Duke Energy celebrates relaxed coal ash rules

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COAL ASH

• Duke Energy greets the Trump administration’s plans to relax the U.S. EPA’s coal-ash rules as ​“a positive step” that will lower costs, but critics warn the move could threaten drinking water supplies near 14 disposal sites in North Carolina. (Raleigh News & Observer)

FOSSIL FUELS

• An investigation finds a dozen federal judges presiding over consequential environmental lawsuits in Louisiana have financial ties or other connections to petrochemical companies that are being sued. (Floodlight/​TypeInvestigations)

• Oil billionaires are funding a Republican primary challenger against an incumbent Texas regulator who championed the first overhaul of the state’s first oilfield waste rules in 40 years. (Inside Climate News)

• “Wow, that’s really distressing”: An analysis shows a liquified natural gas export facility under construction in Louisiana will produce more greenhouse gases than any terminal built in the U.S. so far. (Verite News/​Grist)

• Louisiana residents dispute repeated assertions by federal, state, and local officials that an explosion last year at oil, fuel, and lubricant distributor Smitty’s Supply poses ​“no imminent threat to public health.” (Capital B)

• Crews contain an oil spill that occurred at a refinery along the Houston Ship Channel in Texas. (KTRK)

DATA CENTERS

• Environmental groups challenge Mississippi regulators’ award of a permit to Elon Musk’s xAI to build a massive gas plant to power a data center in Memphis, Tennessee, and another planned for Mississippi. (CNBC)

• Democratic North Carolina Gov. Josh Stein asks a state energy task force he established last year to recommend overhauling or repealing a data center sales tax exemption that could cost the state hundreds of millions of dollars in revenue. (NC Newsroom)

• North Carolina communities wrestle with a growing number of proposals to build hyperscale data centers that can transform localities with their appetite for water and energy. (WUNC)

• A proposed hyperscale data center in western Georgia has become a flashpoint for growing community opposition to the facilities and their potential effects on water, power, and land use. (Inside Climate News)

GRID

• Democratic Virginia Gov. Abigail Spanberger joins seven other governors pushing PJM Interconnection to shield ratepayers from the cost of growing power demand from data centers. (Virginia Mercury)

• Virginia regulators approve Dominion Energy’s plan to build new high voltage transmission lines, and reject a counterproposal to bury some of them underground. (Loudoun Now)

OVERSIGHT

• A Republican incumbent on the Georgia Public Service Commission faces a residency challenge filed by someone who has worked on the campaign of another commissioner, though he says the complaint was filed independently. (The Current)

• Alabama lawmakers pass legislation to expand the state’s utility regulatory commission and create a new secretary of energy position in the governor’s cabinet. (AL.com)

UTILITIES

• Texas regulators approve a suite of rate changes for El Paso Electric that includes higher costs for rooftop solar customers. (El Paso Matters)

COMMENTARY

• Jacksonville, Florida-area voters should be able to elect members of the board that oversees the municipal utility to end a series of controversies and make them more accountable to the public, writes an opinion contributor. (Jacksonville Today)