Data centers could triple Virginia’s energy demand

GRID: A Virginia legislative commission releases a report predicting data center development could triple the state’s energy usage by 2040 if allowed to continue uninhibited, and calls for companies to build renewables and join demand-response programs to temper demand. (Virginia Mercury, WUSA9)

COAL ASH: Georgia Power has reached an agreement to settle ten lawsuits over health impacts blamed on groundwater contamination from coal ash, but it is not clear whether the settlements will prompt cleanup. (Georgia Recorder)

UTILITIES:

• At a panel discussion, utility leaders serving the Tampa area discuss steps they’re taking to respond to increasingly severe storms. (WUSF)
• Florida’s Supreme Court declines to hear a class-action lawsuit over whether Florida Power & Light adequately prepared for damages from Hurricane Irma in 2017. (CBS News Miami)
• Southern Louisiana residents will have to wait another year for a decision on whether a rural co-op will be able to abandon parts of its service territory that have been without power since Hurricane Ida in 2021. (WDSU)
• West Virginia regulators announce tougher standards for two utilities to reduce the frequency and length of power outages over the next five years. (WDTV)

OVERSIGHT:

• Kentucky U.S. Rep. Brett Guthrie, a longtime defender of the state’s coal industry, is selected to chair the House Energy and Commerce Committee, beating out Ohio Rep. Bob Latta. (Axios)
• Alabama regulators reject a clean energy group’s motion to intervene in a docket on utility fuel costs, despite a state law allowing broad participation in any proceeding that affects rates. (Inside Climate News)

EMISSIONS: While a Duke Energy power plant that burns both natural gas and coal is North Carolina’s largest source of carbon emissions, the utility defends the facility as ​“one of the cleanest and most efficient coal plants in the U.S.” (Winston-Salem Journal)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES: Airports in southwest Florida are developing standards for electric ​“air taxis” that officials say could improve access to major airports and help with disaster response. (Naples Press)

NATURAL GAS:

• Arkansas customers of a natural gas utility will see their bills double this month after state regulators approve a rate hike, prompting outcry from residents and a state lawmaker. (Arkansas Advocate)
• A suspected gas leak prompts evacuations in a New Orleans suburb a week after a woman was killed in an explosion blamed on a damaged natural gas line. (NOLA.com)

HYDROGEN: A Georgia utility regulator calls Hyundai fuel cell vehicles ​“our greatest hope for hydrogen in the near term” at an industry conference in Atlanta. (Ledger-Enquirer)

SOLAR: A newly formed company says it has secured $300 million to build a 105 MW solar array backed by 160 MWh of battery storage to power a steel recycling facility in Arkansas. (Recycling Today)