Batteries come to Tennessee

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.

BATTERIES

• Chattanooga, Tennessee-based Seven States Power Corp. will use $439 million in federal funding to build grid-scale batteries across the state. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, Johnson City Press)

UTILITIES

• The terms of two Tennessee Valley Authority board members are expiring and will leave the board short of a quorum next year unless President Donald Trump nominates replacements that are approved by the U.S. Senate in coming months. (Knoxville News Sentinel)

• A Virginia state senator calls on a state regulator to recuse herself from considering NextEra Energy’s proposed merger with Dominion Energy because she previously served as a lawyer for NextEra. (Utility Dive, Loudoun Now)

• The Georgia Public Service Commission approves Georgia Power’s plan to pass costs to ratepayers from fuel and storm recovery, voting down two commissioners’ attempt to investigate the utility’s continued use of coal. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution, CleanTechnica)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Gulf Coast oil producers begin sending crude oil to California refineries as the war in Iran slows down global production. (Houston Chronicle)

• The Southern Environmental Law Center and other environmental and advocacy groups appeal Virginia regulators’ approval of Dominion Energy’s 944-MW gas-fired power plant to the Supreme Court of Virginia. (Virginia Mercury)

OVERSIGHT

• Republican Texas Gov. Greg Abbott and Lt. Gov. Dan Patrick remain tight-lipped about whether they’ll support a hard-right conservative who defeated a GOP incumbent on the state’s oil and gas regulatory commission after campaigning against him during the primary. (Houston Chronicle)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• North Carolina sues to try to regain control of a nearly 2,000-acre parcel where Vietnamese EV maker VinFast has delayed its plans to build a factory beyond a state deadline, although the company says it could open the facility by 2028. (NC Newsroom)

MINING

• Texas Congress members propose a bill to allow private-sector companies to mine for lithium beneath military bases, which could provide the military with a steady stream of domestic lithium while jumpstarting the industry in East Texas. (Texas Tribune)

GRID

• Virginia residents worry about utilities’ plan to build a 115-mile transmission line across nine counties to meet growing power demand from data centers. (Bay Journal)

DATA CENTERS

• Virginia data centers are currently connected to 10,500 diesel backup generators, which experts say could harm public health even if they’re used relatively rarely. (Washington Post)

• Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger says she’s open to discussions not to extend a key tax break for data centers past its expiration in 2035, but warns that ending it now as some lawmakers wish to do would ​“break a contract that the state has signed.” (Cardinal News)

• Kentucky utilities report dozens of data centers could potentially be built in the state, attracted by its relatively low power costs and lack of regulations. (Kentucky Lantern)

• North Carolina residents demand a Charlotte-area government pass a moratorium against data centers after 400-MW and 300-MW facilities begin construction. (WFAE)

• Republican North Carolina lawmakers propose restrictions on data centers that use more than 100 MW of power in a month, including a prohibition on local governments from providing subsidies as incentives. (NC Newsroom)

MANUFACTURING

• Two West Virginia environmental groups sue a carbon and graphite material maker to force it to comply with limits set in its water discharge permit and pay civil penalties for repeated violations of the Clean Water Act. (West Virginia Watch)

COMMENTARY

• NextEra Energy’s proposal to buy Dominion Energy won’t end the Virginia utility’s push to build more gas-fired power plants and likely means continued attempts to gut net metering for rooftop solar, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• The tax credit cliff has hit EV sales hard — Dan McCarthy

• New York state gives up on its most ambitious climate targets — Ysabelle Kempe

• As geothermal networks grow, so does the call for a new utility model — Sarah Shemkus

• Charge your car at Menards? Its Illinois stores are adding EV ports. — Kari Lydersen