Flawed report could fuel Trump’s push to force coal plans to stay open

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.

FOSSIL FUELS

• Experts say a report by Trump’s Department of Energy is based on flawed, ​“worst-case scenario” assumptions about energy demand and the power grid, and could be used to justify the administration’s push to keep old coal-fired plants from closing. (Canary Media)

• West Virginia lawmakers celebrate the passage of a bill to allow a less costly alternative to cleaning up natural gas wells, but still leaves taxpayers to fund the cleanup of more than 6,000 wells in the state, and tens of thousands more likely haven’t been documented. (Mountain State Spotlight)

SOLAR

• Canadian solar manufacturer Silfab Solar has faced significant opposition to its plans to open a factory in South Carolina, contrasting with ES Foundry’s success in finding a receptive community for its plant in another part of the state. (The State)

CLEAN ENERGY

• Texas industry associations and energy experts say Trump’s budget bill is ​“pulling the rug out” from underneath solar, wind, and battery projects in the state, with one model showing the law’s changes mean the state will add only 27 GW instead of 104 GW of power over the next decade. (Houston Chronicle)

• A solar installer that employs 65 people, a company that builds net-zero homes, and other western North Carolina companies that leverage clean energy brace for cuts from the Republican budget bill. (Asheville Citizen-Times)

GRID

• The Tennessee Valley Authority faces 11 GW of new power demand from data centers used to train artificial intelligence and mine for cryptocurrency. (Chattanooga Times Free Press)

• A new Texas Reliability Entity report weighs risks to Texas’ standalone power grid from extreme weather and rising demand as it has been transformed by the significant addition of wind, solar, and battery storage facilities. (Inside Climate News)

• Data centers aren’t just stressing the electric grid but also water supplies, as evidenced by an Alabama water authority’s stated inability to supply a data center’s requested water flow of 2 million gallons per day without substantial upgrades. (Inside Climate News)

NUCLEAR

• The Nuclear Regulatory Commission reportedly expects to approve the Tennessee Valley Authority’s plan to build a small modular nuclear reactor by the end of next year after Trump ordered the agency to speed up the process. (Chattanooga Times Free Press, Bloomberg)

OVERSIGHT

• Documents show the Federal Emergency Management Agency failed to answer nearly two-thirds of calls to its disaster assistance line after laying off contractors in the days following Texas floods. (New York Times)

• Documents reveal federal officials repeatedly granted appeals to remove dozens of buildings in a girls summer camp from their 100-year flood map, allowing the camp to expand and operate in a flood plain for years before catastrophic flooding hit earlier this month. (Associated Press, NPR)

• Georgia Democrats prepare to vote in a primary runoff election to determine the party’s nominee for a seat on the Public Service Commission, with both candidates promising lower bills and a push for renewables. (Atlanta Journal-Constitution)

HYDROGEN

• Georgia Power partners with Mitsubishi Power to test a 50% blend of hydrogen and natural gas in a power plant turbine, leading to a 22% reduction in greenhouse gas emissions. (Cobb County Courier)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• A Florida county school district is adjusting to its four new electric school buses. (Observer)

POLITICS

• “The public reeled at the cost”: Local Texas officials blame taxpayer pressure for failing to install a $1 million flood warning system on the Guadalupe River before the fatal July 4 floods. (Texas Tribune)

CLIMATE

• A sociologist discusses how government references to catastrophic flooding as an ​“act of God” that ​“nobody expected” represent an attempt to deflect blame from climate disasters that played out due to a series of choices by people. (Inside Climate News)