A multiyear battle over whether Southern Nevadans should pay for natural disaster protection work in Northern Nevada raises an increasingly pressing public policy question: Are natural disasters statewide or local issues?

NV Energy’s planned multibillion-dollar transmission line connecting wide swaths of the state has turned into a regulatory battle between the state electric utility and a watchdog agency over the potential and timing of future rate hikes for customers already grappling with rising power bills.

Sen. Jacky Rosen (D-NV) is leading the Senate charge against a tariff on solar imports, arguing that protecting jobs in the burgeoning solar installation industry in Nevada and around the country outweighs energy independence concerns.

Unlike previous elections in which NV Energy was the dominant political fundraising force among energy companies in the state, the 2022 cycle saw Southwest Gas emerge as the industry’s top legislative contributor, giving more than $196,000 to NV Energy’s nearly $185,000.

Direct contributions from outside PACs and political groups also broadly boosted Democratic candidates more than Republicans. At the top of the list, for instance, is the Democratic Legislative Campaign Committee, the national party’s state legislative campaign arm.

Democratic Assembly leaders are recommending Sabra Smith Newby to fill the Assembly seat vacated when Rochelle Nguyen (D-Las Vegas) was appointed to the state Senate.

Brooks announced in May he would resign from the state Senate at the end of the year to take a position with a private-sector energy company.

Details about his new employment are still being finalized, but Brooks said it would broadly encompass working on developing renewable energy projects across the country.

The allocation sparked bipartisan pushback over a detail that required the committee to hand over the funds without direct legislative oversight.

Wednesday’s meeting marked the first opportunity for legislators to approve awards for nonprofits from a $30 million ARP community grant program announced by the governor’s office in December. 

The additional funding comes on top of $12.2 million already allocated by lawmakers last year as part of AB321, the bill implementing the move to permanent, expanded mail voting.

This week’s Indy Environment looks at the steps Nevada is taking to create a more organized and more efficient grid in the West.

Julia Peek, a deputy administrator in the Division of Public and Behavioral Health, told members of the Interim Finance Committee that the funding would be used to serve approximately 1,100 patients per week through freestanding treatment centers.

The governor’s office announced on Thursday the launch of a $30 million community grant program using American Rescue Plan funds that will deliver money directly to Nevada nonprofits to be used for relief services as early as February.

Lawmakers on Thursday approved the DMV’s plan to pay back millions of collected $1 fees that were declared unconstitutional by the Nevada Supreme Court earlier this year.

The opinion represented a stark departure from what lawmakers were told at an IFC meeting in August — that more than half of the funds would need to be appropriated by the full Legislature.

IFC Chair Sen. Chris Brooks (D-Las Vegas) lauded the proposal as a “creative solution” but said the committee wanted explicit approval from the court and state Senate Republicans.

Lawmakers began appropriating the state’s share of $2.7 billion in federal American Rescue Plan (ARP) general aid on Wednesday, approving disbursements totaling more than $600 million.

Lawmakers took a major step this session to expand and diversify the industry’s disproportionately white and male ownership and also provide tourists with a place to legally consume marijuana by creating a new license type for cannabis consumption lounges.

Members of the Interim Finance Committee met Tuesday to authorize the governor’s office to accept the full ARP allotment and designate allocations of more than $76 million in federal aid programs, including $39.5 million in rental assistance, $12.1 million in homeowner assistance and $13.9 million for the Department of Education to ensure federal relief funds are properly administered.