Efficient, affordable homes

This roundup of U.S. energy news headlines is part of our Canary Media Daily newsletter. Sign up to get it in your inbox each morning.

SOLAR

• The U.S. EPA is preparing to terminate $7 billion in Solar for All grants awarded by the Biden administration to help low- and moderate-income households install rooftop solar. (New York Times)

• The rollback threatens a newly announced Georgia program to allow low-income homeowners to install solar at no cost. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

• The Interior Department’s order requiring secretarial approval for wind and solar projects connected to public lands could also jeopardize projects on private land. (E&E News)

• A judge allows bankrupt solar company Sunnova Energy to sell almost all of its assets to a group of lenders and entities owned by a climate-focused investment firm. (Houston Chronicle)

WIND

• The Trump administration is considering rescinding a key permit for the US Wind project off the Delaware and Maryland coast, according to recent court filings. (Spotlight Delaware)

• The Interior and Transportation Departments took aim at wind power development over the last week with a series of moves to further curtail development. (Heatmap)

GRID

• U.S. power demand reached new records two days in a row in the last week of July. (EIA)

• Capacity prices in the PJM grid area, already at record highs, would need to more than double to make it worth the risk of developing new generation facilities, a panel of experts says. (New Jersey Monitor)

CLIMATE

• Nonprofits, tribes, and local governments sue the EPA and Administrator Lee Zeldin for terminating the Environmental and Climate Justice block grant program in a first-of-its-kind class-action suit. (The Guardian)

NUCLEAR

• Nuclear industry experts say Trump administration support for the Energy Department’s Loan Programs Office is key to the nuclear renaissance the White House is pushing for. (E&E News)

• At least six companies are racing to develop nuclear microreactors roughly one-thousandth the size of a traditional facility. (Washington Post)

• A California-based company signs a lease from the U.S. Energy Department to build the first U.S.-owned, privately developed uranium enrichment facility in western Kentucky. (WKMS)

BATTERIES

• Adding about 11 GW of batteries in the MISO grid region could save the system about $27 billion in costs by 2035, the American Clean Power Association finds. (Utility Dive)

EFFICIENCY

• Industry and environmental groups form an unlikely coalition to fight the Trump administration’s plans to eliminate the Energy Star program. (Grist)

COAL

• When a coal processing plant outside of Pittsburgh shut down in 2016, ER visits for pediatric asthma almost immediately dropped 40% and then continued to decline, according to a new analysis. (Inside Climate News)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• This Massachusetts town banned gas — and housing boomed anyway — Sarah Shemkus

• Used EV batteries could upend the race for long-duration storage — Julian Spector

• Meet Minnesota’s electric coffee roasting pioneers — Dan Haugen

• Can EV ambassadors help Chicago drivers go electric? — Kari Lydersen