A dirty steel deal

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Trump administration plans to rescind Biden-era protections on about 13 million acres in the National Petroleum Reserve-Alaska, opening the door to drilling and mining in the North Slope wilderness. (New York Times, news release)

OVERSIGHT

• President Trump nominates energy regulatory attorney Laura V. Swett to replace FERC Chair Mark Christie. (Law360)

FEDERAL ACTION

• The Trump administration’s proposed budget looks to end funding for the Energy Department’s solar, wind, and hydrogen offices, slash staffing at DOE energy efficiency, fossil fuel, and electricity offices, and ​“wind down operations” at the Office of Clean Energy Demonstrations. (E&E News)

• The White House’s campaign to slash National Science Foundation grants has eliminated funding for more than 100 climate-related research projects, with Harvard hit particularly hard, a new analysis finds. (MIT Technology Review)

• Cleantech startups are ​“stress testing” operations to see if they can still move forward after the Trump administration cuts funding for industrial decarbonization and other clean energy projects. (Wall Street Journal)

STATE ACTION

• An Illinois bill meant to spur renewable energy and battery storage development fails to pass after business groups raised concerns about potentially billions of dollars in additional costs. (Chicago Sun-Times)

GRID

• Tennessee NAACP branches call for the immediate shutdown of Elon Musk’s xAI’s facilities in Memphis over their unpermitted use of gas turbines. (Commercial Appeal)

• Texas utilities turn to mergers and acquisitions to expand their fleets of gas-fired power plants to accommodate data centers and rising demand. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Advocates worry cuts to federal EV tax credits could hurt Tennessee’s three EV factories and numerous battery plants under construction, which represent more than 16,300 jobs and $17.6 billion in investments. (WKRN)

SOLAR

• Heliene cuts the ribbon on a new solar module manufacturing plant outside Minneapolis, increasing the company’s total U.S. manufacturing capacity to 1.3 GW annually. (Solar Power World)

• Wisconsin’s first large-scale, solar-powered battery storage project is operational and can power more than 130,000 homes for up to four hours. (Journal Sentinel)

• An Arkansas steelmaking facility begins production of rebar, with plans to complete a 150 MW solar project by fall to power its factory. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

BUILDINGS

• Colorado officials expect new state building codes requiring greater efficiency and accommodations for electric vehicle chargers and solar panels in new construction to save the average household $1,200 in energy costs. (CPR)

NEW FROM CANARY MEDIA

• President Trump celebrates the planned acquisition of U.S. Steel by Japan’s Nippon Steel, but the terms of the deal are still opaque, and could extend the life of existing dirty, coal-fired blast furnaces, Alexander C. Kaufman reports.

• A recently passed Ohio law forbids settlements in the closure of ​“base load” power plants, like one that advocates say pushed utility American Electric Power to speed up its closure of six coal plants a decade ago, Kathiann M. Kowalski reports.

• Republicans’ budget bill threatens Inflation Reduction Act tax credits, which have led to at least 21,000 jobs in Virginia, many of them in Republican congressional districts, Charles Paullin reports.