After N.C. ditches decarb goal, Duke turns back to fossil fuels

This roundup of energy news headlines comes from our Southeast Energy News newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each Monday, Wednesday, and Friday morning.

UTILITIES

• After North Carolina lawmakers rolled back a 2030 decarbonization target, Duke Energy proposes a plan to build about half as much wind and solar capacity as it had previously planned, while extending the life of coal plans and building more gas-fired units. (Canary Media)

• FirstEnergy’s West Virginia subsidiaries file a 10-year plan that proposes extending the life of two coal-fired power plants, building a 1,200 MW gas-fired plant by 2031, and adding 70 MW of solar. (WV News)

• Two Congress members confirm that Tennessee Republican U.S. Sen. Bill Hagerty is under consideration as a possible CEO of the Tennessee Valley Authority. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• BlackRock’s Global Infrastructure Partners is in talks to buy Virginia-based utility group AES for $38 billion. (Reuters)

• A recent report gives failing grades to multiple Kentucky utilities for deemphasizing renewables in favor of fossil fuels, which has led to rising energy prices. (WUKY)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A review of internal documents shows how Georgia Gov. Brian Kemp scrambled to respond to the Trump administration’s immigration raid at Hyundai’s EV factory, which he was not informed about ahead of time. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

GRID

• Utility customers in Virginia, West Virginia, and five other PJM states will cover $4.4 billion in transmission costs needed to bring data centers online, according to a Union of Concerned Scientists report. (Utility Dive)

• Rural Texas residents grapple with the sprawling growth of data centers in their state, which is second only to Virginia in their number. (Texas Tribune)

• North Carolina regulators, officials, and other individuals meet to discuss how to meet rising power demand from data centers while ensuring grid reliability and preventing soaring electricity bills. (WFAE)

• Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s Texas-based data center infrastructure company Fermi raises $682.5 million in its IPO. (Houston Chronicle, Reuters)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A Texas rancher alleges to state regulators that Occidental Petroleum is falsifying its self-reported mechanical integrity tests that ensure oil and gas wells aren’t leaking toxic fluids into nearby soil and groundwater. (Houston Chronicle)

• The U.S. Forest Service terminates a coal company’s road-use permit in West Virginia as part of its surface mining operation near the Monongahela National Forest after the company failed to submit an operating plan. (WV News)

• An economist projects Louisiana will add nearly 75,000 jobs over the next two years due to new liquified natural gas export terminals and construction of Meta’s $10 billion data center. (New Orleans Times-Picayune)

• North Carolina U.S. Sen. Thom Tillis is among a group of moderate Republican Congress members expressing skepticism about Trump’s push to boost coal. (E&E News)

STORAGE

• Wood Mackenzie and the American Clean Power Association report a 63% year-over-year increase in utility-scale battery deployments, led by California, Texas, and Arizona, but expect a significant dropoff over the next three years. (Utility Dive)

WIND

• Wind power is just beginning to appear in Kentucky, but it’s already prompting pushback from some residents. (WKMS)

OVERSIGHT

• Florida Gov. Ron DeSantis appoints a former Republican state lawmaker and a regulatory aide to the state’s utility regulatory board. (E&E News)

CLIMATE

• Six houses on North Carolina’s Outer Banks collapse into the Atlantic Ocean, marking 18 buildings that have fallen over the past five years in what has become an increasingly common occurrence along the state’s erosion-plagued coast. (Washington Post)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Trump admin targets blue-state grants meant to ease US electricity woes — Jeff St. John

• Chart: Global investment in renewables hits record even as US falters — Dan McCarthy

• Trump’s tariffs spur US aluminum industry to boost recycling — Maria Gallucci

• Pennsylvania’s solar ambitions face high federal and state hurdles — Audrey Carleton