​The Arizona Corporation Commission on Tuesday voted 4-1 to deny an 820-MW expansion at a gas plant proposed by Salt River Project. Regulators said there was insufficient evidence in the record to make a decision, and the expansion would put too much pressure on the nearby, historically-Black community of Randolph. - Utility Dive

Duke Energy has proposed an electric vehicle (EV) charging program that could allow some residential customers in North Carolina to charge a vehicle for a fixed monthly fee as low as $19.99. In exchange, the customer would allow Duke to manage the vehicle's charging, in order to avoid grid stress and higher costs. The utility is trying to provide a "seamless customer experience and an ecosystem of EV products," while also avoiding costly grid upgrades necessary to meet rising peak demand, Duke Vice President of Rate Design and Strategic Solutions Lon Huber said. The proposed pilot is "all you can charge," said Huber, though some limitations apply. - Utility Dive

The climate is running hot. Evolving knowledge of climate sensitivity and polar ice melt-rate makes clear that sea-level rise is ramping, along with destructive storm, storm surge, severe precipitation and flooding, not forgetting wildfire. With mounting concern and recognition over the speed and pace of the low carbon energy transition that’s needed, nuclear has been reframed as a partial response to the threat of global heating. But at the heart of this are questions about whether nuclear could help with the climate crisis, whether nuclear is economically viable, what are the consequences of nuclear accidents, what to do with the waste, and whether there’s a place for nuclear within the swiftly expanding renewable energy evolution. As key experts who have worked on the front-line of the nuclear issue, we’ve all involved at the highest governmental nuclear regulatory and radiation protection levels in the US, Germany, France and UK. In this context, we consider it our collective responsibility to comment on the main issue: Whether nuclear could play a significant role as a strategy against climate change. The central message, repeated again and again, that a new generation of nuclear will be clean, safe, smart and cheap, is fiction. The reality is nuclear is neither clean, safe or smart; but a very complex technology with the potential to cause significant harm. Nuclear isn’t cheap, but extremely costly. Perhaps most importantly nuclear is just not part of any feasible strategy that could counter climate change. To make a relevant contribution to global power generation, up to more than ten thousand new reactors would be required, depending on reactor design. - Nuclear Consulting Group

Something unusual is happening in Hawaii: An electric utility and rooftop solar installers have agreed on a proposal to reward households for sharing clean energy with the grid at useful times. In many places around the U.S., utilities treat rooftop solar as an obstacle. They say it shifts grid-maintenance costs from customers who have solar to those who don’t, or causes headaches for their system planning and operations. Utilities in California are currently urging regulators to levy a monthly fee on anyone who adds rooftop solar, regardless of how it operates. - Canary Media

Ethanol made from corn grown across millions of acres of American farmland has become the country’s premier renewable fuel, touted as a low-carbon alternative to traditional gasoline and a key component of the country’s efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. But a new study, published this week, finds that corn-based ethanol may actually be worse for the climate than fossil-based gasoline, and has other environmental downsides. “We thought and hoped it would be a climate solution and reduce and replace our reliance on gasoline,” said Tyler Lark, a researcher with the Nelson Institute for Environmental Studies at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and lead author of the study. “It turns out to be no better for the climate than the gasoline it aims to replace and comes with all kinds of other impacts.” - Inside Climate News