Democrats win energy-centric races in Georgia, Virginia

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.

POLITICS

• Georgia Democrats defeat two Republican incumbents on the state’s Public Service Commission in a long-delayed election widely seen as a referendum on Georgia Power’s rising power bills. (Georgia Recorder, Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• Democrat Abigail Spanberger wins election as Virginia’s first woman governor while Democrats build on their majority in the state legislature, likely ensuring that Virginia’s landmark energy law mandating a transition from fossil fuels by 2050 remains intact. (Associated Press, Inside Climate News)

• Voters in a Virginia county reject the proposed creation of an electric authority that would work with big commercial and industrial businesses that require lots of power. (Cardinal News)

SOLAR

• A federal court ruling forces the Federal Emergency Management agency to fully study the potential for distributed solar and batteries as an alternative to hardening Puerto Rico’s existing grid and repairing fossil fuel plants after they were shredded by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017. (Canary Media)

• Sol Systems chooses SOLV Energy to provide engineering, procurement, and construction services on its planned 209 MW solar farm in Texas. (Renewables Now)

WIND

• Dominion Energy announces its 2.6 GW offshore wind farm near Virginia is nearly two-thirds complete and should begin delivering power by the first quarter of 2026. (Utility Dive)

FOSSIL FUELS

• A new court filing in a federal lawsuit accuses the founder of Omnis Energy of misleading West Virginia officials who approved a $50 million forgivable loan intended to revive a troubled, coal-fired power plant by converting it into a hydrogen production facility using unproven technology. (Charleston Gazette-Mail)

• Florida and South Carolina U.S. senators file a bill to continue a ban on oil and gas drilling off the coasts of Florida, Georgia, and South Carolina. (WUSF)

• AltaGas announces it will retain ownership in the Mountain Valley Pipeline as a long-term investment to maximize value for its shareholders. (news release)

STORAGE

• Arkansas officials have moved past their initial skepticism and now see big potential in the state’s burgeoning lithium industry. (Arkansas Democrat-Gazette)

• GridStor celebrates the launch of operations at its 220 MW battery storage facility in Texas. (news release)

GRID

• Former Energy Secretary Rick Perry’s Fermi is positioning itself at the crossroads of the data center buildout and a potential nuclear power resurgence, but for now is relying on the rapid buildout of natural gas. (Wall Street Journal)

• Residents in a Virginia county are concerned because a developer can build a data center without a public hearing or approval from the county board, despite the county board’s vote to remove the protective proffer from a 57-acre property. (WDBJ)

UTILITIES

• Experts say there’s strong evidence Alabama Power has effectively ​“captured” state regulators who have consistently granted the utility unusually high profit margins, to the point where it has some of the highest average total residential electric bills in one of the nation’s poorest states. (Inside Climate News)

• Entergy is leaning heavily on gas-fired power plants and some solar to boost its generation to meet growing projections for large load growth for data centers and other customers in Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Texas. (Utility Dive)

COMMENTARY

• An advertisement from Washington Gas touting a questionable ​“net-zero energy homes initiative” stands as an example of how the natural gas industry is pretending it’s part of the energy transition, writes a columnist. (Virginia Mercury)

NEW FROM CANARY

• Boston’s century-old steam heat system is getting a low-carbon makeover — Jeff St. John

• Ohio scrapped a key tool to fight air pollution. Advocates want it back. — Kathiann M. Kowalski

• Oregon utility tries out a faster, cheaper way to power data centers — Jeff St. John