Can Virginia’s clean energy law survive the data center boom?

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.

FOSSIL FUELS

• Dominion Energy moves to build a 944 MW gas-fired ​“peaker” plant as the first in a wave of new fossil fuel plants, testing Virginia’s commitment to phase out fossil fuels by mid-century despite surging power demand from the explosion of AI and data centers. (Canary Media)

• Texas oil companies tell investors they expect to reap billions of dollars in tax benefits from the Republican budget bill, including more than $700 million for Occidental Petroleum over the next two years, compared to its $2.4 billion profit last year. (Houston Chronicle)

• After a wave of industry acquisitions, U.S. oil companies are now dealing with low prices and demand by laying off workers, including Houston-based ConocoPhillips’ announcement this week that it would lay off up to 3,250 workers. (New York Times)

• Texas oilfield waste company McBride Operating has paid more than $32,000 in federal fines and separately settled a civil lawsuit after a worker was killed last year when he was struck by a pump valve. (Inside Climate News)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Texas energy developers feel increasingly uneasy about the Trump administration’s rollback of clean energy incentives and a growing number of attempts by state lawmakers to limit wind and solar, despite renewable energy’s booming growth in recent years. (Houston Chronicle)

SOLAR

• President Trump’s rollback of clean energy incentives threatens the Nature Conservancy’s ambitious plan to build more than 500 MW of solar arrays and battery storage on former coal mineland in Virginia, Tennessee, and Kentucky. (Virginia Center for Investigative Journalism)

• Virginia regulators deny Appalachian Power’s proposal to reduce what it will credit rooftop solar users for generating more power than they use. (Cardinal News)

• A Virginia county board narrowly approves New Energy Equity’s proposal to build a 5 MW solar project. (Lynchburg News & Advance)

GRID

• Hitachi Energy announces it will build a $457 million transformer factory in Virginia to help address a bottleneck in transformers that’s slowing grid expansion. (Cardinal News, Utility Dive)

• The developer of Virginia’s controversial Gigaland data center promised $100 Amazon gift cards to residents who emailed county supervisors in support of the project. (Fauquier Times)

• Two of three supervisors on a West Virginia county board appear to shift in favor of a proposed power plant and data center complex that’s generated a wave of opposition, although the board has yet to endorse the project. (Country Roads News)

STORAGE

• Sodium-ion battery startup Natron Energy ceases operating as a company due to funding problems, despite a commitment last year to build a $1.4 billion factory in North Carolina. (Raleigh News & Observer)

• Swift Current Energy attracts $242 million in financing for a 150 MW battery storage facility that will be the largest such project in PJM’s 13-state territory. (Utility Dive)

• A Virginia county planning commission recommends approval of a proposed ordinance to regulate battery storage facilities. (Amherst New Era-Progress)

WIND

• The Trump administration’s termination of $679 million in funding for 12 offshore wind projects includes $20 million in grant-funded upgrades to a Virginia marine terminal that’s already been spent. (Virginia Mercury, Virginian-Pilot)

NUCLEAR

• Commonwealth Fusion Energy Systems’ announcement that it’s raised $3 billion in capital and will build a nuclear fusion plant in Virginia could represent a turning point in which fusion technology leads to commercial development, but many observers are still skeptical. (E&E News)

CARBON CAPTURE

• Companies in Louisiana and Wyoming are considering using carbon capture at gas-fired plants to support large data center projects, but the technology still hasn’t proven itself at commercial scale. (E&E News)

UTILITIES

• Mississippi regulators move to place a troubled municipal utility in receivership while they work to fix its problems and a judge considers its ultimate fate, including the possibility of its sale. (WHBQ)

• Dominion Energy asks Virginia regulators to approve a base rate increase and to create a new rate class for large power users such as data centers. (Virginia Mercury, Inside Climate News)

• Trump-aligned country music star John Rich of Big & Rich releases a protest song against the Tennessee Valley Authority after helping kill the utility’s plan to build a natural gas-fired power plant in Tennessee. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• ‘Bizarre’ and​‘unlawful:’ States, Ørsted challenge Revolution Wind freeze — Clare Fieseler

• California quietly guts ambitious virtual power plant bill — Jeff St. John

• Chart: State lawmakers introduced a ton of anti-renewables bills this year — Dan McCarthy

• These conservatives want government to stop working against clean energy — Kathiann M. Kowalski

• Colorado goes big on clean energy before tax credits vanish — Julian Spector