Companies hold hundreds of idle oil leases. Can Trump make them drill?

OIL & GAS: President Trump has repeatedly promised to lower energy prices by jacking up oil production even though the industry has been sitting for years on hundreds of idle and untapped leases in the Gulf of Mexico. (Verite News)

CARBON CAPTURE:

• A carbon capture company signs a deal with Microsoft to provide the tech company with more than seven million tons of carbon removal credits from projects in Arkansas, Louisiana and Texas. (Axios)
• A Republican Louisiana lawmaker excoriates the carbon capture industry as a ​“fraud” and calls on Congress to roll back Biden-era tax credits. (KALB)

SOLAR: A developer completes construction of a 600 MW solar farm in Texas. (Solar Power World)

WIND: A long-delayed onshore Virginia wind farm secures a deal to sell power to Google, opening the door for construction of the 13-turbine, 79 MW project to begin. (Virginia Business)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES:

• South Carolina residents and political leaders worry that Trump’s orders targeting clean energy could hurt the state’s fledgling electric vehicle industry and its planned factories. (Charleston City Paper)
• A Texas town along a state-identified ​“electric alternative fuels corridor” debates the installation of electric vehicle chargers in the face of opposition by Trump and oil and gas boosters. (Texas Tribune)

OVERSIGHT:

• The new chair of the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission discusses his 17 years as a Virginia regulator and how to address the growing power needs of the data center sector. (Cardinal News)
• Kentucky Gov. Andy Beshear says the Federal Emergency Management Agency has been ​“an important partner” during the state’s past disaster declarations, and that Trump’s suggestion to dismantle the agency would be ​“disastrous in and of itself.” (Kentucky Lantern)

UTILITIES: North Carolina clean energy advocates are angry after Duke Energy joins other utilities calling on the U.S. EPA’s new leader to weaken coal ash and gas regulations that would affect 31 unlined coal ash ponds and plans for four new gas plants in the state. (Inside Climate News)

GRID:

• Duke Energy and the Tennessee Valley Authority both saw record-high power demand during last week’s cold snap. (Blue Ridge Public Radio/​Grist)
• Georgia Power will release its long-term plan today to address data centers and their rapidly growing power needs. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

EFFICIENCY: Kentucky Power proposes expanding its energy efficiency programs, with advocates calling for the utility to tailor its program for the state’s most vulnerable residents. (Public News Service)

EMISSIONS: Virginia regulators fine a limestone processing plant for a faulty emission monitoring system that didn’t work for 49 days last year. (Roanoke Times)

COMMENTARY:

• The incentives Virginia pays out for data centers outweigh the tax revenue it receives, raising the question of why the state and its residents are effectively paying for the infrastructure of the richest tech companies in the world, writes an environmentalist. (Richmond Times-Dispatch)
• Kentucky’s shift to prioritize financial security over climate concerns from institutions that oversee its retirement savings benefits not just fossil fuel companies but state pensioners, writes the former state treasurer. (Courier Journal)