A big 2025 for clean energy

POLITICS

• FBI agents reportedly questioned U.S. EPA staff this week about $20 billion in grants issued under former President Biden to launch the Greenhouse Gas Reduction Fund as EPA head Lee Zeldin looks to claw back the funding. (Washington Post)

• The U.S. Senate follows the House in voting to overturn a Biden-era proposed fee on methane emissions from oil and gas producers. (Reuters)

UTILITIES

• Nearly every state failed on a nonprofit’s scorecard ranking their oversight of monopolistic utilities and policies for giving consumers control over energy systems. (Inside Climate News)

GRID

• PJM approves a $6.7 billion expansion plan to strengthen the transmission system’s reliability in the grid operator’s 13-state region. (Utility Dive)

STORAGE

• Battery materials company Ascend Elements cancels plans to manufacture a key EV battery component at a Kentucky factory and will return a $164 million Department of Energy grant. (E&E News)

OIL & GAS:

• A fossil fuel advocacy group launches a campaign aimed at squelching state and local governments’ lawsuits looking to hold polluters liable for climate change-related damages. (E&E News)

• Texas, Mississippi, and Louisiana call on the Trump administration to scrap Biden-era rules designed to make oil companies pay for cleanup of abandoned offshore wells and platforms. (E&E News)

• Several Asian countries consider investing in and acquiring fuel from the proposed Alaska liquefied natural gas pipeline and export terminal project after the Trump administration threatens tariffs. (New York Times)

OFFSHORE WIND

• The SouthCoast Wind project off Massachusetts expects to face up to a four-year delay, even though it has already received key federal approvals. (Providence Journal)

MINING

• Industry experts doubt the economic viability of President Trump’s plan to tap Ukraine’s mineral resources, while a former State Department official calls the plan ​“cruel” amid the country’s ongoing war. (Heatmap, E&E News)