Aluminum’s clean power dilemma

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.

OVERSIGHT

• EPA Administrator Lee Zeldin announces the agency’s plans to roll back the endangerment finding, which largely relies on legal arguments that the finding oversteps the agency’s authority, but also includes an ​“alternative” justification that attacks accepted climate science. (E&E News)

• The EPA’s endangerment finding will face numerous legal challenges once it’s finalized, and affirmation by the Supreme Court could prevent a future administration from restoring it. (Heatmap)

• All 15 coal power plants that emailed the EPA this spring requesting an exemption from air pollution rules received one. (New York Times)

RENEWABLES

• Interior Secretary Doug Burgum orders the department to weed out policies that favor wind and solar development, calling for ​“leveling the playing field in permitting.” (E&E News)

• The New York Power Authority releases plans to develop 3.8 gigawatts of renewable energy and energy storage projects, more than doubling the target set in its previous strategic plan. (Solar Power World)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• EV manufacturing projects are increasingly being delayed or canceled under Trump, though at least 68 projects have progressed so far this year, new data from Wellesley College’s Big Green Machine finds. (Heatmap)

• Disgust with Elon Musk has turned U.S. liberals off not just buying a Tesla, but against buying an EV at all, a study published in Nature finds. (The Guardian)

NUCLEAR

• Republican Nuclear Regulatory Commission member Annie Caputo resigns amid the Trump administration’s attempts to expand White House influence over the board. (Field Notes)

• Sawtooth Energy plans to submit a proposal next month to the federal Bureau of Land Management to develop a small modular nuclear reactor plant in southern Idaho at the site of the stalled Lava Ridge wind facility. (Idaho Statesman)

CLEANTECH

• Former Biden administration officials from the Energy Department’s loan office launch Constructive, a nonprofit aimed at speeding low-carbon technology deployment. (Axios)

EMISSIONS

• A New York City initiative works with food cart owners to explore the use of batteries and other alternatives to noisy, exhaust-spewing diesel generators for running their lights, refrigerators, and deep fryers. (The City)

GRID

• Distributed energy resource management company Uplight is seeking a buyer, and reportedly valuing its ​“AI-enhanced” platform at just over $1 billion. (Latitude Media)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• US aluminum producers need cheap, clean power. That may be tough to get. — Maria Gallucci

• A retired nuclear plant in Michigan is about to restart, a first for US — Eric Wessoff

• A pioneering​‘second-life’ battery startup begins major Texas expansion — Julian Spector

• The country’s biggest energy market struggles to reform amid soaring costs — Jeff St. John