Ford begins making EV batteries at Kentucky factory

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.

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Ford and SK On begin producing EV batteries at their joint $5.8 billion BlueOval SK Battery Park, one week before workers there are set to vote on whether to unionize with the United Auto Workers. (Courier-Journal)

• A tiny bucolic Virginia town along a winding mountain road rich in American history and culture installs a high-speed EV charger to lure travelers off the beaten path and boost nearby businesses. (Canary Media)

• The Florida village of Key Biscayne considers lifting its ban on electric bikes and certain other vehicles, even as recent crashes in the region have killed multiple people. (WTVJ)

RENEWABLES

• The Trump administration’s termination of the $7 billion ​“Solar for All” program includes $150 million for Tennessee, further complicating solar installations in a state where the Tennessee Valley Authority’s monopoly and policies already effectively suppress both utility-scale and rooftop solar installations. (WPLN)

• West Virginia environmental groups press elected leaders to speak out against the U.S. EPA’s termination of the ​“Solar for All” program to help lower-income households pay for residential solar projects. (West Virginia Watch)

• U.S. Agriculture Secretary Brooke Rollins announces her agency won’t fund or loan money to wind and solar projects on productive farmland, but didn’t respond to questions about whether smaller-scale projects might still be eligible for support. (Tennessee Lookout, Reuters)

• Enel North America partners with a nonprofit to pair veterans with beekeepers to operate apiaries at solar farms in Texas. (KWKT)

POLITICS

• A new study uses Texarkana, Texas, to examine voting patterns in Republican-leaning communities that received millions in tax incentives for clean energy projects during the Biden administration. (Texas Standard)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Gulf Coast residents near oil and gas facilities use a ​“death by a thousand cuts” strategy of opposition to fight back against the buildout of liquified natural gas export terminals that’s accelerated under the Trump administration. (Floodlight)

• Houston-based oilfield services company Baker Hughes sees its income rise amid falling prices and slowed drilling thanks to its growing work with data center developers. (E&E News)

• Permian Basin oil and gas companies make significant investments into water management as part of a larger buildout of infrastructure in the region. (Houston Chronicle)

• Texas officials say upstream oil and gas jobs fell by 1,400 in July compared to June, and industry officials blame the slowdown on forecasts for lower prices. (Midland Reporter-Telegram)

• The United Mine Workers of America condemn a federal court’s decision to delay the implementation of a rule to lower coal miners’ exposure to silica dust that’s a major factor in black lung disease. (West Virginia Watch)

PIPELINES

• Federal regulators refuse to release information about how they handled a whistleblowers’ complaint that the Mountain Valley Pipeline was built unsafely with faulty welds. (E&E News)

NUCLEAR

• The Tennessee Valley Authority announces it will buy up to 50 MW of power from a planned advanced nuclear plant in East Tennessee to help power Google’s data centers in Tennessee and Alabama. (Associated Press)

UTILITIES

• San Antonio, Texas’ municipal utility issues a call for proposals to add 400 MW of wind generation, while also partnering with a Seattle company to build a commercial-scale pilot project that splits natural gas into clean hydrogen and solid carbon. (Houston Chronicle, Houston Chronicle)

GRID

• The Texas state auditor finds state oil and gas inspectors aren’t adequately verifying or holding natural gas operators and their production and delivery systems to winter weatherization standards that were mandated after widespread blackouts during the 2021 winter storm. (KUT)

• Southern West Virginia residents meet with state regulators to discuss a company’s application for emission permits for two off-grid data centers. (WOWK)

COMMENTARY

• A Texas man excavates ​“zombie wells” that have been poorly capped and are leaking toxins into groundwater, with his work forming the basis for a ranch owner’s lawsuit against Chevron and three other oil companies, although Chevron has denied the claims and tried to stop his work, writes an editorial writer. (Houston Chronicle)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• The Constitution gas pipeline won’t solve New England’s energy problems — Sarah Shemkus

• State AGs demand DOE fix its flawed grid-reliability report — Jeff St. John

• NYC just launched its first hybrid-electric ferry — Maria Gallucci

• ‘Come to America and lose $1B’: Trump drives new offshore wind losses — Clare Fieseler

• Colorado now requires health warning labels on gas stoves — Alison F. Takemura