9 May 2025

POLITICS

• Texas lawmakers approve legislation to require nearly every solar and wind farm in the state to back up their energy production with gas-fired power plants or batteries or face a steep fine, potentially shutting down thousands of megawatts of existing projects. (Houston Chronicle)
• “You’re going to regret this”: South Carolina’s Republican leader opposes GOP-passed legislation requiring regulators to accelerate their review of power projects, and to allow Dominion Energy and state-owned Santee Cooper to collaborate on a large gas-fired power plant. (Associated Press)
• Virginia Gov. Glenn Youngkin vetoes two bills with bipartisan support and Dominion Energy’s backing to encourage private homes and companies to initiate solar and battery projects because he says the cost may fall on ratepayers. (Inside Climate News)

SOLAR

• The University of Arkansas moves forward on a plan to partner with a solar company to build the first four of a planned 18 solar power plants despite uncertainty about federal funding to back the project. (Arkansas Times)
• A Mississippi county board sets a public hearing for the first of two new solar farms proposed for the area. (WDAM)

STORAGE

• Georgia Power begins construction on 765 MW of battery energy storage systems in four Georgia counties. (Valdosta Daily Times)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Researchers at Tennessee Tech lead a program to accelerate vehicle electrification across rural Appalachia with a focus on charging infrastructure, an emergency charging service, and an EV library lending program. (WPLN)
• Georgia regulators fine Hyundai’s electric vehicle factory $30,000 for wastewater management violations. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Texas grapples with a growing number of leaks and blowouts from its thousands of orphan oil and gas wells with no clear owner. (Texas Tribune)
• West Virginia coal miners ask a federal judge to issue an injunction to keep the Coal Workers Health Surveillance Program operating to protect against black lung disease despite Trump’s efforts to at least temporarily close it. (West Virginia Watch)
• West Virginia U.S. Sen. Shelley Moore Capito says she wants more assurances about the future of a worker safety program for coal miners, while coal baron and fellow U.S. Sen. Jim Justice says he trusts Trump to do the right thing. (WV Metro News)
• A new study finds Houston is sinking faster than any other major city in the U.S., largely because of its high volume of groundwater and oil extraction. (Houston Chronicle)

PIPELINES

• A federal judge rejects 10 activists’ motion to dismiss the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s lawsuit against them over allegedly interfering with its construction by chaining themselves to equipment. (Bloomberg)
• The U.S. Army Corps of Engineers publishes a permit request claiming the Mountain Valley Pipeline’s push to build a spur into North Carolina is “subject to special emergency permitting procedures to address an energy supply situation.” (C-ville Weekly)

GRID

• Two new reports find the Southeast is the only region that hasn’t approved a new regional transmission project in more than a decade, and that utilities could increase grid reliability and save more than $8 billion by investing $5 billion in regional grid improvements. (Utility Dive)
• Crypto-mining operations target North Carolina despite pushback from local governments over their power needs and constant noise. (Carolina Public Press)

COMMENTARY

• Memphis, Tennessee, leaders are sacrificing the health of a historically Black, working-class neighborhood by pushing to approve Elon Musk’s xAI’s supercomputer project despite its secretive use of 33 gas-fired turbines and threat to a nearby aquifer, writes a social justice advocate. (Tennessee Lookout)
• Dominion Energy and Appalachian Power are both pushing to end net-metering in Virginia, but clean energy advocates and solar installers are putting up fierce opposition, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• The Trump administration looks to gut the Energy Department’s Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations, putting 26 U.S. manufacturing projects and thousands of jobs at risk, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.
• Tesla’s grip on the EV sector is slipping in the U.S. and beyond, with analysts blaming its aging model lineup, growing competition, and Elon Musk’s political moves, Dan McCarthy reports.