Hurricane season spotlights Puerto Rico’s fragile grid

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.

GRID

• Hurricane Erin arrives and could disrupt Puerto Rico’s fragile power grid, underscoring how the Trump administration has prioritized a patchwork of grid repairs and imported fossil fuels over solar, batteries, and other clean energy strategies that have proven more effective. (Canary Media)

• A new University of Houston survey shows area residents are unconvinced utility CenterPoint Energy has improved the grid since widespread outages during a derecho and Hurricane Beryl last year, despite an advertising campaign promoting its upgrades. (Houston Chronicle)

STORAGE

• Texas energy startup Terraflow Energy announces a series of investments along the Gulf Coast, including new headquarters, a small factory, and a 1 GW storage project. (Houston Chronicle)

SOLAR

• Texas has become a solar powerhouse despite state lawmakers’ attempts to restrict the sector, with its burgeoning manufacturing sector boosting the solar supply chain in other states. (CleanTechnica)

• Virginia receives official word the federal government will rescind its Solar for All program and claw back $156 million for rooftop or community solar installation that had previously been awarded. (Virginia Mercury)

• Sabanci Holding acquires a planned 100 MW solar farm in Texas just a month after picking up another 120 MW solar facility in the state as it aims to expand its 504 MW U.S. portfolio to 3 GW. (Renewables Now)

FOSSIL FUELS

• Enterprise Products Partners reports it’s responding to a crude oil leak from a key Houston terminal after a portion of the pipeline that feeds it went down. (Houston Chronicle, Reuters)

• West Virginia regulators award Fundamental Data a permit to build a gas-fired power plant to run a data center campus in a county known for its wilderness and recreation. (Country Roads)

• Several historically Black neighborhoods in Chesapeake, Virginia, turn to state officials to express safety, air pollution, and noise concerns about Virginia Natural Gas’ plans to build a compressor station after the city council approved the project. (WHRO)

• A Virginia metallurgical coal producer informs state officials it will lay off 72 people by October. (Cardinal News)

UTILITIES

• Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton announces an investigation into several utility companies whose power lines were blamed for 2024 wildfires that burned more than 1 million acres. (KFDA)

• Duke Energy touts potential savings of more than $1 billion from merging two utilities in the Carolinas, but the question of how it will affect customers’ bills looks more complicated due to varying rates and geographic footprints. (NC Newsline)

• The former accounting director of a Tennessee electric cooperative is indicted and charged with diverting its bank accounts to pay personal debts and expenses. (WVLT)

CLIMATE

• Texas Gov. Greg Abbott’s rant at a press conference against ​“losers” assessing blame in last month’s fatal Texas flooding spotlights how the finger-pointing that follows disasters can prevent more nuanced, careful examinations of what went wrong. (Grist)

• A year after Hurricane Helene ravaged Appalachia, the Tennessee state climatologist warns that hurricanes will likely become more frequent and intense in the future. (Daily Yonder)

• Increasing temperatures led to record numbers of deaths in El Paso, Texas, in 2023 and 2024, but advocates complain the city still declines to share weekly data from the state about heat-related illnesses or to dedicate any staff to heat mitigation. (Inside Climate News)

HYDROELECTRIC

• Appalachian Power warns Virginia residents of fluctuating water levels this week as it gears up to increase power generation from a hydroelectric dam to meet higher power demand due to forecasts for higher temperatures. (WSLS)

COMMENTARY

• Kentucky workers’ bid to unionize Ford’s Blue Oval electric vehicle factory this month represents a larger opportunity for workers across the state by reversing falling median production wages and job conditions, write the executive director of the Kentucky Center for Economic Policy. (Kentucky Policy)

• Virginia should strongly consider using more insulated concrete forms to incorporate energy efficiency and strengthen homes and other buildings against extreme weather, writes a sales manager at a construction materials company. (Virginian-Pilot)

NEW FROM CANARY 

• Trump admin tightens vise on wind and solar with new tax rules — Jeff St. John

• Deadly blast at US Steel plant highlights need to clean up the industry — Maria Gallucci

• A universal adapter for solar, batteries, EVs, and microgrids is here — Jeff St. John