Kringen addresses a full Montgomery Creek Elementary School gym at a public meeting for the Fountain Wind project in January 2019.

ConnectGen wants to build the project, called Fountain Wind, on nearly 4,500 acres six miles west of Burney and one mile west of the existing Hatchet Ridge wind project.

The new wind turbine proposal would be on leased timberland near the communities of Montgomery Creek, Round Mountain, Oak Run, Moose Camp, Big Bend and Wengler.

Per the draft EIR, Fountain Wind would feature up to 72 wind turbines that could be as high as 679 feet — higher than Shasta Dam. The project would have a maximum generating capacity of 216 megawatts, enough to power more than 200,000 homes, according to a formula from the Lawrence Livermore Labs.

Last summer, a citizens’ group that opposes the project had asked the county to place a moratorium on any more large generation projects.

Citizens in Opposition to the Fountain Wind Project said the nearly 38,000-acre forested area that the turbines would be located within is in a high fire hazard zone.

Paul Hellman, the county’s director of resource management, said he does not know when the project would come before the Planning Commission for final approval. The project would go before the Board of Supervisors if the commission’s decision is appealed.

“It’s really too early to predict that,” Hellman said of a Planning Commission date. “Once we receive all the comments, we will have to evaluate them, prepare responses, and we really don’t know until we see the magnitude of comments” how long that will take.

As COVID Talk Dominates, Fed Lawmakers Consider Energy Measures (Politico)

(WASHINGTON, DC) -- As negotiators weigh next steps, lawmakers on both sides of Congress are waiting on the sidelines with a host of energy asks they're hoping to hitch onto the next relief package. Here is a few ME are watching:

— Bipartisan House members want to include legislation, H.R. 7483 (116), to provide financial relief to rural electric cooperatives that are suffering amid the coronavirus crisis.

— More than 30 farm-state lawmakers want negotiators to include language "explicitly" directing relief to biofuel producers, including, for example, language requiring the Agriculture secretary to provide a per-gallon payment to producers for renewable fuels produced during the pandemic.

— Senate Republicans are directly urging Majority Leader Mitch McConnell to prioritize assistance for the clean energy sector, and House Democrats have also vowed to prioritize assistance to the sector in future packages. The GOP lawmakers say they would like policies that benefit "renewables, nuclear, carbon capture, efficiency, advanced transportation, and energy storage."

— House Republicans, led by Natural Resources ranking member Rob Bishop and Science ranking member Frank Lucas, are looking to include provisions to reduce foreign dependence on critical minerals. "While the insecurity of many of our country's supply chains is not new, the threat posed by America's growing import reliance for critical minerals has become particularly apparent," they write. Murkowski's bill, the American Mineral Security Act, S. 1317 (116) , made it into the Republican Covid-19 measure pushed in the Senate.

— House Democrats have also drawn a line in the sand against any proposals for federal corporate immunity that would shield businesses that reopen amid the Covid-19 pandemic from lawsuits for five years, something environmental activists have said is also tied to the fossil fuel industry.

— Meanwhile, House Democrats' have already included more than $1 billion in their own coronavirus rescue plan to help low-income households cover their water bills and would institute a moratorium on utility service shutoffs for any entity receiving federal relief funds. Democrats on the Senate Environment and Public Works Committee also recently released a report warning that just 10 states have protections in place to shield their residents from having their water, gas or electric utilities shut off. The National Association of Clean Water Agencies asked for $4 billion to help cover the costs of a shutoff moratorium.