A flawed DOE report

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.

GRID

• Invenergy urges U.S. Energy Secretary Chris Wright to uphold a $4.9 billion Biden-era loan guarantee for its proposed Grain Belt Express transmission project after Sen. Josh Hawley, a Missouri Republican, indicated the Trump administration would block it. (E&E News)

OFFSHORE WIND

• The U.S. EPA declares that Maryland environmental regulators last month improperly issued a permit for the US Wind project, ordering developers to rectify their errors, but Democratic Gov. Wes Moore says he is determined to push forward with offshore wind despite federal challenges. (WBFF)

• GE Vernova will pay the town of Nantucket and local businesses $10.5 million to compensate for damages incurred when a turbine blade manufactured by the company collapsed into the ocean last year; project developer Vineyard Wind, however, is not a signatory to the deal. (Nantucket Current)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Texas industry associations and energy experts say Trump’s budget bill is ​“pulling the rug out” from under solar, wind, and battery projects in the state, with one model showing the law’s changes mean the state will add only 27 GW instead of 104 GW of power over the next decade. (Houston Chronicle)

• A 5-MW solar canopy proposed for a two-mile stretch of highway median in Lexington, Massachusetts, would be the first such project in the country; developers are confident construction will begin in time to take advantage of disappearing federal tax credits. (Lexington Observer)

• A plan for a 140-MW solar project in New York gets the greenlight from state regulators and expects to begin construction in 2026. (Renewables Now)

• Developers behind a proposed battery project in a rural Massachusetts town try to circumvent local opposition by going directly to the state, a new option created by a climate law passed late last year. (Boston.com)

POLITICS

• Congressional Democrats plan to hammer Republicans over the higher energy prices expected to result from the GOP megabill’s repeal of clean-energy tax credits. (Politico)

MANUFACTURING

• Canadian solar manufacturer Silfab Solar has faced significant opposition to its plans to open a factory in South Carolina, contrasting with ES Foundry’s success in finding a receptive community for its plant in another part of the state. (The State)

BIOFUELS

• The U.S. Agriculture Department expects biofuel producers to consume more than half of all soybean oil produced nationally next year as federal policies boost the industry. (Reuters)
  

BUILDINGS

• Zohran Mamdani, Democratic nominee for New York City mayor, has said he would strictly enforce the city’s landmark building decarbonization law, Local Law 97. (New York Times)

CLIMATE

• The U.S. House Appropriations Committee releases proposed legislation that would slash funding for the Department of Energy’s office of Energy Efficiency and Renewable Energy by 46% and shift money toward nuclear, critical minerals, and fossil fuels. (E&E News)

• Montana Attorney General Austin Knudsen files a motion to push back on an advocates’ lawsuit alleging the Trump administration’s executive orders to ​“unleash” fossil fuel development are unconstitutional. (Daily Montanan)

• California advocates find the state lost up to $3 billion in potential revenue over the past year by delaying updates aimed at making its carbon market cap-and-trade program more aggressive. (E&E News)

GEOTHERMAL

• The federal Bureau of Land Management plans to auction 13 geothermal leases on 23,000 acres across California in August. (news release)