3 April 2025

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Sierra Club report finds the Williams Company’s plans to expand its Transco Pipeline network would exacerbate pollution in North Carolina, especially for low-income residents and communities of color. (NC Newsline)
• Delta Utilities completes its $1.2 billion purchase of CenterPoint Energy’s natural gas network in Louisiana and Mississippi. (Utility Dive)
• State officials say federal funding to plug abandoned oil and gas wells has started flowing again after a Trump administration pause, but they’re unsure how long that will last. (E&E News)
• The author of a recent book about Dominion Energy’s canceled Atlantic Coast Pipeline warns that utilities and other companies are pushing to build other such gas-based projects. (WVTF)

STORAGE

• SK Battery announces a partnership with the Georgia National Guard to hire veterans at its Georgia manufacturing plant. (Capitol Beat News Service)
• The Southern Alliance for Clean Energy publishes a paper on regional pipeline safety issues. (news release)

OVERSIGHT

• The Trump administration’s firing of two Tennessee Valley Authority board members leaves it short of a quorum, which means it can approve budgets, policies and rates but not approve new programs or change policy direction. (Knoxville News Sentinel)
• New TVO CEO Don Moul spent nearly three decades in the nuclear energy sector before joining the utility in 2021, and his appointment comes as TVA considers investing more heavily in nuclear power. (E&E News)
• Moul’s base salary will be $1.2 million, the same as his predecessor, who President Trump criticized for his high pay. (WATE)
• Recently announced federal cuts include offices in West Virginia that regulate working conditions for coal miners. (WVTF) 

SOLAR

• A Virginia county planning commission narrowly recommends approval of an 80 MW solar facility, though one member wonders if the reason so few people showed up to oppose it is because the company had people sign a “Good Neighbor” agreement limiting their opportunity to object. (Mecklenburg Sun)
• A Texas county board approves a tax abatement for a potentially 5,000-acre solar farm. (KTXS)
• An energy company completes construction of a 1.2 MW solar array at a Texas airport. (news release)

EMISSIONS

• North Carolina Republicans push legislation to repeal a goal for Duke Energy to reduce carbon emissions 70% by 2030, though it leaves in place a 2050 target for the utility to reach carbon neutrality. (Associated Press)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Texas lawmakers advance legislation to make damaging electric vehicle chargers a third-degree felony, aiming largely at protestors who target Tesla dealerships. (Houston Chronicle)

GRID

• Texas lawmakers consider legislation to establish a commission dedicated to tracking and preparing for security hazards to the state’s independent power grid. (KLTV)

NUCLEAR

• Duke Energy identifies a South Carolina site as the best place to build a large nuclear reactor. (Business North Carolina)

HYDROPOWER

• Tennessee anglers worry the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plans to install new generators at a dam will negatively affect populations of striped bass in a reservoir. (WBIR)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• The U.S. House overwhelmingly passed a bipartisan bill that will juice development and deployment of clean building materials, and a follow-up bill is in the works, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.
• In the absence of federal action on curbing landfill methane emissions, several states are stepping up with their own plans, Isobel Whitcomb reports.