Georgia Power delays coal retirements to power data centers

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FOSSIL FUELS

• The Southern Company and its subsidiary Georgia Power previously announced they would close coal-fired power plants, but now want to extend the life of those facilities to meet projected energy demand from data centers. (Grist/​WABE)

• Kinder Morgan announces plans for a $3 billion buildout of 14 pipelines in Alabama, Georgia and Mississippi. (WTOC)

• Entergy’s Texas utility closes a deal to secure natural gas from Kinder Morgan’s $1.7 billion, 216-mile Trident Intrastate Pipeline, which will link the Permian Basin to Port Arthur. (news release)

• President Trump’s assault on clean energy raises questions about federal subsidies for carbon capture projects that have received sizable investment from oil and gas companies. (E&E News)

ELECTRIC VEHICLES

• Toyota announces it will begin shipping electric vehicle and hybrid batteries from its newly expanded North Carolina plant in April. (Assembly)

• Electric vehicle and battery companies slow their roll into South Carolina, with two battery recycling plants running behind schedule in addition to a lithium refinery that was paused last year due to plunging prices. (South Carolina Daily Gazette)

• With President Trump’s block on electric vehicle charger funding, a South Carolina lawmaker says it’s the perfect time to pass his bill pressing private companies to fund chargers and make them open to all EVs. (WSPA)

• A Texas official says Trump’s pause on electric vehicle charger funding will affect up to 60 planned chargers across the state, while 29 more have progressed enough that they can still be built. (KERA)

SOLAR

The Nature Conservancy announces partnerships to develop 14 solar farms and three battery storage projects on former coal mines in Kentucky, Tennessee and Virginia. (news release)

WIND

An anti-renewables organization presses the Trump administration to review Dominion Energy’s offshore wind farm near Virginia, which has all its permits but could be subject to Trump’s executive order to review ​“existing wind energy leases.” (Heatmap)

GRID

A new report from an energy institute at Duke University suggests the U.S. grid can handle new demand from data centers, factories and electric vehicles so long as officials can curtail them when the grid is stressed. (Utility Dive)

OVERSIGHT

A former Oklahoma deputy energy secretary and author of Project 2025’s chapter on the U.S. EPA is named to lead the agency in the oil- and gas-producing region around the Gulf Coast, the Permian Basin and Louisiana’s ​“Cancer Alley.” (Texas Tribune/​Inside Climate News)

POLITICS

Trump’s block on federal funding from the Biden administration’s infrastructure and climate packages could potentially affect up to $4.8 billion in funding awarded to Virginia for recycling, energy efficiency and more, although some federal partners say their money appears safe for now. (WHRO)