Happy Friday, and welcome back to Canary Media Weekly! Drought in the Western U.S. has reached a scary new milestone: Water levels in lakes Mead and Powell have reached record lows. But the climate change–induced threats to hydropower don’t stop at the Colorado River. Let’s dive in.
The U.S. depends on hydroelectric power — and ever-worsening drought is threatening its supply.
The western half of the country has faced a water crisis for years, and things have only gotten more dire in 2026. Rocky Mountain states didn’t get much precipitation this past winter, and a steamy spring quickly melted what little snowpack there was.
Now, the Colorado River is suffering the consequences. Lake Mead and Lake Powell — the nation’s two largest reservoirs, held in by the Hoover and Glen Canyon dams, respectively — both reached record-low water levels this month. Those reservoirs hold crucial supplies of water for drinking and farming throughout the West, and when they’re full, can produce more than 3 GW of power.
Current water levels in both Mead and Powell are too low to produce anywhere near that much power. And the Bureau of Reclamation, which manages water levels in both reservoirs, projects there’s a slim but real chance that they could sink too low to produce any power at some point next year.
As big as they are, these two dams provide only a small portion of the Southwest’s total electricity supply. But drought, exacerbated by climate change, is challenging dozens of other hydropower plants throughout the West — and across North America. Hydro provides nearly all the power in Quebec, but the Canadian province is stuck in a yearslong drought that has diminished its generation capacity.
That’s not just a problem for Canada. The Northeastern U.S. brought two huge transmission lines into operation this year to carry Canadian hydropower into New England and New York City. But plagued by outages and drought conditions, those lines have transported far less power than expected into the U.S., casting doubt on whether Canada’s once-abundant hydropower can be the clean energy savior the Northeast hoped it would be.
TWO MORE THINGS
Trump’s cabinet cheerleads battery projects
The Trump administration may be trying to take down clean energy, but it’s cheering batteries on.
This week, South Korea-based company LG Energy Solution opened a battery manufacturing facility in Lansing, Michigan, and Interior Secretary Doug Burgum was there to celebrate. As Claire Hao reports, the project was originally a joint venture between LG and General Motors, but a waning EV market led GM to pull out. LG now solely owns the facility, and half of the cells it produces will go to storage, while the other half will go to Toyota to put in EVs.
Another battery-boosting event this week also had a special guest from President Donald Trump’s cabinet. Energy Secretary Chris Wright joined Maine Republican leaders to tout the construction of Form Energy’s grid-scale battery storage project on the site of a former paper mill.
Despite slashing funding for other clean energy projects, the White House has largely preserved incentives and money for battery storage.
Pennsylvania wants data centers to bring their own energy
As I wrote last week, pretty much every governor looking to be reelected this fall is cracking down on data centers, and Pennsylvania Gov. Josh Shapiro (D) is no exception.
This week, Shapiro issued an executive order requiring that data centers meet “stringent” energy use, economic, and community engagement standards if they want to secure expedited permits. And as Jeff St. John reports, the announcement explicitly follows through on PJM Interconnection’s call for member states to help the grid operator rein in data center power demand. Under Shapiro’s order, data centers that want an fast-tracked grid connection will either have to secure their own power or face potential curtailment when the grid is stressed.
PJM is struggling to keep up with rising demand in its region, and its power prices are increasing as more and more data centers look to come online. Shapiro’s order is a step toward the bring-your-own-clean-energy policies that grid experts have named as a potential solution to data center demand.
WHAT TO KNOW THIS WEEK
Data center dreaming: OpenAI announces plans to develop a 10-GW data center complex in Ohio, which will be powered by a 9.2-GW gas plant built and owned by the U.S. government — two projects of unprecedented size and questionable feasibility. (Wall Street Journal)
Heat pump high-rises: More than half of apartment buildings constructed in the U.S. last year included ultraefficient heat pumps, and new home construction is close to passing that milestone, too. (Canary Media)
Geothermal road map: A new report lays out how state policies can help next-generation geothermal companies secure the financing they need to take off. (Canary Media)
Homegrown solar: U.S. solar manufacturer Qcells, which recently brought the entire panel production process into its Georgia factory, could benefit from the Trump administration’s latest round of tariffs on polysilicon imports. (Grist)
Clean heat revolution: Three projects in Boston and Cambridge, Massachusetts, aim to tap heat from the ocean and rivers to provide heating and cooling to major institutions and replace natural gas. (Canary Media)
Power hour: Democrat Xavier Becerra, California’s top gubernatorial candidate, proposes giving residents two hours of free power every day in a move that could shift grid demand to when solar power generation is high. (Canary Media)
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