Good morning. Even before President Trump’s tariffs, electric vehicle companies were scrambling to build a domestic supply chain to ensure their vehicles qualified for a key $7,500 federal tax credit. Today’s top story shows how Hyundai’s partnership with SK Battery helped it secure Georgia-made batteries to do just that.
Elsewhere, a Virginia lawmaker discusses what led her to change her vote on solar development, and Georgia and West Virginia use different strategies to attract data centers.
TODAY'S TOP NEWS
ELECTRIC VEHICLES
Hyundai begins supplying its electric vehicles with lithium battery packs made by SK Battery at a Georgia factory, making them eligible for a $7,500 federal tax credit now that more than 60% of their components are made domestically. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
A West Virginia-based electric school bus maker has so far fallen short of expectations, producing only 12 of 91 contracted buses for state school systems. (WV Metro News)
SOLAR
A Virginia lawmaker who previously backed a bill to limit the power of local governments to block solar projects reversed her position after solar development became “the number one issue I hear about” at rural town halls. (Cardinal News)
NextEra Energy schedules a public meeting around its proposal to build two 150 MW solar farms in two Louisiana parishes. (Plaquemine Post South)
A Virginia county board considers three solar projects that would generate a total of 22 MW. (Cardinal News)
GRID
A new report projects Georgia will forgo roughly $296 million in sales and use taxes for data centers this year, making it one of the most generous states in the country for offering incentives to the industry. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)
West Virginia makes moves to entice data centers to build in the state by pitching its coal and natural gas, instead of renewables favored by many tech companies. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)
American Electric Power gears up to build one of the first 765 kV transmission lines approved by Texas officials for the Permian Basin region. (KIII)
A company that makes electrical transformers announces a $22.5 million expansion of its Virginia facilities. (Cardinal News)
OVERSIGHT
The Tennessee Valley Authority’s board of directors will meet for its quarterly meeting in May even though Trump’s firing of two members leaves it short of a quorum, and it can’t take any consequential votes. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
North Carolina lawmakers consider a bill giving state regulators only five days to make a decision on permits for pipelines and other projects that discharge material into public water bodies. (Port City Daily)
Florida lawmakers consider a bill to ban oil drilling along the Apalachicola River, with one lawmaker adding an amendment that would restrict such a ban to certain economically distressed counties. (Tallahassee Democrat)
Chesapeake Bay environmentalists decry the Trump administration’s plan to cut the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration and its research, educational, and regulatory agencies by roughly $6.1 billion. (Virginian-Pilot)
FOSSIL FUELS
West Virginia residents and coal companies respond enthusiastically to Trump’s orders to increase coal production, but experts doubt the president’s ability to revive the fading industry. (Associated Press)
Louisiana officials respond to a company’s oil and gas spill in a Louisiana marsh. (WDSU)
CLIMATE
A new report from the Texas climatologist projects the Houston area will see more powerful hurricanes, more flooding, and more 100-degree-plus days in the future. (Houston Chronicle)
NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA
A bill that aims to curb Connecticut’s high electricity prices could harm renewable energy deployment, Sarah Shemkus reports.
A wave of staff departures has begun at the U.S. Energy Department, jeopardizing nuclear power revitalization and President Trump’s other “energy dominance” goals, Kathryn Krawczyk writes.
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