The Sun Gazette – July 21
At its July 14 meeting, the Tulare County Planning Commission unanimously approved a permit for a new solar farm in Angiola, a small community south of Corcoran. The energy generated by the panels is enough to power about 1,200 homes and will be connected directly to a PG&E powerline. Faced with the bleak prospects of drought and groundwater pumping regulations, many south county land owners are selling former farmland for use as solar farms. In May, the Planning Commission approved an 80-MW system, which will produce enough energy to power about 600 homes. Earlier during that same meeting, the commission also granted a two-year extension of time for a similar sized project near Terra Bella.
Drought conditions mean lower water levels at Hebgen Reservoir
Efforts required to protect Madison River fisheries
MTN file photo
and last updated 2021-07-26 15:15:16-04
BUTTE â Efforts by NorthWestern Energy to protect the fisheries on parts of the Madison River will lead to lower water levels at Hebgen Reservoir, company officials say.
Current drought conditions, the result of low snowpack, low spring precipitation and recent hot, dry weather have led to challenging low water conditions in the Madison River system. These conditions are resulting in lower water levels at Hebgen reservoir to protect fisheries on the lower Madison River.
Water releases from Hebgen Reservoir feed Ennis Reservoir to support pulsed flow releases out of Madison Dam. The pulsed flow releases protect the lower Madison River from reaching lethal temperatures to fish. Hot, dry weather in June and July has required almost daily pulses. Pulsed flows have so far successfully kept river water temperat
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This is the latest example of disrupted fuel supplies because of trucking woes. While the whole country has plenty of gasoline and even a glut of jet fuel, truck drivers who distribute supplies have been hard to come by just as travel demand comes roaring back. That has left some far-flung filling stations at least briefly without fuel in states from Florida to Iowa to Oregon and has now sparked the warnings from airlines.
For jet fuel, U.S. stockpiles stand at their highest seasonal level in a decade. That’s partly because oil refiners are trying to cash in on resurgent gasoline demand by raising production rates, which indirectly leads to more jet fuel output. Shortages of transportation equipment, drivers and pipeline-space allocation are being blamed for the supply-distribution problems.
Fuel shortages drove February blackouts, Southwest Power Pool investigators find
Less than half of SPP’s ‘accredited’ natural gas-powered electricity was available at the height of the cold snap
By: Allison Kite - July 26, 2021 6:04 pm During the winter cold snap that forced power outages, natural gas was in short supply, the Southwest Power Pool said. (Sherman Smith/Kansas Reflector)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. Rolling outages that left thousands without power in February were driven overwhelmingly by fuel shortages especially in natural gas, executives with the Southwest Power Pool said Monday.
This winter, sustained frigid temperatures across the Midwest and South forced huge demand for energy while the weather made generators struggle to keep up. The Southwest Power Pool, a regional transmission organization spanning 17 states, twice instructed its member utility companies, including Evergy, to shut off customers’ power or “shed load” in order to keep the grid stable
American Airlines warns pilots nationwide fuel shortages
ANI
27 Jul 2021, 08:37 GMT+10
Washington [US], July 27 (ANI/Sputnik): American Airlines jet fuel shortages that impacted mostly Western cities amid wildfires have spread across the United States and will continue until the middle of August, CNBC reported citing an internal company memorandum.
US media reported that more than 20,000 firefighters were combating explosive wildfires across the West during the weekend, as homes burned and thousands of residents fled fast-spreading flames. American Airlines station jet fuel delivery delays initially affected mostly western US cities, but are now being reported at American stations across the country, the memorandum said on Monday. Delivery delays are expected to continue through mid-August. The airline warned its pilots about fuel delivery delays at certain midsize airports and asked them to save fuel when possible, according to the report. The carrier blamed the shortage on