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EnergyPlatform.News(letter)
July 28, 2025
In this week’s edition of energy and environmental policy news across the states: Facing higher gas prices, California grapples with oil refinery closures; American lithium rush faces new hurdles; Nebraska overhauls oversight of water, energy; Separating fact from fiction in NWS staffing during Texas floods; Utah at a glance.
Plus: Caufield: The punishing costs of Colorado’s pathway to decarbonization
Two planned refinery closures would cost California 17% of its oil refinery capacity over the next year, according to the Energy Information Administration. The closures are expected to drive up gas prices, not only in California, which often has the nation’s most expensive gasoline, but in other western states too.
Lithium mining in the United States, particularly in Nevada, is seeing renewed momentum as electric vehicle and clean energy industries accelerate.
Projects like Thacker Pass and Rhyolite Ridge aim to secure domestic lithium supply but face challenges ranging from regulatory hurdles to fluctuating market conditions.
Legislation that took effect July 1 in Nebraska combined the state’s natural resources and environment and energy agencies into a single department charged with comprehensive oversight of related policies.
Gov. Jim Pillen tapped Jesse Bradley, interim director for the Department of Natural Resources (DNR) and the Department of Environment and Energy (DEE), to lead the newly created Department of Water, Energy and Environment.
Staffing shortages at the National Weather Service (NWS) did not play a role in either forecasters’ ability to issue warnings or relay critical information to public safety officials during the catastrophic floods in Texas over the July Fourth weekend, according to multiple meteorologists.
In the next fifteen years, Coloradans could be facing one of the steepest electricity price hikes in the country as an unintended consequence of well-meaning, but ultimately short-sighted, environmental policy.
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