Could Kentucky’s smelter losses lead to more renewables?

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GRID

• Puerto Rican superstar Bad Bunny spotlights the island’s crumbling power grid during his Super Bowl halftime show, as the Trump administration cancels $450 million for grid resilience programs and residents continue to see widespread disruptions, electrical surges, and soaring power bills. (Canary Media)

• New Orleans City Council members air their frustrations to officials from Entergy and natural gas supplier Delta Utilities after thousands of residents experienced power outages and a spike in gas bills. (Times-Picayune)

ALUMINUM

• Century Aluminum announces it will partner with Emirates Global Aluminum to build a new smelter in Oklahoma and that it has sold an idled Kentucky smelter to a data center company, leading to calls for Kentucky to modernize its grid and shift to renewables. (Canary Media)

FOSSIL FUELS

• The Tennessee Valley Authority’s mostly Trump-nominated board says it wants to continue operating two coal-fired power plants in Tennessee past their planned closure dates of no later than 2035, while also opening new gas-fired units at both locations. (Associated Press)

• One of the coal plants targeted by the TVA board for continued operation had been targeted for closure in 2027 and was the site of the biggest industrial spill in U.S. history due to a coal ash disaster in 2008. (WATE)

• Some experts say a glut of liquefied natural gas export terminals could drive up domestic energy prices at a time when utility rates are already reaching record highs, while others are worried about a gas oversupply that could drive down prices and slow the gas industry. (Canary Media, E&E News)

• Dominion Energy says the closure of a nearby coal mine in West Virginia will have little effect on its coal-fired power plant except to push it to import more coal by rail than by trucks. (WV Metro News)

DATA CENTERS

• Virginia lawmakers introduce legislation to decrease power costs from Dominion Energy’s residential customers by 3.25% while creating a new rate class that will increase bills for data centers by 15%. (Richmond Times-Dispatch, Virginia Mercury)

• West Virginia lawmakers consider legislation to exempt data centers from state taxes, after previously stripping localities of oversight and tax revenues from such projects. (Mountain State Spotlight)

• Developers are building new natural gas generators in Texas, West Virginia, and other states to power data centers, further locking in fossil fuels for years to come. (Grist)

• A survey finds the vast majority of residents in Louisville, Kentucky, want to keep data centers out of the area. (Louisville Public Media)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Workers at Volkswagen’s Tennessee plant are set to vote next week on a tentative contract between the automaker and the United Auto Worker, and a faction of employees is trying to remove the union. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, Chattanooga Times Free Press)

ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

• A multimedia series explores how Southern Black communities that were historically founded by enslaved people continue to find themselves subject to air pollution and environmental injustice. (Southern Environmental Law Center)

CLIMATE

• Virginia awards a coastal school district $558,000 to study its 32 school buildings for vulnerabilities to flooding, extreme heat, and power outages and prepare a handful of them to be ​“community resilience hubs” where people can go for relief during extreme weather or power outages. (WHRO)

COMMENTARY

• Puerto Rico’s recent ​“temporary generation” contract spotlights how the island’s initial response to its fragile grid has hardened into a governing protocol based around secrecy and questionable economics, writes a publisher. (Florida Politics)

• A wide variety of Virginia lawmakers are pushing legislation to maximize use of the power grid, bring more generation online, and boost batteries and energy efficiency programs, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)